The top of the magnificent walls in Ghent City was empty. There were no patrolling guards nor any flapping flags in the wind. The House of Norman and the House of Tudor had been fighting openly and covertly here for more than 80 years. For now, a careful truce was being maintained.
Ghent City occupied an extremely large area. There was a saying that if someone were to ride their horses in Ghent City, they wouldn’t get out of the eastern district even after riding for seven days.
This was undoubtedly an exaggeration, but it showed the capital city held an unparalleled status in the hearts of the Kingdom of Sorcerers’ citizens.
It represented dreams, ambition, and prosperity. This place even had a sewage system that existed nowhere else in the Kingdom of Sorcerers, and the sewer mainlines were as wide as a bomb shelter. This made Ghent City never have to worry about heavy rainfall in the summer, which in turn made the entire city look much cleaner.
In the hearts of the people, it seemed that all beautiful words suited the definition of the city. However, only those who had lived in Ghent City before would understand that this place was actually not that special.
That huge sewage system had given birth to a large number of outlaws who relied on it to survive. The largest underground casino in the entire Kingdom of Sorcerers was situated inside it. Someone once made a scene in the sewers before, and even if a sorcerer were to enter this place, they could not return alive.
As for the veracity of this statement, it was never confirmed.
In Ghent City, the House of Norman and the House of Tudor each occupied half of the city, with the Normans in the east and the Tudors in the west.
Under normal circumstances, the sorcerers from these two clans would not casually venture into each other’s territory unless absolutely necessary.
At this moment, in a huge manor in the northern part of the eastern district, hundreds of servants suddenly busied themselves even though it was just dawn.
The sorcerers got up one by one after they were summoned by the patriarch. They came to a huge banquet hall in their pajamas and had a rapid discussion over a piece of information the patriarch had shared.
The intel was transmitted through the mirror, and it was an extremely important piece of news.
The servants remained silent as though they could not hear the sorcerers’ discussion. If they wanted to earn a living in a clan like that, they had to learn how to play deaf and dumb.
The sorcerer clans might appear glamorous, and their sorcerers had a classy air of gentlemanliness, but only the servants of the clans would know that most of these sorcerers had strange fetishes. Some of these fetishes were even exceptionally bloody and cruel.
In the banquet hall, the words “Winston City,” “House of Berkeley,” and “House of Tudor” were constantly being brought up.
The sorcerers were sipping from transparent crystal glasses filled with a scarlet-red wine.
Amid the commotion, a male servant cleared away some of the drained wine glasses and walked towards the kitchen to send them for washing.
He walked down the long hallway where ornate window lattices were inlaid with stained glass. It was past dawn, and the faint morning light outside shining through the colorful windows made it look exceptionally mysterious and eerie.
When the other servants came over, he smiled and nodded at them before walking past them.
When he arrived at the scullery, the male servant placed the glasses into a stone sink. Then he quietly dipped a finger into some leftover wine and wrote something on a dry dishcloth.
Very quickly, he placed the dishcloth into his arms and turned around to leave. When he passed by a chef, he secretly stuffed the dishcloth into the chef’s pants pocket.
All of this was carried out quietly, and the chef’s expression did not change.
After the male servant left, the chef excused himself from the huge kitchen on the pretense of needing to visit the water closet. He hid in the restroom and unfolded the dishcloth and saw the words: “Winston City has collapsed. Future Commander has appeared. Armor, steam locomotive.”
In just a dozen words, all of the meaningful information had been passed on.
…
At the dilapidated walls of Winston City, a huge breach was exposed in everyone’s sight.
In the ruins of the opening, the substandard sand and straw were an exceptional eyesore, and it was as though they were silently mocking the authority of the House of Winston.
The person in charge of erecting this section of the walls was named Daniel, the 73rd son of the Winston family’s patriarch.
But now, Daniel had been added to the list of martyrs in the city. In another few days, there would be a ceremony dedicated to them at the entrance of Winston Cathedral.
Although the sorcerers knew full well their prayers meant nothing, the residents firmly believed the people could reach the divine kingdom after the prayer ceremony.
Sixty-two sorcerers of the House of Winston had died tonight, including Archmage Devonshire and Archmage Abel.
This was an unprecedented disaster for the House of Winston.
The loss of 61 Eyes of True Sight was the most devastating of all. Among the dead, other than Abel’s red Eye of True Sight, even Devonshire’s red Eye of True Sight was lost!
The Winston family’s patriarch did not get any sleep at all. He angrily urged the Knights of the Hymn to go after the perpetrators and search for all evidence.
At dawn, the Knights of the Hymn finally found some clues. Someone in a northern village had seen a steel monster escaping northwards, likely towards Ghent City. But strangely, they only saw one steel monster while the other was nowhere to be seen.
The “steel monster” was the steam locomotive.
Everyone was aware it was not a living thing, but they did not know how else to describe it accurately, so they just called it a steel monster.
As for how this steel monster came to this place, the Winston family’s patriarch initially thought someone from the Central Plains had driven it over. But later, when he realized the enemy could actually summon and disperse it at will, he started to wonder if this was a new spell one of the clans had just discovered.
But none of this could be verified yet.
By noon, the sorcerers stationed in a northern town suddenly transmitted back another piece of news via sorcery. A suspicious person was spotted entering the Winston family’s territory in the past two days. Through an informant, it was reported they suspected the person to be Kayle Jefferson William Kris Tudor of the House of Tudor. He also brought dozens of followers with him, and one of them was thought to be Gull, a gladiator who made a name for himself five years ago.
When the patriarch of the House of Winston heard this news, he was shocked. That person was the third-in-command of the House of Tudor and had become a famous archmage over 20 years ago.
Could it be a coincidence the other party had suddenly come to the Winston family’s territory two to three days before the incident at the Winston Manor?
No, it was definitely not a coincidence. The other party was probably the mastermind behind this farce, and the controller of the steel monster was likely heading north to join up with Archmage Kayle.
After all, why would Archmage Kayle, a core figure of the House of Tudor, quietly leave Ghent City if there was nothing important to see to?!
The Winston family’s patriarch trembled in anger. “The House of Tudor has gone too far. Go and report this matter to the Berkeleys. The northern expedition must be brought forward. I want this person’s head sacrificed to our crest!”
Meanwhile, Archmage Kayle, who had been longing to personally deal with Melgor and Ren Xiaosu, was unaware he had provoked huge hatred from afar.
Meanwhile, the perpetrator, Ren Xiaosu, had just woken up in his room at the relay station and was thinking about what to have for lunch.
