episode_0027

From the imperial palace’s highest hanging garden, the city’s scenery could be seen at a glance.

He looked down at the dark city’s night view.

The Gothic-style houses were illuminated by blue magic lamps, creating a heavy and dreamlike atmosphere that filled the city view.

He looked up at Feanor’s lighthouses.

The ten golden lighthouses, soaring high into the sky, spread a faint, translucent golden barrier across the entire city, preventing the invasion of wicked things.

As a citizen of Shahlnu’s Empire and a resident of Sirius, he was proud to say that there was no city more refined and systematic than this.

In this city, designed by the great prophet Feanor from top to bottom,

the ‘chaos’ that would naturally arise in a city where countless people gathered simply did not exist.

So, in the past, and in the future, a city like this would never be built again.

Even to him, a citizen of the Empire, this city was undeniably perfect.

‘I’m worried about what’s to come.’

The knight was deep in admiration of the night view.

He was standing guard in the imperial palace’s hanging garden, and consecutive night shifts had brought on drowsiness, so he had to somehow stay awake.

As he tried to wake himself up, a cold wind blew through the high imperial garden, and as the chill roused him, he suddenly fell into deep thought.

‘The Empire is declining.’

The Empire is declining.

One might ask why a mere knight standing guard at the imperial palace would fall into such profound worry, but it wasn’t some absurd, baseless concern.

Indeed, looking at the information he had gathered and the changes within the imperial palace over decades of service, he couldn’t help but think that.

Just then, his colleague beside him called out.

“What are you thinking about so seriously?”

Alex, a knight of the Imperial Guard.

At his words, Gabriel spoke to him in a serious tone.

“I’m worried about the Empire’s future.”

“The Empire’s future?”

Alex’s expression, as he looked at Gabriel, began to change subtly.

While such concern was certainly admirable for an imperial knight, it was usually a worry voiced by older, more seasoned individuals, not young ones.

So, it was only natural for Alex to blurt out,

“Are you… unwell?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You’ve never voiced such concerns, nor shown such an expression, in your entire life.”

“I’m serious, Alex.”

Alex, reading the sincerity in Gabriel’s eyes as he stared at him with tightly shut lips, finally nodded as if ready to listen to his words and spoke.

“Why do you think that?”

“Hasn’t it been 50 years since this continent was engulfed in war?”

When the Death Host emerged and the continent slowly became tainted into lands of death, for nearly 30 years, they were constantly busy losing territory against the Death Host.

In the process, numerous kingdoms, including the Elf Empires, met their demise, and countless people became undead, joining the Death Host.

“That’s right.”

“In other words, it’s been over 40 years since the Empire began its war against the calamity.”

Forty years.

Throughout that long time, they hadn’t always fought an all-out war, but they had forced the Death Host into a war of attrition as much as possible, holding the front lines with the Alliance.

Considering the enormous military expenditures and the number of able-bodied men consumed in that process, the resources expended to stop the calamity far outweighed the damage suffered from the Death Host.

“Even if we only held the front lines through an all-out war, a nation has to devote an absurd amount of its resources to the front. And this Empire has been doing that for a full 40 years.”

“……”

Alex knew that fact.

However, he had only acknowledged it in his mind; it had never directly felt like a crisis to him.

After all, the Empire had always been strong.

With an unimaginably vast population and infrastructure, it was an Empire with national power capable of overwhelming even the kingdoms within the Alliance.

Alex, having personally lived through the era of the Empire’s immense past glory, had vaguely believed that even if the war continued for this long, they would simply endure.

But as Gabriel began to worry so seriously about the Empire’s well-being, Alex gradually began to realize just how much blood the Empire had shed due to the war.

“Still, aren’t there no signs of decline anywhere in the Empire right now?”

But Shahlnu had endured even through the long war.

The Empire’s foundation, which Feanor himself had helped establish, was more solid than that of any nation before it.

“Does it seem that way?”

But Gabriel’s thoughts seemed different.

“Consider how many people died during the First Great Expansion.”

“……”

“The Second, and even the Third. While the world sees it as a righteous war, where heroes unilaterally judged evil, you and I know the truth, don’t we?”

Struggling to break through the endless legions of the Land of Death.

How many people sacrificed themselves to break through the thick defensive lines of the corpse army.

Saying they merely ‘sacrificed themselves’ isn’t enough.

It would be accurate to say that human blood and flesh were ground in a grinder, as the Empire’s command literally ground up Alliance soldiers until the defensive lines were breached.

In Alex’s mind, as he kept his mouth shut, the scene from the deployment ceremony earlier in the day suddenly flashed past.

For the first time, the Twelve Heroes gathered in one place at an official ceremony.

Tens of thousands of soldiers, including the Imperial Guard and the Knights, heading to Numenlora via teleportation gates, certainly displayed the majesty of a final army intent on eradicating the calamity.

However, an expeditionary force of that size was not enough to take the capital of the Elf Empire.

Especially not a city teeming with a greedy prince, two of the strongest legion commanders, and elite undead; it seemed laughably insufficient to capture.

“We’re short on manpower.”

Gabriel said.

“This isn’t the Empire of the past, which could generously dispatch hundreds of thousands of troops like during the Great Expansions. Even if they join other Alliance soldiers in Numenlora, the force will be less than a quarter of the army dispatched during the final Third Great Expansion.”

“Hey, no matter what, that’s going too far…”

“Seeing how they’ve scraped together even the Imperial Guard and Knights to join the expeditionary force, you must have a rough idea, too, haven’t you?”

“……”

He couldn’t say anything in response to that.

Indeed, the Imperial Family had sent almost all of its Imperial Guard and Imperial Knights, with only a minimal force remaining to protect the Emperor, to join the expeditionary army.

Though it wasn’t explicitly stated, it was effectively no different from saying they lacked people to send to the battlefield, so unless one was a fool, it was impossible not to understand.

Alex, who had constantly denied that the situation could be that serious, could no longer refute Gabriel’s words, as he meticulously pointed out the facts with concrete evidence, emphasizing the gravity of the situation.

“Perhaps after the war ends, things we can’t even imagine will happen.”

Things like the accumulated damage to the Empire, or problems that had festered both internally and externally.

Or the shadow forces of evil, which had steadily grown amidst the chaos, attempting to overthrow the Empire.

To Gabriel, the latter felt far more terrible than the former.

Because whenever it happened, it was clear that they would wage war against the weakened Empire.

Gabriel, who had briefly thought about the future, shuddered.

‘It’s terrible.’

His own plight, having to prevent future turmoil.

As he was in a position to fend off enemies from all sides, thinking about battles with the rapidly growing shadow forces made him feel sorry for his future self.

Just then, a sound that shouldn’t be heard began to rumble from outside.

BOOOOOOOOM──────

“This is…”

“Isn’t that the emergency horn of the lighthouses?”

Their gazes turned towards the city.

Feanor’s lighthouses, standing tall one in each district, began to sound their horns not just in one, but in all ten districts.

As they had only sounded a handful of times in history, cold sweat began to trickle down their foreheads.

“W-we should hurry to the Vice-Commander first…”

“Hey, Gabriel! Look there…!”

Alex stepped back, pointing a finger at a spot.

Following the direction he pointed, their gaze shifted, and they saw the light of a distant lighthouse flickering rapidly.

Malkuth’s lighthouse.

Binah’s lighthouse.

Chokmah’s lighthouse.

Yesod and Hod’s lighthouses.

Netzach’s lighthouse.

And then.

CRACKLE— CRACKLE── CRACKLE───

Here, Tiphereth’s lighthouse.

The light of the lighthouse, which had never once gone out in a thousand years, flickered on and off erratically.

Then.

Rustle—

Above their heads, small snowflakes began to drift down, one by one.

The blizzard from outside, which had been held back by the lighthouse’s light, began to creep into the city.

“Navigator…”

From the highest imperial palace hanging garden, the city’s scenery could be seen at a glance.

The city’s scenery, seen at a glance, was incredibly beautiful.

Under the glittering night sky, pristine white snowflakes began to blanket the entire city.