SHK CH 555: FEARSOME TECHNOLOGY (Patreon)

When the news of Setsuna’s victory reached Sol, he had to admit that he was both proud and disappointed in a certain way.

His pride came from the fact that Setsuna had indeed proved her might and talent, shocking the world. Furthermore, her actions, as well as those of Lilin for that matter, managed to give back much honor to Lustburg as a whole.

Many people had been looking at his kingdom as some kind of dying powerhouse because they had not been able to produce truly splendid talents in a decade. This situation was now a thing of the past.

The White Knight, The Holy Daughter, the Sword Demon, and Setsuna.

They all managed to shine on the battlefield and keep the points they could not afford to lose from being breached.

His disappointment came from the fact that neither Sun Wukong nor Lupus took the battlefield.

If one of them did, then things would have completely changed. The absolute advantage would have gone to Lustburg instantly as he would have been able to send all his true force to wipe out everything.

He had initially sent a letter to Shuten, asking her if it was possible to have Sun Wukong attack.

He even planned to add the prize of being able to fight Lilith, since the Monkey King seemed to be so obsessed with it.

Sadly, it was refused. Sun Wukong refused to participate in any scheme and he clearly said that if he did act, he would go for the kill.

As much as Sol believed in the four directions or Isis’s king-rank undead, Sol could not bet on the safety of Setsuna or Lilith when facing a singularity like Sun Wukong.

‘Well. It doesn’t matter.’

The war had already shifted in his advantage even if it didn’t seem so. The people currently dying in the battlefield were criminals, and soldiers under the control of nobles who held rebellious thoughts or seemed to act as if they were some uncrowned king in their land far from Lustburg.

By the time the war ended, most of them would be completely eradicated and replaced by actual meritorious soldiers or witches.

Speaking of witches,

“Carla. How is the situation?”

“Your Highness, Lady Theresa is thankful for the help the witches proposed to give. She also said that by adding a few of your scales, the production increased greatly and they managed to gather 500 near Duke-class armor and over 1000 lower-ranked armor. But they are slowly reaching a limit in production.”

Sol whistled. The numbers were different from what was initially expected. But he believed in Theresa. Lately, he had basically become a free resource for material. But he did not mind. All weapons that were created with his blood and scales had his imprints. It was impossible for these weapons to be used against Lustburg or even without his permission.

“Obviously, all the witches who participated took a vow, right?”

“Of course.”

“Good.”

Sol believed in Ambrosia and the four Directions. This didn’t mean he believed in the witches as a whole. It was always better to make sure they didn’t put some weird backdoor program in those weapons.

“How do they hold up against an actual Duke?”

“As they are based on you, the armor has higher magic resistance and physical resistance. A few witches fought against them and as long as a Zone isn’t activated, they have a hard time defeating them. One soldier was swiftly destroyed when Miss Milia. But the armor itself was not greatly affected.”

“So, basically they are equal to low-level Duke without zone?”

“More or less.”

Sol had to fight the urge to laugh. This was not the Astral realm. Top-ranked Dukes didn’t run around this part of the world and even mid-ranked ones were rare.

“Good. Very good.”

He stopped as he noticed that Clara seemed worried.

“Speak your mind.”

“You Majesty…” She hesitated before taking a deep breath, “Your Majesty. I believe. It would be better for you to single-handedly conquer the army itself than to activate those machines. At least not now.”

“Elaborate.”

Clara, seeing that Sol was not angry, nodded, “Those machines are revolutionary. But at the same time, they are extremely frightening in my opinion.”

In the Mortal realm, only a few hundred Duke ranks existed. All of them were the results of incredible talents, luck, and hard work. This was why the existence of the Duke was so lofty and respected.

But…With the advent of those machines, everything would change irreversibly.

“Those machines mean that everyone can become a Duke. It lowers the quality of Duke, and their importance and it makes you far far more dangerous than to the entire world.”

Clara's reasoning was simple, if Sol went alone and destroyed Wratharis, people may fear him, and rightfully so. But at the end of the day, he was only one person and one person could never conquer the world as long as they weren’t gods themselves.

They could destroy it. They may be able to kill everyone. But true conquest was impossible.

Things were different if you had somehow an army able to annihilate everything. This was why witches were so feared. This was also why necromancy was forbidden on the battlefield. But what about those special armors created by Theresa?

Theresa simply shuddered. Would there even be any reason to learn to fight and grow? Why bother training decades or centuries to become a Duke when you could simply train to fight in a weapon?

For now, only 1500 such weapons could be created but the technology was still new. What would happen in three or four generations? By then wouldn’t the world be filled with them? Perhaps those armors could even reach the king's rank.

It was horrifying just thinking about it.

“Your Highness, no matter how strong you are. You still have the risk of dying as a Blessed. The moment any of your children receive a Blessing your own time will be limited or at least this is what they will believe. So they can wait. They can support. But I fear that if you use those weapons, the entire world will rally against you immediately and go into an all-out war.”

She was basically pleading at this point, wishing Sol would listen to her, “This is not yet the time. Why take the hard way when you only have to wait? Five years, Ten years, twenty, even a thousand years. You have all the time in the world.”

By the end, she was basically raising her voice, “If the woman called Nent is the problem, as a phoenix she can easily come down any time in Lustburg. The same goes for the one named Kiyohime. As for the Titan, she had lived endless times longer than anything we could imagine. Even a hundred years would barely count as a nap for her.”

Finally, she asked the one question that had been bothering her.

Why was Sol in so much hurry? A conquest should take time. It wouldn’t be strange for the war to last years, even decades. Why was he literally speedrunning this?

In the end, Clara sighed and bowed her head, “I apologize for my overreaction.”

“Do not worry. I understand that you care.”

He waved his hand.

“I understand what you mean and if everything was normal…I would have done so. But…I cannot wait. 100 years? A thousands? I do not know

why, but I have the feeling that if in less than a decade, I am not a demigod at least, I will regret it.”

“A feeling…”

Had it been anyone else, She would have simply dismissed it as a ridiculous argument. But, one could never dismiss the feeling of a Blessed.

“Even then. I do understand your concern.”

What she was talking about was not wrong. This was akin to the creation of guns in his world. Things such as martial arts, swords, spears, and so on were slowly relegated to auxiliary, reaching the level where one man could cause half a country or at least many cities to vanish simply by pushing a button.

This is what made technology fearsome. It wasn’t something only a few chosen could have but something that could be used by everyone.

Sol could even imagine how the crime rate and chaos might rise.

But all of this would not happen.

After all, he would change the entire mortal world in his territory. As long as it was he who had the power to push the button.

What did it matter?

“Only 500 of the lower class armor and 100 near Duke will be launched. Let them have a skewed perception of our force. I will personally take care of the other's battlefield.”

It was time for Lustburg to counterattack.

“Also, we seriously need a better name for the power rank of those armors. Tell Khali to not go too chunni on me. She will understand what I mean.”

If he let Khali go all out she would bring names like Scarlet Red or perhaps Empty Void Level and he was still lowballing how crazy she could go.

Clara, seeing that at least her words did not fall in empty ears sighed and nodded before leaving. She had to warn Milia to start the dissemination of news such as Lustburg becoming too poor and lacking resources which was in reality, not far from the truth. She would also increase the rarity of the ingredients necessary.

As long as the world did not know they could mass produce those armors in the future then things would still be within controllable range.

Truly, being a secretary was not easy.

(AN: Now all we need is Theresa saying: Now I become Death, destroyer of World. Lol, I can totally see Khali say this. This will even suit her since it was originally said by Vishnu and she is the witch of Destruction.)