“It truly is a relief.”
Elizabeth was satisfied.
In truth, the witches hadn’t expected much from this request. They had poured immense effort into searching for “Thunder,” yet they hadn’t found so much as a clue. They didn’t have high hopes for the descendant of the Caravan they eventually found, either. Had it been a Caravan in their prime, perhaps—but this was a bloodline of Steel that had long since lost its brilliant greatness.
They were no longer one of the Great Five Families.
What could one expect from a name forgotten by history?
To expect anything at all might have only led to greater disappointment.
Furthermore, the descendant they observed lacked the majesty of the Caravans of old. He lacked that characteristic blade-like aura and had even lost the charisma that once commanded legions. To the witches, Arhan was merely an unripened boy. Nothing more, nothing less.
‘But a Caravan is still a Caravan.’
The results proved everything.
Arhan had now grown enough to live up to the name Caravan, and the witches had reclaimed “Thunder.” Elizabeth was beyond satisfied with the fact that they had recovered their precious treasure. Even the youngest, Audrey, seemed to have found her own light and was growing splendidly.
However.
“Husband.”
There was one thing that kept bothering her.
“I have a question. The words High Elf Nadine spoke were incredibly insolent. But setting aside that rudeness… as far as I know, that old elf is not a being who would falsely slander the Nine Goddesses and the Seven Chief Gods. So, I must ask. Were the things the old elf said lies?”
High Elf Nadine.
The things he had said in the Great Forest.
“Or were they the truth?”
Elizabeth looked up at the sky with sorrowful eyes.
“If it is difficult for you to say, I do not need to hear it. But the thought that the Heavens might be hiding something from us weighs heavily on me. As those closest to you, we wish to know everything about the Heavens. It makes us sad and upset to hear things we didn’t know from the mouth of another. We want to know all the greatness and all the wounds the Heavens possess. Because we are your wives.”
Elizabeth’s sincere voice echoed.
Soon, the sky she was gazing at slowly opened.
「…What the old knife-ear said is true.」
“Ah.”
「I am sorry, my Elizabeth.」
An apology from the god she served.
Elizabeth shook her head.
“No. Please do not apologize. The Heavens are the highest of all beings. Do not speak such regretful words to a lowly creature like me. It breaks my heart.”
「….」
“But could you tell me just a little more?”
It was a cautious question.
A long silence followed Elizabeth’s inquiry.
Despite the heavy stillness, Elizabeth stood perfectly still, looking up at the sky without budging. To the Elizabeth who stood frozen like a stone statue, the voice of the Heavens finally returned.
「Long ago, Steel once reached the heavens.」
The voice of the Great Chief God spoke.
「And on that day, the Seven Chief Gods and the Nine Goddesses lost their omnipotence.」
That absolute voice.
It was trembling.
*
The war between the Machine Empire and the Iron Kingdom was lasting longer than the continent had expected. The Machine Empire, Laprien, had occupied most of the Iron Kingdom’s outer territories, and they had suffered almost no troop losses during the process. It was practically a bloodless entry. Of course, the Machine Empire did not act arrogantly regarding this achievement, nor did they claim they were vastly superior to the Iron Kingdom or that they could occupy the entire nation.
From the start, the peripheral territories of the Iron Kingdom were lands the kingdom had already abandoned. Throughout their long history of war, the Machine Empire had always adopted similar tactics. To counter the Magic Corps operated by the Machine Empire, the Iron Kingdom—instead of building anti-magic walls across its entire vast territory—designated all the outer lands classified as the periphery as ‘land that doesn’t matter if we lose.’
There were two reasons for this.
First, the Iron Kingdom lacked the resources to surround its unnecessarily large territory with anti-magic walls. From their perspective, investing resources into low-value outer lands was a waste. Iron Kingdom Chervil was a nation where national power was concentrated in major cities, including the capital, Czerny. Technology, resources, population, and legions were all gathered in the center. Rather than scattering its concentrated power to protect every inch of land, the Iron Kingdom stuck to a strategy of firmly defending the vital lands it could actually hold.
Second was the ideology of the Iron Kingdom. It was a nation built on the principle that might makes right and only the strong survive. The legions of the Iron Kingdom had no obligation to protect powerless elders, the weak, or those pushed to the outskirts to farm. Surprisingly, many of the Iron Kingdom’s citizens accepted this logic. In this land, power was everything.
The Machine Empire, having fought the Iron Kingdom for ages, was well aware of these facts. Thus, they knew the peripheral lands they had seized were a white elephant, and that the Iron Kingdom’s true strength had not been depleted in the slightest. However, this was enough.
The Machine Empire’s intention in starting the war was not to occupy the Iron Kingdom. It was a move to secure even one more advantage in the coming era and to open a new path. Therefore, the Machine Empire was satisfied with occupying the Iron Kingdom’s territory in a way that besieged it.
If they simply dragged out the time like this, it would be the Machine Empire’s victory.
The Machine Empire had blocked most of the sea routes held by the Iron Kingdom. If it were the Iron Kingdom of the past, they would have endured with their gates locked, but the current Iron Kingdom could not do that. This was because of the Free Cities the Iron Kingdom had colonized. If this situation continued, the Iron Kingdom would be unable to quickly circulate the profits gained through the Free Cities, and if the war dragged on, they might even lose them.
What if a third power invaded the Free Cities while the kingdom was busy defending its own territory? What if the Machine Empire allied with other nations or powers to snatch them away while the Iron Kingdom was pinned down? There was even a possibility that the Sky Empire would send its legions under the guise of realizing justice and abolishing colonies. Or perhaps a revolution would break out in the Free Cities while their guard was down. The residents of the Six Free Cities were famous for their strong sense of self. They were the ones who had once toppled the Grid Republic through revolution. The tales of the flames of revolution they ignited and the Shadow Brotherhood that ended the era of the Republic were recorded in history.
From the moment they acquired the Free Cities, the Iron Kingdom should have thoroughly defended the cities with ports. However, the Iron Prince who had committed the depravity of killing his own father—the newly crowned King Ian Chervil—did not do so. He stuck to the exact same methods as before. The Machine Empire concluded that even Ian Chervil, who was called a heaven-sent genius, was ultimately still a young and immature monarch. It was only natural, really. Having achieved the feat of occupying the Free Cities, he must have become arrogant. An arrogant human naturally tends to overlook basic details. Furthermore, since he became king through patricide, he must have been preoccupied with securing his throne and organizing internal affairs. It was a fairly common historical occurrence for genius princes to show surprisingly poor performance after inheriting the throne.
Thus, the Machine Empire besieged the Iron Kingdom and waited leisurely without advancing further. The Masters of the Machine Empire expected the Iron Kingdom to seek negotiations soon, and they were discussing what to extort during those negotiations rather than planning further warfare.
From a normal perspective, the Masters’ actions were not wrong. There was no reason for the Iron Kingdom to act aggressively here. Managing the interior of the Iron Kingdom and turning the Free Cities into perfect colonies would be enough of a burden for Ian Chervil. For the sake of the future, the Iron Kingdom had to acknowledge its shortcomings here and back down. This wasn’t even an unreasonable deal where only the Machine Empire benefited. If successful negotiations were reached, the Machine Empire was willing to support warp gates to help the Iron Kingdom manage the Free Cities more easily and even station their Magic Corps there. In the first place, the Free Cities were too large for the Iron Kingdom to swallow alone. Shouldn’t such a large piece of meat be shared? Preferably among neighboring countries.
The elite-educated Masters of the Machine Empire made their judgments based on logic and reason. It was an excellent judgment, but there was one thing they hadn’t considered.
The possibility that the Iron Prince Ian Chervil was an irrational human being.
Just because someone is intelligent and clever doesn’t mean they have to be rational. The Masters of the Machine Empire, who had enjoyed a long peace, had forgotten one fact. War is inherently unreasonable and irrational. And there was no way Ian Chervil, who dreamed of a war to end all wars, could be a rational man.
*
“Everyone is envisioning a scenario where the Machine Empire and the Iron Kingdom end up carving up the Six Free Cities between them. They talk about being historical enemies and all that, but those at the top are all the same. It’s only the Six Free Cities that are in a pitiful position. Unless ‘Rhapsody’ returns, the Six Free Cities might never regain their freedom.”
A large ship flying the flag of the Black Archipelago.
Zeppelin Gold’s ship was cruising smoothly.
“Does no one expect this war to break out on a large scale?”
“Because there’s no reason for it. Every war in the world is ultimately a fight to gain something. The Machine Empire is currently in a situation where it’s drying up. War is the most inefficient business of all businesses. You consume what you have to the bottom, and the lives of your citizens—the most precious resource—are ground away. If this becomes a full-scale war, the Machine Empire is finished. They won’t be able to endure. The Iron Kingdom isn’t quite that extreme, but it’s similar. If they go to war in earnest and a revolution breaks out in the Free Cities, or if another nation loots their empty house, they lose their chance to become a Great Power. Ian Chervil would also be covered in infamy, wouldn’t he? It would be incredibly stupid to occupy the Free Cities only to lose them to someone else.”
Zeppelin Gold said, flipping a gold coin with a sharp ting .
I stared at him and muttered.
“That’s strange.”
“What is?”
“Why does everyone think Ian Chervil is a rational person? Zeppelin, the King of the Iron Kingdom is not a rational man. He is closer to a monster. At least, that was the Ian Chervil I saw.”
Yes.
The Ian Chervil I saw was closer to a demon.
“Ian Chervil is not a monarch who plays intelligent moves, thinks of the future, and works his brain behind a desk. He is a narcissist who considers himself a divine being, a creature who plays the most atrocious moves, and at the same time, a madman who has the most powerful Swordmaster on the continent under his command.”
“….”
“Zeppelin. If you have an opportunity to invest, invest in a place that will profit if the war between the Iron Kingdom and the Machine Empire doesn’t end in such a lukewarm fashion. I don’t know about investments, gambling with money, or the flow of wealth, but I know the man named Ian Chervil.”
“Ho-oh.”
Zeppelin Gold grinned as he listened to me.
Standing on the deck, Zeppelin Gold gave a wink.
“I’ll trust the Lord’s word for once. Betting money on the side no one else is betting on—now that’s a thrilling choice. A stake on the underdog. In our Gold family, we call this kind of investment ‘reverse betting.’ It also happens to be my favorite kind of investment.”
“You won’t regret it.”
“Yep. If I make money with the Lord’s help, I’ll invest generously in the Caravan territory. I’ll even buy and station a Combat Airship, the kind the Sky Empire only has a few of! Hahaha!”
A Combat Airship, huh?
I clearly remembered Zeppelin Gold’s words as he grinned.
‘You’d better buy it.’
You clearly don’t know how good my memory is.
As I stared at Zeppelin Gold with a strange look, he soon scratched his head.
“Ah! Look at me. I was just talking about useless things. I didn’t come here to talk about the Machine Empire and the Iron Kingdom. I spend every day looking at numbers, so I lose my mind like this sometimes.”
“Was there something else you wanted to say?”
“Yes, I must explain the Southern Continent to you.”
Zeppelin Gold laughed.
“You’re about to become a hero there soon; it wouldn’t do if you knew nothing about the Southern Continent, would it?”
Against the backdrop of the wide horizon and the blazing sun, Zeppelin Gold struck a pose with his arms wide open like a bard. He even held a glass of beautifully colored wine and looked at me with a playfully deep gaze. Just as I was about to let out a hollow laugh—
‘Hm?’
My heart thudded, and a sharp prickle ran down the back of my neck.
I whipped my head around and stared across the horizon.
“Hm? What is it?”
“Nothing. I just felt something.”
Was it an illusion?
The moment I thought that, my Master spoke.
「Your intuition has become quite sharp.」
“….”
「It is no illusion.」
Soon, I heard the words that had become familiar by now.
「A new Sword is calling you, young descendant.」
*
「The blood of Steel hungers.」
「Consume the new Sword.」
.
.
.
「The completion of Steel is not far off.」
「Temper your soul.」
