This winter was a disaster for the people of the Scal Federation. The invasion of the Glittergold Empire, the civil war between the Parwood Family and the Soros Family, as well as the sudden earthquake disaster, all of these made the people of the Scal Federation miserable and full of complaints.
However, even in the darkest place, there was a ray of light.
Karkhalan.
Just a few days ago, when they heard that the Soros Family had sent soldiers to encircle and suppress the mobs, almost everyone thought that the general situation was settled and that it was only a matter of time before the mobs were suppressed.
They had good reason to be sure of it.
This was very normal. No matter how useless the private soldiers of the nobles were, they were still regular soldiers.
And those mobs were just mobs. No matter how brave and fearless they had been, in front of the army of the nobles, they had no power to resist.
If it was on Earth, it would be fine. After all, there was no essential difference between the two sides.
But on the Klein Continent, mages, swordsmen, knights, and those powerful high-grade professions could easily deal with a group of mobs.
And in this world, the nobles would usually recruit some strong people as guests and bodyguards. In front of them, those mobs were simply vulnerable.
Even if the nobles did not have a single soldier, and there were hundreds of mobs, as long as there was a high-grade profession by their side, the mobs would definitely be defeated.
Because of that, after learning that the Soros family had dispatched their private army to Karkhalan, almost everyone was waiting for the inevitable ending — the nobles would triumph, the mobs would be killed, the leaders would be captured and hanged, and the corpses would be hung on the city walls. After that, the complacent nobles could once again flaunt their powerful and powerful armed forces, and warn those stubborn people to immediately give up on any ideas they should not have, and obediently serve them as slaves. That was the best choice.
Maybe they were angry, maybe they were unwilling, but for ordinary citizens, there was nothing they could do other than curse a few times in their hearts.
They could only helplessly wait until that future became a reality.
However, the greatest charm of the future was that it was unknown.
The Soros Family had been defeated.
The news spread like wildfire throughout the Scal Federation, especially in the southern region controlled by the Soros family. It caused a huge uproar.
Of course, strictly speaking, it was only the private army of a lowly descendant of the Soros Family that failed. But from the word of mouth, it gave people the impression that the entire Soros Family was defeated by a group of mobs.
But that was the truth.
This matter not only caused a stir within the Soros Family, but also within the Southern Alliance led by the Soros Family.
After all, the civil war between the North and the South was imminent, and both sides were very nervous.
The fact that such a thing had happened before the war had weakened the morale of the Southern Alliance. The Northern Alliance had become a joke in front of the Southern Alliance. Look at this bunch of boorish men who claimed to be brave, but they couldn't even defeat a bunch of rioters. How could they possibly control the future of the Scal Federation?
After the Soros Family took power, perhaps the entire Scal Federation would be filled with rioters!
If the Soros Family could bear the loss of reputation, then the political loss wasn't something they could bear. In just a few days, many families that originally remained neutral in this civil war had joined the Papood Alliance's camp. Just like what was mentioned before, the Soros Family couldn't even manage their own territory, so how could they manage a country?
If the Soros Family was a family of civil officials, then everyone could understand. But the Soros Family had relied on martial arts for generations, and they had also relied on martial arts to obtain their current status and resources.
And now, they actually failed in their area of expertise. Although it was said that one who often walked by the river would always get one's shoes wet, this failure was a little too untimely.
However, the Soros Family wasn't one to take a beating without retaliating. They quickly responded.
First, they accused the rioters of being devil worshippers or even cultists. The reason was that their soldiers were bewitched by evil on the battlefield and did something impossible.
Therefore, they had reason to believe that the rioters must have used some kind of evil magic.
Almost everyone had heard of this theory, but no one paid attention to it.
If the rioters burned, killed, and looted, then this theory was somewhat believable.
But the problem was that what they did wasn't a secret at all, and everyone was clear about it.
These rioters opened the granaries of the nobles and distributed the food to the poor who couldn't survive the winter. After receiving the food, the poor didn't die from the plague and become undead. If there were really such kind demons and monsters in this world, then they would really want to see them.
As for the so-called evil magic, it was even more laughable. The Klein Continent wasn't the Dark Church in the Middle Ages, and those ignorant people believed whatever they heard.
In a world where magic, divine arts, and alchemy were highly developed, although such things weren't elegant, they weren't completely non-existent.
In fact, many nobles liked to use potions that could make people fall into a frenzied state to add all kinds of 'fun' to themselves, and this was nothing new in the streets.
Therefore, some people even suspected that the rioters — oh, no, the 'National Freedom Army' might have found these things from the spoils of war, and then used them on the battlefield.
One had to admit that people always had a curious mentality, and this was also in line with the evil impression that the commoners had of the nobles. So it didn't take long for this rumor to spread throughout the Scal Federation, and even some foreign countries heard about it.
So much so that the most common thing the nobles said to their descendants was, "Put away your messy toys. Don't let the thugs use them as weapons. Don't make a fool of yourself!"
And more interesting things were yet to come. After that, the Soros family even found traces of Holy Knights among the rioters, which made them immediately protest to the Church of Holy Light. This immediately made the Soros family's previous words a joke. If the rioters were really cultists, how could they mix with Holy Knights?
Unless it was a fallen Paladin.
But unexpectedly, in the face of the Soros family's protest, the Church of the True Eye's reply was thought-provoking.
They claimed that the Holy Knight had been punished and was currently embarking on a journey of faith. This so-called journey of faith was a semi-punishment measure within the church.
Generally speaking, only controversial Holy Knights would be punished like this. They would be temporarily stripped of their original position, and then embark on a journey to find their faith.
When they found their faith, they could return to the church for interrogation. As long as they were confirmed to be qualified, then they could return to their original position and position. To put it bluntly, this was similar to being on leave without pay. Your relationship with the church would still be with them, but they were just letting you go out to explore the world. As long as you could find your own path, then you could come back and continue doing what you were doing.
For the Soros family, they only met with a soft rebuff. But for those who were observant, they keenly sensed a strange atmosphere from the Church of the True Eye's reply.
It should be known that the Holy Church would generally remain silent when faced with such a problem due to how sensitive the conflict between divine authority and political power was. But this time, they actually gave such a response. Although everything was in accordance with the rules, it gave off a strange attitude, as if they were saying, "We can't control her right now, so whatever she does has nothing to do with us."
This was not the Church of the Holy Light's usual style. Even if they really couldn't control it, they should emphasize that the Church of the Holy Light has always been scrupulously abiding by their duties and never overstepping the rules.
But this time, they didn't say that. Instead, they simply told the Soros family that "they can't control it."
And then, there was no then.
This meant that not only did the Church of the Holy Light not stop them, they even tacitly approved the actions of those Holy Knights.
Why was that?
Of course, considering the rumors that the Soros family had colluded with evil cultists, it wasn't hard to imagine that the Church of the Holy Light's patience with the Soros family had reached its limit. Not to mention, compared to those thugs, the Soros family's actions were more like those of evil cultists.
Although the Soros family was furious at the Church of the Holy Light's indifferent attitude, unless they really dared to wipe out the Church of the Holy Light, they could only swallow their anger.
However, what gave the Soros family a headache was not the Church of the Holy Light's fearless attitude, but the trouble in front of them.
Karkhalan's defeat seemed to have revealed the tip of the iceberg of the Soros family's decline. For a moment, many territories under the Soros family's rule encountered the same problem.
This was not surprising. After all, the Soros family had used all their power to collect resources from everywhere, causing most of the people under their rule to complain.
And Karkhalan was just the first to bear the brunt and was squeezed the most, so he was the first to explode.
However, this did not mean that the other places were peaceful and harmonious.
After Karkhalan's' National Freedom Army 'won against the Soros family's private army, their reputation instantly skyrocketed, and many people came to seek shelter with them.
Of course, other places also began to follow suit and started riots again and again. However, they were not as lucky as Oldman. Moreover, after Karkhalan's defeat, the other nobles were more vigilant, so the riots were suppressed almost as soon as they started.
But even so, the situation did not turn for the better. Now, in order to stabilize their rule, the Soros family had adopted an iron-blooded policy, and even adopted a system where if anyone was found to have participated in the riots, their entire family would be killed.
This caused the entire southern region to become more and more chaotic. The blood of the commoners flowed everywhere, and in every gathering area, there were dozens or even hundreds of corpses that had been hanged.
However, not only did this not quell the riots, it was like adding oil to the fire. The members of the defeated resistance army seemed to be attracted to Karkhalan, and in less than half a month, the 'National Freedom Army' had grown from the initial 500 people to a total of 1300 people. Just based on numbers, they were already comparable to a regular army.
And now, there was only one biggest obstacle in front of Oldman.
That was the central city of Karkhalan — Tagus.