Chapter 0
"In the Empire’s southern waters, they say a steel castle floats on the sea?"
"When that castle breathes fire, heaven and earth tremble, they say."
"There are even rumors that no sea monster has ever been able to defeat the steel castle."
When a nation is doomed, all manner of absurd rumors are bound to spread.
It was the desperate wish of people who hoped for a miracle—that the beloved country passed down through their generations would not fall.
Five years had passed since one woman, who had burst onto high society like a comet, had ensnared the Crown Prince, the Saint, and even the Grand Dukes of the East, West, and North.
The Empire now danced in the palm of one woman who knew nothing at all.
The treasury had long since been empty, foreign invasions were intensifying, and corruption was rampant. The people continued their hard lives under the exploitation of corrupt officials.
Even if the first emperor who had laid the foundations of the great Empire were to return, it would be beyond saving.
It was only natural that rumors of the "steel castle roaming the sea" were dismissed as ridiculous legends made up by the common people.
[ My lovely lady wants the pearl containing the light of the southern sea, apparently. And I’d like to get back the pearl crown the First Emperor bestowed upon the Southern Admiral... ]
[ Her Ladyship wishes to enjoy a little boat outing. Southern Admiral Kyle Leopold should immediately send 20 ships to the East... ]
[ She said the Southern Admiral may be plotting treason. Our inspection party from the West will be paying a visit... ]
"Oh..."
Kyle Leopold, the Southern Admiral in his tenth year of possession, crumpled the letter.
I only indulged their requests a little because I wanted to live comfortably in the warm south, and now they’re treating me like a complete pushover?
"So, everyone has finally gone mad."
Kyle Leopold had no intention of going down with the Empire as it spiraled deeper into madness.
If they were going to die, why not just die on their own—why drag the south, which I spent ten years straining to keep afloat, into this?
Kyle Leopold could no longer see them as human, these men who had been bewitched by a woman and were neglecting state affairs.
And when something that was not human mimicked humanity and brought ruin to a nation, it was clearly a yokai.
When a yokai runs rampant in the house, what should one do?
Fortunately, the reincarnated Kyle Leopold possessed the wisdom of his ancestors, learned in the firepower nation of the Republic of Korea.
"Pray, vanquish it with cannon fire."
The next dawn.
Before Sarsen, the strategic stronghold in the western continent, the rumored steel castle appeared.