Now that Li Wei had decided what to do next, he needed to prepare for it. First, he returned to Fog City to report to Her Majesty the Queen on the Microcosms. After hearing his report, she took a keen interest in them as well.
That was only natural. According to Li Wei, the barriers around those Microcosms would disappear someday, and most of them lay within the Empire. That meant that without his investigations, a whole bunch of local separatist powers of unknown origin might suddenly spring up inside the Empire one day.
The Queen therefore asked Li Wei to investigate, determining as best he could how many such Microcosms existed within the Empire and whether they posed a threat. Of course, the Empire could deploy its armies at any time if necessary. The war was nearly over, after all.
Oh, speaking of the war, there was still one final problem to discuss-Shabak.
Just one week after Carloy announced Shabak's complete military disarmament, something happened.
Roanien, Sloka, and the Viranse Duchy attacked Shabak simultaneously from the east, north, and south!
Sloka, to the north, sent troops into Shabak first, claiming it wanted to reclaim the northern mountains and river valleys that had originally belonged to it.
Since the local garrisons had long since disbanded, the civilians and handful of armed defenders had no hope of resisting and quickly surrendered.
The Viranse Duchy advanced along the entire southern border, even blockading Shabak's southern sea outlets and major overland routes, occupying vast stretches of towns in the south.
Roanien's army seized the opportunity to invade from the east, gradually swallowing up Shabak's eastern territories as it advanced straight toward its heartland.
The three countries' combined military strength amounted to fewer than a hundred thousand troops. Before Shabak disbanded its army, none