NOVEL NEXT Chapter 24: (1)
Final Battle
A large pavilion standing at the center of Republic of Gokuri’s capital. In one of the rooms, the Republic’s upper echelons – the representatives of the nine cities – were holding a meeting.
The agenda was how to deal with the monsters that appeared in the Tenohira Plains. At first, when they received the report sent by the military about the monsters, they were skeptical about it. However, the atmosphere in the hall suddenly took a drastic turn as each representative received a report of the same nature from their personal information channels.
The conference hall was then dominated by a heavy atmosphere. Monsters that couldn’t be dealt with by the military. The dragons, which were their newly developed weapon, had been deployed against them but were completely wiped out instead. Coming up with a countermeasure against such opponents under such a situation, it was no different than asking them to create a dish without any ingredients.
There was no way they could come up with a plan to deal with it, their only option was to evacuate.
A sigh escaped the chairperson of the Gokuri parliament. Then a man suddenly called out to the representatives assembled there.
「There’s something I’d like to report about, may I?」
The man who asked for permission to speak – his name was Cassius. He was the director of the research institute which had brought about the various technologies that had been supporting the outnumbered Republican army. His achievements had earned him the privilege to speak even in the upper echelons’ assembly.
「Regarding the dragons that were deployed in this war, they were arranged with the assumption of dealing with the rebel armies in mind. In fact, the dragons had done their jobs wonderfully as they succeeded in overwhelming the rebel armies, before the monsters appeared, that is.」
In the room dominated by heavy air, Cassius alone had a composed smile on his face as he explained his achievements.
「They were annihilated by the monsters in the end, yes, but it was strictly due to the circumstances which forced us to send them to a head-on clash against the monster to buy time for the army to retreat. Please understand that we didn’t originally arrange them with the intention of using them as a head-on clash force.」
「Then, does that mean you have a head-on clash-type of weapon developed in the institute?」
Perhaps finding Cassius, who explained all of those in a smile, unpleasant, one of the representatives interrupted. No one was expecting much of him, but Cassius’ following remarks turned the heavy air around.
「Of course, we’ve also carried out research regarding head-on clash weapons. We’ve even finished arranging the preparations for it to be deployed to deal with the monsters.」
「Is that true?!」
The representatives were surprised by Cassius’ unexpected answer. The chairperson reined their excitement in, and urged Cassius to continue with the explanation.
「We’ve done research on the hero summoning ritual.」
「That’s not good enough. A hero is without a doubt powerful, yes, but they take time to grow. And if the monsters are as powerful as they were reported to be, I doubt that even a hero would stand a chance against them.」
One of the representatives interjected again. He had a somewhat strong tone, perhaps disappointed upon hearing Cassius’ explanation.
「Of course, I am not suggesting us to summon a hero. Because as it stands, even if we did summon a hero, they would prove to be of no use to us, after all.」
Cassius, still with a composed look on his face, replied to the interjecting representative.
「We have done analyzing the hero summoning ritual, and managed to create a new ritual that could summon an even more powerful being. It would be a weapon so powerful that even no hero or anything else could begin to be compared to it.」
When Cassius spoke up to that point, the composed smile, that had been floating on his face, turned into an eerie one.
「Of course, the greater the power you seek, the greater the price you have to pay. But you have nothing to worry about in that regard. Our men did well in the previous war. We still have more than ten thousand soldiers remaining, after all.」
The air in the conference hall instantly turned cold. In the midst of all this, only Cassius’ voice continued to echo.
「Even if they aren’t magicians, if you gather that many people, you’d be able to gather vastly more magical energy than everything several magicians could ever muster up. I’d like to sacrifice the army and summon the most powerful Evil God. Would you grant the permission?」
「Stop joking around! As if we’d ever give you such a permission!」
All of the representatives reproached Cassius. However, Cassius was completely undaunted by it and continued.
「We are going to save the residents of the Republic at the expense of the army. What are you hesitating about? Or do you want to let the Republic end here? Well, that indeed could be said to be a kind of retribution to all of the oppression you’ve been doing up until now, though. However, the monsters had laid waste to the dragons, so if possible I’d like to avoid getting ourselves crushed by them next.」
When Cassius finished uttering those words, silence reigned over the conference hall. Time passed in silence.
「… Haa, very well. Please stall for time and move the front lines back to the Ninoude Cloister then. This is where we will perform the ritual. If we sacrifice the soldiers who fall on the battlefield, you have nothing to complain about, don’t you? Oh, result-wise, we might be able to gather more magical energy this way. You guys in the upper echelon sure have good heads, huh.」
Cassius floated a nasty smile and arbitrarily proceeded with the discussion.
That day, the Republic’s top echelons approved of Cassius’ authority over the anti-rebel armies operation.
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