106 – The Age of Peace
The Age of Peace
It’s been weeks since Philia left her house.
In the meantime, she still lived at Rai’s house, and now she’s used to it and it’s becoming her daily life.
However, the environment surrounding her was complicated in many ways.
As Philia had predicted, the 2nd Prince faction to which the Infante belonged immediately came under checks and restraints on the academy, and the donations, which could be hit the easiest and fastest, were reduced by more than half.
Selena had to work hard to make up for the insufficient budget of the academy, which was difficult to operate with only tuition and support from the central government.
Fortunately, the forces against the 2nd prince group increased their donations to the academy as if this was an opportunity, so they took a breather.
Rai, who had never been interested in the outside world until now, became interested in the situation in her empire thanks to her Philia.
Seeing the information obtained through Selma’s connections, he is troubled because the problem is bigger than he thought.
Although I told Philia that it was politically important, in fact, she had a strong meaning of warning me.
It meant to be careful of those who tried to use them politically since they still had little social experience.
No matter how much the Infante’s dignity can be degraded by using family discord, it is only a scratch.
It is because the Infante’s position as the 2nd Prince decreases, but the 2nd Prince’s power itself does not decrease.
It’s good to get other factions, but it’s a position that’s enough even if you can’t get it.
However, it turned out that Philia’s circumstances were more important.
First of all, the power structure is too close.
Her original successor, the 1st prince, was older than the children of other emperors, and her ability and character were excellent, so as long as she did not die, the next emperor was certain.
Yes. It was as long as he didn’t die.
I don’t know if it’s a joke of fate or someone’s greed for power, but with the death of the first prince, who has even been confirmed as an heir, the power structure has been messed up.
Moreover, the emperor has not designated a definite successor today and tomorrow, so his children are running amok in their arrogance.
‘Is the old raccoon playing tricks again?’
Lai, who had been forced to surrender without being able to fight at the gate after being tricked into using his health as bait, suspected that he was cheating again, but the data he received seems to be true.
His age is now over ninety.
Eating only good things and living in a good environment The head of a country lives longer than others, but even so, he is too old.
In the final battle of the Kingdom of Kaylan, it was used to spread rumors that it was in critical condition, and the nobles of the kingdom passed over it.
Forcibly sent Rai to the gate, saying he would not go, saying that even if he lasted for a year or even a few months, the empire would be in trouble because of the succession.
As a result, the kingdom of Kaylan was lost, and Rai became a slave of the academy.
He didn’t have much life left to do the same thing again.
The 2nd prince is the biggest force, but with the 1st prince gone, the difference between them is not much because the base powers have been scattered.
Except for the 6th princess, who was exiled to the academy, and the 4th prince, who was kicked out in the name of studying abroad, they all form a similar force.
The three forces, 2nd Prince, 3rd Prince, and 5th Princess, are keeping each other in check and are trying hard to cut off the opponent even a little bit.
In this composition, the Infante is quite an important figure.
He has a bad personality, but he has a lot of benevolence and virtue accumulated in other families from generation to generation, and there are many places where lines are connected to each official position.
The only downside is that there is little actual force.
Members of the military, including Edelian, have a strong tendency to listen only to the Emperor, so if they are going to give us an order, they have the attitude to become the Emperor and come.
It didn’t matter that the lack of actual military strength was a common weakness of the central aristocrats, and the Serios family is forming an independent force with superior political ability than others.
When the Infante moves, the force itself moves along with him.
Depending on where he moves, the map of power changes. There aren’t many people with such a single power.
Utilizing this advantage, the Infante was making a considerable profit, and the 2nd Prince faction is also taking great care of him.
However, the biggest problem was that although he had excellent political skills, he had a bad personality, so he might betray him out of profit.
This makes the 2nd Prince faction, as well as other factions, wary.
I didn’t want to lose the opportunity to recruit the Infante by taking Philia for no reason, and I also felt sorry for missing the opportunity to create infighting with the 2nd Prince faction using Philia.
So, rather than directly approaching Philia, who is now protected by the academy, we are watching from a distance.
There is no movement right now, but when someone stretches out their hand, all forces immediately rush at it.
Until now, Rai had just let things flow, no matter what he was doing around him.
He was an outsider in the Empire and a loser, so he had no intention of getting involved.
However, looking at the twists and turns, I feel like the empire will be ruined if I go wrong.
The kingdom of Kaylan has been conquered and the era of war is over, but that doesn’t mean the empire is without enemies.
On the contrary, the empire’s greatest enemy is still alive and eagerly targeting the empire.
The reason the kingdom of Kaylan, which cannot be said to be large, was able to withstand the long period of war was due to the geographical advantage, but the biggest reason was that the empire could not devote all its resources to the kingdom of Kaylan.
Northern Norden, which has a land mass similar to the Empire, has been confronting for over 200 years.
The Empire deployed more than half of its forces on its borders, and sent the rest to other fronts.
That’s why Raido was surprised by the empire that mobilized all of his forces in the last war, and was able to hand over a surrender document full of requirements to the empire, which had to be resolved quickly with the life and death of the country.
The Nordens were still hunting for the fertile southern lands, and the empire might disappear if the succession battle gets too heated.
‘What are you trying to do when you say you will create a world without war?’
The Emperor and Rai met quite often on the battlefield.
Not all encounters were pleasant. There were times when the emperor survived Lai’s attack by dying, and there were times when it was the other way around.
It was Adelian who talked face-to-face the most on the battlefield, but it was the emperor who had the most memorable conversation.
He conquered many countries and was known as a war fanatic, but in reality the emperor hated war.
Rai still remembers the time when he had a conversation with him across a river.
Behind the emperor were dozens of knights, including Edelian, and behind Rai, dozens of lieutenants, including Joshua and Melanie, were preparing to leap.
There were many emperors in number, but it was Lai who had the chance to win the war, so his lieutenants were gnashing their teeth as if they would run at any moment. Moreover, right in front of you is the emperor, the heart of the empire.
If only the emperor is captured, not only this battle but also the war with the empire may disappear for decades.
Aware of this, the emperor enjoyed the tactic of luring the enemy with himself as bait.
It didn’t work against Rai, so he was counterattacked and lost this battle, but the emperor laughs happily.
“Library bastard, die in peace as I will bring peace to the world.”
“Wouldn’t it be faster for the old man to die of old age?”
The two of them are laughing pleasantly while having a conversation, but the people behind each other are frowning and exhaling.
“Yes, you little one will live long. Even if I die, peace will last for the next few hundred years, so long live and rob the place where I am buried three times a day.”
“Cross the gate to Ketranca and say it, old man. I can’t cross the gate, but peace is a piece of cake.”
The two understand each other well because they have talked to each other this way several times.
Everyone knows very well what the emperor is planning through the kingdom of Kaylan, and why Rai is trying to protect the kingdom of trash.
That said, I’m not asking you to understand my meaning for the sake of a greater cause.
It was a confrontation in which the winner could continue his will.
“I’ll see you next year in Feodor, you librarian who has only knowledge but no wisdom.”
Feodor is the capital of the Kingdom of Cailon.
The emperor, who promised to conquer the kingdom of Kaylan next year, turned his back as if he had no business any more, and all the knights followed him except for a few that were wary across the river.
Melanie sees the dust rising from behind and confirms that an ally is approaching and tells Rai.
“The Templars are coming. If we cross now and stop the Emperor from escaping, we can join our forces and capture them.”
Rai shakes his head.
“I’ve already arrived there.”
Before the words were finished, Melanie turned her head at the momentum that flowed out, and the knights hiding in the forest came out to escort the emperor.
Melanie laughs at the large army of tens of thousands of knights.
“Oops, if I fell for the provocation, I’d end up being a skewer.”
“It’s a clever inspiration anyway.”
As Joshua sticks out his tongue, Rai clicks.
As promised, a year later, the emperor who tied Rai to the gate conquered the kingdom of Cailen, and now he must prove what he said.
However, the Emperor is not interfering in the overheating battle for succession.
Having spent most of his life on the battlefield, it would be a lie to say that Rai did not expect his words.
The one who said things that a dreamy boy would say was the emperor, and he didn’t even know if that was possible.
He said he would keep the peace for hundreds of years, not while he was alive.
It is literally an era of peace.
It is a great achievement that no great general or sage who has mastered the world could achieve.
There are only a few steps left until the achievement is completed, but it is frustrating for Rai, who knows the full details of the plan, to ruin it for the trivial reason of a fight for the successor.
‘Raccoon inspiration, isn’t it really outdated?’
There are rumors that they are not allowed to attend official events.
Those who have noble intentions but cannot complete their work because of their longevity and fail are numerous in history books.
And in most cases, successors ruined the work of their predecessors.
Lai was worried that the emperor might have become like that too.
Since there was no mention of Joshua, he might be alive, but he’s such an unreliable guy that we don’t know.
He could be in critical condition or already dead, possibly hiding information to prevent confusion.
Neither way, you can’t hide it for long.
In this state, if the news of the death of the emperor comes out, the empire goes into chaos.
When that time comes, he is a Rai who is at a loss for what to do.
He was only a third person until now.
As the kingdom of Kaylan disappeared, Rai gave up everything.
I was looking at the era of peace that the emperor was drawing as a spectator, escaping from the axis of history.
However, I felt that it would be difficult to stay still if the immature children were doing sh*t in front of a great work.
It is not easy to intervene in the empire as a demon of all nations, and it is difficult to know what to do now.
But one thing was clear.
If the emperor dies without accomplishing anything, he will draw the picture himself.
The warm-hearted emperor, Elliot, the devil of the world.
The two men had one thing in common: they fought too many wars, and they desired peace too much.