History

Standing at the harbor, breathing in the fishy sea wind, Jem frowned slightly.

He did not like the smell. It made him uncomfortable.

Although a considerable portion of the Duchy of Maldon lay along the coast, he had never been much interested in seafood since childhood. Whenever he came to the harbor and caught that scent, he always felt more or less uneasy.

Still, he did not show it. As the Crown Prince, he had an image to maintain. Showing disgust for his own territory would be a real blow to morale.

An officer around thirty stood beside him, reporting the general situation. "There are 76,445 captured enemy soldiers in total, and all of them have already been transported to the harbor. Only 23 are uninjured, 35,525 have light injuries, and 40,897 have severe injuries. Of those more than forty thousand severely wounded, 3,221 are in critical condition and could breathe their last at any moment. It is estimated that they may not last until they reach Mobius Island. As for transport, we have gathered every kind of vessel from the surrounding area. We should be able to finish transporting them all within eight days."

After hearing the figures, Jem was fairly satisfied. He nodded. "It is fine. Save those who can be saved, and leave those who cannot. Just make sure that more than seventy thousand living people land on Mobius Island. The rest has nothing to do with you."

Seeing that his superior had raised no objections, the man quietly let out a breath of relief.

However, after hesitating for a while, he still tried to persuade him. "Your Highness, I honestly do not think there is any need to go through so much trouble to deal with these prisoners. Simpler methods could achieve the same result. Transporting them to a deserted island is truly a waste of manpower and resources."

He was not the only one who thought so. When many of his colleagues heard that Jem intended to transport tens of thousands of prisoners to the deserted overseas island of Mobius and have them play at surviving on a deserted island, they had been equally baffled. They simply could not understand what meaning there could be in it.

Even keeping them locked up until the Duchy of Yar paid to ransom them back would be better than this!

In response to his advice, Jem merely shook his head calmly and said nothing more.

It was not as if no one had tried to persuade him during this time. He was already sick of hearing it.

If he could, he did not want to handle the prisoners this way either, but he had no choice.

The reasons behind it were impossible to explain to anyone, leaving him equally helpless.

Seeing that Jem Woz had no desire to pay him any attention, the officer could only sigh and leave in silence.

Looking at the scene before him.

Unlike those officers, who could not understand why Jem Woz was doing this.

Baron Duke understood that those who boarded Mobius Island were not going there to survive on a deserted island or to be imprisoned far away. They were going to become sacrifices, and there was practically no chance they would walk out alive. After some thought, he softly suggested, "Your Highness, when the Duchy of Yar sent people to sign the compensation terms not long ago, they proposed an idea. They hoped to ransom back their soldiers. I think that while we cannot possibly let them ransom everyone back, we could let them bleed a little to retrieve several of the more important nobles. That would also prevent us from completely offending the Duchy of Yar's noble faction."

Jem waved a hand at Duke's suggestion and rejected it outright. "There is no need. There is no such thing as offending them completely or not.

"Since we went to war in the first place, we were enemies. Even if they have now signed the compensation terms, our fundamental positions will not change.

"Those captured nobles may not be the fatal weakness of the Duchy of Yar, but once they die, the noble faction of the entire Duchy of Yar will be set back by around ten years in one stroke. It will make them hate us all the more, but it will also certainly provoke conflict between them and the Yar royal family that led this war. That is of immense significance to our country, which stands opposed to them."

In Jem's eyes, after this battle, the Duchy of Yar would at least be incapable of threatening the Duchy of Maldon again for the next twenty or thirty years. With the other duchies eyeing it like tigers eyeing prey, it would be somewhat unlikely to destroy it in one fell swoop—but letting a tiger return to the mountains was even less possible.

In this era, after the many duchies had endured a long span of time, they had developed a mutual understanding.

Crippling a duchy was nothing, but attempting to wipe one out would meet with countless obstructions. Therefore, weakening it as much as possible was the utmost limit.

And those great nobles were the means he would use to make life difficult for the Duchy of Yar...

As for how the process should be carried out, he would still have to think it over.

At the very least, he could not directly shoulder the reputation of sacrificing people to Demons. He needed to come up with a good excuse for those people's deaths...

Just as he was pondering the matter, he suddenly heard a familiar voice.

Looking up, he discovered that it was Harry, the commander of the Duchy of Yar's army, shouting his name.

Harry no longer possessed his former high spirits. Covered in blood, shackled at both wrists and ankles, he was confined inside a separate prison cart.

It was high-class treatment befitting a commander's status, complete with a tiny private room!

Though it was no different from being paraded through the streets. He could only endure the crowd's pointing fingers, fury surging into his heart.

Noticing Jem's gaze, he suppressed the urge to strangle the onlookers and shouted, "Jem Woz, remember this! One day, I will repay you for the humiliation you have brought upon me!"

Clearly, he still could not let go of having lost so inexplicably despite holding such an advantageous position.

"..."

Friend, you are about to die. I do not think you will be able to repay that humiliation to me.

After hesitating in place for two seconds, the last scraps of Jem Woz's conscience kept him from mocking the man. Instead, he gave him a meaningful look.

Watching Harry be pushed aboard the ship amid his shouting, Jem Woz observed a second of silence for him in consideration of his noble status, then turned to Baron Duke. "Stay here and handle the remaining matters. Also, tell the men that the one who was just shouting is to be sent to Mobius Island in the first batch."

Though a generous person like me would normally not fuss over such things, as a noble and a commander, I think he ought to lead by example!

With that thought, Jem felt much more at ease. After all, it was impossible for him to be petty. How could a Crown Prince lack even a little magnanimity??

He then mounted his warhorse and prepared to return to the Royal Capital first to attend the celebration.

Someone still needed to preside over things there. As the Crown Prince, it was always good for him to show his face at a time like this.

The next day, at noon.

Jem Woz climbed out of bed with a headache, clutching his head.

At yesterday's celebration, he had faced the combined siege and interception of more than a hundred people. Even with the strength of a Great Knight, he had nearly drunk himself into vomiting on the spot.

In the end, when he truly could not drink anymore, they had scared him senseless with alcohol!

He had only managed to escape by claiming he needed to relieve himself.

Now that he had just awakened, his mouth felt bitter, with the taste of medicinal herbs lingering within it.

He knew it was the hangover medicine the maid had forced down his throat. Otherwise, he probably would not have been able to get out of bed until the afternoon.

To be honest, although his head hurt a little, he was in a fairly good mood.

Having dealt with the Duchy of Yar could be considered removing a grave threat and thoroughly stabilizing the situation in the Duchy of Maldon. That was why he had drunk so much yesterday. Under normal circumstances, he hardly drank at all.

After getting dressed, he habitually took out his knight's sword in the room and swung it twice. Feeling the sluggishness in his movements and the unfamiliar feel of the sword, he understood that alcohol was still lingering in his system, affecting both his thoughts and his body.

Just as he wanted to do some Martial Arts training to recover a little, the sound of hurried footsteps rapidly approaching his room entered his ears.

His brows instinctively furrowed. He had said yesterday that if there was nothing important, no one was to bother him today. He wanted to rest for a day.

And someone suddenly coming to find him undoubtedly meant that more troublesome business had arisen.

It really made his balls ache...

But he also understood the importance of priorities.

Before the person could knock, the instant they stopped outside his door, he directly asked, "What is it?"

The person outside paused, apparently not expecting Jem to wake so quickly.

He had drunk far too much yesterday. Ordinary people could only drink two or three small cups of that strong liquor, yet he had downed an entire barrel that, when placed on the ground, stood as high as an adult's knees.

Had he not been so powerful, with physical qualities far beyond those of ordinary people, he would have collapsed on the spot and needed doctors to save him.

In response to Jem's question, a woman's voice came from outside. "Your Highness, a bishop from the church has come to the door with some people. He says there is an extremely important matter he needs to discuss with you, and he has even brought out an emergency document from the church."

"The church? An emergency document?"

Jem was somewhat puzzled. He could not understand what business a bishop could have with him. Could it be that they wanted to build a large church in the Royal Capital?

Several years ago, a bishop from the church had approached his father, hoping to build a church in the center of the Royal Capital.

There had originally been nothing wrong with that. If they wanted to build one, they could build one. Although the royal family did not like the church, they generally turned a blind eye to such matters and did not interfere much.

But the problem lay elsewhere.

They wanted the royal family to pay for the church's construction. The royal family had found that utterly unbelievable, and Jem's father had declared on the spot that if this were several hundred years ago, when the church stood at the height of its power, he might have endured it. After all, they had been the boss then. But now, why did they not take a look in the mirror? Did they really think they could treat the royal family like pigs to be slaughtered?

Thus, they had parted on bad terms.

Thinking of that, Jem Woz felt a faint disgust as well. He thought that if they had come to discuss the church again, he would simply send them away...

Ever since the forces of the mysterious side had begun to shrink drastically several hundred years ago.

After several rounds of policy reforms and the proclamation of the Royal Authority Act, the royal families had been somewhat at odds with the church.

The church wanted to restore its former glory, place divine authority above royal authority, and rule everything!

And those who had finally become masters of their own house did not want to return to the past!

This was undoubtedly an irreconcilable conflict!

It was only because both sides remained rational and knew that other races were still trying to rise from the ashes that humanity had not already fought among itself for decades.

The rule between the Duchy of Yar and the Duchy of Maldon now—where they could wound each other to the bone but were not allowed to strike a killing blow—was the mutual understanding they had maintained over a long period of time.

Once matters became utterly irreconcilable, other forces would intervene to stop them.

It both prevented humanity from tearing itself apart through fierce internal strife and kept any one party from becoming dominant.

But if they brought an emergency document, it should not merely be about building a church. Could it be...

At that thought, Jem Woz's expression began to change.