Trial


    She had been informed that this base used to belong to the Mensas, and had been operating for more than ten years. There were over 500 soldiers stationed, controlling a ten-kilometre radius like a small town. This ce was farrger than the small outpost the Archerons had given Richard, and the difference was obvious from first sight— these walls were more than ten metres tall, unlike the minuscule ones Richard had mounted a defence behind.


    With another ten stable years of operations, the family could have applied to the Church of the Eternal Dragon and have the ne earmarked and numbered. If the leader of the base remained strategic, resourceful, and unscrupulous, it wouldn’t even take that long. A ne with an identity with the Church of the Eternal Dragon would have a stable passage, which meant greater volumes of resources and benefits could be drawn from it. This was another reason why the Schumpeters were so willing to invest their capital into this.


    However, the base in front of Sinir was deathly quiet, the gates half open with not a single person in sight. The silence was deafening, and surrounded by forest the base wasn’t even connected to any other location.


    How could a base with more than 2000 people, 500 of them being soldiers, survive in this barren forest? Even not considering agricultural supplies they would have had to establish more than ten hamlets nearby. Sinir didn’t think the Mensas would make a mistake of this nature, as it wasmon sense.


    Her eyes narrowed, a strong sense of unease building up. With a wave of his hands, the leader of the bearguard knights personally led ten knights and a great mage into the base.


    Half an hourter, they walked out of the base with extremely unpleasant looks on their faces. The knight captain and the mage stood in front of Sinir, but they were both at a loss for words.


    Sinir spoke coldly, “Speak! What is it that you can’t say? Is there a pile of dead people inside? Even so, what’s the big deal? After all, they should all belong to the Mensa Family.”


    The captain finally spoke up, “My Lady, there isn’t a single person in the base. However, everything else is still present, including armour, supplies, and clothes. The only thing absent is the humans.”


    The mage opened his mouth to speak, but what he said was even more depressing. “Unfortunately, none of the items are usable. The ce is overflowing with the power of time, and it is impossible to purge. These are not livable conditions.”


    “And what about the Lighthouse of Time?!” she screamed in question.


    The captain and mage exchanged nces, and the former admitted, “It’s been extinguished...”


    “EXTINGUISHED?!” Sinir’s voice resounded through the empty base.


    “Yes.” The captain braced himself for the worst.


    For her part, Sinir was dumbfounded. Everyone grew quiet in a split second, the only sound in the area being that of the wind.


    “Heh... Heh... Hahahahaha!” Sinir started with a giggle, that grew into a full-blownughter that startled the birds on the mountain. The manic guffawing continued on for a good ten minutes before she finally calmed down. By then, her face had started to turn a peculiar shade of red, looking even more bewitching than before.


    It took her some effort to catch her breath, “So we’ve reached apletely foreign ne, and can’t go back. And Nond won’t be able to reach us unless we can find a way to rekindle the Lighthouse of Time... You guys need to make a decision now. Are you ready to tough it out with me?”


    The captain and two mages nced at each other, before agreeing to stick by Sinir and vowing to listen to her every instruction. Even if they’d been unwilling they would have had no choice. There were only two ways to conquer a ne— upy it all, bing an enemy of every creature of the ne in the process, or infiltrate society and gain allies. Both wereparable in terms of danger and difficulty, but the second would cause one’s standing in their home ne to fall.


    Either way, the captain and mages only knewbat, not politics and strategy. Even if this ne was limited to level 18, leaving Nond’s protection meant they wouldn’t be able to hold on very long themselves. And given Sinir’s personality, if they didn’t dere loyalty she would likely have them killed anyway.


    Sinir faked a smile and eyeballed the expressions on the three faces in front of her. She then said, “Smart move. Anyway, you lot have a bit of good luck. Don’t you feel anything yet?”


    The two great mages tried to extend their senses and analyse the situation, but could only get a hint of what was going on. They couldn’t pinpoint this good luck Sinir was talking about. As for the captain, the powers of space and time were not his domain. He decided not to waste his efforts.


    Seeing all three of them baffled, Sinir shed a sinister smile before sticking out her bright red tongue and licking her lips, “The timeflow of this ne is anywhere between an eighth and a tenth of Nond’s. That means it has been blessed by the Eternal Dragon! When we take this ne and return home, we’ll leave the old fogeys with an unforgettable impression! I can’t wait to find out how their hearts will taste!”


    She patted the neck of the manticore, causing the humongous creature to stand upright as it abruptly let out an earth-shaking roar.


    “All of you,e with me! Let’s find a ce to rest tonight. Better still if there’s young and beautiful men and women!” The manticore leapt over the knights in the midst of her speech, being the first to race down the mountain.


    ......


    Back in a church in the Whiterock Duchy, Essien was kneeling inside a room as he spoke of the invasion of Baron Forza’snds. Although the ce wasn’t big, there was a tall tform to one side with three elderly priests behind it. From their dense divine powers to the glow of their skin, it was evident that they were higher in rank than Essien himself. And from the looks of things, it looked like Essien was on trial.


    And he was on trial indeed. The Church of Valour in Forza’s territory had been torn to shreds, and the page from the Book of Holding which was held in high regard by the God of Valour had sadly been destroyed. Furthermore, all of the clerics and pdins of the church had been killed. Any one of these charges was sufficient for Essien to be served a cup of poisoned wine.


    However, Essien’s voice still resounded through the hall. Once he was done exining the situation, he didn’t try to defend or clear his name, instead sincerely asking for the church to send out a troop of battle priests along with an army of pdins supported by elites to eliminate the invaders. He even asked for the elite mountain troops of the Whiterock Duchy!