Elden: Ring of Calamity

Chapter 413 Turmoil
At the turn of the 49th and 50th years of the Golden Calendar, the capital city of Rodel, which had finally been stable for a few days after the news of the victory in the Northern Expedition, began to become turbulent again.

Although a series of open information channels such as town hall announcements and newspapers remain calm, more and more disturbing rumors have spread in gray areas such as taverns, casinos, brothels and mercenary unions.

The fire plague recurred in a folk alley in the lower city, and no one of the more than 20 households in the alley was spared; drug contamination was found in the sewers of several medical clinics on Storm Street, and even zombies caused by drug and magic experiments were witnessed in the surrounding areas; the ancient dragon knights were unable to rob the women and killed people in the street; the situation near Gale City, the border between the two southeastern territories, was tense, and the ancient dragon dynasty's northern Gaelid garrison seemed to be heading south to Nimgfu; His Royal Highness Lucia Sanx and the giant king Calerius hit it off and prepared to join forces to break through the Roghal defense line and invade Rodel
No matter how outrageous most of the news sounded, in this city of eight million people, which was already in a state of panic, as long as one or two of the news were indeed "witnessed" by people, this series of news would sow the seeds of doubt in the hearts of the people of Rodel.

What if it's true?

"Someone is targeting you behind the scenes—" In a secret reception room deep inside the Ancient Dragon Temple, Lakkad took off his hood and said concisely, "Based on the efficiency of the Temple Intelligence Department earlier, you should have already interrogated the mastermind behind the scenes, or at least caught the person who spread the rumors. Why haven't you responded yet?"

"Because most of the relevant personnel have already evacuated." Furshanks replied.

"As Your Highness has seen, the priests and knights in this temple are basically the last of our dynasty's personnel left in Rodel. Most of the people active in the shops, factories, and clinics on Storm Street are disguised as temple knights. Under such circumstances, we are no longer able to maintain surveillance over the entire city."

Lacard was stunned. "Even the intelligence personnel have all withdrawn? Are you planning to completely withdraw from the Asian Forum?"

Fulsanx nodded slightly and said, "This is the general trend. After His Highness Lucia established his rule over Gaylide, the long-term conflict between us and the Golden Tree has become irreconcilable. The Battle of the North only accelerated this process. We speculate that Radagang will not wait for the complete victory of the Northern Expedition and will attack the Ancient Dragon Temple before His Highness returns. The evacuation of non-combatants in advance is also for safety reasons."

"This..." Lacard stood up and paced around the room a bit helplessly. "According to Lucia's instructions before she left, all matters concerning Rodel are indeed in the hands of you, Priest Fur. I will only cooperate with you to the best of my ability. But by doing this, the evacuees are safe, but you are covering your own eyes and ears, and putting those who are left behind in the most dangerous situation."

"I also have some people in Rodel, but after all, we have only been planning for a short time. We cannot compare with the intelligence network that your temple has been running for more than ten years, let alone the secret envoys and the people of Radagon. At this sensitive moment, if something goes wrong, it may be too late for me to pass on the news to you."

Fulsanx heard the sincere concern in Lakkad's words, and smiled friendly, saying, "Thank you for your concern, Your Highness. I still remember that when I first met Your Highness more than two years ago, Your Highness was still full of the arrogance of a royal child, but now he has become a pillar of the world who truly dominates the fate of countless people."

Listening to the comments of Folshanks in an elder's tone, Lakkad curled his lips and showed no temper.

To put it in a positive way, Lucia was his brother-in-law, and they were equals, and the two ancient dragon priests could barely be considered his subordinates. But from a more realistic perspective - Folshanks was 607 years old, which was almost as long as the founding of Kalia. When his mother and Knight Mugram visited Sky City, they were two little kids, so it was okay for them to regard themselves as elders.

At this moment, Fulshanks changed the subject, revealing a long-hidden edge in his words, "But Your Highness may have forgotten my past self. Fourteen years ago, I also fought with Prince Godwin blessed by the golden tree here. Although I didn't win, I didn't lose either."

Having said that, there is no need to say more.

Lacard realized that the ancient dragons' expectations of the situation had far exceeded his own judgment.

All he could do was to try his best to collect clues about Radagan's actions. From a rational point of view, if direct conflict could be avoided, it would be the best outcome for all three parties. Unfortunately, not everyone thought so.

In early January, while Lacard was trying to track down the source of the rumors, a major riot broke out in the capital without warning.

The trigger was an attack on a market by a person who had recently recovered from epilepsy and had been treated in the Ancient Dragon Temple. Hundreds of streams of epilepsy gushed out from his festering pupils, killing and injuring a large number of innocent people.

Although the epileptic patient burned himself to death within a few minutes, this vicious incident obviously could not be dealt with so hastily. The City Hall continued to investigate and soon discovered that the patient was a member of the Ahara caravan that had not yet left the royal capital.

According to the interim investigation report released by the City Hall, the last registered treatment for this person occurred eight weeks ago, but in the following eight weeks, he was spotted more than once near Storm Street.

After arranging the testimonies of several witnesses, it can be concluded that he was wrapped in a large number of bandages when he appeared around Storm Street in the past month, and he was suspected to have large-scale skin ulcers after a relapse of epilepsy. Combined with the smell of medicine emanating from his body, it can be basically confirmed that he has recently received multiple treatments in the clinic under the Ancient Dragon Temple.

Several members of the Ahara caravan appeared with him near Storm Street, but as of the time of this incident, no trace of those Ahara people had been found.

In response to this, the Ancient Dragon Temple announced that Storm Street and all of the temple's medical facilities in Rodel had been completely closed six weeks ago. There was no possibility of privately treating epileptic patients, and the news of the recurrence of the plague was not shared with the city hall.

The alliance of thirteen tribal leaders from the Ahara caravan claimed that seven members of the caravan had disappeared two months ago. The caravan reported the case to the city hall immediately, but the city hall refused on the grounds that it did not accept cases involving foreigners. The person who died in the recent case was one of the missing persons.

Amidst the mixed messages from various sources, and with the foreshadowing of a series of earlier rumors, the people of Rodel began to raise increasing doubts about the Ancient Dragon Temple and the Ahara Caravan, and more and more voices from the public called on Rodel City Hall to launch a comprehensive investigation into the two parties.

But unsurprisingly, both the Ancient Dragon Temple and the Ahara Caravan rejected this groundless questioning. The former simply turned away the city hall investigators, while the latter was particularly angry, demanding that the city hall immediately approve their application for departure that they had submitted just after the plague ended. Several caravan leaders also denounced the Rodel people's rude behavior during trade on various occasions, and threatened to completely suspend trade attempts with the Golden Dynasty after returning home.

As a result, the people of Rodel became unprecedentedly angry.

The six epileptic patients scattered around, who might have seizures at any time, were like six gunpowder barrels with a lit fuse, but no one knew how long the fuse was. The entire capital was always shrouded in a cloud of terror.

What if epilepsy gets out of control and breaks out to the level of a plague again, easily taking the lives of hundreds of thousands of people once again? Who can bear it?
The Ancient Dragon Temple and the Ahara Caravan are most likely the initiators of this series of disasters. Not only did they refuse to be investigated, they also displayed such an arrogant and disrespectful attitude. How could the pure, noble, and self-proclaimed masters of the world accept this?

(End of this chapter)