Chapter 453 Rat Killer

The peaceful journey lasted for several days and the crisis did not arrive as expected.

Nothing strange happened until the convoy reached the fork in the road between Middenstange and Wismond.

Perhaps the changes are beyond Lynch's sight, or perhaps Tzeentch has set his sights tens of millions of years later.

Anyway, He did not take action against these humble mortals.

The great forests of the south were unexpectedly lively, with traces of human activity evident in every patch of woodland.

Excrement or the remains of campfires can often be seen on both sides of the road. Beastmen seem to have become a legend here, and only experienced businessmen often mention them in conversation.

The vehicles traveling on this avenue are scattered, and people no longer huddle together for warmth, probably because they feel more secure than in the north.

Lynch could understand their relaxation. To the east was Hawke's territory, and to the southeast, across Middenstanger and across the Reik River that ran across the north and south of the empire, was Tarabeheim.

Every fork in the road was filled with people, as if humans were the only ones left in the world. Occasionally, a few dwarves passed by, telling Lynch that humans were not the only masters of this land.

Following the direction Lynch was heading, across Vismond, through the capital of Middenland, Kronborg, Altdorf was built on both sides of the Reik River.

The dark abyss on the northwest side did not disturb the peace here, because the greenskins had to pass through Middenheim if they wanted to cross the dense forests and mountains and reach this road.

Middenheim is like a giant standing on top of the mountains, watching over the Central Mountains in the east and the Dark Abyss in the west.

It is indeed a dark age now. Demons and magic lurk behind everything. Legends about the end of the "Butcher of Kings" are spreading everywhere, and the greenskins and the restless ratmen are always provoking war.

But this is the center of the old world, an empire that has stood for 2,300 years.

Engineers, mages, and the army ensure the peace of the hinterland. At least there are no large-scale Chaos warbands setting up Chaos shrines in the countryside, and the villages along the way are not war-torn.

After a brief decision at the fork in the road, Eugen's carriage drove out of Middenheim's territory.

A forgotten history is buried along the road, and the inscriptions covered with vines and weeds are inscribed with the blood and tears of many years ago.

According to the above records, long ago, when Middenheim was independent from Middenland, a famine and plague swept the empire.

The corruption of the emperor at the time exacerbated the spread of the disaster. At that time, there were often piles of bones lying on the roads, and even the skeletons were covered with teeth marks.

Selling wives and children was not uncommon at that time, but one living person could not be exchanged for the same weight of bread. Hunger cursed the entire empire, and the plague that took away lives all the time seemed like More's punishment from heaven.

The struggles among the provinces almost tore the empire apart, and armies fought against each other, further pushing famine and plague to a peak of rampantness.

I don’t know when it started, maybe it was because of the indiscriminate killing of the hungry people, or maybe it was some mysterious force at work.

There were fewer wild animals in the forest, and the most outstanding hunter could not find a hare after traveling a hundred miles.

The completely desperate people prayed to the gods, but the only response was silence. The crops they grew produced smelly pus, and the water was no longer clear. Those who could not resist their hunger and thirst and drank the stream water all died on the spot.

Driven mad, people began to fight for food, and this was just the beginning of a greater crisis.

Some fragments of the stele had been violently defaced, making it impossible to discern what creature it might represent.

After the plague, some creatures whose records were erased appeared in every corner of the earth. They gnawed on corpses that had not yet rotted and ate the dying people fleeing on the road.

The army was no longer able to resist because the richest nobles could barely make ends meet, let alone the grassroots soldiers.

Those creatures occupied half of the empire in just a few months. Most of Middenland fell, and the remaining Midden people fled to Middenheim. According to the records on the stone tablet, everyone at that time believed that only Middenheim was still safe and not affected by the plague.

A large number of refugees eventually stopped at where Lynch is now because countless mysterious creatures attacked them.

The luckier ones arrived in Middenheim first, but Middenheim refused to accept refugees.

The people of Middenheim raised the drawbridge so that no one could make it up the cliffs.

The enraged Middenheimers laid siege to Middenheim, and the stele states that the dwarves abandoned the Empire because they helped the Middenheimers suppress the rebellion.

The specific circumstances remain to be further investigated. Lynch believes that this stone tablet was built by a survivor among the refugees after the disaster.

Based on the stance taken when it was recorded, it can be inferred that if it was done by the people of Middenheim, it would most likely be filled with excuses and praise for Middenheim's actions, and such rumors that are unfavorable to Middenheim should not be recorded.

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There were large areas of scribbles in the records that followed. Based on the intermittent words, Lynch barely guessed that the plague and those mysterious creatures were trying to take over the empire in one fell swoop while the iron was hot.

The corrupt emperor was pulled off the throne by angry soldiers, and the riot took the emperor's life.

Other contradictory information suggests that the emperor nicknamed "The Incompetent" did not die in a mutiny among his soldiers, but was eaten one dark night when mysterious creatures swarmed into his palace.

In Middenheim, an emperor named Graf von Zelter, nicknamed "The Butcher", ascended the throne.

He summoned the remaining manpower of the empire, established a new health system, and restored the empire's momentum after defeating several attacks on Middenheim by mysterious creatures.

After consuming a large amount of the mysterious creatures' manpower, the emperor took Middenheim as the starting point and gradually counterattacked for nine years, gathering the forces that were still resisting, and finally expelled the mysterious creatures from the entire empire.

It was also from that time that the province of Duncanwald was no longer listed among the provinces of the empire, because it produced an emperor who almost destroyed the empire.

The specific truth was no longer known, so Lynch simply inquired a few times and then left, continuing to rush towards Altdorf. .It turned out that the morale of most villages in the empire was not much better. The further north you go, the braver the people are, and the further south you go, the weaker the people are.

In economic development, the opposite is true.

This place is still within the territory of Midden County. After several days of traveling, Vismond is already in sight.

It is only slightly better than the coastal town Lynch had seen in Osterland before. In a sense, the seemingly bustling town in front of him is actually not as good as the coastal town.

(End of this chapter)