Proactive Rescue

Despite the fact that the remnant casters were more powerful, Oute, who was just coasting along in the Mudrock's Squad, was happy to order his medics to provide point-to-point emergency medical care in between shooting.

After a long and fierce battle, dawn finally broke in the east.

The rising sun not only shone on the infected village, but also on the old Lupo village.

"... It must be that Catastrophe Messenger!"

He thought of his lost private accounts, the huge empty space in "his bedroom," and how he was only a hair's breadth away from death.

The tax collector stormed over to old Lupo and summoned the remaining villagers to the square. "You must give me an explanation!"

This place serves as both a venue for the villagers' collective spiritual life and a site for drying their grain. Since it is still the planting season, there are only scattered bits of old grain stuck in the soil on the ground.

The Fowlbeast pecked at the remaining grain, making noisy noises.

"Stop yelling!" The Elafia tax collector unleashed a spell, blasting the Fowlbeast into a bloody mess.

The flying feathers and bloodstains caused a commotion among the villagers, and the tax collectors grew increasingly dissatisfied with the noise.

Along with him came the remnants of the Witch King's faction, who were personally inspecting the quality of the supplies. They were both his guards and monitoring Stein's actions. Last night, they had taken it upon themselves to send most of their men to kidnap the infected, without any regard for the feelings of the tax collectors.

No, who are you?

Stein is barely considered a nobody, so what are your thoughts on that?

Old Lupo brushed the fuzz off his face. "Sir, our village is completely out of manpower."

"And that Catastrophe Messenger, he even drove our car away." GreyThroat's expression was icy.

"He must have run away to a faraway place!" a villager asserted.

"I think that bastard came here to get revenge on us!"

"It was clearly his fault for not reporting the Catastrophe in time! We deserve to beat him up! What's this talk of revenge!"

"If he could reason, what kind of bad seed would he be?!"

"I heard that the land in our original village was bought up cheaply!"

Is this next to each other?

"What kind of bad people would intentionally conceal Catastrophe?"

The tax collector felt somewhat uncomfortable upon hearing these words.

He grew even angrier and stammered, "I... I don't care! He must pay the price!"

"Otherwise, otherwise..."

This scoundrel, in a flash, thought of the tiny bit of power he held, "Otherwise! I'll make you pay the taxes of that group in the desert too!"

Desert.

This area is further away from the shipping lanes and more desolate. With scarce surface water resources, the vegetation is also sparser and shorter.

The Rhodes Island SUV sped off into the wilderness.

Thor now understood why his previous warnings of Catastrophe had been intercepted by Stein.

Chapter 287 Proactive Rescue

Working for the remnants of the Witch King, or for those who claim to be remnants of the Witch King, is not a rare occurrence in Leithanien right now, even for a seasoned person like the Catastrophe Messenger.

Upon observing everything that was happening in the village, Thor understood the whole story.

Stein was merely a minor imperial baron, a free lord, and he had to rack his brains to maintain his "feudal privileges."

In his view, if he failed to transform from an imperial baron into a common, hereditary feudal lord before the Twin Empresses' death, his social status, which he had acquired through his assets, would be in jeopardy.

As a capitalist aristocrat whose cerebellum is underdeveloped and whose brain is completely underdeveloped in the realm of power struggles, Stein naturally found the Twin Empresses' overt enemy forces... the remnants of the Witch King.

Luckily, but unfortunately, he found the real thing.

He found a group of mages who were genuinely studying the art of sorcery under the Witch King, not those high-ranking nobles who used the Witch King's name merely to vie for power with the Twin Empresses...

You could call it luck, but this was like finding gold in the sand.

To say it was just bad luck... these legitimate Witch King needed a very ordinary material for their research.

Infected person.

So, how will Lord Stein, the young lord, establish connections with this group?

Naturally, it's about offering up the infected.

But what if it's not enough?

Then... obstruct the messengers, let the Catastrophe run rampant, and create infected.

"... Based on driving data analysis, your braking reaction time is 0.50 seconds. At the current speed..."

Thor gripped the steering wheel tightly, ignoring the warnings from the terminal beside him, focused solely on reaching the village in the desert.

If he's right...

This ship.

A large number of operators gathered on the deck.

They gazed at the village growing ever larger in the distance, listening to Oute's words.

"... Due to a series of events that occurred under the leadership of the local nobles, the villagers harbored an unusual prejudice against the Catastrophe Messenger."

"Operator Tsukino managed to persuade the locals to accept our messenger under the guise of 'Disaster Patrol' (pronounced in the East Country)."

"But they are exceptionally stubborn, refusing to believe in the impending Catastrophe." Oute paused. "If we want to stop this Catastrophe from creating more infected people, we can only take coercive measures."

"This means an official conflict has broken out with Leithanien."

Following this, Oute deliberately left the operators in a long silence.

The villagers cannot be entirely blamed for this.

Thanks to the operators who remained in the mobile town, after investigation, Oute pieced together the truth:

After deliberately causing a tragedy, Stein or his men also smeared the Catastrophe Messenger.

They claimed that Thor, the Catastrophe Messenger, delayed the broadcast of Catastrophe because he was trying to buy up village properties at low prices for his own selfish gain.

That statement is half true, because there are indeed people buying real estate at low prices.

However, it wasn't Thor, who had absolutely no connection to the story... it was Stein himself.

After the Catastrophe, Stein bought the villagers' property rights at a low price under the guise of a "white glove" scheme, and then illegally mortgaged them to a small mining company.

After the mining company had built the infrastructure, Stein, in the name of the lord, declared the transaction illegal and imposed a hefty fine—a fine that the mining company could not afford.

Naturally, since the mining company couldn't afford the fines, the company's profits were used to pay off Stein.

He eats one cow twice.

They want power, and they want money.

During the time that Oute remained silent, the audience gradually began to discuss the matter.

"Then just leave it alone! Serves you right!"

"They were just fooled..."

"If we absolutely have to intervene, we'll have to relocate Leithanien citizens on a large scale without permission!"

The opposition was the strongest.

Because those who agree with it know how difficult this is, and how many of Rhodes Island's past principles it violates:

They openly and irreconcilably clashed with the local nobles and even the Leithanien government.

On a tactical level, the Chernobog incident required a large amount of manpower, while the current Lai Village incident can be considered a simple task.

But on a political level...

On the surface, Rhodes Island received public support from the Yan during the Chernobog incident, and also received the "no opposition" from the Ursus government in Oute's subsequent plans.

The current Lai Village incident is quite the opposite!

Political risks!

It's too big!

"I have a question before I make any decisions."

"Many people have seen us as fools wasting our time along the way. But is Rhodes Island an idealistic organization?"

In fact, although the operators did not speak out, most people had already given the answer in their hearts: yes.

Oute answered his own question, "I've discussed this issue with others before, and now I'm sharing my answer with you."

"No."

The operators looked at Oute in disbelief.

"We are realists. If you think the word 'despite' isn't decadent enough, you can always add a prefix."

"We are cold-blooded realists."

"The world faces many problems: famine, war, oppression, massacre..."

"We turn a blind eye."

The atmosphere gradually became tense, and the operators even began to whisper among themselves.

"Why do you say that, Doctor?"

"This is so unfair!"

"Was I wrong? The Doctor must be right!"

Even Doctor make mistakes! Just like this time!