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Chapter 1166: The Victor

Translator: Transn Editor: Transn

BOOM!

Tendrils of lightning pierced through the whirlwind, and they slowly began to gather at the center as heavy rain poured on the ground, obscuring the forest. The evolved Magic Slayer and the new Transcendent stood transfixed like two austere statues. Their faces were within an inch from each other.

The wild magic power had completely covered Ashes, whose body was now emanating a dazzling golden glow.

She was the concentration point of all the divine power.

She transformed herself into a weapon of destruction.

"Is this your last resort?" Ursrook bellowed. "You want to kill me by sacrificing yourself. That's beyond stupidity!"

"I won't... let you walk away," Ashes said, panting. Every breath was painful. Blood flooded into her windpipe, and she could taste the nasty tang of blood in her mouth.

Five minutes... Ashes kept telling herself… She only needed another five minutes.

They were basically equal in power right now. As long as she did not let him go, it was impossible for the Magic Slayer to break away from her.

"Do you think I'll fight only with brute force?" Usrook snarled, his water-streaked face contorted in a rage. "It seems that I'm now rooted, but you are forging a cage for yourself!"

Several flashes of black light wriggled out of the Magic Slayer's chest and dived into Ashes' body like some sinister tentacles.

Ashes could not help but groan in agony.

She had thought nothing could be worse than a power rebound, but the black light tortured her in an even more callous and cruel way. She felt as though numerous tiny needles were attacking her veins in the brain, and she had to force herself to not pass out.

To her horror, in addition to the excruciating pain, those black tentacles started to creep up her body and spread out. The place that the black light had passed bulged as though some squirmy bugs were moving underneath her skin.

Blood spurted out from Ashes mouth. Ashes asked, "What... what did you do?"

"A little present for you that will make you understand the difference between our understanding and control of magic power," Ursrook whispered into Ashes' ear. "To tell you the truth, I should thank you. Thanks to this battle, I've finally evolved. Now, you are even offering yourself to me. I'm looking forward to how far I could grow after I destroy you."

Ashes suddenly realized that this was another form of corruption. The part covered in black light felt oddly disconnected as if it had been detached from her body. Ashes bit her lip, exercising all her efforts to summon her power to fend off the corruption.

"Don't. You. Dare. Possess me!"

As the two powers clashed, Ursrook's face twisted, and his new body suddenly expanded into a distorted and grotesque blob that grew larger than his original size. He was misshapen, with half of the Senior Demon's body and half of his own.

The corruption, however, continued to expand after a momentary pause, and black lines continued to creep up to Ashes' neck.

"Great perseverance," Ursrook commented with a callous and indecent pleasure in his voice. "But that won't work." His appearance had now completely changed after the horrific transformation, and he looked like a genuine monster of lore.

"I... won't..."

"Won't give up? Diligence, faith, perseverance, and relentlessness are merely excuses of the weak. Nobody wants to die. However, those slogans won't change anything, nor will they help your race to live on!"

Searing pain exploded in Ashes's head. Her mouth opened wide like a dumb person, but there was no voice coming out.

Golden flecks shined through the swirl above, but Ashes found her power slowly abandon her.

"We have a much greater power capacity and a longer lifespan than you human beings. You're fighting against overwhelming odds. That's the difference that determines our fates! Both the past two Battles of Divine Will have shown that you'll never beat us!" Ursrook lifted Ashes slowly off the ground and claimed his final judgment, "So, rest in peace. Blame your fate for being human — "

"Don't you — look down upon — humankind!"

Suddenly, a familiar silvery voice came through the pouring rain, which jerked Ashes out of the unconsciousness for a moment.

She turned around with great difficulty and saw a shadow dart out from the woods.

"Is that... Lightning?"

Lightning cleaved the milky curtain of rain, passed the blackened trees and dashed towards Ursrook.

It appeared that she was also carrying something.

Ashes blinked.

"Are those... grenades?"

"Get lost, you low-life!" Ursrook immediately generated the anti-magic area.

When the black light brushed past Lightning, Lightning released the grenades and changed her course abruptly.

The grenades fell.

They sped on under the momentum toward Ursrook and sprouted their empennages.

"You — " the demon growled, his eyes strained, and with all his remaining strength, he created the blue shield.

The next moment, explosions bloomed outside the shield, yet it was only a prelude to even more destruction. The cone-shaped bullets seething with energies created a dazzling trajectory in the air and shattered the shield with a loud crash. They slashed Ursrook's disfigured body as if hot knives through butter, thus reducing the blob attached to him to a pulp.

The Magic Stone Ursrook had obtained from the Senior Demon crumbled under the fierce onslaught of the shrapnel.

Ursrook let out a bone-chilling shriek!

The black tentacles immediately shrank; the burning pain Ashes was feeling ceased, and she regained her consciousness.

Without slightest of hesitation, Ashes released the accumulated divine power.

The Magic Slayer realized the danger and tried to wrench the witch away, but Ashes refused to slacken her grip.

"You're right. Human beings are weak, but nothing could stop us from moving forward. We'll never back off," she broke off with a tenuous smile on her face. "Because someone is already standing ahead, pointing to us the way forward."

Then golden thunderbolts overspread the black light and filled the entire sky.

Struck by the blinding, white-hot rays, Ursrook was evaporated without even the slightest trace of his existence left behind.

The roar of thunder spread through the Fertile Plains, leaving a long murmur of echoes.

Soon, the divine power diminished, and Ashes was alone on the vast land.

Lightning slowly rose from the ground and clenched her teeth. When she had collided into the anti-magic area, she had swayed sideways and had been thrown out before crashing into the ground. Luckily, the Magic Slayer had directed the majority of his power to the shield, which had afforded her time to synchronize her power after a narrow escape from the anti-magic area.

As a consequence, she broke one arm and scraped one side of her body.

Lightning limped to Ashes and managed a smile. "We finally... won."

"Yes, thank you. To be honest, I didn't expect that you would come back."

"That's an explorer's instinct. A great explorer always comes for those in need — " Lightning stopped dead, realizing something was wrong. "Hey, what... is happening to you?"

Ashes looked down at her hands. They were turning snow-white and became more and more transparent. She replied, "Perhaps, this is the price I have to pay for burning myself."

"Burning yourself... What do you mean?" Lightning pursued, stunned. Ashes gradually disintegrated into nothingness, and her long hair splintered into numerous tiny white flecks, as though she ceased to exist as a solid entity and became a misty image comprised of fireflies.

"If we want to use magic power to achieve something, it'll lead us to what we desire, but I asked for something more than I could bear..." Ashes said softly. "So that's what I will turn into after merging with magic power... It's better than becoming a monster."

"What, what are you talking about?" Lightning asked, panic-stricken, attempting to grab Ashes' hand, which immediately pulverized. "Ashes, tell me. What should I do?"

"Tell Tilly that I like her."

The dark clouds were eventually dispersed by the lazy sunbeams that spilled across the earthy land. In the slanting sun rays, Ashes closed her eyes and dissolved into the wind.

Lightning attempted to hold her back but to no vail. With her one good hand still trying to hug the air in front of her, the little girl broke into tears.

...

Lan heaved a deep sigh as she gazed at the dark sky, her eyes downcast.

After a long, melancholic silence, she closed the window and muttered as if she was asking an imaginary figure, or just talking to herself.

"What are you waiting for?"

"There's nothing to hesitate about anymore."

"We need to act faster. Time... is running out."

Her last comment gave way to an inaudible sigh that dispersed into the stillness of time.

Next next best

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Chapter 1167: Woe

Translator: Transn Editor: Transn

...

"Is that so? I got it." Roland's heart sank when he received the news from the frontline. It took him a while to reply. "How are you feeling now? How is your injury?"

But what followed was only a suffocating silence.

Few more minutes passed before Roland spoke again. "This wasn't your fault. You couldn't foresee that the things would unfold in this way. Now, since the Magic Slayer has perished, take a long break and have a good rest."

Roland slumped into a chair after he hung up the telephone and let out a deep sigh.

As if she sensed something, Nightingale strolled slowly to Roland's desk and asked, "Was that Leaf?"

"Yes," Roland answered while closing his eyes. "The war is over. The First Army successfully seized Taquila with minimal loss and also discovered a half-completed tower base in the God's Stone mine. The ambush operation failed, but it has been confirmed that the Magic Slayer was killed. The curse was lifted, which is the fortunate part of all the misfortunes. However..." he paused for a second and said, "Ashes and Elena didn't make it."

"That... fool?" Nightingale said, aghast, and then turned away.

"Lightning told me that Ashes became Transcendent near the end of the fight and sacrificed herself to kill the demon. Nothing was left behind from the battle except for the melted remains of Ashes' sword," Roland continued slowly.

Roland had predicted the failure of the ambush when he had seen the siege through the phantom instrument. Judging from the formation of the demons, it appeared they had been purposely waiting for the witches to take action. Unfortunately, he could only have a glimpse of the battlefield through the screen. After the Special Unit had retreated to the west, he had lost track of the witches and thus been pacing up and down in his room with burning anxiety.

Roland had anticipated the worst scenario at that moment.

The actual outcome of the battle was much better than he had thought.

Nevertheless, the casualties still gave him a leaden feeling in his stomach.

After all, he was the one who had approved this plan.

"Ashes was arrogant and very full of herself, but she never made any reckless decisions..." Nightingale remarked as she placed her hand gently on Roland's back. "The same goes for Elena. I believe that they knew this would eventually happen, so, you don't have to pin all the blame on yourself. I'm throwing the words you said to Leaf right back to you."

Roland nodded slowly a few times. He still did not understand how the demons had predicted their plan and why they had taken eliminating the witches precedence of over control of the Holy City of Taquila. Yet it had happened. As the leader of Graycastle and the united front, he should never show any signs of despondency to the public no matter how disheartening and painful the situation was.

How was he supposed to support someone more downcast than him if he were to let his emotions consume him?

For example, Tilly.

He did not know how to face her.

From what Leaf had told him, Tilly and Ashes had been much closer than he thought. Although Tilly was not completely devastated by the news and immediately came to help the wounded, the sparkles in her eyes had faded instantly when she had heard about Ashes' death. According to Lightning's words, the radiance around Tilly had disappeared. Lightning had also forwarded Roland Ashes' last words, probably hoping that Roland could assuage Tilly's grief.

But comforting people was never one of his expertise.

He decided to take things slow.

On the same afternoon, the Seagull arrived at Neverwinter.

All the witches who sustained minor injuries returned from the battle, whereas those in critical condition were still remaining at the front, awaiting Nana's treatment.

Roland and the other Witch Union members greeted them at the airport.

Anna, Agatha, Molly, and Phyllis climbed down the jet bridge and hugged Scroll, Nightingale and Sharon, as well as the clerks of the Witch Union, including Ring, Grayrabbit and Pearl. At this moment, the war made everyone equal. There was no difference between combat and non-combat witches, new and Taquila witches, or witches and the common people.

Tilly was the last to get off the plane.

Roland walked up to her and stammered, "That..."

"Can I have a word with you in private, brother?" Tilly asked as she looked up at him.

...

He thus led Tilly to his office and closed the door behind them after Nightingale left the room on his orders.

"Alright, if you want to say something..." Roland broke off. As he turned around, he felt his chest suddenly constrict, and Tilly threw herself at him.

"Please, just stay there," Tilly choked while holding Roland tight, her voice quavered. "Let me hold you like this for a while, just a while..."

Her voice trailed off into a sob, her fingers sinking into Roland's back deeply.

So that was why.

Like him, she was a leader; a leader of Sleeping Spell. Tilly did not have the liberty to show her emotions. It was indeed not an easy task to hold back her tears while inside, she was tormented by misery and agony of her loss.

Roland patted Tilly on the back and said, "You don't need to hold back anymore. Cry if you want. Nobody will hear..."

Tilly's tears then came flooding out her eyes.

The sobbing soon grew louder and louder and turned into a heartbreaking wail that Roland had never heard before. He had never seen Tilly so sad, not even when she had been bullied by her own brother when she had been little. It was an outpour of forlorn and despair from a person who had just lost that which was what the dearest to them.

Roland didn't know what to say, because no words could comfort her at the moment.

So he just stood there and waited.

...

Meanwhile at the frontline.

The tent flap was pulled back, and Shavi came in with a bowl of medicine in her hand.

"Do I have to drink that again?" Andrea mumbled. Her legs were completely bandaged and her face covered with medicinal cream. Although neither of these really helped heal her wounds, Andrea liked the soothing sensation on her skin. "I won't drink it without candies."

"How about... I ask for some from the field medics?" Shavi said tentatively.

"Since when did the field medics have candies? This isn't Neverwinter. Whatever, help me up."

Andrea sat up, took the bowl, and emptied it down her throat.

"Aargh, is Nana still busy? How long do I have to wait before receiving treatment?"

"I asked her. She told me you need to wait for another three or four days. She said that some God's Punishment Witches were in worse conditions than you, and..."

"And what?"

Shavi muttered, "She said that your legs looked pretty bad but the injuries weren't fatal, so medication should help."

Andrea rolled her eyes and said, "I'm not that muscular monster. How can I heal myself up?"

Those words almost brought Shavi to tears.

"Sorry," Andrea mumbled, quickly turning her tactless comment into a cough. "Forget about it."

"No..." Shavi said while shaking her head. "You just reminded me of Ashes, so I couldn't help..."

"I look like her? What the — " Andrea broke off, frowning, as she realized that she had almost forgotten about her status as a noble. "Well... I feel a bit tired now. You go take a rest. Please tell Lightning and Maggie to bring some honey back next time they go on a patrol. At least that will make my life a lot easier."

"Okay, got it."

"Thanks."

Andrea, however, was still not able to restore her composure after Shavi departed.

"You wanted to save everyone? You even ended up becoming a Transcendent. Did you think that you were a Queen of Starfall City of old?"

"Now you killed the Magic Slayer and met a heroic end, but..."

Andrea laid back down and buried her face in her hands.

"... Damn it, have you never thought about..."

"How I'm supposed to surpass you when you're now gone forever?"

Next next next

Chapter 1168: Recovery

Translator: Transn Editor: Transn

Tilly cried for nearly an hour before she finally fell asleep. Roland put her on a couch, his cheeks and clothes smeared with Tilly's tears and snot. The latter was still shaking with sobs uncontrollably when Roland disengaged himself.

Tilly obviously did not wish the witches from Sleeping Spell to see her cry like this, so Roland asked Anna to bring Tilly to the master bedroom on the third floor of the castle.

Anna wiped Tilly's tear-streaked face as her breath gradually steadied as sleep broke over her. Apparently, she had burned out after working non-stop for weeks since Ashes' death. Anna gathered this was probably how Tilly coped with pain — by immersing herself in work and thereby temporarily detaching herself from the cruelty of reality.

"Please stay with her tonight," Roland said with a sigh. "She needs someone, and I trust that you're the best person to take care of her."

"Don't worry. I know how she feels and what to do," Anna answered while nodding. "What about you?"

"I could sleep in the Third Border City. I've been staying there for the past few days, so it doesn't matter to me," Roland replied. "Also, the witches there should be informed of the success of the 'Torch' project as well. Those ancient witches probably have been waiting for this news for a long time."

"OK," Anna said as she walked up to Roland and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Although I don't want you to leave, it's important to let them know..."

"Sorry, you just came back from the front."

"Don't be silly, my king. We'll have plenty of time together in the future."

Just when Roland was about to leave, Anna stopped him again.

"By the way, bring Nightingale with you," she said in a serious tone. "You should never put yourself in danger."

While still being a little absorbed in Anna's clear blue eyes, Roland closed the door behind him.

...

Pasha greeted Roland and his guards at Third Border City immediately.

"Your Majesty, how did the war go? Any news from the front?"

She swayed her tentacles, looking unsettled.

With no intention of holding anything back from her, Roland said flatly, "We won. The demons on the plain were eradicated, and so was the Magic Slayer. The First Army seized Taquila."

Pasha instantly stopped swaying.

After a moment of silence, she asked, apparently thrilled, "Is this true? I apologize for my insolence, Your Majesty... I'm not questioning the credibility of your words, but I just don't know what to say. Could you tell me more about it?"

As a Senior Witch who had been living for more than 400 years, Pasha had developed the ability to remain unperturbed under any circumstances. It was Roland's first time seeing Pasha lose her composure. He replied, "Naturally, but..."

"Thank you, Your Majesty. I'll soon tell everyone the good news!" Pasha said and vanished from into the cave and from Roland's sight.

Momentarily stunned, Roland shook his head resignedly.

When Roland entered the underground hall, however, he not only saw Pasha, Alethea, and Celine but also all the other God's Punishment Witches gather about at the center of the hall. They were spread out in a line and were looking hopefully at him.

This made Roland feel it hard to tell them the whole story.

"Do what you can," Nightingale whispered to him. "Or tell Pasha mentally."

Roland nodded, took a step forward, and briefly talked about the war and its outcome. As he had not received a statistic report yet and Leaf had missed quite a few details when she had related the incident to him, Roland could not fully recount the story. Neverthless, the God's Punishment Witches did not really care about the specifics anyway.

For those survivors who had been waiting for four centuries, all they needed to know was the final result.

The crowd erupted into a loud cheer after Roland finished his speech.

Many witches burst into tears and some whooped with laughter. All of them were thrilled by the news.

It was a day of euphoria for those witches as they had finally, for the first time in the past several hundred years, been freed of the oppression of the demons.

"Please forgive our insolence and rudeness in the past," Alethea said as she came up to Roland and bowed her main tentacle. "From today onwards, there's no need to keep a united front. We acknowledge you as the leader of Taquila and we trust you'll lead us to achieve our final goal."

Neither Pasha nor Celine spoke. Apparently, they also agreed.

This meant that Taquila had officially become an integral part of the Kingdom of Graycastle.

Roland gave a curt nod of agreement, and Alethea straightened up.

"Also, I need to tell you one more thing," Roland said and then told them about Elena's death.

"I see... So it was her," Pasha spoke slowly.

Roland was mildly surprised that the witches were not too upset about the news.

"You... already knew?" Roland asked, unable to help himself.

"No, we just anticipated that it would happen," Alethea said truthfully. "The demons saw through our ambush plan, which, back in the Union age, would normally leave us with no chance of survival. It's very fortunate that we only lost one member."

"You probably find it hard to understand, but we're used to death," Celine supplied the answer. "Every one of us volunteered to transfer our soul to the carrier and was on the brink of death once, not to mention numerous defeats during the past Battle of Divine Will. We're not afraid of death but a meaningless one."

"And Elena simply made a choice that every Taquila witch would make under that circumstance," Alethea said. "So, you don't have to be too sad about it."

Instead of providing solace to the witches, Roland became the one being comforted.

While being a little touched, he was at a loss for words.

"Of course, this doesn't mean we aren't sad for the loss. We simply learned how to control our emotions," Pasha said as she looked at the celebrating witches. "I'll tell them later. Right now, let them enjoy the celebration."

...

Five days later.

As the army gradually returned to Neverwinter, the news of the victory slowly infiltrated the city.

Although the civilians did not witness the actual war themselves like they had done during the battles against the demonic beasts and Duke Ryan, nor did they celebrate the victory at the time, they gradually formulated a mental image of the enemy based on the various rumors circulated in the neighborhood. This particular enemy, unlike any demonic hybrids or knights, was ferocious, powerful, and dauntless. As many people had seen the attack of the Devilbeasts, it was further believed that this enemy was a demon from Hell.

Some details had even gone awry in the retelling, as the public was now quite positive that the demon was actually a 100-foot legendary monster that brought disasters and ejected fire. This imaginary demon thus soon became the most heated topic of discussion throughout the entire city.

The defeat of such an invincible monster significantly raised the morale of the masses. If the demon from Hell had failed to stop the First Army, then who could?

Meanwhile, the Graycastle Weekly further advertised the war by interviewing a large number of soldiers who had participated in the battle.

In a few days, Neverwinter witnessed a rapid increase in the number of people who applied to join the First Army, and the public set up a chant of "expand the territory of Graycastle for the king" throughout the city.

Nonetheless, the officers in Neverwinter knew very well what their real challenge was.

At the cemetery in the west of the city.

Since the first tombstone had been set up here five years ago during the Months of Demons, this old wasteland, which used to be overgrown with bushes and hedges, had now become a public cemetery carpetted with green grass.

426 new tombstones were added today.

Most of the tombs were empty, as they could not locate all the bodies of the killed. However, nobody felt that those soldiers were abandoned. On each of the tombstones, there was the deceased soldier's name, rank, and feats.

Elena's and Ashes' tombs were among them.

They looked identical to all the other tombstones except that there was a half-melted sword in front of Ashes' tomb.

"Salute!" Iron Axe shouted while raising his hand.

Then all the officers administered a military salute, most of whom had a much higher rank than ordinary soldiers.

It was not only a memorial but also a reminder.

It reminded them that there was still a long way to go before the Battle of Divine Will ended.

After the funeral, Roland summoned Barov and said, "Ask all the ministers to come here. I have new tasks for them."

The new battle had just begun.

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Chapter 1169: A Parliament of Holy See

Translator: Transn Editor: Transn

The rush of the waves from the Realm of Mind gradually faded, and Hackzord opened its eyes.

It saw a round hall, below which lay the tranquil sea of fog, and the ceiling of the hall was out of its sight. Nine seats of different sizes were suspended in the air and were along the steep stone wall. In the middle of the circle stood a giant Birth Tower. However, unlike a real High Tower, this Birth Tower was plastered with eyes the size of a junior demon.

This was the realm created by the king.

The "Presiding Holy See".

Although it was not its first time visiting here, it still felt somewhat restless and uncomfortable. Unlike a dream or ordinary mental communication, the communication that occurred in this hall, which was located in the middle of the Realm of Mind, was real. If it fell in the sea of fog or was under an attack, it would truly get injured.

In contrast to the chaos outside, the hall was strictly in order.

The king ruled the Holy See.

Once someone entered the Presiding Holy See, it would be at the mercy of the king.

Nevertheless, Hackzord was confident in its absolute loyalty to the king. It could easily suppress its instinctive revolt. Only savage beasts would find it difficult to control their instincts.

"The Sky Lord is at your service," Hackzord swept a bow at the High Tower in the center.

One of the eyes on the tower opened but immediately closed again. It said, "Please wait."

"Yes."

Presently, the seats were gradually filled.

The shadows occupying the seats were blurry, but Hackzord managed to make out who they were. The one whose armor was ornamented with various weapons, as giant as a small mountain, was the "Bloody Conqueror", the one wearing distorted clothes and masks was the "Resentful Heart". Very few could distinguish these prominent figures, because it depended on how well one understood the Origin of Magic.

When the last seat was occupied, the conference began.

The king materialized in front of all the lords, and half of the eyes on the Birth Tower slowly opened as well.

"You all probably know why I summoned you here. I believe everyone has the same question as me. Several days ago, one person upgraded and reached the Realm of Mind. The upgrade created a commotion there but soon, this particular individual became unresponsive," the king broke off and turned to the Sky Lord. "The one who created this commotion was Ursrook, the commander of the advanced troops of the Western Front. Hackzord, what in the world happened in the west?

Hackzord felt nervous. It had expected the king to ask it this question. Disturbance of the Realm of Mind indicated that this individual must have achieved a relatively high realm, and all the lords would be able to sense such a remarkable improvement. As the battle in the Sky-sea Realm became increasingly fierce, one more lord meant a bigger chance to win. However, things suddenly took a turn for the worse. To everybody's consternation, this new lord simply left its mark in the realm and vanished into thin air. It was their first time over the past several hundred years seeing a lord die right after its upgrade.

In fact, Hackzord had received the news of their defeat in the west not long after Ursrook's upgrade, along with a letter written by Ursrook itself. Hackzord was so outraged by the content of the letter that it wanted to drill a hole in Ursrook's skull to see what had made it act so recklessly!

When the king raised the question, Hackzord hesitated for a moment but finally decided to disclose the truth concerning the battle.

As Hackzord had expected, the hall erupted into a loud murmur of jeers, gasps, and exclamations.

"Huh? Did I just hear that right?" the "Bloody Conqueror" sneered predictably. "Your subordinate knowingly made a bad decision and sent all the troops to the Fertile Plains for slaughter? What did you call that guy earlier? A genius commander?"

Hackzord knew that the Blood Conqueror, as the commander at the Sky-sea Realm, always held a grudge against Ursrook. Fearing that Ursrook's upgrade would threaten its status, the Blood Conqueror would naturally seek every opportunity to attack Ursrook.

"I don't really care about junior demons and Spider Demons, but the Sky Lord should have known how precious those symbiotic demons are," the "Mask", who was responsible for developing symbiotic demons commented enigmatically. "If we successfully seized Taquila, the City of Falling Star and Arrieta, that would have been a different story because the God's Stone mines there could provide us with supplies. However, we now not only lost those mines but also the symbiotic."

"I'm shocked that we lost to those low lives, and I believe your lordship should, more or less, take some responsibility."

"I think we overestimated this so-called genius. He's just barely above average."

"Not all the upgraded could open the gate, otherwise there would have been more than nine lords sitting here. Plus, its enemy was a Transcendent."

"So what? This isn't 400 years ago anymore. Do you think dying together with a Transcendent is something that we should boast about?"

Hackzord's face clouded over as it listened to all the sniding comments. Although it did not really understand Ursrook, Ursrook had been one of its favorites. As a lord, it could not tolerate any attacks toward its old commander.

Just at that moment, the king interrupted the discussion and silenced everyone. "Enough, I just want to know if this would affect our plan!"

Hackzord immediately concentrated its mind and replied, "No, of course not. We have many other plans. Taquila isn't our priority. I assure you that we'll tread on men's territory as planned."

"Then keep your word," the king said, his voice lower.

"But..." the Sky Lord said hesitantly. "But I need to request for more troops. According to Ursrook, we need ten times the troops we have now to win this battle." After an internal struggle, Hackzord decided to disclose the content of Ursrook's letter. It did not know why it reached such a conclusion, probably because of the trust it had put in Ursrook or because of the horrific prediction Ursrook had made. Constantly, a voice in its head pressed Hackzord to tell the truth.

"Ten times?" the "Blood Conqueror" bellowed. "What are you joking about? We can barely cope with the battle at the Sky-sea Realm, and you still request for more? I won't give you anything!"

"What did Ursrook say?" the king asked heavily.

"When he wrote this letter, the advanced troops had not fought human beings yet. Ursrook insisted in staying at Taquila under the pretext that it wanted to find out men's weakness. If the plan worked, we would have been able to significantly weaken humans. Then, we should send more troops and exterminate the entire human race."

"Was that a prophecy?" someone jeered. "I wonder if Ursrook predicted its own death."

"..." Hackzord nodded after a moment of silence. "Yes, it did."

A strained silence suddenly fell on the hall.

The lords exchanged looks, and the atmosphere became heavy.

The king spoke, "What did Ursrook say?"

The Sky Lord heaved a deep sigh and replied, "If it fails to survive, we should treat human beings as equals and exercise all our strength to annihilate them!"

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Chapter 1170: A Shocking Statement

Translator: Transn Editor: Transn

The hall was stirred.

"All our strength?" the Blood Conqueror echoed coldly. "What do you mean by 'all our strength'?"

"Literal meaning," Hackzord replied lazily. "Abandon the cities where we've exploited all the God Stone mines and half of the continent to the Sky-sea Realm. Direct all our forces to the Land of Dawn. I mean all, including old and new troops, until the human race is wiped off the face of this planet."

"Stop, you insolent brute!"

"Are you crazy?"

"Then where should the millions of residents in those cities go?"

"Although Ursrook didn't explicitly say that in its letter, I believe they should be relocated to the Fertile Plains. It's a vast land that'll be large enough to accommodate these migrants," the Sky Lord answered.

"We aren't going to have a mass relocation," the Mask snorted while bursting into a furious laugh. "That'll be suicidal if we don't move the Birth Tower along with them. Plus, we only have one chance to erect the new tower after the arrival of the Bloody Moon. We could have built the tower in Taquila, but your genius commander lost the entire Fertile Plains. Isn't it too late now to talk about relocation?"

Hackzord fought down its urge to retort. As Ursrook had had limited forces at its command, and the king had refused to send more reinforcements, it had thus left Ursrook no choice but to abandon Taquila. However, Hackzord managed to suppress its resentment toward the king and remained expressionless.

It had to discipline its mind.

"We have alternatives," Hackzord said. "For example, we could use the Deity of Gods — "

"Absolutely not!," the Bloody Conqueror cut across Hackzord rather fiercely. "That's our only hope to repel the enemy at the Sky-sea Realm. How could we waste it on those low lives? Stop talking nonsense!"

"The Deity of Gods is our ultimate weapon," the king said. "It's an essential part of our operation plan, and nobody could ever change that, not even a new lord. That's settled."

The king made the final verdict.

Hackzord was profoundly relieved. In fact, it also felt that Ursrook's statement was a little too audacious. If Hackzord had had a choice, it would have rather kept the contents of the letter to itself.

Anyway, it had fulfilled its duty to the king.

"Also, I find it absurd to increase the force by ten times..."

Just when the Bloody Conqueror was about to pursue the argument, someone interrupted it.

"I actually think we should take Ursrook's warning a little more seriously," the voice said mildly, which startled everyone. It was the guardian of the king's city, the "Silent Disaster". As a lord, it rarely spoke on a meeting. Like its name suggested, the Silent Disaster had a taciturn character.

As the most powerful lord among the nine, the Silent Disaster despised the Mask and the Resentful Heart who had to rely on clothes to disguise their weaknesses. As for the Silent Disaster itself, it wore a gleamy black armor every day, its face completely masked by the visor, as though it did not care about its personal image, nor did it feel that the armor was uncomfortable to wear.

"And your reasoning?" the king asked curtly.

"Possibly... there are some other legacy shards unknown to us in this world."

There was another murmur that swept over the hall. It was louder than the one after they had heard Ursrook's final words.

"How is that possible? There are only four shards in total. Don't we find shards based on their shapes."

"Do you think that human beings upgraded by some unknown means so we'll have to put all our strength into the battle against them?"

"Where did you get that information?"

The people on the floor raised various questions.

"No, I don't have evidence. It's simply my own speculation," the Silent Disaster drawled. "I saw something... incomprehensible in the Divine Land once."

"Can you tell us what you saw?" the king asked, half of his eyes resting upon it.

The Silent Disaster shook its head and said, "It's indescribable. Please take a look at my memory." With these words, it bowed its head.

"So..." All of the king's eyes snapped open! In an instant, a chill stole through Hackzord that made it shudder uncontrollably. Its instinctive revolt reached its peak.

The injection of another individual's thoughts made Hackzord shift in its seat uncomfortably.

But it had to be absolutely loyal to the king.

The Sky Lord thus suppressed its feeling and offered to connect.

Then, eerie images streamed into it and filled its heart with fears that chilled it to the bone. Among those images, Hackzord, dimly, spied a man, standing with an air of detachment not far away. This man seemed to be enjoying watching it struggle. Hackzord knew that this was not an illusion. Black tentacles that represented corruption were now rushing to attack it in a frenzy. If Hackzord did not leave now, it would soon drown in the Realm of Mind!

So Hackzord fled. During the escape, it broke one of the armrests of its chair.

The next moment, Hackzord woke up with a start and felt a chill running down its spine. The other lords also gasped and panted, obviously sharing the same feeling as Hackzord.

Now, everyone understood what the Silent Disaster had meant.

It was a well-known fact that legacy shards were connected with each other. When they communicated through the shards, there was a price they had to pay. Generally speaking, the price for the party who knew less about the Realm of Mind would be higher. They would not have been that surprised had this person in the Divine Land been a witch, as witches rarely visited the Realm of Mind voluntarily. They merely trespassed into the Realm of Mind every now and then, which did not really mean anything.

However, this person was a male.

According to the history of humans in the past thousand years, males had never displayed signs of magic.

There was no plausible explanation to this phenomenon except that human beings had upgraded.

It wasn't until then that Hackzord understood why the Silent Disaster had not shared this incident earlier. Nobody would like to admit that a low life had made it jump off the chair.

Hackzord wondered whether the Silent Disaster flushed underneath its helmet.

It appeared that its armor was not completely useless.

Was that the real reason it requested to resign from its guardian position?

Presently, one lord turned to Hackzord and asked, "Your lordship, did you also — "

"No, I only went to the Divine Land a few times, and I didn't see anything strange there," Hackzord cut that lord off while holding its chest a little higher. "If I did, I would have reported to the king immediately. I believe things would have been very different if it were me, based on my understanding of the Realm of Mind."

With these words, Hackzord darted a cold glance at the Silent Disaster.

"Interesting." Just then, a bright, silvery voice joined the conversation.

The "Nightmare" sitting at the end of the table, wearing a white robe, finally opened its third eye and broke the silence it had managed to keep since the beginning of the meeting.

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Chapter 1171: The Double Plan

Translator: Transn Editor: Transn

Everyone rested their eyes on the Nightmare.

So did Hackzord.

The Nightmare Lord, Valkries, was the most special lord out of the nine lords. As the very first lord, it had led most of the lords on the floor to their upgrades. During the first Battle of Divine Will, it had established a close relationship with human beings, and it was even rumored that there were still some believers in human cities. Although the Nightmare was not the strongest lord, it was powerful enough to alter its physical appearance. However, it seemed to prefer the look after its upgrade — blue skinned, with a horn sprouting from its head, and a third eye on its forehead.

Although the Nightmare did not look remotely human, its fashion style and act of demeanor were quite manlike, and it was also the first lord who had learned to speak the human language.

In other words, the Nightmare was the complete opposite of the Silent Disaster. Its sheer, delicate white robe displayed every single thread of fabric and afforded the Nightmare a sense of aloofness that separated it from the rest of them.

The Nightmare looked relaxed and indifferent, but Hackzord knew its understanding of the Realm of Mind was astoundingly profound.

Hackzord would not have complained about anything had the Nightmare Lord been startled earlier.

In fact, it was the only lord that Hackzord failed to understand.

If any of the other lords had seated themselves so unceremoniously like the Nightmare, Hackzord would have doubted its loyalty.

Surprisingly, the king also appeared to be perfectly fine with the Nightmare's attitude.

"Well, what did you find?"

"I'm just wondering if there's such a possibility," Valkries said as it straightened up. "Whether there's an upgrade method unknown to us or not, let's just suppose that a male human possessed an ability like a witch, then this ability must have a lot to do with the Realm of Mind. Otherwise, the Silent Lord wouldn't have been so petrified."

A red fleck glimmered underneath the Silent Disaster's helmet. It said, "I've been guarding the legacy shard for nearly 200 years and have seen many humans. Most of them either fled or drowned. Only one person I met two years ago managed to confront me, but she was a woman."

"Witches could possibly achieve that, but I don't really care about that person's gender. I'm actually more concerned about the ability itself. Perhaps, this man hasn't even noticed that he's already powerful enough to leave a mark in the Realm of Mind."

"I agree with you," Hackzord rejoined. After all, the Realm of Mind was one of its expertises. "But I don't really see the point here. The Realm of Mind is vast. It would be almost impossible to find a mark left by a specific individual."

"Perhaps," Valkries neither approved nor denied. "But I still want to give it a shot, using the connection between the different legacy shards. What do you think?"

Mildy taken aback, Hackzord asked, "Have you already learned to sense the connection between the shards?"

The defeat of the underground civilization significantly increased the magic power of the entire race. They were thus able to sense the Birth Towers. Gradually, they realized that both the communication with the Birth Tower and the legacy shards had to be completed through the Realm of Mind. Therefore, in theory, they could always search along the communication line for what was connected on the other end.

Nevertheless, this was simply a theory. The Realm of Mind was chaotic and random like the whirling sea. It was extremely hard to look for a thin thread hidden underneath the surface of the water. The deeper this thin thread was, the more susceptible it was to the influences of the currents. Hackzord could barely maintain its position in the Realm, let alone looking for a faintly discernible "connection line".

It had never thought of using this method.

Did Valkries already surpass it in the understanding of the Origin of Magic?

"Maybe," Valkries answered leisurely. "But I won't know until I try it out. If I could find the mark left by that man, we could probably know the answer."

Hackzord thought the mark would not be much of help. The mind was complicated. Even for the mind of someone of the same race, they had to do a lot of research, feel, and make numerous deductions to learn the truth, not to mention that they were now going to search for the mind of a person of another race. Forcing its way into someone's mind would lead to madness and disorder. Hackzord wanted to talk sense into the Nightmare, but when it saw Valkries' white robe, his words somehow rested on the tip of its tongue.

Perhaps, the Nightmare Lord did have some feasible way to achieve this.

"The Sky Lord is now guarding the legacy shards. Ask him if you want to try," said the king.

"As you command," Valkries said while placing its hand on its chest. "However, it should be noted that there's no guarantee that we could find the answer before human beings upgrade. There are many variables, and the search requires a lot of time. There's a possibility that the upgrade of human race would cause substantial damage to us. I believe the Sky Lord has a Plan B after we lose Taquila, right? If Plan B fails again, everything we've done so far would be wasted."

"You're being too cautious..." the Blood Conqueror said gruffly.

"I held the upgrade ceremony for Ursrook. After it upgraded, it learned a lot about humans from me," Valkries said mildly as it closed its eyes again. "It was definitely gifted, and I don't think its warning is a word out of delirium. Therefore, I uphold its suggestion of sending more troops to the Fertile Plains."

"Seconded," the Silent Disaster rejoined.

The king lapsed into a short silence and looked toward the other commanders including the Bloody Conqueror. "Are you able to increase the forces by ten times to support the Sky Lord while maintaining the current defense?"

"Sire..."

"I'm asking whether you can or can't."

There was a brief silence in the hall.

To Hackzord's surprise, the Mask broke the silence. "Yes, sire, I can manage. As long as you could provide me with more resources for my research, I can develop more powerful, diverse symbiotic demons. They won't be restricted by their parents and will be much more powerful than junior demons. Ten times more powerful! More importantly, they'll not affect the battle at the front."

"But that'll consume many God's Stones," the Resentful Heart said apprehensively. "If we lose control, the consequences will be devastating."

"When we wipe out those low lives, we'll have plenty of God's Stones!"

"Are you sure you can make it in time?" the Bloody Conqueror retorted irritably.

The Mask paused for a second and said, "Well, it'll be a little difficult to provide so many symbiotic demons at a time, but I don't think human beings will react that fast. We may be able to vanquish them with just half of the suggested number. In that case, we could probably save half of our resources. It would be better than nothing..."

"Enough," the king interrupted the conversation. "Let's do what the Mask said. Anyway, we can't let human beings live on the Land of Dawn for another 400 years. We must take the entire continent after this Battle of Divine Will!"

"As you wish!" chorused all the lords as they bent their heads.

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Chapter 1172: A New Population Policy

Translator: Transn Editor: Transn

In Neverwinter, Graycastle.

In the castle boardroom.

With the expansion of the Administrative Office, the meeting room became increasingly crowded. Many officials were sitting on benches behind their ministers and deputy ministers, whereas clerks and assistants were forced to stand flat against the wall. The hall was thus packed with around 200 people.

Roland thought it was now time to build a larger conference hall to accommodate these officials. He gathered that once the local officials came to the king's city to report their work, they would probably have to use the first floor of the castle to receive them.

He noted this idea down on a book and clapped his hands, and the meeting room instantly fell silent.

"I believe everyone has learned about the great success of the 'Torch' project that lasted for around 10 months. Now, we've eradicated the demons and expanded our territory to the Fertile Plains. From now on, instead of a deserted land full of traps and dangers, the area to the west of Neverwinter will provide us with resources and food!" Roland paused for a second and then said, "That's right. This land larger than the Four Kingdoms put together will be the land we'll dwell on for the next 100 years!"

The hall erupted into thunderous applause.

Territory expansion was viewed as the most important task for a king, and was also the fastest way for officials to gain a profit. Even civilians could benefit from the newly-acquired land, as this new land was several times the current territory of Graycastle.

"The 'Four Kingdoms' would probably become a part of history in a few years," Barov said jubilantly while stroking his beard. "The other three kingdoms are incomparable to Graycastle in strength and power."

"Quite right. It would be hilarious if we continue to use the word 'the Four Great Kingdoms' to document our history."

"How about 'One Great and Three Small Kingdoms'?"

"A little bit too much of a mouthful. I would rather come up with a brand new name."

"I Agree. I trust that the word 'empire' would suit our current status."

The ministers were absorbed in this heated discussion.

Roland did not stop their argument but allowed them to savor the aftermath of the victory over the demons before he steered the subject back to business. "I hope it's our mutual understanding that this victory is just the beginning of the war! Although we drove the demons out of the Fertile Plains, it doesn't necessarily mean that they wouldn't come back. This peace is only temporary. The real threat is the Battle of Divine Will when the Bloody Moon appears. I believe our enemy will put all their efforts into fighting this battle. Therefore, we must be well-prepared!"

"In other words, we shouldn't slack off. Instead, we should work even harder. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

The crowd shouted together.

Roland surveyed the room and nodded at Nightingale next to him.

Nightingale turned around and pulled back the curtain on the wall.

A huge blackboard replaced the map of the Western Region, on which there was only one single word: people.

"This is what I want," Roland announced slowly.

Peace was restored in the Western Region. With the return of the army and the consolidation of the local administration in various municipalities, Graycastle citizens had become, unprecedentedly, united. Among all the plans Roland was about to implement, increasing the population became the most important one.

To expedite the implementation of this policy, he even placed a higher priority on this matter over the post-war analysis.

Without a doubt, the biggest problem for Neverwinter now was its small population.

Had the First Army had an armored unit during the "Torch" project, they could have easily repelled the demons that had ambushed the witches using the simplest infantry fighting vehicle.

Although it was not necessarily ideal to use the first generation of the piston engine to produce an infantry fighting vehicle, it was better than nothing.

Roland knew that the production rate in Neverwinter had reached its maximum.

The plants could yield no more steel.

The battle had cost them 90% of the shells accumulated over years in Neverwinter.

The railway, which meandered through the plain, had almost consumed all the steel they had.

Agatha now also felt it increasingly hard to catch up with the acid production in the plant.

The production of RPGs further exhausted the ammunition stockpile.

It was undeniable that they had reached dead ends in many areas.

Roland needed people to expand production.

He also needed people to work on new projects.

To put the plan into action, Roland needed even more people to coordinate with different departments.

The population of Neverwinter was currently increasing at a steady pace and had reached 200,000. Compared to other cities, this number was astronomical. It would probably take just another decade for Neverwinter to expand into a metropolis that housed one million residents.

Roland would have peacefully accepted the victory had the demons not acted so unpredictably in the past war. In fact, as the reason for the demons' unexpected behavior still remained as a mystery, Roland felt a little uneasy about the outcome. He would rather see a fierce, bitter battle in Taquila between the First Army and the demons that lasted for over half a year and caused over half of the soldiers to be classified as casualties than the result he saw now.

He had planned to conduct a prolonged campaign.

But the demons had not let him do so.

The deviation from their original operation plan indicated some unforeseen changes had taken place. As the army returned to Neverwinter, Roland's fear of uncertainty grew, which urged him to speed up the process by taking some unusual measures.

"Your Majesty, the Administrative Office has been on top of that," Barov replied as he rose to his feet. "Based on the statistics, the city takes in immigrants every year. I believe in about five years, the number of the immigrants in the city will be doubled— "

"I can't wait another five years anymore," Roland interjected. "I wish to see this happen this year, and possibly more immigrants than what was initially planned, if possible."

Everybody gasped.

"200,000 a year? Your Majesty, I'm afraid that's impossible..." Barov said hesitantly. "Only a famine or a riot could bring in so many people at a time."

"You were talking about the immigration under normal circumstances, but I'm intending to issue an administrative order. If we make relocation mandatory, it won't be very hard to reach this target. In short, this long-term plan can be divided into three parts."

Roland stuck out three fingers.

"Which are relocation, cross-border recruitment, and more births. These are what you should work on next."

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Chapter 1173: I Want All of Them

Translator: Transn Editor: Transn

"I'm only giving you the basic frame of this project. You have to figure out how to implement the policy and coordinate with the other departments yourself. Barov Mons should be supervising the whole project."

"As you command," Barov responded while clapping his hand over his chest.

Roland nodded in satisfaction. After years of training, Barov had learned to obey his order without questioning his authority no matter how unreasonable it seemed to be.

The close and intertwined relationship between each department within the Administrative Office enabled Barov to allocate resources for a big project like this.

"Now, listen carefully," Roland said as he instructed Nightingale to stick a sheet of white cloth to the blackboard. "First is the migration within the Kingdom of Graycastle..."

"Wow..." the crowd exclaimed involuntarily when they saw the content on the canvas.

On the canvas were the several main features of this policy, supplemented with clear instructions in both text and picture formats. This was actually a very crude, primitive powerpoint created by Soraya. As a former engineering student, Roland believed that making slides was one of the basic skills to negotiate with employers. Compared to a lengthy, dry speech, slides would obviously be more visually appealing to audience.

The population structure in Graycastle reflected how manpower was distributed in this particular age. Nobles of a higher rank, after becoming a lord, built their own cities and distributed their lands to their subordinates. With the increase in the population and the accumulation of wealth, big cities gradually found it increasingly difficult to sustain themselves. Subsequently, some city residents moved out to surrounding villages to continue to support those big cities.

As a consequence, cities ceased to expand, creating a huge income gap between the nobles and civilians. Although these large cities appeared to be prosperous and boisterous at the first glance, the population of the surrounding towns and villages was actually much bigger than that of the city they were supporting.

However, Roland knew the fundamental reason for this phenomenon was low productivity. Due to low productivity, civilians were bound by the lands they owned. For the rest of their life, they had no choice but to work laboriously in their fields to support the extravagant lifestyle of the nobles, with little they could keep to themselves.

During the previous years when Roland had been recruiting refugees, the Administrative Office had paid special attention to the change in the local demographic and made a rough estimate. They concluded that the population of Graycasle should be between two million to four million. The wars waged by the second prince and Princess Garcia, and the plague spread by the church had caused a loss of 500,000 to 600,000 in the population and also razed the Eagle City in the Southern Territory and Valencia in the Eastern Region to the ground. Nevertheless, there were still quite a considerable number of people scattered around Graycastle, and only a very small portion of them had chosen to settle down in the Western Region.

But now, Roland was determined to force those people to move here.

It was predicted that they would soon harvest a great quantity of wheat grown from Golden Twos within a month. Meanwhile, high-yield cotton had also been widely grown in the Port of Clearwater. It would not be long before they could supply fabric to people in the entire kingdom. Currently, big cities no longer had to rely on manpower to sustain themselves, for one person could yield products 10 or 20 times they used to.

Further, Roland had, technically, unified Graycastle on an administrative level, as all the power that used to belong to local lords was now held by the central government. The lords would have to obey the orders issued by secondary administrative bodies.

The unification of the kingdom thus provided an excellent opportunity to implement his new migration policy.

The so-called migration equality referred to the equal treatment of any or all citizens' rights to migrate their family members. It was an effective way to reduce conflicts that the mandatory migration policy might spark among the public.

For example, a migrant who used to have two acres of land would be granted the same amount of land by the Administrative Office after he moved to Neverwinter. This strategy would not only expedite the development of the deserted land in the northwest but would also effectively solve the labor shortage problem in Neverwinter.

However, Roland foresaw it was not going to be a pleasant process to drive people out of their native towns to a completely foreign city.

To persuade people to abandon their native land and work in a plant would need a stronger reason than the simple explanation of "emancipation". Historically, the road migrants had trodden on was never unstained with the blood of uncooperative protestors. The government had the nasty tradition of stripping villagers of their properties through illegal purchase and occupation. Some countries even had a history of threatening unemployed refugees to work in factories via legislation and punishments.

Although Roland did not intend anything like this to happen and was actually planning to provide social assistance to migrants, he was determined to restructure the demographic.

He knew what he was doing.

The second requirement was cross-border recruitment, which was basically the same as mandatory migration only that the targetted demographic was residents living beyond Graycastle.

Unlike the Kingdom of Dawn that survived the war, both the Kingdom of Everwinter and the Kingdom of Wolfheart lost their sovereigns after the church's invasion. According to Hill, these two kingdoms had not fully recovered yet. All the lords claimed that they were the blood of the royal families, and nobody seemed to be able to persuade the others.

Given that, it was out of the question to establish a puppet government like Roland had done to the Kingdom of Dawn.

"Do you mean... that we should send the First Army?" Barov blurted out as he saw a new sheet was put onto the board.

"Do you think that the nobles will allow us to take away their properties while doing nothing?" Roland said matter-of-factly as he sipped his tea. "They care about nothing but power, wealth and more lands. They don't give a damn about the demons or the Battle of Divine Will. Of course, we still need to reason with them first. As for whether they accept it or not, that's another story."

"I'll let them yield, Your Majesty," Iron Axe said sternly.

Cross-border recruitment would definitely be more savage than mandatory domestic migration. Without Golden Twos, many civilians would have to relocate to other cities. The loss of population and food would then lead to the destruction of the entire urban ecosystem. It was, therefore, another form of war, only that the loss would be relatively small compared to an aggressive one.

The First Army was the key to this plan.

The population of the Kingdom of Everwinter and the Kingdom of Wolfheart was around 3 million. Except for those killed in the battles against the church, they could provide Neverwinter 1,500,000 immigrants. The relocation might take several years but it would also be the fastest way to increase the population. That was why Roland asked Barov to double the population within a year, or even within half a year.

"Your Majesty, do you have any requirements for those immigrants?" Barov asked. "Like they have to be skilled workers, farmers or literates?"

Roland had screened refugees before, but at that time, due to limited resources, he had not had the liberty to take in all of them. However, things were quite different now.

"No," Roland answered as he clenched his fist. "I want all of them."

"I... I see," Barov said while mopping his sweat-dampened forehead.

"Last but not least," Roland continued as he instructed Nightingale to show the last slide. "The Administrative Office shall encourage births through advertisement, tax reduction and rewards. Although compared to the previous two policies, you won't be able to immediately see the result of this one. However, it's going to be the most important policy in the future."

Roland paused for a second and then said smilingly to his audience, "For this last policy, I hope everyone in this room could set a good example for the public."

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Chapter 1174: A Permanent Currency Solution

Translator: Transn Editor: Transn

Somebody in the room sniggered.

With the rapid expansion of the Administrative Office and the establishment of a graduation exam system, the average age of governmental officials reduced by years. Since youths were naturally more willing to accept and learn new things than old people, it was common for a young man to finish school at the age of 20 and elevate himself to a key position in the government at the age of 25.

In fact, Roland saw many young officials in the conference hall.

He curled up his lips as he saw some new officials flush fugitively and lower their heads.

Although these young men were relatively inexperienced compared to the old generation, they injected hopes and energies into the institution, which were essential for a newly-established governmental body.

"Anyway, you all need to do your best to increase the population of Neverwinter. Obviously, we'll need more residential buildings and facilities to accommodate these new residents. Doubling the population isn't our ultimate goal, as I'm not going to set a target for this project. All you should know is that the more, the better. Everyone is obligated to make a contribution." Roland concluded after the laughter died down, "To make it easy to memorize, let's round up the number and call this project the 'Project of A Million'."

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

The officials all clapped their hands over their chests.

The next few executive orders were all supplementary orders to the Project of A Million, such as the exploitation of the resources underneath the Fertile Plains, the establishment of day schools and specialized ones, as well as the further regulation of universal education. Roland also intended to outsource medical professionals from the public instead of recruiting from the army while setting up clinics in various neighborhoods to reduce the pressure of the hospital. Correspondingly, the Ministry of Education should add another subject to the middle school curriculum, medical science, and train semi-professionals working at the field medics using the textbooks collected from the Dream World.

It would not be very easy to expand a city with a population of 200,000 into one with a population of 400,000 or even a million. With the increase in the population, they would, inevitably, had to improve the infrastructure of the city to prevent pollution from waste water and human excreta. The epidemic prevention work would also become more demanding due to the dense population. Although Lily could help with disease control, Roland still had to find a way to establish a monitoring and prevention system.

Education was another key to further development. Illerate population would only impose a huge burden on the system as opposed to providing assistance to the industrialization.

That was why Roland only laid out the basic frame of the plan because he knew a large city with a population of over a million would not instantly invent itself just after one meeting. The Administrative Office had to figure out how to execute the plan themselves through constant exploration and practices.

While everyone was excited about the future of Neverwinter, Barov suddenly asked, "Your Majesty, are you planning to send all these people to the plants?"

Roland said with a nod, "Or the construction team, the First Army or the laboratory. Anywhere that needs people."

"But the Administrative Office probably isn't financially capable of supporting these people." Barov said hesitantly, "The main revenue of the Administrative Office comes from the sale of Chaos Drinks, perfumes and steam engines. You know that the Joint Chamber of Commerce pays us the bill for the steam engines every three to six months. However, we have to pay subjects their salaries every month, which was around 80,000 gold royals in total. There's no need to worry about any financial problems at the moment because we earn much more than we pay out. However, if the number of the subjects doubles, I'm afraid..."

"You're worried that if the payment is delayed for a few months, the municipality won't be able to pay their people, right?" Roland asked with some interest, his eyebrows raised. He was very pleased that Barov, the former assistant to the Treasurer, quickly foresaw a potential financial crisis.

"Exactly," Barov said as he wrote frantically on his notebook. "As salaries increase annually, the expenses on payroll will only grow higher every year. However, the annual production of Chaos Drinks won't change much, and with the residents in the Kingdom of Everwinter and the Kingdom of Wolfheart swarming into Neverwinter, they'll no longer need to purchase products from here. I'm afraid that the treasury of the Administrative Office will soon be exhausted when our revenue rapidly decreases. I made a rough estimate here. If we take in more than 100,000 people each year, our financial risk will increase by 30%, unless you could find some other sources of revenue..."

Nightingale's eyes instantly glistened. She whispered to Roland, "There's an unexploited gold mine within the domain of our family."

Roland replied in amusement, "I'm not that desperate yet."

"Who cares? Use it if you like."

"Well... don't worry, I'll use it when it's absolutely necessary, but not now," Roland whispered back, then turned to Barov and said, "I've thought of that, and I find you a solution that could solve all the problems you're worried about."

"An ultimate solution?" Barov said, a little taken aback.

"Correct. I see that the cause of these problems is insufficient funds. If we could generate indefinite revenues, there won't be any problems."

Printing notes would be the fastest way to get rich.

When the industrialization of a city reached a certain point, the current monetary system that was heavily based on precious metal currency would inevitably cease to work. Due to the rapid development of technologies, eventually commodities whose values were much more than precious metal itself would emerge. When customers could no longer provide enough precious metal currencies to pay for the values of those commodities, the monetary system would automatically collapse.

However, credit currency did not have such a problem.

Roland had conducted a pilot project before by distributing the witches nominal notes. He noticed these notes were extremely hard to counterfeit because they were printed in Darkcloud's ink, pressed with Anna's moulds and attached with an anti-forgery mark made out of the rubber worm's slime.

Otherwise, the witches would have forged notes on their own to snap up the Chaos Drinks in the castle convenience store.

Further, Neverwinter now had the capability to distribute credit currency.

Roland had planned to discuss the details about the currency format, currency value, and rules pertaining to currency exchange with Barov after he drafted a basic guideline. However, since Barov had raised this question, he would not mind slipping some information.

While Roland was explaining the principle of credit currency to a group of bemused, flabberghasted ministers, the door of the conference hall was flung open and Phyllis burst in.

"Your Majesty, we made a new discovery. Pasha wishes you and your party to come down to the underground hall immediately."

"That urgent?"

"Yes," Phyllis confirmed while knitting her brows. "We've already deciphered the Magic Slayer... no, the demon lord, Ursrook's letter!"

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Chapter 1175: Ursrook's Letter

Translator: Transn Editor: Transn

In the central hall of the Third Border City.

Roland heard a hysterical shriek as he led his ministers off the underground corridor to the hall.

"What's that?" Wendy asked in surprise.

"Kabradhabi's wailing," Phyllis, who led the way, replied. "He broke down after hearing Ursrook's defeat. Not only did he lose his composure but he also made several attempts to commit suicide as well. It took us a while to sedate it."

"I suddenly feel that it might be a better idea to let it live," Tilly rejoined coldly.

"He must live," Phyllis said while nodding vigorously. "The encrypted letter written by Ursrook provides us an excellent opportunity to get a more profound understanding of our enemy. We could probably even know how they mastered our language, which is something the Union yearned but failed to do."

"I can't believe that Kabradhabi would agree to cooperate," Nightingale remarked.

"No, it didn't. It's a little complicated to explain the whole thing. You'll see when you meet it."

Roland and his party came to a halt before an interrogation stand, where the Senior Demon, who took the form of a God's Punishment Warrior, was tethered to a metal post, with a tube inserted into its abdomen. Its eyelids were forced open, before which was a sheet of paper with foreign characters on it.

"So, this is the encrypted letter reconstructed by Summer?" Wendy asked.

"Yes. Maggie spotted it in midair, otherwise we would have probably missed it," answered Agatha, who looked a little pale and weary. There were dark signs of sleeplessness beneath her eyes.

After the war ended, Roland immediately sent the Neverwinter Detective Group to the front to help the army collect information that was typically hard to obtain by ordinary means. Roland believed that the letter, which accidentally slipped out, would be more reliable than the information the demons deliberately divulged to humans.

Considering that Summer's magic power was limited, initially they had just planned to reconstruct the battle between the ambush unit and the demons, and how the Magic Slayer had deceived Sylvie and set up his counter ambush.

But in reality, Roland saw more than he had expected.

He did not expect to see Ursrook, perched on the giant skeleton, write this letter in the golden rays of sunset.

Summer had faithfully reconstructed this particular scene.

"Aaaaaargh!" Kabradhabi howled while wriggling, making a desperate attempt to avert its eyes.

Agatha nodded at Breeze who stamped her foot, and the Senior Demon instantly fell silent.

"I see. You're asking Breeze to manipulate it into reading the encrypted letter," Nightingale commented with a look of dawning comprehension.

"And then we'll ask Ms. Camilla to channel it to see how it'll react to the letter," Celine added. "Although it tried to fake its reaction, we could still distinguish real, spontaneous reactions from fake ones by constantly changing the content of the letter. We actually got this idea from Your Majesty."

"From me?" Roland asked in bewilderment.

"In the intermediate biology textbook, you mentioned that a dog will saliviate when being presented with food. This type of unconditioned response applies to all creatures, including demons."

"We thus pieced the information in its head together and deciphered the content of the letter using a similar approach. Thanks to Ms. Camilla's assistance, we were able to obtain the intelligence rather quickly." With these words, Celine waved her main tentacle at Camilla in gratitude.

"I'm just hoping... hoping that I could help Lady Tilly," Camilla said while biting her lip, a little embarrassed.

That was the beauty of witches' abilities. Although every witch had her own limitation, each of them was irreplaceable. Some ability was so rare that it might take more than several hundred years to see a witch awaken with such an ability. Perhaps there had been witches with abilities similar to Camilla Dary's during the past two Battles of Divine Will, but unfortunately, they had not managed to survive the day when human beings captured a real Senior Demon.

That was probably why Ursrook had been so keen on the elimination of the witches. However, were Ashes, Sylvies and the other witches really more important for the demons than Taquila? The demons, after all, needed God's Stones to erect the Obelisk. Once they seized Taquila, the Red Mist would pervade the Impassable Mountain Range. By that time, demonic beasts would be able to easily climb over the mountains and invaded the interior of the Four Kingdoms. It would then be almost impossible for human beings to drive the demons out of the Fertile Plains.

Both the General Staff and the ancient witches had believed that Taquila was the demons' top priority.

Why was the reality so different from their prediction. Perhaps, the letter would give them some clues.

"So, tell me about the content of the letter you have deciphered," said Roland slowly.

...

As all the sentences had been broken down into short phrases for interpretation, some of the paragraphs did not sound very articulate. Nevertheless, they could still roughly make out what the letter said. As Celine slowly transmitted pieces of information, Roland suddenly had a strange feeling that Celine was whispering to him.

"Dear Sky Lord, the final settlement is around the corner. I'm well prepared, not only for the battle but also for myself."

"In the past one month, I heard... the summon numerous times. It is such a strong sign that I'm confident that I'll upgrade in this upcoming battle..."

"I know my action will subject you to critism, but I don't think it'll affect your plan for the Western Front."

"If I succeed, our enemy will lose their only means of... and we'll, once again, be able to control the pace of the battle."

"... Send troops ten times what we have now, and human beings won't stand a chance..."

"Nevertheless, I cannot guarantee our victory at this moment. If I fail..."

"Please treat humans as equal and annihilate them with all our strength. If necessary, we might even have to abandon the Fathomless Abyss."

"... As long as we could obtain their legacy shard, there will still be a ray of hope to crush the Sky-sea Realm."

"Finally, please send my regards to the king and the Nightmare Lord."

Roland felt his back was covered with a sheen of cold sweat after he read Ursrook's letter.

He now understood why Phyllis looked so anxious.

Ursrook had definitely failed his mission. He had not only failed to annihilate the ambush unit but also got himself killed in the end.

This meant that the demons would probably adopt the second proposal on the letter.

Although there were missing words here and there, Roland could still tell that Ursrook had been advising his kind to abandon their battle against the Sky-sea Realm and put all their efforts into the eradication of the human race.

What the hell?

A leaden feeling suddenly stole through Roland. This was probably the worst news he had ever received since the war.

"We probably have to put aside the development plan for the Fertile Plains now," Wendy muttered.

"If the demons dedicate themselves to killing us, it'll be too dangerous to build the residential area outside the defensive line."

"But what about the Red Mist?"

"The Demons could establish the Obelisk in Starfall City."

"But then the Red Mist won't be able to permeate the entire Fertile Plains, and we could still have another 400 years of peace before the next Battle of Divine Will. It won't be very different than what we proposed earlier, right?"

"The difference is that the demons will go to all lengths to exterminate our kind."

"No..." Edith interrupted the heated discussion. "There's something wrong with this letter."

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