The Emperor of the Empire (2)

On the very day Columbus learned that orcs had appeared in the Northlands once more, he issued orders to the Empire's six border provinces. Many nobles, Ryan among them, received the Emperor's will.

They were ordered to take the initiative, crush the orcs' invasion plans, and kill the Orc King.

No one would refuse an order from the Emperor at a time like this. Even Viscount Landa of the Fragrant Mountain Plains dispatched two thousand troops to the Northlands to hunt orcs.

But no one carried out the Emperor's will with all their strength. Only the nobles near the Northlands knew that taking the initiative was an utterly impossible task. All they could do was symbolically send captured orcs to the Imperial Capital to please His Majesty the Emperor.

The Emperor would never come to the Northlands. Only they knew how brutal winter in the Northlands truly was.

Before large numbers of soldiers even encountered any orcs after entering the Northlands, they had already fallen into severe disorder and sickness. Amid the ice and snow, once the orcs appeared before them, it became a war they could not even flee from.

The Northlands were not fit for human survival. The warm lands of the South could belong to the orcs, but the freezing cold of the Northlands could not grant humanity even the slightest warmth.

But Columbus III, seated in the Imperial Capital, did not care about any of this.

As vast numbers of orc slaves were delivered to the Imperial Capital, the heart of the Empire erupted with fervor. Countless citizens filled the streets, celebrating the Emperor's name. That was how the Imperial Capital was. The atmosphere of the city came from the Empire's political climate. It could be lively or solemn, changing entirely with the politics of the