P.S.: Waiting for a COVID test in the freezing wind. It's really cold.
P.S. 2: Please vote!!!
Explanatory Chapter
I'm taking a single chapter to explain some issues that have been mentioned quite often.
First, the timeline. In the original timeline, the end of the civil war was too close to the Doctor's storyline. With only three years, nothing could be accomplished, so I moved up the end of the Kazdel civil war and the appearances of certain characters. (I laid down some groundwork in the first chapter by saying this was a world highly similar to Arknights.)10
Next is the education issue mentioned in Chapter 6.
One of the motivations driving the protagonist to power was seeing that the young Sarkaz could only speak Columbia's language. That left the deepest impression on him, so once he had power the next day, it was natural for this to be the first thing he thought of. The time was too tight, and the impression was too strong.3
A lot of people then said this wasn't right. I won't discuss that conclusion yet. First, what exactly are the people under the protagonist? They could roughly be considered a group of clan chiefs from the feudal era. Would they really strike the king in the face the moment he had taken the throne? Of course not. Besides, these are Sarkaz who obey the royal family.1
What I arranged in the story was that after the clan chiefs expressed their opinions, the order continued to be carried out. But once it reached the level of ordinary people facing real problems with food and warmth, the actual result emerged—in Chapter 19.
I made it perfectly clear: not many children would go, because their families still needed their labor! (I imagine some people won't even see this, so let me explain it for those who have made it this far.)
And then there are Chapters 25 and 26. Those chapters really got everyone fired up.
All you big shots! This is different from our situation! You can't apply things mechanically!
I checked the Arknights map. Laterano's land area is three times that of Kazdel! Three times! And after fighting an external war, the Sarkaz fought a three-year civil war. Their homeland was left in ruins, and all casualties on both Theresis's and Theresa's sides were Sarkaz casualties. What losses did Laterano suffer?11
Right after such a civil war, Laterano was larger than Kazdel, and its population should also have been larger. In every aspect, Laterano's national condition should have been better. As for the international environment, there's no need to elaborate: no one knew whether they would help the Sankta, but they definitely wouldn't help you Sarkaz.3
Under these circumstances, the protagonist wanting to restore peaceful relations amounted to telling an enemy who was weaker than and hostile toward Laterano, "Let's stop fighting."
I arranged for the Pope to agree to restore peace, but the way he did it had to suit the Pope's status.
He sent the protagonist personally. That allowed him to save face; otherwise, it would make him look incapable. Once he had his dignity, he could casually state his conditions and move on.
As for the protagonist, he was the weaker party asking the stronger one for help. Did he still expect them to be magnanimous and protect his dignity? Did you think everyone was like us?
For those who wanted the fighting to start right then: even if you won every battle but ultimately lost the war, what good would that do?
Finally, I want to ask: where did you find your descriptions of the Bloodfiend Grand Duke's combat ability? I genuinely couldn't find them. When you say he could do this or that by himself, I really have no idea what you mean. Did I overlook some setting? I'll make up for it tonight—please point me in the right direction!!!
P.S.: I'll improve. The situations in Chapters 6, 25, and 26 won't happen again.22
The Next Generation
Saint Petersburg, the capital of Ursus, was sacred and inviolable to every citizen of Ursus. At the center of this mobile city stood the center of imperial power—the palace.
The palace was guarded by elite soldiers of the Ursus Guard. Anyone who trespassed would be killed, but today was different. Someone had instructed them not to react to the scene before them.
Two plainly dressed old men leisurely crossed the Guard's checkpoint. Under the soldiers' watchful eyes, they proceeded deeper into the palace, passing all kinds of magnificent buildings before finally arriving at the door of a room surrounded by luxury, yet extremely simple inside.
"Let them in."
The soldier guarding the wooden door stepped aside. The two old men entered the room and immediately saw a broad balcony. It held only a lonely reclining chair, where an old man lay.
"Your Majesty."
The two men bowed deeply. The old man in the chair slowly rose and casually gestured at them.
"There's no one else here. Forget the formalities. We're all old bones—be careful not to twist something."
"Your Majesty is joking. You're still in excellent health."
"You two are quite energetic as well. You've done a great deal lately while accompanying Feodor."
The atmosphere in the room instantly froze. One of the two was the Imperial Council's Minister of Finance, while the other was the Crown Prince's teacher.
The old man standing beside the reclining chair watched them for a while, then suddenly laughed. "I had Feodor raise Originium. I never expected him to be unable to obtain it domestically and go ask Kazdel instead... His actions were decisive, at least. The offensive on the front line wasn't affected."
"Your Majesty! Since you knew those people were deliberately making things difficult for the Crown Prince, why did you allow them to add obstacles?"1
Feodor's teacher ventured the question. The room's temperature had clearly been adjusted to a comfortable level, yet fine beads of sweat glimmered on his forehead.
The Emperor did not answer. He merely strolled around the room for a few steps before stopping beneath a huge oil painting. It depicted him in his youth.
"Compared to that time... So many years have passed already? Time really does fly. We... probably don't have many years left either."
The two men were shocked. They lowered their heads deeply and dared not speak. The old Emperor looked at them and asked, "The Imperial Council's Minister of Finance... Is there anyone suitable for the position?"
"...Yes. There's a young man named Islam Vitt. He was the one who concluded the trade agreement with Kazdel. He brought in considerable tax revenue and improved the people's living conditions."
"Then let him take the position."
"Yes."
The old man did not dare object.
"What's Kazdel like?"
The old Emperor raised another question. The other man replied, "The Sarkaz have been at war for years and even fought a civil war. Minister Vitt said the place was extremely backward. He saw very few able-bodied young men. Kazdel's new leader is a very young Sarkaz who seems to favor peace."
"Is that so... What is the land like there?"
"Minister Vitt said it consists entirely of wasteland unsuitable for cultivation."
"I see..."
The old Emperor looked somewhat disappointed. Ursus was also a country lacking arable land, and he let out a melancholy sigh.
"You two were never here today. Take some money to Columbia. We're almost gone. It's time for the next generation to arrive."1
A mine in the Ursus tundra had been temporarily closed. There were many mines like it today. The miners inside were either taken aboard transport ships by the Sarkaz or pushed into excavated mine shafts by the guards on the spot.
At Kazdel's border, Warfarin had already brought doctors to prepare. They would conduct a thorough health examination and infection screening on His Majesty's cargo. Anything unsuitable would be handed to the Confessors for final recycling.
The miners who arrived in Kazdel descended the gangplanks in fear. No one stood behind them cracking a whip, and for a moment they were bewildered and uncomfortable. They instinctively gathered together, uneasily surveying their surroundings.
The Sarkaz medical workers in sealed suits had to remind the crowd, who looked like walking corpses, through loudspeakers: "Doctors, over there! Teachers, over there! Craftsmen, follow me!"
At one of the points where people lined up for examinations, a Pero man held his child tightly. His hand instinctively covered the Originium crystals on the child's face. Looking nervously at the muscular military doctor before him, he asked,
"What are you going to make me do? Mine? I can go, but does my child have to go too?"
"Mine?" The Sarkaz doctor holding an examination scope looked confused. "Weren't you a teacher before?"
"Yes, yes. I was a middle-school mathematics teacher."
"Then you're here to teach. Why would you mine? And stop covering your child. I need to examine him! Move your hand!"
The man nodded repeatedly, his face filled with the hesitation of someone trapped in a dream.
"I came here... to be a teacher? To teach students?"
The process proceeded in an orderly fashion: physical examinations, cleansing, receiving medicine, and then swearing to abandon Ursus's culture and written language and promising to integrate into Kazdel. Not a single person showed hesitation. They were only clamoring to be first.
Once all this was completed, they would be assigned to their corresponding positions. These people would fill all kinds of shortages currently afflicting Kazdel.
"Your Majesty, why did you purchase so many children?"
The Confessor bowed. He knew what Theresica had in mind. Professionals from all walks of life would indeed be useful, but he did not understand why there were so many children without parents among them—especially since they were all infected.
"Perfect shapeshifting is ultimately rare among the Shapeshifter race. If these children learn Sarkaz culture, wouldn't they become Sarkaz wearing the appearances of other races?"
He explained his plan. "They'll be educated in Kazdel, then sent to other countries. Columbia and Victoria should both work."
"Your Majesty's vision is far-reaching."
The Confessor expressed his agreement, but also voiced a concern. "However, they aren't Sarkaz after all. If they rebel, wouldn't all our investment be wasted?"2
"That's hard to say. Nothing is guaranteed to profit without loss. Besides, these are matters for the future. Let's focus on what's before us."
In just a few days, Kazdel had gained a considerable number of professionals. The shortage of doctors and teachers was greatly alleviated. The military factories benefited even more: they suddenly gained more than forty technical sergeants from the Ursus army, who effectively advanced the reverse engineering of Ursus equipment-production technology.8
P.S.: Please vote!!!3
Changing Circumstances
Ursus was, in Theresica's eyes, an exceptionally good country. Kazdel had obtained a large amount of foreign currency through trade with it, and its fierce war with Kazimierz had also given Kazdel an excellent opportunity.1
While learning about the Ursus-Kazimierz War through ordinary information channels, Theresica ordered shapeshifters to infiltrate the battlefield before it had been cleaned up, secretly transporting the corpses of Ursus soldiers back to Kazdel.2
Once the Confessor obtained those corpses, he began experimenting, extracting their memories and knowledge. Although the Confessor's technique was still unstable and often lost large amounts of information, Ursus had plenty of soldiers—and therefore plenty of corpses!
Through the Ursus-Kazimierz War, Kazdel quickly learned the composition of the Ursus army. Combined with the knowledge accumulated during this period, Theresica began to make plans.
Military reform!3
Theresica approached Manfred and the Military Committee. After several days of discussion, they decided to conduct an experimental reorganization within the Sarkaz army: creating a unit capable of fighting head-on, while the remaining soldiers continued using the Sarkaz's customary methods of warfare.1
A thirteen-person infantry squad consisted of a squad leader and deputy squad leader, three Sarkaz soldiers using semiautomatic individual crossbows, four Sarkaz equipped with Ursus heavy assault shields, and four soldiers using the Sarkaz's original melee weapons.
Four infantry squads formed an infantry platoon. The platoon also added a spell-support strike group and a drone reconnaissance group.
Four infantry platoons formed an infantry company. Each company added one standard bearer, two communications operators, a cooking squad, and a three-person first-aid team.11
Four infantry companies formed an infantry battalion. Each battalion added an engineering and technical platoon responsible for equipment maintenance, as well as a long-range communications group.
Three infantry battalions and one spell-strike battalion formed a regiment. The regiment also added a regimental command post, a logistics company, and a field hospital. The spell-strike battalion consisted of two assault spell companies, one position-mage company, and one cover company.1
Four infantry regiments formed an infantry division. An infantry division was, in theory, a unit capable of independent operations. Each division added a command headquarters, two attached spell-strike battalions, a seriously wounded evacuation team, and an additional logistics company.2
The experimental reorganization plan involved two divisions. Since most of the soldiers were poorly educated, their combat method consisted of two parts. Shield guards and melee soldiers formed a defensive line to block the enemy, while the shooters provided direct support. They would either eliminate the enemies before them or wait for spell support from behind.
These two divisions would later act as each other's enemies or fight against troops using the old Sarkaz methods, conducting sustained drills. Theresica wanted to use this method to see whether suitable officers could be selected from the army.3
Just as Kazdel's first military reform began, the war between Ursus and Kazimierz suddenly ended in an anticlimactic fashion.
At this point, all of Kazimierz's defensive lines had been broken. The knights had been forced to retreat into the Grand Knight Territory to make one final stand. Although Ursus's forces had paid a terrible price to reach this point, the attacking army as a whole still retained considerable combat ability. The tall buildings of the Grand Knight Territory were already visible through the telescopes of Ursus soldiers.3
Yet just as every unit was waiting for the order to attack, the Ursus army group failed to hear the trumpet call the next day. Every soldier returned home under the Emperor's orders. Then, before anyone could react, Ursus suddenly declared war on the East!2
This caught not only the East off guard, but Ursus's own troops as well. The units stationed at the border suddenly received orders in the early hours of one morning to cross the border and march into the East.
Although they were deeply confused, the Ursus border troops faithfully carried out the Emperor's orders. The soldiers and officers excitedly discussed what expressions the Eastern soldiers would have on their faces when faced with such a sudden attack.
But something even more shocking happened: Ursus's offensive was halted. Their surprise attack succeeded, but after suffering an initial defeat, the East, like Kazimierz, used vast quantities of supplies to rapidly rebuild its forces. The resistance never stopped, while Ursus's troops, short on supplies, were forced to retreat to the border.
The Emperor of Ursus was furious. He cursed the military for failing to discover that the East had the ability to secretly gather such vast resources. He promptly executed several noble generals, all former comrades who had fought alongside him on many battlefields.6
The old Emperor refused to acknowledge his defeat and ordered the Fifth Army Group to continue the offensive. Its commander was another "old comrade" of the Emperor's with a rich record of victories. Yet, to everyone's astonishment, this commander was ambushed repeatedly by the East, causing the Ursus army group to suffer heavy losses.1
He pleaded that the intelligence had been faulty, but the old Emperor showed no mercy and directly ordered his execution. Apparently, even that was not enough for the old Emperor. Under the pretext of punishing the disloyal, he stripped numerous officers and generals of their identities, threw them into prison, and sentenced them to death.1
The sheets of paper containing the copied execution list stretched on and on. When the old Emperor opened it to look, its end hung directly to the floor. That night, the old Emperor's condition suddenly deteriorated. His consciousness was blurred, but at the final moment he regained clarity and issued two decrees.4
First, Ursus was to immediately make peace with the East. Second, Feodor's succession to the throne of the Ursus Empire was to be confirmed.
Uttering those two sentences seemed to exhaust the old man's remaining strength. He then died with his son's hand in his own.1
Theresica received the news the next day and immediately ordered a Banshee to deliver his handwritten letter and pay a visit to Feodor.
For a time, all of Terra discussed what changes would occur in Ursus and where the new Emperor would lead this enormous country. Would he wage wars everywhere like the old Emperor, or implement the principles he had previously upheld?1
It was too soon to reach a conclusion.
But just as newspapers across the nations were still printing reports about the departure of the old Ursus Emperor, Victoria revealed another earth-shaking piece of news.
The mighty Victoria Empire had suddenly erupted into civil war. The Lion King had been pushed onto the chopping block, the Duke of Cumberland had perished, and the heir to the throne was missing. The remaining grand dukes all claimed to support the legitimate royal line, coercing the Steam Knights into attacking one another as flames of war spread across the entire country.4
All of Terra froze for a moment. Such enormous upheavals had arrived one after another within only two days, and it would take a while to digest them.
Columbia was the first to move. The federal army crossed the border and entered Sargon's territory. The Leithanien independence movement erupted, and the local Victoria garrison was repeatedly attacked by residents.8
The established balance of Terra was about to change.7
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A Shock
Regardless of how outsiders judged him, the people of Ursus regarded the old Emperor as a divine ruler. He was the one who had brought strength to Ursus, and this was the foundation that allowed the people of Ursus to maintain their confidence and pride under any circumstances.2
The old Emperor's departure brought all foreign activity in this enormous country to an abrupt halt. Everyone's attention was fixed on the transfer of power, and the Banshee sent to Ursus returned at that moment, bringing a reply from the new Emperor, Feodor.
Aside from long passages of empty greetings and polite expressions of thanks, the letter contained nothing useful. It merely mentioned that he hoped to meet Theresica at a formal diplomatic occasion in the future.
"What do you think of the new Emperor?"
Theresica asked curiously. The Banshee was also a Sarkaz over a hundred years old and had certainly met countless people.
"Apologies, Your Majesty. I couldn't discern anything. The new Ursus Emperor's expression was rigid and pained. Under such circumstances, there was no way to make an accurate judgment."
Before you continue