novelThe Goal That Has Never Changed
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Chapter 204: The Goal That Has Never Changed
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: imperfectluck
"The Battle of Traitors" or "The Meaningless Battle"—no matter what later generations thought of it, the long battle, which had lasted from autumn to winter in the Year of the Griffin, was destined to leave its mark in history books. As the grand opening of yet another Holy War, this battle's influence would last for dozens, hundreds—even thousands of years.
The Elven Gods' plan had immediately met with a hard wall and the beastmen's southern invasion would have to wait for the next Holy War. Due to a certain ex-lich's plotting and taking advantage of their weakness, I was able to plant visitors from the Underground World in both elven and beastmen territories.
When the aftermath from this battle settled down, the Underground Lords would establish several dozens of satellite cities in these two areas, which would become the representative cities of the Underground in the aboveground world. Naturally, there were plenty of dark elves living in these cities, and no matter whether they wanted to or not, they would become a buffer zone between the Sleuweir Kingdom and the elven kingdoms.
Of course, considering that Annie, Centaur Anya, Little Red and various other factions had all already applied to join the Mist Alliance, this could be said to be a new series of military outposts for the newly established alliance.
As for the terrible natural environment where they were now living? To be honest, it wasn't much different from the Underground World. As long as they prepared beforehand, with the new Mist Alliance's full support, the Underground World's residents had full confidence in creating new livable cities in this frigid land.
Taking the Tassel elves who might want to return to their homeland into consideration, I had the Underground residents leave a sufficiently large piece of land that included Tassel's capital, Tassel City, for the elves; they could still retain a small piece of homeland to return to.
Of course, if my plan was entirely successful, the gray elves would lead a nice life in East Mist and wouldn't even want to return to the north where it was now snow and ice year-round and much more desolate.
As for the beastmen from the plateaus, they may seem difficult to deal with, but due to the serious losses taken by the beastmen coupled with an ancient custom of theirs, it was actually quite easy.
"When a tribe suffers serious losses, the tribe shall join a stronger tribe—and be annexed by it—in order to ensure the survival of the tribe."
When the plateau beastmen who suffered losses to the point where not a single family was left untouched saw the strong and fresh Underground beastmen moving in large numbers into their territory, they were unable to stop them. No, I should correct myself—they were delighted to see themselves being annexed, as they lacked male beastmen and numerous resources after losing the battle to such a degree.
"If hatred is a dark ink that's impossible to whiten, then just mix it with a large amount of clear water to dilute it. Even if pain is difficult to bear, time can lessen everything."
Perhaps the merging of the Underground and plateau beastmen would require several dozens, even several hundreds of years. But when the Underground beastmen annexed this wild area that would always bring war, according to my agreement with the Underground beastmen, both them and the beastmen became a part of the new Mist Alliance.
Of course, merging and getting along with each other was always a mutual effort. In order to avoid getting into another cycle of war with the beastmen, I would also inject other species' members into this area in order to dilute its one-species makeup and create a balance between various species.
This may seem to be an underhanded move, but it was also the only marvelous move that would truly break the cycle of battles between us and the beastmen where the beastmen would have a large southern invasion every few decades, even if I might never see the effects of this move of mine in my lifetime.
"... War is bad, but if war really does break out, then at the very least I need to grab the opportunity and change something, such as completely eliminating the foundational reason for having the next war."
And so, this was what I said next.
"Beastmen countries? Elven countries? Hey—hey—hey—why do we need to make such distinctions? Henceforth, all borders shall be eliminated between every member country of the Mist Alliance. Only the simplest of procedures will be required for anyone to travel or move as they please within this entire area."
This was doubtlessly a groundbreaking proposal for this feudal generation where land was at the center of everything and population was considered an important resource. Every lord had their own system for managing their citizens and census; allowing citizens to travel as they pleased was basically unheard of.
Just this suggestion that went against the times caused an uproar and even fierce opposition from the member countries of the Mist Alliance. The Rhodes Kingdom, which had already agreed to join the Mist Alliance, was even now intentionally slowing down the official process, thinking of backing out.
"I object! If we give them freedom, those bastard citizens will just all run off, and nobody will plant crops in the fields! Our territories will become desolate and useless. This definitely can't be allowed!"
"That's because you're far too harsh on your ordinary citizens, which is the only reason you're worrying that they'll all leave. I feel that this is an excellent suggestion. Under this system, only territories under wise and well-reputed lords will flourish more and more, while unjust lords like you will be much worse off!"
"... There's more to it that you're not seeing. This old one [1] 1 and my ancestors have all been making such a great effort, but my territory naturally has a hostile terrain that's impossible to improve. If a large amount of my citizens run off, this old one would be too ashamed to face my ancestors."
Considering that East Mist's reputation was quite high and that Sleuweir was currently undergoing reconstruction during its weak period, I believed that I could borrow the renown gained from the battle to forcefully push this idea of mine. Yet the forceful opposition from the other local countries' leaders caused me to be unable to pass it in the end.
Well, since free movement between all countries of the Mist Alliance was no longer a possibility, I tried for the next best thing—I passed a movement policy between countries. Of course, the procedures required would be incredibly complex, and the number of people allotted for moving was also quite limited in number. But if someone chose either the beastmen or the elves' territory, there were no limits, and that person would even receive a large number of benefits for free.
"... I had wanted to truly unify the Mist Alliance and completely eliminate racial prejudices within, so this freedom of movement, a representation of a peaceful age, is something I absolutely have to realize. It seems I underestimated the old stubborn fools of this generation's adherence to their outdated ideals. In that case, I'll just bide my time; if this generation is no good, then I'll wait for the second, and if the second's still no good, how about the fourth or the fifth? Then, from today on, I'm also going to use the Church of Law to deal with those that are a bit overboard."
My goal had never changed. I wanted to have Sulfur Mountain City's flourishment be reenacted aboveground, to have taurens and Holy Knights drink together in bars, to have "evil" dark elves also able to have holy jobs, to have everyone live in a way that wasn't determined by what species they belonged to, to live instead in a country where they would be judged by their personal qualities rather than their species. This was my dream, my wonderful dream that I had had for half my life already.
"In order to have all the species live together under a blue sky, the first thing I need to do is to make them see their new neighbors without bias."
Only by accomplishing this would I be able to truly destroy this so-called concept known as a Holy War. Otherwise, the loser species from this time would always come back again in the future, and nobody would ever win unless they exterminated an entire race—yet was that possible? It was never possible to kill off an entire species! Hatred would only beget new chains of revenge, and the snowball effect of battle would only keep increasing. What awaited in the end would only be total destruction with no winners on either side.
"True peace can't be accomplished without an accumulated buildup of thousands of years. In that case, while I'm still alive, at the very least I can go for peace on the surface..."
I had already created the standard known as law for judging people individually. The next step was to improve the relationship between all the species, letting them personally witness that their neighbors weren't born evil, that their neighbors didn't need to drink blood and eat human meat every day.
Bias was always born out of a combination of a sense of distance, foreignness, and fear. Many countries also used the popular and effective method of demonizing neighboring countries or other species in order to turn attention away from internal disagreements. Not to mention that there would always be those with no sense of morality whatsoever spreading false rumors to incite others, letting there be always those who believed that other species ate humans for food. It was only natural that there would be bias.
In the eyes of most people, when all these stories and rumors combined, the beastmen were human-eating wild animals, the Shawen halfbloods were demons who were humans by day and beasts by night, and the northern barbarians were an undeveloped, illiterate tribe incapable of proper speech. In the eyes of those major human countries in the central plains, our People of the Mist was also no better than a bunch of poor savages that lacked culture.
Just as how rumors would always become more ridiculous as they spread, biased people would always become more and more biased, which would further increase the conflicts between species, with even a small incident becoming a huge one.
And once a conflict intensified, it would be time for "glorious achievements for the country" and "slaying demons and beasts" in war. Those executioners would invade other countries to kill their females and young and would be decorated as epic heroes—the Mist Kingdom from long ago had collapsed just like this. In the overarching human society, the Mist Kingdom was different from all the other human kingdoms and was viewed with bias. Under the incitement of false tales, the neighboring countries treated the Mist Kingdom as the reason they were financially poor, and in the end that unnecessary battle ended up occurring explosively.
"Increased communication and improved relationships are the only things that can eliminate bias. They were the foundation that allowed for the miracle of many species living together peacefully in Sulfur Mountain City. Pushing for such a system is the most important thing right now. On this alone, I shall never back down!"
Sulfur Mountain City was a small-scale experiment for my utopia. Now that I knew the requirements and pre-requisites for my goal and the fact that it could work, how could I possibly give up?
Perhaps I could compromise on other topics, but on this, I would never ever back down!
Those lords' objections? Hehe! That was never a problem to begin with. Maybe I was acting too kind these days, and they'd all forgotten what I'd done in the past. Since I had already transformed into an evil demon before, who cared if I have to be demonized again? As long as the results was good, I was never one who minded dirtying my hands.
"... Elisa, the new 'Observer Squad' has been successfully created, right? Here's your first mission; give me a list of all those who opposed me on this topic—no— add even those who were neutral to the list. On this issue, I won't permit sitting on the fence."
"... Do we need to directly eliminate those people?"
"No, collect evidence of their crimes. I'm convinced that all these lords are probably guilty of some crimes. Don't let them find out what you're doing; these lords are all very cautious about such things..."
"Then we're only to collect evidence on their crimes, and have the old fellows in the courts come out and get some exercise?"
"Yes, make your preparations as thoroughly as possible. We're going to eliminate all of them in one fell swoop. As for the date, let's make it today, two years from now. We have plenty of patience. This will even help increase reputation of the Church of Law as well as bring in funds for the national treasury when we confiscate those lords' funds."
"What if there's a family among them that's as crime-free as an angel? That's not completely impossible."
"This isn't your first day on the job with me; do I still need to waste words..."
"I was just confirming whether or not you were still the same boss I knew. Perhaps a relaxing life has changed you, or perhaps the beauty under the sunshine has caused you to stray away from the darkness."
Did this require any hesitation? I would still make the same decision. Afraid of getting my hands dirty? I think they had never even been clean to begin with.
"If there are any among them that are truly as pure as an angel, I'll give that person another chance to choose. If they still decide to stand against me and be an obstacle to realizing my plan—heh! Let that person go become a real angel in the heavens."
Elisa faded into the shadows, leaving only the echo of her sentence behind.
"Your wish is our command."
...
Fierce, widespread sandstorms raged throughout the lands, and gigantic floating rocks filled the skies. However, what was most difficult to accept was that everything here was black and white, entirely colorless.
The monochrome was mentally difficult to adapt to, as looking at such surroundings for just a moment would cause dizziness and discomfort. And this wasn't even mentioning the sand, which everyone kept inhaling due to the fierce winds, making it difficult to breathe.
In the distance, mountains could be seen slowly advancing. Those towering peaks were hidden in the clouds, but when assisted by binoculars, one would discover that those mountains were, in actuality, stone giants and beasts. They were simply massive to the extent that their upper halves couldn't even be discerned through the clouds and floating islands.
This was obviously an inhospitable place; it was the Earth Elemental Plane!
Here, on a certain floating island, a group of visitors had just arrived and were beginning to set up camp.
As I felt the tremendous will of the earth in the distance, I smiled in satisfaction.
"Little bro Emordilorcan, I wonder how you're recuperating from your injuries? I'm here to see how you're doing."
I could sense that somewhere deep within the core of the earth, that familiar Earth Elemental God was in a deep sleep. Perhaps he would be astonished to find us here when he woke up.
"You want to run away after antagonizing me? Hmph! Don't even dream about it!"
I had wanted to say a few more aggressive words to look cool, but behind me, numerous complaints had already been expressed.
"Roland! Stop smiling so foolishly; hurry up and come help us set up the tents!" Adam seemed to be in a bad mood, probably because he realized that he would be sent to the frontlines again as a meat shield.
"Yeah, stop lazing around. Do you think that standing on that rock and talking to yourself means that you don't need to work? Hurry up and come help us already."
Alright, my motive in pretending to make exclamations while standing here was seen through, and under the watchful, angry gazes of everyone, I obediently started helping out.
Camping in such an environment was obviously no easy task. The tents of those gnome merchants, who had claimed to sell dimensional-related items, were obviously fake products. Not even bringing up the fact that the tents couldn't even stand up properly, the "anti-sand enchantments" on them were nothing but a joke, as the endless amount of sand blown by the wind almost immediately ended up burying the tents. And so, after a short discussion, we decided to just dig some holes in the ground as our temporary quarters.
"If we don't eliminate the problem at the root, it'll just come back to us again and again. Everyone's seen Emordilorcan's hatred and desire for revenge from last time, and his final, vicious revenge against us hit us where we were weakest, almost causing our defeat. Such a guy will definitely take revenge on us again someday, and if he gives it his all and causes some major earthquakes in Antuen or a fissure to run through Diffindor, then we'd suffer major losses. It's best to beat him while he's down!"
I was no fool who would only passively react to threats. Since Emordilorcan had both the ability and motive to threaten us, and he might come out again at any time for revenge, it was only natural that I would want the advantage by making the first move. However, he was quite strong, and he would only be stronger in the Earth Elemental Plane, so without sufficient strength behind me as backup, attacking him here would be tantamount to suicide.
Hence, I sent out an invitation letter, but there was no response for a long time.
Two weeks ago, that familiar "friend" finally agreed to my invitation, but he brought along an unexpected guest.
The guest was an ethereal shadow that seemed to fluctuate between solidity and transparence, and when she took off her hat, I saw a blue-haired elven maiden.
Her long, silky hair reached all the way to the ground, and her crystal-like eyes seemed to be smiling warmly. Although I did not recognize her beautiful face as she smiled at me, the waves of divine power she emanated resembled ripples of water and were quite familiar to me. After only a short moment of surprise, I sucked in a breath of cold air.
"Aylos? The Water Elemental Goddess?"
Note:
1. He is referring to himself in third person.
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