Chapter 183
Chapter 183
Iron Emperor — Chapter 183
King Bera Han of Haian watched the departing Gauri envoy group with a complicated expression on his face. The incident that could have become tangled, given the overwhelming military force seen in the magic footage, had unexpectedly ended with the Holy Empire bowing its head and withdrawing.
He was uneasy.
Yet at the same time, watching the envoys who had comported themselves with such forthright dignity, a hope was quietly growing in one corner of his heart: that they might shatter the continent's ossified power structure. A voice broke through King Bera Han's reverie.
"Your Majesty. Envoys have arrived from the Roselin Kingdom."
"Roselin?"
Roselin meant unified Roselin. The North Roselin royal house had never maintained much contact, and so King Bera Han sensed something ominous. That sense of foreboding became reality:
The Roselin Kingdom's declaration of war against Gauri.
As if it had been waiting for this, the Holy Empire stepped forward and acknowledged it. The evidence they produced clearly proved that remnants of South Roselin had fled toward the Reganza Mountains. It was obvious that the Holy Empire had pulled back with this very development in mind from the beginning.
Of course, the evidence only indicated the direction of Reganza, but as matters stood, the only nation that existed within the Reganza Mountains was Gauri. The fact that the Holy Empire had not denied Gauri's existence as a nation revealed these complex ulterior motives had been lurking all along.
"A declaration of war?"
"It is said that Roselin has declared war."
Yeon Hwi-garam, having returned to Gauri, presented the unified Roselin's declaration of war to Go Jin-cheon as a gift. They had received an ambiguously warm reception from King Bera Han, but that had been the best the Kingdom of Haian could manage. However, since the Gauri envoy group had never expected anything in the first place, they paid it little mind. If anything, Risel had even prepared a teleport array near the capital, in case the kingdom buckled under imperial pressure and attempted to seize the envoys by force.
"And this is a secret letter from King Bera Han."
"A secret letter?"
Go Jin-cheon accepted the letter from Yeon Hwi-garam and unfolded it.
"......."
A brief silence.
As Jin-cheon's brow furrowed, Gye Ung-sam, who was nearby, regarded him with a puzzled look.
"Your Majesty, is it troubling news?"
At Ung-sam's question, Jin-cheon wordlessly handed over the secret letter. Ung-sam took it and, curiosity piqued, unfolded it to read.
"Ah... "
Only then did Ung-sam understand the reason for Jin-cheon's silence. At Ung-sam's sigh, Jin-cheon's frown deepened and he tossed out a single remark.
"If you've realized, then read it."
The secret letter was written in the continental language.
Averting his eyes from Jin-cheon's gaze, Ung-sam began to read the letter.
[To His Esteemed Majesty Go Jin-cheon, King of Gauri... ]
The sentence sounded polite, yet somehow overly deferential. The secret letter opened with formal courtesies. Though called a secret letter, it contained little that could truly be considered secret. After all, were Gauri and Haian not two states without any ties of trade or alliance?
But as he passed the midpoint, Ung-sam's voice grew serious as he read on. The king had set down the current political situation of the continent in detail. Gauri had of course organized trading companies to gather continental intelligence, but access to high-grade information was difficult. Under the circumstances, the intelligence King Bera Han had written out was exceptionally useful.
The Three Great Empires: the absolute powers of the continent.
The mightiest among them was arguably the Holy Empire. With absolute power concentrated in the emperor, the Holy Empire's military force far surpassed that of the other empires. Only if the Federal Empire and the Maritime Empire combined their strength would the Holy Empire find itself hard-pressed.
Thus the three great empires were locked in a standoff of immense power.
A little over a millennium ago, there had been more than fifty kingdoms on the continent, but one by one they had been annexed in the vortex of the Continental Wars. The Duchies of Dorin, Temian, Hessen, Ssen, and Mu—which had endured that storm of war—were commonly called the Five Grand Duchies, and they now served as a buffer zone between the Maritime Empire and the Federal Empire.
To be precise, the Five Grand Duchies had maintained themselves by pursuing a pragmatic diplomacy between the Maritime and Federal Empires, leveraging the power of both sides.
The Warrior Kingdom of Malin.
It had initially joined the Federation to oppose the Holy Empire's might, but when the war ended, it withdrew of its own accord. Along with the South Roselin Kingdom, it was a kingdom of fierce pride. Naturally, it was attacked by the Federal Empire upon its withdrawal. The Federation had taken offense. Yet after two centuries of war, the survivors had proven so resilient that the Federal Empire no longer mobilized force against them. In return, however, the Federation's crushing economic sanctions meant that trade between nations remained an impossible dream, and Malin sustained itself purely through self-sufficiency.
And the Kingdom of Haian...
[... In the Season of Depravity, some of the ancients succumbed to the temptations of the continentals and ultimately betrayed their own kin. After the ancients departed, those traitors enjoyed wealth and glory, but only for a time. In the end, they were struck by the combined attack of the current Three Great Empires, their royal house was overthrown, and they were reduced to colonies, only to be passed to yet another empire. For 360 years they suffered. At last, to facilitate a ceasefire among the empires, our Kingdom of Haian was set aside as a neutral zone, but it is less a nation than a battlefield where the power of each empire balances on a knife's edge. Under these circumstances, your nation's existence may seem to the empires like fresh prey. Please be on your guard. This declaration of war from the unified Roselin Kingdom can be seen as a clear manifestation of the Holy Empire's ambitions. I earnestly pray that you will be able to safeguard your nation's fate.]
"That is the end of it."
"Hmm."
When Ung-sam finished reading the final portion and raised his head, Jin-cheon nodded slightly. But Ung-sam's face had stiffened into a hard mask. Sensing something amiss, Jin-cheon looked at him, and Ung-sam, face rigid, held out the last part of the secret letter and spoke again.
"However, at the very end, there is this... "
"What is it?"
On the part that Ung-sam held out, a symbol was drawn—one that even someone ignorant of the continental language could easily recognize. Its form was slightly different, but it was unmistakably a three-legged crow.
"May the protection of the Divine Bird Trakhan be with you... "
Ung-sam's murmured words no longer reached Jin-cheon's ears. The legends of the ancients that had been unraveling bit by bit ever since they were first drawn to the continent by an unknown fate. The dragon's appearance. The words the dragon had proclaimed, calling out Sara's name...
Jin-cheon folded the secret letter, rose from his seat, and murmured quietly.
"Be it destiny or be it inevitability. We need only do what is ours to do."
Jin-cheon knew the highest truth. Right now was the time to focus on the declaration of war before his eyes.
Unified Roselin's declaration of war against Gauri.
The Gauri high command did not bother to conceal this fact from the people. If anything, they were spreading it openly so that the people would easily understand.
"Damn it, Elder, I'm telling you it's impossible!"
A conscription officer recruiting reserve forces was shouting, his nerves frayed. But the old man before him only flared up in greater anger and refused to back down.
"Why not! I'll have you know, in my younger days I brought down orcs with my bare hands!"
"Ah, whether you took down orcs or ogres with your bare hands—I'm telling you it's impossible!"
The conscription officer did not yield. And for good reason: the old man volunteering as a soldier looked to be at least in his sixties, no matter how you looked at him. The officer was grateful for the old man's fierce determination to enlist, but he had no choice but to stick to the regulations.
"What's going on?"
"Oh! General Hailon!"
Concerned by the commotion, Hailon, who held overall responsibility for the conscription, approached and asked. The conscription officer looked back and forth between the old man and the general, clearly at a loss. The situation spoke for itself. At the conscription offices set up in each city, not only old men but even children barely past ten were flooding in, and scenes like this were occurring daily.
"See here, Elder."
There was almost no one among the Gauri people who did not know Hailon. A celebrity who had risen from slash-and-burn farmers to achieve the fastest promotion, the only continental to have ever charged at a dragon, the father of orphans—so many epithets clung to him that not knowing him would be stranger still.
"Oh dear, General Hailon."
Before Hailon's natural, unforced dignity, the same old man who only moments ago had been shouting that he would become a soldier now bowed his head repeatedly, beside himself.
"I am not unaware of your feelings, Elder."
At Hailon's gentle words, the old man raised his head and gazed at him with a forlorn expression. Gauri was, to them, practically the last sanctuary for their lives. It was a nation where freedom existed, even if life was hard. The children might not feel it keenly, but the elderly who had lived through many years understood it best.
Perhaps because of that, the old folk in particular had swarmed the conscription offices. And perhaps a sense that they had few years left to live had played a part.
Hailon's words continued.
"But if even you come running here, who will work the farms?"
"General..."
A rueful voice escaped the old man. At that, Hailon's face hardened slightly as he asked:
"Or do you doubt the strength of our Gauri!"
"Oh dear, not at all, sir."
At Hailon's mildly reproachful question, the old man bowed his head over and over in denial. Hailon's voice softened again.
"The personnel we are currently gathering through these conscription offices are not men who will be directly thrown into this war."
At Hailon's explanation, not only the old man but everyone who had gathered at the conscription office fell quiet and listened. Hailon's calm voice continued.
"Most will likely return to their trades after training. Until now, with no threat present, there was no need for this, but it is now time to prepare. In short, recruiting troops now is a measure of preparedness, not a sign that we are currently short on strength. Who is His Majesty, our Yeolje? Is he not the very one who faced down a dragon and protected this land!"
Hailon's even voice had swelled into a roar by the end. It stirred a strange emotion in the people assembled there.
Absolute faith.
The people of Gauri held absolute faith in Go Jin-cheon.
"Hailon, that bastard's gotten real good at talkin', huh."
"That's right."
Eulji Buru and Uru, having approached to see what the noise was about only to stop short, had been listening to Hailon's speech from hiding and now broke into pleased grins. They turned and walked off again.