Ch.106Hmm? This doesn’t look good.

“So… they burned all the mixed-race illegitimate children to death?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. The priests tried to stop it, but they were overwhelmed…”

“Enough. I don’t want to hear any more.”

“…I beg your forgiveness.”

“Tsk…”

I clicked my tongue with genuine feeling.

Really? Seriously?

They let those little ones burn alive inside a collapsing church?

As someone whose sensibilities were more aligned with modern Earth than the natives of this world, it was something I could neither understand nor accept.

When people see starving children with dark skin in faraway Africa—not even of the same ethnicity or neighborhood—natural compassion arises, and one’s hand unconsciously reaches for donation numbers. That’s human nature. So how could someone treat children so cruelly—literally children born of their own wives, daughters, or mothers?

Even though Amurtat and the Alliance had diligently built up goodwill, what sins could those children possibly have committed?

“The sin of being born…? Ridiculous. That’s not what original sin means…”

“They probably felt they had no choice. The economic recovery has been sluggish, life remains harsh, and everything they’ve built has been taken away…”

“They needed an easy target to vent their internal frustrations.”

It wasn’t particularly an original idea.

Rather, it was quite cliché, wasn’t it?

Creating external enemies to suppress internal discontent was one of the oldest divide-and-conquer tactics, and there was no better remedy for the ignorant masses who hadn’t yet awakened to this reality.

“But if riots this extreme are happening, I imagine that bastard Marcus must be having his head split open by now.”

“Who knows? He might be interpreting this opportunity as a warm-up exercise to shore up his unstable position.”

“Hmm…”

While hoping that wasn’t the case, I tried to imagine Marcus interpreting the situation that way.

Well, it was only natural for a monarch’s authority to plummet after losing a war.

No matter what good policies they promise, there’s no way to counter the argument: “If you knew how to do this, why didn’t you do it before losing?”

Especially in this war, while the primary responsibility lay with Fahrenheit, the secondary responsibility was with Amurtat, making such extreme riots even more likely.

Though Fahrenheit had behaved arrogantly and committed diplomatic offenses, I had deliberately created the Alliance system by mixing all sorts of diplomatic tactics to destroy Fahrenheit, aiming to make Amurtat a great power in a short time.

The citizens of Fahrenheit experienced what is considered the most unfair thing in the world—”suffering for the sins of ancestors.”

When they actually experienced “getting beaten because of what your parents did,” they became so enraged they couldn’t think rationally, but with their national power diminished, they ended up burning innocent children to death to appease their internal discontent.

“Anyway. Since Fahrenheit’s condition is quite concerning, we should make thorough preparations. Our current population is about 2.3 million… Can we train a standing army of about 200,000?”

“A standing army of 200,000… It will be difficult, but I’ll try.”

With 200,000 out of 2.3 million, simply put, one-eleventh of the population would be in the military. Since the military primarily consists of young men, the actual impact on national power would be even greater.

However, the fact that the aide was gritting his teeth and saying he would somehow manage indicated just how crazed Fahrenheit had become.

“And send messengers. Clearly inform all Alliance member states of Fahrenheit’s atrocities and ensure they’re fully prepared to return to the Alliance system at any time.”

“Understood. By now, the news has probably reached other countries as well… but there’s a big difference between hearing news and receiving an official messenger.”

“Indeed.”

Even thinking simply, there’s a vast difference in impact between merely hearing that someone is burning children alive and having a person come directly to say, “Those crazy bastards are now burning innocent children to death? This is heading toward World War II territory, so hurry up and issue reserve force training notices.”

“War… even though the interwar period has been only 20 years…”

“Pardon?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

While Amurtat’s history had barely passed 20 and a half years, Fahrenheit’s was 320 and a half.

Everything with wings must come down eventually, but whether it’s a landing or a crash varies.

Unfortunately, Fahrenheit had crashed, and malice writhing in its ruptured innards was slowly gathering scattered feathers.

Whether those gathered feathers would become arrow fletching or materials for wings to soar again, no one knew yet, but for some reason, I couldn’t shake the suspicion that the people of Fahrenheit desired a second war.

*

“Brave men who will take up arms for His Majesty Tiberius, gather!”

And in the city of Amurtat, Woodbury, and Pale Harbor, court heralds were going to marketplaces with proclamations written on parchment, announcing conscription orders.

Currently, about 30,000 soldiers were serving in Amurtat.

Considering the population, this was appropriate, so filling the remaining 170,000 would meet the current target force.

Of course, this obsession with numbers painfully reminded me of the only divided country on modern Earth, but for Amurtat, with only one-fifth the population and proportionally fewer troops, it was a necessary desperate measure.

Moreover, with immigrants constantly arriving, the economic impact of losing about 200,000 young people from the workforce would somehow be managed.

Although the military focuses more on consumption than production, a group dedicated solely to consumption creates demand, so the court believed that the newly born military industry would gain some vitality.

“Those crazy Fahrenheit bastards… I heard they’re now burning young children?”

“Aren’t they insane? If they’re killing children living in their own country, won’t they kill people from other countries just for making eye contact?”

And contrary to the court’s propaganda, the number of those responding to the conscription exceeded 230,000.

The reason was that the ominous rumors from Fahrenheit had been confirmed as true, and as people think alike, a sense of crisis about surviving next to crazy neighbors had taken root.

Of course, the main reason for this high compliance rate was that Tiberius had not disappointed his people for 20 years, making it a case of successful public opinion warfare by the Amurtat court, which had steadily built trust with its people.

Eventually, the heralds sent the “polite young men” who had gathered for the country to the recruitment offices, where recruitment officers selected people according to pre-established criteria, assigned military service numbers to those who passed, and transported tens of thousands of recruits to five newly expanded training centers for basic military training.

At the training centers, the recruits underwent 12 weeks (about 3 months) of basic military training.

Afterward, recruits who perfectly completed basic training were assigned specialties and dispersed to their respective units, and the Steelyard issued them weapons and armor, ensuring all troops were equipped with quality steel armaments.

There was order, discipline, and principle in all procedures and sequences—an exemplary case of a well-functioning centralized system obsessively created by a monarch who had lived in 21st century Korea.

“Amurtat Year 21, February 3. Total force of 203,160 troops. Deployment complete.”

“Excellent. This should at least serve as a minimal warning to Fahrenheit.”

Tiberius said this while handing a bottle of good wine to his servant who had handled the matter admirably.

*

“Look! Brothers and sisters! The plunderers of Amurtat are reinforcing their troops, and the robbers of the Alliance are mobilizing their reserves! This is a vicious ploy to pressure our Fahrenheit! Tell me! Proud citizens of Fahrenheit! Should we fall for their schemes?!”

“””No!!!”””

However, even Amurtat couldn’t prevent others from completely misinterpreting their clear intentions.

Amurtat and the Alliance’s mutual communication and military reinforcement to establish a minimal defense system triggered seizures among the Fahrenheit people, further deteriorating relations between Fahrenheit and the Alliance.