Chapter 197 - Northern Alliance Expansion

Two years ago... In the base of the Northern Alliance, there were six people around a round table discussing a continental predicament. These six people were the Northern Alliance's leaders, and on their table was their agenda for the next few months in the Eastern Continent.

Lia's goal was to unify the Eastern Continent, but as she could see the small problem in the Eastern Region, she couldn't help but have the idea of ignoring it.

"Rebels are never part of the continent, after all. We might ignore them first and exterminate them later." Lia stated, with a serious expression on her face, moving a few pieces on the map to the side, which indicated less importance to their discussion.

However, there was one member, an old lady, who spoke up about Lia's decision. "But, Sister Lia, leaving the Eastern Region to the rebels and letting them do what they want is neglecting the people of the continent."

Lia was disgusted when she saw the empathetic face of the old lady painted while she spoke about the Eastern Region's people. Lia couldn't feel empathy for her as, in the first place, Lia didn't care about a small number of people being disregarded for a bigger goal.

But, even though Lia was trying to ignore the fewer number of people, she didn't want to create a dispute inside the alliance. As much as possible, if there was nothing wrong with their suggestions, she wouldn't ignore them and disregard their efforts to inform the alliance.

Lia let out a sigh, then nodded. "Okay, as the head of the Alliance, I agree with your idea. However, what we are going to do is to reconstruct the rescue force. Train them as well, with the support of the Sacred Blood of Taulo."

Other members nodded and continued with their main agenda. "So, we are going to expand the alliance. How will we be able to do it?" Lia raised a question.

Other members then gave an idea, starting with the sect leader of the Tangerine Mountain Sect, who was also the old lady who suggested not neglecting the people in the Eastern Region."

"I have an idea, Sister Lia. How about we try to negotiate with them and show them the importance of the alliance."

"That is weak. With the time restriction on us and the tension against the Northern Continent, we won't be able to keep up and achieve the unification of the continent."

"Then, what do you suggest." Another member asked after Jeric said his notion.

"I am afraid that you might not like it." Jeric had his reservation against the other members. After all, the alliance was formed to have a firm authority in the Northern Region.

"You should express your worries, Brother Jeric," Lia stated her point with a neutral expression.

"Hmmm... About it. How about we create one government? What I mean is a dynasty of one family. We have the strongest family in our alliance."

Everyone became silent as their eyes widened and they looked at Jeric. Those eyes seemed to be doubtful and hostile. However, Lia remained calm while the atmosphere was starting to get tense.

"Why are you making such faces? I think that Brother Jeric's idea was great. What do you think?"

The other members, except for Jeric and Thomas, were tense. They seemed to be threatened by the idea that was raised in the discussion.

They were not entirely threatened by it, but what they were thinking about was the risk of putting one family at the head of the government. Hence, since a dynasty was suggested, Jeric might have suggested making a hierarchy different from the Five Great Families.

Lia continued to observe them, and as time passed, she let out a sigh and then lowered her head.

"You don't have to force yourself if you don't want to. You can think of another way of unifying the continent without reforming the government with hierarchy." Lia stated with a monotonous tone in her voice.

The three other members lifted their heads and shook them as if they wanted to deny what Lia was suggesting again. Their systems trembled.

"No Sister Lia, we are not against the idea. We also think that having one authority will be the best method to unify the continent." The other members stated.

"Hmmm... Let's do it. But first, we should wait for the spies to return from the Northern Continent. The information they got will help us in our war with the Northern Continent."

***

After a year, the doors of Yuna Xiao's seclusion training hall opened wide, steam went out, as well as a human figure. A few steps were made, and pacing out of the training hall was a female human figure. And as the steam disappeared, Yuna's face became visible.

She walked out of the seclusion training hall and went straight out into the world, eventually seeing people surrounding the cave where her training hall was. However, her face became stiff as she saw the people in front of her were not the people she was used to. Interestingly, these people were from different regions of the continent.

She was perplexed at first. Then, as she had been fed up with the confusion she had, she asked.

"Who are you all?"

"Greetings, Queen Yuna Xiao, Your Majesty! We are the council of the Xiao Dynasty."

An eyebrow rose as Yuna became more confused about what she had just heard. "Xiao Dynasty? What happened while I was gone?!"

Yuna's eyes were still wide and she looked preoccupied. However, it would not continue as Lia arrived with a sweet smile on her face. She then approached her and said, in a softly spoken tone. "This is your dynasty, Yuna."

"Lia, what happened here?"

Lia softly scoffed. "The continent was already unified."

Yuna's eyes slowly widened more as she felt differently about what she had heard. Her face slowly turned spiritless and a bitter smile appeared on her face. 

"I-I see... But why me? You could have the throne since you worked for it." Yuna said, but behind her voice was a broken tone that she couldn't completely hide.

Lia noticed that Yuna wasn't feeling well about the topic. She faced the council and dismissed them immediately. After they left, Lia approached Yuna with her calm face.

"You didn't like it?"

Yuna was still silent.

"Hey... Can you tell me what is wrong?"

Yuna then faced Lia and said, "I am not against it, but I just felt useless. You managed to unify the continent in two years, but I wasn't even able to do it."

At first, Lia was nervous about Yuna's sentiment. But as she understood Yuna's sentiment, she couldn't help but snicker. "That was it? Why? Are you feeling small?"

"I couldn't help. I was the matriarch of the Xiao family since my father died, but I wasn't even able to unify the continent. But now I will hear that you have already unified the continent. It makes me useless, you know."

Lia made a coy smile as she slowly paced towards Yuna. Yuna only looked at her with spiritless eyes as Lia continued to move as if seducing a person.

"Hey... what is wrong? Your method was just different. You were able to unify the Xiao family, which involves internal affairs. However, since you were not used to public affairs or continental affairs, you were weak at that place."

"What do you mean."

"You already know that I am already old. Since I am old, I have already observed society for many years since I was born. Hence, it is reasonable that I can easily take over the continent."

Yuna lowered her head. "That is reasonable. But, you still did a great job, and now I don't have anything to do anymore."

When Lia heard it, a wide grin appeared on her face as she looked at Yuna.

"Who said that you didn't have any jobs to do? We still have the Eastern Region out of our control. You can capture it if you want."

Yuna took a pause and inquired about it, as she was deeply confused about that matter. "Wait, what? What do you mean? The Eastern Region is easy to get into since the criminals have already gone."

Lia scoffed at what she had heard from Yuna. Yuna was still trapped in the past, and it was understandable that she didn't know what happened in the Eastern Region.

"Hahaha... Eastern Region is under some mysterious person or rebels. We were having a hard time attacking since citizens were everywhere. We cannot differentiate who among them were the innocent people and the rebels."

"Wait... Did you mean rebels? Why would rebels suddenly appear? What happened in that short time?" 

"You won't believe what just happened. The Northern Continent announced war against us; meanwhile, they divided our attention while creating "civil strife" in the Eastern Region. Their method might have been to sandwich us, but since the mysterious person appeared, they failed to take a huge portion of the Eastern Region."

Yuna was lost in her words for a few seconds and then raised a question. "Who is this mysterious person?"