Ch.265The Road to the Turianic Plains (2)

I vaguely knew that I possessed succession rights that ranked higher than the imperial family.

After all, while descendants of the imperial family had to exercise extreme caution when excavating ruins, I could enter them without any preparation.

And that wasn’t all. Nominally, all military facilities of the empire were under the Emperor’s command, and while I wasn’t the Emperor, I was someone who had been delegated the Emperor’s full authority, meaning I could naturally use the Emperor’s powers without limitation.

This meant I could freely access all remaining ruins with a free pass, and command the loyalty of the empire’s undead soldiers who had not yet attained enlightenment.

And after hearing this explanation, Lucia said:

“Let’s just ditch this pilgrimage and declare yourself Emperor.”

“Hey. We’re not even halfway there yet.”

“Who cares about the pilgrimage now? Even 1% of the military force you could raise would be more than enough to conquer the world. Why aren’t you using it? Are you an idiot?”

I understand.

Perhaps if I said such things in front of someone who desperately desired power, my head would roll, but there were several reasons why I couldn’t immediately declare an empire.

One was that my power base was too weak.

Wasn’t the empire destroyed because the imperial family was completely slaughtered by a chosen one favored by the Four Great Deities, who broke through the imperial palace filled with elite guards, battle satellites, and all manner of war machines from the empire’s golden age?

What would happen if I flew to Centrum right now and declared, “From now on, this is my era!”?

Mortal beings might be dried like fish under the sun’s power, but Aura Users would be difficult to confirm as dead with just one laser bombardment, and Apostles wouldn’t take any damage at all.

As for forces that could protect me, the approximately 50,000 troops currently under my command? That was barely a handful of soldiers.

Second, I had absolutely no supporting factions.

Even my hometown Parsifal would say, “Victor? Who’s that?” If some naked thunderbolt suddenly appeared saying, “I’m going to be Emperor, so acknowledge it,” the established powers would obviously foam at the mouth and pounce.

No matter how powerful the imperial soldiers might be, if they killed all the subjects, how was I supposed to govern? Besides, for the achievement I needed to accomplish by establishing the empire, I needed to save as many people as possible.

In these times when even a single city or village was precious, what I needed to do was continue the pilgrimage while gathering forces that would support me.

“Do you understand?”

“Not really?”

I smacked Lucia on the head.

*

Turianic Plains.

The place where humanity first smelted orichalcum.

Orichalcum was also called true gold in the imperial language. When well-refined steel was placed close to the sun, the iron would melt and absorb the sun’s energy.

Iron that absorbed the sun’s energy would melt and then cool again, resulting in a highly irregular form. It was at the ironworks of the Turianic Plains that, after hundreds of years of attempts, they finally succeeded in refining the sun’s steel.

How joyful must people have been when the orichalcum, which looked like rounded and pointed kidney stones, reappeared as beautiful ingots?

Perhaps because of its historical value, during the Age of the Eclipse, the numerous ironworks of the Turianic Plains united to withstand bombardment, bombing, air raids, and assaults, preserving the technology to refine orichalcum despite 5,000 years of dramatic regression.

After the Era of Extinction began, they ranked supreme among the 100 regions across the 13 continents that could refine orichalcum, and they made their living by processing orichalcum imported from Centrum and exporting it to places that would pay high prices.

“So they survived even the Age of the Eclipse and continue to pass down the sun’s steel. Truly loyal subjects.”

I muttered this while looking at the massive cloud of steam rising from the approaching Turianic Plains.

Despite being so far away, the smoke and steam from those plains created enormous cumulonimbus clouds, showing just how massive the scale was.

“Even the baby factories of Scofield Plains would be mere infants compared to the Turianic Plains.”

“Well, that place necessarily has various supporting facilities since it produces babies… but this place is solely for refining metal. A world of chimneys and furnaces… I can’t even begin to imagine how many raw ores those plains devour and how many ingots they spit out each day.”

I nodded at Simon’s words.

According to records, a staggering 200 million workers in those plains were dedicated solely to the metal industry.

200 million—a number so vast that it would take building 100 decent-sized cities just to accommodate that many people, all packed into a single plain.

Perhaps due to my lack of imagination, I couldn’t quite picture it. Are plains really such vast places?

In the imperial era, pushing back mountain ranges to create plains was apparently nothing special.

Conversely, there were cases of raising plains to create mountain ranges, or sinking plains to create cliffs.

The fact that such an advanced civilization collapsed miserably due to civil war is something all of humanity should be aware of, but unfortunately, most people in the world had no interest in this fact.

But that’s alright. Now the sun’s fire is once again kindling in the forest, creating sparks and blazing up.

No matter how powerful an army might be, it cannot conquer the world, but even the tiniest faith will eventually conquer the world.

Three hundred and fifty thousand years of history prove this.

-Four days until Turianic Plains. Engine room, be cautious of smoke infiltration. Current fine dust concentration is light. It will worsen, so all troops should be vigilant about respiratory diseases.-

Listening to the broadcast from the staff department, I entered the captain’s quarters.

*

Rumors spread quickly.

Especially when they’re particularly juicy.

When I was in Parsifal, newspapers were flooded with gossip from other continents, which shows that finding accurate information isn’t particularly difficult if you invest money and effort.

Moreover, since I’ve already been announcing that I’m an Apostle of the Sun, it wouldn’t be impossible to track the current position of the Sky Warden if someone were determined to do so.

However, the problem is that the geostationary satellites that make this possible are all under the sun’s control—or more precisely, under “my” control.

To be honest, the sensation of being mentally connected to artifacts scattered across all 13 continents was absolutely horrifying.

It felt like trying to sleep with thousands of mosquitoes buzzing above you while your hands were tied.

But if I were to lose my mind, the undead imperial soldiers who would also lose their minds would throw the world into chaos, and furthermore, the satellites in geostationary orbit would make their own judgments, thinking the imperial family was in danger, and start indiscriminately destroying ground production facilities.

Fortunately, the Sun is lightening my burden, but honestly, it’s a bit frightening. If I were to say, “Sigh… should I just wipe everything out?” those 100 million battle satellites floating in the sky would respond “OK” and start firing their antimatter incineration lasers everywhere.

It seems absurd that there are over 100 million such satellites, but if you consider that the empire lasted for 300,000 years and launched one whenever the cooldown was ready, it makes some sense, though the scale is still impossible to grasp.

[I made it solid, very solid.]

It’s too solid! How can there still be over 100 million battle satellites after consuming them for 5,000 years? Does that even make sense?

[Didn’t you say you wanted to create your own empire? Using those satellites, you could ascend to the throne instantly.]

Yes, but would people really consider me a true Emperor then? I’d just hear people saying, “That bastard. He’s playing Emperor because he got lucky with the Sun’s favor” until my ears fell off.

Honestly, I know well that without your backing, I’m just a wandering knight playing warlord, but a man has his pride. I don’t want to become Emperor by just firing invisible laser beams everywhere.

[Tsk. Such timidity. The imperial family used to amuse themselves by drawing pictures on the ground with lasers when they were bored…]

….

The Empire… why did it fall in the first place?

Despite having countless reasons to fall, it seems like it should have been impossible for it to collapse?

[I know, right? Why did it fall…]

…..Indeed. Anyway, it wasn’t my fault.

CRASH!

“Ahhh!”

-Notice: Lightning strike has caused a power outage in Sky Warden upper block section 23-11. Repair team, move immediately to fix the area.-