"What did you say?" The King of Dawn pushed away the dancer in his arms as he suddenly stood up.

The dancer, a beautiful woman with nothing more than a pink silk scarf wrapped around her half-covered body, fell to the ground. Though she was hurt badly, she did not dare to voice out her pain.

The rest of the servants, performers, and jugglers also lowered their heads in panic. The entire palace abruptly became silent.

"Your Majesty..." The Secretary of State gulped and said, "Your Prime Minister has rebelled."

"Are you sure he has truly rebelled and isn't just supporting those idiots on the outside?" Appen didn't know whether it was him who had misheard his minister or it was the fault of his staff blowing the news out of proportion.

Of course, he knew about the plans of those traitorous n.o.blesóeveryone who had returned alive from Hermes had witnessed the destruction of the king's personal knightage as well as his miserable escape. It would have been naive of him to expect them to remain loyal to the royal family.

Some amount of rebellion was only to be expected. Gathering support and forming alliances with the three major families in the royal capital would clearly be their first choice. Appen had long been wary about this, but he believed that, going by the characters of the three old veterans, they would most likely play by the rules and lie low behind closed doors. After all, the king's city was still in his hands, and any act of defiance was tantamount to suicide.

He did not expect that the first to cause a problem would be the Quinn family.

The collision with the smaller lords had already violated Appen's bottom line. Perhaps the old earl just wanted to leave a way out for himself or make a stand... But no matter what the reason was, punishment was absolutely inevitable for such an impertinent act. For example Otto LuoxióAppen had already shown mercy by not killing his childhood friend on the spot.

But... what does 'rebelling' mean?

Earl Quinn is still in the City of Glow, and he has neither subjects nor soldiers here. Does he want to rebel with just his dozen or so guards alone? That would be ridiculous. How would he be able to rebel?

"The earl did contact the other n.o.bles, but not in secret. He issued an invitation!" The minister wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "And he publicly invited all the n.o.bles to his mansion to persuade them to support the Quinn family!"

Appen was stunned and almost unable to understand the news he had heard.

This move could indeed be perceived as a rebellion, but the way he did it was incredible!

Instead of asking for help from the n.o.bles, he's asking them to support the Quinn familyódoes Horford really know what he's doing?

He had already become a dangerous vessel that could sink any time. How could he still think about getting the support of the n.o.bility? This act was undoubtedly going to turn both sides into bitter enemies, and there was no way Moya could ever tolerate such a grave act of provocation. The sheer stupidity of the situation would only make those n.o.bles look down on him.

But still, was the Prime Minister such an arrogant person in the past?

Appen brooded silently for a long time before finally saying, "Pa.s.s my orders down. Commander Duke Bachov is to lead the patrol team to the earl's residence, arrest Horford Quinn, and bring him in front of me." "Everyone else in his residence is to be temporarily locked up in custody. If anyone opposes him, he may kill them on the spot! I would like to see how the earl is going to explain this."

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

After this news, he was no longer in the mood for seeking pleasure. He dismissed everyone in the hall and sat paralyzed on the throne.

He didn't really want to drown himself in pleasure, but once the surroundings became quiet his ears would echo once again with the roar of the sky thunder.

The war that ended more than a month ago had left a deep impression on him that he could never forget.

No... it was not a war, but a one-sided ma.s.sacre.

His troops had no strength to fight back.

Whether it was the knights or the serfs, it made no difference when they were faced with the attack from Graycastle.

After he got back to the king's city, Appen found that he no longer had the courage to confront Rolandóthe failure on the battlefield caused him even more heartache than the death of his father.

What made things even worse was the fact he knew that the Moya family had effectively lost the entire Kingdom of Dawn. What was the fate of offending a powerful neighbor? There was no doubt that, sooner or later, the other party would annex the country that he inherited from his father, and there was nothing he could do about it!

When he ascended the throne, he was full of ambition and was bent on governing this kingdom well. He wanted the citizens to live a stable life, and no longer have to worry about witches, demonic beasts, or other foreign threats. But just a year after he took over, and he was already completely disillusioned and had lost interest in political affairs and commerce. He was just waiting for the enemy's army to attack and leave him hanging on the city wall.

As he thought about this point, Appen's hatred toward the king of Graycastle kept growing immensely, and he wanted to eat him alive!

If not for Roland Wimbledon, he would have left a mark in the pages of history as a famous leader of his generation!

All this was the latter's faultóGraycastle's new king had been bewitched by witches!

He slammed his palm on the armrest, and the burning fire in his heart had nowhere to be vented.

When Earl Quinn has been captured, I will make him have a taste of a king's anger!

However, in the afternoon, his newly appointed minister ran into the palace in a panic.

"Your Majesty, Sir Bachov is dead! The patrol... The whole army is gone!"

"What...!?" The King of Dawn grabbed his collar in shock. "Did they have traps set up in the mansion? Or did they hide in ambush?"

"Yes, they had hidden bodyguards," the minister quickly replied, "I saw it with my own eyes. At first, Bachov asked the earl to come out and barged directly into the house after being denied. But he was immediately killed by the earl's guards. Not only that, these guards also rushed out of the courtyard and ambushed the patrol team that was outside the mansionóthey were like madmen. They had all kinds of weapons in their hands, including boning knives, wooden sticks, and even stone bricks... in less than half a minute, the platoon collapsed!"

"How many people did they have?"

"Probably... seven or eight."

"b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" Appen struck the minister to the ground. "You call seven or eight people an ambush? In the City of Glow, even a businessman has a dozen guards. Have you been scared out of your wits!? The patrol team has about one or two hundred people. How can they be defeated by seven or eight guards? Even two hundred wild boars wouldn't fall so fastódon't tell me they can't even compare to pigs in the hunting grounds?"

"Your Majesty, those people... aren't human beings. They're monsters," the Minister cried out his grievances. "Most of the patrol team couldn't even block a single one of their blows. That wasn't the strength and speed of a man!"

Appen suddenly jerked up his head.

He seemed to have seen this type of scenario before.

That's right. He remembered now that his father's killers, the two Pure Witches from the church, had shown him the terrifying prowess of the G.o.d's Punishment Army.

Could... Earl Quinn be connected with the church?

An uncontrollable anger suddenly rose from his heart!

"Riseth!" Appen yelled.

A knight came in quickly from outside the hall and knelt on one knee. "Your majesty, what may I do for you?"

"Immediately summon all the mercenaries in the City of Glow and bring in the crossbows and rockets. I want you to burn Earl Quinn's residence to the ground!" He yelled, "I want them all to be burnt to ashes regardless of whether they are human beings or monsters!"

"But... that's the Inner City," the knight hesitated and said, "If it causes a big fire, I'm afraid it will be difficult to control it."

"Shut up and do what I say!" Appen growled hysterically, "If you don't burn him, you don't have to come back to see me!"

Even the G.o.d's Punishment Army, when faced with an opponent a hundred times their number and armored with crossbows, would not have a chance of victory. If they wanted to collude with the church, they would only be facing death!

The next day, the King of Dawn once again received news from the watchdogs that the entire mercenary group that had been prepared the night before had failed to even reach the earl's residence.

While pa.s.sing through the Rising Sun Avenue, the mercenary team was attacked by an acrobatics troupe.

He had to make sure he hadn't misheard the minister's report.

An acrobatics troupe performing on the street suddenly attacked the mercenaries in the middle of their performance. The mercenaries caught off guard and suffered heavy losses. It seemed those actors fought the same way as Earl Quinn's guards.

But this time, the weapons in their hands were no longer random debris; they were wielding the daggers, iron hammers, and wooden s.h.i.+elds that had belonged to the former patrol team.