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61 Signs of Instability (2)

Iron tilted his head in thought after receiving the letter.

‘What kind of bullshit is this?’

At first he thought ‘Did the Crown Prince drink some kind of medicine or something?’.

The Crown Prince was the epitome of the words foolish and greedy. He was a person who perfectly managed his image and knew how to act in front of others. Even now, only a few people knew that the Crown Prince was trash.

Iron was still lost in his thoughts even after he heard Carl told him that the supplies and support that came from the Center were sent here under the orders of the Crown Prince.

“Take good care…”

The foolish Crown Prince did not say these words for no reason at all. Just like the saying that a person would change when they were close to dying, he wondered if the Crown Prince changed because he was also dying.

However, if the Crown Prince died right now, the already messed up Central politics would become even more chaotic and restless. The Empire’s collapse and ruin should only happen after they had overcome the crisis to some extent.

“A civil war in this situation will be the worst outcome…”

Carl, who was standing next to him, flinched when he heard Iron mutter those words.

“Is… Is it something serious?”

Iron just shook his head lightly before handing the letter to Carl after he heard his question.

Carl couldn’t help but tilt his head after seeing the letter. There was nothing special in the letter. However, the story changed since the person who sent the letter was the Crown Prince.

“…Did he go crazy?”

“Who knows? Maybe he has some sort of critical illness?”

Iron thought about the Crown Prince as he said that.

He knew that the possibility of him knowing something was higher than him getting some sort of deadly disease. Since the Imperial Family held far more secrets than what he had expected, it was highly likely that the Crown Prince, the next Emperor, learned about another secret.

‘Did he really find out about something?’

This conjecture was slowly solidified after rumors about the ‘Day of Destruction’ spread all throughout the Empire.

At first, he thought that ‘there were some smart and shrewd Central bureaucrats at play’ here. But that wasn’t the case at all. The Crown Prince was the one who personally announced this matter. He even continued to inform all of the citizens of the Empire about the current situation in the continent.

“God’s Orb will soon break completely. The day that it breaks will be the day that the continent’s end will begin.”

The people suspected that the Crown Prince was just inciting anxiety for no reason at all. But the Crown Prince revealed everything. He disclosed the cracks that continued to progress and develop on God’s Orb as well as the results of all of their investigations and studies.

“The more cracks appear in God’s Orb, the greater the chaos in the continent. In fact, the relics of the ancient gods in the South appeared the moment the cracks covered almost half of God’s Orb. The unknown gods in the West also appeared after the cracks worsened.”

The reports and investigations that the Crown Prince released spoke of the correlation between the events that happened in the continent and the destruction of God’s Orb. Seeing these significant and meaningful results, the people had no other choice but to believe in his words.

At some point in time, Iron ended up constantly waiting for news announced in the Center.

After the Crown Prince’s shocking announcement, research and studies began in the Center in preparation for the upcoming end. In addition, all of the policies during this period of time were all centered in preparation for the end that was coming in the near future.

The high-ranking nobles began to move and line up with the Central Government and each Commanders for their survival in this upcoming end. The public became nervous and anxious after seeing them move like that, but they also had to survive. So, they began to prepare in their own ways.

[ Is there anything that we can do with this planned end? ]

An article with this title appeared in the Imperial Public Newspaper.

The apocalypse0 that would descend upon them was now a reality and not just some pessimist’s cry.

After the Empire’s announcement, the Southern and Western regions of the continent also began to move.

In the West, the Pope himself spoke about the words imparted to him by the other gods as he officially announced the beginning of the end. In the South, the other-worlders and the people who signed contracts with the ancient gods also began to proclaim about the apocalypse.

All of them spoke the same thing.

“Put your trust in me and you will survive the coming end.”

These gods whispered sweet nothings to seduce the humans to their side and the frantic and urgent humans fell for their words.

However, those who could use their heads calmly assessed the situation and chose their gods only after careful observations. They wouldn’t know what would happen once the end truly began but what they knew was that they were currently the ‘party A’ in these contracts.

And the same was true in the West. The gods recklessly made their promises while the humans carefully chose which god to follow.

While the South and the West were busy trying to choose which god they would follow, the Empire rushed to prepare on their own.

The chosen ones in the beginning, in other words the people who received the Lord’s power like the phenomena from before, appeared all over the Empire. Because of that, the chosen ones in the beginning that went to the West also began to return to the Empire. The reason for their return was mainly because the believers of the other gods in the West began to shun and reject the chosen who received the power of the Lord.

The Empire became the kingdom of the Lord God.

The Divine Nation Alliance abandoned the Lord and chose the other gods.

And the Southern Kingdoms’ Confederation became the land of the ancient gods.

While the announcement of the Empire and the rest of the continent brought chaos to the people, the Southeastern region of the Empire finally achieved relative stability. Iron, who had his legs crossed under his desk as he spent his time leisurely, was proof of that stability.

After having a day that was free of battle for the first time in a long time, Iron spent his time leisurely reading a newspaper. He had free time today since he spent his entire night finishing all of the paperworks on his desk.

“What a mess.”

Iron’s expression turned incredulous as he read through the newspaper.

[ Which god should you choose? ]

The title occupying the top of the newspaper was completely absurd. The content of the absurdly titled article had turned the apocalypse into a battle of religion making it seem like choosing which god to believe was like a game. And this article had spread to the entire continent.

“This is… well… more like a salesperson pitch, not of the gods.”

The distant being of the past was no more. Right now, the gods were considered to be just a reach away as they become the essential being for the humans’ survival.

The many different gods promised plenty of things to attract and seduce the humans. Of course, there was no guarantee that those promises would be kept. There were no written contracts, like the contracts between humans, and no one would be held accountable in case of a breach. The only security that the other-worlders had was their own system. For the people who signed a contract with the ancient gods, they just hoped against hope that the gods would keep their promises. Nevertheless, the people remained enthusiastic about the gods.

The Empire, which believed in the Lord God, also investigated the gods from the West and the South. They wouldn’t know what would happen if the end truly happened so it was better that they found out about them in advance.

“The era of the gods…”

The era of mankind was slowly coming to an end as the era of the gods began to descend.

Iron hoped that the Lord God was on the side of the humans but he was not a person who only depended on wishful thinking. The possibility of the Lord God bestowing kindness and sacrificing himself for mankind was only something that could be found in fairy tale books. The most likely outcome was that there was no one that they could trust in this world.

“Hoo… I’m going nuts.”

Once God’s Orb was completely broken, it would be easier for them to cope if they knew whether the gods would come personally or they would just increase their intervention in this world. However, they have too little information.

Faulden came into the office while Iron was grabbing his head in irritation from the miniscule amount of information in his hands.

“What’s the current situation in the Southeast?”

“The giant worm corps retreated 170 km to the north over a month ago while the manticore’s monster corps went further down south.”

Iron rubbed his chin in thought after hearing Faulden’s report.

“So, there’s no immediate threat as of the moment?”

“That’s right.”

The morale of the Mobile Field Army was incredibly high after scoring consecutive wins during their battles. This resulted in the monsters becoming relatively dispirited. The giant worm corps and the monster corps even went so far as to form an alliance. However, the Mobile Field Army’s advantage in the frontlines still remained.

“Tell them to never let their guards down. We’ll never know when those shrewd and sly bastards will come.”

Faulden bowed his head and answered in agreement at Iron’s orders before going out of the office.

Although their morale was still rising from the consecutive wins in battle and the additional support from the Center, they were still in a situation where they couldn’t be rest assured. The growth rate of the imoogi and the giant worm corps was still high. Even the manticore and its monster corps were still growing rapidly.

All of them were showing their rapid growth rate as if they were betting on who would grow faster. If this continued on, they would have a difficult time claiming dominance in the Southeast in the near future.

“In the end, we still have to end it with one final battle…”

Iron mumbled to himself as he looked at the map of the Southeast.

The map was littered with dizzying numbers and letters indicating when and where the battles took place. The areas in the map that were densely packed with battle records were areas where they were well-informed about the current topography and terrain in the Southeast. Even though they lost consecutively to the army, the monsters still constantly challenged them to a fight that was why the map had been jam-packed with dates and letters.

Iron knew that they couldn’t stay like this when the end was already approaching. He did not know what would come but he knew that it was time to end things here.

“At least until that’s completed…”

There was a huge airship being built beside Command. The airship was equipped with a cannon that was greatly reduced in size in the center and a large number of upgraded weapons. They also engraved numerous magic in the airship to the point that it could fly freely alone without the assistance of drakes. And they were trying to produce dozens of these.

But since the God’s Orb was already reaching its limits, they did not have any more room to play around with it.

With the situation progressing like this, Iron was constantly being pushed back by pressure. There were only a few times where he rested properly in the Southeast. But recently, it wasn’t only just Iron running around busily like that. The entire Mobile Field Army was now also running around busily. No matter how much they had awakened their mana and endured their harsh training, they were still bound to get exhausted.

So, they tried to relax a bit, like now. But seeing the situation progressing in the worst possible direction, the thought of taking a longer relaxation time proved to be something that was difficult to do.

“Commander! There’s a problem!”

Faulden hurriedly rushed inside the Commander’s office. He was in such a hurry that he was gasping for breath.

“Did the imoogi invade us?”

“That’s not it!”

“Then?”

Iron looked at Faulden strangely.

Faulden hurriedly handed a note from the intelligence organization that he left in the South.

Iron’s expression hardened when he unfolded the note.

[ Dragon has appeared. ]

His expression slowly turned solemn as he read the contents of the note.

“Where? The Great Forest? Or the Southern Confederation?”

“No. They appeared in the Southern Gray Mountains.”

Iron sighed deeply at Faulden’s words.

The Gray Mountains was located at the southeastern end of the Southern Confederations’ territory. The problem was that it was not that far from the Empire’s Southeastern region.

“Is there only one?”

“They weren’t able to figure that part out. They were scrambling to escape and run away the moment the dragon rose in the sky.”

Dragon. It was a race that appeared frequently in the legends. However, it still remained as the most dangerous species. Fortunately, there were only a few dragons known to be in existence.

The scholars once believed that the dragons did not disappear but were just slumbering somewhere out of the humans’ reach. And the reports that came in right now had proven the scholars’ theories were correct.

“You’re not surprised?”

Faulden tilted his head in confusion when he saw Iron calm standing there, as if he was not surprised by this fact at all.

To be honest, Iron had already experienced the might of dragons in his past life.

Dragons vary greatly from one another but from what he heard, a fully grown dragon had the same power as a master. The dragon lord had power comparable to a grandmaster too. But in general, it was common for them to have power that was close to or already at the master-rank.

Their population was not that many so with mankind’s current level, they would be able to stop them. That was unless they came in droves.

Iron wasn’t afraid of the dragons since he, himself, was a master right now.

‘If there’s only one, then it’s worth a try.’

This thought flashed in Iron’s head as he gave his orders to Faulden.

“Station all of your informants in the South in the gray mountains.”

“I understand.”

Iron sent Faulden out of his office before activating the communication crystal and calling all of the commanding officers.

“Gather in the Commander’s office.”

There wasn’t a need for a lot of words. All of the commanding officers set aside their works as they gathered in the Commander’s office.

After seeing that everyone had gathered, Iron slowly opened his mouth.

“It’s time.”

***

Notes

[Party A] 갑 – The one with the upperhand in the contract. The so-called tyrant of the contract.