Chapter 374
Chapter 374: Time Passing By
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav
Time didn’t pause in its tracks while Roland acted ridiculously in the Bardi capital.
In the west, the Auland Empire obtained their first ever victory against the Sea Tribe in their sixty-eighth assault wave. Much of it was thanks to Diana who had utilized her newfound power, draining the underwater base of all water and causing the battle to tilt in their favor. Auland’s use of their Fleet of Death, without caring about losses, was also a deciding factor. Amid the counterattacks of the Sea Tribe royalty which came in great numbers, Auland relentlessly and steadfastly persisted in their defense.
It was only when the sun rose on the second day that the Auland humans finally retreated. More than twenty hours had passed—plenty of time for Auland’s engineers to empty out everything in that underground base. Perhaps the Auland Empire’s pride, their aerial fleet, would be arriving far earlier than in the game’s history.
Of course, the Sea Tribe claimed that they were the victors in the end. After all, the humans had been forced to retreat.
The four job classes of Aurora Knight, Four Elemental Swordcaster, Desecration Priestess, and Antiholy Knight were witnessed by countless people. The faraway northern country once again reentered the field of view of the major countries.
Just as the Auland Emperor Darsos was hoping to have these newcomer job class members stay behind for a while longer, he discovered that they had already left. Apparently, they were headed north, to the Bardi Empire’s capital.
Meanwhile, to the south of the Bardi Empire, the battle between the undead and the wood spirits had reached a standstill. The wood spirits hurriedly made use of this opportunity to expand the Forest of Dream’s territory. In the past month alone, they’d already established another twelve cities similar to Oak Town. Yet the undead allowed them to expand as if they didn’t even see anything going on.
When the new undead commander arrived, they focused entirely on conquering Nightrain City. Unlike Davey, who had obtained his position with “personal connections,” the new commander was said to be a Senator from the Tark Republic. Only, this Senator had been seriously injured in a previous battle, making it impossible for him to ever become a SemiGod.
This commander was just as experienced as the Undead Emperors. To make an example for the others, he casually executed two Undead Lords who hadn’t previously helped Davey. Then, he reorganized the undead armies for a new round of attacks on Nightrain City. However, the Bardi Empire had been supplying Nightrain City with endless resources and military backup. No outsider could even tell that there was anything foundationally different about the ongoing war there.
The wood spirits, meanwhile, seemed to be satisfied with their recent accomplishments as the Three Virtues returned to Amelia’s garden in the Forest of Dreams. Only the Contract Heroes remained outside fighting, working hard to slay undead and earn Justice Points. But the reason for their departure was kept under wraps—only the higher-ups among the wood spirits were aware that the Three Virtues had stopped all offensives and returned to await the birth of the fourth Virtue.
To the east of the Bardi Empire was the “Holy War vanguard army,” who were stuck in a quagmire. They couldn’t proceed forward as an incensed group of dragons patrolled the skies around them twice a day. The warning was obvious. But they were also unable to retreat, because that would make the Holy Church furious and declare them all as traitors to the Holy Light, a similar death sentence.
Yet the Holy Church was also unable to force them forward to meet their deaths. The previous incident—where the Holy Church claimed credit that wasn’t theirs—was already spreading. Just dealing with the rumors popping up everywhere took up most of the Holy Church’s attention. And even worse was that this incident greatly shook the faith of those in the know.
And it just so happened to be at this time, a certain someone brought the former events in the Mist Kingdom to light—of a certain abnormal crusade and the Holy Church splitting into factions, along with a certain Child of Holy Light dying undeservedly and then becoming Emperor Yongye. While most people treated this as nothing more than a mere tale at first, the records were ever so detailed, as if they were written firsthand. And they provided strong evidence in favor of the truth.
When Holy Church members sought out the “living legend,” the “strongest Holy Knight” Estrada for answers, the elderly Holy Knight—who had evidently aged much in the past few months—responded with nothing but silence.
Although the Holy Church acted swiftly to quell the rumors, plenty now had doubts about them. This was all the more so among the church’s newcomer Holy Knights and priests. A decent number of them withdrew from the so-called Holy Warrior system and chose to become Contract Heroes, instead. Suddenly, a new teaching of the Holy Light arose, about how Roland always carried out justice in the Northlands, where a person’s identity and birth shouldn’t deem an individual as sinful and that guilt should be judged on actions, instead. This logic made it seem possible for Holy Knights to get along with the intelligent undead.
And so the Holy Church underwent yet another factional crisis and internal cleansing.
While all these battlefields were either under temporary respites or preparing for new rounds of battle, the super powerful mega empire San Antonio, too, met with trouble. And, in a certain way, their trouble was their own fault.
San Antonio was a landlocked country, and no outside invaders had ever attacked them. Yet their leader, Emperor Hant II, died suddenly and unexpectedly. It wasn’t only him, though—the prince had died alongside his father. First Princess Maria and the emperor’s younger brother Winston both accused each other of scheming to assassinate the two royals, and so a massive internal conflict broke out.
It wouldn’t have been much trouble if this was just an ordinary internal conflict. The emperor’s younger brother possessed far stronger troops—he should have been able to grab the throne and speedily restore calm to the empire. However, Princess Maria happened to be the strongest Demon Warlock in all of history. She directly opened the gates of hell and summoned its denizens. The only part worth celebrating was that she didn’t summon demons filled with thoughts about destruction and slaughtering. Instead, she summoned the relatively gentler Sulu Demon tribe along with some devils. At the very least, one could make deals and reason with them.
While Princess Maria was directly declared to be a heretic by the Holy Church, the Holy Church had too much on their plate right now to deal with her. In fact, since Princess Maria was well prepared for this occasion, she even gained the advantage in San Antonio’s internal conflict… And according to certain channels, Princess Maria was also Death God Ayer’s God Envoy, which made the situation even more complicated.
Right now, the powerful countries in Eich were meeting with troubles large and small. With the new spring came massive changes to the entire continent. Everyone now knew that the Holy War was unavoidable.
While all of Eich was in chaos, one portion of northern Eich remained in peace and quiet. Yes, this portion was the Northlands seven countries.
The Mist Alliance’s basic framework had been completed before Roland’s departure. San Antonio’s internal conflict caused most of its elites to return back to their homeland to choose a side, and this loosened their reins on their subordinate country. Of course, this gave people “ideas.” Well, at the very least, without San Antonio’s subordinate country trying to get in the way, the other six countries were able to speed up their rate of unification.
The Underground Beastmen had finished moving to the surface, and their flags were now flying on the plateau. However, these tribes didn’t have view humans as their enemies, and they also successfully integrated the beastmen of the plains into themselves. The plains beastmen were isolated—if they didn’t want to be forced to the brink, they would have to integrate themselves into this new beastmen society and be controlled.
The Northlands elven countries were still arguing among themselves whether or not to join the Mist Alliance. Meanwhile, the newly-born Gray Elves had completed their immigration process and had begun to integrate into East Mist’s society. They had already prepared large amounts of their arts and crafts products to trade for the first spring merchants. Perhaps this could be exchanged for food, which the Northlands somewhat lacked.
Perhaps food wasn’t a critical resource to exchange for, as Amelia’s new seeds were being harvested more successfully than anticipated. Military weapon sales were doing quite well, and after Timlad returned, he followed Roland’s orders and began overhauling East Mist’s industry. Although both members of the royalty were unreliable to the point of not even being present, everyone still supported the country of East Mist, which had gone through many trials and tribulations. East Mist was developing in a positive direction.
After experiencing the desolation of warfare, Annie and the other Underground residents began constructing their new homes. This was no easy task. Although the lands were wide and spacious, they were barren. The Underground residents had almost limitless desire towards land, and the cohabitation of many different species meant conflicts and troubles. The heavy workload was quite tough for Annie and Anya. If it weren’t for the elders, who had also been invited to watch over things, and the dragons patrolling the cities, perhaps major incidents would have already occurred.
Even the pitiful Margaret was recruited once again. And countless, sudden incidents would still occur on a daily basis despite the fact that Xueti and the Church of Law were focused on city construction. The pitiful centaur would try to escape every day only to fail time after time.
The Sleuweir Kingdom and East Mist were now viewed as one family in the Northlands. This was indeed the case as all tariffs had been scrapped and free travel between their countries had been allowed. Yet what made the highest-level government officials most frustrated was their Queen Glina’s newest guests.
Forget about the shota who kept flashing his muscles. If you ignored the fact that he really loved to randomly show off his muscles, his unique commanding method was quite popular with the military. However, Omar’s “younger brother,” who rather resembled Roland, was even stranger. He shouted every day about how explosions were true art while he set off numerous of them.
This was naturally something Queen Glina would be quite fond of. And so they studied military commanding together… Yep, who knew what they really researched? But judging from how the explosions escalated in scale and number with each day, that little brat named “Mars” was the cause of more and more trouble. Queen Glina’s explosive techniques seemed to be improving daily as well. Each day, the people of Antuen prayed that their city would survive and not be blown up while they were asleep.
The Xiluo Empire had also started preparing for combat. As for the order I had given them to complete six heavy-class combat airships for me, they’d completed four. Judging by their progress, they’d likely be able to complete my envisioned Big Dipper squadron within half a year. As for the overall restructuring of all the systems? To quote the Xiluo Empire’s prime minister, Lionheart, “It’s impossible for me to die again because of this, right?””You bastards! Are all of you running off so quickly to make me die of fatigue?””No, Ah Dang, I’m not referring to you. I’m quite happy you’re willing to help me. But I’ll be even happier if you don’t help me at all. Also, please let go of that ambassador in your mouth. He’s almost scared to death.”
But no matter how difficult the task, he still had to complete the task his irresponsible boss left to him. Lionheart was going to be quite busy.
Oh, did I forget about a certain someone? A certain beast tamer? With nobody around to control him, he started running wild. With unknown methods, he managed to throw a massive celebration—in a public location. With a single action, not only did he manage to astonish the whole world, but his crimes were now finally known to the Druid Animal Protection Council. Now he was being hunted by the entire world. Far, far away in the Bardi Empire, Eaglestorm unhesitatingly said that he had no clue about the dracon. Else he would likely be a druid no longer.
Right now, I was in some trouble too. Or perhaps I should say that the trouble I had created long ago had come looking for me.