Extraordinary in Reality Through Magic Games

478: Chapter 459 Fire Behind UsThe ongoing fierce battle in the mountains did not disturb the peace in the rear.

Brando sat in the quiet study, sorting through the unexpected events that had occurred in succession over recent days, as well as the source of his current vexation.

This all had to be traced back to the survivors after the fall of the Ice and Snow Empire.

The remnants of the royal family arrived in a remote corner of the continent, unified the various Kingdoms to establish Lake, and launched a decisive battle against the Kingdom.

The outcome was a crushing defeat for the Kingdom, which, after a period of dormancy spent ceding territory and paying reparations to gain time for development, experienced a resurgence and began a history of entanglement with Lake that lasted for thousands of years.

In the memories of the Kingdom’s upper echelons, that was a history of humiliation and extreme pain, yet the facts hidden beneath it were even more desperate than their memories.

In this war, the Kingdom was destined to fail from the very beginning.

Ice and Snow was an empire after all, and the power of an empire was something the Kingdoms could not even begin to imagine, much like a Farmer thinking an emperor must use a golden hoe to farm.

In reality, the emperor did not work at all.

At that time, the perception of the Kingdom’s people was that the empire was strong because it possessed more High-tier Professionals, more Saint-level, Gods Blessing, and Epic individuals; they completely failed to understand that the true terror of the empire lay in the massive amount of secret arts accumulated by monopolizing top-tier dungeons in certain regions.

For example, soul replacement.

The King of Lagu unfortunately perished during the decisive battle between the two countries, and the prince urgently ascended to the throne.

The newly crowned prince was wise and martial; he organized the Legion Commanders to defend against Lake’s invasion of their territory while personally contacting surrounding Kingdoms, exchanging territory for guarantees of non-aggression.

Under his leadership, the Kingdom quickly recovered and became even stronger than before.

The ministers and Legion Commanders were moved to tears; every night before going to bed, and even in their dreams, they would kowtow to the gods in gratitude for bestowing upon the Kingdom such a heroic king.

However, they did not know that the very next day after this peerless king put on the crown, a foreign soul had taken up residence within his body.

That was a royal descendant of Lake.

The empire’s vision far exceeded that of the Kingdoms. In the eyes of Lake (Ice and Snow), if there was a way to easily occupy an enemy country, why expend the effort to send troops to attack?

The Lake descendant who occupied the body of the King of Lagu lay in wait for years, leading the Kingdom toward prosperity in the image of the king that the ministers imagined.

As for why he didn’t simply lead the Kingdom to surrender to Lake, that was the result of the King of Lake’s careful consideration back then.

He speculated that the true identity of Lake would eventually be exposed in the future, and surrounding Kingdoms would inevitably form an alliance to besiege them; at that time, having the Kingdom act as an undercover agent was clearly more valuable than annexing it.

Under Lake’s secret manipulation, the two countries maintained a superficial state of being mortal enemies at war.

To gain the trust of surrounding Kingdoms, every time the two countries announced war losses, they claimed massive sacrifices of High-tier Professionals, even the fall of individual Saint-level beings, when in reality, the Soldiers who died on both sides were all low-tier Professionals and ordinary people.

Of course, Lake would not leave obvious flaws—how many Soldiers died, what percentage were High-tier Professionals, and whether Saint-level beings existed could all be confirmed by checking the Soldiers’ corpses on the battlefield.

The King of Lake dispatched the only remaining Gods Blessing of the royal family at the time to raid and kill High-tier Professionals and Saint-level beings in distant Kingdoms, bringing their remains back to be discarded on the battlefield.

A perfect disguise.

Unfortunately, it was eventually seen through by the gods, who descended the Silent Forest to stop the drama directed by Lake; as for the specific purpose, or the intention behind reclaiming the Silent Forest not long ago, no one knew.