Chapter 165 : Chapter 165
Chapter 165. The Emperor (4)
Throughout all ages and places, the elderly have been regarded as symbols of wisdom and have been respected.
What's interesting is that some of the characteristics they uniquely possess have also not differed much throughout all ages and places.
Personally, I think their characteristic exaggeration is one of them.
This sometimes manifests in the form of boasting and bluffing, but more frequently, it appears as a tendency to express excessive concern about certain risk factors.
Perhaps such so-called ‘fuss’ is a scar left behind by the many storms of life that gave them their wisdom.
Count Pewin, a powerful supporter of the church, an influential figure in the eastern part of the empire, and a big shot among the pro-imperial faction, was no exception.
Although he was one of the few nobles who could be called a true elder statesman of this era, he too was an old man with a so-called ‘trauma’.
“He lost his son, two daughters, daughter-in-law, and son-in-law all to an epidemic.”
The Emperor said, munching on bread from his sickbed.
It was Karen's sugar-dusted twisted donut.
“This is delicious. Is it made of rice? I thought rice bread was dry.”
“They say they used potato starch. We're growing potatoes in the arid climate territory we secured during the Eastern Expedition.”
“This is what that elf queen made, right? Karen, was it? I heard it was modeled after your hometown's food.”
“…Your information network is vast.”
“I am, after all, the Emperor of the Empire. By the way, the Bishop is one thing, but you too never have a peaceful day.”
“……Yes?”
“It's nothing. What's the use of a dying patient saying such things?”
“?”
“Anyway, where was I? Ah, so Count Pewin's concern about epidemics is somewhat excessive.”
The Emperor took a large bite of the twisted donut.
It had already been a fortnight since my return to the domain.
It had been four days since I returned to my duties as lord, and today was my fourth visit to the Emperor's sickbed.
During each visit, the Emperor shared information about one past user of the sacred relic and then we would talk for about an hour.
I hadn't yet obtained any substantial results from the information stored in the sacred relic, but surprisingly, the hour-long chat piqued my interest.
This was because the topics were unexpectedly diverse.
From secrets of the imperial family and factions of the empire's nobility, to stories about diplomacy with other races, and even the Emperor's not-so-nutritious childhood ‘tales’.
“After losing all his heirs except for one granddaughter, Count Pewin obsessively worked to prevent epidemics.”
Today's topic was Viscount Pewin and the situation in the imperial capital, which he was secretly governing temporarily.
Even after hearing about the situation in the capital from Archduke Gabir at the plaza cafe, Count Pewin had apparently sent a few more messages.
An unidentified epidemic had begun to spread in the capital, and he was making every effort to contain it.
Surprisingly, those efforts included quite advanced measures such as patient quarantine, securing and purifying drinking water, distributing soap, and eradicating rats and pests.
“He even went so far as to invite a scholar from the far Eastern Empire. Perhaps thanks to that, no epidemic has spread in his county for the past 20 years. He's probably keeping up that momentum in the capital now.”
“Perhaps the Count's arrival in the capital at this time was also an arrangement set by Luark.”
“You, that believer act has really become second nature to you, hasn't it? Anyway, you're right, it might be Luark's arrangement.”
The Emperor, who had laughed silently, wiped the sugar from his mouth with a napkin.
He briefly looked at the sacred relic of the ‘Pendulum that Swings Between Hope and Truth’, which was swinging in a steady pendulum motion from side to side in mid-air, before catching it to a stop.
Leaning his back against a high pile of pillows, he said.
“It's not too late yet.”
It wasn't difficult to know that the subject of the sentence was the imperial capital.
“That epidemic. They say the symptoms are like a common winter cold.”
“For now, yes.”
“Yes, for now. Considering the depth of the underground city, I believe there's still quite some time before the real plague hits the capital.”
I wonder.
I agree that there's still time.
But what should be the standard for it not being too late?
In my opinion, the imperial capital had already crossed a river of no return.
Although it took almost a full day to travel from the surface to the underground city through the tunnels, the seed of disaster that sprouted there made the distance meaningless.
A plague bomb.
One that could turn a small city into a no-man's-land if just one was detonated.
Three would be enough to blow up the imperial capital.
This wasn't an estimated figure, but a measured one, as I had personally launched them several times in playthroughs as the Ratmen.
And yet, seven of those plague bombs had detonated right under the imperial capital, in the underground city.
The plague's aura would gradually rise up through the complexly intertwined tunnels, towards the citizens of the capital.
Right now, it was just a simple cold going around, but the symptoms would get progressively worse.
Just as the Emperor's illness was worsening despite the Apothecary's dedicated efforts, the hundreds of thousands of citizens in the capital would also become increasingly difficult to treat.
Well, the Emperor had a way to be revived even if he was on the verge of death.
It was a miracle not permitted to others.
Perhaps he read my thoughts from my expression.
“You seem to think it's too late.”
The Emperor said.
I nodded.
There was no reason to hide it.
“Count Pewin is pushing forward with quarantine measures. To help him, I'm sending the entire Imperial Secret Knight Order, including the Apothecary, to the capital first.”
“Even so, I believe it will be difficult to save the capital.”
“Right. That might be so. But by the way, you were curious about the Warrior's power I possess, weren't you?”
What was this sudden change of topic?
I was curious, though.
The Emperor didn't wait for my answer and asked again.
“Do you know who the Warrior is?”
“I do not.”
I shook my head.
I knew a few connections, but nothing more than that.
The latest information I had was that someone who collected two or more sacred relics could use a part of the power of the ‘Warrior’, a still-veiled existence.
The Emperor, with a meaningful smile, fiddled with the sacred relic in his hand.
He said.
“The Warrior is the one who created the sacred relics of the Outer Gods.”
I'll be honest.
I was a little surprised.
***
They often say you only realize how precious something is after you've lost it.
I partially agree.
In the sense that only after falling into this war-torn world did I begin to think deeply about my life on Earth.
Of course, this might also be because the cheat-like trait [Lord's Unyielding Mind] had completely changed my once-weak mentality.
Anyway, to make a shameful confession now, I think I lived a rather affluent life.
It was thanks to the seed money I had invested on the advice of a somewhat strange but nice senior colleague, which had snowballed while I was unconscious.
It was ironic in many ways that I was abandoned by the nation that only demanded duty, but the person I met on the front lines where I went to fulfill that duty became my last lifeline.
Was this what they called a blessing in disguise?
I admit it.
My dream was shattered, I was abandoned at death's door, and I even lost my family in a series of tragedies, but I know that some might envy my life.
Securing enough finances to live comfortably for the rest of my life in my twenties must have been something of a miracle in an era where economic hardship had become a cliché headline.
Being able to pour my entire twenties into a ‘mere game’ was a luxury made possible because I had received the benefit of that miracle.
Perhaps the reason I'm looking back on those extravagant times now is because I've started to miss the ‘tranquility’ of that time a little.
There could only be one reason.
There's a lot of work.
A lot.
“Haaa…….”
‘You've worked hard, master. Still, you've managed to take care of all the urgent matters one way or another.’
‘Tick-tock…….’
‘A position responsible for the lives of tens of thousands deserves respect. You look different for a change.’
‘Nyom?’
It seems I had gone through quite an ordeal.
To the point where even the subspace parasites, who did nothing but talk behind my back unless it was about simple words like sugar or candy, offered words of comfort.
It was to the extent that I skipped my training, which I hadn't missed a single day while in the domain, for a whole week.
Starting with a simple inspection, I worked through the night dealing with an endless pile of problems and discussing countermeasures, such as the expansion of the factory complex, the new construction and development planning of the commercial and residential districts, the repair of the old eastern wall, and the increasingly unstable public order due to the growing population.
After being plagued by arduous work for a full week, I finally got some free time.
I wanted to sleep right away, but I dragged my tired body to the forest.
Randal was accompanying me, but our destination was not the usual training forest.
We were heading deep to the west.
“You were right, my lord Viscount. There are far more wandering elves like me than I thought.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes! The elves who have decided to stay in the settlement alone already number four thousand, and if you count the entire viscounty, it will be well over ten thousand. On top of that, the people who came first are calling their friends and relatives scattered across the continent.”
Karen, an outstanding ranger and now the queen of the elves, became our guide.
On the way, we briefly stopped by the city of the elves, which she said was under reconstruction, and it wasn't bad.
Inside a palisade made of hard wood, the wooden buildings unique to the elven race, woven into the trees, were rising endlessly, and the population was also growing exponentially.
The elf kingdom Karen had proclaimed, unlike the paradise elves who pursued pure blood, accepted anyone as a citizen as long as they had even a little bit of elven blood.
It was a natural result that the exiles who had lost their homes and were wandering would flock to it as if they had found an oasis in the middle of a desert.
“Perhaps by the end of the year, the settlement population alone will exceed ten thousand? Then….”
Karen, who was leading the way, stopped.
She unslung the bow she had on her back.
The smell of blood.
“…As you may have heard, when you were away, my lord Viscount, we already attempted to subjugate the Black Forest.”
Karen said quietly.
That's right.
While I was fighting a desperate battle with the Ratmen in the catacombs of the imperial capital, the old members of my band who remained in Wolfskrig had not been idle either.
The biggest change was not the expansion of the city's factory complex or residential area, but the Black Forest subjugation operation.
As Karen said, the population of the elven kingdom grew several times faster than expected.
The forest area I had provided them as a settlement had become cramped before I knew it.
Subjugating the Black Forest became not a choice, but a necessity.
Two thousand volunteers from the elven kingdom and four thousand from the viscount's army, who had promised support, set out to subjugate the Black Forest.
The beastmen living in the Black Forest numbered more than ten times that, but there was a sufficient chance of victory.
Among the elves who participated in the battle, a considerable number were former rangers who had dealt with beastmen as a matter of course.
Even if they weren't, the mixed-blood individuals with elven blood were superhumans whose overall physical abilities far surpassed the average human, as much as their lifespan.
The result was a series of victories.
They quickly suppressed and pushed back the enemy's hunting grounds.
With casualties barely reaching double digits, they killed nearly twenty thousand beastmen and advanced to the heart of the Black Forest.
What blocked that advance was a barrier that no one in the expeditionary force had expected.
Not a metaphor, but a literal ‘barrier’.
“It's that wall you see over there.”
On the battlefield where the smell of blood still lingered, where a battle had taken place just a few weeks ago.
Karen, Randal, and I stopped.
The trees that would have been dense were broken and bent here and there, leaving the area half-cleared.
The shell holes and traces of spells pockmarking the area vividly told of the ferocity of the battle that had even half-cleared the forest.
“A barrier made of trees and vines. The expeditionary force couldn't break through that wall and had to retreat.”
I lifted my head.
I could see it beyond the trees that had sparsely survived in the clearing.
Far away, a fortress of living, writhing plants.
The verdant barrier, soaring hundreds of meters high, shook its twisted branches and roots as if coveting the sky.
“It looks like the spell that beastman used.”
Randal muttered.
Correct.
Grok-Tau, the legendary hero of the beastmen who had invaded the domain long ago.
Called the ‘Consecrator of the Beast Hide’, he possessed the trait [Wild Consecrator].
The basis of that trait was the barrier erected before our eyes.
‘A great spell resides in the beastmen's homeland.’
In the game, the great spell of the Black Forest was randomly determined as one of four with each playthrough.
It seemed that in this playthrough, the [Wild Great Wall] had been chosen.
As luck would have it, the most troublesome one was chosen.
If it had been one of the other three, the expeditionary force would have somehow dealt with it.
However, it would be difficult to face a living wall that regenerated endlessly no matter how many shells were poured into it.
No matter how much of a punching bag the beastmen were in Warlord Conquest, the power of a great spell was comparable to a high-level mage's spell.
It might be different if we brought in an aerial battleship, but I had restricted its use to defense only for William, so they couldn't use it.
Well, that was all in the past.
‘Kkumteuli.’
‘Ugh, I'm ready…!’
I opened the subspace from my bosom.
Soon, magic stones began to pour out.
“Uh, uhh?!”
Startled, Karen jumped back, and in the meantime, the pile of magic stones grew beyond the size of a person, becoming as large as a cattle shed.
This pile of magic stones was the result of ‘Crusty’ pouring mana into peat from Karnburk as the raw material day and night.
You could say that the new tenant was paying the back rent for the seniors.
‘Omnyomnyom…….’
Personally, I tend to charge compound interest on subspace rent.