Chapter 135: Conspiracy.
"What? You are saying you don't know where lord Punk is?"
Inside a white tent, Lo Lan and Bilan were staring at each other, one with wide eyes and one with narrow eyes. Bilan wondered why this girl who introduced herself as Punk's associate was so disrespectful, and Lo Lan was simply stunned after hearing Bilan's answer.
"You don't know where Punk is... Where lord Punk is......"
Now Lo Lan's mind was blank. Without Punk's help, she couldn't think of a way to deal with the impending crisis.
"Um, what is going on? Why are you so anxious to find Lord Punk?"
Seeing that the atmosphere was becoming a little weird, Dickie hurriedly came forward to ease the situation. But the rigid atmosphere didn't relax at all. Lo Lan still sat there blankly without saying a word, which caused the awkwardness of the situation to become more prominent.
In the end, the old butler's voice broke the silence:
"*Sigh* Things are like this..."
It turns out that in the last two days, there had been many rumors in the refugee camp. For example, the nobles have private reserves of food, but they would rather let it rot than distribute it to the starving refugees because they want to squeeze out everything from the refugees and even wanted to force the refugees to sell their children and women. But now that the situation became a lot worse, the noble wish to drive away all the refugees.
After these rumors, in order to save the refugees, several "brave and righteous" people had shown willingness to stand and protest on behalf of everyone and ask the noble for food, and only then would they agree to leave.
This argument seemed reasonable to the refugees, who were now in a period of confusion and despair, and was also influenced by the flying rumors.
In their mind:
"Why not just try? Then, even if they were driven away by the nobles, at least they would have some grain to feed their families."
Like this, with the promise of free food, more than 20,000 refugees in this entire refugee camp were moved.
But unlike the refugees who had infinite optimism, Lo Lan, as a member of the noble class, knew the true inside stories.
It was unknown who proposed the protest, but it had the tacit approval and even support of all nobles. To the nobles, the group of refugees had now lost their value, but they could not just let them die in front of the city gate. After all, that would create more problems, like the good churches, than it would solve. As now they were also at the critical point of attacking Ti Xiaer church, the nobles headed by minister Hutt unanimously decided to drive away these refugees.
But under the present circumstances, when the surrounding lords would also not accept any refugees, driving the unorganized and desperate refugees out was just like sending them to certain death. And neither the church nor the righteous professionals would let this happen. Therefore, the nobles urgently needed a way to sever the relationship between the refugees and Dolez city. Once that happened, the nobles of Dolez city do not need to care or help the refugees anymore.
And now, the new development in the refugee camp created a perfect opportunity for the nobles. Now they can just say:
"What? The refugees are protesting? They wouldn't leave until we gave them food? *Sigh* We lost. Let's just give them the food."
Like this, the nobles could easily handle the ignorant refugees by giving them the stored food that was about to go bad anyway.
The desperate refugees, receiving some food, would begin to think that they could leave the territory of Dolez City and start a new life in other territories, but finally, when they would find out that other territories also refused to accept any refugees, these poor people would have no food to come back.
And even if they managed to come back somehow, the noble could then just throw them out forcefully.
As for a reason?
Trying to stage a rebellion against the nobles would be a good reason.
"We were so good. We persuaded them with great compassion. We gave them food and let them go despite their rebellion. Ah, I myself was moved by my kindness. But they still dared to come back."
After knowing the truth, Lo Lan, who had a strong sense of justice, was determined to find Punk in order to rescue the refugees while disregarding the old butler's various warnings.
In her words:
"That's 20,000 lives. How can I watch them be played to death by the cruel nobles?"
So young Lo Lan set off indignantly, but unfortunately, she couldn't find Punk at all, and she was also faintly aware that even if she found him, there might be just more disappointment because Punk's answer most likely would be: "The life and death of the refugees? What that has to do anything with me?"
So currently, Lo Lan was a little desperate, and involuntarily a terrible suffocating feeling had begun to fill her mind. Especially after knowing that tomorrow morning, when Mira rose, the protest would begin, and regardless of whether it was the nobles or the refugees, she couldn't do a single thing to stop either of their actions.
This was the general situation of Dolez City, and a little noble like Lo Lan, without any solid foundation in Dolez, couldn't stop it.
As the night descended, a tranquil atmosphere, like the calm before the storm, enveloped the entire refugee camp, and only the sound of crackling wood from the bonfire and a faint voice from a nearby tent discussing tomorrow's protest could be heard.
In a relatively big tent, Bilan looked at the teary-eyed Lo Lan, who was shivering like an abandoned little kitten, and a feeling of sympathy overflowed in her heart, and she gently comforted:
"You have done your best. You shouldn't blame yourself; after all, we can't save everyone."
"No, we can't give up."
Just when Lo Lan held back her tears and decided to nod in agreement, Dickie stood up and said loudly with a flushed face:
"If we can't save everyone, then we must save one person. And if even that we can't do, then at least we have to try our best. We simply can't give up before even trying to the very end. Only then can we bring justice to these people and also to ourselves."
At this time, both Bilan and Lo Lan were staring at Dickie's determined face. Although they know that his silly declaration was pure naivety, but whether it was Bilan or Lo Lan, being kind people as they were, both were persuaded by Dickie's determination.
In a dark basement, a group of people in grey-red robes were standing motionlessly, and they were all staring at a mysterious person standing in the middle. Everyone in this whole group, including the mystery man in the middle, had a polished spider badge pinned to their robes.
These people wearing long robes looked exactly like a typical group of movie villains. In fact, what they were doing was indeed in line with such a scene and identity setting.
"My lord, everything is ready."
The people surrounding the man in the middle began to report their work one by one.
Until all the mysterious people had expressed that a certain plan was ready, the big mysterious person in the middle said in a tone that was full of excitement and madness:
"Great, fantastic, we can finally serve our Goddess. Our Goddess, the only true Goddess, is about to destroy the three blasphemers, then Dolazi City is also destined to be ruled by the Goddess.
Now, it's time for us to pave the way for the advent of our Goddess. Even if we have to sacrifice ourselves, we must let the heretics in Dolez be judged, hahaha."
The mysterious leader got more and more excited as he spoke and finally raised his hands and laughed.
"For the only true goddess Ti Xiaer."
With their leader's declaration, the mysterious people around also started to pray feverishly.
Thus and so, a bloody storm was slowly brewing.