Ice and Snow

After losing their land, the natives were driven into horrific "man-eating factories," where they worked day and night for wages barely enough to fill their stomachs.

That was why the Lorenzo Kingdom's once-thriving factories had been closing in recent years. Industrial districts across its cities lay abandoned, and workers had lost their jobs in droves.

The factories had not truly closed. They had moved to the Void World, where raw materials and labor were cheaper and oversight was far looser. Operating costs there were at least 30% to 50% lower than in the Main World, and greedy capitalists had swarmed in like piranhas scenting blood.

But this had brought disaster and suffering to the Void World's natives while indirectly destroying the Lorenzo Kingdom's industry and commerce in the Main World. Workers lost their jobs, social order grew unstable, and the Kingdom's strength declined by the day. But... who cared?

The Lorenzo Kingdom's ruthless exploitation of the Void World was bound to provoke resistance from its long-suffering natives. Uprisings and rebellions kept breaking out.

At first, such unrest was beneath the Lorenzo Kingdom's notice. When the Kingdom conquered this Void World, its native high-level Transcendents had all been killed. Civilians and low-level Transcendents alone could never shake its rule. Then, ten years ago, the Rune Federation's forces began quietly infiltrating the world. They started by secretly providing funds, then grew bolder. Instead of merely training natives, they began sending in their own people and formed a Revolutionary Army that claimed it would overthrow the Lorenzo Kingdom's brutal rule!

The Rune Federation also stationed three Calamity-Rank Strong Ones directly on the border between the two countries in the Main World. One held Marshal Santos, the Lorenzo Kingdom's Calamity-Rank Knight, in check. The other two were naturally there for Grand Duke Mora.

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