As winter approached, the world became more stable. Baery led his Roaring Death Legion into the Country of Mercenaries and settled near the Ellisen Empire. The Maho army to the north turned to the Ellisen Empire as well. It was apparent that the Maho Empire was gearing up for one last conflict, and that unity was not far away in their future.
In a situation like this, not much could be done. Other than sending out diplomats and expanding its army, the Ellisen Empire couldn't do anything else to change their situation. The core members of the League were scattered. Even though no one knew what Anfey was doing, the members were even more tight-knit than before. This was possible because they now had a greater, common goal.
Christian went back to Sacred City with Saul's students. He remembered what Anfey had told him and maintained a low profile after his return to the city. Even if he didn't do anything, he would still receive the credit for the decisive victory at Diamond City. If he didn't keep a low profile, his brothers would feel too threatened.
After occupying Diamond City and the palace, the Maho army found a huge amount of magic crystals in the mage towers and the palace vault. Even though Baery took more than half of the crystals, there were still more than enough remaining. Entos used the crystals to set up three transmission arrays, one in Diamond City, one in White Mountain City, and the third in Saul's mansion. This allowed Christian, Alice, and Anthony to communicate very easily. In case of an emergency, they could even teleport straight to those places.
Despite the sensitivity of having non-government issued transmission arrays, Yolanthe did not say anything about it. A few members of the court tried to take the issue up with him and failed.
After Anthony started working with Anfey and the League, he maintained a low profile, even handing his position off to his son. This was because he knew there was no point in creating more conflicts.
Now that Anfey trusted him with more important things, like being in charge of the Country of Mercenaries, there was no point in keeping his head down anymore. After he returned to the Country of Mercenaries, his mercenary group, Glory mercenary group officially became part of the League. After speaking with Christian and Alice, he found Marino and asked for help in governing the Country of Mercenaries.
Anthony was very generous to mercenaries who joined the League willingly, while he applied pressure to those who wanted to stay neutral. When it came to those who wanted to fight against him, he was ruthless in eliminating them.
Because of Anthony and the League's reputation, more than two hundred thousand mercenaries soon joined the League. As the mercenaries gathered under one banner, the merchants became more alert. Now that the mercenaries were united, it made it harder for the merchants to trade.
However, Anthony did not do anything to harm the merchants' benefits. Yolanthe needed stability, and the merchants would not like it if Anthony did anything to harm their interests. Having high prices for magic crystals would also interfere with the daily lives of the mercenaries, and it would harm the Country of Mercenaries.
When Anthony first proposed his plan, Alice told him to stand down and not cause any conflicts. She also told him that he needed to start stocking up on food, because that was one of the biggest disadvantages of the Country of Mercenaries. Because of Wester's close ties with the merchants, if a trade war did occur, he could blame Wester for the damage.
Compared to Anthony's, Alice's approach was much gentler. After Christian left Diamond City, she got along very well with both Wester and Grandon. Wester had once spoken with Alice about appointing one of his men to be in charge of Diamond City.
However, this was contradictory to Yolanthe's plan. Yolanthe wanted someone who knew Shansa Empire's people and culture to be in charge. He knew that having someone from another country governing the capital may cause discontent among the people.
Wester only asked in order to see how Alice responded, he did not expect Alice to agree. However, the man was only in charge of the city for three days before Alice executed him.
Wester was very angry about it, and went to demand an answer from Alice. Alice, however, was ready. She gave him many evidences of the man's corrupt and indecent behavior. She told him that she wanted to help him, but that he had chosen the wrong man for the job. Wester was still angry, and asked her why she had come after his man, when everyone else in the world was doing the same thing.
Alice grew angry as well, and accused Wester of being ridiculous. This was a well-timed ploy by Alice. A lot of important people, including Saul and Grandon, were present, and heard the exchange.
The people of the Maho and Shansa Empire had a relatively peaceful winter. The only thing that caused some unrest was the presence of necromancers in the small castle located two hundred miles east of Sacred City. Every resident of the castle was killed by the necromancers and turned into zombies. When daylight came, all the zombies perished under the sun.
This event sent a shock wave through the nation. Miorich was sent to investigate it, but not much came out of the investigation. After Wester received the news of what had happened to his mother's family, he fell ill. After learning the news, Alice was glad. Christian, on the other hand, kept the low profile he had been maintaining.
Even though Wester's mother's family was far from being the center of politics, they were not powerless. Volte and Julie were both proof of that. It was better to eliminate the threat early.
Even though his actions may have caused Yolanthe to distrust him, Anfey did not care much. If he couldn't defeat Minos, it didn't matter who became the king. If he did, no one would remember the family he murdered.
Anfey respected Yolanthe, but he had his own plans. His and Suzanna's future was not the only thing he needed to protect. He also had to protect Christian and Alice, and all of his other friends.