SHK CH 558: NEW SPREAD OUT (2) (Patreon)

[Lustburg]

While many countries were filled with doubt and confusion about the mysterious rangers that appeared during this war, the citizens of Lustburg were cheering.

Up to now, while many pieces of good news had been sent, there was no doubt in their minds that Lustburg was steadily retreating and losing ground.

They had been worried, wondering if the prince was up to the task and if Lustburg had what it takes to become one of the hegemons once again.

Now, though, those doubts were slowly being put to rest. While they still did not know how strong their prince was, at the very least, he shouldn't be much weaker than Lilin Luxuria and Setsuna Ira, right?

At the same time, while happiness was blooming, a small seed of doubt was being planted.

Since the new Rangers are so powerful, why did they not act sooner? Why did they wait until some of Wratharis' forces were much deeper in Lustburg?

It did not need to be said, but many soldiers died during this war, and this number was still climbing.

Many wanted to ask, "Why?"

Slowly, more and more insidious news was disseminated.

There was also the fact that despite being a Duke, the Prince had yet to truly fight on the battlefield.

The fact that this war was, in fact, caused by the prince himself to bring Setsuna to the throne.

He was sacrificing the soldiers of his country to please his future wife.

All of this was done with the goal of vilifying Sol as much as possible and discrediting him in the eyes of the population.

—

While this was going on, in the Depths of the Tower of Babel, Sol was discussing with Khali about a very important issue.

“Rangers? Seriously? You couldn’t find a better name? Why even change the name to Mecha. Mecha Units or Mecha soldiers sound good and simple, I think.”

Khali made herself quite small in the seat. She had chosen this name in a moment of pure madness, and she knew that it was pretty stupid.

But she couldn't give up now, could she?

She hesitated a moment before speaking,

“Look. Those things are power armor, right?”

Sol could already see that Khali was about to bring some mighty bullshit.

“Yes.”

“And rangers are a special commando unit, right?”

Sol hesitated before sighing, defeated, “Yes. So you took Power and Ranger together. This is what you are going to say?”

“Hehehe…”

Khali gave a sheepish laugh at the glare Sol was throwing at her. She knew this name was pretty tacky, but she could not let the occasion slip from her hands.

This kind of thing might never happen again, after all, and it was definitely very funny.

“Look, don’t be mad. Whatever their name might be, the most important thing is…They work, right?”

Sol shook his head and smoothed his creased brow. In the end, Khali was one of the three creators, so even if she wanted to give a weird name to the special power armor, then it didn’t matter.

In the end, only other reincarnated people like him would even understand the joke.

“Honestly, space marine would have been a better term, at least for the Black and White superior version.”

While the lower versions were human-sized armor, the more powerful ones were closer to small Mecha or very bulky power armor.

“Meh… Not as funny.”

“Whatever, do as you like. As you said, their names don’t really matter as long as they are working. A little too well, I must say. I guess I did well in heeding Clara’s warning.”

Sol gazed at the paperwork that was different from the usual ones he received. After all, this time those were documents and letters with the sigils of different Kingdoms.

“Threats, negotiation, small inquiries, proposals, etc. I have been receiving more than ten letters every day since the mecha —”

“The rangers.”

“....Sigh~ Since the rangers made their grand entrance on the battlefield. I think the dwarves are already prepared to sue me for theft of important historical knowledge.”

“Heh… How ridiculous. I thought the dwarves would be silent since our fight at their border between me, Freya, and Medea.”

Sol gave a soft smile, remembering a time that seemed so far away when in reality it was still extremely close, all things considered.

Back then, the fight between the three witches ended up wiping out a few mountains in the surroundings.

Though said mountains were immediately recovered by Ambrosia. Back then the Dwarves were indeed angry, and this ended up with some minor sanctions when it came to Dwarven steel importation.

Internationally speaking, Lustburg was really in a geographically bad position. They were surrounded by land, so no products from the sea. They did not have the rare beasts present in the Demon kingdom that were necessary for the contract of talented humans.

They did not have special mines like the dwarves nor special woods like the elves.

Their technology was not as developed as Slothein, and their understanding of biology was not as developed as Chimera.

Jack of all trades and master of none, this made them too dependent on foreign help.

‘Well, this won't be the case anymore.’

Thanks to the witches, he had direct access to the Astral realm market.

Feeling his head heating up because of everything he had to think about, Sol shook his head and continued the conversation thread.

“They were. But they are dwarves. In a way, the most attuned to their sins. Greed is their motto, and they would die for it if necessary.”

“How stupid.”

“This stupidity is helping me in this situation. Though of course, this is also thanks to Theresa fanning the flame from behind.”

Khali nodded. She had come to know Theresa closely, and she respected the diminutive woman.

She might be the weakest, but Khali knew that not even witches specialized in metallurgy could beat her.

This was proven recently during an internal contest, and Theresa literally steamrolled the competition.

“By the way, I have been hearing pretty bad things about you. It seems like your reputation is in the gutter.”

Even though she was asking, Khali treaded carefully. She did not want to upset him, after all.

“Oh, those…”

Sol looked up and chuckled,

“I am the one spreading the bad rumors.”

Khali looked at Sol, eyes filled with incomprehension.

“Are you a closet masochist?”

Sol had to fight the urge to smack down the impish Crimson Witch.