Chapter 248 : Chapter 248
Chapter 248. The Alliance Reached at the Meeting
Everyone present was startled by Benedict’s remarks. One of the mercenary representatives spoke first:
“You furry monster, watch your words. Otherwise, you probably don’t want to see what happens when all your fur gets ripped out and you turn into a hairless...”
The mercenary had directly attacked the one thing the beastmen valued most: their fur, which they regarded as the symbol of their own kind.
So attacking a beastman’s fur was even more effective than insulting his parents, because a beastman might not necessarily have parents in the usual sense, but he definitely had a small patch of fur on his body that represented his identity.
What was surprising was that after hearing this, Benedict did not fly into a rage like the other beastmen would have. He merely clenched his fist slightly before slowly saying:
“Even if you say that, it still doesn’t change the fact that you and her are just a pack of wild dogs too stupid to grasp what matters, the kind that starve to death in winter. Why haven’t you chopped up that lord yet?”
Everyone present fell silent for a moment. No one answered him directly. In the end, it was Patrick who spoke.
“It’s not that we didn’t want to deal with that lord first. It’s that earlier, we found an Alliance mage beside him. We suspect that person might be representing the Alliance.”
The moment those words were spoken, even Benedict stopped acting carefree. He solemnly asked for all the details. After learning that Fulan was only a mage, and that she had come alone, he immediately burst into laughter.
“Hahaha!!!” Benedict stopped, then said,
“I truly don’t understand how such a simple trick from that lord managed to frighten all of you so badly. There is no Alliance standing behind him at all. That mage probably just happened to pass by and was hired by that lord to put on a show...”
Unlike the mercenaries and the Church of the Goddess of the Currents, the beastman tribes truly did live in the Northern Frontier.
Naturally, Benedict knew very well that there was a Northern Society in the Northern Frontier.
That Northern Society would even dispatch its Battle Mages to take on missions from lords from time to time. The number was small, but it did happen.
Benedict still remembered that, during one assault on a territory years ago, he had seen three mages standing atop the city walls casting spells.
At the time, they had not understood that this was what mages looked like, nor had they known that these people were the famed Battle Mages of the Northern Society.
As a result, they had paid a terrible price in that battle. Almost ten minutes after the fighting began, they had been forced to retreat because their casualties were too severe, leaving behind more than a hundred corpses.
But afterward, he had also gathered more information about the details, allowing those mages to never again interfere with the beastmen’s operations.
He knew that these mages only acted during specific working hours. So long as one did not attack within those mages’ working hours, one would never see them at all.
Because of that, every time after that when he fought against those lords, he would send people to observe whether mages were present.
If there were mages, then they would hold off for the time being. If there were none, they would launch the attack immediately.
At the same time, he also knew that these mages were not invincible. As Professionals, they had weaknesses too. If someone slit their throats, they would die just the same.
And for safety’s sake, these mages almost never fought outside the city. They were either near the gates or inside equally sturdy towers.
He knew all this, and he also knew that hiring these mages required a great deal of money before they would work for a lord.
At the same time, he had previously been suppressing his fellow beastmen’s hatred toward mages. After all, when someone merely waved a hand and more than a dozen of your own people died, anyone would want revenge.
He had put a stop to all such ideas among the beastmen precisely to avoid provoking those mages.
So in the Northern Frontier, one could say that he was the person who understood these mages best.
He looked at the other representatives present with contempt and said:
“I never thought all of you would be fooled by such a simple trick from that lord, letting him buy himself a few extra days to live.”
“That mage is not representing the Alliance at all. She is merely a mage who accepted that lord’s commission. The Alliance will never pay attention to a place like this.”
Patrick and Gillian thought of the same thing at the same time, and both their expressions turned ashen.
“If the Alliance truly knew about that azure box, and truly wanted it, then the moment that mage appeared, a Battle Mage Corps would have appeared as well. Naturally, we would have been powerless to resist.”
“But with the Northern Society so close to this place, and all you saw was a single mage like that, then it must have been that mage cooperating with the lord.”
“And now, even that mage has disappeared, yet you still don’t dare move against that lord, and you still let him sit in that position.”
“What a complete joke!!”
It was not strange that the mercenaries and Bishop Gillian had thought the way they did. They simply did not have this much intelligence.
Although the Northern Society was not very far from here, it was not something they could fully understand within a few days.
On top of that, in order to stop the common people from fleeing to the Northern Society, Blake had deliberately spread a great deal of false information, which only made the intelligence they gathered even more confusing.
That, in turn, was what had led both sides to maintain their conservative approach over the past few days, choosing not to directly remove that lord.
But now, it seemed that it was finally time to act, and this was perhaps one of the few agreements they could actually reach at this meeting.
“After this meeting ends, all of us will send part of our people to that lord’s castle and let the lord here know who currently has the final say.”
“But what if that mage is still there?” one of the mercenary representatives voiced his doubt, and it was a doubt everyone present shared.
Even if that mage had not come on behalf of the Alliance, she still was, without question, an Alliance mage, one of the Alliance’s own. What were they supposed to do if they encountered such a mage?
“What else can we do? Capture her. Don’t kill her. Just restrain her movements, and afterward find someone to throw her back to the Northern Society.”
Benedict directly gave a suggestion that everyone could accept.
There was no helping it. Perhaps the Northern Society had no interest in this place, but if they made such a blatant display here and then also killed an Alliance mage...
If they themselves were Alliance mages, they would also immediately respond to such a provocative act. And since they still had to remain here for some time, they absolutely could not deal with Fulan directly.
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Inside Blake’s castle, Fulan was holding that metal communication plate and writing the following message on it:
[Inform the person responsible for searching for the azure box that I have already found that azure box and am currently inside the lord’s castle of Snow Bear Territory. Enemies are surrounding us outside. Come quickly. The situation is urgent!!!]
In order to make the situation seem urgent, Fulan had even deliberately added several extra exclamation marks.
Although things were still peaceful for the moment, she did not want to remain here any longer.
She felt she had probably saved up enough Points by now, and wanted to go back and exchange them for the method to advance to a Second-Tier Mage. She could not be bothered to continue wasting time here.
“My lord, those people outside are gathering their forces and advancing toward this place!!” An urgent and loud voice tore through the castle’s quiet, forcing Fulan to set down the pen in her hand.