The Ladro Institute hid the incident of the Ibish village from the public. It would bring various troubles to the kingdom. The fact that the institute fought the Deadly Sins and killed its people were already a huge case.
The citizens of the kingdom will feel restless at the thought of Deadly Sins attacking their kingdom. The Deadly Sins attacking a huge kingdom wasn't new. There were cases when the bringers of calamity causing destruction in the huge kingdoms or countries. This was the reason why the citizens felt nervous and scared at the same time. No one could guarantee their lives with such people attacking their kingdom.
"Just who would release such news to the public...?"
Souta continued to read the news and he didn't found anything related to the bloodstone.
It seems that the people who release this news were afraid to publicize the bloodstone. Of course, they were anxious to release such news. It would cause the citizens to panic if they knew that the Deadly Sins' goal was in this kingdom.
Then, the story about the incident in the Ibish village. It told that Souta fought two people from Deadly Sins on his own after consuming two monster potions. The news also included the casualties and damage towards the whole area. The death of the corps guardians and the destroyed Ibish village.
The news was written like it didn't care about what Souta did. But Souta was having a problem with such details of him released to the public. The fact that he woke up after two weeks was released to the public bothered him.
He wasn't even going to be surprised if the King of the Hebrei kingdom asked him to come to the Royal Capital.
His body became a valuable research material. He was sure right now that the attention of the people who were researching about the best feram was on him. They must be dying to know how he could survive and recover easily from drinking two monster potions.
Souta looked at the next page and saw a small article about his fight with Gregory. There's also about what happened in the Fersch dukedom. He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.
"The person who wrote this is trying to gather the attention of the whole kingdom to me. Of course, it will not work immediately but in the future..." He knitted his eyebrows in displeasure.
"Do you think it's better if you lay low for a while?" Jimmy suggested to him.
"Nope, I will continue without caring about them." Souta shook his head. He wouldn't change his plan just because of some news.
"But that's..." Jimmy didn't manage to finish his sentence as Souta interrupted him.
"I'm dancing in their palms? Well, I wonder about that." Souta mumbled while rubbing his chin. It's true that if he got into the Forest of Eternal Light, the person who wrote this will probably write another article about him. If this continues, then he would gather the attention of the citizens in the whole kingdom.
He doesn't know what's the goal of that person but he was sure that it will be revealed once he gathered the attention of the whole kingdom.
If that person wants to play, then Souta will play with that person without hesitation. In fact, he will make it easy for that person.
He will sweep out all the low-level dungeons in the Forest of Eternal Light. He knew the position of the dungeons with his knowledge from the game. It's possible for him to sweep it with his current strength.
Souta wanted to know what plan they have for him if he somehow gathered the attention of the whole kingdom.
But that's not the problem right now. Souta was curious about how the Ladro Institute will handle this problem for him. Will they help him or stayed silent about this incident? Will they block those people that were interested in Souta or not? Or the Institute itself will launch a research about how he managed to recover from taking two monster potions?0
"This is bad," Jimmy said with a sigh.
"Yeah, but don't think about it." Souta nodded and said to Jimmy. He then read the rest of the news in the paper.
The other news was about the Mechanic Country. The Mechanic country just wiped out the surrounding small countries and kingdoms around it. It was the most dominant country in the western part of the continent.
The news was about how the three large countries around it joined forces to pushed back the overwhelming army of the Mechanic country. The Sy, Rhine, Distrok, and Mechanic countries were separated by a forest called Boundary Woods.
Souta knew that this was the beginning of the rise of the Mechanic country. No one would be able to stop its rise. It would reach the level of the three great countries in the future.
He then looked at the other news in the paper. The other news was about how the prime minister of the Zomus country died. The Zomus country was situated in the south of the Hebrei kingdom. It was one of the large countries in the eastern part of the continent.
The rest of the news was about the situation of the other large countries. There was chaos in some cities. It was the starting point of how the destruction engulfed the whole continent.
If there were players in this world, then they would be able to somehow stop it or decreased the casualties. Just like what happened in the Fersch dukedom. If Souta and the rest didn't kill the peak third evolution monster then the monster would wipe out the entire dukedom.
Souta closed his eyes and only opened it after a while. He took a deep breath and returned the newspaper to Jimmy. He was anxious about the future and he couldn't help it. Other people were looking forward to the future but him... Souta was afraid about the destruction that will swallow the entire world.
He needed to do everything he could to survive.
Souta looked at the six people behind him and said, "I'll give you five minutes to prepare your things. Meet me at the north gate of the city."
After that, Souta bid farewell and went to the Adventurers Guild. He wanted to take a quest towards the Eternal Empire but there's none on the quest board. Well, it's understandable as it was far away from Hebrei kingdom.
Luckily, he found an escort quest towards the Septiz country. This quest was enough for him as they were going to pass Septiz country first before they arrived at the Forest of Eternal Light.
...
Souta met with the members of his party in the north gate of the city.
"Yuko!" Cluster jumped around and hugged Yuko's body. She rubbed her cheeks on Yuko's fluffy fur.
Souta looked at them with a smile before he turned his head to Lumilia. Bryan, Yujin, Alice, Lynn, and Brando were packing their things in the carriage.
"How is it?" He asked before he took a glance at the carriage behind Lumilia.
"It's fine, we can handle this quest," Lumilia said in response and she also looked at the carriage behind her.
"I'll leave them to you. Don't let Bryan do some stupid things." Souta said to her.
"I understand. I'll keep an eye on him." Lumilia nodded her head.
"Also, protect Cluster." Souta moved his eyes on the side to look at Cluster who was hugging Yuko.
"I know." Lumilia nodded. Even if Souta didn't say it, she will protect Cluster from any harm that could befall her.
"If you have any problem just shoot a spell in the sky. I'm just behind you so I could help you somehow." Souta spoke with a serious expression.
"If we ever encounter things that we couldn't handle I'll immediately ask for your help," Lumilia replied to him with a bitter expression. She looked down at her feet and hoped that will not happen. She doesn't want Souta to use another monster potion. She doesn't want to see him lying on the bed with a painful look.
That's why she tried to improve her strength in the past two weeks that Souta was out. She also bought herself a set of purple grade equipment from the money she got from selling the peak third evolution monster. She wanted an orange grade weapon or equipments but it's hard to find it without proper connection.
After a while, Lynn and the rest approached Souta and Lumilia.
"I heard from Lumilia that you're not joining us in this quest," Brando said as he wanted to confirm it from Souta himself.
"Yeah, I have another quest with the members of the Lanny corp but that doesn't mean that I'm not going to Eternal Empire. You're just going there first." Souta explained to them and everyone understood his words. He then looked at them and added, "Follow Lumilia's words. She will command you and don't do things without informing her. Especially you Bryan, don't run around fighting monster left and right."
"I know. I know." Bryan replied to him.
Alice and Yujin looked at Lumilia. They felt that Souta was favoring her more than the other members of the Dark Oculus.
Souta bid farewell to them and they left. He waited for a few minutes before his subordinates arrived. They quickly settled the things with their contractor and left.
Lumilia also asked for leave in the institute. Three weeks leave. This was enough to settle the things in the Forest of Eternal Light. Souta already calculated the time they will consume in their travel.
Even though Souta carefully planned it, there's a lot of unexpected factors that will get in their way in their expedition.
