Chapter 653: Blueprint

The small infirmary had been converted into a government office. Most of the time, I simply listened. I had been away from the Northlands for so many years that I was somewhat unfamiliar with the new Mist Alliance. Casually giving my opinion on things I didn’t know much about would obviously be quite foolish.

However, I kept frowning more and more as I listened to their reports.

The issue of food for winter wasn’t a major or minor problem. Even if the Northlands government had made the wrong decision by themselves on this matter, this situation was still fixable because I had noticed the problem in time. It would simply be that the next year would bring some more hardships, and the national treasury would become rather empty after buying more food. However, none of this would be a serious problem.

However, what made me feel that something was wrong with the situation was the apparent way that all Northlands people seemed to think.

“The Holy War isn’t that scary. We’ll be able to obtain victory in just a few years.”

Once people start to lead overly successful lives, they would naturally become filled with confidence, and if a country was doing too well, all the citizens would become overly optimistic. Over the past few years, the Mist Alliance had indeed been very successful. The Mist Alliance had gone from a small faction to one of the major factions on the continent at an astonishing speed. It was understandable why the citizens would be overly optimistic.

People would love to compare the present to the past to emphasize their current advantages. The optimistic felt that humans had been the winners in the previous Holy War despite only having metal weapons. Holy Light, magic, and other supernatural abilities had been extremely rare among humans back then. Now, not only had humans surpassed the elves in magic ability, humans even had new technologies and a tremendous population. They felt as if they were using magical engineering technology against primitive demons, so how could they possibly lose?

No matter how much the higher-ups stressed the cruelty of the Holy War, the people still wouldn’t take it seriously. In fact, even the higher-ups talking about the cruelty of the Holy War probably didn’t actually believe it all that much.

But as for me…

“…The Holy War is easy to win? It will be over in a few years? This is the final Holy War to end all Holy Wars, where all restrictions are truly lifted. It might not even end in several decades or centuries. There might not even be a so-called final victor in the end. Perhaps from the very first day since the demon wave started, all residents of the mortal plane will become involved in war. Perhaps the children of the future won’t even know what peace will be.”

This would be no exaggeration. In the game’s history, the demon wave had lasted all the way until the entire world was destroyed. All the countless dimensions as well as the entirety of Eich was scorched by flames. That was a truly eternal war with no hope whatsoever. It was an endless dark night with no dawn that would ever arrive.

Once the Chaos Faction truly removed all restrictions resting on itself, it would be impossible to predict their true attack power.

Perhaps people would say that the Chaos Faction only had twelve Main Gods, so there wouldn’t be much of a difference in power compared to the Order Faction. However, the Chaos Abyss was the place where all losers in the countless previous Holy Wars would go to reside. It was impossible to know how many tremendously powerful existences were hiding within.

Without even mentioning anyone else, just to talk about some existences I previously mentioned before, there would be the former Main God, Sun God Aloyo, along with The Eldest One who had invented death magic, the oldest demon of all. Neither of these two was counted among the 12 Chaos Main Gods. However, I felt that it was likely that both of them would actually have power levels surpassing that of most of the Chaos Main Gods.

The endless Chaos Abyss represented countless dimensions and losers, but when all restrictions were removed, all these former losers would receive the opportunity to become victors again. Just imagining what might happen was a scary thought.

While the mortal plane was indeed the wealthiest plane of all, and also blessed and protected by the Gods, if all the countless dimensions which numbered in the thousands or more started invading it, I truly had no guarantee of how long the mortal plane would last.

That was why the overall strategy I’d planned was to protect the country’s territory. As long as the defending side joined up with allies and survived the enemy’s first—which would also be the strongest—attack, allowing our technology and warriors to be developed in war before trying to counterattack. However, judging from the current situation, the Northlands’ youngsters probably wanted to voluntarily take the fight to the Chaos Faction.

“The number of young people who have joined our army this year has far surpassed all calculations. After all departments had a discussion, we’ve decided to open up twenty extra combat squadrons. Basically, 100,000 people more than we expected have voluntarily signed up to join our army…”

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Although this young government official giving me the report was a bit fatigued, he had a beaming expression while also speaking in an excited tone. He seemed to be delighted that the Mist Alliance was in such an excellent state.

Indeed, if a country was about to face war, yet the young people still excitedly joined the army, this not only meant that the citizens trusted the country, this also meant that the citizens felt that joining the army would be good for their future. Young people who desired to become warriors all trusted that their country would help them survive this upcoming danger, and that they would be able to obtain glory and benefits through war.

At this time, I wouldn’t say something that wouldn’t be believed, such as “Are those youngsters all in a hurry to die?” Regardless, a cruel trial was awaiting them. Having some extra confidence… even if it was overconfidence, would still be better than depression.

As I was a veteran at being a mastermind behind the scenes, I knew that telling the citizens about the cruel reality would only cause chaos and panic. It would be much better to transform their overconfidence into something useful that might help obtain victory in battle, even if the citizens would still have to face the cruel reality in the end… Even if the citizens managed to “confidently” get through this difficult period, that would already be a good deal.

However, while the citizens could be overly optimistic, and while the young army recruits could be overly optimistic, the government leaders and commanding military officers could never afford to be overly optimistic.

It was of utmost importance to keep a clear mind in critical moments. Too much optimism would likely lead to overly optimistic assessments of the situation. Even a single wrong political decision like opening up the food storage instead of stocking more food might become a huge problem down the road.

‘I think it’s time to give them a good scare.’

Reyne also had a bright smile. She constantly nodded on hearing that everything in the Mist Alliance was going well. She even constantly looked in my direction with a proud look on her face as if she was trying to show off how well she had done.

I also smiled back and nodded at her as if I was praising her. However, I was quite displeased inside.

‘Forget about the others, you’re someone who understand demons so well. Yet, you’re still so optimistic as everyone’s leader? It seems that I’m going to have to give you a really good lesson… The first lesson is that as a politician, you have to constantly ensure that your real emotions aren’t shown. In that case, the first lesson will be learning how to maintain a smile after eating an extremely spicy pepper.’

The more vicious ideas I cooked up, the brighter my smile became. The entire atmosphere in the infirmary seemed very friendly as if everyone truly agreed that the situation was wonderful.

“…You never told this to Reyne before, have you? In fact, you haven’t even mentioned it to me before.”

Harloys’ words caused me to suddenly pause in surprise. She was correct. I truly hadn’t shared with anyone else the detailed information that I knew about the future. In that case, this really wasn’t Reyne’s fault for being overly optimistic.

“…While I haven’t said anything, I’ve been constantly taking action. If Reyne was truly outstanding enough, she should be able to tell what I think the future will be like based on my actions.”

“…Don’t expect too much out of her. Who could possibly guess the thoughts of someone as sly as you? Even I can barely guess at your overall plan, and that’s only because I know your thoughts. You’re intending on abandoning the entire continent to focus on defending the Northlands? Such a passive and pessimistic style isn’t like you at all,” Harloys said in my mind while I continued to smile and nod at Reyne.

As I expected, Reyne smiled foolishly back at me, while I responded to Harloys in our soul connection. “Yes, that’s correct. How did you figure it out?”

“Moving the undead Xiluo Empire to the north, moving the Church of Law to the north, and even the dark elves and Dragon City have begun moving to the north. The Church of Wealth and all other Hell Faction churches’ headquarters have also begun moving to the Northlands over the past few years. These should all be due to your recommendations.”

I nodded again while Reyne continued to smile foolishly. Meanwhile, her concubine Avi kept glaring at me. What did I ever do to her?

Since the demon wave had descended already, it was likely that things would develop as I expected. Perhaps it was time to plan my blueprint for the future in more detail.