Ch.963Declaration of War

The capital of Hestella suffered massive damage in just a single night.

The newly built royal palace was half-destroyed by high-ranking spirits, and countless buildings and roads throughout the city collapsed from monster attacks.

Outside the city walls, everything was burned to ashes with nothing remaining, and even parts of the walls themselves had melted into something resembling hills rather than barriers.

If not for the heavy rain that poured continuously for three days starting at dawn, the damage would have been even greater.

The forest where the Karma Sun had spread was completely transformed into a vast lake, with black ashes floating on the rainwater that filled it.

Even the incident when three dragon lords attacked simultaneously paled in comparison to the losses suffered this time—it was like child’s play in comparison.

The casualties were substantial as well.

While we had anticipated the fairy attack and conducted evacuation drills in advance, the monster assault was something even I couldn’t have predicted.

Many people were helplessly slaughtered when monsters suddenly appeared from all directions while they were in the middle of evacuating according to their training.

Though the knights responded quickly and barely prevented further casualties, the number of soldiers and civilians killed was at least four hundred.

It could be considered a great victory that we limited the casualties to hundreds rather than thousands, which would have been the case without me, Demian, and Ophelia… but it still made my teeth grind with anger.

People who didn’t need to die—my people, both soldiers and civilians—over four hundred of them slaughtered. Of course I would be furious.

This wasn’t something I could let slide, nor should I.

So, after somehow managing to stabilize the situation over three days, I called a council meeting and declared before all my ministers:

“As soon as my power recovers, Hestella will invade the mainland of Alvheim.”

The time had come to settle things with those pointy-eared bastards who were nothing but a plague upon humanity.

—-

The nobles and officials stirred at my declaration of war filled with killing intent. Seated on the throne, I looked down at each of them and drove my point home.

“If anyone wishes to object, step forward. I’ll personally hang you in the town square.”

Unless they had about nine lives to spare, they shouldn’t even think about opposing me.

For reference, two fairies were already on display in the town square.

They were mass-produced Guardians who were barely clinging to life, reduced to a state worse than death.

Of the fifteen Guardians who attacked Hestella, only four were captured alive rather than killed.

One was a formal Guardian named Liberatia or something, and the other three were mass-produced Guardians whose limbs Ophelia and I had shattered.

I selected two of the mass-produced Guardians to be displayed in the square for the citizens to vent their anger, and handed the other two over to Ophelia and Perneisia.

Ophelia received eleven corpses for dissection and research, plus one mass-produced Guardian, while Perneisia got the regular Guardian Liberatia as her toy.

Honestly, displaying a regular Guardian would have been more effective than a mass-produced one with no taste for torture… but I decided to make a special concession this time.

After all, she had lost the Guardian toy I’d promised her when Feilandria took it away. This was a replacement and compensation.

Besides, since Liberatia was Perneisia’s personal captive, it felt wrong to take that trophy away from her.

So I just told her to keep it, and Perneisia thanked me with a smile that nearly split her face.

She said it was the most pleasing gift she’d received in her centuries-long life.

Anyway, after getting her hands on Liberatia, Perneisia first cut off her ears and then locked her in the underground dungeon of the palace…

I decided not to concern myself with whatever was happening down there.

Ophelia had taken a peek once and returned with an impressed expression, nodding and saying that she still had much to learn.

If something made even Ophelia impressed, what on earth was happening down there? Just imagining it seemed likely to cause brain damage.

So I decided to cut off my interest entirely. She’d make good use of it, I supposed.

The Guardians displayed in the square weren’t in much better condition either.

The Guardian dragged to Ophelia’s laboratory might have gotten the happy ending by comparison.

The citizens of the capital, who had suffered enormous damage, needed someone to vent their resentment and indignation upon, and the two fairies displayed in the square were perfect sacrificial lambs for this purpose.

I had even publicly declared that they could do whatever they wanted as long as they didn’t kill them outright.

With their queen granting unlimited permission for revenge, the citizens who had lost their rational restraint showed a cruelty that was… honestly a bit chilling.

It was comparable to the things I usually did, or perhaps even worse.

At least I never did “that”… no, let’s not think about it. It only makes me nauseous. Let’s just move on and forget about it.

Thanks to this, the lamentations of the city’s residents had somewhat subsided.

That’s good enough, I suppose.

—-

Perhaps due to my statement that anyone who opposed would end up like those fairies, no minister objected to the invasion of Alvheim.

Eleonora and Chancellor Lambert, who had to handle all the administrative aftermath with the officials, turned a bit pale… but frankly speaking, their workload wouldn’t decrease even if I didn’t attack Alvheim.

If they wanted to blame someone, they should blame the fairies and Feilandria, not me.

“Clergy, hear me as well. Listen and relay my will—the will of your saint—to your cardinal.”

Next, I turned to the paladins and priests of the church and declared to them as well:

“Alvheim shall perish. Under the divine name of the Goddess Astraea. I will make it so.”

I would destroy the fairy nation.

“I will burn their forests, hang their Guardians in the square, and reduce even that absurd giant tree they worship as a god to a handful of ashes.”

I would teach these fairies, who had crossed the line after all my patience and tolerance, that they weren’t the only ones who knew how to cross lines.

“So that the great flames will shine brightly even beyond the Sky Mountains. So that descendants a hundred, two hundred years from now will consider fairies to be mere products of fairy tales and imagination. Thoroughly and decisively!”

I would break, kill, and burn everything they possessed, eradicating them so thoroughly that not even a trace of their existence would remain.

“We shall follow your command, Astika!”

“All is according to the will of Astraea.”

The paladins knelt on one knee in respect, and Archbishop Bethania nodded while making the sign of the holy cross.

Unlike the somewhat perplexed nobles and officials, the clergy showed perfect unity. Not a trace of doubt could be found in their eyes.

They believed without question that I could do it, and that it was the right thing to do.

This was the typical attitude of Astraea’s clergy, filled with religious zeal and fanaticism.

Well, since their faith takes precedence over reality, hesitation or anxiety probably never even crossed their minds.

While I might have to yield to the Church of Elpinel, the Church of Astraea, befitting humanity’s faith, also clearly regarded other races as enemies.

During the Empire’s peaceful period, they had maintained a somewhat conciliatory attitude to preserve that peace… but there was no reason to do so anymore.

While dwarves who sought to maintain friendly relations with humans might be different, fairies, like werebeasts, had completely turned against humanity.

So only one path remained.

The fairies would be exterminated.

This would be the fate of those who attacked me, my country, and those who followed me—a symbol and warning that clearly showed their end.

Centuries ago, the Empire had exterminated the orcs down to the last one as a warning to other non-human races.

If they didn’t want to see the last survivors of their race fried alive, they should accept the “peace of the Empire” instead of causing unnecessary conflict.

I intended to do the same.

By burning the entire nation of Alvheim to the ground, I would warn all other enemies:

If you don’t want to see your parents, children, relatives, and acquaintances burned alive, abandon your foolish ambitions and quietly focus on hunting monsters.

Or die by my hand.

Live peacefully in cooperation, or burn to death with your ambitions. That was the message I would send to all races in this world.

In the original story, Demian achieved loose racial integration by enduring the territorial disputes of non-human nations and showing them favor…

But honestly, would such methods work now?

Whether due to the extreme butterfly effect of my possession or not, the world had become completely chaotic—there was no way that showing favor would work anymore.

That kind of thing was only possible in games, not in reality.

There was no way that pointy-eared bastards, who learned treachery from their mother’s womb, would be grateful enough to repay kindness.

Except for lunatics like Perneisia or half-fairies like Hush, the rest…

Forget gratitude—it would be fortunate if they didn’t stab you in the back.

Rather than trusting the fairies of Alvheim, it would be easier and safer to try taming monsters as pets.