章 81: Chapter 81
Tension began to spread throughout Nohas, as two Ten Stars divisions were about to break out in open conflict: Middle Kingdom and the Grand Duelists.
Awakeners everywhere were forced to walk on eggshells around members of those divisions: and if war breaks out, every ally of those divisions will be forced to join.
Thus, the likelihood that it would escalate into a war sweeping the entirety of Nohas was high.
That is also why everyone is treading carefully, and keeping their voices low.
Right then, the Middle Kingdom began their move.
"We march to Carter."
Ten generals in the division in charge of a unit of the army, and three of these units were called to march onto Carter.
With these generals given three hundred soldiers each for this march, nine hundred soldiers in total were called.
Each of these units had a wide variety of awakener: monks, punks, men in suits, scholars, and all of them marched at the same pace, despite their contrasting outfits.
And as they made the move from Minea to Nohas, news quickly spread, and awakeners everywhere began to watch the movements take place.
"Are they really going to march on Carter?" the spectators brought together by the spectacle of the soldiers marching asked.
"Yes, they will all march to Carter, just like this," other spectators answered.
Crowds gathered on the route the Middle Kingdom battalion took, all filled with speculation and curiosity as to how the Grand Duelists would react to this gesture.
"What if they react with hostility?"
"Fair point… more importantly, what if the Grand Duelists respond in kind?"
"I don't know, but when you consider the personality of Master Li, I don't think the Grand Duelists will react in a way that the Middle Kingdom would like."
"Probably."
"Still, though, are they seriously going to march from here to there, all the way, like this?"
The awakener asked that question, because after all, the distance from Minea to Carter is significant: around three thousand miles, more or less.
"It's a gesture of protest," an awakener explained. "They're giving the Grand Duelists time to think about what they did, or if they didn't do it, find a way to figure out who attacked Minea, and why."
This was a deliberate gesture made by the Middle Kingdom to gain attention, and to force the Grand Duelists into doing something about this attack on Minea, whether they were truly involved or not.
"So, if the Grand Duelists don't play ball with the Middle Kingdom, we'll see conflict?"
Despite the implications, the spectators looked more excited than the marching soldiers, a spectacle they hadn't seen in quite a while.
And in the middle of the road, the unit leaders of the Middle Kingdom continually getting their awakeners into a marching cadence to keep them from being distracted by the crowd and to keep in line.
"I don't know, but I've been told!"
"Our division is made of gold!"
***
News of the march quickly spread to their destination as well.
And all Master Li could respond to it was a quirked eyebrow.
"Really, now?" he asked, smiling in the way a doting grandfather would. "I knew they'd pull off a stunt like this. Marching from Minea to Carter? They'll take a week or so to get here, and that's with using footwork skills. They choose to march and make a display of themselves, all for a dog and pony show."
"It's kind of expected of them, they think grand gestures like this add to the presence of their division… what should we do?"
The old master of the Grand Duelists rubbed his chin as he started to think of a way to maneuver around this situation that would result in the Grand Duelists avoiding a hit to their reputation.
He was roughly half a minute into his thoughts when a knock came on his door.
"Who is it?"
"We have important news," an urgent voice said.
"Come in, then," Master Li replied, and as the door opened, a member of GD Security walked in.
"What important news could this be?" Klay asked his subordinate calmly.
"The awakeners who invaded the Middle Kingdom finally confessed," the awakener said.
"Tell us more," Li said, and his look had changed from a doting grandfather to the leader of the Grand Duelists.
***
The Middle Kingdom were sticklers for tradition from their homeland, and went strictly by the book on how they treated the ten captured awakeners: holding them separately and using the fabled "Manual of Accusation" in order for them to get the information they needed.
The captured awakeners were able to hold out for a whole week, until one of them, groggy and insensate from the poison given him, and promised a quick death, finally broke down.
"We… we are from Agni," the man gasped out, before the torturer turned down the device.
Still, though, a new name has emerged in this affair: the division named Agni.
"Agni?" the torturer asked dumbfounded, after the barrel finally stopped shaking. "How ridiculous."
According to the latest reports, Agni is one of those divisions that are in the middle tier of power: below the Ten Stars, and not aspiring to become a part of the Ten Stars.
True, they have been building power, but they would be no match for the Middle Kingdom.
And they attacked Minea, in the middle of the night, while wearing symbols of the Grand Duelists?
It was like a puzzle with many missing pieces; difficult to comprehend.
"One of our higher-ups had a personal grudge against the Middle Kingdom, I don't know much about the details," the awakener coughed out.
'Personal grudges? What would that be?'
Incidents like this happen constantly in Nohas, what with the sheer size of the Middle Kingdom division.
The number of awakeners they have meant that tracking them was difficult.
That was why the torturer thought that it wasn't uncommon for Agni to have a grudge against the Middle Kingdom.
"What were those symbols for?"
"False flag," the man continued. "We were trying to make you think that the Grand Duelists were the ones behind the attack…"
'Plausible story, but I'm not buying it yet,' the torturer thought, bidding his subordinates to keep an eye on his man as he made his way out of the torture chamber and towards where his superiors were waiting for an account of the man's confession.
He got the confession, now all he has to do is pass it to the proper authorities, report every word reliably, and await their decision.
Two days later, further developments appeared: two more men confessed to be from Agni.
The confessions of three of these awakeners lined up nearly perfectly, changing the situation.
The Middle Kingdom was now faced with a different set of problems, so as they continued their council on what to do about this confession, the march to Carter was now the next thing they needed to deal with.
"Three out of three awakeners confessed to being from Agni. Should we believe them?"
"Their words match well enough – unless they coordinated their stories from the beginning, it must be true."
"According to our Manual of Accusation, the longer the interrogation, the higher the possibility that the answers obtained at the very end are true."
"We should display these awakeners in public and dare Agni to make a statement."
The confession that came after the discovery of the Grand Duelists' symbol threw further complications into this incident.
"What should we tell our unit heading to the Grand Duelists? Withdraw?"
They had already made sufficient progress towards Carter, and their march has gained quite a bit of attention, which would make it difficult for them to send an order to return.
"With the eyes of everyone in Nohas on us, we simply cannot stop the march and return – it would be a huge loss of reputation if we did."
The Middle Kingdom council continued, as more of the awakeners confessed their affiliation with Agni, and then something surprising happened.
Agni pre-empted the Middle Kingdom's reveal of their awakeners, and publicly admitted their involvement with the invasion.
Nohas was thrown into turmoil with this announcement.
***
Agni's announcement spread across Nohas like wildfire.
It also happened to make the Middle Kingdom's march to Carter a completely foolish gesture.
And such announcement made Middle Kingdom, who was heading for The Grand Duelists, look foolish.
"If Agni didn't make that announcement, who knew what would happen if the Middle Kingdom made it to Carter?"
"Exactly. Nine hundred men made to march three thousand miles, all for nothing, thanks to Agni's actions."
The Middle Kingdom was caught on the back foot trying to do damage control, and the result was that the awakeners of Nohas found the Middle Kingdom's actions to be laughable, because their march to Carter was premature.
They hadn't even finished their interrogation of the invading awakeners yet, and when it came, they were already more than halfway through their march to Carter.
Despite the Middle Kingdom division making Agni look puny power-wise, the awakeners of Agni were able to score an amazing fait accompli by attacking the Middle Kingdom and own it.
The attempt failed, the awakeners were caught and tortured, but the damage had been done.
"The Middle Kingdom must be looking quite silly right now."
"I'm sure so. The march has already made it past the halfway point."
"What a joke."
The Middle Kingdom was quickly made into the butt of jokes by awakeners across Nohas.
"What's Agni thinking, though? They want to launch a full-scale war against Middle Kingdom or what?"
They also worried about Agni, as if war broke out, they would be snuffed out, thanks to the imbalance in power.
"I know, right?"
"Why on earth did Agni attack the Middle Kingdom?"
"They said that Middle Kingdom killed Agni's awakener and pretended it was an accident."
"You mean it was revenge?"
"Still, they should've put up with it. It's Middle Kingdom – they are one of the stronger divisions among the Ten Stars. What can Agni do?"
The moment of amusement was quickly followed up by concern, as any conflict would probably cost a lot of awakener lives.
"Well, Agni isn't as weak as we think."
"What do you mean?"
"Agni has some allies on its side: Gabriel and Westwood have announced that they will help Agni, should war break out."
Several small and medium-sized divisions pledged their support for Agni.
"Really? Are they thinking of waging an all-out war on the Middle Kingdom?"
Awakeners were unsure whether this coalition of small and medium divisions would be able to take down the Middle Kingdom.
Most think that the Middle Kingdom still had the upper hand, simply due to raw strength of numbers.
Nevertheless, other divisions cheered because a variable appeared in what would undoubtedly be an upcoming war between the Middle Kingdom and Agni, something that would keep the conflict from being woefully one-sided.
However, even the most astute awakener observing the goings-on were overlooking one crucial fact.
***
"Agni…"
"Yes, they themselves announced that they were responsible for the attack on the Middle Kingdom."
"Are they seriously going to war with the Middle Kingdom?"
"They don't have any intention to avoid war or negotiate… several other small and medium-sized divisions have pledged to assist Agni."
"These things…" Li sighed. "Why can't they see that something is wrong here in Nohas?"
The advent of Agni didn't just provoke the Middle Kingdom -- they should have just let sleeping dogs lie.
"What are you planning to do?"
"What do you mean? Of course, I'm going to make plans to kick their ass. How dare they use our division's name in such a foolish venture?" Li asked angrily.
"LJ is out of the office, so if we leave the matter to Connor, our manpower will be stretched pretty thin for some time," Klay noted, knowing that their division couldn't just make any hasty move.
LJ had been away from Carter for some time, and recently contacted the Grand Duelists about some new clues they picked up on the murderers of their raiding team.
"That's it," Li declared.
"Excuse me?"
"I'll go myself. I'm going to show them what happens when you mess around with the Grand Duelists," the old man said, passion burning in his eyes.
***
Finding a particular awakener in Nohas is difficult, what with the return to medieval technology and all.
There was magic, but magic in this world was rarely used to find people or places… so what would you do if you needed to find someone in Nohas quickly?
"If we can't come to him, why not make him come to us?" Jake asked, already thinking of a way to broadcast their presence to Song.
"What are you going to do? Broadcast it on the Internet or something? Or did you buy some new odd items?" Liam asked, giving Jake a curious look.
"Oh, I wish I had something like that."
"What is it, if it isn't an item?"
"Don't you think we'll find where he is if we run around making all sorts of noise?"
"What?" Liam asked, doing a double-take at the foolishness of Jake's plan.
"Just trust me for once," Jake answered confidently.
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure," Jake said as he took the bike out of his inventory. "Jump on, I'll be doing a few circuits around the castle ruins."
'What the hell is he trying to do?' Liam thought, unable to stop himself from worrying as soon as he jumped onto the back seat. 'I don't know what's going to happen with this crazy bastard.'
"Oh, and hold this in your arms," Jake said, placing a box for Liam to hold.
"What is it?"
"Portable PA amplifier," Jake replied as he gunned the Velocity Roadster's engine.
"What the hell are you doing?" Liam asked as the motorcycle went in motion, starting a large circle around what used to be Evergreen Castle.
"Song, where are you?" Jake cried out, the microphone and amplifier causing his voice to reverberate throughout the entire valley.
He would have heard Liam call him all sorts of unsavory words, but the sounds of the engine amplifier were too loud for him to hear that.
***
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