Chapter 122
The Empire's method of kidnapping the Eastern Continent's high-ranking figures was remarkably simple.
First, they relied on the information Cheongryu had obtained by maintaining friendly relations with every country on the Eastern Continent.
"There are roughly three places where the high-ranking officials in Je-an's royal palace might hide during wartime."
Once they pinpointed the places where the high-ranking officials of each country were likely hiding.
"Can't you narrow it down any further?"
"I'm sorry. We don't have enough information to narrow it down further. Cheongryu also has no one capable of infiltrating the site itself...."
"I see. That's even better. It means we can experiment with various things."
The Imperial knights immediately began their operation based on that information.
The operation itself was not complicated.
After transporting the magitech light aircraft to the vicinity of Je-an.
Once they found a place suitable for use as a runway, they simply boarded the light aircraft there, infiltrated Je-an, and that was it.
Since some of the knights might have been inexperienced at piloting the light aircraft.
The fairies provided additional guidance and flight assistance through their Fairy Eyes and Mystery.
"We can drop from here."
"Please take care of us."
Dragon magic, fairy mystery, the merfolk's song, giant wisdom, and dwarf technology.
The moment an undetectable light aircraft, made possible by the powers of the five races, passed over the royal palace.
The knights began their descent without hesitation, using nothing but their own bodies.
They landed at the three locations Cheongryu had identified as suspicious.
There was no need to deploy many knights. If three locations were suspicious, exactly three knights were all that were needed.
"Who are you!"
"We're under attack!"
"The knights have invaded! They're Imperial knights!"
"How dare you invade this place!"
"Have you gone mad? Even if you're the hegemon of the continent, how dare you invade the royal palace alone!"
"There are only three of you... Do you think you can handle the entire royal palace!"
Naturally, those on the receiving end could do nothing but find it absurd.
Of course, they had to admit that the initial infiltration had been extraordinarily smooth and sharp.
But because the force that had carried it out was absurdly small, they could not help wondering if the hegemon of the continent had gone mad.
But.
"It seems the saying is true: when the disparity in level is too great, you can't properly gauge the enemy's strength."
"Only three of us.... Yes, you're right. This truly is shameful."
"That our training is so lacking that it takes three commanders to capture you... It makes the resolve with which we swore loyalty to the Empire feel like a lie."
The three Imperial knight commanders slowly loosened up and looked around.
"Thirty seconds have passed since the intruders entered the royal palace, and the initial response still hasn't begun?"
"This is the worst. If this were the Empire, the intruders' heads would already have been severed."
"Once an intruder infiltrates, you should attack at once, prepared to kill them without giving them an opening. How can this place... do nothing but bark like frightened dogs without coming any closer?"
There was certainly a thrill to the mission of having three knight commanders infiltrate a royal palace and capture its high-ranking officials.
Just hearing about it was enough to make one's hands and feet tingle and one's hair stand on end.
Yet once they actually began the infiltration, the response was utterly pathetic.
"With skills this meager, you dared insult the Empire?"
How formidable must they have been to provoke the Empire, and how confident must they have been to form a coalition and declare war on it?
They had held their courage in high regard—the courage to openly make an enemy of the Empire—and naturally thought it was backed by solid ability.
Otherwise, would they have been insane enough to try to assassinate a member of the imperial family?
"What on earth are you talking about!"
"Are you scared now that you've actually invaded? You're just spouting nonsense!"
"Put down your weapons and surrender peacefully, and we'll spare your lives even now!"
The Imperial knight commanders were astonished and, at the same time, enraged that no proper attempt had yet been made to subdue them.
How could people this weak bark so loudly?
"His Majesty is getting angry at people this worthless...."
"Ah, all of this has happened because we are weak. Because we lack strength... because we lack power."
"Intoxicated by the mere title of Imperial knight, we have ended up disgracing the Empire."
The knight commanders slowly drew their swords, their faces gone cold.
Fwoosh.
As the swords emerged from their scabbards, flames coiled around the blades.
As if the scabbards themselves were flint.
Shnk!
When the commanders' swords were fully revealed to the world.
“....”
"W-we have to run...."
"Th-this... is...."
The Je-an guards began to back away as they stared at the fiercely blazing flames.
That was not something they could stand against. How could anyone fight a natural disaster?
Yet there was one thing the guards had failed to consider.
"All who bare their fangs at the Empire will die."
The Imperial knight commanders would not allow the enemy to flee.
+++++
"T-the royals in all the allied countries... they're disappearing."
"Je-an, Hosung, Chi... We've received reports that the royals of every one of them have been kidnapped."
Reports that royals were disappearing continued to arrive in real time.
There was no need to say who was responsible.
"Was this the Empire's doing?"
"That is our current assumption."
"Your current assumption? Are you saying it might not be?"
"It's just that they are so... elusive. They kill all the guards, kidnap the royals, and vanish in an instant...."
"Huh."
The royals had disappeared, and they did not even know how it had been done?
It was ridiculous.
Then how in the world had they infiltrated?
"Are you saying they suddenly fell from the sky, kidnapped them, and then vanished back into the sky?"
"...I don't know."
"We've received a report that the royals of Chonghyeon have disappeared...!"
Even as they received the reports, more reports that royals were disappearing continued to come in.
And they were saying they could not determine how the royals had disappeared? It was absurd.
"Simultaneously... To be precise, are you saying the royals of every country belonging to the Taewon Coalition have been kidnapped this quickly?"
"Isn't something strange about this?"
"It makes no sense. It is impossible by any reasonable standard."
"Perhaps this is a ploy to destabilize the Taewon Coalition through information warfare. No matter how I think about it, it's impossible. Even if they're the hegemon of the continent, this is absurd!"
As nothing but vague, baseless reports continued, the possibility that these reports were false was raised in the Taewon Coalition's conference room instead.
“...That sounds very plausible.”
"It's a reasonable inference!"
"It has been absurdly little time. Only about three minutes have passed since the first report came in... Are you saying the royals of every allied country were kidnapped in that short span?"
"We must conclude that information warfare is taking place!"
"There may also be an enemy hidden within our ranks!"
Rather than accept the incomprehensible phenomenon at face value, the Taewon Coalition decided to distort reality.
Rather than walk a thorny road that tore at their skin, they chose to go down a smooth, gentle slope.
"But... what happens now?"
"What do you mean?"
"...If that information is false—in other words, if everything coming in now is misinformation—what should we do in response?"
“....”
If they treated reality as a lie right away, what were they supposed to do next?
Faced with that sharp question, everyone clamped their mouths shut as though they had agreed beforehand.
"Find the Imperial informants hidden within... and take revenge on the Empire twice over for what we've suffered...."
"How, exactly? It hasn't been long since the coalition gathered, but the attack on Jinseong has already failed... What if the information is real? What if it isn't false? Aren't we just sitting here and letting them do this to us without doing anything?"
For just a brief moment.
The reality they had pushed aside, if only for a moment, returned before their eyes under the pressure of those cold questions.
"Three minutes... If, if... if that really happened in such a short time... then, first...."
"First?"
"Our location may already have been exposed, so we should leave this place first...."
Their judgment began to falter.
More precisely, they had far too little time to make a decision.
If all of this had really happened in three minutes, didn't that mean the disparity in strength was so great that they could not even wage a war?
Had they been trying to smash an egg against a rock?
As complicated thoughts swirled through the Taewon Coalition's conference room.
Bang!
The ceiling suddenly vanished with absurd speed.
"Even so, it looks like you all gathered in one place to make things easy at the end."
A boy who was completely out of place with the atmosphere appeared in the middle of the conference table.
"I would love to sever all of your limbs here and send you to the Empire, but unfortunately, this too is part of the proceedings... so I suppose I have no choice but to leave you intact."
The boy gave the room a cursory look and clicked his tongue.
"Tsk... How dare these things put the Empire on their tongues? I want to cut out their tongues."
Then he calmly voiced his true feelings.
"...What is this all of a sudden?"
"Th-this is...."
And just as everyone was about to put question marks over those candid feelings.
Bang!
Imperial knights who had appeared in an instant slammed the heads of the Taewon Coalition's kings into the floor.
It was the moment the Taewon Coalition was subdued in the blink of an eye.
+++++
"If I had known they would disappear this quickly, I should have dealt with them sooner."
Immediately after receiving the report that all the kings of the Taewon Coalition had been captured and were being brought to the Empire.
I couldn't help thinking that it had ended so quickly it was almost anticlimactic.
Of course, it was good that things had gone smoothly, but they had been overwhelmed so pathetically that I could not help wondering: Why had they attacked? What had given them such confidence?
I had even heard that Mirne had asked the Eastern Continent for help, so if they were this easy to wipe out, what kind of help had she expected to receive?
'What... is going on?'
But those concerns lasted only a moment.
[ With the humans of the Kingdom of Taewon gone, wicked things are filling the vacancies. ]
The status-window message that followed made me let out a hollow laugh.
"If they're wicked things, there's no need to talk to them."
Summon the Dragon Legion.