The Situation in the North and the Empire

Over the past few years, the situation in the North had been far from good, to put it mildly.

The North had already depended on Central for quite a lot. Given the North's barren and harsh environment, it was nearly impossible for the region to produce enough food to sustain itself.

One might wonder whether they could simply eat the meat of the magical beasts that came pouring down in such numbers, but unfortunately, magical-beast meat was unsuitable for human consumption.

Not only did it taste terrible and prove difficult to chew, but it was also saturated throughout with mana harmful to humans, so eating it by mistake was a good way to drop dead on the spot.

That was why Central had been the North's primary source of food imports, but...

In recent years, Central had not been in a position to properly import food.

The conflict that had begun in the South had already reached Central's doorstep. The flames of the civil war that had begun in the Southern Grand Duchy and Sarsen showed no sign of dying down, burning more fiercely by the day.

Because of the sudden mobilization of a massive army, most of Central's food supplies had been diverted there...

As a result, Central had suffered a complete defeat.

When Siegfried first heard the news from the Bruggen Plain, and then of the fall of the Imperial capital, he could hardly remain in his right mind...