NOVEL NEXT Chapter 7. Humanity’s Internal Strife
Cedric, who observed the creatures in the Crystal Cube world, has been in a bad mood. He wishes to complain and leave a bad review for the System. It said his sense of time will go back to normal after a short time. But, this short time actually took fifty fucking years! Fifty years already passed since the time he asked that stupid System the question!
Unlike before when Cedric could accidentally go into a daze for a day without knowing it. The current him can feel every second or even milliseconds that pass by. But even when he feels so, he doesn't seem to get bored or tired simply by spending time watching living creatures go on with their lives.
Even without asking, Cedric knew it was a change caused by the godhood he had. But as the change is beneficial, he just silently accepts it.
While sitting inside the replica of his house in Divine Space, Cedric begins to observe the progress of the human races. Unlike the elves and dwarves that's still pretty much in the previous state he last saw them, the human's progress this last few years are akin to a rocket.
Under Gratian's lead, the human race which initially only consisted of 50.000 humans has already more than doubled in size.
Most of the population increases comes from Winter City whose status has increased along with time. This makes the city's expansion become imminent.
Gratian, whose appearance has changed into one of an elderly man, can feel his body slowly weakening with age. The Divine Might he is proud of is also unable to fight against time as it slowly weakens.
Although he already experienced most things that can be experienced by humans, tasted every food the humans have created, accepted many wives, and birthed many descendants. He still feels there is something lacking. Especially now when he won't be able to stay in the world for much longer, he constantly recalled the grand palace he saw in the god's kingdom when he met the god in his youth. That building slowly turns into his obsession which he can't simply forget.
Along with the expansion of Winter City, he forcefully gathered manpower and foods from the surrounding cities under the name of tribute. Some of them are sent to expand the city and build a massive wall made out of stone surrounding the city to repel the beasts that keep on getting stronger. Meanwhile, most of the people are sent to
With Gratian's order to gather manpowers, the surrounding human cities slowly fell into poverty and began to have a hard time to even survive.
***
Inside River Stone city, one of the human kingdom's cities. The young city lord, Lacius, who is a native of the city looked at the impoverished people around him.
Just like Gratian, Lacius is one of the few noble humans who has been blessed by mana and awakened magical power. A magical power that allows him to control the earth.
Seeing the people of his city toils for the whole day, yet they can only enjoy an extremely small fraction of their hard work. Coupled with the fact that most of the fit young men in his city had been taken to the Winter City to build Gratian's palace, Lacius became dissatisfied.
Allying himself with other like-minded city lords whose city also fell into poverty, they planned to stop Gratian from wasting man resources by building his palace.
Using the horses like animals that the humans had just recently learned to tame, the city lords went to the Winter City while accompanied by some retainers, which mostly consisted of their friends and distant family that had been trained and equipped with bronze spears and leather armor.
Arriving at Winter City, the lords stood in awe at the tall city wall that's being constructed around the city and the huge palace located at the center of the city.
They waited for a long time before Gratian finally met with them and listened to their plea.
When he heard it, Gratian refused to stop building his palace and even threatened to kill them for their disrespectful idea. Upon hearing his refusal, Lacius and the others silently returned from the Winter City to their respective city.
Although they seem to easily retreat due to Gratian's might and status. Everyone is still unsatisfied and has prepared a plan. Secretly, the amount of bronze production in those cities increased.
Gratian, who is busy overseeing the construction of his palace and the expansion of Winter City, accidentally heard of the sudden spike on bronze productions at those cities.
Although he has grown old and isn't as powerful as before. But, with time comes wisdom. He easily connected their dissatisfaction with the spike in bronze production and guessed their plan.
Faking his ignorance, he gathered the city lords and their family to visit the Winter City for the sake of celebrating the middle phase of his palace construction.
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Greetings the city lord and their families inside the throne room of his palace, which is the first room he built. Gratian smiled and asked his guards to bring tables and foods he had prepared.
When those people lowered their guards, Gratian summoned the dozen of blessed and hundreds of spear-wielding soldiers he had hidden and began killing the city lord and their families.
Those city lords watched their family suddenly getting killed and shouted while glaring at Gratian. "King Gratian, what are you doing?!"
Still calmly sitting in his throne, Gratian spoke with a stone cold face. "Nothing much, I am just destroying anything that wishes to block my dream."
One of them dazedly asked, "What do you mean?"
"I've heard of everyone's focus on bronze productions. Although that act should've made me happy, but everyone's secrecy makes me feel uncomfortable instead." Gratian saw some city lords have shocked expressions while some others still seemed to be confused. So, he continued. "It seems some of you still haven't understood. Basically, I've guessed everyone's plan to create many weapons and start a rebellion against me!"
Seeing as every single city lord finally wore a shocked expression, he nodded in satisfaction and joined the slaughter.
Although most city lords begin to shout for mercy while explaining their reasons, Gratian ignored all of them.
Placing the scepter made of gold that he held to the throne, Gratian fixed the crown on his head while unsheathing the bronze sword tied to his waist.
As the first few to awaken supernatural power, his Divine Might keeps on strengthening with time and has surpassed those blessed with similar ability.
Even in his old age, every slash of his sword easily decapitated several members of the city lord's family.
With Gratian joining the fray, within a minute, most of the guests have turned into corpses. Even those city lords that consist of Blessed can't stop Gratian and his subordinate's attacks.
Except for Lacius that's mostly uninjured, and Yasu, a middle aged city lord who successfully escaped with heavy injury. Everyone else has died under Gratian's 'banquet'.
Escaping from the Winter City with the help of those few retainers they brought, Lacius brought Yasu to the River Stone city and helped him to recover. While at it, he sent some of his retainers to spread the news of their city lord's death and called all of them to gather and fight against Gratian and avenge their city lord!
***
Inside the Divine Space, Cedric who saw the human prepares to start a war, opened his mouth agape and screamed. "I swear, I merely wish to secretly push the human civilization from stone age to bronze age just like the history on earth!"
After a few unintelligible screaming, Cedric calmed down and said, "Those humans were created less than one hundred years ago. Yet, a war is already going to happen. Should I say, as expected of the super troublesome human race."
"I am starting to regret my choice. Perhaps I should've just created a world entirely filled with dwarves and elves, or perhaps other races expect humans." While pressing his temple, Cedric observed the dwarves that's still experimenting to create the strongest metal alloy and the elves that's still playing around with their kiln and bronzes.
Tapping the armrest of his chair, Cedric entered a dilemma. "Should I try to stop this war or let it happen? If I let it happen, then the amount of humans might decrease once more. But if I intervene, I am afraid it will result in other complications and make things worse."
He then asked the System, "Do you think I should intervene and stop the war?"
[No comment.]
With that unhelpful answer, Cedric finally decided to take a wait and see approach.
After a short wait, he gazed into the Crystal Cube World and saw the war in the Human Kingdom had begun. Winter City has gathered two thousands hunter turned soldiers that's fully equipped with bronze equipment. They have taken the initiative to attack the surrounding cities, with Lacius and Yasu as their main target.
In front of the army, Gratian together with dozens of others blessed under him lead the march. Their first target being the cities which stood between Winter City and River Stone City where Lacius resides.
Using his army's might and reputation as the king of humanity. Within a few days, Gratian easily conquered those cities and turned them into a place for his army to transfer their resources. Most of the cities even returned to his control without any fight at all.
Inside those cities, the retainers who have long since returned from Winter City relayed the news of their lord's death to the other retainers that hadn't left with them to the Winter City before.
Upon hearing their city lord has been killed by Gratian and seeing his army marching toward their city, those lord's retainers fell into confusion and quickly fled from the city at the same time of Gratian's entry. As they had received Lacius's message, the fleeing retainers decided to join him and went to the River Stone city.
in River Stone City, Lacius who has brought Yasu and his retainers to recover has heard the news of Gratian's march from those fleeing retainers and began to plan.
Calculating the amount of armed retainer which barely reached five hundreds, Lacius commanded his trusted subordinate with clenched fist. "Hars, spread the news to every citizens. After my failure to advise the king to stop building his palace and wasting manpower, king Gratian has went mad and will soon attack our city and kill everyone in it. We must arm ourself and fight back!"
Hars replied, "But the other city lord's retainer said the king simply passed by their city! Please think about it! If we start a battle using civilians, the amount of death will be…"
Before he could finish his word, Hars saw Lacius's bloodshot eyes and sighed. "I will ask everyone to help spread the news. We'll also gather as many weapons and armour as possible."
With the help of his subordinates, Lacius successfully recruited most of the city's inhabitants to join the war to fight against Lacius. Using all of the citizens, he blocked the march of Gratian's army.
When Gratian saw the involvement of many citizens in the war, he shouted. "Citizens of River Stone city, cease your resistance. I never intended to start a slaughter on the city!"
Between the king and Lacius, the citizens of River Stone city believed more in Lacius that's born and raised in their own city and has always worked for their well being.
On a plain nearby River Stone city, humanity's first internal war officially begin. On one side stood Gratian's two thousand soldiers. While on the opposite side, five hundred retainers and eight thousand civilians from River Stone city joined the fight.
Just like a meat grinder, using their primitive weapons and the recently awakened supernatural abilities, the humans slaughtered each other without mercy.