As the millennium celebration drew near, more and more people headed for the Imperial Capital of the Central River Region. Unlike previous millennium celebrations, the number of people attending this time far exceeded the royal family's expectations.
In past celebrations, only those who had received invitations from the royal family would attend. Ordinary factions generally lacked the qualifications and would not show up, at most sending interested individuals to take a look.
But this time, things were completely different.
At first, seeing the royal family trying to force everyone to pick a side made many people rather unhappy. After all, many factions did not want to offend the [Akatsuki] organization, nor did they want to stand against it. The royal family might not fear [Akatsuki], but what ordinary faction would not fear [Akatsuki] coming to their doorstep? The organizations destroyed during [Akatsuki]'s Underworld Operation were still fresh in everyone's minds. No one wanted to test [Akatsuki]'s limits again.
Under such circumstances, many factions had planned to casually send a few people to the celebration without openly declaring their stance, stalling for time. Or even if they did make a declaration, they could claim upon returning that it had been the subordinates' decision and promptly strip them of their positions. In any case, not sending core upper management to this celebration had become the consensus among major organizations.
But just then, news suddenly broke that the [Akatsuki] organization would be attending the Central River Empire's millennium celebration. This was no small matter. Every faction sprang into action, all prior arrangements were scrapped, and the leaders of many sects declared that they would personally travel to the Imperial Capital for the celebration.
To them, if two major forces were going to have a face-to-face showdown, they naturally had to witness it in