A beautiful night helped resolve the inner conflicts of three people and brought Peter closer together.
For the next month, Todd enjoyed a rare period of peace and quiet.
During the day, after finishing his business in Twilight City and Froststone Camp, he would take Rachel and Deirdre to the Soul Space to watch footage of their past lives, introducing them to the scenery, customs, society, and cuisine of another world; at night, the red sun and white snow reflected each other, and the buildings were filled with the bright spring light.
Unfortunately, good times are always short-lived. In late May, the first fleet from the Kingdom of Twilight arrived at the beach near Froststone Camp.
In the tribal hall, Todd, disguised as Boyle, looked at the group of tall women standing in the center of the room and was filled with emotion.
Brunhilde, who was in the lead, first glanced at Alfonso next to Todd, then turned her gaze to the tribal chief: "King Musi sent me here with the fleet, he will give me an explanation."
The other party's unusual attitude and questioning tone puzzled Todd.
Todd said to the other tribal chiefs, "Ackerman will be in charge of communication between you and the Muxi fleet. As per the previous meeting, you two should prepare for boarding as soon as possible."
As everyone left the hall, only Todd and a few Valkyries remained in the large room.
Todd smiled and asked Brunhilde, "You recognized me?"
“Your appearance has changed, but your scent remains the same.” Brunhilde pointed to her nose: “I don’t know why, but you always have a scent that no one else has.”
Not intending to linger on the topic, Todd asked, "It seems you're not exactly thrilled with the job I gave you."
An angry look appeared on the Valkyrie leader's face: "It's not just this job, I have no good feelings about everything the Twilight Kingdom has done to North Island!"
Todd paused, glanced at the other person's expression, and calmly asked, "Can we talk alone?"
Brunhilde closed her eyes, nodded, and waved for her sisters to leave.
Todd got up from his seat and went to the Valkyrie's side, trying his best to make his tone sound gentle: "What happened in North Island?"
The woman opened her eyes, stared at the other person's face, and said coldly, "I don't like the human skin mask you're wearing."
Todd shrugged and used his 'Shaping' ability to restore his appearance to its original state.
"King of the Twilight West, do you know what the North Island has become?!" Brunhilde's tone conveyed sorrow, lamentation, helplessness, and bewilderment: "The people of the gods have long forgotten the glory of the gods, the warriors of yesteryear have lost the courage to fight, and all that remains between tribes is struggle, coercion, and slaughter!"
Todd asked in surprise, "How could this be?!"
Brunhilde roared, "Because of wealth, because of greed, because of that damned trade route!"
"A tribe might send a warship laden with warriors across the sea to plunder the barbarian kingdoms of the east or the empires of the south, perhaps sacrificing several lives just to obtain enough food for the entire tribe to last for half a month; but a cargo ship laden with Arctic surf clams and lumberjack, requiring only ten people, could obtain enough food for the tribe to last a whole year on a single trip south. The people of the North Island originally revered strength and firmly believed in acquiring everything through battle! But the flourishing seafood trade made them suddenly realize that they could live a life a hundred times more comfortable than before without risking their lives!"
Hearing this, Todd asked, somewhat puzzled, "Isn't this a good thing? The North Islanders can live a more prosperous life without risking the loss of their tribe."
Brunhilde said in a trembling voice, "Perhaps it was like that at first, but things got worse and worse as time went on! At first, only the Blackskull Tribe and the Claw Tribe were trading seafood on the trade routes, and everything seemed calm and peaceful. But as a large amount of wealth poured into these two tribes, the impoverished tribes of the surrounding North Island, envious of the huge profits from the sea trade, initially only initiated negotiations, but later it escalated into armed struggle."
Todd asked doubtfully, "I remember that in order to resolve the disputes among the Northern Island tribes, didn't Muxi City open the export of 'Air-Conditioned Dormouse' to all the Northern Island tribes? In that case, every tribe could engage in free trade of seafood, and there shouldn't have been any fighting, right?"
Brunhilde shook her head vigorously: "The nightmare for the North Island only began after Twilight City supplied all the tribes with 'Frosty Dormice.' Once every tribe had cargo ships to transport frozen seafood, they only thought about one thing—to acquire as much wealth as possible before others. Fish and shellfish in the sea were indiscriminately overfished, and the fishing grounds available for netting became fewer and fewer, while the price of seafood from Vietnam kept decreasing due to its increasing supply. All of this created a vicious cycle, and the direct result was that the tribes of the North Island waged endless wars for the few remaining fishing grounds."
Slowly closing her eyes, she seemed to see the tragic memories of the North Island people killing each other. Overwhelmed with pain, the Valkyrie leader said in despair, "The fishing grounds have become a battlefield, the azure sea is stained red with blood, and the warriors no longer have the teachings of the gods in their eyes, only the desire brought by wealth!"
Todd fell silent. He truly hadn't anticipated the current situation in North Island. But he probably couldn't offer a solution in a short time.
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