Mount & Blade: Wind of War

Click, click, click, click, click, the sound of gears meshing and running came from inside the machine.

Several guards took various wooden boards and loaded them into the machine's chassis, waiting for the results to appear.

This is not the first time this machine has predicted. On the day it was created, this prophecy machine named "Belle" made three shocking predictions:

1. The riot in Fastel is about to happen.

2. The empire is about to fall into division.

3. The continent will be divided into nine pieces, and the nine powerful races will fight each other and rule in chaos for ten thousand years.

About half a year ago, a riot broke out in Fastel, the capital of the Styak Empire.

Although the royal family tried their best to suppress and control it, some news was still passed through various channels. It was said to be a large-scale religious riot, and it seemed that even the fifth prince was involved.

But after this riot with a lot of casualties, the fifth prince appeared in the public eye again not long after, which seemed to indirectly confirm the error of the rumor.

However, this did not matter to the people in the Lonely Mountain Castle, because the riot at least proved that the prediction of the prophecy machine was accurate to a certain extent.

Although like other prophecies, it is vague and even seems to mislead the reader.

It didn't take long before a yellowed paper was spit out.

After the guard took it, he didn't dare to look at it any more, because at this moment, the room was full of high-ranking officials of Lonely Mountain Castle.

The guard quickly handed the paper to Lord Rhodes.

Rhodes took it and looked at it. His expression didn't change much, but his pupils suddenly expanded when he read it. Then, he closed his eyes and handed the paper in his hand to his confidants beside him:

Fatis, Raymond, Kress, Mad, Suxiu, Valen, Guido, Moken, Resarit, Airen, Atiman, James, Yamila, most of the missing people were out for something.

On the paper, there were only two lines of handwriting:

1. Endless blood will flood Lonely Mountain Castle, and the ground will be full of corpses and burning God's Blessed City.

2. In the next four years, this continent will experience large-scale drought and locust plagues, and countless lives on this continent will be threatened by hunger.

"..."

"..."

Everyone in the room looked at each other because of these words, and fell into a long silence. For a while, they didn't know what to say.

"Why, are you all scared? We have come all the way through mountains of corpses and seas of blood, swords and wars. Has Lonely Mountain Castle experienced less of these experiences? Now that we have just been at ease for two years, you can't pick up the sword?"

"Fatis is willing to die for Lonely Mountain Castle!"

"Raymond is willing to shed his last drop of blood for the master!"

"Moken is willing to be buried with Lonely Mountain Castle."

Hearing Rhodes' words, the knights and civil servants in the room made their own statements.

Those technical talents and legal professionals looked at each other with some hesitation, but soon bowed their heads and said that they were willing to fight for Lonely Mountain Castle until the last moment.

Rhodes smiled and looked at the people in front of him, waving his hand for them to stand up. When Fatis stood up, he unconsciously saw the eyes of the man in front of him - deep and boundless, peaceful and far-reaching. Lord Rodhart's eyes at this moment were so perfect.

"It doesn't matter whether I succeed or fail, even if I die. I will die on the road to success - my heart is like this, my mind is like this, this state of mind is the most impeccable state of mind of the strongest."

"Compared to the first prophecy, I care more about the second prophecy. Moken, tell me how much grain is stored in the Lonely Mountain Castle now, and whether it can survive the drought in the prophecy without external food supplements?" Rhodes asked.

"Your Excellency, at the current rate of grain consumption in Lonely Mountain Castle, without external grain, it can only last for two months. Even if the rations of everyone are halved, it can only last for four months at most. After that, we will have to kill slaves for meat."

"But I have some doubts about the accuracy of this prophecy machine, because as far as I know, the grain harvest in the past two years has been very good, even the grain harvest in our wilderness is very good. Large-scale drought... I think the possibility of such a thing is not great based on common sense."

"Since the grain harvest is very good, it means that the grain price will fall. Mo Ken, from now on, you will fully manage the loan and grain purchase affairs, and start building a large grain warehouse. Even if there is no drought, I want Lonely Mountain Castle to have ten years of grain storage."

"Your Excellency, obey the order."

In fact, although the mountainous terrain of Lonely Mountain Castle is very suitable for the construction of underground grain warehouses, with the grain storage technology of this era, the quality of grain will be poor in the second year at most. Even if a large amount of artificial superposition magic technology is invested, four or five years of storage is already the limit, and the nutrition and taste can no longer be required. It can only be eaten without killing people.

Rhode's request to store grain for ten years actually meant that he believed in the prophecy. However, Moken would not question the lord's authority under such circumstances, and at most he would try to negotiate afterwards.

However, when Moken approached Rhode to discuss afterwards, Rhode directly ordered him to make every effort to borrow from all the surrounding forces, and to put aside all other matters for the time being, and let Moken take full charge of the matter.

Seeing that Rhodes was so convinced, Moken, as a loyal subject, could only obey his orders. Fortunately, the grain harvest has been great in the past two years, and the current purchase price is indeed not high. Even if the lord's decision is a bit extreme, it is generally beneficial to Lonely Mountain Castle.

After all, there is food in hand, so there is no need to panic. Even if this policy loses money, it will not seriously damage the vitality of Lonely Mountain Castle.

After all, what is bought is grain, which is a more solid hard currency than general equivalents such as gold and silver treasures.

"Well, at most, when building the underground grain storage, we can invest more costs in various aspects, buy ten years of grain in one go, eat it for five or six years, and then use the rest for brewing. Even if the prophecy is false, it won't lose too much."

Moken was calculating carefully here, but he didn't know that Rhodes was almost certain that the prophecy would come true, because when he first walked into the prophecy room, Rhodes' insight characteristics were stimulated, and he vaguely saw a strange device emitting a strong red light in the prophecy. This device is actually the core of the prophecy.

At that moment, Rhodes had an epiphany: Atiman actually accidentally obtained a strange object with the power of prediction, which he may or may not know.

However, under the guidance of fate, he used that strange object as the core to create the prophecy machine in front of him, amplifying the power of the strange object. Therefore, Atiman said with certainty that he could not create a second prophecy machine because he did not have a second strange object.

In this era when the extraordinary came and the magic tide rose, in addition to magic equipment, this world will also give birth to many strange objects and miracles with strange powers. The Harvest Horn and the Silver Holy Grail can also be regarded as such items in a strict sense.

It was precisely because of this moment of insight that the trustworthiness of the prophecy machine in Rhodes' heart was greatly improved.

Therefore, he planned to bet on the capital, but just like the gambling that Rhodes had experienced in the past, even if he lost, he could basically break even, at least the loss would not be very large, but if he won, he could get extremely huge benefits.

"Is prophecy because there really is an irreversible destiny in this world, or is it because I believe in prophecy and am guided to this destiny?"

"Haha, it doesn't matter. At least the prophecy I have in hand can give me a relative advantage."

The right to information has always been a very important part of the game struggle. Even the slightest clue is important, not to mention the prophecy that is likely to be accurate like the oracle. This is also the reason why many forces have to support prophets or set up special duties.