Chapter 178 : Chapter 178
Chapter 178. The Observer (1)
Officially, after the capital transfer, I was no longer the Viscount of Wolfskrig.
There was a rather complicated story involved.
Let's skip the trivial and complex story of the ‘adults’, such as the protest against the central government's infringement on the autonomy of a feudal lord, the declaration of a state of crisis where the nation's existence was at stake, the disputes and appeasement attempts of each faction over an appropriate compensation plan, and the minor lords who jumped on the bandwagon of public opinion to get a piece of the pie in the meantime.
Apart from the complex dispute over justification that took place through documents and in person, the subjects of this incident were only two.
The ‘Emperor’ and ‘Viscount Ash’.
It was a deal between the two.
That's right.
It was a deal between me and myself.
Nothing more, nothing less.
However, as is often the case with public affairs, a plausible appearance of a deal had to be created on the surface.
Following the advice of Archduke Gabir and Count Pewin, who had been in this business for a long time, I decided to leave a suitable transaction record.
First, the city of Wolfskrig and its surrounding territories would belong to the Emperor.
Second, Viscount Ash would retain the rest of the territory he had previously held, excluding that area, and would make Kalisto the capital of his viscounty.
Third, in return, Viscount Ash would be granted the title of Count and would serve as the Prime Minister of the capital.
Well, to summarize, it was simple.
Wolfskrig belonged to the Emperor.
The rest belonged to the Count of Kalisto.
The Count would help the Emperor manage the capital.
While we were at it, we held a simplified title-granting ceremony, and I gave Olif, who had been managing Burken Fortress, the title of Viscount, not Baron Burken.
“Pardon? A Viscount? Why…?”
Of course, Olif, who had been promoted out of the blue, asked in bewilderment.
For reference, he was one of the two people who knew that the Emperor and I were the same person.
“You've worked hard filling my empty seat all this time. Consider it a small token of my gratitude.”
It was an era of war.
A time when real power, wealth, and military strength were more important than a fancy title.
Still, a high title offered various advantages, such as the opportunity to expand one's network.
It would be a small reward for Olif, who had served me almost from the beginning since I fell into this land.
Anyway, as of a year ago, Wolfskrig officially became the imperial capital.
However, just because it became the capital didn't mean that the administrative system could suddenly be changed to the way it was in the old capital.
Wolfskrig was completely different from the previous capital in terms of climate, geography, industry, and even the surrounding geopolitical relations.
Of course, that didn't mean that the existing methods could be adhered to.
As the capital of the empire and the residence of the emperor, there were various procedures and rules that had to be followed.
Even if that wasn't the case, there was a mountain of systems that needed to be overhauled because the population had suddenly increased so much due to the refugees.
In the end, it was an inevitable process to mix the existing and new systems and optimize them for Wolfskrig.
It was as natural as the handover of a sold company for the former ruler, ‘Count Ash’, to help with this.
As a result, I remained in the capital with the title of ‘Prime Minister’.
In other words, nothing had changed.
The room I used was the same. The food I ate was the same. Except for some personnel moving to Kalisto, the people were the same.
What had changed was that I now had to operate two bodies instead of one all the time.
And that the number of seals I had to stamp had become two.
The reason I was ruminating on these mundane realities was because what was unfolding before my eyes was a nightmare.
That's right.
A nightmare.
----!
--!!
Incomprehensible shouts and screams.
Tukwaang!
Tadadadang-
The roar of cannons and the sound of gunfire pounding my eardrums.
Hwarreureureu…!
Kwajijik! Pajik!
The flash and heat of spells.
A battlefield.
Scattered weapons.
Damaged corpses.
Flowing blood.
And a ruined city.
As always, the details kept changing.
The battlefield became Burken, then the old Wolfskrig, then the eastern wasteland, and sometimes it showed the underground city beneath the capital.
There was something that didn't change.
The people.
The dead people.
My colleagues, my subordinates, people I could perhaps call friends.
Even when the location changed, their corpses, in their gruesome state, were vividly imprinted in my vision, as if in the spotlight of a stage.
“…….”
Although I had no hands as an observer, I clenched my fists.
Traits did not work in dreams.
My weak mind no longer benefited from [Lord's Unyielding Mind] and [Mind of the Iron-Blooded Monarch].
And yet, I faced it directly.
It wasn't that I had become accustomed to seeing mangled, burning corpses.
This nightmare was a clue.
That's right.
A clue I needed.
I had lived with nightmares since I was a stay-at-home game addict, and although I had visited a psychiatrist for a while because of it, I was confident that I knew them better than others.
There was an unchanging law in dreams, including nightmares.
That was the reconstruction of memory.
The brain creates dreams using past events as material.
It was the same even if the content of the dream was a scene not in memory.
People you knew, places you had been, a movie you had watched last night, or scenes you often imagined would usually appear as the main characters.
The rest would be filled in as a vaguely out-of-focus background.
A dream with an absurd plot was vivid within it for a similar reason.
It was the same with the three nightmares I often had.
They each showed my school days, my time in the military and after my discharge, and after I fell into this world, but the gist was what I had experienced.
This nightmare was different.
It was something I hadn't experienced.
It was scenes and materials I had never seen before.
And it unfolded them in a consistent repertoire every time.
Some might call it a prophetic dream.
I would call it a clue.
A clue that allowed me to foresee the enemy I would face.
The background, which had been shifting between various battlefields, finally settled on one place at the end.
A battlefield I had never seen before.
I think I know now.
It was the eastern part of Wolfskrig.
I hadn't recognized it because the terrain and features were so destroyed and distorted, but now I could see it.
Among the twisted enemies that looked as if they had sprung from hell, whom I was seeing for the first time, I could recognize one.
To be precise, it was a creature.
A giant dog.
Tentacles sprouted from its entire body, and it was an Outer God that would dig into the ground and then leap out like a dolphin to attack the army.
I had never seen it directly, but I had heard about it in the testimony of the dwarven King of Kings.
The main culprit that had brought down the hold, and probably the one who had removed the barrier that protected the paradise of the elves.
It looked at me.
As if it could see me, who had no physical form as an observer in the dream.
The creature, which had been baring its teeth-like things with its maw open, soon lifted its head and howled.
-----.
That cry was.
Yes.
It was hard to describe.
It probably wasn't important.
I followed its gaze and looked up.
I looked at the sky.
I could see a pair of eyes looking at me.
It was him.
He was the master.
The master of the twisted soldiers who had annihilated my army and the Outer Gods who were tearing apart the battlefield itself.
Even in a dream, in the face of an instinctive fear, I gathered my wits and thought.
Was it the Eastern Emperor?
No.
Then the Emperor of the Lumer Legion?
That's not it either.
It was an enemy I didn't know.
My intuition, which had saved my life several times since I fell into this land, was telling me strongly.
That this was the adversary of this world scenario.
The mountain I had to overcome to survive.
The reason I held on and endured in this damn nightmare that repeated every day was to get even a small clue to defeat him.
To defeat him and protect myself and my people.
It was at that moment that I felt the damp clothes, the hot head, the cool sensation gently pressing on my forehead, and the soft touch of the sofa supporting my back.
I opened my eyes.
“……My lord Count?”
Bright.
The light of a luminescent stone lamp.
What half-filled my vision was a face that had come close.
Alina.
“…Are you alright?”
I wonder.
First of all, she was close.
A distance where I could feel her breath.
Her hair was tickling my neck.
I realized that the cool sensation on my forehead was her hand.
I cleared my throat and said.
“I'm awake.”
“…You have a fever.”
“My posture is uncomfortable, could you move so I can get up?”
As Alina moved aside, I corrected my posture and sat up.
It was definitely a good idea to have a plush single-person sofa in the cafe's reception room.
Even though I had fallen asleep in a position that was bad for my back, besides a little stiffness, there was no major discomfort.
I quickly looked around.
The familiar and cozy interior.
It was the reception room on the second floor of the Wolfskrig plaza cafe.
Racking my brain, I remembered that I had been waiting for Alina.
We were scheduled to discuss the relocation and expansion of the existing parish due to the rapid expansion of the city, and to talk about the candidates for the next bishop to be appointed upon her appointment as bishop.
My previous appointment had ended early, so I had arrived first and had apparently dozed off on the sofa while waiting.
“My apologies. I haven't been sleeping much lately. Have you been waiting long?”
“Did you have a nightmare, by any chance?”
“It was nothing.”
“You have a fever.”
“It's a slight fever.”
Alina sighed and recited a short prayer.
With a refreshing feeling, the sensation that had been blocking my stomach disappeared.
It was like a feeling of indigestion going down with a cool glass of water.
I expressed my gratitude lightly and leaned over the documents on the table, but a white hand blocked my way.
“?”
Looking up, Alina was looking down at me with her characteristic frown.
That expression suggested a stubbornness she sometimes showed.
“Shall we, perhaps, go for a walk?”
***
We rode out of the city on horseback.
It was Alina's stubbornness.
I had intended to take a light stroll through the streets, but she insisted that we had to go outside.
“If we take a walk in the city, you'll just be thinking about things like the redevelopment of the residential area or the construction methods being researched, won't you?”
Well, that was true.
I barely had time to sleep.
There was no way I had the luxury of a walk.
Most of my movements were for the purpose of inspection in the first place, or in the process of moving to another destination.
Even during those movements, it was common for me to handle work in the carriage.
Familiarity is a scary thing.
Because I was so used to it, whenever I had a chance to look out the window, my eyes would be drawn to it.
How to develop the city and how to prepare for war with that power.
In that respect, Alina had to be seen as having foresight.
Not just anyone could be a cleric, let alone a bishop.
“It's been a while.”
Alina, who had suddenly stopped while we were riding through the forest after leaving the east gate, said.
“How long has it been? A year? Two years?”
“About that. It was after I returned from the Eastern Expedition.”
“Wasn't it when you were preparing for the winter festival?”
“Yes. When you were busy performing surgery on the imperial soldiers who had been rendered impotent by the Paradise Elves.”
“Ah! Right. I had forgotten.”
Alina clapped her hands and laughed.
Was being on the verge of becoming a eunuch something to laugh about?
I suppose it didn't matter since she was the one who had treated them.
I got off my horse.
I tied the reins to a suitable tree and walked into the forest.
Come to think of it, it really had been a while.
The act of walking like this without a purpose.
Although it wasn't completely without purpose, since rest was also for the sake of working smoothly.
I think I used to come out more often in the past.
There was even a time when we had a rendezvous, not a rendezvous, every night.
A time when I was a mere mercenary captain, and Alina was an apprentice priestess.
“That was a good time.”
When I brought up those days, Alina's expression became reminiscent.
“By the way, do you remember Sir Tember?”
“Who?”
“Sir Tember.”
“?”
“The paladin who was hitting on me back then. The one who drew his sword in front of you, my lord, in the middle of the night.”
I remembered.
“Ah, Tambourine?”