Chapter 536: Rogue
Sylas left the Nexus with a frown on his face and a hint of darkness to his aura.
He didn't particularly have an opinion about Lauren before. He wasn't the sort of person to get angry just because someone betrayed him, because if the shoe was on the other foot, and it benefited him, he would surely do much the same thing.
During this Summoning, he had already killed many people that didn't quite deserve it, and as things progressed, and beasts began to exhibit intelligence closer and closer to that of humans and the Basilisk King, the moral quandaries that might affect others would continue to have no impact on him at all.
As such, though he had labeled Lauren as an enemy, it wasn't to the point he felt the need to hunt her down to the ends of the Earth.
But now things had changed.
She was affecting someone he cared for, and there would have to be hell to pay for that. However, he would need to find her first.
The Africor Continent had a somewhat unique system of governance compared to olden Earth, but it was more common nowadays.
Because the entirety of Earth had been split into just seven countries as opposed to the hundreds of the past, there were certain unique measures that had to be taken so that such large bodies of land could be placed beneath one umbrella.
The Africor Continent's approach was a quasi-Constitutional Monarchy where there were actually three acting Monarchs and royal families.
There was the Serano family of the north, the Kintara family of the middle plains, and the Talira family of the south.
These three families were led by Queen Amara Serano, King Roderic Kintara, and King Thorian Talira.
Should these three figures make the same decision, the country would almost certainly follow suit. Their united power could overwhelm the parliamentary system.
In the past, this power of theirs was executed rarely and was much like the England of old. Their families acted as figureheads, and though they would encroach from time to time on normal government function, they would mostly be in ceremonial roles.
After the Summoning, however, things had changed a great deal. The three royal families took the reins and stirred the country forward. But their forcefulness also caused the Africor Continent to be one of the best-positioned countries in the world currently.
While the United Coalition of Terranova was being bogged down by democracy and the logistics of coordinating the thoughts and actions of several figures in positions of power, the Africor Continent had circumvented much of that.
Still, this might have been good news for them, but it was less so for Sylas, who was now situated in the middle of King Roderic's territory.
The saving grace was that the population of all countries, regardless of governance style, was at an all-time low, leaving large swaths of land completely unmanned.
However, it still wasn't long before King Roderic's men had pinpointed the likely location of the Woodland Territory.
The location was a room surrounded by large concrete tiles, each one of which must have been at least two meters in length and width. They lined the room in a way that would make any handyman worth his salt wonder just what kind of manpower it took to do this, and also what kind of craftsmanship it took to hide the door.
There certainly had to be one. After all, in this box-shaped room, there were several figures present, all of whom were surrounding another concrete piece. This time, it was a table adorned with a three-dimensional map of the Africor Continent.
This map was quite interesting because only the central plain was detailed, while the intricacies of the craftsmanship on the north and south of it were much murkier.
King Roderic sat at the helm of the table. He was a man with fierce amber eyes, tanned skin, and a beard that looked almost like it was chiseled out of obsidian rather than grown onto his face.
He didn't wear a normal crown, but instead had a thin metallic band of bronze around his head. The rest of his style of dress was casual, just a pair of dress pants and a shirt with rolled- up sleeves.
"It should be around here. It's still a decently sized area, about a 100-kilometer radius, but we're certain that this is where the Territory has appeared."
"A tricky location to be sure," another official spoke up. "That region is rife with poisonous beasts."
"Targeting it would be tricky no matter what, but that's certainly another problematic wrinkle. It's outside of our calculations that a Warlord would appear so quickly. Several things about this Summoning aren't going as we might have thought before..."
A silence fell over the room.
King Roderic's forearms rippled with veins and muscles as he tapped his finger on his crossed arms. He seemed to be lost in thought, half listening to his officials, and half focused on something else.
He let his officials speak for a while longer before saying something himself.
"Have we heard back from Amara yet?"
"Yes, my liege. The excavation is almost complete. Within a month, there will be movement and time for us to set out."
"This timing isn't great, then," King Roderic said, as though speaking to himself.
"What should we do?"
"Sylas Grimblade..." King Roderic said slowly. "... His name has appeared many times now, but his actions are erratic. Originally, we believed him to be one of the Grimblades, but the more I learn about him, the more it seems that the Grimblades have no jurisdiction over his
actions."
"He's a rogue?"
King Roderic nodded.
The officials seemed troubled. If Sylas was really a rogue, and they re-contextualized all of his previous feats, it made him far greater of a threat.
A rogue didn't have nearly the same constraints to worry about.
"We won't interfere in this matter directly, we do not have the time. Instead, we'll use the powers that are already there. Divert some resources and give them a bit of support. They'll have a vested interest in keeping him constrained. Take advantage of that for the moment until we return."