Side Story Chapter 222

Meanwhile, the situation in other countries was also becoming urgent. Exactly as Urector had said, Hubalt’s forces had simultaneously crossed the borders of all of the countries around Hubalt; that was the strategy devised by Bel, the Battle God, and Kurz, the new emperor of Hubalt.

That was why, at the onset of the Second Continental War, kings from around the continent joined forces for the first time via a remote conference.

“Sir, the communication crystal ball setup is complete,” a mage of the Magic Tower reported.

Theta, the Tower Master, nodded. “Great work.”

“It’s nothing.”

With invaders already rampaging through their lands, the kings couldn’t afford to leave their countries. However, it was simple enough to have a long-distance conference using communication crystal balls like right now.

Theta cleared his throat. “Can everyone hear me?”

-Loud and clear.

-The Tower Master must have gone through a lot of trouble.

-I’m sorry that I couldn’t be there in person.

-It’s been quite some time, everyone.

-King of the Allied Powers of Palentine—we haven’t seen each other in a while. You’ve become more handsome since we last met. Hahaha.

-I would usually be delighted to receive your compliment, but it’s embarrassing to hear at a time like this.

The conference was off to such a good start that the participants couldn’t help but think that all of them were ready to unite against their common enemy, Hubalt. Theta, however, knew how naive an idea that was; there were still three countries who still hadn’t appeared at the meeting despite the fact that it had been already ten minutes past the scheduled start of the conference.

‘I expected that from the Hart Kingdom and Tetra Kingdom, but...’

Theta had to stop himself from groaning out aloud.

‘...I can’t believe even the Swallow Kingdom didn’t attend.’

The Swallow Empire had once been considered one of the major powers alongside Avalon and Hubalt, so all of the participants knew that Swallow’s participation was key at this meeting. Nevertheless, the emperor of Swallow never showed up.

Of course, everyone knew the reason.

Was it because of their pride?

‘It’s because of the Flame Emperor.’

Theta turned to look at a different crystal ball, one which showed a man with fiery scarlet hair. Everyone on the continent knew about the bad blood that ran between Swallow and Thran. There had been a time when Swallow recognized Thran’s autonomy, but that didn’t last long. Right after the government had stabilized, Swallow renewed its ambitions to gain absolute dominance over Thran.

In the end, Ulabis was left with only one choice—to keep the imperial and aristocratic factions too busy fighting each other to attack Thran. Ulabis had wielded diplomacy and subterfuge, but despite the astronomical amounts of manpower and assets he’d expended in the process his work had been discovered around two decades ago.

One of Thran’s spies had been discovered and had failed to commit suicide. The spy ultimately could not withstand the torture he was subjected to and told Swallow who was behind him. Up until that point, things could have been talked out. Although it was true that it was unethical to plant a spy in another country, it was tacitly understood that both countries were doing it.

The problem was, Ulabis hadn’t acknowledged his wrongdoings, let alone made reparations. Instead, Ulabis had arrested every single one of Swallow’s spies within Thran, executed them, and then put their heads on a spike for all to see. “An eye for an eye,” he’d called it. Thran’s citizens had, of course, cheered Ulabis on for his bold rejection of Swallow’s all-too-familiar oppression.

However, the incident had pushed both countries past the point of no return—especially Ulabis, the king of Thran...

‘...Just thinking about it makes me feel disgusted again.’

Theta let out a long sigh. For a long time, he hadn’t liked Ulabis—and for good reason.

‘The main reason why he accepted Kireua as his student was to involve Avalon in their fight.’

Regardless of how he actually felt now, Ulabis had made Kireua his student for a very impure reason. It had been coldly calculated. As long as one of Avalon’s princes stayed in Thran as the king’s student, it wouldn’t be easy for Swallow to make a move lest they provoke the Martial God’s wrath.

-It’s already been over thirty minutes... I think we’re all we have for this conference. I’m not surprised, but I can’t help but feel bitter. Things aren’t good in my country either; I thought that everyone would understand.

The king of Palentine let out a worried sigh.

-You’re right. Hubalt has dispatched armies ranging from fifty thousand men up to two hundred thousand to the borders. Where in the world did they draft that many people from...?

-But that also means that the Empire itself is empty. If someone can take advantage of that and catch them off guard, Hubalt will withdraw some of their forces to protect their lands, which will buy us some room to breathe.

The conversation continued for a while longer, but it didn’t yield a solution—a testament to how thorough Hubalt had been before starting the war.

-If the Magic Tower were to step in—

“Impossible,” Theta firmly answered.

The king of Draia looked embarassed, but pressed on.

-I know that the Magic Tower is absolutely neutral, but this is a crisis for the entire continent, not just specific countries. If Hubalt were to conquer the continent and exert their evil influence on extranational organizations—

“That is not what I meant. The Magic Tower is occupied with another matter.”

-...

Ahem

. What matter could be more urgent than this?

The Draia King quietly grumbled after being interrupted twice in a row.

“The Human Realm is collapsing like the Angel and Demon Realms,” Theta explained.

All of the crystal balls showed the kings’ eyes widen in surprise.

-W-Wait. The Human Realm is collapsing? That’s too sudden.

“I’m sure that all of you know that Yggdrasil, the World Tree, is rooted in the plains where the Magic Tower is.”

The kings nodded. It was common knowledge.

“Yggdrasil is dying,” Theta bitterly revealed. “In fact, it’s only getting faster.”

-Y-Yggdrasil is dying?

It was supposed to be impossible. Yggdrasil, the First Tree, was the source of all life on the continent. The tree had been with humanity forever—no one even knew how long the tree had been with them. It had grown bigger alongside the development of human civilization; never had anyone imagined it withering.

Theta bit his lip. “I wasn’t sure at first... but I now have several eyewitness accounts of nature tearing itself apart.”

Jack, the lich, wasn’t the only one who had noticed the Human Realm’s decay. Theta was the most sensitive to changes in the natural flow of mana, but due to the severity of the circumstances, he wanted to investigate the matter further before bringing it to the attention of the entire continent.

If a prophet were to suddenly appear and claim that the world was going to end in a few days, what would they do? At first, everyone would call the prophet a lunatic, but once evidence was found, the entire continent would descend into chaos. There was nothing as frightening as humans with nothing to lose.

The tension was thick enough to cut with a knife, despite the distance between the participants of the conference. Theta let out a sigh. Even though he was the one who had brought up the news, Theta was at a loss too. Even an Eighth Circle mage was helpless to stop the destruction of the realm, even if there wasn’t a war on.

-It’s one problem after another. The Human Realm is dying...

-This is not the time to fight amongst ourselves. What if we let Hubalt know about this and stop the war first?

-Hubalt has already begun their invasion, so there’s no way the news will stop them. Even if we stop the destruction of our realm, they know perfectly well that they’ll be attacked right afterward.

-Mmm...

The other kings groaned over the conundrum.

“Tower Master!”

Theta and all of the kings turned toward the source of the shout. Because Theta and the crystal balls were in Reinhardt’s great conference room, the voice coming through the door sounded a lot louder than normal.

“What is it? Didn’t I tell you multiple times how important this conference is!” Theta yelled in annoyance.

“I-I’m sorry. We received a message from the people at Reinhardt’s south gate...”

“...From Reinhardt?” Theta loosened up a bit. Reinhardt was a symbolic city in many ways. Most citizens of the city always said that Joshua Sanders, the Martial God, was their only king. As his dear friend, Theta couldn’t ignore a message from Reinhardt. In fact, their friendship was the only reason why he was permitted to use the conference room in the first place.

“Is the messenger already here?” Theta asked.

“Umm...”

Before the mage could answer, a familiar person pushed his way into the room. It was Kingaitu, the senior knight who was managing the city on behalf of the Martial God.

“It sounds like the conference is almost over, so would that be okay if I step in right now?” the knight asked.

“By all means.”

Theta readily ceded the stage and all of the participants turned their attention to Kingaitu.

“Another messenger with a crystal ball arrived at the south gate just now.”

The kings' eyes widened. A crystal ball sent to another nation, like those Theta had gathered in front of him, was a pipeline directly to the royal family of its country of origin;

The king of Palentine couldn’t hide his excitement.

-Does that mean... one of the three countries has joined?

“No, it’s not.” Kingaitu shook his head.

-No...?

“The messenger is here on behalf of Hubalt,” Kingaitu answered.

The air in the conference room seemed to freeze.