Chapter 5 - Movement

The Malando Empire is the most powerful in terms of military size on the continent, doubling the size of the second strongest; the Shino Kingdom, they’re considered a bunch of battle junkie barbarians because of their ruthlessness when attacking, pillaging villages and towns of everything they had and often killing them. Their Emperor, Emperor Austine IV ascended to the throne at age 11 because of his father’s death from an unknown disease, he was manipulated by the Prime minister and the once peaceful Malando Empire began rampaging the neighbouring countries, expanding its territory.

The continent feared the Empire for they can be the next target but nobody was foolish enough to attack the Empire, but then there was hope for the main continent, the Crimea Dukedom which was the biggest ore exporter stopped exporting to the Malando Empire due to the conflict on Patrick island which had multiple veins rich in iron on it, the Malando Empire demanded for full control of the island but the Crimea Dukedom blatantly refused, this led to their foreign embassy in the Malando Empire to mysteriously burn down, tension is very high and it’s likely that a continental war will happen soon.

The Leve Holy Nation who is allied with the Malando Empire because their discrimination against ‘beatmans’; humanoid creatures with human intelligence but often had the ears and tails of a beast, the Holy Nation called them a mistake, a failure, a race of sinners who strayed from God, only 3 countries openly discriminate against beastmans on the continent; Oloro, The Malando Empire and the Holy Leve Nation, the Leve church has a powerful influence in those countries but is often unpopular in other countries. The Leve Holy Nation has control over the most mages which led them to be feared despite having a mere 80,000 men in their military, this is advantageous for the Malando Empire since a mage can be equivalent to 200 normal footmen, 12,000 mages resides in the Leve Holy Nation which means they have an equivalent force of 2.48 million, almost beating the Malando Empire with 2,400 mages and 1.8 million trained footmen, there’s also 1.2 million untrained militias who were forcefully conscripted.

In a conference room, the now 23 years old King, His Majesty, Emperor Austine IV, the Prime minister, and the council of power, which are the top 10 most influential nobles in the country are discussing about the stop in export of ore from the Crimea Dukedom, this can be troublesome since they need weapons for their large army, >1% of the ores used for weapons in the Malando Empire are from the Malando Empire, 73% of the ores used in their weapons originate from the Crimea Dukedom so they're dependent on the Crimea Dukedom for ores, the Crimea Dukedom lacked food so the Malando Empire often traded food for ore, but the Crimea Dukedom weren't dependent on the food of the Malando Empire because the Shino Kingdom also trades a lot of food with the Crimea Dukedom.

“Your Majesty, we have to do something about the Crimea Dukedom. We won’t be able to continue our conquest in uniting the continent without weapons!”

“Indeed, Your Majesty, I suggest we send in 60,000 men to capture their capital, it should be a quick and simple task for our men.”

“We could definitely take their capital before someone like the Shino Kingdom can react but it could mean an all out war against the continent, we should prepare to fight the Shino Kingdom since it poses the biggest threat to us.”

The Emperor, though foolish to those around him, is in fact a critical thinker being able to think of flawless strategies, this was because of his strict Emperor education during his childhood which consisted of politics, military strategies, economics, Royal etiquette and many more. Everyone in the conference room agreed to send 60,000 men to capture the capital but then, Margrave Lillusin who was quietly talking to a man dressed in all black in the corner, suddenly shouted.

“Your Majesty, a report just came in from the intelligence squad in the Crimean Capital!”

“Oh, what does it say?”

“A country from the north has contacted the Crimea Dukedom, we don’t know their military power yet since the upper echelons are keeping it top secret but it will be troublesome if we were to invade now.”

“Interesting, then, order 120,000 men up to their capital just in case.”

“Your Majesty! Sending that much just because of some country in the north is-”

“You dare object to His Majesty’s orders! Prepare for an expedition at once!”

The newest person to the council, Earl Marquistine tried to object but was quickly shut down by the Prime minister who was standing next to the Emperor.

“Y-yes, my apologies for the rude conduct, Your Majesty, I shall excuse myself now.”

Earl Marquistine who was afraid that he would be killed for objecting to His Majesty’s orders, quivered down. The conference ended shortly after that, only those in the conference knew of the invasion plan because of fear of it leaking to neighbouring countries.

Crimea Dukedom POV

“The Malando Empire will probably attack us soon, if only we can get help from the north.”

“Your Majesty, it seems they can enter a war under a condition.”

“Oho! So, what is this condition?”

“According to the document they’ve sent us, they can help us in the case of when we’re against an armed independent militia, so they can support us against coup d’etat or a rebellion.”

“That’s good to hear, any other conditions?”

“If a country breaches their international law, an ‘International Police Force’ will detain the sovereign of the country and temporarily take control of the country until a new government is constructed, and the last possible condition is a retaliation against an attack targeting their citizens or their country.”

“So, we need to lure the Malando Empire to attack them somehow…. I guess we won’t have any support from this ‘Raquam Empire’ in the north for now, their navy seems strong but they might have a weak army.”

“We need their cooperation in a war either way, those metal ships and the flying carriages in the report can be of big help in a batlle.”

At that moment, a young man bursted into the King’s chamber, he was tall considering his age, being 1.7m despite being the age of 11, he was the battle junkie of a prince. The third prince, William Crimeas, lived for the sword and the sword only, not caring about anything other than sharpening his skills, he was a genius swordsman and an idiotic Prince.

“Father! Is it true that there’s a powerful nation up north!?”

“Your Highness, please refrain from entering so crudely and shouting national secrets.”

“Whatever, so is it true or not?”

“Sigh, it is true that a nation resides up north but I cannot permit you to challenge them, the tension down south is bad enough, getting an enemy up north will put an end to the country.”

“Tch, fine, but can’t you ask ‘em for a mock battle for fun?”

“I doubt it, but if you continue to do your studies instead of playing around, I’ll maybe ask them. Deal?”

“Tch, fine, deal! You better not go on ya word!”

William shouted whilst running out of the chamber and through the hallway towards the library, everyone in the palace including the King, sighed at the battle maniac Prince.

Shiro’s POV

I finally finished going though the torture, Atlas, I can rest!

“Ahhhhh……”

I laid down on the soft fluffy pink bed in the Lesse family’s capital mansion. The mansion is 400m square perimeter with in size with lavish marble tiles covering it and 20 personal maids, the majority of Raquam are rich nobilities, ever since the 1500s, Raquam was a paradise vacation spot for rich nobilities escaping war or famine, 84% of the land used to be fertile so famine was rare and to invade the Raquam Empire, one must go through their navy which reigned as the strongest for almost 600 years, only being defeated after the first great war over a century ago, their navy, though still strong, is significantly less powerful compared to others, mainly because they lost most of their land in the second great war.

I tried to sleep but I couldn’t because I drank too much coffee trying not to sleep whilst doing paperwork, a literal black company- wait is that even legal to do to a minor? Father would probably say that I’m an exception as an excuse so arguing is no use.

“I’m bored! There’s barely any animes airing because of the crisis and stuff, sigh.”

Going out incognito? No, everyone knows who I am because of my rare hair colour. Wait. The new continent! If I can go play there, exploring this 'new continent' will be fun since nobody knows me there. I can just sneak out and have fun on the new continent now! I’m sure Hacka can do all the work for me.

I leaked a sinister laugh as I prepared some ‘toys’ in my other dimensional space bag which can store up to 10kg of items, it’s considered a national treasure since normal dimensional bags can only store 2-3kg at most. The sun is almost setting, in the cover of darkness, I can take one of the retired planes and go explore the new continent.

The disappearance of Shiro will cause mass panic in a few weeks as the Malando Empire makes their move.