I JUST WANT A PEACEFUL LIFE

While Ian's group departs from the capital city, the situation at the Heart Kingdom border becomes more intense.

Every day there will be a small confrontation between the Heart kingdom with the other. Some people could even hear some small battle over the Heart Kingdom border.

Still, there is no major battle that has happened yet. They were only trying to gather intelligence and test each other's power.

In the meantime, inside the Nergal kingdom royal palace, a muscular man with majestic battle armor looks at the suspicious black-robed person in front of him.

"Are you sure it will work?" asked the muscular man.

"Don't worry, sir. Everything is ready. They will never expect it." said the black-robed person.

"I see. Then, do it and don't leave any trace to us. We don't want those religious organizations to know about our deal." said the muscular man.

"Yes, sir." said the black-robed man.

After that, the black-robed man disappears into the shadow while the muscular man smiles sinisterly.

"Just you wait, Heart Kingdom. I will destroy you with my own hand." said the muscular man.

A few days later, the Heart Kingdom suddenly receives news that there is an epidemic outbreak in some rural villages. Since it is currently in the transition season, it is quite normal for an epidemic to spread in the rural villages.

Hence, most people ignore this news. Each of the nobles thinks they could handle the epidemic like usual as it is pretty normal for the epidemic to occur at this time of the year.

Another few weeks passed, to everyone's surprise, the epidemic spread faster and destroyed a few rural villages. At first, the local authority and aristocrats didn't want to send the news to the capital city since they wanted to cover this failure to avoid getting blamed and punished.

However, the epidemic is more potent and very contagious. It managed to spread towards one of the major cities, Sunset City. Because it is one of the big cities, the news immediately reaches the capital city.

In just a few days, almost a quarter of the city residents get infected by the disease. This epidemic was also heard by Angus.

"Epidemic, huh??" said Angus.

"Yeah, because of that, master Valeron sent some people to find the cure for the disease." said Vigo while eating his meal.

"Haa… That's why I keep proposing to awaken all our people's mana to the kingdom." said Gilford.

"True… Even though they may only reach fight grade in their entire life. They will have more endurance and resistance to most of the disease. The dwarf community also deployed this kind of policy with the same purpose." said Balrug.

Currently, Angus is having lunch with the others inside the research center's canteen.

"Still, we cannot underestimate such a large-scale epidemic. In my time, few deadly diseases could still infect mana user people." said Benjamin.

"Agreed. Even in Sur village, there is some rare disease that could still kill us. But it is super rare. It only happens in one among one million people." said Gilford.

"Ehh… That seems very dangerous. I become more afraid about this epidemic." said Vigo.

"I think you should be fine." replied Angus.

"Huhh?? How so? I am only in first grade." said Vigo.

"I am not sure about some rare or dangerous disease, but most of the disease couldn't infect people with very dense mana."

"Even though you are only first grade, you have very dense mana. I bet old man Draught did something to you to make your mana very dense." said Angus.

"Ehh… Really??" asked Vigo.

"Yeah, since you get accepted by old man Draught's disciple, your mana become denser each day. At first, it was very subtle. But, since I reached third grade, I could feel your mana is very dense. Currently, It is comparable to those third-grade combatants." explained Angus.

"Wow.. I didn't even realize it myself." said Vigo.

"Of course, since it is only becoming denser and not increasing in quantity. Besides, the change is very subtle." said Angus.

Then, they continue their chat while sharing some of their current project problems and giving solutions to others like usual.

Suddenly, a commotion was heard in the canteen. Some people begin running and going around the place. Seeing this, Angus decided to ask one of the researchers about what happened.

"Hey, what's going on?" asked Angus

"Hii.. M-Master Angus." startled the researcher as he suddenly stopped by Angus.

Although Angus is still young, he is respectable among the researchers inside the facility. He even has the same authority and ranks as Benjamin, Vigo, and Gilford, who is only second to Master Valeron.

"Calm down. I just want to ask you why everyone seems in a hurry?" asked Angus.

"Errm.. We just heard that the expert who is sent to Sunset city gets infected by the disease itself. According to some rumors, the epidemic is highly contagious and dangerous." explained the researcher.

"Currently, Master Valeron is searching for people to send towards the sunset city. Usually, the lowest rank of researchers like us will be sent. So, now we are in a hurry to prove our worth not to get sent to Sunset City." added the researcher.

'It seems this epidemic is more dangerous than we thought.' thought Angus.

"Hm… Did you have other news…" asked Angus.

Before he could finish his sentence, "What!! The Nergal Kingdom officially declares war towards the Heart Kingdom!!" shouted one of the researchers in the canteen while reading a letter.

This shout immediately attracts all the researchers in the canteen and immediately surrounds the researcher. On the researcher's hand, there is a crystal projection that shows a projection about King Andvari, the king of the Nergal kingdom, doing a speech towards his masses.

In the speech, King Andvari tries to give the Heart Kingdom a bad name while justifying their war and invasion. After the projection ended, everyone couldn't help but have a little bit of panic, especially the lower rank researcher.

"Where did you get this projection?" asked one of the researchers.

"I get it from my cousin that doing some business in the Nergal Kingdom. According to him, King Andvari didn't even cover the news about his war declaration and even let all the people in the kingdom know about it." replied the researcher that has crystal projection.

"Damn.. We still have this kind of strange epidemic. Now, there is also a war that has hit us." said another researcher.

"I am not signing up for these." said another researcher becoming more panicked.

Just before everyone becomes more panicked, "Enough!! Everyone goes towards your respective place and continues your task until further notice." said Balrug loudly.

Hearing this, the researcher calms down a little bit before dispersing. However, everyone knows that currently, the Heart Kingdom is in a dangerous situation. Before everyone goes away, Angus stops the research that holds the crystal projection.

"Did you know when this war declaration happened?" asked Angus.

"According to my cousin's letter, it is this morning at the Nergal kingdom capital city." replied the researcher.

"I see.. Thanks. You can go now." said Angus.

After that, Angus's group also went towards their respective places as they didn't have the mood to continue their meal and talk. Most of them know the cruelty of war. Whatever the reason is, war will always lead to destruction, death, and hatred.

For them, war is nothing but the source of pain and will only lead to more conflict. Even Angus, also didn't like the concept of war.

For him, who only wants to have a peaceful life, war is the last thing he wants to experience. Although he knows that war is inevitable, he is still quite shocked about it.

After staying inside his working room in silence for a while, Angus decides to meet Jayna to freshen up his mood. Right now, all he wants is to embrace his girlfriend and discard all his negative thoughts.

Then, Angus immediately went out of the research center before sneaking in towards the royal palace. He couldn't sneak out of the research center since he needs to be checked every time he leaves or comes inside the research center.

It will only lead to trouble if he is sneaked out of the research center. On the contrary, he needs to sneak into the royal palace since if people see him coming and going from it, it will only create more unnecessary attention and commotion.

Successfully sneaking into the royal palace, Angus begins to move stealthily towards Jayna's location. Currently, Jayna is inside her private training ground with Anna. Arriving at the training ground, Angus finds Jayna and Anna sparring with each other.

They keep clashing with each other and creating a small shockwave around the training ground. Suddenly, Anna, who is already using her transformation, opens her mouth and shoots black light energy [Miasma Blast].

Seeing this, Jayna immediately creates a huge wing made of fire and envelops her entire body [Phoenix Shield]. The wing completely defends against Anna's miasma blast. Not long after that, Anna stopped shooting Miasma Blast and slumped on the ground, exhausted.