Chapter 98: CH 95

One month has passed since the Battle of Apollo.

After the battle, Hart traveled to the Artemis and Podalley Star Systems with Fortress Kerviel to deploy the realms of the Spirit King.

This was a precautionary measure to prevent Tenka, who had created a realm of the Daemon King in the Apollo Star System, from invading a new star system of the Monarchy and expanding the realm of the next Daemon King.

Now that the Spirit Emperor Mira is out of play, another retaking cannot be performed. If they were preemptive, there was nothing they could do about it, so they created as many realms as possible.

The priority was chosen based on the population of the Royal Citizens within the Star Systems.

The spirit crystals of the Spirit King are his personal property, but he put the lives of the Royal people at risk in the Battle of the Honyō Star System, which gave birth to the Spirit King, and Hart had a moral responsibility to make the best move possible.

Thus, after touring both systems, welcomed by two Dukes and clearly discontented by one, Hart returned to the Apollo System through the Podalley System transition gate.

“I thought the recovery work would have been done.”

In fact, the Apollo System was far from having finished being restored.

In front of Fortress Kerviel, which emerged from the Transition Gate, large-scale spaceports, like in the Diete and Athena Systems, were created. Like an orderly spider’s web, they spread a massive circular network throughout the sector.

The giant nest contained supplies brought in from the Monarchy’s star systems, which had been finely sorted and sent to various parts of the star system by unmanned ships.

Supplies are also sent to the nest from within the Apollo System, and swarms of fighter crafts jumping from other star systems exchange their cargo in the Apollo System and return to each star system.

Normally, a one-way trip would take a month to complete, but even including the cargo swap, it took less than two hours.

Tens of millions of fighter crafts and numerous unmanned convoys in star systems, which are operated automatically, deliver numerous resources, which are transformed into various forms by the urban construction facilities deployed in the star system, and delivered to each star system to raise the standard of living of the Royal people.

The synergistic effect of seven star systems connected by the transition gate was unprecedented, and the Monarchy of Diete was now entering the threshold of a period of ultra-high economic growth.

“This may be a turning point for humanity.”

As he stared, stunned at the transformed Apollo Star System, he received a communication from Claudia, who had been left behind to coordinate between the Royal Army and the Apollo aristocrats.

[Master Hart, welcome back.]

Hart, who associated the image with a mischievous fox rushing up to him in good spirits, replied with a smile on his mouth.

“I’m back, glad to see you’re okay. It seems you’ve made good progress over the past month. I must confess I was surprised at how quickly things developed.”

During the invasion of Tenka, Delphoi, whose power generation satellites orbiting the planet were destroyed, suffered damage to the human habitation environment.

The Apollo star is a K-type main sequence star with about 70% the mass of the Sun and a temperature of about 4,800 degrees Celsius. The planet Delphoi orbits in the middle of the habitable zone with a radius 1.2 times that of the Earth and a gravity 1.2 times.

Delphoi, a planet with less energy coming from its stars than the Earth in the Solar System, has a low surface temperature and strong tidal force, and it has 50 hours of day and night.

In other words, the planet Delphoi was darker and colder than Earth, and relied on a large number of power-generating satellites and a light-condensing system from its star.

Delphoi, which was devastated, would have stumbled in its recovery had it not been for the Transition Gate.

However, as a result of the support of other systems connected by the transition gate, the Apollo System was able to quickly restore its functions.

As for the rapid development that followed, it was the result of the efforts of the Apollo aristocrats, mainly the Duke of Coesfeld.

[I am glad to be of service. Not to paraphrase the Marquis of Zäckingen, but the rank of Lieutenant General in the Royal Army was very helpful in connecting the military and the aristocracy.]

“I see. I’m glad it came in handy.”

After the Battle of the Apollo Star System, Hart promoted Claudia to Lieutenant General.

The reason for the promotion was that he wanted a replacement for Philine, the Commander of the Stationed Fleet at Fortress Kerviel.

Philine’s family, a Marquis household, has only one successor, Philine.

Hart, who had promised to donate his genes to the Marquis of Carneus in exchange for the support of the spirit crystal factory, realizes that he bears a certain responsibility for the succession problem of the Marquis of Carneus.

The recent outbreak of the Battle of Apollo, the Marquis of Carneus was on the verge of death in battle, creating a clear crisis in the succession to the Marquis household, necessitating the succession of the Marquis by Philine.

So in order to get Philine to take over the Marquis’ position, Claudia was asked to take over as Commander of the Fortress Stationed Fleet.

As for other personnel, the Marquis of Zäckingen, who had been killed in action, was promoted.

About 60 million civilians were killed in the Battle of Apollo, including those aboard transports and fortress ships, and those killed in the aftermath of the planetary attack.

The number of casualties was miniscule compared to previous battles in which damage was inflicted on the planet.

Zäckingen was the man most credited with reducing the number of casualties, and he was promoted to the rank of Colonel General in a special second-rank promotion for death in action, as a treatment for the retired Lieutenant General conscripted during the wartime. He was also given, posthumously, the same position of Deputy Commander-in-Chief as Collette.

Partly to show that working for the Monarchy would be rewarded, and as a form of gratitude to Zäckingen, Hart gave him ranks and positions that had once been unreachable when he involuntarily retired.

“And what about the heir to the Marquis of Zäckingen?”

[The Marquis of Zäckingen had no formal wife and heir, but many mistresses and their children, so the Ministry of the Interior seems to have difficulty in selecting the next Marquis.]

“………… How many mistresses are there?”

Zäckingen, who lived about half of his life span that was extended by aging stagnation technology, considered it one of the duties of the aristocracy to leave high magic powered descendants, and he had many mistresses for the purpose of inheriting magical powers.

At the exchange party on the Future Arrow, where Hart met him for the first time, he was accompanied by one of his mistresses.

Zäckingen must have had children with high magic power values proportional to the number of mistresses, and a direct line of Marquis-grade magic power holders could be candidates for succession to the Marquis household.

The Marquis of Zäckingen is a prestigious family and since Zäckingen also had the honor of being a Colonel General and Deputy Commander-in-Chief, the mistresses would all be willing to nominate their children as his successors.

However, the Monarchy is currently facing the problem with the selection of the next Sovereign, and even Yuna cannot easily choose to choose the elder or the one with the higher magic power value.

If anyone insists that the oldest is better, they would be considered in the Bernard faction. Conversely, if they insist the higher magic-powered individual to be better, they would be considered in the Josslan faction.

Even the Duke of Takrham, whose colors are clear, would smile sarcastically, avoiding any blatant mention of the matter.

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In response to the obviously troublesome situation, Hart shelved the issue.

As the Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Army, has a far more important matter to deal with than the Marquises: the national defense.

If limited to defense, the concern is the Machaon Star System, which cannot be made a realm in the Monarchy’s eight star systems.

And by retaking the realm of the Daemon King with Mira in the Apollo Star System, he also raised the fear that the Daemon would be able to retake any of the Monarchy Star Systems.

“Some military secrets about the Spirit King and the Spirit Emperor will be disclosed to the Lords.”

At the sixth Lords’ Conference, Hart disclosed some information about the spirits, along with a report on the connection of the seven star systems.

Spirit Emperors and Demon Emperors are not easily created, and retaking is basically impossible.

Without conveying this fact, the outline of the defense plan could not be formulated, so it was deemed inevitable that the information be shared with the Lords in charge of defense.

Hart disclosed all the information about the recovery of purification energy from the destruction of the planet and how it had been used.

It is known that Advanced Spirits can be promoted to Spirit Kings by the energization of the planet where intelligent life forms live, according to the explanation when Hart destroyed Earth. It was generally known by calculating the timeline of purification and territorialization of the star systems.

Since all the information conveyed is factual, there is no contradiction even if the Lords were to scrutinize it.

However, Hart only concealed the existence of the high-energy crystal, the spirit crystal of the Spirit God, and did not disclose all of the trump cards.

“Four years ago, the former Crown Prince and the former Duke leaked military secrets to the former Coalition due to a dispute over the succession to the throne. The current Queen did not meet the conditions for succession to the throne without the magic power addition of her spirit crystal, and there were several other princes who fulfilled it. If this information is leaked to Tenka, there is a danger that each star system will fall, and that is why we have kept it as the most important military secret until now.”

Before anyone could raise doubts as to why he had kept this information from them, Hart offered a reason that was beyond reproach and blocked the Lords from pursuing the matter.

As for the Daemons of the enemy alliance, Hart conveyed his own predictions.

By sharing this information, the Duke of Mauriac, the ruler of the Machaon System, the Monarchy’s only unterritorialized System, made the obvious contention.

[So, Commander-in-Chief, when will you appoint a Spirit King to the Machaon Star System, which is in danger of being territorialized by the Daemon King?]

The Duke of Mauriac is in the right position to appeal for it.

This is because, if the defense force of the star system is 10, if it becomes a realm, it will multiply by 5 to become 50, and conversely, if it is turned into a realm by the enemy, it will be reduced to 1/5 and the strength will be 2.

The presence or absence of a realm can result in a 25 fold the difference in strength.

Assuming that the Monarchy has a total military strength of 20, if half is concentrated in the Machaon Star System, the 7 star systems connected by the transition gate will have military strength of 50, and the Machaon Star System will have 2 if it is made into realm by the enemy.

Currently, the Machaon System is the most vulnerable and in danger of invasion.

But Mauriac can’t say that Hart should use the Spirit King in his hand.

Hart and Fortress Kerviel are currently the only means of invading enemy systems.

In fact, it was only with the high-ranking spirits in Hart’s possession that he was able to move back and forth between the MacLir and Ōizumi Systems at a speed that would normally be impossible, bringing in the second wave of Israfel and capturing both the Ōizumi and Honyō Star Systems.

Between defending the Machaon System and capturing the enemy system, the latter is in the ultimate interest of the Monarchy.

Therefore, Mauriac could not assert that in the battle against the enemy camp with Daemons, it was the right choice to deprive Hart of the Spirit King in his hands.

That’s why Mauriac made the biggest concession, asking when he would make the realm.

“The timing is when there are two Spirit Kings on hand. As for the timing, we don’t have a timetable at this point.”

[If there is no immediate time frame, I would like you to say so.]

“Only half a year ago, Ōizumi and Honyō were up and running. A year ago, MacLir and Fukashiro were in the hands of the enemy. A year and a half ago, was before the accession of Her Majesty the Queen to the throne. The situation is changing so rapidly that it is impossible to predict what will happen six months from now.”

Hart did not say whether he could or could not do it.

Mauriac, who wanted to have a realm and a transition gate built in the Machaon System, had no choice but to accept a non-negative answer from Hart.

[If the Machaon System cannot be turned into a realm, the situation will continue to be critical for the 4.6 billion people of the star system. If it is to become a realm, the Machaon aristocracy and the people of the star system will spare no effort to help. I ask the Commander-in-Chief to keep that in mind.]

“Of course.”

As a tentative measure, Hart sent half of the Royal Army into the unterritorialized Machaon Star System to provide maximum human defense.

July 445 of the Monarchy Calendar

In only the second year of the Queen’s coronation, the two star systems of the Tenka Federation, the three star systems of the Froji Republic, and Earth of the Solar System, six habitable star systems and about 25 billion human lives were lost.

Furthermore, with the advent of Daemons and the territorial transformation of enemy star systems by the Daemon King, the path of complete victory that Hart had envisioned for the end of the war turned into cosmic debris and disappeared.

In light of Tenka’s current objectives, the invasion of the Apollo Star System was effective.

Hart lost the Spirit Emperor he had on hand, and Tenka made the threat of the Daemon known to the Monarchy. And both sides are unable to destroy the other.

If the other party had offered a ceasefire or an end to the war at this point, Hart and Yuen, who were reaching a stalemate, would probably have entered into full-fledged negotiations on terms.

It is difficult to end a conflict when you’re winning, but the forces of Yuna and Hart already had enough power to push through.

On the other hand, if the war ends with a loss, it will be a matter of responsibility, but the four Nations except Ten-to have lost the power to blame Yuen, and Ten-to has gained a realm and Daemon crystals without being hurt.

However, the two sides did not propose an end to the war themselves, either because the side that proposed it would have to make concessions, or in anticipation of a more favorable situation.

And as a result of the continued struggle between the two camps, including Spirits and Daemons, humanity reached the greatest turning point in its history.

Postscript

With the newly written volume 2, the route diverts from the Web version.

If you see it, please purchase it by all means.

TN: And that’s it for Arc 5. It seems all sides are at an impasse at the moment. How will they move forward? Well, it’ll be a while before we find out as I will be taking a Post-Arc break from translating the novel. Can’t say when I’ll be back at it as we are going through some stuff IRL, but it’ll be this year. Also, I bought the 4th Volume and will be putting up the illustrations soon. Though I should mention that it appears to be the final Volume as the last picture looks like a happy ending. I might be wrong, but we’ll see. Anyway, thanks for checking this out, hope you’ve been enjoying it, and I’ll see you all here as soon as I can.

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