Jerren stroked his long, unkempt white beard and listened quietly to Niall's explanation.
The pointed hat, nearly covering half his face, concealed his expression, leaving no one aware of his reaction.
Niall finally finished his somewhat emotionally charged account. Niđhöggr produced the Unalloyed Gold Needle, repaired by Sellen, and showed it to Jerren.
Jerren glanced at Sellen, who, noticing his look, deliberately raised her hooded head with an air of pride.
"If that is the case, then I should not have made another attempt on Lady Sellen's life." Jerren understood the bigger picture better than they had imagined and was even quite capable of bending. "I sincerely apologize to you, Lady Sellen."
Sellen had thought she would have to argue with this stubborn old knight. She never expected Jerren to change his tune so easily and apologize to her. It was unexpected and left her somewhat puzzled.
Jerren then thanked Niall for finding the Unalloyed Gold Needle, and Niđhöggr for coming on behalf of Rennala and Ranni.
"Enough talk. Let's go inside." Niall pointed towards the spatial rift, from which the Scarlet Rot was gushing, a hint of eagerness in his voice.
Niđhöggr instinctively felt something was wrong here, but for various reasons, he decided to wait and see.
And indeed, Jerren did not lead the way. After a brief pause, he spoke, his voice filled with difficulty.
"Alas... If only I had known this news earlier, perhaps I could have saved the situation that has now... This is all my fault, all my fault..."
Niall was surprised. "What do you mean? I don't understand."
Jerren sighed and recounted the story.
Ever since Radahn was infected with the Scarlet Rot, he had been wandering the Wailing Dunes near Redmane Castle. Any living creature that approached him, except for his steed, would be mercilessly killed by the one who had lost his sanity.
What was even more frightening and horrifying was that Radahn would tear apart the defeated living beings and then devour them, completely losing the dignity of the former "Starscourge General."
As the lord of Redmane Castle and a sworn retainer of Radahn, Jerren could not bear to watch his king linger on like this. He hoped to send Radahn on his final journey in the most heroic manner possible.
Consequently, Jerren began hosting one Radahn Festival after another, summoning countless heroes from across the lands to fight Radahn, hoping they would slay him in a fierce battle.
But Radahn deserved the title of "mightiest demigod." No one had yet been able to defeat him. Even when groups of heroes charged forward, they were no match for Radahn, all falling at his feet.
Jerren was not worried. He waited patiently, believing that one day a hero would appear who could lay Lord Radahn to rest during the festival.
It was at this time that the world-altering moment of the Intersection occurred. Redmane Castle and the Wailing Dunes, across the great river, were transported into this present world, and everything changed.
To understand the outside world, Jerren decided to leave Redmane Castle, pass through the spatial rift, and come to the real world—the Empire of Yoda. He disguised himself as a wandering knight and traveled everywhere to learn the situation.
Soon, he learned that this country, called the Empire of Yoda, and the Kingdom of Midland across the sea, had been engaged in a war lasting hundreds of years, each experiencing victories and defeats.
But overall, the Empire of Yoda had the advantage, as the battlefield was essentially on the territory of the Kingdom of Midland, continuously draining the latter's national strength.
However, in this desperate situation, the Kingdom of Midland repeatedly produced heroes—first the "Maid of Orleans," Jeanne d'Arc, and later the "White Phoenix," Griffith. Several counter-offensive victories shattered the aggressive spirit of the Empire of Yoda.
If he could, Jerren would very much like to meet these two heroes. But unfortunately, he heard they both met bad ends.
The first was captured by the Empire of Yoda and burned alive at the stake. The second was considered a traitor in the Kingdom of Midland, rescued by his old comrades after a year of imprisonment in a dungeon, and was now wanted throughout the country and had vanished.
The Empire of Yoda not only suffered repeated external defeats but also had many internal contradictions: increasing financial difficulties, the House of Commons' desire to expand its power, and two major families fighting over the royal succession...
Finally, after Doldrey Castle was recaptured by the Kingdom of Midland, the Empire of Yoda was forced to sign a peace treaty with the Kingdom of Midland and withdraw its troops from Midland's territory, except for the port of Calais.
The Kingdom of Midland, seeing the advantage, accepted this, did not pursue relentlessly, and returned home to celebrate their victory in the Hundred Years' War. As for the port of Calais, they were willing to consider its return at a later date.
Subsequently, just two years after the end of the Hundred Years' War, violent conflicts erupted in the Empire of Yoda over the royal succession. Both families claimed the throne, and a civil war began.
Because the emblems of the two main families were one a red rose and the other a white rose, this civil war was also known as the Wars of the Roses.
Jerren walked through the land of the Empire of Yoda, which was in the midst of a civil war. But he had no desire to get involved in this conflict. For him, nothing was more important than laying Lord Radahn to rest.
Therefore, Jerren attempted to hold the Radahn Festival again, secretly inviting or luring powerful knights of the Empire of Yoda into the spatial rift to come to the Wailing Dunes beyond Redmane Castle.
However, Jerren soon realized this was merely sending knights to their deaths in vain.
This group of knights was far from as brave and fearless as the poems boasted. Hardly any of them could withstand even a single blow from Lord Radahn.
Jerren hastily concluded the Radahn Festival because of this.
But paper could not contain the fire. The matters of the spatial rift, Redmane Castle, the Wailing Dunes, and the Radahn Festival were finally quietly spread and disseminated among the nobility of the Empire of Yoda.
When the two major families fighting over the succession learned that deep within the dungeon beneath a tower in the royal capital, there was a rift leading to another space where an extremely powerful warrior resided, one could imagine what followed.
Both sides claimed this was the God-given champion they had obtained and fought over it, swarming into Redmane Castle like locusts and wasps.
At that time, only Jerren remained in Redmane Castle, and he could not stop this group of people, just as he could not stop them from bursting through the portal into the Wailing Dunes on the other side of the river.
This group of people was simply shameless. They not only plundered Redmane Castle but also had no intention of fighting for bravery and glory. Their goal was to subjugate Lord Radahn and turn him into their "weapon."
Jerren could not allow these people to desecrate the battle with Lord Radahn. But he could not sustain himself, could not kill this group of foreign enemies. Seeing they could not kill him, this group simply ignored him, and he had no choice.
Finally, after they used cannonballs, poison, fire, and other continuous attrition tactics against Lord Radahn, the lord, who had already lost normal sanity due to the Scarlet Rot, descended into complete madness.
Jerren recalled that night as earth-shattering.
Lord Radahn brutally employed gravity magic, causing cracks in the already unstable space, even above the current royal capital, ultimately leading to this tragedy.
Torrents of the Scarlet Rot from Caelid surged through the space and across the entire capital, the infection spreading continuously.
The people of the two main families and the entire royal capital suffered heavy losses. Only then did they realize they were in trouble. Those who survived evacuated one after another, and this place became a dead city.
Furthermore, there were two extremely terrifying monsters that followed the spatial rift which Lord Radahn accidentally opened and entered the sky and land of Redmane Castle and the Wailing Dunes.