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Looking at Aileen, Rocky blinked his large eyes, a look of confusion on his face because he truly did not know what The Forsaken People was all about.
Seeing that he was actually unaware of this matter, Monte, who was beside him, spoke up:
“My lord, The Forsaken People is the term we use to refer to those who still live on the land.”
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“What?”
Upon hearing Monte’s words, Rocky was so surprised that his mouth hung open in amazement.
Of course, one couldn’t blame him, for he was, after all, a traveler from another world. Although he was very familiar with this world, his understanding was limited only to what he could come in contact with. As for some matters he had never encountered since his arrival, Rocky knew very little, and The Forsaken People was one such issue.
Over a hundred years ago, people built Sky City and fled to the sky to escape the Demons, a fact known to all. But the situation back then was far from simple.
In reality, when humans had constructed the first Sky City and were ready for a large-scale migration to the skies, a significant portion opposed the idea. This opposition is mentioned in Wensel’s will, and at the same time, the capacity of Sky City to hold people was very limited.
This led to many people either voluntarily or involarily staying on the land during the initial stages of the move to the sky.
Later on, as more Sky Cities were constructed, people truly began migrating in earnest. Yet even then, there was still a significant number of individuals who chose to stay on the land to continue the fight against the Demons.
And it was these people who decided to stay on the land that became known as The Forsaken People.
The Forsaken People called those who fled to the sky traitors, seeing their actions as a cowardly escape, as a surrender of the land that had nurtured them. Therefore, The Forsaken People would rather stay and battle the Demons on the land than flee to the sky.
This divergence of opinions caused the two groups to split into two major camps at the beginning of the Sky Era, leading to endless disputes. One side accused the other of stubbornness, while the other called them cowards. Eventually, things escalated to the point of complete hostility, cutting off all relations between them.
This state of affairs continued for decades until the last few years, especially after the First Counter Offensive War began, that the relationship between the two sides started to ease up.
Today, interactions between the two groups have grown increasingly frequent. Take, for instance, the last task that Rocky had found—the person who posted the task came from the land!
“I really had no idea that such things were going on…”
After listening to Monte’s explanation, Rocky slowly nodded in a daze and couldn’t help but think back to the Magic Energy Image Wensel left in the Lost Research Institute. Now, giving it some thought, Wensel’s will did indeed mention that he was not the only one who stayed on the land, that many others, like him, chose to remain and continue the fight against the Demons.
And now that he knew people still lived on the land and were continuously fighting the Demons, Rocky suddenly thought of something else: If people were still on the land and resisting the Demons, didn’t that mean the land hadn’t been completely occupied?
“No, the land has long been occupied…”
However, facing this question of his, whether it was Monte, Aileen, or Liliya, they all shook their heads. This time, Liliya was the one who spoke, saying afterward, “Although those who stayed on the land have continuously fought against the Demons, they have not succeeded.”
“When Sky City had just been invented, the Demons had occupied about two-thirds of the land. But by the early stages of the Sky Era, in just a short span of ten-plus years, the land was completely lost.
Nearly all cities were destroyed by the Demons, and although the people remaining on the land fought valiantly, in the end, they could only hide in places less frequently visited by the Demons and barely manage to survive.”
“As for now, there are only three cities on the land that are truly under human control, and the reason these three cities have remained is due to the two counter offensive wars we launched; otherwise, not a single city would have been left on the land.”
“So it is…”
With Liliya’s explanation, Rocky took a deep breath, for it was not difficult to hear from her words that life was hard for the people who remained on the land. But that was not surprising; staying on the land meant confronting the Demons daily and facing such terrifying creatures. It would have been strange if their lives had been easy.
As for the counteroffensive wars that Liliya mentioned, Rocky did have some recollection. The so-called counteroffensive wars referred to the people in the sky uniting all Sky Cities in a major counteroffensive campaign to retake the land. The wars occurred twice and were respectively known as the First and Second Counteroffensive Wars.
The scale of these two wars were unprecedented, with each war mobilizing nearly all Sky Cities. The fighting was ferociously intense, with close to a million soldiers dead or injured, and dozens of Sky Cities destroyed, including the destruction of several major ones.
Yet despite all this, the land remained in the hands of the Demons, and the outcome of both wars ended in failure.
All of these matters were in textbooks, so Rocky remembered them. However, from what Liliya had just said, although both counteroffensive wars had failed, they seemed to have been not entirely fruitless, as the land’s three cities at least managed to survive because of them.
As Rocky pondered this, Aileen then spoke, “But don’t underestimate The Forsaken People; despite their harsh life on the land, they are very wealthy.”
“Oh? Why is that?”
Upon hearing this, Rocky was slightly startled, evidently not understanding.
The people on the land were wealthy? How could that be possible when they lived at risk of being killed by Demons every day—how could they possibly be wealthy?
“My lord, don’t forget that the resources on the land are much more abundant than in the sky.”
Seeing Rocky’s confusion, Aileen elaborated, “Although those on the land live under the shadow of Demons, because of the land’s abundant resources and the improved relations with us, there is often trade between the two sides. Take, for example, the task that my lord has chosen.”
“The goal of this task is to assist in defending a mine, and if I’m not mistaken, this mine should belong to The Forsaken People.”
“My lord, you don’t need me to elaborate on the immense value a mine can generate, do you?”
Aileen’s explanation led to an epiphany for Rocky, as it was true just as she said—the people on the land sat upon countless resources, and by selling these resources to Sky City, it would mean a continuous flow of wealth!
And since the conversation had come full circle back to the task at hand, Rocky then asked, “Given this, what do you think—should we take on this task or not?”
“`