The Rise of the Black Plain

While Christian's group settled their affairs in the City of Flowers before they left for the Brown Kingdom, another group was investigating in another part of the northern Central Continent.

The Silva family's Spiritual Kings had just arrived in Yellow City to continue their search for clues about Sarah's group's death.

There were few inhabited cities in this region of the Kingdom of the Waves where Sarah's party might have passed between their last sighting and death.  And the Yellow City was one of those.

But before coming here, while traveling through these regions, the group led by Urban had already passed through some villages. Some of it had only a few dozen people, while others were abandoned, with some bodies left in the streets...

Criminal activity in this small region on the border between the Black Plain and the Kingdom of the Waves had always been abounding with danger, with the presence of bandits and pirates.

Consequently, the group had not been surprised at all, even when they found what appeared to be an entire family dismembered in one of these villages...

However, the group had found no clues about Sarah's group, so they had quickly continued their journeys to the Yellow City.

That was one of the most populated cities in this border region of the Kingdom of the Waves. So, the Silva family's investigative group thought it would have a better chance of finding something around here.

However, things looked a little different from what they expected.

...

Entering from the west side of the Yellow City, the three subordinates of the Silva family were feeling quite strange right now, as if they were being pranked.

The three Spiritual Kings did not hear any sound that would undoubtedly be caught in cities inhabited by humans. There were no traditional animal sounds, the noises generated by certain professionals, such as builders and carpenters.

There was also no trace of the sounds generated by conversations and people coming into the streets.

From the sounds they didn't hear, it looked like they'd just entered a ghost town.

And it must be said, the hearing ability of a Spiritual King was not weak. Even in a city with the area of the Yellow City, these men should at least be able to hear noises generated around at least a third of the town.

They would not distinguish the sounds, of course, and, for example, hear random conversations. But, they would listen to the symphony of sound produced by the various sources of these waves.

And precisely because of this factor, the three of them were feeling very bad for all this silence.

At the same time, when they didn't hear anything 'live' in this city, the surroundings of the buildings they passed through didn't seem right either. There was a lot of dirt on the cobblestone streets, which was much worse than there usually would be, even considering the poor and unkempt places.

The overwhelming majority of houses were completely closed, while some establishments serving the public were empty.

However, the three men noticed that some of the wooden houses had been partially deconstructed, almost as if someone had done it on purpose...

And finally, after walking for a few moments, the group reached the central part of the city, where the government mansion and most commercial properties were located.

When they reached that point, the three stopped in front of that mansion while having different thoughts in their minds.

'What happened in this place?'

'At first, I thought there might be someone else downtown, but I can't feel anything...'

At this point, Urban finally looked at his two companions and said. "Have you received any recent reports on the Kingdom of the Waves? Did something happen here while we were on Stone Island?"

Hearing this, the red-haired man, Scott, shook his head in denial and commented. "The last report I received didn't talk about anything about this city. Just about the situation with King Walker."

"The same for me." The muscular man who was with them shortly agreed after Scott finished speaking.

Scott then said. "I have a friend who has recently been traveling with our family merchants. And from what I've talked to her recently, our family has avoided passing through the Yellow City, given what happened before."

"Oh?" Urban expressed interest in this information when he figured that was why they didn't know anything about this shocking change. "It seems that whatever happened here, it happened between that event, related to the fight against the local thugs, and now."

"But what happened here?" He asked in a low voice as he entered one of the buildings in that central part of town.

And after a few minutes of doing this, the three again stopped in the middle of a street and started talking.

The red-haired man then said. "The houses and buildings I entered were all cleaned up, as if the owners were moving, without any hurry. They took everything, even the kitchen, and bathroom furniture."

"Yes, it seems that the population has moved little by little as if they just decided to go live somewhere else. The citizens of this place definitely weren't being pressured to run away from here." The muscular man concluded.

And hearing that, Urban couldn't help but nod in agreement with his two companions. But, unfortunately, there was no clue left behind that could identify the people who lived in this town.

Only the buildings remained in the Yellow City, without a single piece of furniture in those places!

Urban then said in a resolute tone. "We will send a letter to headquarters informing the situation of this place. That is a bizarre thing, and perhaps it has greater implications than we can imagine."

"Hmm, true. But does this have anything to do with that conflict that happened here? As far as we know, only the weakest criminals from that band had been present when the group was destroyed. Perhaps when the leaders returned, the situation developed differently." Scott commented, trying to imagine the outcome of that situation.

"Perhaps..."

"It's a shame that the Kingdom of the Waves doesn't give this region any value. Otherwise, we could at least find someone to pass on this information."

"Hmm, but with King Walker's situation, I'm not sure they would care about that, even if this place was much better..."

Urban then finished while looking at the sides of this abandoned city. "Let's look for clues from Sarah's group. Maybe they died in this place before this strange event happened."

"It makes sense. That could even explain the mass escape of this population..."

...

While the Silva family's group of Spiritual Kings continued investigating the strange situation in Yellow City, in another part of the Kingdom of the Waves, a group of people was arriving at a specific coastal port.

That place was on the northwest coast of the Kingdom of the Waves, the region where most of that state's population was concentrated.

This region had many cities with more than 1 million inhabitants, many of which had seaports to export the kingdom's many resources. Consequently, this was one of the wealthiest and most urbanized regions in this northern region of the Central Continent, with many quality services.

And this town in which that group had just arrived was one of the 15 arrival points for the kingdom, along the coast, one of the closest to Stone Island.

Anyway, in that big port in this town, in the part where the ships that transported people were, that group of people was just leaving their ship and going through the local immigration.

This group consisted of six people, four men and two women, who dressed very differently.

And while they were paying fees and identifying themselves at that immigration post, some of them talked in low voices about the mission they were on.

"Our two targets arrived at this port about an hour before us. Are our compatriots who live in the Kingdom of the Waves chasing them? Otherwise, we could lose the traces of those two." One of them said while looking at one of the two women in the group.

"Don't worry, these people are just as trustworthy as you, Teddy. They already knew that we and our targets would get here today, so they would never lose sight of those two."

"Hmph, I hope so. Otherwise, I won't be the one to explain to the patriarch any failure in the mission." Another woman who was beside them said seriously.

"We'll see if that Nash girl finds a common business partner or the person responsible for these products…"