The ten of them soon obtained the intelligence gathered by the Bamboo Hat Old Man.
At first, the Forest Kingdom had not been like this.
This illness had only gradually appeared around five hundred years ago.
Slowly, some people became able only to laugh and no longer cry.
At first, there were only a few.
But later, their numbers grew.
Still, there had always been some people who could retain normal emotions.
Just like those immune to disease.
They regarded those who could still cry as heretics, then imprisoned and executed them.
Under such circumstances, the Rebels finally emerged.
They could not endure such an inhuman world.
"Everyone has to laugh no matter what happens. Isn't that terrifying?"
"We can't even have sad thoughts anymore?"
So these people rebelled. Naturally, they failed.
They were forced to flee here and hide within the towering forest.
They also discovered the characteristics of those infected by the disease:
They lost all sense of responsibility.
It was only natural. Someone who did not understand sorrow would not particularly care about anything.
How could someone who happily scored zero be willing to suffer through solving problems?
Solving problems was exhausting.
But it was at least better than feeling sorrow. That was why people would rather solve problems and deal with life's hardships.
When people became blissfully happy one after another, happy no matter how badly they did something, then they became completely divorced from the concept of being serious.
Thus, although the Rebels were few, they could easily escape by taking advantage of the other side's lack of seriousness.
Just like when those nine people had been caught before: a few words of empty talk had been enough to make those people release them.
These Rebels had also survived until now largely because those people