Chapter 599: War Festival but there seems to be no one?

The most torturous thing is not failure, but expectation.

Waiting with expectation is like a blunt knife cutting flesh. The longer you wait, the more the blunt knife cuts into your body a little bit, making people suffer all the time. Yet people are willing to accept this pain because of their expectations.

Old King Fred is in this state at this moment.

"Where are the people? Where have they all gone? The festival is about to start tomorrow, so why is no one coming?"

His impatient footsteps could be heard in the bedroom, circling around the room.

Tomorrow, the war festival will begin, and fighters from all sides will gather together to compete with each other. In fact, it is a struggle between the traditional and reformist factions.

On the reformist side, a group of people led by Lan Le and fighters recruited by Youenka arrived in the imperial capital a few days ago. They spent the whole day in the city demonstrating the fighting spirit conversion technique to people from all over the country who came to participate in the festival. It was a joyful scene, as if they had already won.

"I get annoyed every time I see them like this." Fred gritted his teeth and was indignant like an old naughty boy whose limelight was stolen. He glared at the window that gave a direct view outside the imperial capital. If his eyes had power, half of the imperial capital would explode by now.

But no matter where he looked, left, right, up, or down, outside the city there were only countless tents built by those who came to participate in the festival.

Neither the Temud he was expecting nor the delegation he was sending to the Kingdom of Anor to study showed up!

Not only did no one show up, but according to the report from his servants yesterday, many of the fighters he had previously summoned also disappeared for no reason!

The traditional fighters, who were already few in number, are now as scarce as giant pandas. If the traditional faction wants to win the championship in the war festival, on average one fighter has to fight forty reformists.

What kind of fight is this! A war of attrition can consume all the soldiers!

"Temud, where did you go? Why didn't you bring any news?"

Fred was extremely irritated. He looked out the window at the ugly night sky and muttered to himself:

"You better come back with a surprise tomorrow, or I'll make sure you're in trouble!"

If these words came from the mouth of some cruel monarchs, they would sound quite scary, as if they were willing to kill the whole family if they were not satisfied.

But there is no dangerous aura at all about the old king.

Because his current mental state is just like that of a widower who has seen his partner not coming home for a long time and has no idea where he went to fool around, and who is vaguely aware that he has been NTrated.

The most tragic thing is that even if he smelled a hint of NTR.

But he didn't even know what was so great about him.

With nowhere to vent his anger, it finally turned into a face full of resentment.

In fact, Temud has an absolute and undeniable responsibility for Fred's current situation.

In fact, he had already sent people to report the matter of the war festival to the other party, and also indicated that he might not be able to return to the imperial capital to participate in the war festival for the time being.

However, when he was mobilizing the delegation that was already halfway on the way to abandon the imperial capital with him and turn to the embrace of the Thane dungeon, he used his excellent eloquence to describe the battle festival as overly passionate and grand.

So much so that the messenger who was supposed to follow his orders to go to the imperial capital to report the news, after measuring the distance between the two places, found that if he went to the imperial capital and came back, he might not be able to make it in time for the battle festival.

So he secretly didn't go to the imperial capital, and mixed in with the crowd to participate in the battle festival.

And the facts have proved that the Ratan Festival, which made the messenger disobey orders and participate in it, did not disappoint anyone.

The next day, early morning.

Fred, who had tossed and turned the whole night, woke up with big dark circles under his eyes and participated in the tedious ceremony that lasted from early morning to dusk in a listless manner.

When he arrived at the arena where the war festival was held, his son, Bontowu, the current king of the Warrior Kingdom, and the court's great magic sage Yunka had already arrived.

Facing the two people's gazes, Fred simply nodded as a greeting, then sat down on the highest platform, overlooking the huge arena.

It seems that everyone's relationship is not warm.

This historic arena has always been the place where the Warrior Kingdom holds various large-scale events and has quite important historical significance. Various gladiator competitions are held here on weekdays, and every game is always packed.

Today was the War Festival, a major festival in the Warrior Kingdom, so the Colosseum was naturally packed with people, and it was as packed as always.

Fred's gaze suddenly paused as he looked around.

Wait, same as always?

He keenly sensed that something was wrong and turned to look at his son.

I saw that the other party and Youenka also had frowns on their faces and were looking around. It seemed that they were equally confused.

Confused? That's right!

The war festival is a major ceremony that is held only once in a long time. It is normal for the arena to be filled with people. There must be so many people.

But why are there "the same number of people as always"? In other words, the number of people who come to watch this festival is almost the same as the number of people who come to watch the gladiators fight on ordinary days!

This is not right!

Fred had previously predicted that the number of people coming today would be at least ten times that of usual days, and it would easily exceed ten times, so extra seats were temporarily built, and those seats could also be expanded to allow more people to sit at the same time.

But now, although those seats were occupied, no one expanded them because there were only so many people!

"this"

Fred didn't know what to say. Could it be that young people nowadays are completely uninterested in old traditions like war festivals? An old man like him really didn't know what young people like.

But when he turned around, Bontowu, who claimed to understand young people best, also looked confused.

So, what on earth was it that intercepted the people who were supposed to participate in the war festival?

Because he was so confused, Fred temporarily forgot about his anxiety that Tmud and the others didn't come.

And so, the war festival began.

After the various sacrificial ceremonies and performances, a whole day had passed. The number of people in the arena increased slightly, but it was still quite different from the expected crowded scene.

At dusk, the horn sounded and the fighters entered the arena to start the duel. The atmosphere of the whole festival reached its climax with the passionate fighting of the warriors.

The confusion on Bontowu and Yunka's faces turned into smiles at this time, smiling for those reformist fighters who were in the spotlight.

Fred had a blank expression on his face because Temud and the others had not arrived yet.

Forget it, now he no longer has any expectations and has sealed his heart and locked away his love.

He looked at the arena with a gloomy face. There was a group of warriors fighting each other with magic. They were naturally using Unka's "improved magic". Each of them used it skillfully and did not forget to strike a handsome pose while fighting. He also saw Edgar, who had been in the limelight recently. This guy was the most showy among the fighters. He looked completely immersed in his own achievements and looked arrogant.

How did this person come up with a technology that even Unka hadn't thought of?

Seeing a group of people casting magic in the arena, Fred was so angry that he blew his beard and glared, knocking the ground with his cane while muttering: "How shameful, how shameful."

Not long after, the small fighters had been eliminated, and the only ones left in the arena were the elites. The traditional fighters on Fred's side were still quite capable, and many of them have survived to the present day, but compared with the huge number of reformers, they were no match at all.

His face was as black as the bottom of a pot.

If traditionalists like Fred are unhappy, reformists like Bontowu, Yunka and Lanler will be happy.

"Grandfather looks very angry."

Lanler looked up at Fred, then turned around and smiled.

The seat next to him should have been for Temud, but it was empty at the moment. Since Temud was not there and his envoys did not show up either, it meant that the letter Lanler had written before had taken effect and had completely shattered Temud's self-confidence and made him give up participating in the war ceremony.

Lanler thought so. Because he set out a few days in advance, he was not aware of the subsequent battle festival and thought that it was ultimately just the adventurers' business.

"It's a pity that the dwarf community in China is still a staunch supporter of tradition. There is no way to convince these guys. But there is nothing we can do. Being a magician is a high-threshold profession and is not suitable for dwarves."

He said to himself with a happy tone:

"In this way, the domestic reform trend will be unstoppable."

Lanler looked at Yunka at this time. The latter noticed his gaze and gave him an approving look, obviously thinking it was his credit that Temud did not come to disrupt the situation.

At this moment, Youenka was also in a good mood.

These days, good things happen one after another.

His disciple Edgar suddenly seemed to have an epiphany, and proposed a brilliant and feasible improvement method for the fighting spirit conversion technology, which immediately pushed this technology to a completely practical level, which made his teacher amazed.

He was considering passing on his title of sage to Edgar in the future. He was not a jealous person and the more successful his disciple was, the happier he was.

Although the research on pyroxene magic is still progressing slowly, it’s not a big deal. His research on other improved magic is going very smoothly.

Moreover, most of the traditional warriors did not show up at today's war ceremony, which created a very good situation. Although even if Temud and his men came, they would not cause any trouble, but we still had to be prepared for the worst, so not coming was the best outcome.

By the time the war festival is over, the belief in magic in the Warrior Kingdom should have reached a new peak, and then we can start a new stage of the plan.

The usually steady Youenka showed a dazed expression at this moment. He hadn't felt so happy for a long time.

I feel like the world is in my hands.

By the way, I haven’t checked the specific values ​​of magic belief concentration for a long time. Let me take a look now.

Just as he was using his magic power to check, the warriors' fight reached a rest stage. According to convention, he should stand up and offer blessings and praise to those who survived.

So Yunka stood up while checking the concentration of magic belief. The whole audience became excited and looked forward to the master's speech.

He cleared his throat and said with a friendly smile:

"Dear brave warriors, your performance today was truly amazing!!!???"

At this moment when everyone was paying attention, Youenka suddenly let out a strange cry!

Oh yeah——

Yeah——

Why--

Strange cries echoed in the arena, and people's expressions quickly changed from anticipation to astonishment.

The whole place was silent, and everyone's eyes pierced Yunka like thorns.

Lanler was so frightened that he stood up with a bang, turned around and stared at Youenka in disbelief. He never expected that the other party would be rude on such an important occasion.

Not only him, but also Bangtow was shocked and stood up, looking at the great magic sage of the court with doubtful eyes.

"What are you doing?" Fred asked without any scruples, frowning. Although he and Unka did not get along, the other party's current behavior also concerned the dignity of the country. How could he be rude in such an important occasion?

Edgar stopped smiling, tilted his head, and stared at his teacher.

Yunka's body was shaking slightly.

At this moment, he completely ignored the questions of the people around him, and he could not feel the dagger-like gazes of the audience. All he could see was the concentration of magical beliefs in the country that he had just looked up.

The original faith concentration had steadily reached a level of more than 80%, and it was just one step away from reaching 90%, which was a thriving situation.

But now, now.

"Half evaporated!?"

Unka cried out again, and the frenzied magic power erupted uncontrollably with him as the center, even knocking down a large flock of birds in the sky.

There were a variety of emotions in his tone: shock, anger, confusion, sadness... In short, they were all negative emotions.

What on earth is going on? Why did the concentration suddenly drop by more than half? Shouldn't it be thriving?!

Who and what caused it?

His expression changed several times. He could no longer stay in the arena to watch this boring show. Under the astonished gazes of others, he rushed towards the sky like a hurricane and disappeared from the vicinity in the blink of an eye.

“.”

People stared at his departing figure in a daze. The whole place was silent for a few seconds, and then went into an uproar.

"What's going on? Where did Master Yunka go?"

"Could it be that another country has invaded?"

"Maybe his experiment went wrong?"

Seeing many dangerous rumors spreading in the venue, Bonto reacted quickly, waving his hand and ordering the soldiers to maintain order, but he himself was also shocked by Yunka's behavior.

The soldiers severely reprimanded the rioting crowd, and the situation seemed to be about to calm down, but at this moment.

"What's this?"

Edgar walked to the flock of birds that were shaken down by Unka, and suddenly he realized that these were carrier pigeons, each with a small tube on its feet.

When I opened it, I saw a roughly polished photo stone inside with a few large characters engraved on the surface.

【Battle Festival】

"What?" Edgar made a puzzled sound. His intuition told him that this was not a good thing and must be confiscated.

Just at this moment, the sound of pigeons cackling came from the sky above the Colosseum. He looked up suddenly and saw large flocks of pigeons occupying the sky above the Colosseum.

The next moment.

The small tubes loaded with the photo stones fell like raindrops.

(End of this chapter)