World History (2)

"You see, the Demon Lord had made a grave mistake. Instead of focusing his attacks on the Central Continent, he also attacked the Empire of Baukis and Rozenheim, the major powers on the other two continents, at the same time."

The magic tutor pointed to a landmass northwest of the Central Continent half its size and to another in the northeast a third of its size, introducing them in turn.

The great power on the northwestern continent was the Empire of Baukis, a country ruled by dwarves. They possessed prodigious technological prowess and were the source of all the magic ships in use worldwide. Sixty percent of the magic tools in Ratash came from Baukis.

The country commanded military might surpassing that of Giamut in the form of tens of thousands of golem troops that exceeded even the magic ships in size.

On the northeastern continent was Rozenheim, the country ruled by elves. Both the continent and country were named after Rozen, a spirit who had surpassed the power of a common spirit to reach the realm of a Minor Deity, gaining command over all spirits in existence. Through his contract with the Queen of Rozenheim, this Sovereign of Spirits lent his power to the entire elven race, enabling them to repel the demonic invasion using powerful Spirit Magic.

Due to the Demon Lord attacking three continents simultaneously, the leading powers in all three became equally aware of the threat the Demon Lord Army posed, and in no time at all, they pushed through the formation of the Alliance. This led to the establishment of a system for countries not on the front line to supply troops and supplies to those that were.

"This improved the situation somewhat, but the Alliance's forces still continued losing their battles."

An allied force was formed and deployed, greatly bolstering the military might of Giamut. Even so, this proved insufficient to halt the demons' advance.

The Demon Lord Army was not composed of mindless mobs exclusively; it had intelligent commanders who knew to strike where cooperation between the united forces was weakest, as well as the fortresses manned by foreign forces that would flee in fear at the first sign of battle.

It took almost no time at all after the formation of the Five Continent Alliance for the Demon Lord Army to see through all of the cooperative effort's flaws.

"Then a truly deplorable strategy was adopted."

Unable to bear the mounting losses, Giamut demanded troops from Ratash.

Being located on the Central Continent and thus a signatory of the Five Continent Alliance led by Giamut, the kingdom had no choice but to comply.

So it dispatched its knights to join the war effort.

However, the demands from Giamut soon escalated. Waving the stipulations of the Alliance in Ratash's face, it pressed the kingdom to send its royals and nobles to the front lines too, even those without Talents.

Now, it was common sense to conscript only those with Talents, but at the time, the Alliance attempted to resist the Demon Lord Army by simply matching number for number.

"The Demon Lord Army is composed of monsters, all Rank B or higher.

Many of noble and royal birth died fruitlessly as a result of the Empire's ill-advised strategy."

'We're basically talking hundreds, thousands of murdergalshes, right? No matter how many Talentless people you send, they still can't kill a murdergalsh.'

The bulk of the Demon Lord Army was Rank B monsters, with a generous distribution of Rank As and several rumored Rank S monsters mixed in. The Talentless troops were almost entirely wiped out, regardless of social class.

'This was about the time the Baron's father died, I think?'

The Baron had said that his father had died when he was around Allen's current age. That meant he had likely been sent to the front lines as a part of Ratash's response to Giamut's demands and lost his life on the battlefield.

"This was when the Alliance introduced a system of Academies, at least one per country."

In this world with levels, individuals could develop to become several, even dozens of times more powerful than they had been. As such, it was only natural to arrive at the idea of cultivating children with Talents to reach their maximum potential before sending them to the battlefield.

Consequently, all the countries within the Alliance were ordered to set up at least one Academy City within their borders. The Academy's location chosen by the Kingdom of Ratash had plenty of dungeons, making it ideal for training the students.

Stipulations of the Alliance stripped authority over the Academy Cities away from the countries they were located in. After all, countries would naturally be tempted to run their Academy Cities in a way that benefited themselves instead of the allied effort. The Alliance maintained direct control over all the Academy Cities it established.

The current headmaster of the Ratashian Academy City was a high elf, a blood relative of the Queen of Rozenheim who had lived for over many centuries. He basically had free rein to run the Academy however he wanted.

"What happened then?" Allen asked in apprehension. 'Though judging by how the story's going, this probably still wasn't the turning point the Alliance wanted.'

The magic tutor nodded in response to the look on Allen's face. "Even with the Academy system, this proved insufficient to push back the Demon Lord's forces."

Wave after wave of millions of monsters continued to barrage Giamut's fortresses and other crucial locations, overrunning them one after another.

Eventually, a fourth of the empire had fallen to the demons, and it was losing more and more habitable space. A few decades after the launch of the Demon Lord's offensive, hope had disappeared from the world and all peoples had resigned themselves to their eventual annihilation.

"However, Lord Elmea, the God of Creation, had not abandoned us. He granted Giamut a Hero."

'After dwarves and elves, now we have a Hero too?'

Twenty-two years ago, a commoner child with the Talent of Hero was born in the Giamutan Empire. His name was Helmios.

"It was a miracle. Helmios personified invincibility and indomitableness."

Having grown up with the hopes of the world riding on his shoulders, Helmios received the very best education possible at the Giamutan Academy City at twelve years old. He was then dispatched to the front lines at fifteen; there, he managed feats that greatly exceeded what anyone had imagined.

Rumors that verged on legend abounded, with the most commonly repeated one being "wherever the Hero goes, the land becomes stained with monster blood as far as the eye can see."

Helmios pushed the Demon Lord's army back with the momentum of a thunderclap, restoring the original borders of Giamut in only five years.

He was still fighting on the front lines at that very moment, currently striving to recover the land of lost Rastuli.

"You have heard of our kingdom's Land Reclamation Decree, yes? His Majesty established this policy as an effort to send more supplies to the war effort."

As a signatory to the Five Continent Alliance, Ratash was currently focusing all its energies toward increasing the volume of the support it sent to the front lines. Raising the amount of food produced locally was a large part of that drive.

'So that's the reason behind the founding of the village I was born in. And... Ah! That's the reason there was so much pressure to hunt more great boars!'

For the first time ever, Allen realized how intricately history was woven into the story of his own life. Krena Village came into being because of the Land Reclamation Decree; the Decree was issued because of a war; and there was a war because the Demon Lord was attacking the entire world.

Why was the Baron so bent on meeting the great boar quota that he made the trip to Krena Village in person? Why could the great boar meat produced by the village not be found in Granville City, not even on the Baron's own dinner table? These questions that had plagued Allen's mind all these years finally had their answers.

The meat was sent along, not simply to the Ratashian Royal capital, but beyond, all the way to the front lines north of the Empire of Giamut. Processed meat could be kept for a long time; the beasts taken down by Allen's father and fellow villagers were filling many soldiers' bellies even now.

"Finally, we come to House Granvelle's duty. As you might have guessed from everything I've covered so far, this is not something that only House Granvelle is charged with. Naturally, even the Royal family is subject to the same obligation."

All nobles and royals born with Talents in Ratash were conscripted for three years of compulsory service under the stipulations of the Five Continent Alliance. Even members of the Royal family had no right to refuse. Everyone had to be posted at a fortress on the front lines to fight against the Demon Lord's army for three years. Those who attempted to get out of this duty, as well as those who failed to graduate from the Academy, were severely punished, with some even having their families stripped of their nobility.

If a Royal member did so, not only would the country lose influence within the Alliance, it would also lose trust from other countries on the world stage, incurring unmeasurable diplomatic and economic losses.

Naturally, positive reinforcement had also been woven into this system.

First, a reduction in taxes was promised for the realms of any nobles who succeeded in completing his or her three years of service; furthermore, this achievement made it much easier to enter a position within the Royal Court.

All members of the Academy Faction, which held overwhelming sway over the Royal Court at the moment, were nobles who had returned from military service. Additional years were required for those wishing to apply for certain higher positions; Vice-captains of chivalric orders needed to have served for more than three years, whereas Knight captains and members of the Imperial guards—the most powerful chivalric order in the kingdom—required more than five.

The magic tutor, being a Wizard, had served his three years. After returning to Ratash, he had assumed a position at the Royal Court that allowed him to perform magical research, and now he had the freedom to spend his post-retirement life however he wanted.

However, even after taking all the promised rewards into account, there was no denying the harshness of the compulsory service. Back when the magic tutor did his service, seventy percent of Talented youngsters lost their lives. The situation was better now, thanks to the efforts of the Hero, but even so, fifty percent never made it back home.

Allen shot Cecil a look. She had remained quiet this whole time, her crimson eyes seemingly burning a hole into Giamut's northern border on the map. In all likelihood, she was thinking of Mihai, the brother whom she had lost to this conflict against the Demon Lord.

'So this is why it 'had' to be Hell Mode,' Allen thought in retrospection. 'This is why I had to be reincarnated. Now everything makes sense.'