"...Why did things turn out like this?"
The Old Butler's voice sounded slightly distorted over the receiver, perhaps reflecting his current mood.
"How should I know? You should ask the Holy Lord Church."
Li Wei refused to take the blame. In fact, the Holy Lord Church had caused all of this, and it had nothing to do with him. He hadn't opened Hell's Gate, nor had he undone the seal... right?
"At present... what is the Holy Maiden's position?"
"She's willing to continue helping the Empire, and in my opinion, she'll be a tremendous asset."
"Oh?"
Li Wei wasn't lying. This wasn't an age when ancient-style heroes could conquer the world, especially not for the Empire. If it wanted to keep developing and reunify, it needed to strengthen itself across the board, rather than simply finding a few powerful individuals to prop it up.
From that perspective, the Holy Maiden joining them was practically the best news the Empire could have hoped for.
She was an alchemist, after all, and her greatest specialty was synthesizing and manufacturing all kinds of substances. As far as Li Wei was concerned, this was the Empire's greatest windfall!
Although Li Wei wasn't an expert in this field, he knew that materials were the foundation of everything. In fact, many of humanity's scientific ideas had failed to become reality not because the theories were incomplete, but because the materials weren't up to the task.
For example, a Russian scientist had first proposed the concept of a Space Elevator in 1895. More than a century later, materials remained the biggest obstacle.
Nuclear fusion was another breakthrough everyone had been pursuing for years without success, and one of the greatest reasons was, again, materials.
Setting aside such lofty science, even what Li Wei currently wanted faced the