30 Years Have Passed Since the Prologue

Unlike the misunderstandings of many so-called civilized people, the Drovian people regard human life as invaluable, something that cannot be exchanged for anything else.

They act according to the principles of bioethics, environmental protection, and the law of equivalent exchange in economics. In their cultural realm, this fundamental principle often manifests itself as follows:

“If you don’t want to die, put everything you have in here!”

A Drovian warrior was shouting, setting a wooden building ablaze.

It was such a rational act that Ingvar’s eyes softened as he watched. Indeed, that’s how a warrior should be—like a father gazing at his beloved son.

Life has a value that surpasses anything else. This proposition is true.

Therefore, if the price is for saving a life, even all assets possessed by the individual, excluding life itself, would not match its worth. You can earn again if you are alive. This proposition is also true.

As a rightful consideration for saving lives, Drovian warriors have the right to take all liquid assets from the victim. If the victim refuses this? That victim could return to the embrace of their ancestors, so it’s fine.

All kinds of environmental destruction throughout history have been committed by humans, so reducing the number of humans is equivalent to protecting the environment. In other words, whether you ‘transfer’ your assets while alive or ‘leave’ them after dying, it’s a win-win scenario.

In that case, the Drovian warrior who did his utmost to rescue the victim gains the highest inheritance rights. This takes precedence over biological children due to the absence of an axe with them. (Such gruesome gear had already been collected during the rescue operation.)

Of course, that ‘harm’ began with the warrior’s axe. But their brains were so filled with numerous economic theories they needed to contemplate that such trivial details were of no concern.

“This is trade. This is the economy.”

Ingvar nodded gently as he looked around the city filled with screams. A ‘redistribution of wealth’ was occurring on a city scale. From the perspective of stimulating the domestic economy, it was an excellent sight.

Despite lacking modern economic views, these people instinctively understood that savings lead to economic stagnation while consumption activation could achieve macroeconomic revival. Those who survived after everything turned to ashes obviously cannot save.

“Yarl hasn’t been here.”

“Oh, really?”

Ingvar let it slip as it wasn’t particularly important, but he nodded while looking at Ivan, who had returned from searching the city.

“It seems this was the winning ticket.”

“This city is close to the North.”

Ivan continued, picturing a map of Drovian territory in his mind.

“Could this situation have happened by mere coincidence the moment we chose a path leading north?”

“No way.”

Ingvar shook his head.

A city ruled by ‘Yarl’ in Drovian. That is, the former ‘tribal area’ comprises a total of 11. This means that the feudal lords, now called Counts, were that number in the past.

Now that Einar is down at the eastern edge, the fact that the northern lord has vacated their position suggests only one thing.

As expected, there are lords who have betrayed us, and one more thing.

“They have a ‘head’.”

An entity capable of formulating grand strategies and commanding legions is moving the demon army. Just like in the era of Great War.

This is the greatest evidence that the Seven Dragon Lords exist in this region. A mere ordinary commander could never manage a vast territory of national scale. The demon troops under their command would certainly not obey.

Demons are harder to control than Drovian men. Telling them “carry out this operation in such and such area” is mostly meaningless.

Unless you overpower them with charisma at the level of the Seven Dragon Lords, they wouldn’t follow orders without hesitation.

“Considering the chaos in the South due to the Southern Six Nations, the thoroughness in not even attempting to appease the western border adjacent to Krasilov.”

When Olegha’s followers entered during the Frechenkaya raid, it was in carriages bearing the emblem of the First Legion. Also, considering that they crossed the northern front, it is likely that the First Legion has been put out of action.

If you know this, it becomes easy to infer that whether the Frechenkaya raid succeeds or fails, Krasilov has lost the ability to launch a military expedition to foreign countries. The internal situation is pressing.

Then, there’s no need to bother or even have the time to appease the Yarl stationed at the western border. The likelihood of a joint attack with the Krasilov Army is significantly low.

Instead, it would be better to win over the northern Yarls. Unlike the southern Yarl, who are in proximity to the Southern Six Nations, the northern Yarls are relatively hostile toward Einar.

Further north from the northern lands leads only to the sea. Beyond that sea lies the Demon Realm, and there is no developed civilized society.

Thus, the northern lords cannot attempt overseas plundering. In such circumstances, since Einar has prohibited plundering its citizens, the northern lords’ dissatisfaction must have been accumulating for years.

What they desire most is not Einar’s death. They simply wish for ‘chaos’. Given the desolation of Drovian’s resources, it would be difficult to appease the hot-blooded warriors with mere self-sufficiency.

For them, hinting at an assault on Einar and at least enough persuasion to ‘observe’ or ‘block information’ would have sufficed.

On the other hand, most southern lords are satisfied. They can extort ‘taxes’ from every trade route coming up from the Southern Six Nations, and if necessary, they could directly set out to the territory of the Southern Six Nations to extract ‘active taxes.’

Moreover, the Southern Six Nations are currently in a situation where they cannot oppose Drovian on a large scale. They are in such chaos that they don’t have the mental energy to deal with the raiders from Drovian.

Being fully aware of such international conditions, selecting which lords to win over and which to leave alone, and establishing grand strategies spanning from northern Drovian, southern Drovian, northern Krasilov, and the eastern front of Drovian…

It would be “impossible unless the Seven Dragon Lords personally appeared.”

It feels like watching the strategy framework of the Great War era. The time when legions were deployed under a unified will. Ivan frowned at the acrid smell of iron and pungent gunpowder wafting in the air. The smell of war is in the air.

“So isn’t that what makes it even more frightening?”

Ingvar looked at Ivan with sharp eyes. His gaze was thick with vigilance.

“The war nature of Krasilov… now called ‘the Army.’ Yes, about your western fellows’ ability in war.”

Ingvar was a seasoned warrior. Most of his life had been marred by struggles, and since he won every battle, he remained alive to this day.

It was precisely for that reason he could instinctively realize that Krasilov’s wartime capability was abnormal.

The moment Drovian troops were deployed to the western front and news arrived that Einar had set out to intercept them, it was in that very moment. Even under circumstances where even their own people were unaware, only Krasilov had drafted war plans.

It is not just about fearing the intelligence capabilities. It’s the boldness to grasp the scenarios of various countries and act immediately, the forecasting of the trends that foreign lords might choose, and the decisiveness to proactively dispatch agents to substantiate those forecasts.

It is clear that they are preserving military traditions akin to those of the Great War days. Almost every nation in the world implemented disarmament after the end of war, but only Krasilov did not do so, even going through a civil war.

The man standing in front of Ingvar right now is the very pinnacle of that nation’s military tradition. A man who could ignite hesitation throughout the entire nation—or perhaps the whole world—with just one small clue.

Ingvar gazed at Ivan for a long time, then bared his teeth and laughed.

“Einar surely caught a good son-in-law. Ha, this is my victory for being the first to grab hands.”

If someone is planning to set fire to a house, there are two positions to choose from.

To be trapped in the fire and burned to death or to stand with the arsonist and ignite the flame.

Ingvar chose his position. If he belongs to the one setting fire, he can charge a ‘rescue fee’ just for saving those burning to death.

Buying low and selling high is the basis of economics. Partnering with this guy is a sensational investment. The older economic warrior chuckled and patted Ivan’s back, shouting.

“Let’s go if you’re done looting, you guys!!”

“It’s tax collection—!!”

“Waaahhhh—!!!”

Soon the train would depart, heading deep into the distant north once again.

If you were to name what Drovian people love most, two things can be mentioned: one is taxes and the other is war. At this moment, being able to do both simultaneously, the train’s toll collectors had become the happiest Drovian in the world.

Ivan gazed out the train window at the flowing steppe, lost in thought.

Things were proceeding as expected.

The division of Drovian, the betrayal of Yarl, and that most of those traitors will be northern lords. To threaten Einar’s life, a Seven Dragon Lords level being must appear.

However, in his situation, that would be equivalent to a Plan B. It wasn’t initially anticipated to unfold like this.

“Maximilian.”

Considering the words of Olegha’s followers, it’s evident that Maximilian was deeply involved in the current state of affairs.

Yet, if he were to appear personally, there would be no need for such a large scale operation or for a war ‘game’ at all. He could just show up and assassinate Einar and disappear.

If he truly wanted Einar dead, he would have done it that way. Yet, the distant east remained calm.

If Einar were dead, the northern lords would not sit idly by. They would be thrashing around, claiming they would become kings and waging war, but the silence in the north, while their lords were away, was alarming.

This means that Einar is still alive.

The longer Einar remains alive, the greater the probability of their plans unraveling. As soon as the north front of Krasilov stabilizes, they could start providing military support to Drovian.

The southern Yarls, who do not oppose Einar, would gladly support the war against the northern lords as long as Einar doesn’t lose his life.

Therefore, in their grand strategy, Einar is a hurdle that must be dealt with as swiftly as possible. But why exactly?

‘What do they want?’

Without knowing their motivation, there is no way to devise a strategy. Acting as if they would annihilate humanity while consistently revealing weaknesses and presenting solutions.

In the Southern Six Nations, they used the bold measure of a crusade while isolating the Seven Dragon Lords in Ovidis to make subjugation easier.

They occupied the emptiness of Frechenkaya, delaying and allowing for their subjugation.

Even after deploying demons to the eastern front and winning over the northern lords, they still keep Einar’s life alive, dragging out time.

This feels like….

‘They are establishing a grand plan that could be packaged as [intelligent war strategy] within the demon army and continuously exposing weaknesses to provoke actions on this side….’

The plan to corrupt the Papal Enclave and incite the Southern Six Nations to split the southern United Kingdom.

The plan to occupy Frechenkaya and eliminate Enrique to recover the vampire’s intelligence capabilities.

The plan to win over half of Drovian and lure Einar out to secure a path for the demon army.

All those plans seem flawless on the surface, methodically designed and lethal. It’s almost impossible to respond unless some extraordinary event occurs. The variable that can respond to them is only Ivan and the Hero Party.

However, while others might not know, Maximilian is aware of Ivan’s existence. He is aware of the actions of the Hero Party. Since the last year’s Tylesse civil war, the Hero Party has splendidly managed to prevent the division and downfall of Tylesse.

There’s no way he would draft plans excluding Ivan and the Hero Party. Just as Ivan would not formulate any strategy excluding the variable of Maximilian.

But the situation now feels as if…

‘They want to give us trials and hope for resolutions.’

Ivan turned his gaze from the window to scan the empty seats. He thought of the spots where Isabelle, Ecdysis, Eugene, and Yuri had been.

‘For what purpose?’

Right now, they were headed in the exact opposite direction from Ivan. They had left to win over the southern lords.

To set fire evenly across Drovian. In order to create a counter-fire against the burning war already aflame.

   

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