Chapter 243: The Performance Begins

The last day of July was destined to be a "good" day where some would rejoice and others would sorrow.

Because in the afternoon, the list of personnel fortunate enough to attend the banquet was finally announced, sprawling to a total of over a thousand people.

Yet, in the eyes of most of the populace, this list was extremely strange, for in their simplicity, they could not find any pattern within it.

In terms of military merit, most of the battlefield veterans who had followed Allen to fight in various places were not on the list.

In terms of seniority, not a single one of the Rodok people who had followed Allen from the beginning made the list.

And in terms of position and responsibility, although most of the young officials working in the Cabinet were given a day off, none of them received an invitation.

They could only gloomily drink in the taverns, whiling away the time of this day.

As for the names on the list, they were truly as the notice stated, highlighting "randomness" and "luck."

Of course, those who received invitations did not feel anything amiss, because these people had become the objects of everyone's envy today; to be able to go to the castle to attend the King's banquet, what a high honor that was.

Although there was an element of luck involved, these were guests personally selected by their beloved Queen!

What problem could there be with this? Luck had favored them on this day, bringing them glory.

Therefore, these "lucky ones," already influenced by desire, looked at their neighbors with a hint of disdain at this very moment.

It was just that they did not have much time to enjoy this feeling of being watched by everyone, because the banquet started in the evening, and in any case, preparing gifts required some time; one could not go to the banquet empty-handed, right?

And this bit of common sense had not yet been swallowed by desire.

This was exactly what Allen had intended; on one hand, not giving these people too much time to think minimized the possibility of exposure, and furthermore, the secret groups within each community did not actually know each other—at least, the ordinary believers did not know of each other's existence.

Therefore, even if all the dark believers were gathered inside the castle, Allen did not need to worry about any accidents happening, because they would treat the others as ordinary guests and would not think that everyone present had been bewitched by Magic.

Perhaps they did not even know what Magic was, nor did they understand that the deity they worshipped at this moment had once deeply harmed them; even though Allen had already opened schools, knowledge remained a scarce resource for most people.

As for the majority of residents who were not invited to the banquet, they were not too disappointed, because His Majesty the King would accompany his wife and daughter to patrol the city starting at three in the afternoon, and would only return to the castle after touring the entire city.

Many residents, upon receiving this news, gave up their afternoon work and gathered a considerable amount of fresh flowers in the wild, preparing to welcome their great King, their respectable Queen, and the future beautiful Princess on both sides of the road when the time came.

So, did no one in the entire town feel that something was wrong?

That was certainly not the case; there were a dozen or so people who, the moment they saw this list appear, sensed that something was wrong, because they also held such a list in their hands, and almost all of them appeared on the parchment on the bulletin board.

Anyone who was not particularly dull-witted could immediately understand upon seeing this scene that their existence had been targeted.

And these people were not natives of Fislate; the complexions of these dozen or so people were unnaturally pale, and their builds were very tall, far exceeding the Northern Men living in Rhovanion, and their handsome faces had eyes that revealed an eerie glow; if dressed appropriately, they could be said to be extremely outstanding existences among the crowd.

It was just that ever since arriving in Fislate, these people had worn black clothes and lived reclusive lives, rarely stepping out of the communities they were respectively responsible for, and thus naturally did not attract too much attention.

However, when Allen mobilized all the forces under his command and began to screen the city, these people with special appearances naturally revealed themselves.

Especially since they also bore the responsibility of proselytizing, which caused them, who had originally operated in the dark, to suddenly reveal their tracks and be reported by the spies of Rhovanion as the culprits.

Allen, whose heart was already full of anger, dispatched his most elite Twilight Knights and Female Rangers to keep a close watch on these saboteurs who were causing trouble in his city.

And the black-clad ones, already alert in their hearts, naturally could not wait to be bound and watch the results of their half-year of hard work vanish like a puff of smoke, so they left the crowd one after another and snuck back to the communities they were responsible for.

They prepared to gather the believers to make a final resistance, to teach the master's great enemy an unforgettable lesson in this city.

In fact, these twisted dark believers had prepared for being discovered long ago; in the places where the believers gathered, they stored a large amount of Fire Oil and sharp short-handled weapons, which had been accumulated bit by bit through half a year of effort.

Although the city was strictly controlled, one could not stop residents from buying knives for chopping vegetables and meat, right? And these sharp objects used for daily life could be used as Spears or machetes with slight modifications.

And in the city that was celebrating at this time, a large number of residents were only wearing summer clothing with no defense, so even temporarily assembled weapons could cause fatal damage to them in a short time.

Not to mention that they also possessed some Fire Oil accumulated by the believers over a long period; as long as they saw a spark, they could cause a monstrous fire in every community.

After all, most of the buildings in Fislate were of brick-and-wood structure; they might be somewhat effective against accidental fires in daily life, but if someone were to sabotage them intentionally, the continuous fire could not be extinguished by manpower, and at that time, one could only look to the heavens or wait for the fire to extinguish itself.

Yet, amidst the thunderous cheers, every move of these black-clad ones was already under surveillance, and the battle came so quickly and so abruptly.

Some of the black-clad men were seized by two Twilight Knights as they turned to leave the crowd, and the next moment, a sharp dagger was plunged into their backs; after several futile struggles, they died silently on the sides of the street.

And some of the black-clad men were hit by arrows flying from afar when they entered the secret alleys they often frequented, losing their lives in a muddled state under the extremely excellent archery skills of the Noldor Elves.

Even more so, some were arrested on the spot by guards waiting in their homes when they returned; under a series of measures, the captives had no room to resist and could only voluntarily give up their lives while silently reciting "The Giver of All Things."

Death, as a gift from Ilúvatar to Humans, does not necessarily arrive passively; some wise men among Humans see through the essence of death, so they will voluntarily give up their lives when their time is near, yet accomplishing this requires great courage; some can do it easily, while others require some external force and a crazed spirit to pursue death.

And these black-clad ones who were caught could naturally not be any wise men among Humans; they were merely ordinary Númenóreans poisoned by dark faith; if there was a name for them in the long history, it was the "King's Men."

These people were like the death squads of Sauron; when facing a situation where they could not resist, their twisted faith gave them the courage to face death, and they then silently left Arda, ending their ridiculous and short lives.

There was no clashing of weapons, no shouts to stir up courage, and even less movement to disturb the neighbors; the dozen or so messengers of Sauron died one after another at the hands of the Twilight Knights and Female Rangers within half an hour, and the backup plans they had long prepared naturally had no place to be used.

As for the believers who had been bewitched by them, they did not know the fate of these "preachers" at all; they had already set off on the road to Winterburg with the gifts they had prepared in a hurry; time always passed quickly, and even though it got dark late in the summer, the towering Misty Mountains always made Rhovanion get dark a bit earlier.

Setting off a little early was always right, because there were still many people on the street at this time; leaving now, they could be envied by more people; if they waited until after the King's patrol ended, there might be no one on the street, and then who would they show off to, those of them who could attend the banquet?

When the invited guests headed to the castle one after another, a team of fully armed elite Cavalry riding nimble and swift Elf Horses left Fislate like a gale; they were the Twilight Knights who had just finished killing the black-clad men, and leading them was Allen's most powerful subordinate, Holimion.

The situation in the city was basically stable, and the remaining matters could be completely left to the Female Rangers to handle; after all, the order Allen gave was to kill regardless of life or death, and there was no need to capture living prisoners, which made this task much simpler.

And Holimion had another task, which was to go to the "secret base" of Tiehaer, and after investigating the situation, destroy that nest to completely sever the root of this chaos.

As for Allen himself, he had to stay in the castle after the patrol was finished to face those thousands of residents influenced by Magic, trying his best to lead them out of the faith of Morgoth.

When the last fruit of Laurelin fell to the other side of the Misty Mountains, the stars in the sky gradually shone in the darkness, and the last flower of Telperion also revealed its half-white cheek in the east.

But the night did not affect the brightly lit castle in the slightest; in order to make the plan for tonight go smoothly enough, and to ensure that those attending the banquet would not show any abnormalities, Allen took out all the Crystal Lamps in his inventory, and the countless bright lights illuminated the open space in the middle of the castle as bright as day.

The city wall of Winterburg was over a thousand meters long; it was not the kind of very regular, square castle, but the area it occupied was very large, roughly calculated to be nearly one hundred thousand square meters; excluding the houses that had already been built, the open space left in the middle was enough to hold a banquet for thousands of people, although it needed to be divided into several parts.

Before the banquet began, melodious music had already started to play; they were a band formed by local residents of Fislate; usually, only during festivals would there be such formal performance invitations; one must know that playing here meant getting paid, and it was not cheap.

However, most of the band members who were playing were nervous and covered in sweat, and their eyes kept scanning the banquet venue, as if something terrible would happen later.

And a large number of wooden tables had already been set up in the center of the banquet, and waiters dressed in formal attire kept moving back and forth, starting to place the banquet food on the wooden tables, but for some reason, everything prepared at this time was some thick soup, which did not quite fit the custom of a banquet; at this time, cold dishes should have been served instead.

However, this did not arouse the suspicion of the guests; most of the residents of Fislate knew that although His Majesty the King did not live luxuriously, he had a preference for gourmet food; who knew what local specialty these thick soups were?

And more importantly, Allen's way of doing things was far from selfish; things he liked were usually vigorously promoted to the public whenever possible.

It was precisely because of this that the entire dietary culture of Rhovanion could become so rich in a short time; this point often became a topic of conversation when drunk in taverns, and no one cared about such things.

And as time passed, there were more and more guests in the castle, and the noise gradually boiled over; finally, when the bright moon completely "shook off" the entanglement of Mirkwood, the "guests" invited by Allen finally arrived.

Amidst the noisy sounds, a window on a balcony on the second floor of the high tower suddenly opened, and a burst of urgent horn sounds also rang out at this time, suppressing all other noises on the field; and the moment the horn stopped, the majestic-looking Allen appeared on the balcony, his hands resting on the railing as he scanned the crowd below.

Allen, who should have been wearing formal attire to attend the banquet, was fully armed at this time; the figure where silver light and white light intertwined under the lights attracted the eyes of everyone in the castle in an instant; anyone could see that the white light was emitted from Allen himself, making him as eye-catching as a brilliant star.

For a moment, the venue fell into absolute silence, and the band that had been playing and the waiters moving about had vanished without a trace, while all the gates within the castle had also closed.

"Ladies and gentlemen, on this joyous day, I welcome you to my castle as guests; even before the banquet has begun, I can predict that this will surely be an unforgettable night."

Having said this, Allen paused slightly, taking the opportunity to observe the people's reactions.

The scene was very quiet, with the vast majority of people motionless, heads tilted back as they looked at him.

Perhaps it was because Allen's entrance had been too shocking, and that white light, brighter than the lamps, had truly astonished them; it almost exceeded the understanding of these residents, as if the stories circulating in the taverns had appeared alive before their eyes.

If this were in some indescribable world, everyone present would have had to make a sanity check.

Therefore, most people were still staring blankly at the speaking Allen, while the small portion of people whose expressions had returned to normal dared not make a sound in such a quiet atmosphere.

"But before the real banquet begins, I must regretfully inform everyone that this city is facing a disaster."

At this moment, a dark cloud began to gather above the castle, expanding in the blink of an eye to an area sufficient to shroud the entire open space, and streaks of lightning began to dart through the dark clouds.