bookrebus Chapter 197 Why Do You Really Want to
Chapter 197 Why Do You Really Want to
No one knew when the battle ended. In the end, they defeated the Kingdom Army, but it was a narrow victory. As the smoke gradually dissipated, the battlefield was filled with corpses piled up together, which was shocking. Most of the Kingdom Army was killed or wounded, and Carl also suffered a lot of losses. He stood there, took a deep breath, and his thoughts were mixed. The captured King Philip was even more confused, and he had no idea what had happened.
Then they entered the Crusader camp. After confirming that Grand Commander Aiden was fine, Carl finally breathed a sigh of relief and put his heart at ease.
The next step is to confirm the identity of the deceased, and the most important thing: how to reconcile the two people.
The atmosphere in the Crusader camp was tense and heavy. Soldiers came and went to deal with the bodies and count the casualties, while Carl and Aiden were in the tent, waiting to meet with King Philip. Although the battle was over, the situation was still complicated and sensitive, especially the relationship between the two leaders needed to be dealt with urgently.
Carl stood aside and watched King Philip being brought into the tent. Philip still looked confused, as if he was still confused about the battle. But Grand Commander Aiden stood up from his seat and slowly walked towards Philip. The two looked at each other for a while.
Aiden spoke first, his tone calm and composed:
"Your Majesty, this battle was an accident. There was a misunderstanding."
Philip still looked puzzled. He also frowned and murmured:
"I don't understand why it has come to this. Why would your people come to assassinate me?"
Aiden sighed helplessly, and after pondering for a moment, he suddenly said as if he had thought of something:
"Your Majesty, I assure you that I know nothing about this. I believe they are being manipulated."
Philip looked at him doubtfully: "Being controlled by someone?"
Aiden moved slightly closer, his tone lowered, "It's magic."
Philip was stunned for a moment, then his eyes flickered: "Magic? You mean... someone used magic to interfere with our thoughts?"
"That's right," Aiden nodded firmly. "Wizards have always hated the Church. They must have taken advantage of this opportunity to secretly use magic to disrupt our minds and manipulate us into making these stupid decisions!"
Philip pondered for a while, as if digesting Aiden's words. Then he nodded immediately:
"Indeed, that makes sense. I never intended to be an enemy of the Crusaders. I was not myself at the time, as my son Gareth can attest." His voice gradually regained its composure. "Magic... yes, there must be someone behind this."
Seeing that Philip accepted this excuse, Karl secretly breathed a sigh of relief. The conflict that might have been caused by this battle now had a seemingly reasonable explanation.
Aiden smiled slightly and continued, "We must find the caster. This is the most important thing now. As long as we find the mastermind, our misunderstanding will naturally be resolved. And this battle is nothing more than a conspiracy of some evil force."
"That's right," Philip nodded in agreement, "This matter cannot be escalated further. We cannot give the enemy an opportunity to take advantage of it." His tone regained some dignity, and he obviously accepted this explanation completely.
Aiden nodded immediately and said, "We all have the responsibility to calm it down as soon as possible. I am willing to send someone to investigate this matter and find out who is behind this, but before that, I hope to get your understanding, Your Majesty. How about we just treat this as a misunderstanding?"
Then he bowed.
Philip immediately held out his hand and said:
"I thought so too, Grand Master. We never had any real hostility, we were just blinded by conspiracy."
"exactly!"
Then the two shook hands and made peace. The former hostility on the battlefield instantly disappeared. Carl stood aside and listened to their conversation. He understood very well that blaming everything on magic was just a reasonable way for both sides to step down. But in fact, this possibility was not ruled out. Something was wrong at the time. This group of people was like possessed. Now that Ford has been wiped out, and he has a high probability of inheriting his territory, it is self-evident who will be the most disadvantaged by this matter. The first person he thought of was the wizard next to Prime Minister Aaron.
However, Amira's words confused him again:
"Magic, absolutely impossible!" the girl said firmly, "There are indeed magic that can disrupt the mind, but it only works on a single individual. With such a large-scale manipulation, what do you think the magician is, a god?"
"You mean, it couldn't have been done by Aaron's wizard?" Carl asked.
“I’m not sure about that, but even if he did it, it was definitely not the power of a mage,” Amira said, and then complained dissatisfiedly, “So, these politicians always blame the mages for everything that happens, and the mages are always the ones who are slandered!”
Carl could only spread his hands helplessly. After all, this was politics. After leaving the tent, he saw Isabel, who had transformed into a bat, appear in front of him.
"Mother wants to see you~" said the vampire girl.
"See me?" Carl immediately became alert. "Are you planning to take me away?"
"You think too much. She doesn't need to meet you in real life."
After saying this, the girl turned into a bat and flew away again, leaving Carl standing there in a daze with a question mark on his head.
At night, Carl dreamed of the white-haired girl again. She stood there quietly, her figure slender, her white hair cascading down like a waterfall, and her eyes revealing a deep wisdom and endless sadness.
"You're finally here, Carl." She spoke softly, her voice echoing in the dream like a distant bell.
Karl frowned and looked at her warily:
"You are Isabel's mother, I suppose."
The girl smiled, and her smile was particularly sweet:
"You don't need to be nervous. I told you last time that I'm not your enemy."
Carl sneered:
"Humph, entering my dream without permission and saying some deceptive words, it really is very vampire style."
"Your dream?" The girl tilted her head. "Do you think that was your dream?"
"Is not it?"
"I prefer to call it a dream of the three of us. After all, you are not the only one who can peek into the future." The girl suddenly said.
"Three people?"
"Huh? What's the matter? Is there a problem?" The girl tilted her head again.
“It’s okay, let’s get to the point.” Karl said coldly.
"The point?" She smiled again. "Isn't this what you want to know the most? Why did this happen? Why did the knights of the Crusaders suddenly assassinate the king? Why did the king's army go berserk?"
"Do you know why?" Carl asked.
The girl replied:
"It's simple. They are sick."
"What?" Carl suddenly felt like he was being fooled.
But then I heard the girl say:
"Don't worry, it's not a physical disease, but a mental illness that only affects living things. We call it madness. They are all infected with this disease, just like the original Aoong Village."
Aoong Village. Hearing this word, Carl trembled unconsciously. He remembered that it was not long ago that news came that undead creatures were found in the village, but when they rushed there, the whole village had been slaughtered. He remembered that they found surviving villagers there, but they were attacked by the other side without reason. In the end, they had to kill them, and then their bodies were transformed into zombies.
Transforming into zombies... undead creatures, isn't this a common tactic used by vampires?
Recalling that scene, Karl clenched his fist unconsciously, and then shouted:
"What nonsense are you talking about? Didn't you massacre the village of Oong? You created undead creatures, attacked the village, and killed everyone!"
But then I heard the girl say:
"It is true that we massacred the village and created those undead creatures, but don't you want to know the reason?"
"Reason? Are you trying to say they are suffering from madness?"
"At first, we just heard rumors. My daughter Isabel went to investigate. When she arrived, the whole village had fallen into madness. The villagers started killing each other over trivial matters. At first, we tried to treat them and fed some people the blood of the vampires, but it didn't work. Then we tried to transform the infected people... but after the transformation, they all became irrational monsters who only knew how to eat people. We had no choice but to eliminate everyone. Then you brought people here."
"Do you think I will believe it?"
"Why would I lie to you? You saw it with your own eyes. Those survivors attacked your troops indiscriminately. We were indeed the ones who resurrected the corpses afterwards, but their madness is not our fault. We don't have the ability to do so." The girl said again.
"Then why are you invading Morgan Territory again?" Carl asked
The girl sighed helplessly:
"At first I just wanted to make you my direct follower, but unfortunately the ghost witches got in the way and ruined my transformation."
"The wolf that bit me." Carl fell into memories again.
"Yes, that was me." The girl smiled proudly, "That was also my last chance..."
Carl continued:
"If that was the case, you could have come to me and explained it clearly at that time."
"First of all, you will never believe me. Second, you are a human being. As long as you are a human being, you are also at risk of contracting the disease. Therefore, it is safer to make you one of us." For some reason, the girl said this with a hint of arrogance. After a slight pause, she continued:
"As you know, three earls from the north, led by Dorenzo, joined forces to start a rebellion in your territory. We joined them and planned to use this opportunity to enter your territory and completely eradicate the source of infection... Unfortunately, none of them could defeat you."
Karl looked at her coldly for a while, then suddenly laughed:
"It's a good story, but it's full of loopholes from the beginning. You said you massacred the villagers of Aoang because they were suffering from madness and you had no other choice but to do it. Now that Your Majesty has it too, how did you recover?"
However, the girl showed no expression after hearing his words.
"Indeed." She said suddenly, "I don't really understand this either. Saying it's a disease is just our own guess. After all, this has never happened before."
"What did you say?"
But then I heard the girl say:
"People suddenly went crazy after you became the Baron of Rickburg. It was not obvious and unnoticed at first. But if you think about it carefully, it is a little strange. Haven't you noticed that there have been more murders in Rickburg this year? And most of them were killed impulsively because of trivial matters."
This is true. When Eleanor was organizing the case files for her, she also mentioned that there were more and more serious cases. However, this does not prove anything.
"This isn't surprising," Carl replied.
"But it's strange that they keep increasing." The girl continued, "And the one in Aoang Village was the first time a total outbreak occurred."
"Based on these alone, you want me to believe such a flawed statement?"
"You don't have to believe it right away." The girl added, "Time will prove everything."
After she finished speaking, she raised her head again and sighed:
"The Walter family has lived in their own territory for a hundred years and has always lived in peace with humans. Why did they choose to suddenly attack today? Even at the cost of the family's destruction and death. If it wasn't an emergency, why would we reveal our identities and attract encirclement and suppression?"
"You wanted the North to become a world of vampires, but you were defeated," Carl replied.
The girl was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said:
"If we kill all the humans, what will we eat? Besides, we are not good at large-scale warfare. You know this better than I do."
Then she looked Karl up and down again and said with a smile:
"But at least one thing is certain. You defeated everyone, even Ford. You proved that you are better than them all. Maybe you can really change something. Ford's black sword now belongs to you. It symbolizes the Earl's supreme rule over the vampires. From now on, my daughter Isabel and her family will serve you as their master! But you also need to understand that if one day you are infected with this disease, we will never show mercy."
As she finished speaking, her figure gradually became blurred. Carl suddenly felt dizzy, and when he opened his eyes, he was already awake.