Alien world

Chapter 1699, Section 332: Joining Liberty City

Not long after, Bean returned with a message: "Didn't the Skeleton King come back with you?" Annan asked him.

"Mr. Skeleton King has returned to the Land of the Dead. He told me that he will return before you set off."

Annan nodded. With the Skeleton King watching over the house, he felt much more at ease going out.

"I can't bear it!"

An angry shout suddenly rang out, and Annan and his guests looked up toward the location of the King of the North where the argument had broken out. Then, Gemar stormed off in a huff.

Faru and the others stood there stunned, but the old patriarch had Vivian push him along.

Annan walked over and asked, "What happened?"

“Gema and the old patriarch got into a fight,” Faru said.

“Does Gemar have the guts to do that?” Annan didn’t believe it.

“Originally there was none, but when the news came back that no one from the Benitez family had survived, he lost his mind.”

"How come I don't remember Gemar being such a kind and warm-hearted guy?"

Faro and the head of the Amoria family exchanged a glance: "He was recently engaged to a young lady from the Benitez family..."

No wonder Gemma was so angry... his fiancée died.

After thinking for a moment, Annan also came out.

The voices of the old patriarch and Gema came from the downstairs hall. Annan stood at the top of the stairs, not showing himself, listening quietly.

"What are you going to do!"

"Revenge, blood debt paid with blood!"

"Whom should we take revenge on?"

"Those who plotted to murder the King of the North, all you ratmen!"

"You call yourself the new king? Where is your reason? Your grandfather was killed by your enemies, are you going to seek revenge on all of humanity?!"

"I don't care, these filthy creatures like the ratmen shouldn't exist!" Gemar tried to rush out, but was stopped by the old patriarch.

"Fool! You don't even know who your enemies are, all you do is rant and rave! How could that guy Dahl have entrusted you with the position of patriarch!" the old patriarch scolded, exasperated. Then, his tone softened, "Remember, you are now the King of the North. Commoners can shout to kill all the enemies, but you can't. You can't let anger control you!"

"I can not—"

"Don't say stupid things." The old patriarch stared at Gema and said each word carefully. His unprecedentedly serious expression stunned Gema.

“The old patriarch is right. When you become the leader of a group of people, you can no longer act impulsively as before. Don’t lead those who believe in you into the abyss.”

Annan walked down the stairs and came to them as he spoke.

Gemar closed his eyes, took a few deep breaths, and when he opened them again, he stared at Annan with bloodshot eyes: "Can we talk?"

Annan nodded, and Gema turned and walked towards the corridor.

“Leave it to me,” Annan said to the old patriarch.

"You won't also want..."

The old patriarch was worried that if Annan and Gema, the two young men, were of the same mind, it would be impossible to change their minds. "Don't worry, I can tell the difference."

The old patriarch's words also reminded him that humans are not a unified whole, nor are the ratmen. Without the Great Horned Rat, the thirteen clans were severely divided, but he still had the ratman elders, the rat king, and his siblings as leverage points.

The ratman elder is a bit tricky to deal with, but it's not a problem either. He only cares about profit, so we'll use profit to bind him to the Free City's war machine. By then, it won't be able to back out.

The old maid pushed the old master back, and Annan caught up with Gema and saw Gema leaning against the windowsill at the corner.

"What do you want to talk about?"

Annan walked to the side and leaned against the windowsill like Gema, but gave up because it required standing on tiptoe.

Annan thought Gemar would then talk about his relationship with his fiancée, but he glossed over it with the sentence, "I only met her when I was very young, and I don't remember her at all," and instead talked about his father's decision before he left.

"...That's how I obtained the title of head of the family, something I couldn't have believed before."

"Didn't you go to the West Coast to compete with me for the title of heir?" Annan, who wasn't a good listener, retorted.

"Can you understand that feeling of having a goal that seems unattainable, yet your body is numbly striving towards it?"

"I can understand."

Gemar sighed, "I know it's not meant for me, but since it was the only way out you could grasp, and I was young and impetuous, I naturally wanted to seize it..."

"But after my brothers died one after another in battle, and the butler was petrified into pus by evil energy while protecting me, leaving only me, the weakest and most useless member of the younger generation of the family, and after seeing the wrinkles around my father's eyes and the white hair on his forehead, and after my father suddenly handed over the position of family head to me before we set off, I suddenly felt that this position was not so good after all."

"Disappointment or seeing what lies behind the glory?"

"They all have..."

Young people who are naive to the ways of the world see only the glory and fame of power on the surface, but after experiencing many things, they look back and see that power as nothing but bare responsibility and burden.

Why did the Diatra and Lawrence families remain in the Kingdom of Dimon, on the front lines of the fight against the forces of Chaos, instead of fleeing south to start a new life?
“I don’t want the Diatra family to become a laughing stock, I don’t want people to laugh at the King of the North as a king who couldn’t even defend his territory. The more I want these things, the further away they seem to be from me, just as far away as I was from my position as the head of the family five years ago…”

Gemar tilted his head and looked at Annan: "I can't do these things, but you can."

The former Star Moon Bay, now Freedom City... He truly has the ability to lead those who believe in him toward happiness.

Annan had no attachment to the North, but he could understand the feeling of waking up to an unattainable dream, and he understood the unspoken meaning in Gema's words—he wanted his family to follow him and accept his rule.

To be honest, in the nearly three years since Liberty City was built, many individuals have sought refuge or joined, but no faction has yet chosen to join.

The Church of Wealth is merely a franchisee, a partner. The old patriarch only wanted to follow Free City to reclaim the North, but Gemar wanted to truly become a member of Free City.

There are many benefits to agreeing to Gormar's joining. Although the King of the North was driven out of his territory by the Skaven, his foundation remains strong. This is evident from the grandeur of the kings' arrival in Free City—each party had one or two Epics, and the old patriarch even had a Legendary trump card behind him.

More importantly, it set an example for other kings in the North: House Lawrence and House Diatra joined Liberty City, what about you?

"Can you make the decision?"

“Before I left, my father gave me the title of head of the family. I thought it was to let me make decisions, but in fact it was to let me make decisions for the family.”

It was a tongue twister, but Annan understood—Gema represented the Diatra family at that moment.

Annan pondered for a moment and said, "As you have heard before, there are many requirements in Free City. Apart from that, there are no nobles. Everyone enjoys the same civil rights. After you and your family come in, I will not interfere with the internal family rules, but outside, the Free City Code cannot be violated. If the head of the family breaks the law, he will be punished the same as a commoner."

Even so, you still want to join Liberty City?

(End of this chapter)