The Rise of the Black Plain

While those Gill family elders were vigorously debating ways to resolve such a situation, various actions of the Silva family had been developing in the Brown Kingdom.

For the moment, this organization was still acting cautiously, trying to keep as much of its movements hidden as possible so that its enemies would not notice what was happening.

But of course, the elders of the Silva family had made decisions that could not be hidden for long. Such was the case with the actions against the Gill family.

That is, in a kingdom with 20 noble houses, only two of which could be considered high-level regional organizations. So, they influenced other noble houses. As such, low-level noble families and even those of medium-level were affected by that power through partnerships or alliances.

Due to this reality, the Silva family had some of these lesser noble families under their wing. And with such influence, that power had immediately forbidden such noble houses to associate to House Gill.

But while ostracizing Lionel's family, the elders of the late Darell's family had also ordered many investigations regarding the other noble powers of this state. They wanted to find out the possible involvement of other local organizations in such a problem.

However, after a month since the death of the last Spiritual King who had been sent to the Black Plain, such an organization had not yet discovered other allies of Dry City.

But that was to be expected. After all, apart from the Miller family, there were no relations between the Black Plain and other noble families of the Brown Kingdom.

As for that family, it was still under investigation. But since such power was as strong as the House Silva, the difficulty in finding out anything related to this family was much greater than to the other organizations.

...

Meanwhile, in the capital of the Brown Kingdom...

The City of the Setting Sun was as good as ever, with the typical sunny weather that happened most of the year in this place. At the same time, business and life in the city were working smoothly.

The regional tension had not yet affected the rhythm of the capital of this kingdom, where more than 3 million people lived their lives as if they were still in a time of peace.

People went to work, took care of their personal, love, and financial affairs, and worried about cultivation. But apart from this, there was nothing very remarkable that could make the local population be seen differently than it would have been 10, 100, 1,000 years ago.

Consequently, the economic prosperity of this place continued, and there was no shortage of resources, no off-season enlistments for new royal guards.

Furthermore, in such a scenario, the Brown family continued to develop quietly, while their 60 Spiritual Kings, except for Doran, continued to strive to reach the top.

But this was not because the royal family of this kingdom might have expansionist thoughts. No, they didn't. After all, such an organization wasn't even among the top three powers. Hence, having very ambitious ideas would be dangerous.

On the other hand, even if everyone would like to increase their influence, the leaders of the Brown family knew that all the top organizations were preparing for the uncertain future of this region!

So, they had no such ambitious plans.

They certainly wanted to be prepared to take advantage of opportunities. Still, they were not willing to take the risk of getting involved in a war with an equivalent powerful organization...

Anyway, several hundred people were coming and going from the royal palace in the middle of this city. Many were royal guards, while others were high-racked citizens or people related to the Spiritual Church.

However, now and then, crows would arrive at a part of this property, bringing information from various parts of the region.

Such things were sent by direct subordinates of this royal family, people out of the headquarters, in border posts, neighboring states, solving external problems, etc. There were also communications related to the vassals, who needed to pass on relevant information to the sovereign from time to time.

Specifically, the vassals had to pass on data regarding the taxes collected so that House Brown could get its share...

Anyway, while many birds came and went from a specific part of that palace, two middle-aged men were chatting in a big administrative office.

There were a few more people in that place, one of them being a woman who seemed to be writing down all the decisions made there. At the same time, some individuals watched as if they were waiting for their turn to speak or something else.

"Eh? Another problem related to the House Ryan and House Parkinson?" One of those men said this as he read a parchment and had a bored expression on his face.

"It can't be!"

"That again? Why every two months do we have to deal with problems from these two families?"

"Are you kidding?" The other middle-aged man asked as he waved one of his hands to receive that parchment from before.

'... Two Spiritual Kings from the Parkinson and Ryan families fought recently. The results of this injured 193 people and killed 38 citizens of Rain Village. The reason for such was a recent rivalry, related to the wife and son-in-law of the Parkinson patriarch...'

After reading that, the person who had just asked that question then tossed the parchment aside and shouted aloud. "This has to be a prank!"

"Devid Parkinson and that family of his are joking... Why all this just because his wife cheated on him? They act like they were the first in history to go through such a thing!"

"If they're not good enough to kill a young Spiritual General and a level 54 woman, then they should just move on with their lives!"

"Hahahaha, the worst part is that David was already a cuckold for centuries... Haha, only he didn't know that!" One of the people in that room said before the others there started laughing too.

"Haha... Anyway, let's leave that subject aside for now. But we'll probably make those two families pay some penalties on account of such a thing." The person who had spoken earlier said as he picked up another parchment on the table in front of him.

"Well, I hope I don't hear from those families for at least another three months or so..." The other commented with a slight smile on his face as he finally returned to his work.

But when this person least expected it, he suddenly heard the voice of the middle-aged man in front of him once again.

"The Black Plain wants its independence..."

"Uh? Are you asking me that?" The other person asked in doubt.

"No. I'm making a statement!"

"See this, the Black Plains is declaring itself independent from the Brown Kingdom and is communicating to us so that we recognize them as an independent state!" Such a person said in a surprised tone.

But although it was an unusual and generally dangerous topic for everyone, such a person was not worried. After all, it was only the Black Plain... Who would care?

"No way!"

"Why would that brat do that?" The person across the table said while feeling very confused.

"What's the matter, Nelson?" The middle-aged man who had read the parchment sent from the Black Plains asked the person in front of him in doubt.

Nelson Skinner was the ruler of the Black Plain before Minos arrived in Dry City. Anyway, at that time, he had cleaned out the government vault of that place and left that region without looking back, hoping never to return to that region...

After more than five years since his departure, he had risen a few levels, having reached level 43 and had also won a fixed position in this bureaucratic sector of the royal family.

Nelson then said vaguely. "There's no problem... It's just that... That region was in a horrible situation when I left there. So, that's why I'm surprised by such a thing."

"In fact, how should we handle it?"

The other man then began to speak. "Well, in normal situations, we should...."