In the exchange just now, he had indeed been frightened by Flandre. The opponent actually mastered an instant-death curse technique. Is this girl's family really that carefree?
Looking at Flandre, his gaze was a mix of admiration and speechlessness. He admired that such a young little thing could master such powerful strength; in time, she would surely become a pillar of the Blood Demon Court. The frustration was that she truly seemed uninterested in the Court, which was a massive headache for him.
At this moment, he was seriously considering how to bring this child back to the Court. With her talent, after a period of proper education, perhaps the next generation's Lord of the Court would be settled. But the current trouble was that she had no record in the Court and seemed to have no feelings for Kazdel whatsoever. If he forced her to stay, it would likely backfire.
Never mind, he could still sit in this position for a long time anyway. Let this little thing get her head battered and bloodied outside until she recognizes reality and understands that only Kazdel is the home for the Sarkaz; then he would bring her back for proper teaching. Thinking of this, Duq'arael did not continue to entangle with Flandre.
He looked at Chen Huijie's group below, then looked back at Flandre.
"People's hearts change."
"The only home for the Sarkaz is Kazdel, though we still encourage the Sarkaz to find the home in their hearts."
"But the final outcome has never changed."
"If you want to persuade me, then prove yourself."
"Let me see with my own eyes whether Lungmen is an existence worthy of your trust."
"I hope the next time we meet, your answer remains the same."
After Duq'arael finished speaking, he turned and vanished before their eyes.
"He's gone?"
After Flandre landed next to Sister Chen, the latter asked with lingering fear. Previously, Chen Huijie was quite confident in her own combat strength. But after witnessing what a true grand battle looked like today, she was no longer so sure. In a battle of this level, do the weapons and strength of mortals really have any use?
"I don't know, he should be gone."
"That guy was acting all mysterious, how strange!"
Flandre stared in the direction the blood-light had vanished for a good while before answering. On the way back, Chen Huijie noticed that although the Shadow Guards were somewhat surprised, the look in their eyes was far less worried than she had imagined, so she couldn't help but ask them why.
"Miss Flandre's strength is indeed very great, but within Great Yan, there are also existences capable of rivaling her."
"For instance, those several renowned Celestial Masters."
"While they might not be able to fly through the air as easily as she does, with a simple gesture, they can split mountains and shatter rocks, or gather lightning and summon fire."
(Fumina: Insert John_Cena_"Are You Sure About That".gif)
One of them began to explain.
The group got back into the car and accelerated to catch up with the convoy. No one in the convoy asked what had happened behind them, even though many people had seen the sky-reaching fire and heard the bursts of explosions in the rear at the time. But Chen Huijie's group returning safely meant it wasn't a big problem.
A few days later, in the city of Londinium, beneath the Shatterpoint Building under construction, Theresis looked toward the two Lords of the Court, Nezzsalem and Duq'arael, who had come here from the Kazdel battlefield.
"The Ursus people have been driven out?"
"You know, this Ursus invasion was more of an attrition exercise than an actual invasion, so it wasn't actually that difficult."
"Ever since we designed that ambush for them last time, they haven't had the slightest intention of counter-attacking."
"If it weren't to ensure Ursus wasn't using this as a cover for some other scheme, we wouldn't have stayed there until the war ended."
It was Duq'arael who spoke. Regarding this clash with Ursus, halfway through the fight, they had realized the ugly and sinister plans of those Ursus nobles. They incited those Infected soldiers, telling them that becoming Infected was entirely the fault of the Sarkaz. So their attack on Kazdel this time was purely to seek revenge for the events of the winter.
Those Infected soldiers foolishly fell for it and rushed to the front lines with weapons. But in reality, the Ursus high command didn't have much of a plan; they occupied territory without garrisoning it, constantly pushing deeper into Kazdel. In this way, although it looked like they occupied a lot of territory in the early stages of the war, it was all hollow. It didn't have the slightest impact on the true Kazdel.
Those Infected soldiers would swarm toward wherever they heard there were Sarkaz. There was no military discipline or battle lines to speak of. Because of this, Theresis was able to successfully design a plan to use Catastrophes to ambush the invading Ursus forces. He then personally presided over Kazdel, while the armies of the Nachzehrer King and the Blood Demons pursued the invading Ursus forces and reclaimed Kazdel's territory.
Later, finding there was little pressure here, he came to Londinium to continue his plans, leaving only two Lords of the Court in Kazdel to handle the post-war cleanup. Now that the war was over, the two had also come here, chatting about this "unforeseen disaster."
"I heard you met that little Blood Demon who made us take the blame?" Theresis asked.
"Indeed," Nezzsalem nodded in response.
"Why didn't you keep her?" Even Theresis felt a desire to recruit such a talent—a little thing who could move back and forth through an Ursus army group. He had also asked the Sarkaz who chose to come to his side after Theresa's death; he could confirm the girl was not one of Theresa's people, and they had not even heard the name Flandre before this.
So why did the two Lords of the Court fail to keep such a junior with infinite potential?
"That child has her own home, and she was right—she can live happily over there. I couldn't find a reason to make her stay."
"After all, the hatred of the Sarkaz hasn't reached the point where it needs to be borne by a cub."
Nezzsalem's reply was very serious. Although his hatred for the nations of Terra was too great to ever be resolved, he did not wish for the Sarkaz to live in hatred forever. At the very least, Flandre's words had indeed moved him. Facing a Sarkaz who could live happily, he could not bring himself to take her back to a desolate place like Kazdel and force her to receive a Sarkaz education of hatred.
At this, Nezzsalem looked at Duq'arael. "Didn't you go after that child? You didn't bring her back either."
Seeing Theresis look at him, Duq'arael couldn't help but recall the scene of their previous battle.
"That child is indeed exceptionally talented. To be honest, even if she came to our side, I wouldn't find much I could teach her."
"But just as Lord Nezzsalem said, what we are doing now is so that the Sarkaz people no longer have to live in such suffering as they do now."
"She is currently living in a happy environment and has enough strength to protect herself."
"Aside from responsibility, I could find no excuse to make her return."
"But making a cub bear responsibility and hatred would be putting the cart before the horse for our cause."
After Duq'arael finished speaking, Theresis nodded. He also had a copy of the intelligence regarding Flandre in Lungmen. He could see that the Governor of Lungmen and his wife had done quite a lot to allow her to walk openly on the streets without facing discrimination or prejudice. In that case, they indeed had no need to force a person living happily to return to Kazdel to suffer.
"Why did that little thing attack the Ursus army group, and why did she appear in Lungmen? Is there any news?" Theresis looked toward a very ordinary-looking Victorian man by the wall and asked.
"I have indeed found some information."
"It's related to an Ursus Infected organization called the Reunion Movement, but the time has been too short; I haven't found more details yet."
The man answered calmly.
"An Infected organization, is it? We can try to contact or guide them."
"If they can pin down Ursus's attention over there, we can arrange for more people to come here."
Theresis pondered for a while after hearing the man's words before replying. In his view, there was a natural opposition between the Ursus Infected organization and those old nobles. Although he didn't know what it had to do with Flandre, this organization could be used to distract attention within Ursus. In this way, the pressure on the Kazdel side would be much less. After all, among Kazdel's current neighbors, the most aggressive and predatory are those barbarians of Ursus.
"No problem." The man nodded slightly and then sat there quietly, speaking no more. Then they turned the topic toward Victoria...
Meanwhile, on the other side, the trade caravan took a night's rest after reaching Great Yan territory, and on the following afternoon, they successfully arrived at the Lungmen outskirts. Looking at the massive silhouette of Lungmen in the distance, everyone couldn't help but let out a cheer.
These three days had really stifled everyone. Especially in the first two days, even a rabbit darting out from the roadside could give someone a fright. Now, having experienced war and brushed past death, how could the caravan not feel excited?
The arrival of the caravan also attracted the attention of many people. Ever since the war between Ursus and Kazdel began, almost half a year had passed without any trade caravan coming from the west. Their successful return likely signaled that the war between the Sarkaz and Ursus had ended. Thus, the trade routes to the west would be restored. This was extremely good news for Lungmen.
Having received the news, Governor Wei Yenwu personally received the caravan group. After asking about every detail of their journey, he even held a grand banquet to celebrate everyone's return.
However, this banquet was missing the participation of a few people. The missing people were currently in the backyard of the Governor's Mansion, being personally hosted by Madam Fumizuki.
Flandre, who had finally returned, was currently trying to push away the head of little tiger, who kept rubbing against her face.