Chapter 372 The Disaster That Was Wrought In Sloria [Part 3]
Northern was not sure what else they were doing. But they were not here at all, they were not laying hidden somewhere.
The only person that was here was Raven.
Which meant she had stubbornly insisted that they do not follow her even though she was walking straight into the enemy's camp.
Northern could easily picture that about her.
She probably had resolved herself to die if the need be. Of course, the Raven he knew was equally resolved not to die in a place like this.
'I wonder what it is exactly that drives her…'
How she is able to keep a different view from everybody and work towards the good of everyone, even though it was clearly careless and full of flaws, amazed him.
And at the same time only made his hatred for her grow even more.
'She does not know when to just stop.'
She had probably come here to recruit.
By now, it was clear that Raven's plan was to fight all four cardinal rifts.
If she'd be doing that she'd need allies, strong ones. While the drifters in Lotheliwan were strong, they were watered down compared to what Sloria stronghold had to offer.
Which was why she probably came here to meet Afkon, despite the animosity between both of them.
They must have made a bet.
And Raven must have something that she knows Afkon would never see coming.
And Northern felt he had an idea of what it was.
Just as Northern thought about it, the young dark-haired lady summoned something into her hands.
Northern sighed immediately.
"Of course…"
She raised up her hand, clasped within her grip was a small bottle, like a potion bottle but with a black body and golden engravings.
'That is the teardrop? Quite uncomely for a flood.'
Raven spoke, raising her voice higher.
"This is the answer that you all have probably been looking for. A sure way to get in and out of Luinngard."
At this point, mutters began to rise, up until now, it had been decorum, like a graveyard.
No one as much made the sound of a sigh while she was talking.
Except now.
Which meant, her tactics were beginning to work and Northern was not the only one noticing it.
The brown-haired man—Afkon, standing beside her wore a small frown on his face immediately.
"Listen to me carefully as I tell you what Afkon would never say."
She turned her gaze to him.
"And don't you dare try to stop me from saying this. They trust in your leadership don't they? You respect them don't you? Isn't that why you have given me a fair chance of speech? Because you are sure that your people have unwavering trust in your leadership. Right?"
Then she turned to the crowd,
"Whereas you have been deceiving them, lying to them, killing them, using them. You knew about the existence of the teardrop, didn't you?"
Immediately she mentioned it, some certain people began to mutter amongst themselves.
Finally, one of their voices went up.
"Don't give us that bullshit. The teardrop is a fabled item that the king of Lotheliwan and Sloria thought existed. They died trying to find it."
Raven smiled at the buzz cut boy that spoke and nodded her head.
"Indeed fella, you are right. They died trying to find it. And left a journal, each to their kingdom, all clues were there, and no doubt the kings too must have thought that the surefire way to get out of this Desolation was to go through Luinngard. But Luinngard would never open its door to anyone.
"Now, let me not even start talking about the underlying reasons that you people fail to think about as to why they keep their gates locked and turn a blind eye to the disaster going on in this place.
"Which Afkon knows about and refuses to tell any of you!!!"
Northern folded his arms and continued to observe from behind.
More of his attention was on Afkon, the young man was beginning to get uncomfortable.
But Raven had given him a crude hanger, if he tried to do anything right now, he would be turning the people against himself.
But Northern also didn't think he was the type to reason that far with common sense in this situation.
He was probably waiting to see if Raven's explanation was the truth.
He would probably go for her neck the moment he hears a bit of truth from her mouth.
Although Northern had come here to burn the place to the ground. He didn't mind hearing a thing or two from Raven's mouth.
Since she wouldn't usually just say it.
She took a deep breath and looked around confidently as she continued.
"It doesn't matter if you refuse to believe me but this is it. This is the item that the past Kings found out about. The force of flooding from this item is enough to break the mighty walls of Luinngard. Destroy their city and is the perfect cover to steal as many ships as we need to."
Afkon's posture seemed to straighten up slightly as she spoke. It was a slight change only someone like Northern whose focus was more on Afkon than anyone would notice.
His expression from before slowly faded.
'Raven is wrong?'
He frowned slightly.
Perhaps there was something Raven was not considering that he knew about.
Which meant…
'This guy actually does know about it all…'
Afkon by his posture and gesture definitely knew more than anyone about this Desolation and whatever role Luinngard was playing in it.
And he was refusing to let up that information.
'I wish she'd just talk about the underlying reasons she had spoken about earlier.'
Because he had been specifically confused and consistently questioned, why the hell Luinngard would not open their gate to help the people in need.
For over twenty years!
That was pure wickedness, there had to be a reason behind it.
And Northern dully suspected that one way or the other, that reason would link back to Rughsbourgh.
He didn't know how, but that suspicion just hung heavy on his mind.
Sometimes, he often even thought, maybe all this Desolation, everything happening to them right now was man implemented… enforced.
It couldn't be right?
They wouldn't be so crazy that they would jeopardize two countries, civilizations?
Right?
Northern honestly wanted to believe that they wouldn't be.
Because for what purpose would it serve?