Ancient Civilization's Law is Broken, Knights of Lost Mind

The chaotic scene gradually began to restore order.

The original servants in the castle had all fled, but now they were being called back one by one to work, clean up bodies, repair walls, and so on.

The panicked residents kept their doors shut all night, ignoring the sounds of fighting outside, burying their heads in the ground like ostriches.

But in reality, if the Children of the Forest had truly wanted to slaughter them, their houses, mostly made of wood, would have offered no resistance.

By morning, things began to become more organized.

Yveta and his group were the biggest contributors to exposing the Children of the Forest's conspiracy, and he also had the authorization of Branton, the sole surviving heir of the Moro Family.

Therefore, Yveta took control of the situation.

With his contributions and Branton's backing, he could command the castle's servants, butler, serfs, and Baron Moro's castle guards.

When he sent Black Wolf to the edge of the territory to call back Leili and Alicia, who were waiting in the carriage, Leili, who had been extremely worried, could hardly believe his ears.

Black Wolf told him that the Children of the Forest had been driven out of the castle and that Yveta was in control.

Leili repeatedly asked about the process before finally believing the current situation.

However, he also marveled at the danger of the situation at the time.

If even a small thing had gone wrong, it would have led to a terrible situation where all humans and the Children of the Forest would have ganged up on Yveta and his companions.

When Leili met Yveta at the castle, he excitedly clasped Yveta's hand and said, "Master, please don't take such risks anymore. That's the behavior of a gambler. No one can guarantee they will always win."

"If one keeps gambling, sooner or later, they will slip up and lose everything they have."

"I know," Yveta sighed, saying with relief, "But when one has nothing, they have few choices other than to take a gamble."

"However, what you said is not wrong."

"If I can completely control this barony, I will have my first territory. Being a lord and an explorer are different."

"A lord cannot be so reckless."

Yveta had not yet completely controlled this territory. He was currently illegitimate, without a proper title.

Furthermore, many knights in this territory had not performed the ceremony of allegiance to him.

Without performing this ritual, they were not considered vassals to Yveta.

They would not obey Yveta at all; they were only temporarily listening to Yveta's suggestions due to the sudden crisis.

The barony was actually on the verge of falling apart with the death of the baron.

Leili suddenly brought up another matter. "Master, when I was at the edge of the Moro Barony, I saw some strange people with skin like tree bark fleeing outside the territory. But I also saw another army appear in the forest."

"The members of that army were not human."

"They were all creatures that only appear in fairy tales in Ambrose."

"Minotaurs, centaurs, deer people, even ogres. I even saw a two-headed ogre."

"I also saw a creature with a goat's head and human-like lower body with goat hooves, sitting on a bamboo palanquin, sleeping with its eyes closed. Seeing it, for some reason, my heart beat very fast, as if it were about to explode."

Yveta's heart sank upon hearing this.

This was bad.

As he had guessed, the Children of the Forest seemed to have a particular need to seize this territory for some reason.

They were indeed preparing to take it by force with an army.

The old witch's expression changed drastically, and she looked Yveta up and down. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. As expected of the useless warrior by Your Majesty's side."

"You encountered an Ancient Soul and still managed to survive."

"The Forbidden Book records that among the Ancient Souls who rule the Children of the Forest, one of them has a goat's head and hooves."

"You are truly lucky. If you had seen it with its eyes open, your soul would have been sucked away, and you would have become a puppet controlled by it."

Yveta frowned. "Old Witch, who is that?"

"Your Majesty, it is not worthy of being compared to you. It was once called the God of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry by the Children of the Forest, and later they called it an Ancient Soul." The old witch bowed and said, "You have once again shown me the art of seizing territory. You clearly discovered long ago that Baron Moro was not human, yet you remained silent, allowing the situation to escalate beyond control."

"Then, you can legitimately seize this human territory."

"You truly are a Demon God among Demon Gods!"

Yveta: "..."

"You knew Baron Moro was not human as soon as you entered the territory? Why didn't you say anything earlier?"

The old witch said, "If you didn't say anything, how could I dare to speak? But if it weren't for this Forbidden Book, I wouldn't have known it was a Treant Person."

Yveta then understood. It turned out that the moment she entered the barony, she knew the baron was not human, but she couldn't identify the baron's identity at the time.

That was right.

From the old witch's perspective, how could she, as a Demon God, not know that the baron was not human?

However, in her eyes, Yveta's silence did indeed make him seem like a schemer intending to seize the territory.

And now, the old witch believed that she had achieved complete victory.

"..." Yveta.

Yveta no longer bothered with the matter. He walked over and asked the butler of the Moro Family, Akalanda.

Branton had already told Yveta about this guy's background; he was a serf on this manor.

Because his parents were different from others, they always saved some money from their food to pay for Akalanda's literacy and arithmetic lessons.

Therefore, Akalanda was one of the few serfs who had received an education.

This gave him an advantage.

After the first three foreign minor nobles' stewards on the Moro Baron Territory stepped down due to public outcry, the true Baron Moro at the time hired Akalanda, the son of a serf, intending for him to quell the public anger.

Furthermore, he granted Akalanda the status of a freeman.

Branton had told Yveta that Viscount Ambrose had already experienced two relatively large-scale serf rebellions.

The current manor system's serfdom was the result of legal reforms after two serf rebellions.

Viscount Ambrose's serf system was less oppressive than that of any other country in the world.

There were two reasons for this outcome.

First, the old witch had said that a civilization even older than the secret civilization supported by the Druids' God had a period of its ruling center in Viscount Ambrose's Independent State.

Even though that ancient civilization collapsed for unknown reasons, the city system, freeman tradition, consul, and tribune traditions of that ancient civilization remained here.

Second, the city class in Ambrose was becoming increasingly powerful, leading to the near collapse of the originally harsh serf system.

Runaway serfs were becoming more numerous.

Eventually, the lords of Ambrose could only repeatedly improve the treatment of their serfs.

Yveta asked Akalanda, "How many troops are still in the castle?"

Akalanda glanced at Branton. Seeing the worship and dependence in Branton's eyes as he looked at Yveta, he immediately understood that a new master was in charge here.

He was someone who had risen from the serf class and did not have the useless persistence of minor nobles. "My lord, there is still a guard unit of one hundred and twenty-one men in the castle."

"Is that all? Including the feudal levies?" Yveta asked. He remembered that the Ambrose family had summoned eleven knights.

Even if some had died in the previous battle in the hall, there were still some knights left, and these knights had brought their own infantry.

"And what about the knight attendants in the castle?"

Akalanda's expression turned grim. "My lord, those knights do not obey your orders at all."

"They are currently at the stables, led by Knight Tawil, preparing to lead the army out of the city to pursue the defeated Treant Person troops and avenge Baron Moro."

Remembering his former master, Akalanda showed a trace of sadness.

Yveta's face changed drastically. "Fools."

"They don't even understand the principle of not pursuing a cornered enemy, let alone with an army led by Ancient Soul outside."

The demon hunter Black Wolf and Leili pondered the phrase "not pursuing a cornered enemy" and both felt it made a lot of sense.

Yveta said, "Akalanda, take us to the stables!"

"Quick, stop them!"

Yveta said with a dark expression, "With their current troop strength, they are completely unsuitable for pursuing the enemy out of the city."

"These idiots are not even as good as me, a novice."

Black Wolf said, "Your Highness, this is normal."

"Church knight orders like the Boar Knight Order are considered elite."

Black Wolf said, "This era lacks tactics. Charlemagne's tactics are hundreds of years old."

"Yet, most knights in small places don't even know these things."

"When they go to war, they just charge mindlessly. Either they win, or they lose."

"This seems to be because with the collapse of the ancient civilization, human civilization experienced a severe regression and has not yet recovered."

"Most of the former cities were abandoned with the inexplicable collapse of the ancient civilization. The current cities have been restored or rebuilt on the foundations of the ancient civilization's large cities."

The old witch also sighed. "I also heard from my teacher that humanity once had a single country, just as there is only one True God in the world—the God of All Things."

"That country was the ancient civilization."

"The ancient civilization was the sole representative of the God of All Things on Earth, but with the strange collapse of the ancient civilization, it became the current myriad of small countries, each with its own characteristics, cultural traditions, and laws. The once unified law was shattered, becoming the fragmented laws of independent kingdoms, principalities, duchies, special small states, and republics."

Yveta could feel the sorrow of everyone present after the collapse of that behemoth.

However, he had no time for lamentation. He had to go to the stables and bring back those foolish and self-proclaimed brave knights.

They had lost their minds.

The old witch, however, noticed the corpses of the Children of the Forest on the ground. She discovered pus on these corpses.

The old witch narrowed her eyes and looked at Yveta's retreating back. "The Demon God's damage curse is not as simple as it appears, with such contagiousness..."

"No, I need to study this. Something is not right."