Four Split Personalities

The next day

Game Time AM07:03

Violet Empire, Marshal Territory, Mithril City

A heavy atmosphere pervaded the air, and the occasional clanging, footsteps, and orders on the streets shrouded the entire city in a tension-filled prelude to a storm. Commoners, adventurers, and businessmen, who would normally have left for work early, were lazily staying indoors; some chose to snuggle back into their blankets for more sleep, some watched with great interest the elite warriors belonging to the various families that were rarely seen, some were pondering the profits this war could bring, while others speculated about the implications behind the current state of affairs...

But there was one thing that anyone with half a brain knew—today was the day that would decide the survival of the Marshall Family and the future of the Marshal Territory.

Inside Mithril City, and indeed anyone who had learned of this through various channels, no one believed that the Marshall Family could win. In their eyes, pitting the territory’s three main army corps against the allied forces of the Eight Great Families... cough, the Eight Great Families, was absolutely a battle without any chance of victory, so from the beginning, their concern was not a question of who would win or lose, but rather how badly the Marshall Family would ’lose’.

Would they fall from the pinnacle of power after defeat and become an insignificant noble?

Would they suffer a heavy toll after defeat, so gravely weakened that they would need several decades to recover?

Or would they be obliterated outright after defeat, causing The Nine Great Families to become the Eight Great Families?

All of these outcomes were possible, but only ’defeat’ was inevitable...

Simply because of two plain facts: in terms of strength, the elite of the Marshall Family could not gain any advantage against the main army corps of the various families; in terms of numbers, the combined forces of Barfie’s Sword Knight Order, Ice Curtain Mage Group, and Quicksilver Guards didn’t even make up half of the Lord’s Allied Forces; in terms of execution, the warriors of the Marshals were indeed tacit and obedient, but the Lord’s Allied Forces had "Violet Falcon Array"—a standard tactic practiced by the major families for years. Even in individual unit command, they wouldn’t be weaker than their opponents.

Thus, no matter from which angle one analyzed, the Marshall Family, outnumbered as they were, had no chance of victory in the battle that was imminent today. Even if by some miracle they won, the Lord’s Allied Forces had an endless supply of elite warriors to draw upon, and should the battle become a war of attrition, the former would only have their own relatively inferior autonomous armies to rely upon. It was a certain death scenario.

Today, individuals and powers that were either spectating or waiting to see how things unfolded, nearly all held this belief...

However, Cleo Illumina, who had been dispatched here from the Cloud Traveler Inn in Wayne City, did not think so. Standing on the balcony of a small building on the outskirts of West Street, his expression was very grave.

Last night, he saw some very odd scenes through Ravens No. 18 and No. 7, which had been loitering above Quicksilver City for the past few days.

Few knew that at this moment, in Quicksilver City, there wasn’t a single person who was normal and conscious.

All members of neutral powers such as the local Colored Glass Pavilion, branch of the Gold Coin Commerce Association, branch of the Adventurer’s Guild, branch of the Mercenary Guild, and branch of the Cloud Traveler Inn, had all been hypnotized by some force and fell into a deep slumber.

The culprits were the seemingly ordinary commoners!

All the commoners of Quicksilver City!

Those who ran street stalls, farmed, carried bricks, taught, sewed, or blacksmithed—these commonly seen ordinary folks appeared to awaken or rather unleashed some strength overnight. Then with great coordination, they infiltrated all major neutral territories last night and, by some strange means, silently took down everyone inside without a sound.

In several places with rich legacies or dubious reputations, such as the Mage Guild and Thief Guild, it was Barfie Marshal himself who led the incursion. To see clearly what was happening, Cleo sacrificed a raven for a forceful observation, and the last scene he witnessed was Barfie Marshal speaking rather casually to the local branch head of the Mage Guild. Immediately after, the latter cast a high-level arcane spell on himself and passed out on the spot.

Although it was just speculation, Cleo felt that including that branch head, all the neutral forces in Quicksilver City had not suffered any fatal blows, they had merely been neutralized. Nevertheless, this was still a bad sign; this insightful young man felt that if he did nothing, the war would very likely take a huge... and terrible turn.

So after a long contemplation, he took it upon himself to decide to send a raven into the position of the Lord’s Allied Forces, discreetly conveying some intelligence to them.

Cleo was very conflicted because he knew that what he was doing was a gross violation of the Inn’s rules, which is to help a person or a power by leaking intelligence resources without approval from superiors and through any methods outside of established guidelines.

It was a great taboo!

If the matter was serious, he would not only be stripped of his position but might even be hunted by headquarters!

But Cleo still went ahead...

One reason was that he thought the phenomena that occurred last night in Quicksilver City were too strange, and if left to their own devices, they could potentially lead to a disastrous outcome.

The second reason was, having made such conjectures, he did not have enough time to inform headquarters, so according to some relevant regulations, he was allowed a certain degree of autonomy (though it still did not include leaking information on his own).