Godfather's System

170. Augmentation - 13

As I dashed through the plains, I suddenly couldn't help but be thankful for my brief interlude in the storage room.

With the corrupted breach gone, I had been hoping for a holiday, but it looked like the break was the best I could hope for. Even as I traveled, I was in constant communication with Zolast, asking him to arrange an evacuation at the same time. Luckily, we had the option of retreating to Town Maell if the situation devolved.

I suspected that even a kingdom wouldn't aggravate a mysterious and suspiciously strong church for mere revenge.

Though, while all that was going on, I didn't neglect to order a delivery for the retrieval of all the Lord Beasts I had slain. They were important if we stayed … and they were even more critical if we moved.

I didn't know if the Somaton forces were powerful enough to pay any attention to us before completing whatever mission they had, but there was no harm in being prepared.

However, even as I traveled toward the wall at full speed, I couldn't help but wonder about the sudden retreat of the Ratum military. The timing was too suspicious. Either the attack had surprised the kingdom completely … or it was intentional; though I didn't know about Ratum politics to even begin guessing reasons if the latter was the case.

The battle had already finished when I arrived at the Wall, and the princess had clearly lost considering the flames burning all around her flying fortress, accompanied by only three flying castles … and the ruins of a fourth one, still in flames.

On the opposite side, I could see two military fortresses and a dozen flying castles, floating at a distance away from the wall … but with the forces of the princess holding the Wall, they didn't make any moves to push forward.

I wondered how much of their decision to stop was driven by military concerns — the Wall, designed to hold back a full corrupted army, was not a joke — and how much was driven by political concerns. My bet was on the political, at least partially, as while the position was incredible, the princess' forces lacked the numbers to truly leverage its advantages.

"A complicated situation," I said to myself even as I watched from a distance as the Somaton forces pulled back slightly, but continued to hover around threateningly. Only after I received a message from Zolast, confirming everything was alright for the moment, I returned to Town Yoentia.

When I arrived at the town, I could see signs of mobilization. Quite a few of the stores were being emptied, scared of the potential risks — I made a note to purchase them under a false name. One could never have too many shell companies — but they caused only a minority of action.

Even the preparations of our guild were not a major contributor.

No, that honor went to the military forces of the town. A thousand soldiers mobilized, led by Artmiss, leaving the town, their direction clarifying that they were on the way to reinforce the wall.

I ignored it and went directly to see Zolast, who was waiting for me. "What's going on?" I asked, not bothering with our usual banter.

"From what I could gather, some kind of political suicide," Zolast said with a sigh.

"Explain."

"The princess had used all of her available capital to take control of the border region, with a mission to stop the God of Destruction from establishing a foothold," Zolast explained. "Apparently, it was not exactly a popular decision."

"Yeah, I can guess," I said. It was a tough challenge with all the cultists, spies, and sympathizers mixed in the military, and I knew there was a large group that was more than happy with easy Experience.

Not to mention, all the Authority their Divine Patrons had been collecting in the process.

No wonder someone had almost assassinated her the moment of her arrival, saved by our accidental intervention.

"What part do the Somaton forces play a part in this?" I asked.

"That's a bit more complicated. There are several people that are closer to the throne than her, and they—" Zolast explained before I interrupted, understanding exactly what he was driving at.

"Let me guess. With the cultist forces defeated and the God of Destruction banished, the victory was attributed to her, and the others didn't particularly like that fact."

"That's an understatement," Zolast said. "They have arranged the entire border region as a new Duchy, and assigned it to the princess."

I frowned, not liking it. "Does her new rank as a duchess prevent her from taking the throne?" I asked, though I already suspected the answer.

"Not at all. On the contrary, it strengthens her case greatly."

I sighed. "Unless, of course, she loses the most valuable asset in her territory to an enemy kingdom almost instantly."

"Look at the bright side. At least, now we know why Somaton paid such a ridiculous price for our betrayal. They must have been planning an operation here. There's no chance they could gather all those forces in two days."

"They were here to defeat the cultists to take such an easy leveling opportunity away from their rivals, and wanted to make a play for the Duchy of Yoentia since they were already near," I guessed. "And, considering the princess wanted to close the breach, she probably turned a blind eye to their military presence. Talk about an unfortunate decision."

"Pity," Zolast said with a sigh, but then turned serious. "Even worse, they didn't declare war on Ratum, but the new duchy."

"What difference does it make?"

"It means that as long as they don't push aggressively into the official borders, the Kingdom of Ratum doesn't need to respond. I'm sure that the Kingdom of Somaton is not the official participant, but one of their members under their feudal identity."

"And, let me guess, the wall is the official border of the Kingdom, while the Breach falls outside of it," I guessed.

"I need to talk with the officials to confirm, but that would make sense," Zolast said. "It's always tricky setting up official borders when establishing new colonies, especially like this one, which was merely supposed to be a small farming and mining colony."

"An interesting political question, but ultimately, it doesn't answer our real problem. What are we going to do? I'm tempted just to gather all our forces and leave the region, but…"

"The Calamity," Zolast completed.

"Exactly. We still need to stop it. And, we probably only have months rather than years, and shifting our forces to somewhere else will eat into that time," I said.

"Not to mention, at this point, we're too strong to move casually. There are not a lot of places where a completely unknown guild just takes over a dungeon and nobody blinks an eye. Even if we manage to find such a place, it won't be any less complicated than here."

"True," I said, pausing for a moment. "What if we use our new church to intervene in the war? I'm sure that the two of us could make an impact. With you attacking from outside and me wreaking havoc inside, taking down a flying castle or two shouldn't be too difficult."

"No. A church may not intercede with a battle without creating an even bigger mess," Zolast argued.

"What happens if we do?" I said, aware that there were many loopholes in such problems.

"If we were one of the stronger ones, nothing. But when the weaker ones intervene, it becomes an opportunity for the others to intervene. And since ours is a mysterious organization they would love to have an excuse to poke…"

"Understood. No military intervention from the church," I said. "It's a pity we can't intervene directly." As Zolast was already known as a cursed priest, and I was supposed to be a random, weak merchant. It would be too visible if we burst out with power strong enough to be noticeable by the kingdom. Worse, Bertnam — possibly the forces behind him — knew that we had a connection with the lost hero.

Revealing a new level of capability would have been too suspicious.

"It's a pity," Zolast agreed, showing that he wouldn't have minded an excuse to stretch his limits.

"How about indirect intervention?" I asked.

"Depends on the nature of it?"josei

"Selling weapons, for example," I said.

"Do we need to use the church for it?" Zolast asked.

"For the scale I'm planning, definitely."

"I know that smile. What exactly do you have in mind?"

"First, a question: I know that the princess is the ruler of the entire border region, but does that include Oniphia?"

"The port city? No, that's still managed by the kingdom, and her identity as a princess doesn't give any right over it," Zolast explained, immediately catching what I was driving at. "You expect them to block the trade?"

"Maybe not directly. But I wouldn't be surprised if the ships that carry the supplies of the princess or her allies suddenly end up falling prey to monster attacks, or the warehouses happen to burn in unexpected fires."

"That would be inconvenient," Zolast said. "She doesn't have enough flying castles to rely on for logistics, and flying carts don't have the range."

"Inconvenient enough that the princess might sell some critical confidential information about hero summoning and Calamities in exchange for weapon shipments?" I asked.

"It might work," Zolast said. "But, we have to see if they would actually try to do it. Doing so would be extreme, even now.

I shrugged. Considering everything else they had done, it looked like a reasonable next step. And even if they didn't … there was nothing preventing me from sinking a few ships to give the princess that impression.

"That's enough politics. It's annoying, but we can't do anything before the situation develops. So, let's talk about something important. How's the progress with the dungeon?"

That made Zolast smile. "Oh, that's ready. Are you for a test run?"

My vicious smirk was sufficient as an answer.