Supposedly, this is something that happened after the Old Demon Faction appeared in Cosmos.
Ever since people discovered that the Old Demon Faction had appeared within Cosmos, all kinds of strange incidents begun gradually occurring within Cosmos.
For example, some people would wake up to discover that they weren’t in their own home or bedroom, but instead were out in the wilderness or even in the living rooms of other people’s homes.
For example, some would suddenly find their homes teleported to a different location. They wouldn’t recognize any of their new neighbors, and there were even those whose homes were directly teleported right above someone else’s home or even on top of a tree. It was seriously terrifying.
There were even cases where people would end up finding the friend that they’re talking to suddenly replaced with a bolder.
Or tat the wife that they’re embracing suddenly replaced with a man.
There were even people who kept pets which, one day, would suddenly be replaced with a demonic beast and end up dying because of it.
Anyways, all kinds of monsters have appeared, causing enormous amount of chaos and instability within Cosmos. No one felt safe.
Those wasn’t even the scariest parts.
The scariest part is that those strange incidents have gradually expanded out from its origin point of Cosmos. Even a city of the neighboring Empire had been affected, making it so that various buildings and people between the two nations would end up switching positions as well.
This was not something that anyone could remain calm about.
After all, there’s no way to be sure that the next Imperials that gets teleported over would just be normal citizens or structures.
What if the next ones teleported over is one of the Empire’s prided knight orders?
What if the next ones teleported over is the Empire’s nearly million strong army that the Empire has been continuously expanding?
If that happened, then Cosmos’s purpose of being a defensive bulwark against an Empire invasion would be completely worthless. The Empire’s military would appear directly within the Kingdom and begin invading without any fear.
This is an extremely dangerous situation.
“Due to this, there were even rumors that this is a greater magical ritual that the Empire newly developed. That the goal is to send their knight orders and enormous armies right into the Kingdom, directly bypassing the Kingdom’s defensive lines, and start invading.”
The guard revealed such rumors.
“However, a similar situation seemed to have happened over on the Empire’s side as well, and there’s also rumors floating around on their side that this is all some trick of our Kingdom.”
People and structures of the Empire have suddenly appeared within the border of the Kingdom, so naturally, people and structures of the Kingdom have also suddenly appeared within the Empire as well.
In this case, the other side would have the same suspicions that this side did. They’d also think that this is a sign of an invasion from the Kingdom. That was only natural.
“Both sides have their own biases, and both believed that it’s all caused by the other side and that their own side is the innocent victim in all of this. The result of this is that not only chaos happened among the civilians, it even caused conflicts between the two nations.
The guard spoke with a frustrated tone.
Due to this matter, as the place where the strange incident originally appeared, Cosmos has become the focus of both nations attentions. At this point, not only has the territory’s First Knight Order already deployed people to Cosmos to begin investigating, even the Empire has demanded to send people over to investigated as well. In the end, after some discussion, permission was given for the Empire’s second princess, Katherine Ragna, to lead her personal Blade Breaker Knight Order to enter Cosmos and also investigate.
In other words, not only is Cosmos right now in a lot of chaos, the Stalim Dukedom’s First Knight Order and the Empire’;s princess and personal knights were also active within the city.
Add in the fact that the Old Demon Faction were still here, and that the strange incidents were still occurring, Cosmos is now tenser than it ever has been before. Neither normal business nor merchantry can continue on as normal now.
Without any other recourse, the Stalim family had no choice but to completely lock Cosmos down and behind carpet searching Cosmos.
However, the level of chaos in Cosmos right now is even greater than just that.
“While the search and investigation was progressing, the Kingdom and Empire’s forces would end up getting attacked every day, and casualties are mounting.
“Both sides believed that it was the other side secretly attacking them, so tensions have risen and there were a number of conflicts and duals.”
“There are also some who have noticed traces of the Old Demon Faction and believes that it was the Old Demon Faction that was secretly attacking the investigators, but due to the fact that neither side could trust the other, both suspects the other of trying to use this as a smokescreen to take covert actions themselves while putting all the blame on the Old Demon Faction. Thus, the conflicts between the two sides continued on without stopping.”
“While all this is happening, Cosmos would continue to occasionally have demonic beasts teleported within, causing damages to the civilians. By now, Cosmos is in complete chaos.”
Thanks to that, the normal citizens no longer dared to leave their homes anymore. All of them shut themselves in their homes while living in terror. None knows if they might suddenly disappear at some point and appear somewhere else or if someone else or even demonic beasts might appear in their own homes. No one felt safe.
The First Knight Order and Blade Breaker Knights continued to clash, so their investigation was ineffective and things progressed slowly, if it did at all.
Who the heck would want to get involved in such a chaotic situation?
The guard was also worried for himself. If he were to set that noble with the royal token into the city, and something were to happen to him, then the royalty may very well end up making him take responsibility for that. If that happened, then he may very well lose his head.
Add in the fact that the Stalim family had given strict orders to absolutely not allow anyone in, so the guard really didn’t know if something might happen if he let Shien in.
Thus, he could only beg Shien to think twice with all his might in order to try to get Shien to back off.
Who would have known, though, that Shien instead just went silent for a bit before speaking up.
“I understand. Let me pass.”
Shien had no intention of changing his mind at all.
“My lord.”
The guard had a bitter look on his face and a cold sensation in his heart.
Shien however didn’t care to waste any more words. He just slapped the royal token to the other side’s face while lightly motioning across his neck to tell the guard just what the consequences of not letting Shien pass would be.
The guard seriously wanted to cry at the cold sensation that passed across his neck.
He’s dead if he lets Shien in, and he’ll be dead if he doesn’t. Why did it have to be so hard for him?
You big shots can fight among yourselves as you like, but can you please not involve us normal citizens?
I just wanted to guard a gate. I originally thought that this would be the easiest and least dangerous work around, but who could have imagined that such a deadly issue would end up showing up?
He’s done with it! The moment his shift is done, he’s quitting and going home to inherit the farm his ancestors have left him. He’ll also marry the girl that his family introduced him to before and just live a leisurely life of having kids while occasionally working the farm.
Only, that arranged partner has more meat on her than two of him combined!
But it can’t be helped. Their side have more money after all.
He gives up!
“Go ahead then…”
Thus, the guard could only say that with resignation.
“Thanks.”
Shien didn’t even know that his actions had made the person he faced give up on his dreams, face reality, decide to go back home and accept the life that awaited him, thus completely altering his fate. Shien just smiled brightly while taking the girls with him into Cosmos.
After the guard finished getting over his depression, he hurriedly ran off to report on what just happened.
No matter what the circumstances were, the fact is that someone had passed through the lockdown and entered the City, so he did have to report this to his higher ups. Otherwise, the blame really would end up falling on him.
…
Just like that, Shien’s group finally entered Cosmos.
However, the moment they did, they immediately noticed the abnormality there.
“… Did you notice? Airi?”
Shien turned serious as he spoke to Airi next to him.
“Yeah.” Airi’s eyes flashed too as she calmly spoke, “The magical energy flow in the air is obviously abnormal.”
That’s right, the magical energy flow is very abnormal.
Yet, this abnormality is also one that Shien happened to have experienced before.
“It can’t be another Demon Refining ritual, could it?”
Shien brought up that possibility.
The Demon Refining ritual that he experienced back in the Capital was just like this, where the magical energy flow turned extremely abnormal.
However, Airi shook her head and denied it.
“No, this isn’t a Demon Refining ritual.” Airi spoke with certainty, “Not only is the feel of the magic power different, the signs and conditions for the ritual are all wrong as well.”
True enough. The magical energy flow when the Demon Refining ritual is activated is very dark, evil, and weird.
Although the magical energy flow in Cosmos is also quite weird, it also doesn’t feel as dark or evil as the Demon Refining ritual.
Besides which, the Demon Refining ritual is targeted toward demons and demonic beasts. While Cosmos is a big melting pot of various races, that’s only within the bounds of the mortal races. There are humans, elves, beastmen, and dwarves, but demons aren’t included in that, never mind demonic beasts. Other than tamed mounts, there aren’t all that many demonic beasts within the city at all.
A place like this is completely unsuitable for a Demon Refining ritual.
“Besides, after the Demon Refining ritual is activated, the space within the bounds of the ritual would be completely cut off from the outside. The bounds covered by the ritual would be transformed into a standalone dimension of its own, one where it’s impossible to freely enter or leave. Since we were able to walk right in, this proves that there is no Demon Refining ritual currently underway here.”
Shien recognized Airi’s explanation.
This indeed doesn’t feel like a Demon Refining ritual.
Besides, he’s never heard of the Demon Refining ritual having strange effects like what the guard had mentioned either.
Some other abnormal event must be happening here. It doesn’t have any relations with the Demon Refining ritual.
However, the flow of magical energies here really did made Shien take notice.
“No wonder both the Kingdom and Empire thinks that all this is due to someone undertaking a major magical ritual.”
With how strange the magical energy flow is here, it’s only natural that people would think that some magic ritual is currently being undertaken here. Even Shien was the same.
Shien thus glanced around.
Around him, all the buildings within Cosmos seemed to have been scrambled. Some were merged together, some stuck out right in the middle of the street, some were slanted, some had fallen, and some were even collapsed against each other or slammed together. It looked extremely haphazard and even the roads were gone, only leaving some small paths between building that can be traversed.
“This is practically a perfect place for criminal activities.”
Shien kind of understood now just why so many people have been attacked.
Since people could only move through those chaotic and tiny alleys, isn’t it only natural for people to easily fall prey to sneak attacks from anyone who had such intentions?
And when that happened, if the attackers just dives into a few corners, then the chances of being caught was practically zero.
This place has already become a natural criminal paradise, so most likely, not only were the knights of the Kingdom and Empire causing problems, the normal people within the city might also be using this opportunity to commit robberies and other illegal acts.
Perhaps that’s the real reason why this city has been locked down.
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