SHK CH 557: NEW SPREAD OUT (Patreon)

As ridiculous as their names and costumes might sound, it did not take long for the rangers to start getting their name known throughout the world.

Only 72 hours.

In 72h all the lands that had been occupied were instantly recuperated with minimal loss on the side of the rangers.

The rank of rangers was easy to determine as all the colored units seemed to be the most numerous ones while the black and white units were the strongest and most efficient.

In 72 hours alone, 3 Dukes of Wraharis who refused to submit were executed after being besieged with no way to escape. Meanwhile, when counting the three Great sages as well as the Tiger Lord who were captured, a total of Seven Dukes had been captured.

Wratharis was down more than 10 dukes, which could be considered nothing short of a historical defeat.

The number of Dukes existing in the mortal world was extremely limited, only a little above one hundred or two hundred were officially known. Obviously, the number of Dukes per Kingdom was equally small, and losing 10 Dukes meant that outside of the few ones who were forced to stay close to the capital for the defense or the few who were in retreat, Wratharis had no only a very small number of Dukes that could be used for a fight and this number could be counted on one hand.

The absence of Dukes soon felt itself as far from stopping at getting back their lands, Lustburg started truly counter attacking in earnest, slowly taking the land that belonged to Wratharis.

A new wind was turning. But the world only had one eye on those new units.

Who were they?

How was Lustburg able to create such units?  and more than anything…Could they do the same?

Such a question was repeated in all countries as the higher up started worrying.

If before they had been watching with the idea that this was nothing more than a show they did not have to participate in, now the fact that Lustburg could actually use those on them was worrying.

In the land of dwarves, the group of old men were furiously discussing, as some of them started to claim that this design was very close to what their ancestor, the first dwarf king created.

While many had forgotten this development line, they remembered that the forts were lost on Lustburg territory.

“So. You are proposing we  Sue Lusburg for theft and appropriation at the international court?”

The King asked quietly to which many members of the councils started nodding excitedly.

“There is no doubt! Those armors were based on the one created by our King. They belong to the Dwarves! This is an appropriation of our cultural wealth! Lustburg cannot be allowed to keep this technology for themselves.”

The king sighed. This was so stupid but he did not want to argue too much with idiots,

“Those ruins were lost on Lustburg nearly thousand of years ago and we have never tried to retake them. Even then, they belong by the laws to Lustburg, and all wealth found to belong to them by the law.”

“Your majesty! We do not necessarily have to focus only on the law. Lustburg had always been a very heroic country. I believe their prince as the Son of the Hero King would be more than happy to make the name of Luxuria shine as a blazon of Morals and justice by sharing what they obtained with the world.”

Another one complained, “Monopoly is wrong! Such technology cannot belong to only one country. At least they have to sell some to other countries.”

The King was speechless, “We have a monopoly on dwarven steel.”

But the man was not ashamed, “We do not. We sell our weapons at high prices to other Kingdoms. It’s not our fault, only our kingdom has the metal necessary and the knowledge of Runes needed to create them.”

“Then do you not fear they will break our monopoly on weapon trading.”

“Not if we decipher and understand the functioning first before retro engineering. Dwarves are the best when it comes to forging. It’s impossible for humans to surpass us in this domain. The proof is that they would not have created this without us.”

‘My head hurt.’

Being surrounded by greedy bastards all along was tiring. But he could understand their worries. If Lustburg were not forced to share the technology they would slowly lose their own monopoly which would massively affect the economy as more than 60% of the active populations were smiths, one way or another.

In the current situation, they had too much to lose. But here came the problem,

“Let’s say we do everything you say. In the end, what? The international court only punishes war crimes and the usage of Necromancy. Outside of this, they can only give condemnations.”

“If Lustburg refuses we can close all trades with them. Lustburg is surrounded by us, Wratharis, Envilya, and Southern Pride. Wratharis will obviously never trade with them in the current situation. As for the other two countries, they would be more than any to watch from afar and laugh. We have them by the throat it would be a mistake to not use them to our advantage.”

‘Sigh…’

The King sighed as he remembered the discussion he had with a projection of Theresa not long ago.

Things were proceeding exactly as she had prophesied. It was sad to see how predictable dwarves were in her eyes. In this situation, all he had to do was to close his eyes and follow her orders.

He knew very well that doing so may have not always profited him but it definitely never made him lose too much.

“Very well. We will call for the court after the war ends. I will send an application to Slothein.”

She didn’t know why Theresa wanted to have the angels involved in this matter but he would not think too much.

His headaches were terrible enough on their own.