"Is that so? Such a thing happened on the border of the Kingdom?" The golden-haired man, lacking interest, responded to the old man in front of him with a lazy smile, "Although I've already guessed most of it, I still want to hear your opinion, old man."
"Your Majesty truly enjoys teasing this old subject…" The white-haired old man said, stroking his waist-length beard, "It's just another clumsy scheme by Theocracy that advocates 'human supremacy'."
"A clumsy scheme, huh…" The man stretched his neck, his whole body relaxed and casual, making it hard to imagine that he was actually the ruler of a nation.
"But to send the pillars of the country into such an obvious trap, the Kingdom's lifespan is probably at its end…" Yawning, the golden-haired man's eyes were hazy with sleep, "Although a monster like the Golden Princess appeared, the Old King who holds real power is useless… The ruler in the twilight years of a dynasty, mediocrity is incompetence."
At this point, the golden-haired man's gaze sharpened, "Fortunately, the Golden Princess was ostracized by her own people, otherwise, we would be the ones with a headache right now…"
"Mediocrity is incompetence, huh…" Seemingly not responding to the man, the old man just murmured softly, a faint glimmer flickering in his eyes before extinguishing.
The old man certainly couldn't be called incompetent; in fact, as one of the only four elders in the entire northwestern part of the continent, the old man was very successful. However, ever since he used his unique ritual magic to extend his life, both his knowledge and strength had stagnated for many years. Standing at the pinnacle of magic chanters, he even felt Jealousy towards his disciples who had teachers, even if all of them combined couldn't reach his achievements.
"How about we take this opportunity to investigate, Your Majesty?" After a brief thought, the old man suggested to the man.
"Hmm? What do you mean, old man…" The man, who had almost fallen asleep, suddenly woke up, rolled over, and looked at the old man, his eyes like torches.
"That forest is undergoing an anomaly; the Empire should seize the initiative at this time." The old man met the man's gaze, his firm stance making the man fall into deep thought.
The Empire and the Kingdom are neighboring, two great nations predominantly composed of humans, with ongoing territorial and hegemonic disputes. Almost every year, the Empire uses various pretexts to gather its army during spring planting or autumn harvest, launching localized wars against the Kingdom on the Katze Plains. The purpose is to reduce the Kingdom's labor force during critical farming seasons, thereby indirectly weakening the Kingdom.
The reason for the Empire's actions is already clear, and there are three underlying causes.
Firstly, the Empire's military service is a professional soldier system, following an elite path of specialized combat, where soldiers do not engage in production, and combat is their sole duty. The Kingdom's military service, on the other hand, is a conscription system, only extensively enlisting soldiers to the front lines when war is imminent.
Clearly, although the Empire's soldiers are fewer in number than the Kingdom's, they are stronger. These localized border wars have less impact on the Empire and a greater impact on the Kingdom, which relies on numerical superiority to win. The Empire only needs to drag it out to profit, and the Kingdom lacks the decisive combat power to achieve a quick victory. Therefore, this is an open scheme, one that the Kingdom has no choice but to accept.
Secondly, the Kingdom's land is fertile, and the Empire has coveted it for a long time. However, if a full-scale war were launched, the Empire would not be guaranteed victory, and the monster that is the Slane Theocracy would not stand idly by. Whichever side the Theocracy leans towards, that side would gain a huge advantage—this is a consensus that both nations must acknowledge. If it's just a localized war, it can temporarily be accepted by the Theocracy. Thus, gradually accumulating advantages through such manageable localized wars to reach a point where "the Empire can break through the Kingdom with one strike, forcing them to cede territory" is the Empire's private guiding principle. As long as enough advantage is accumulated, even if the Theocracy wants to intervene, it will hesitate or even come out to support the Empire—after all, the Kingdom is already corrupt, and the rising Empire better aligns with the interests of "human supremacy."
Thirdly, it concerns the internal conflicts of both nations.
Although the Empire, under the leadership of the Blood Emperor, purged most of the reactionary noble class, and both power and national strength reached historical peaks, this prosperity is merely superficial. As long as the "Emperor" continues to exist, nobles will emerge. For example, the Empire's current personnel system, which appears to be a fair system that values ability regardless of origin, is in fact cultivating new nobles, isn't it?
For example, if one of the Four Knights of the Empire, "Lightning" Bajed Peshmel, a commoner by birth and a close associate of the Blood Emperor, achieved great feats on the battlefield for the Empire, or even sacrificed his life for the Blood Emperor, would the Blood Emperor, as his direct superior, not remember their old ties? Even if the Blood Emperor were truly cold-blooded and ruthless, he would still have to consider the feelings of others—he must reward and punish clearly, praising the fallen and their families to appease the populace and motivate his subordinates. Over time, the descendants of these fallen individuals or they themselves would become new nobles with power and wealth.
This is an inevitable trend, because although the Empire purged the old nobility, it is still essentially a "feudal system," merely a highly centralized one. Nobles will still arise. Currently, the battlefield is more likely to give birth to new nobles, and in the future, to strengthen national power, emerging industrialists and even capitalists will become new nobles. The latter are even more uncontrollable and pose a danger of overthrowing the Empire.
The Blood Emperor temporarily cannot foresee the future development of the latter, but he is very clear about the irreversible trend of the former. Therefore, to solve this problem, he must disperse the new nobles that will eventually be born. "Land" thus becomes a necessity—using vast lands and geographical divisions to mutually separate the emerging nobles, while elevating the central nobles loyal to him as his "blades." Once a noble becomes uncontrollable, the Blood Emperor can immediately suppress them. This strategy is a contingency plan the Blood Emperor prepared for himself and his descendants—he rose to power through cruel intrigues and naturally does not want himself and his descendants to repeat the same mistakes.
As for the Kingdom, it is like a dilapidated house that would collapse with a single kick, but unfortunately, the "security guard" that is the Theocracy would not allow it. So, the Empire can only boil the frog slowly, gradually scheming step by step.
Simply put, the Kingdom is riddled with factions. Roughly, there are the "King's Faction," "The First Prince's Faction," and "Second Prince's Faction," as well as the weaker "Other Factions"—four major factions. However, their internal structures are not unified. If one were to meticulously sort them out, even the Blood Emperor himself would probably go bald from the effort.
But it cannot be denied that the Kingdom is truly riddled with holes, its people live in hardship, and the contradictions between the various factions are irreconcilable. It is only barely holding on due to the inherent advantage of fertile land.
The Blood Emperor saw through this truth, which is why he wages war every year, relying on war to weaken them. After all, facing war, even a muddle-headed Old King has to step forward and make a statement. He himself won't lead from the front, but the troops he sends out certainly won't be fewer than those of other nobles. Therefore, as long as the Blood Emperor kills his soldiers every time, or even seizes the opportunity to kill one or two noble commanders, he will greatly weaken the King's Faction. Then, by also striking at the private armies of the nobles, accumulated over time, the weakened factions will think, "We can't wait any longer, otherwise we'll hand over victory," while the still-strong factions will believe "the time has come." The civil war in the Kingdom will be on the verge of breaking out, and the Empire will then profit from the opportunity, a win-win situation.
This is the current situation between the two nations, and hidden within it is the Empire's infiltration of the Kingdom—the Empire even detected the Theocracy's conspiracy earlier than the Kingdom, but chose to ignore it. After all, if the Warrior Captain, who once killed two of their Four Knights of the Empire, were to die from a scheme, the Empire would also benefit.
In short, the Empire had long known about the situation on the Kingdom's border, even more than the Kingdom itself. Now, it just needed a decision from the Emperor.
"Go and see, old man. You will select the troops and gather intelligence while trying not to expose yourselves," the Blood Emperor finally decided, "If this anomaly is beneficial to the Empire, then it's not too late to make further plans."
"As you command, Your Majesty." The old man, having received his reply, slowly bowed and turned to leave the room.
"Soon… the enticing and powerful magical whispers… I will soon unveil you and make you serve me!" The old man's eyes were full of ambition and fervor…