Lord of Training - Chapter 114



Only Krnovel

114. We need a resource gate.

“But isn’t it strange? Right now we are in a truce with the Empire, but we were at war with each other until recently. And yet an invitation to the Emperor’s birthday?”

“Of course there must be some ulterior motive. Our intelligence agency is analyzing that it is to show the Emperor’s birthday parade.”

“A military parade?”

“Every year, on the Emperor’s birthday, he holds a grand parade. He is the only one who appears to the public. But recently, because of the war, he hasn’t done it.”

Commander Harry Russell handed over the papers.

“This is information sent by our informants working in the Empire.”

The documents contained information that orbital giants, orbital tanks, new long-range cannons, and the latest bombers were being assembled on the Imperial capital.

But the number was much larger than expected.

This wasn’t something that was prepared in a short period of time; it seemed like it had been prepared for at least several years.

And the fact that the informant had gathered such high-level information meant that the Empire had to be intentionally leaking the information.

“It seems that the Empire has been preparing such a weapon for a long time. And now they plan to use it, and show it to the ambassadors of each country during the parade.”

“I guess they’re saying that since we’re this strong, we should just do whatever we want.”

“Yeah. It’s like an ultimatum.”

“But are you still going to send a delegation?”

“I have to send it.”

I think I know why Supreme Commander Harry Russell wanted to send me.

I guess they want me to go and see what their power is.

This is because I have been doing my missions too perfectly.

In particular, the special forces played a major role in the plan to occupy the Kingdom of Nubua within a year, and captured it in 10 months. This time, at the Labyrinth Gate of Edplos, they helped the Kingdom of Lutes’ army awaken 100 magic knights and even connected Prince Arc to Atlan.

I had to be reasonably competent, but I couldn’t control it.

I think it was the determination that I should not regret anything once I start working.

Because I never wanted to go back to the abyss.

“And you have a separate mission.”

“yes?”

“Do you think I would send you on a simple mission like escorting a delegation?”

Somehow I had a feeling that this wasn’t going to be an easy mission.

“There is a secret imperial research lab underground in Lasaus. It is so large that it is said that half of the underground part of the city is the research lab.”

“If it’s already a known place, then it’s not a secret laboratory, right?”

“We’ve tried to get in there several times, but we’ve only lost a few dozen informants. And spies from other kingdoms have never been there, so it must be a secret research lab. That’s where you can see the real power of the Empire.”

“But you want me to go there? Where no one has ever succeeded?”

“If possible. Are you a normal person? You should be able to do it. Of course, if it is judged to be dangerous, you don’t have to go in.”

Are you telling me to go in? Are you telling me not to?

“Use your discretion? That’s what I’m saying.”

“Of course. It’s a dangerous mission. I don’t want to lose you.”

Then don’t send it.

But as dangerous as it was, it was also an opportunity to see the empire’s true strength and power.

Also, it’s the empire’s secret research lab, so how many important items would there be?

Actually, I’m curious too.

“Then I will make a good decision.”

Commander Harry nodded.

Suddenly, that thought occurred to me.

“If someone assassinates the emperor, won’t the war end? If he appears in front of the public during the parade, maybe they can shoot him from afar?”

Commander Harry chuckled.

“Why haven’t there been any attempts before? There are so many people who want to kill the emperor. But no one has ever succeeded.”

“What if an assassin disguised as an envoy approaches the Emperor?”

“Even if it is not a delegation but the Atlan royal family that goes, they will not be able to meet the emperor. They will only be able to see him from afar.”

“Ah! What a pity. I thought I would be able to see the Emperor up close.”

“Don’t even think about coming close.”

He is the emperor of an empire, so his security must be tight.

“I don’t understand why the Empire is only now revealing its new weapon. If it had such a powerful weapon, it wouldn’t have been pushed back by the Allied Forces in the Kingdom of Lutes, and it would have conquered the Kingdom of Bavaria long ago.”

“It’s a dimensional core.”

“huh?”

“As you know, Commander, the orbital giants are powered by dimensional cores. And the weapons they’re going to show you this time are also based on the elven heritage, so most of them require dimensional energy. They haven’t been able to secure dimensional cores until now, but since the Empire secured several dimensional cores after clearing the S-rank labyrinth gate last time, I think they’re going to use them now.”

Commander Harry Russell’s expression became serious.

“Oh my, I should have prevented the attack on the Labyrinth Gate at all costs back then······.”

“It’s too late to regret it now. If we can’t catch up with the Empire’s technology, not only the Central Continent but also the Atlan Kingdom will all fall into the Empire’s hands.”

“Ha! Orbital Gigant, Dimensional Core, Tank, my head hurts. Everything in the world is moving too fast, it’s becoming more and more difficult to handle. Am I getting old?”

Harry Russell put his hand to his forehead.

“We already have an orbital gigant and a dimensional core at the Magic Engineering Laboratory, so we need to hurry up and build the orbital tank, even if we don’t know about anything else.”

“Everyone is doing their best right now. The Empire has been preparing for a long time, but we are just getting started, so it’s just getting delayed.”

If we continued to follow along slowly like this, we would never be able to defeat the empire.

No, the empire’s attack could not be stopped.

So, should our country also develop quickly?

Should I run my alchemist’s workshop at full blast to produce tracked tanks?

I already had a sample, so it didn’t seem difficult.

The problem was the loss of flexibility and the production time.

I was worried that it would take a considerable amount of time at my current level.

‘Should we trust the dwarves for now?’

I gave the dwarves 11 orbital gigants.

And he also gave me a small dimensional core.

It meant that they were to drive orbital giants and practice gunnery.

At first, I was worried whether the dwarves would be able to handle it well, but since they are a very dexterous race, I believed they would do well.

So, if I equip all 11 of them with the small dimensional cores I’ve obtained this time and make them move, and have the elves make spirit shells, I think I can at least balance the numbers to some extent.

‘Let’s first visit Hebrok Estate and then escort the delegation to the Empire.’

When I raised my head, Commander Harry Russell was watching me with a pleased expression.

“So, have you sorted out your thoughts?”

“When will the delegation depart?”

“In twenty days, a military transport plane will depart from this airfield.”

“Then I will come before departure.”

“Where are you going?”

“I need to prepare too.”

I saluted and went out.

First, we called the agents who could use high-speed flight skills from Kalpas to Rondos.

They decided to use them as an escort for the delegation, and the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Battalions were to be sent to the Southern Fleet and the port of Shohoka in the Kingdom of Baern to take the elves away as planned.

And then I took Phelps and Iris and headed to Havelock Estate.

***

[Hebrok Estate]

“What? An elf this time?”

“Yes. The number will be around 5,000.”

My father, Count Belief Bombard, whom I hadn’t seen in a long time, was listening to me with his mouth slightly open.

“The dwarves have finally settled in, but the elves······.”

“There won’t be any major disruption to the territory. They too will settle in the mountains and forests beyond the barrier.”

I couldn’t bring myself to say that I would create a dimensional gate.

Once a dimensional gate occurs, it is dangerous.

Since it was a gate connected to an unknown dimension, I lied to reassure her.

We need to prepare thoroughly and open the gate later.

“And this time I brought a lot of gold coins, so you won’t have to worry for the time being.”

“Where on earth do you keep getting all that gold?”

“There is a way.”

I had to thank the 7th princess of the empire.

Her subspace vault was full of gold and silver treasures.

At this rate, the Hebrok Estate would not have been short of gold for several years.

And the elf legacy I brought this time was also considerable.

Although we haven’t sorted everything out yet, we’ve found dozens of dimensional translators, and there are also quite a few gravity field generators, cold mines, and fire mines, so our power has increased significantly.

“How is the situation in the territory?”

“What problem do we have? Since you send us gold at the right time like now, there is no difficulty. However, I am worried about the increasing number of refugees coming from the Tafeld territory.”

“Has the royal family not yet sent funds to restore the estate?”

“I heard they send it little by little. But that’s not even close.”

“I don’t know what the hell Brigadier General Chuck Kilgar is doing. The territory is in such a state, and he’s not doing anything about it.”

My father frowned and narrowed his eyebrows.

“I heard that Chuck Kilgaven was promoted to major general this time! He became the deputy commander of the 7th Mobile Corps. And he even received a mansion in the capital.”

“yes?”

This was news I didn’t even know about.

“There are rumors going around that the royal family will completely eliminate the Tapeld territory this time. If they leave it like that, the people of the territory will gradually leave, and public sentiment will become unstable. Even if there is a lord, it will be of no use.”

“Is it even possible to do that?”

“It was a trick that the royal family used in the past to take over poor territories with weak local autonomy. If the territories were in disarray and taxes were not paid properly, the central government would dispatch observers and troops and directly manage them. Then the territories could disappear. But what is the meaning of the eldest son, who should be responsible for this, receiving a mansion in the capital?”

Are you pretending not to know your own territory for your own glory?

But he is the eldest son who will become the lord of Tafeld······.

Does this mean that you would rather rise through the ranks in the military than as a local lord?

But isn’t Yeongju better?

Somehow I didn’t understand.

“In my view, the power of the capital and the center is so great that they are gradually eliminating the local fiefdoms and the royal family and central politicians are planning to seize all power.”

“But isn’t there a council of lords?”

“The Lords’ Council has long since become meaningless. It used to meet once every two or three years, but it hasn’t been held even once in the past five years.”

Centralization······.

Now, all of Atlan’s military factories, shipyards, and industrial complexes were concentrated in the capital city of Rondos and its nearby cities.

Although there were taxes coming from local governments, the taxes collected from the capital and surrounding cities were already several times more.

As magic engineering, shipping, military, and aviation industries developed, and large farms were established at resource gates near the capital, the power of local fiefdoms was rapidly diminishing.

“If we’re not careful, we could lose our territory.”

I nodded to my father’s words.

Already wrinkles were appearing around my father’s eyes and forehead.

In Alain’s memories, his father was always a strong man who protected the wall.

But the father I saw now was much older.

There is no business that can stand against time.

“I’ll go see the dwarves.”

“Okay, have a nice trip.”

My father’s words made me think a lot.

Perhaps the purpose of leaving the Tapeld territory as it was was to cause refugees to migrate to the surrounding territories, thereby worsening the financial situation of those territories. And the refugees who came to the capital could be hired cheaply.

Even now, the capital continued to expand, and the central cities grew larger every day.

Listening to my father’s words, it really seemed like he was trying to eliminate local fiefdoms and deal with them through officials sent from the central government.

If the territory’s self-reliance is low, then eventually we will have to reach out to the center, and that means our territory could fall as well.

‘Is this the trend?’

Even in the Lacrosse Empire, the concept of lords was already disappearing.

The power of the emperor was so great that the lords disappeared and only the administrators who managed the regions played a role.

And the Republic of Arica, the second largest after the empire, was initially a hereditary kingdom, but after the great revolution, the citizens now elect representatives from each city and region, and those representatives then elect the prime minister.

And the prime minister governs the country, and important issues are decided in the parliament.

I don’t know how the Atlan Kingdom will change in the future, but first, we need to increase the self-sufficiency of our territories so that we don’t get dragged away.

To do that.

‘We’ll need a resource gate too······.’

To do that, you need to collect a lot of dimensional cores.

As a result, if we fail to develop our territory, we too could continue to be dragged along like the Tafeld territory.

When we came out, Iris and Phelps were waiting.

“Alain, where are you going now?”

Iris asked.

“Let’s go to the dwarf.”

“Oh! I wonder what dwarves look like.”

Iris said she had never seen a dwarf.

***

Paaaaang! Paaaaang!

From the entrance of the mountain range, dwarf villages began to appear one by one.

Most of them were small towns, but there were many of them.

And I saw roads I had never seen before.

They carved out mountains to make roads, and in some places they had already developed mines.

Are there any minerals in our territory?

Because the mountain range was so rugged and dimensional monsters had appeared a long time ago, mining development was out of the question.

But it’s been two years since the dwarves entered the mountains.

‘I might have discovered something······.’

End