Chapter 287: Argon Empire (2) (1/2)

Terms used in this episode:

HODL – acronym for Hold On for Dear Life. It’s a misspelling of ‘hold’ of ‘hold on,’ and mostly used in cryptocurrencies to encourage people to not impulsively sell when a cryptocurrency drops dramatically or rises to become highly profitable to sell. In this series, elves are likely to do this, so they are called HODL elves here.

“What?! Then we’re at war with the empire?!”

When Kajsa shouted in surprise, everyone was startled and turned to Dahlia.

“W-well… There is no war yet. I think.”

Dahlia said so, but even she herself was unsure about it.

Because of the proven history between the kingdom and the empire.

‘War always broke.’

The termination of the armistice agreement and the blockade of borders.

Up until now, it had always led to a war when something like this happened.

“But we don’t know yet. We don’t know how long it will take until there’s a direct battle. There’s a possibility that it will end up as a mere demonstration of force.”

Lucas said in the calmest tone possible.

It seemed like he was talking to himself rather than others.

The Sälen Kingdom and Argon Empire had been fighting relentlessly since the founding of the kingdom.

In particular, the two had been at war eight times over the last 100 years alone because of the Cilates Plains, the continent’s largest breadbasket.

Obviously, not all of those eight times were huge fights, but there was also a big war that lasted for several years.

‘Jude.’

Cordelia pulled Jude’s sleeve with an anxious face and Jude tried to put on a calm expression.

“It is as Lord Lucas said. There is no war yet.”

Once he said that, Lucas was the first person to sigh in relief.

Jude thought as he felt everyone’s eyes on him.

‘There was no war in the original storyline.’

It was natural that there was no war since the Sälen Kingdom itself ceased to exist back then, but that was not the only reason.

‘Because the entire empire had not been taken over by the demon followers.’

The power of the emperor in the Argon Empire was peculiarly not strong.

Although it was in name only, there were electors in the remote areas who had the power to elect an emperor, and there was also a strong administrative organization centered on the chancellor inside the empire that supported the emperor and kept him in check at the same time.

There was also the possibility that the chancellor had sided with the demon followers as in the case of the Lord Protector and First Sword.

Even in the game when one played as Leon or Maximilian, several confrontation events successively occurred with the imperial chancellor and his fallen subordinates.

But in the original, the demon followers did not fully control the politics of the empire.

Because there was a group within the empire that could never be dominated by demon followers, and at the same time, had a strong influence.

‘The elf mafia.’

To be exact, the elf capitalists.

In his previous life, the Jewish capitalists exerted a strong power not only in the business world but also in the political world.

Unlike the elves of the Sälen Kingdom who lived in the Forest of Eternity, the elves of the Argon Empire had already been living as empire citizens for hundreds of years.

There weren’t that many elves in the empire since elves had a hard time having offspring.

It was no exaggeration to say that the number of elves in the thousands was only a very small number when compared to the humans who numbered in the millions or the dwarves who numbered in the hundreds of thousands.

But the elves had a lot of money.

In particular, one could say that the financial sector was the stronghold of the elves.

‘A long life and eternal youth.’

It was the way the elves made money.

The empire used to be a small country in the past.

The worth of things were bound to rise in the long run, and the empire continued to prosper for hundreds of years without collapsing.

In other words, as an example, the value of land bought a hundred years ago was bound to rise a hundred years later.

If this happened to humans, only their descendants would be happy, but not for the elves.

They were a race that could make long-term investments in terms of 100 or 200 years.

Long-term investments obviously could fail too.

But fortunately, the capitalist Vincenzo Lombardi, who was known as the father of the imperial elves, was an investment genius, so the elves succeeded in amassing vast amounts of capital over the past hundreds of years under his leadership.

So in Legend of Heroes, the elves were also called HODL elves, but anyway, the most important thing was that the HODL elves, or the elf capitalists, had never once partnered with the demon followers.

‘It’s not easy to control them.’

Long life and eternal youth were what the demon followers used the most to attract those in power.

After all, the Lord Protector fell for those two things.

However, the elves were basically born with those two things to begin with.

Then, the next thing they could offer was power, but the imperial elves were already the ruling class. Moreover, only those who had risen to a certain level by elven standards were able to engage in external activities, so whether it was in swordsmanship or magic, they were viewed as experts by humans.

Naturally, one could find people the demon followers could somehow convince if they deeply searched.

Greed existed in creatures regardless of whether they were human or elves.

But since there was only a few of them, it was almost impossible to control the entire elf capitalists.

‘In short, they’re a race that has a strong defense against temptation.’

War was a costly thing, so for elves who had the most money in the empire, it was a field that they were the most influential.

‘The elf capitalists basically don’t want war though.’

Or to be exact, they didn’t want a war they couldn’t win.

Because the past history had proven that there was no huge benefit in waging war with the Sälen Kingdom over the Cilates Plains.

‘We still have time.’

They had time.

Even if there was a butterfly effect, the whole empire would not have fallen into the hands of the demon followers.

‘The most likely one to have fallen is the chancellor.’

His group had a lot of demon followers mixed in even in the original storyline.

It was highly likely that they had tempted the imperial chancellor and attracted him to their side, just like what they did to the Lord Protector.

‘Let’s stop here. These are things we can’t solve right now anyway.’

They had to go to the empire as originally planned.

But Jude couldn’t open his mouth.

Because it was highly risky to proceed with their existing plan.

‘It’s different from before.’

The wild lands, the royal capital, and the southern region.

All of these places were not complete enemy territory.

There were eastern tribes that had not been corrupted in the wild lands, and there were powerful forces that could be trusted in the royal capital like his father, Count Bayer.

In the south, there were the 7 southern families and the heroes of Paragon led by his master, Landius.

But not in the empire.

Their connection with the Guardians of the Holy Cross which they had believed in was suddenly cut off, and they didn’t know how the demon followers took control of the empire. Many of the high-ranking demonic humans who had fled from the Sälen Kingdom must have joined them, so the current empire was an unknown land of high risk.

‘But we still have to go.’

The problem wouldn’t be solved if they didn’t go.

What they could do in the Sälen Kingdom was too limited.

They wouldn’t be able to stop the war from happening.

‘The Great Tribulation.’

It was what the Great Summons needed.