Youth

After Shilke shouted his message from outside the city, Black Stone City's walls immediately erupted into an uproar.

"Great Zhou—the Great Zhou army!"

"What do we do? He's telling us to open the city gates and submit."

"We can't open them!"

Voices of opposition quickly rose from atop the walls.

"Once the city gates are opened and they enter the city, will we still be able to call the shots?"

As soon as those words were spoken, many people quickly echoed them.

For the people living in this world, many had spent most of their lives in the midst of war. They had truly been frightened out of their wits.

Yet amid those voices of agreement, a different opinion soon rang out.

"But what can we do if we don't open the gates? There isn't much food or supplies left in the city, and we don't even have a decent weapon among us. Are we really going to starve ourselves to death inside the city?"

The moment those words were spoken, the people who had been riled up just a moment ago, shouting that the gates absolutely could not be opened, fell silent all at once.

Ever since winter began, there had been problems with the country's food supply. Very few among them had originally been able to eat their fill, and now the situation was even worse.

If things continued like this, refusing to open the gates and starving to death inside the city would truly be only a matter of time.

They might have been uneducated, but they certainly weren't fools. Faced with something happening to them in earnest, they weren't about to deceive themselves.

Seeing everyone fall silent, that voice spoke again.

"Besides, if we don't open the gates, does that really mean they won't be able