Stephen's face turned red for a while, then pale for a while.
He wanted to get angry, but looking at the black-clad man of unfathomable strength before him, he didn't dare do anything.
Seeing Stephen's reaction, the black-clad man knew the mission was complete.
"Alright! Pack it up!"
The black-clad man clapped his hands, and the others all followed behind him.
Then, they just walked out of the venue in front of tens of thousands of Yage City citizens.
The citizens could only watch helplessly as they left.
Stephen stared blankly at all this happening, not knowing what he should do.
But when all the black-clad men had left the venue and he felt the citizens' gazes all looking at him, he snapped back to reality as if waking from a dream.
The citizens were still watching!
No matter what, he had to muddle through this predicament!
Stephen used his reasonably clever brain to think and came up with his next approach.
No matter what, a small city-state like Yage City absolutely couldn't contend with a great empire like Elasia.
So, it seemed he had no choice but to run.
Escaping to other city-states would be somewhat difficult, and he might be hunted by Elasian forces in the future.
It seemed better to flee to the Iron Empire. If he could really escape there, Elasia definitely wouldn't anger the Iron Empire just to silence him.
After all, the Iron Empire was so much stronger than Elasia.
Stephen's small eyes rolled, the corners of his mouth turned up, and a despicable plan immediately formed.
He definitely had to run.
But he had just become consul, and people's eyes were all on him—it wasn't good for him to run.
He had to shift people's attention elsewhere!
And as for how to shift it, wasn't that simple?
Thinking of this, Stephen forced himself to display a look of righteous indignation.
"Citizens of Yage City, please listen to me!"
The noise in the citizen seats caused by the earlier incident immediately stopped.
Stephen continued loudly:
"Everyone! The letter in my hand was written by the Emperor of Elasia to our Yage City!"
Pointing to the letter in his hand, Stephen shouted:
"He says in the letter that Elasia originally planned to slowly control Yage City together with Chris, and now that we've overthrown the dictator, he's decided to directly control Yage City through force since his plan failed!"
Looking at the citizens on stage, Stephen shouted:
"Everyone, tell me! Can we hand over the freedom in our hands to them?"
"If you don't want to, then I will lead you to fight to the death!"
Having said that, Stephen raised his right fist high.
"Yage City will never fall!"
The citizens had no idea how fragile city-states were before great empires, and being stirred up by Stephen like this, they all became excited.
"Yage City will never fall!"
The excited voices of the people echoed throughout Yage City for a long time.
Seeing that the citizens' emotions had all been stirred up by him, Stephen was delighted.
"Everyone, I will hold a parade this afternoon for our city-state's traitor Chris, and execute her early tomorrow morning!"
......
Returning to his villa, before Stephen had time to pack his escape belongings, his attendant asked:
"Lord Consul, how should we fight against Elasia?"
The furious Stephen directly slapped him.
"What bullshit are you talking about! How could we fight a war with that kind of great empire?"
Moreover, the already few usable weapons had all been sold by him...
Most hateful was that he hadn't even received the money!
"But you just said..."
"Ugh! That was just a trick to fool people!"
Stephen finally couldn't bear it anymore and roared at his subordinate.
"Hurry up and pack! Elasia is an existence we simply can't resist!"
"Oh oh oh..."
The subordinate immediately got up to pack.
Stephen immediately called another trusted aide over.
"Hey! Quickly go prepare Chris's public parade! We need to escape while we can!"
"Yes, sir!"
Finally having arranged the tasks, Stephen watched his subordinates leave and took out the envelope from his pocket, tearing it to shreds.
"Damn! Damn! Damn!"
Now that he had calmed down and thought about it.
Many things were wrong.
Why would a lord of a great empire spend so much money buying his wine?
Why did they so readily agree to his request?
Why was the purchase price for those weapons so high?
None of this made sense!
But... why did Elasia absolutely have to destroy Yage City?
He really couldn't figure it out!
Could doing this benefit the Elasia Empire somehow?
Why would they even put on such a big show with him?
Was it just for fun!
Thinking of this, the angry Stephen picked up a vase and angrily smashed it on the ground.
He had prepared for so long, had just achieved success not long ago, only to learn this was all an act?
He had originally thought himself the chess player, only to discover in the end—he was actually just a chess piece?
Most hateful was that not only was he just a chess piece, this was all just entertainment?
Who could stand this!