Meanwhile, in the capital of Albano...
Lulu had just discovered, alongside her mother, the queen, the terrifying news coming from Vogel.
And it was indeed terrifying for them. After all, the alliance against the Flaming Empire depended on each of the four states involved.
At the same time, each state depended significantly on its royal families, the greatest powers in these kingdoms.
So the downfall of the Vogel family was not as different for them as losing a leg in a chair. This event brought to their alliance an imbalance that could bring down all these states and their royal families in no time!
Could this chair support itself with only three legs?
Maybe temporarily, as long as the Church was taking care of Vogel. But no one on the side of this alliance was confident that they would get through this incredible challenge unscathed.
Considering the fear of a full-scale war against the Flaming Empire, the core of the West family was shocked. Everyone seemed to want peace and to avoid a war, but then, boom, a fool named Abe Vogel had poked a hornet's nest and ran while leaving the innocents behind to get screwed!
With that, some in the royal throne hall were depressed about the challenging times ahead, others felt a sense of urgency, and others felt anger at House Vogel.
"Damn!"
"Damn lunatics!" The Crown Princess of this kingdom, Iris West's eldest daughter, Joan West, level 70, shouted as she stepped on the sheets of paper she had just thrown on the ground. "How are they so crazy as to do something like this? What kind of idiot would defy the damned Spiritual Church?"
"Abe Vogel..." Lulu replied in a low voice, feeling terrible about the whole thing, even more so considering that things were starting to develop better with the agreement with the Black Plain.
The Black Plain was still far from making a positive difference for Albano. But such a place had great connections with the Flaming Empire, so with their relationship with Minos' government improving, the West family had excellent prospects ahead of them.
Unfortunately, Abe seemed to want to ruin the plans of this female-led family!
The queen then commented in a low voice. "No wonder there were so many rumors in the underworld of my state about the Black Plain... That little bastard was trying to endanger my family with his affairs against this young Minos!"
The news regarding Vogel's troubled situation did not just talk about the previous conflict or local fears. No, there was also information about why the Church had acted against the royal family of that state.
Because of this, everyone who came into contact with the recent news from Vogel discovered that such a family was behind the Spiritual Saints that had disturbed the Black Plain in recent years.
The matter of the Spiritual Saints going to the Black Plain to try to deal with Minos was old news. After all, both the Church was investigating the matter, and the Gray Clouds Sect had acted on several occasions.
So, naturally, people who closely followed continental news were aware of the problem on the Black Plain, and Iris readily associated such a thing with the previous rumors in her state.
Such rumors had caused thousands of criminals from Albano to head for the Black Plain and even a vassal organization of theirs to dare to act against the laws of the Spiritual Church.
So, upon understanding who had created problems for her and tried to make her life difficult, this queen could not help but feel betrayed by these allies.
She then gave her orders concerning this problem. "Put a bounty on Abe Vogel's head for me! If he is caught, I want to personally rip the head off the bastard who tried to involve my kingdom in his troubles!"
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
"On the other hand," she looked at Lulu. "Contact the Black Plain. I want those people to try to contact the Gray Clouds Sect. We need to immediately start talking about how to avoid a war!"
"All right, mother."
...
Not only was the West family lamenting the storm that House Vogel had attracted for them. Blackrock and Rosser had also reacted negatively to the recent news, with many high-level experts leaving for Vogel to monitor the situation closely.
At the same time, each of these states, including Albano, had already increased security on their borders, fearing a sudden invasion by the Flaming Empire.
Vogel would not be attacked in the short term since the Church had temporarily taken over that state. But those other three alliance kingdoms were unprotected, without the help of the Church or the partnership of its allies from that state now in chaos.
Thus the empire's border area with these states, which was usually already under conflict, had suddenly gained many additions and had its tensions raised considerably.
But until now, nothing else unusual had happened, with each side just being in great tension of the hard times that could start at any moment.
All it would take is one action on the part of the empire, and chaos would spread!
And just as everyone in the alliance was preparing for such a thing, the emperor received such news!
...
"Hahahahahahahahaha, the brat of Oswald was right!"
"The damned Vogel dared to act against the Spiritual Church!"
"I didn't think they would make it so easy for us. It's as if they were working to help us unify the entire central area of the continent!"
"Maybe that Abe guy wants to see our rise!"
Several high-ranking generals of the imperial guard commented, while the mood was festive in the throne hall, where that red-haired fellow, the emperor, was sitting on his throne with a newspaper in his hands.
'This is fascinating!' This man, who looked young, but had eyes marked by the experience of millennia, had a sparkle in his eyes as he read the words on the paper in his hands.
'Why would they do something like this? What would they gain by acting against the Black Plain and even fighting against the Church?' He wondered since the Vogel news did not talk about the Vogel family's act against Minos, which motivated all that action on the part of the Church.
What was in the news about it was the strange phenomenon that had appeared in the Vogel capital hours before that historic conflict. There was also information about a masked subject, level 61, who had taken part in the pre-battle discussions and had insinuated various accusations against that family.
Hence, the emperor had no way of knowing the exact situation that had made the Vogel family desperate enough to fight without even trying a diplomatic route.
Therefore, he was very curious, not as pleased about all this as his subordinates discussing the matter.
'Anyway, there is something wrong in all this, and the Church has even taken over power in that state, doing something like that for the first time in history...'
'So is it better for me to act immediately? Or maybe wait for the Church to return that state to a local power? Surely there will be chaos after that...'
