Chapter 351 - Capricious
Just as Rhode expected, merely within three hours after the end of the midsummer festival individual tournament, various rumors with similar content spread across the entire Golden City. Most of the people criticized Starlight mercenary group as shameless and despicable for defeating Rosen using the vile ‘time-dragging’ tactic and even showed no mercy in killing him afterward. It was a humiliation for the midsummer festival and Sacred Arena to have such a ruthless winner; it could even be considered the most shameless victory in the midsummer festival history!
Some radical members even called for a joint alliance to present a petition to Royal Highness Lydia in hope to remove the qualifications of Starlight. Many of them grudgingly denounced Starlight’s bold actions, screaming for the Mercenary Association and Lydia to step out to uphold a fair and justified battle environment. If a mercenary group like Starlight managed to win the championship with such a despicable method, it would eventually set a bad example for other mercenary groups in the future!
Shortly after the event, Starlight became a ‘rat’ with Rhode being regarded as what others referred to as a sinner. Only after pinning him to the Hall of Shame would it bring satisfaction to everyone.
But amidst the intense storm of criticisms, some new viewpoints quietly arose.
Unlike those who condemned Rhode and his Starlight group, the ‘new viewpoints’ were from people who took a neutral stand. They believed Rhode and Starlight didn’t commit any serious crimes and were gravely misunderstood.
Their rationale went like this, “You said they dragged the time in order to defeat Rosen, but you also have to think from another perspective. After Rosen was defeated, Starlight only had Rhode left, right?”
“Rosen faced four opponents, and so did Rhode. The participants of Liberty Wings Guild were much tougher than Starlight members. Other than Rhode, the rest weren’t even at the Advanced Stage. Since Starlight could maintain their advantage and defeat Rosen, why couldn’t Liberty Wings do the same?”
“Isn’t it perfectly normal not to show mercy to your enemies? Since both sides had accepted a life and death challenge, naturally they had to try their best. It is one matter if the opponent can’t bear to kill, but it’s also another matter if you can’t escape, right? Also, wouldn’t it be better if they didn’t agree with the life and death challenge?”
In the beginning, this new logical approach didn’t garner much attention, but in time, it gradually spread like wildfire. This was as expected as only ten of thousands of people witnessed the afternoon tournament which didn’t even count to one-fifth of the total population of Golden City.
How can we permit this?
What do this bunch of uneducated Northern poor bastards even know!!
“This is getting bad…”
“It’s starting… The chaos is starting…”
Standing by the edge on the second floor, Old Walker gazed over the railing at the chaotic pub with a cup of wine in his hand. Many patrons were exchanging insults and even began throwing punches. Frankly, Old Walker had never expected such a scene.
He thought Starlight was done and dusted. After experiencing the storm in the arena, Old Walker began to worry about Starlight’s future. Even though he understood Rhode’s plans, but deep in his heart, he couldn’t help but feel dubious. Could a few words really change the people’s perspective on Starlight? Could his men of utterly inadequate measures be able to spread the words and create the effects that Rhode wanted?
Now, he was absolutely convinced.
The crowd who had insulted Starlight had been divided. Many even threw their fists in the air, screaming Starlight’s name for support while struggling against those who were anti-Starlight. They seemed more loyal than the craziest supporters. Some even announced that they would start supporting Starlight in getting rid of those Southerners!
As Starlight continuously defeated the Southern representative guilds, Sky Sword Guild and Liberty Wings Guild, many Northerners had accepted Starlight as their companions. Not to mention that Starlight even showed respect in their fight with the Purple Lily Guild.
Since that was the case, they didn’t care if Starlight was shameless and despicable. As long as Starlight could get rid of those pretentious and arrogant bastards of the South, then it doesn’t matter if they were more shameless!
Such happenings didn’t only occur in the pub that Old Walker was in. According to his intel, there were similar uproars in other areas, and what surprised him even further was that the people who went against Starlight had become the minority! Furthermore, various Northern nobles and influential mercenary group leaders announced their support for Starlight and labeled those that avoided supporting them as heresy!!
Various rumors mingled and grew so twisted that it made people unable to differentiate this from that.
However, even so, many had the tacit understanding of not mentioning Waltz’s transformation and the actions taken by the battle angels. Anyone could tell that Waltz’s transformation was definitely something odd and after the troop of battle angels surrounded the Liberty Wings Guild, no one wanted in on the matter. If anyone revealed any pitiful thoughts towards Liberty Wings, they would probably have a hard time in future — which was why they focused their energy towards insulting Starlight’s schemes.
However, no matter how Old Walker thought about it, he couldn’t understand — How did Rhode manage to think of all these consequences?