Work Prophet

The previous Family Head of the Marier family, Judith, died in battle in the Dragon Ridge Mountain Range, and his eldest son, Hernan, was unexpectedly poisoned at Ireya's birthday banquet by the Blood Moon Association. Ultimately, the position of Family Head fell upon Judith's youngest son, Pearls.

Compared to his arrogantly proud older brother, Pearls was undoubtedly much more humble. He was very good at listening to the advice of his advisors and vassals, but this also made Pearls somewhat indecisive.

Under normal circumstances, this would not have been a big issue, since, although Judith had died, he had left behind quite a legacy, including a substantial amount of gold lions, as well as cunning strategists and brave and skilled vassals.

With their help, Pearls took over Lake City without much difficulty.

However, shortly after he became the Family Head, the western territory fell into turmoil. In such times, one wrong step could lead to irreversible disaster, and Pearls's old problem of indecisiveness reemerged.

Hesitant between the Wing Tribe and the Resistance Army, on one hand, he felt that simply surrendering was somewhat disgraceful, maintaining correspondence with Ireya, but on the other hand, he believed that hoping for a "Divine Punishment" on Saturday to defeat the Wing Tribe was not realistic.

Seeing that Solomon and his army had already begun their assault on the western territory, Pearls still had not made a decision, causing many of his subordinates to become nearly frantic.

Fortunately, the tragedy at Songshi Castle finally snapped Pearls back to reality. He managed to open the city gates before Solomon and his army arrived, and even painfully offered up all of the family's savings.

Pearls even had his family's silver dinner plates packed up, resulting in not being able to find utensils to serve dinner that night.

His humble stance saved the lives of tens of thousands in the Marier family and the city, but Pearls did not know if it was because he surrendered too late. Solomon, although he accepted the wealth offered to him, did not summon him.

In fact, the army only stayed in Lake City for half a day before continuing to march on.

Pearls couldn't help feeling uneasy and began to worry again, fearing that Solomon would come after him to settle scores after the war in the western territories ended.

He had a sleepless night and felt groggy all the next day. He planned to go to bed early that evening, but shortly after he had barely gone to bed, Pearls was startled awake by noises outside the window.

The new City Lord of Lake City opened his eyes to see a member of the Wing Tribe standing in front of his bed.

The man, speaking in broken Universal Language from the Continent, ordered him to immediately evacuate the castle and evict everyone inside, including himself.

Before Pearls could respond, the man had already spread his wings and flown out the window.

Afterward, he visited dozens of Nobles, demanding that they also clear out their mansions.

He then returned to the castle, by which time Pearls had already gotten everyone awake and ordered them to start packing, creating chaos inside the castle.

Pearls originally planned to temporarily reside in a manor outside the city, but then the member of the Wing Tribe ordered him to lock the city gates and forbid anyone from entering or leaving.

He also demanded that all the residents go back to their homes, lock their doors and windows, and not look outside.

This last demand was somewhat baffling, but Pearls immediately sent people to carry it out.

Having no choice, since the Marier family had pledged allegiance to Solomon, Lake City was no longer under their control – Pearls couldn't even complain about being evicted from their own castle in the middle of the night.

Soon, not a soul could be seen on the streets of the city, and even the drunks were dragged by patrolling guards into the garrison's dungeons for temporary confinement.

The nighttime Lake City was as silent as a tomb.

Marier found several inns to temporarily accommodate his clan members and the servants from the castle.

But no sooner had he entered the inn than several groups of the Wing Tribe arrived; they circled above the town specifically searching for anyone who had not yet returned home.

Once discovered, they were executed on the spot without explanation.

Besides, those places that had not followed the order to close their doors and windows also welcomed their visit, and everyone inside was killed.

Nevertheless, some people dared to peek outside through the cracks of their doors and windows.

He saw thousands of shadows flying towards Lake City from the western sky, but they were no longer poised as before; their formations were scattered, as if something was chasing them.

Some of the shadows even suddenly plummeted from midair, like kites with broken strings.

Many of those who remained were also struggling to fly, as they were carrying people on their backs, those among them who had lost their ability to fly.

The witness dared not watch any longer, pulled back his head, and started to pray to Pisya incessantly.

...

Until the morning of the next day, the gates of Lake City remained firmly closed, and still not a single figure was seen on the streets.

The commandeered mansion of the Noble was already filled with members of the Wing Tribe; beds had long run out, and many had to lie on straw.

At this moment, they were extremely weak, some coughing, some vomiting, others convulsing, their necks twisted into grotesque positions.

The physical pain was secondary, for they were elite warriors from various tribes, unafraid even in the face of death.

The real terror stemmed from the unknown.

This strange illness had appeared about seven days earlier.

Initially, not many people paid attention to it.

Until it began to spread among the troops; some symptoms were severe on some people, lighter on others, but that didn't mean those with lighter symptoms could start feeling relieved.

The first to die was a Centurion, who hadn't felt any discomfort before he died, yet suddenly died in his tent.

In the next two days, more than a dozen others died, most of them officers.

As more people in the army contracted the illness, Solomon began to take it seriously, and after examining the patients, he found many displaying symptoms similar to those shown by Lannita, who had been returned by the Double Rest Sect not long before.

This made Solomon's heart sink as he recalled the absurd warning brought by the young Sabbath named Redio not long ago.

And he was not the only one who thought of that warning, as more and more people contracted the illness, the Wing Tribe began to fear that Saturday was indeed unleashing Divine Punishment upon them.

Solomon dealt with a few "rumormongers" to quell the matter somewhat, but as the death toll rose, the widespread spread of rumors was almost inevitable.

Solomon also noticed that aside from them, the Wing Tribe, whether Dwarfs, Half-Beasts, or humans, even those who had come with them from Lion Heart Castle, no one suffered from this terrible illness like they did.

Thus, the two terrifying words resurfaced in Solomon's mind—curse.

Could all this really be the so-called Divine Punishment?!

This was Saturday punishing the invaders of this Continent.