Ch.393The Path to Neriden Gorge (1)

Lorentina City. Meteor Crater. Mount Dikere.

The Iron Worker party, having already completed pilgrimages to these three famous sites, was now heading toward the final landmark of the tenth continent.

The Neriden Canyon, also known as the “Flower Canyon.” The most beautiful place in all of Cecilia.

“Once we see Neriden Canyon, that’ll be the end of the tenth continent.”

“Ah… time flies too fast. This adventure is gradually coming to an end.”

Simon and the dwarf brothers were sharing drinks of strong distilled liquor while chatting.

Viktor was in the captain’s quarters receiving reports from his subordinates about the places he had influenced, and Raisha was with him.

“So there are effectively only three continents left… Damn. I still can’t believe it. Our captain becoming the emperor of the entire world.”

“I know. It seems like just yesterday we were drinking and making merry together, and now he’s going to be emperor…”

“Well, when the empire is established, I’ll certainly get an official position, and you all probably will too. Of course, they’ll be honorary positions without any real power.”

“An official position! I never thought I’d see the day I’d wear an official hat!”

Naturally, being former comrades didn’t mean they could summon the emperor at will. Even if they were granted honorary positions with the authority to have private audiences with the emperor, it would ultimately be up to Viktor once he ascended to the throne.

If he decided he no longer wanted to see them, he could simply give them enough money to last a lifetime of extravagance and send them away.

This possibility was actually quite high. While Simon was a sage, the dwarf brothers were merely craftsmen and warriors without any exceptional talents. Even if they received official positions, they would likely be honorary ones, and even positions with actual authority would almost certainly be as lords of insignificant territories.

And even Simon, no matter how intelligent he was, couldn’t compete with the top-tier sages across all thirteen continents.

But they harbored no resentment toward Viktor. Considering his position as ruler of all thirteen continents and humanity, dismissing them would be a natural course of action.

However, that didn’t mean Viktor would coldly cast them aside. He was a man with strong camaraderie, and that wouldn’t change even if he became emperor instead of an adventurer.

Simon had already become immortal, so he could serve as an imperial advisor or chancellor for 100-200 years before passing the position to someone else. As for the dwarves, Viktor would carefully select wealth and positions to bestow upon them. After all, since the empire itself was being established through the Iron Worker party’s pilgrimage, they were literally founding contributors.

There was no need to purge them to consolidate power—why would an eternal god mistreat the founding contributors? For his ultimate goal of establishing thirteen suns on earth, Viktor needed to remain alive until then.

*

“I see… conflicts are gradually intensifying.”

[Yes, my lord. The religious matters have been somewhat sorted out, but now the secular rulers are starting to cause trouble. They’re becoming anxious, not wanting to lose their power.]

“Secular rulers…”

The foundation of the empire was a unified world government. Naturally, for an imperial system to be established, the authority of independent monarchs had to be suppressed.

Especially rights that directly affected the monarchs’ influence and power, such as diplomatic rights and the right to mint currency, had to be reclaimed. The resulting backlash was severe, which Viktor could predict even without exceptional intelligence.

The religious figures, being merely pawns of the gods, had quieted down somewhat after it was established that the four great gods were beneath the sun. But the secular rulers were desperately fighting back because, unless they killed Viktor, their independent sovereignty would be violated.

Before coming to the Cecilia continent, the attack on Viktor’s Sky Warden was also instigated by independent monarchs.

[We could just force our way through, but that would cause the entire thirteen continents to rise up. They have somewhat reasonable justifications too—that a unified government is merely a relic of the past, and that even if the world is reunited, it will eventually split apart again… And above all…]

“That the plan to extinguish the sun and place thirteen suns on earth is absurd.”

[…I apologize.]

“No need. It would be stranger if they didn’t think so.”

It is the natural order of things that when the world is divided, it will eventually reunite, but the problem is that reunification inevitably leads to division again.

The Nariakiran Empire, the only unified political system in human history, had collapsed disgracefully, leaving behind the catastrophic Era of Solar Eclipse. As a result, monarchs and nobles with high intellectual levels and knowledge of history would instinctively convulse at the mere mention of the word “empire.”

The higher you fly, the harder you fall. If they knew that humanity would eventually be torn apart again even after reunification, why pledge allegiance to a single flag and throne?

Above all, the most vehement reason for their resistance was that they had believed themselves to be the rulers of human society, but now they couldn’t accept the emergence of an “emperor” as an absolute power, like the universe above the sky.

Diplomacy is essentially like professional wrestling with well-scripted dialogue and plot—even the most powerful nations eventually have to give up various interests just to survive when neighboring countries start coordinating against them. But the political system of emperor and empire completely collapsed this structure of checks and balances, leaving nothing but “obedience” in the face of absolute power. They simply couldn’t accept such an overwhelming disparity that couldn’t even be checked.

They had endured all sorts of hardships for hundreds of years to maintain the current order, and now they were being asked to sacrifice their power for humanity in the name of the sun that literally fell from the sky? It would be stranger if the monarchs accepted this.

The police, who had been their subordinates until now, would become national civil servants following imperial law, completely escaping the monarchs’ control. Their private armies would ultimately be commanded by the emperor, and during national crises, the soldiers they had carefully nurtured would be taken away.

That alone was enough to make their teeth grind and blood tears flow from their eyes. On top of that, taxes were being collected to build better houses for their sworn enemies, and they would suffer from various requisitions under the government’s unilateral “reforms” without being able to voice even a hint of protest.

In reality, once the empire was established and the thirteen continents unified, the monarchs would be monarchs in name only, essentially no different from hereditary governors.

“I understand their grievances. I would have acted the same way if I were in their position. To cut off the birthright of governance that has been passed down for hundreds of years in one’s own generation… it’s a brave decision, for better or worse.”

[Then what will you do?]

“I’m sorry for them, but the tide has already turned. They are ‘resisting,’ not ‘rebelling.’ Their kingdoms will fall, and their palaces will burn. Tell them that… I will not compromise on this matter.”

[…If that is the divine will.]

Unfortunately, while Viktor sympathized with them, he would not let emotions derail his great work. Where independent monarchs saw division arising from world unification, Viktor saw the suffering and anguish of those torn apart in that divided world.

How many lives could have been saved from frost and storms if there had been a more sophisticated welfare system, if there had been more available resources and manpower? Preventing this was his duty, but certainly not his alone.

“Go and tell the faithful followers of the sun: Nothing can stop the sun’s advance. The universe will be plunged into darkness, and the earth will burn. This is my ideal promised to the world in all directions, and my will pledged for the sacrifice of all for the sake of two.”

[I obey.]

In the end, this was inevitable.

To create one flag, many flags must be gathered, and to unify a torn world, there must be pain to stitch the wounds.

What truly saddened Viktor, the sun, was that those powerless individuals who could choose neither empire nor kingdom would be dragged onto the battlefield against their will.

And until this world becomes one again, they cannot return to the embrace of their families.