The Shepherds Are Dense – Chapter 770

Chapter 769
Alistair: I’m also a person of the Red Phase?
“Something big has happened, Your Highness!”
Fenrir, the astrologer trusted by Prince Xiardo, suddenly stumbled from one end of the corridor to the other, his panicked voice almost trembling. “Something happened—are you asleep, Your Highness!”
It was already close to dawn. Alistair, having had a bit to drink, was about to go to sleep when she heard Fenrir’s terrified, cracking shout from outside.
What could have happened?
At this hour, Fenrir should have been stargazing. Could this be important information he had discovered?
Her brow furrowed slightly, feeling a hint of impatience at the unexpected interruption to her plans…
It was the uncontrollable agitation that came with the body of the Child of the Moon. Alistair suppressed the desire to destroy something and changed out of her sleepwear, putting on presentable clothes.
Just in case, Alistair also held the little crow in her arms.
When Alistair went out, the fully dressed Honey Badger was silently standing by the door, and Alistair was completely unaware of this.
Honey Badger nodded slightly at Alistair, and the two walked side-by-side toward Prince Xiardo’s bedroom.
The bedroom door was not closed at this time, but it was silent inside. When they reached the door, Alistair knocked symbolically, signaling her arrival.
Prince Xiardo had already changed and was sitting at the table, pouring himself a glass of warm milk. Beside him, Fenrir was restless—physically restless. He would sit down, then stand up and pace, as if waiting for someone.
Fenrir only relaxed when Alistair and Honey Badger arrived.
“You two are here,” Fenrir said urgently. “Can I speak now, Your Highness?”
“Please do, Mr. Fenrir.”
Prince Xiardo nodded slightly and turned to Alistair. “I thought you would definitely come, so it’s better to explain everything at once. This way, there will be fewer misunderstandings.”
“Something truly big has happened—while stargazing tonight, I suddenly saw a monstrous omen appear out of nowhere!”
Fenrir’s lips were pale, and his fingertips were trembling.
He emphasized as much as possible: “It was an omen I’ve never seen before—the entire Star Antinomy will be plunged into war!”
“What did you see?”
Prince Xiardo asked patiently, “Tell me everything in detail.”
“I saw that the Children of the Moon in the Red Fortress had gone mad—they assassinated Count Dawn, then lifted the Banquet Master into the sky through a sacred ritual, and are now carrying out terrifying reprisals against anyone who tries to attack the Children of the Moon!”
Fenrir spoke with great effort.
At this moment, Alistair’s expression flickered for a moment, showing a hint of strangeness.
What did that mean?
Did the Red Phase take the blame for her?
No, to be honest… hadn’t she done both of these things?
Alistair awkwardly stroked the crow.
I’m also a person of the Red Phase? Since when?
However, this astrologer, who could see a part of the future, did not understand Alistair’s expression. He continued to describe the terrifying future he had seen, emphasizing it to create an atmosphere that would be taken seriously: “I also saw that our King would die in this chaos!”
“What?”
Prince Xiardo was stunned for a moment and immediately became serious. “What did you see?”
“It was the Red Phase—he personally killed His Majesty the King, then gave a speech, mobilizing all the Children of the Moon in the country to start a civil war!”
Fenrir’s pupils trembled slightly. “The Academy and the Association are now mobilizing troops to resist, but in reality, they are plotting to usurp power! At this critical moment, the Spirit Tower and the Black Phase remain completely inactive!
I also saw that the entire Star Antinomy would be plunged into an unprecedented civil war, collapsing like the Hrasal Empire of the past.
The civil war initiated by the Daffodil Territory immediately ceased, and the rebel organizations and the entire Duchy joined the Red Phase’s ranks, followed by the entire Black Hawk Territory—in fact, the ruler of the Black Hawk Territory had already been thoroughly infiltrated by the Children of the Moon under the Red Phase. The previous suppression of the rebellion had been slow only because they were acting with the Daffodil Territory!
Then, even the Church intervened in this chaotic war.
Those priests led unemployed commoners and Black Hawk mercenaries to attack banks and strangle Goblins.
The Botanists, driven to their limits by the Alchemists, defected to the Children of the Moon, hoping they would help them get revenge on the Royal Alchemical Association. With the Botanists’ request, the Children of the Moon, who controlled the security forces, directly deployed fortresses and joined forces with the Children of the Moon for a coordinated attack.
And those Alchemists had no backbone and no unity whatsoever. Facing the extremely dominant Red Phase forces, they were on the verge of collapse. They surrendered almost the instant they engaged, and many Alchemists had already routed before the engagement…
Fenrir, wearing a helmet-like pair of glasses with many lenses, muttered about the terrifying future he had seen as if in a dream.
At first, Prince Xiardo’s brow was furrowed, and he was actively facing the difficulty, trying to think of solutions.
But as he listened, he felt his scalp tingle. He completely gave up thinking—if the situation in Star Antinomy was really going to be this chaotic, then human effort alone would not be enough to turn the tide. Even for Xiardo, as a prince, his own personal safety would be difficult to guarantee…
Undoubtedly, if the Red Phase succeeded in seizing power… just in case, they would definitely consider eradicating all of Valentine VII’s children.
The only one likely to survive would be Louise, the Queen’s third son, Lucian—that is, Xiardo’s younger brother.
Lucian was Queen Louise’s descendant, born after she had been revived as a Child of the Moon by the Red Phase. Undoubtedly, his relationship with the Red Phase would be closer… If the Red Phase wanted to establish himself as king, then even Lucian would not survive.
But there was also a possibility that the Red Phase would not stand at the forefront.
After all, with the fiery personalities of the Children of the Moon, they were not suited to be monarchs. Or rather, if the Children of the Moon became monarchs, they would inevitably be tyrants—that was the influence of the Pillar Gods and Heavenly Envoys, something that could not be countered solely by individual reason and will.
After all, the rule of the Daffodil Duchy in the past had collapsed in this way.
Even with rational and intelligent mages as the core of power, the mages did not like dealing with complex political affairs. To them, research and thought were much more interesting than politics and power… Thus, power eventually fell into the hands of the Children of the Moon.
The result was that these willful Children of the Moon easily ruined the country—during the early stages of the Hrasal Empire’s fragmentation, the Daffodil Duchy had allied with the neighboring Black Hawk Duchy.
And because the Daffodil Duke was assassinated by a mercenary assassin from the Black Hawk Duchy, who, without harming him, only slashed his clothes with a sword in front of everyone.
In his rage, the Daffodil Duke immediately declared war on the entire Black Hawk Duchy.
But the problem was, even though the attacker was from Black Hawk… his actions had nothing to do with the Black Hawk Duchy.
The entire Black Hawk Duchy was located in mountains, deserts, and cliffs. It was poor and resource-scarce, so almost the entire country was mercenaries, relying on fighting for others or working as bodyguards in other countries for a living. Some also sold their bodies in other countries or engaged in other illegal activities… such as kidnapping, human trafficking, fraud, robbery, and murder.
In Black Hawk, if a passing traveler was rich and weak, every village that was warm by day could turn into a bandit lair at night.
Given this climate, the Black Hawk Duchy could not suppress the bandits. If they didn’t even allow banditry, then they were preventing people from living.
Therefore, the Black Hawk Duchy had the most lenient laws among the Hrasal nations—so lenient that you didn’t even need to understand their laws. Because killing someone here wouldn’t result in a death sentence, at most they would be conscripted; lighter offenses like theft could also result in conscription, with only the difference being the type of unit and combat intensity.
And if you engaged in a life-or-death public duel with someone in front of everyone, killing the opponent would not lead to arrest—because the weak were guilty.
The entire Black Hawk Duchy was summarized by “Fight! Enjoy!”
In this situation, everyone knew—perhaps even the Daffodil Duke himself knew, that his being attacked by a Black Hawk person had nothing to do with the Black Hawk Duchy. But he couldn’t control his anger and led an entire country into war.
If the Red Phase considered this situation, then Lucian Valentine would be put forward as the eighth generation Valentine.
In this case, Prince Xiardo would likely not be killed… but he would certainly be captured and converted into a blood slave.
At this point, there was nothing Prince Xiardo could do, no matter what.
After all, the Red Phase and the Black Phase were transcendent supreme beings, whose power was comparable to Meg, the Grand Arbitrator of Avalon. They were both supreme beings at the pinnacle of the Material Realm on this Path.
Perhaps someone could confront the Red Phase head-on, but protecting another person in front of him would be basically impossible.
And this matter was also within the rules permitted by the Church.
According to the Church’s rules since its establishment, the Church had no right and was unwilling to interfere in any internal power changes of the same nationality.
Because this would undoubtedly lean towards the Path of Authority and deviate from the principles the Church had upheld to this day.
Once the Church began to judge the righteousness of a regime based on its own will, it would mean they were embarking on the path of secretly controlling the world.
Whether a new regime was good or bad, without the crude interference of external forces, whether it improved and was accepted, or worsened and was overthrown, it was the future of the people of that country themselves and should be chosen by them.
In other words, Xiardo could not even seek help from outsiders.
At best, even if he invited reinforcements from Avalon or Iris Flower, those reinforcements would be driven away by the Church!
“…Why didn’t you tell me before?”
Prince Xiardo had to become serious and reprimanded Fenrir in a low voice.
“I, I clearly wasn’t seeing this future before…”
Fenrir slightly raised his helmet and wiped the sweat from his forehead, quickly defending himself. “Just a few days ago, I was still seeing conflicts between Demon Scholars and Alchemists, while the Children of the Moon were accumulating power in the dark.
At that time, our main enemies should have been the Academy and the Rose Cross Society, because I saw that they were about to perform a very dangerous ritual that could endanger the safety of the entire Star Antinomy…”
“—What do you mean by that? Can you be more rigorous, Mr. Fenrir! Has the future suddenly been so easily changed?”
“No, how would I know…”
Fenrir opened his mouth, unable to refute.
Although the future sometimes changed, the changes were usually not significant. It was like a weather forecast: if it said tomorrow would be sunny and much warmer, it wouldn’t suddenly turn into a blizzard.
Fenrir, as a “prophet-type retainer” who helped his master avoid danger by predicting the future, was too late to issue a warning.
It was like a bodyguard calling his boss at night after discovering an intruder: “Boss, there’s a bad guy who broke in.”
In reality, when the boss received this call, the intruder had already been sitting beside him for a while.
What use would you have then?
Only Alistair probably knew what was happening.
If the “script” had followed the previous development, everything would have led to the future known by Eivass—the internal powers of Star Antinomy would still be entangled, but this civil war would not have broken out until the Demon Scholars completed the Ouroboros Ring ritual.
But Alistair had obviously inherited Eivass’s unique characteristic… She was entangled with so much karma that any plan directly targeting her was bound to encounter unexpected events, and any prophecy directed at her would become inaccurate.
Predestined fate was like a powerless curse before her—and Alistair was immune to all curses.
“…How could this be?”
Alistair fell into deep thought.
Initially, she had simply felt an inexplicable rage and began investigating if someone was performing an evil ritual that had affected her.
As a result, Alistair was like being led by a “mud truck of hatred.”
She followed the faint clues to Viscount Konalei, and Viscount Konalei was killed along the way; she then investigated Count Dawn, and even though it wasn’t him, he was still killed along the way; then she investigated Alfonse—this was not done along the way, but in short, he was also heartily killed.
As a result, after a series of chain reactions, the Banquet Master was unexpectedly elevated!
In Eivass’s memory, the Banquet Master never ascended to Banquet Heavenly Envoy… otherwise, he would have had memories of such an important event. At least in his memory, the Banquet Master should have been the “future Banquet Heavenly Envoy,” not the “Disc of Hengwo.”
Count Dawn’s ritual most likely consumed the Liver of the Fool directly. But at least after the Fallen Heavenly Envoy Descended, there was no BOSS named “Count Dawn” in the dungeons of Star Antinomy.
So this rare material was wasted by him. Of course, it was also possible that he realized that the Red Phase knew that he had this item… and not wanting to give it to the Red Phase, and fearing for his own safety, he deliberately destroyed it or sold it to protect himself.
—And from this perspective, the current favorable situation for the Red Phase was actually related to Alistair!
Upon realizing this, Alistair immediately felt a bit overwhelmed.
What’s going on? Am I really one of the Red Phase?!
(End of Chapter)