NOVEL NEXT Chapter 259
Harriet’s glasses did not show Jeongjae the future. Instead, they often revealed to him the “situations that could have happened.” The principle was not much different. It possessed the ability to gather information about the world through the power of magic, analyze it, and present results. This was the power of a magical tool developed by James Moriarty and seized by Sherlock Holmes, serving as proof of how exceptional the detective of over a hundred years ago was in judgment and wit.
Upon analyzing various notes left behind by Holmes, Jeongjae confirmed once again that neither the genius detective nor even his older brother could match the intellectual prowess of James Moriarty, the greatest criminal of his time. Arthur Conan Doyle had underestimated Moriarty’s capabilities in his records. Watson either lacked proper information about Moriarty, or he deemed it too shocking to write down the entire truth about him, failing to accurately portray just how far Moriarty could go.
However, Violet, born with intelligence surpassing that of even Moriarty himself, was a greater threat than Professor Moriarty. Through the visions shown by the glasses, Jeongjae felt this fact again and shuddered at the thought of witnessing the end of the world that could have been.
During the Queens’ War, Margaret failed to arrive on time. Jeanis Harker’s forces were utterly annihilated by Violet Moriarty’s extraordinary mercenary tactics, with Jeanis herself destroying her own staff and perishing on the spot. Upon hearing this devastating news, Margaret turned her troops and headed back south. However, the Demon King, already gaining the upper hand, boldly decided to pursue the Elf Lord.
The Demon King triumphed once again. Margaret suffered severe losses to the expeditionary forces and effectively lost all military credibility in Eramenia. Having repeatedly suffered defeats against the Demon King during the expedition, Eramenia shifted to a thorough preservation policy, sealing its borders and focusing on driving out monsters from the desolate mountainous regions.
The gorge was blocked by rocks, and 150,000 troops were conscripted to guard the forest’s perimeter. However, never again would the Eramenian army venture outside their borders to aid the Audrich Empire. Even amidst this turmoil, Empress Rose gave birth to the Crown Prince, but the world she could only show her son was one that was already beginning to burn and fade away.
Jeongjae faced consecutive defeats. The combined armies commanded by the Succubus Queen and the Demon King aggressively pressed against the Northern Expeditionary Force. Lacking a brilliant advisor to offer counsel amid the strategic chaos, Jeongjae struggled. There were several officers with practical experience, but they were no match for Violet militarily. The battles in which Jeongjae personally participated or those defended by the Royal Knight Order were managed, but ultimately, gaps opened in the loosely-connected front lines, and the Demon King’s forces surged through, encircling and annihilating tens of thousands of the Imperial Army.
Realizing the situation, Jeongjae swiftly retreated his forces to the Nomember Line established by Walter, but shockingly, the Fortress of Upsurge was already ablaze. The Demon King, aware that Nomember Fortress was the key to the border defense line, had already dispatched mobile troops to capture it.
Amidst this, the Southern Region, which ought to have been the Empire’s hope and support, fell into a power vacuum. With the Harker family wiped out, the minor lords previously under their influence plunged into chaos. Baron Koesernis, who succeeded the fallen Sally Jeffrey and the deceased Douglas Koesernis, attempted to induct the minor lords into his domain, but before their power struggle could genuinely erupt, the Demon King took action.
The Harker family served as guardians of the Empire’s economy and currency order. Even from the far north, Jeanis kept a close watch on trade information regarding exchange rates to ensure the Demon King’s economic offensive did not materialize. That vigilance was now gone. The Demon King ordered the Dragon Lord to collect a staggering amount in taxes as soon as the advance began. The Gold Dragon, considering gold to be cheap compared to the worth of dragon lives, complied with the Demon King’s orders.
A terrifying amount of gold coins flooded into the Southern Region’s economy, and the exchange rate between gold and silver collapsed, drastically diminishing trust in the Empire’s currency.
There was no longer a way to pay the soldiers, and maintaining the economic system by force was impossible. Jeffrey and Koesernis realized it was not the time to snarl at each other and declared a state of emergency, but Jeanis Harker had already depleted her 40,000 allied forces, leaving both factions unable to find the means to quell the chaos.
The Southern military and economic capabilities were shattered. Just as Sally Jeffrey was attempting to transition to a goods-based economy utilizing superior production capabilities, flames erupted in the wheat fields of Jeffrey Ducal Territory, marking the beginning of the end of the world.
The Southern allied army vanished, allowing the Demon King’s forces, having regained naval supremacy, to successfully land and infiltrate the rear of Jeffrey Ducal Territory.
Duke Jeffrey, realizing the situation was beyond salvaging, took his own life. The minor lords began to surrender one by one to the Demon King, begging for their lives. Eramenia remained silent. The Grand Council, abandoning hope for the Empire’s rescue, adopted a strategy of ensuring its own safety while hoping the Demon King’s forces would consume themselves in destroying the Empire.
If the Queens’ War ended in complete defeat, it took less than five months for all this to unfold. In a blink, enemies surged from 100 kilometers away from the Demon King’s Castle, nearing the Caprice Imperial Palace. Jeongjae could have died or lived, but in either case, he could not contribute enough to change the course of events.
As the Empire approached total destruction, yet another mushroom cloud ascended. However, it did not just fail to kill the Demon King but also dealt no significant blow to the Demon King’s forces. The Demon King, having experienced the magic firsthand, had buried all vital supplies underground in the Demon King’s Castle, safely shielded from the big explosion.
Jeongjae could not accurately pinpoint the Demon King’s location, and even that strike only succeeded in slaughtering mere hundreds of thousands of enemy troops. If the Demon King had been ignorant of the existence of magic, perhaps it would have been different, but facing off against the genius Demon King who was already aware of the enemy’s last resort, Jeongjae could not gamble on a decisive match.
Thus, the Grand Mage met his absurd demise. His sacrifice temporarily stalled the enemy’s advance, but it did not weaken them enough for the Imperial Army to contend.
The Emperor stood on the platform upon hearing news of enemies converging from the north and south.
“No empire lasts forever.”
Rose declared.
“This is proven by history, proven by reality, and proven by our common sense. The enemy rushes from the northern Eva toward Caprice and now demands our beliefs. If what they seek is my head, then I will gladly surrender it. But if they desire the beliefs of humanity, then that I cannot yield.”
In the blazing court. Thousands of our guards barely cobbled together. The last free men waiting for death or readying for surrender. The Emperor wept as he spoke before them.
“We prove it. That even the mightiest empire we have established is not eternal! And even after this castle burns away, and our most brilliant civilization fades, our race will again prove it. No empire in the world is eternal. No nation can forever occupy the continent. I do not believe that humanity will be crushed here and will never raise its head again. But if, truly, if we are crushed to the point of never being able to rise again, then I trust there will still be brothers left to raise their heads again. Draw your swords! Let it be remembered that there were free men who died amidst the crumbling world. And let it be recorded that the last Emperor who led those free men stood here!”
Then the dragons dropped blazing infernos upon the ceiling of the Imperial Palace. The Dragon Lord, confident of the Demon King’s permanent victory, had begun to participate in the conclusion of this war to expand his own forces.
The blazing court. All the fallen heroes. A world in ruins. A disappearing civilization.
Jeongjae had to muster all his strength to shake off that sight. It was too vivid, too much of a concatenation of events that could plausibly occur. But what troubled him the most was that all this had been triggered by incidents unrelated to Jeongjae’s choices.
In the Queens’ War, Jeongjae played no role. In fact, he couldn’t. He was simply too far away. That battlefield wasn’t his.
In the end, it could be said that things went well, but had it gone terribly wrong, the world could have been doomed no matter what choice Jeongjae made. That realization filled him with a deep sense of powerlessness and fear. And ultimately, he empathized with why Walter became confident and paranoid while wearing those glasses.
Did Walter not witness such scenes? Had he not seen events unfold beyond his control leading to a catastrophic future? Surely he must have. That was why he attempted to take control of every movement of the Empire, displaying extreme anxiety over situations he could not control, triggering near-psychotic episodes.
That could be the path Jeongjae had to walk in the future. The reason Jeongjae thought such as he charged boldly with Jean Helmut’s artillery unit was that he could not help but be concerned about what lay behind him while charging forward.
“What if Jeanis fails to retreat and is surrounded by the enemy, and this time truly dies? What if the future he saw repeats itself as a result? If it was wrong to let her escape all alone like that?”
The power of the glasses robbed Jeongjae of the trust he held in the girl. She could very well ruin everything. There was no doubt about her genius, but the opponent she faced was also an extraordinary genius.
A slight mistake could lead to the world’s doom. Jeongjae’s confidence, which had virtually delegated nearly everything to Jeanis while rejecting Rose’s pressure, was beginning to waver.
The Emperor, defeated even with the prowess he once boasted, maintained a strangely humble demeanor toward Jeongjae. It was not merely because Jeongjae succeeded Walter’s position. No, the original Rose would find it quite odd to think that Jeongjae could replace Walter.
However, Rose had confirmed on that fateful day within the closed district that Jeongjae had the guts not to avoid the duel approaching him, as well as the strength to faint even the most formidable opponents. The defeat in the duel fundamentally crushed her spirit. If a mere individual could repeatedly ignore the Emperor’s direct requests in such a manner, it was hard to keep that individual alive. Yet, Rose did not point out the rudeness in Jeongjae’s reply, which treated her not as a mere overlord but as an equal collaborator, consistently maintaining a subtle humility.
Just as the Emperor deemed Jeongjae easier to control compared to Jeanis, Jeongjae was beginning to doubt if it would be better to join forces with Rose rather than control Jeanis. This was no trivial concern. And while charging toward the enemy lines, it was not a matter to ponder lightly.
“Fire!”
The infantry of Helmut, lined up in a cross formation, simultaneously unleashed their fire toward Jeongjae. Lost in thought, Jeongjae could not block all the bullets, allowing one to graze his face.
“Ah.”
Jeongjae dazedly stared ahead as blood ran down his face. Thousands of fierce enemy troops aimed their weapons at him, making clear their intent to prevent him from approaching the artillery unit. Yet amidst this turmoil, the Grand Mage, struck by the bullets, felt fear not toward the enemy but toward the thoughts consuming his mind.
“I want to be a hero who trusts at least my allies…”
Ever since Walter’s death, Jeongjae had mulled over the reason, believing the fundamental cause to be suspicion. If he had honestly shared with Jeongjae the vision of seeing himself die among the mushroom clouds…
Even if he feared the uncontrollable future, if he had commanded the war a bit more flexibly, Walter may not have needed to make that choice. He thought that if Walter had alleviated any bit of his paranoia, he surely could have lived.
However, the moment he sat down and put on those glasses, Jeongjae began to grapple with the same concerns as Walter Hellhound. Jeongjae was, by all counts, less intelligent than Walter. He lacked talent. He couldn’t follow in his footsteps, as he was a fundamentally inadequate human.
“I want to seek advice.”
Jeongjae murmured as he slowly stepped forward. The line infantry fired once more, but this time, the Grand Mage successfully deflected all the bullets with his barrier magic.
“I should meet Margaret and talk with her. She’s the only one who can help me right now…”
Of course, the Elf Lord would likely happily oblige if Jeongjae requested a consultation. It might be a challenge at the moment, though. Margaret of Eramenia was entangled in the massive counter-offensive operation led by Jean Helmut, struggling amidst her own fierce battles.