Unbelievable…
All of Tchakra was fierce at war against the monsters at the moment. Perhaps for the rest of its remaining years. Or months, or maybe even days.
The only human settlements left standing were the cities where the great sects dwelled themselves at. As well as the Nine Grand Cities with strong provincial armies, like Lantern City.
Beyond those places were dangerous no-man's lands. Death zones crawling with vicious monsters.
At tragic times like this the Tchakran should consider migrating out of the Golden Dawn provinces.
But I heard the lands to the west were in just as much turmoil, if not worse.
Monsters had completely taken over the Tsatu-Tchakra border southwest of Lantern City.
Some said the proper border of the empire was now located somewhere along the eastern shores of the Great Katcha Lake. That was almost to the central part of the empire!
Nobody really knew what was happening throughout Tsahanam.
The credible words we had were Fajar was fighting hard against monsters ten times the size of the monster army that invaded them about seventeen years ago.
There were bunch of rumors of Ariam Fortress putting up a resistance. But I heard a dozen more rumors saying it had fell.
The whole world was in a total chaos!
Trade had basically shut down.
The government had confiscated all the supplies they could get from merchants and farmers. People were now living off rations.
Able-bodied men and women were being drafted into the provincial armies.
Martial arts hermits went out of their seclusions to join the great war.
Children, the sick, and the elderly being sheltered behind city walls.
This was no time for an artist.
No.
This was exactly the time for an artist to step up!
Desperate people had been emerging in the streets, shouting that the end of the world was near. The refugees could not help but be drowned in panic and hysteria.
If things went on, it would not be the monsters that would be taking the lives of these people.
In this time of crisis, when all seemed lost, it was hope that the world needed.
The hope to survive.
The hope for the future.
The hope to keep on going and fight!
As an artist, I could help give everyone that hope.
At the moment, the provincial army of the Lantern City province was being fielded in the forest south of the city.
They were supposed to intercept the horde of rodent-headed beasts coming from the ruins in the Danjian Plain beyond the forest.
Reinforcement from the Clouded Hill sect was scheduled to arrive from further east of the city. As well as a small patch of forces from the coalition of destroyed sects.
But promise of reinforcement was hard to believe nowadays.
Everywhere was in chaos that it was difficult to see where reinforcement could do any sort of good.
The governor of the Lantern City was currently with her army at the moment.
She had already asked me to help maintain order in the city while most of her army were out fighting the monsters.
The Dragon Weaver Pavilion had a good relationship with the governor given how popular our troupe was and the amount of businesses we attracted to the city.
Well, we no longer attracted as much business as the city was attracting refugees right now. But, at least, our relationship with the governor lingered.
The key to public order was by ensuring the people's happiness.
If we could make the masses happy, then it would be easier to prevent chaos despite the horrible time.
That was why the Dragon Weaver Pavilion had been working hard to put out performances day in and day out.
Our performance troupe had many other shows besides my conjuration act. After all, I had also been recruiting people with the same taste and talent in art as I did over my years of performing.
Cultural dancers, exotic dancers, puppetmasters, trickmasters, acrobats, other elementalist performers.
I had gathered quite a lot of fellow artists under my banner, and even trained some of them.
Recently I had ordered the other artists to put on performances throughout the day, every day, for free.
People and refugees in the city were allowed to enter our theatre and enjoy our shows free of charge.
I had even arranged street performances for those that could not make it to our part of the city.
If the Dragon Weaver Pavilion could boost the morale of the people by making them happy, then we could give them some semblance of hope.
Whether that hope could ignite the spirit of someone to fight against this terrible fate, or simply to power through another day of living.
Anything we could do to provide strength to the people.
Right now that was all I could think of to do.
I could join the provincial army fighting off the monsters in the southern forest. But the governor wanted to keep a powerful mage like me in the city as the last line of defense.
We had put out watchers and scouts on the city walls.
They would warn us if the monsters had breached the army's line and heading straight to us.
I had been conserving my mana by only doing one performance per day. So I would be ready to face the monsters whenever.
"Troupe Master Laogang, the audiences have gathered."
A little boy in servant's clothing said by the door.
He was the errand kid that I hired to help around.
The poor boy lost all his family when monsters ambushed our performance in the Pianshu province. I could not help but take him with us.
Him and two dozen other children that had nobody else to rely on after the attack.
Our troupe had picked up so many orphaned children throughout our travels that the Dragon Weaver Pavilion had become more like an orphanage now.
"Very well, Tan. Tell the performers to get ready. I'll be right down."
I said to the boy, heading out of my dressing room.
He nodded back to me and dashed through the hall to deliver my order.
I then began making my way through the corridors of the Dragon Weaver Pavilion, descending down to its lowest floor.
We called it 'pavilion' but the whole building was actually designed in a western style.
Rectangle-shaped towering construct and layered into five stories.
We constructed the building with Tchakran lumber and ensured the exterior retained the design of the traditional palaces of the Golden Dawn civilization.
This way we could keep attracting Tchakran patrons while economizing the building cost and providing us with maximum space given our plot of land. We were originally a business establishment, after all.
It was thanks to our way of being cheap that we had plenty of room to board wounded soldiers and refugees that had no space left in the hospitals and healing houses in Lantern City. Not to mention, the orphans.
Rare wandering healers and medicine folks passed me by as they scurried between rooms to tend to their patients.
I spent almost the entire troupe's coffer to get these skilled people to Lantern City and hire them for the pavilion.
Some of the mage healers were even from the empire and the sultanate, through whom we received words from the other nations.
The money was not actually spent to pay the healers and medicine folks. They were not interested in money during this terrible time.
The cost was for their supplies as well as the escort guards that brought them here.
Wounded and sick people were abundant throughout the world and healers were needed everywhere.
And because the healers did not need money, the reason I managed to make them agree to come to Lantern City was by convincing them we had way more sick and injured people than all the other places.
I was probably incorrect about Lantern City having the most patients in the world. But the healers could never get enough healing done in this pavilion still.
By the look of their extremely exhausted faces, the healers could pass out any second now.
There were simply too many patients.
The healers would probably be still just as tired working in other cities. But I was glad they were spending all their energy for the people here instead.
Everyone was working hard to deal with this terrible time.
I better do my part as well.