novelraw Chapter 148: Cruel
Chapter 148: Cruel
"Back to leisurely daily life again..."
Loren lay on the sofa, reading the latest newspaper. Scarlett was behind him, giving him a massage, though it felt more like harassment than a massage. In the end, Loren couldn't stand it and shooed her away.
Beside Loren was a bag of potato chips. Whenever Loren opened his mouth, Starnight would pick up a chip and place it in his mouth.
To be honest, Loren still had a sense of shame. If a maid were to feed him, he would feel somewhat embarrassed. But having a bird do it made Loren feel like he was really awesome. With skills like these, becoming an internet celebrity wouldn't be difficult for him.
"What!"
Loren's sudden exclamation startled Starnight, causing the potato chip in its beak to fall to the ground.
"What's wrong, Master Mentor?"
Anna immediately poked her head out from her room, looking at Loren in the main hall.
"War has started..."
An unprecedented gravity appeared on Loren's face. On the newspaper, a few lines of text and a picture described something of extreme cruelty."The Canaan Kingdom launched a righteous counterattack against a nation that worships the God of Bountiful Harvest, annihilated it, and returned victorious..."
The Canaan Kingdom is a nation that worships the God of Plague. Its people are among the most fanatical even among Plague Believers. It was this Canaan Kingdom that previously invaded the Bardo Kingdom.
Loren hadn't even heard of that small country's name;
it had already been destroyed by the time the original story began. He didn't know if this timeline had been moved up.
The newspaper's description of the event was quite thought-provoking. The cause was that a soldier from the Canaan Kingdom traveled to that small country, where he assaulted a little boy and was consequently sentenced.
Such things are commonplace in the Canaan Kingdom, as common as saying hello. Yet there, he was sentenced.
Upon learning of this, the Canaan Kingdom felt it was an insult to their faith and soul, so they launched a righteous counterattack, ultimately achieving a glorious victory.
Loren found it hard to believe this newspaper was produced in Gedlan. Moreover, the newspaper had pictures. To print such a newspaper, they could only import printing presses from the God of Night and Thunder. Any newspaper office with a printing press was definitely not ordinary.
Yet such an important newspaper office actually showed bias in its reporting, even blatantly pandering to their own enemy nation.
Judging from the picture in the newspaper, the situation was certainly not as lighthearted as the paper described.
The picture showed several grinning Canaan Kingdom soldiers. Their clothes were disheveled, and their bodies bore marks of venereal diseases. In the corner of this picture, Loren saw a severed arm. Judging by its size, it wasn't an adult's.
A rare expression of anger appeared on Loren's face. Although he was a Fourth Cataclysm, seeing such heinous, universally condemned acts was still hard to bear.
What made Loren even angrier was the media's attitude. How disgusting or cruel the enemy was didn't matter;
we would just go and defeat them.
But when our own people spoke up for the enemy, that was a big problem.
"No way, has Gedlan been infiltrated to this extent?"
Loren was already considering whether to relocate. Otherwise, if something happened here, even if it posed little threat to him, it would inevitably disgust him.
Since transmigrating, after gaining the protection of the Bountiful Church by writing hymns, Loren had never hidden his abilities. He also didn't worry that changing the plot would affect his foreknowledge. Since he was already here, not changing anything would mean he came for nothing.
At worst, if subsequent events exceeded Loren's expectations, he could just rely on his strength to crush through.
From the moment he met Anna and Naclis, the plot was destined not to develop along its original path. It wasn't impossible for the Divine War to start several years early.
However, the situation might not be that bad. Loren could manipulate things a bit;
perhaps he could delay the Divine War. That wouldn't be difficult for the current Loren to achieve.
"War..."
Laila also saw the newspaper. She murmured the word and fell into thought.
During her adventures, she had also witnessed war, but those were only minor skirmishes, incomparable to the war of annihilation described in the newspaper.
Regardless of scale, war is synonymous with cruelty. War, regardless of victory or defeat, harms the common people at the bottom.
Even with the newspaper media's clear bias, one could glimpse the severity of the situation from the fragments of information.
Since the country was annihilated, where would its citizens go?
Other neighboring countries that worship the God of Bountiful Harvest might take them in, but the ones who launched the war were the Canaan Kingdom, the most fanatical batch among the Plague Believers.
In this era, people were an important resource. Given the nature of those Plague Believers, those citizens probably couldn't leave intact.
Whether as food or playthings, both were suitable for those Plague Believers.
"Master Mentor, can I go kill them?"
Anna looked at Loren with innocent eyes. Her thinking was simple: those bad guys slaughtered good people, so she would go slaughter the bad guys.
"Unnecessary. This matter has nothing to do with us, but I will make them pay."
Loren wouldn't let a momentary impulse affect his safety, but he truly couldn't stand such behavior.
Not for any other reason;
it was something etched into his very bloodline. Any person with a conscience should feel anger about this.
Loren gently stroked Anna's hair and said, word by word:
"Just watch. I have plenty of ways to finish them off."
Loren closed the newspaper, intending to return to his room to research some things, but a knock at the door interrupted him.
"Master Mentor, I am Clemens, a Bishop of the Bountiful Church..."
Outside the door was a middle-aged man. He drew the Sprout of New Life over his chest, but this time, Loren wasn't in the mood for pleasantries.
In this world where divine authority far surpasses everything else, a Bishop's status is no lower than a King's. Yet Bishop Clemens, when facing Loren, actually seemed somewhat obsequious.
"Are you all useless?"
Loren flung the newspaper into Clemens's face. Only Loren in the entire nation dared treat him like this.
"Apologies... Master Mentor... The Canaan Kingdom's actions were too sudden. We didn't even have time to provide support. We are currently trying to find a way..."
"That's not what I'm talking about."
Loren interrupted Clemens, who was trying to explain, immediately making him bow his head even lower.
"Did you see the content in the newspaper? The Bountiful Church's newspaper office! An important newspaper office of the Bountiful Church! It, damn it, speaks for the enemy, speaks for those damn, inhuman enemy troops!"
Noticing Loren's intense anger, Clemens actually felt a bit relieved.
Since Loren was so angry about this matter, it meant Loren still stood on the side of the Bountiful Church. If that was the case, with Loren's help, solving the problem would be much simpler.