Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
“The great Emperor Abel is here!” The words of Steward Burbridge were clear, and the entire palace grew silent. It was the respect for the owner, as well as the fear for power.
Abel nodded to his guests with a smile and walked to the center of the hall. He reached his hand towards a table and picked up a glass of water spirit fruit juice.
No one commented that for his choice of beverage. He no longer fancied wine since his status had increased. He was a real wizard, and he wasn’t trying to please anyone. Wine was only a currency of exchange.
“Welcome to all my prestigious guests—welcome emperor Aldous from the Kingdom of St Anwell. You are just as handsome as I remember. I hope I can be have this much style when I hit your age!” Abel smiled at his guest.
Emperor Aldous smiled and nodded. He knew he was old, but he kept himself together quite well. His younger self was always his pride.
He was pleased at heart as well. Hearing these words meant a lot coming from another emperor, maybe an even more powerful emperor.
However, he couldn’t take Abel’s words at face value. If Abel was complimenting his appearance, it most likely meant that the kingdom of St Ellis’s investigation department had spy on his daily maintenance routine.
Still, Abel came across as very kind as he said those words, which made him more confident in regards to signing his peace treaty.
“The prestigious Duke Chesterton. I’m unfortunate that Emperor Manfred could not make it. Please send my best regards to him!” Abel gently bowed.
“The great emperor Abel, I will definitely do that!” Duke Chesterton bowed back.
He knew what Abel was doing. He was trying to send a peaceful message to the other kingdoms.
The food shortage crisis was harsh. The human world was in chaos. Although the 3 great kingdoms were still standing, their power was greatly affected.
Because of this, the kingdom was desperate to sign a peace treaty. It seemed like Abel was on the same page.
“My brother Bernie, why are you standing so far away!” Abel saw Bernie standing far away, so he smiled and waved him over.
Although Bernie was prestigious, he was no match to the most powerful elite of the Holy Continent.
Abel’s kind invitation had made it easier for him to fit in. Even if he didn’t say a word, it would be very beneficial just by standing next to the most powerful elites. Bernie was not a practitioner. His status in the common world was his only status.
“The prestigious Grand Duke Edwina and Duke Albert from the elves. I hope you are familiar with human food!” Abel smiled and bowed.
Grand Duke Edwina and Duke Albert bowed back with a smile.
“My prestigious guests, your visit has brought a lot of glory to the kingdom of St Ellis!” Abel then lifted his crystal glass and said loudly. “Let the party begin. Everyone enjoy!”
“All the guests lifted their glass as well and took a big sip. All of a sudden, the atmosphere was lit up again.
Coldness had faded from the eyes of those 3 rank 17 wizards controlled by Abel. In the past, they were only forced to follow Abel’s instructions.
But ever since the got their first rewards for the last month, hopefulness began to came into their eyes again.
Let’s take elite wizard Dyna for example, he had gotten 5000 credit points from the Liante city wizard union, which was quite a lot.
If becoming a guardian wizard meant 5000 credit points every month, his future would look very excited.
Besides that, the kingdom had also built him a 17 stories magic tower near the royal city. It was equipped with the highest quality facilities the wizard union could offer.
This magic tower was a few times more valuable than the one he built on each floor. It was much better for his training, which was what he cared about the most.
All the energy needed for the magic tower was also entirely supplied through a giant magic circle from the royal palace. It was then branched out into the other magic towers.
This way, the elite wizard’s magic towers were in operation all day and there was no need for worrying about energy consumption.
Abel had no choice as well. His gems are combined through the Horadric Cube. They were purer than anything, so he could not use them as a currency of exchange publicly.
He was also lucky that he had a supply of credit points from wizard union in Liante City, this allowed him to pay his wizards through credit points and allow them to exchange the stuff they wanted.
All of this was what caused the 3 elite wizards to willingly attend Abel’s party. It meant that they would give it their all to serve the kingdom.
“Abel, your majesty, for the peace of the human world, the 3 great kingdoms should work together and wipe out those pirates who steal food from others during the famine!” Emperor Aldous smiled at Abel and said.
At that moment Abel was surrounded by a small group of the most powerful elite of the Holy Continent. The emperors of the other 2 kingdoms, the leaders of the dwarfs and elves, as well as that black hooded elite priest from the orc empire.
The words of Emperor Aldous made everyone’s ears poke up. If the 3 kingdoms were going to work together, it meant they needed to sign a treaty.
“Emperor Aldous, the kingdom of St Ellis always cared a lot about the peace of the world. We have already sent out knights to surrounding weaker duchies to drive out those pirates. I agree with your proposal!” Abel smiled and nodded.
Abel did not have any desire to take over more land. The kingdom of St Ellis was already more than he could manage.
If the kingdom of St Ellis did not invade him in the first place, he wouldn’t have taken over.
Everything was just for self-defense.
“Abel majesty, the orc empire also wants to maintain peace with you. I hope can sign a treaty with us as well.”
A peace treaty with the kingdom of St Ellis on behalf of the king lion of my empire!” Although the elite priest’s voice sounded like sandpaper, his genuineness still managed to come through.
“Mr priest, if the orc empire wants peace, just signing a peace treaty with the kingdom of St Ellis is not enough right?” Abel then turned to the elite priest and asked.
“Abel, your majesty. The orc empire signed a peace treaty with the 3 great kingdoms long ago. But since you have overthrown the old emperor, we have to sign a new treaty with you!” The priest bowed and explained.
Abel was shocked. He was always suspicious why the orc empire had sent an elite priest to attend his party. It was until that moment he realized the orc empire had a peace treaty with the other kingdoms.
He gazed around. From the look on Emperor Aldous and Duke Chesterton’s face, he knew the priest was not lying.
He turned his gaze to the other guests. They were not shocked at all, seemed like the orc empire and the human world was not the worst enemy after all.
Looking back at history, the orc empire had only sent low-rank orcs to small duchies. It was mostly for training new fighters. None of them had ever appeared in the main cities of the kingdoms.
Even when they caused the kingdom to lose large amounts of griffin knights, they did not send out a large troop, only a quick operation.
Incidents like that could only be categorized as tension, and tension was common in the empire and kingdoms.
Furthermore, the humans did not take advantage of their victory and continue to invade the orc empire. Instead, Miracle Wall remained as the barrier, and the orc battle field was left alone.
“Your Majesty, you have claimed the throne too suddenly. Maybe there are some things no one had explained to you. The orc battle field is a training ground for new wizards and priests. Without it, we can not cultivate this many of them!”Emperor Aldous whispered to Abel.
“Does that mean the human world wouldn’t be in danger even if the Miracle wall disappears?” Abel asked, feeling a little dry in his mouth.
“No, your majesty. But if the Miracle Wall is gone, the orc empire will dominate the battle. And with the help of the Miracle Spirit the orc empire would be able to get a lot of resources from the wizards by killing them.” Emperor Aldous explained.
“Peace is not easy!” Abel sighed.
“Yes, your majesty, peace is not easy!” Emperor Aldous smiled.
The others in the group did not try to get involved with the conversation of the two, until Abel turned his head towards the priest again.
“Sir Priest, the kingdom will maintain peace with the orc empire. I will send someone to discuss the details with you later!” Abel gently nodded his head and lowered his voice.
“Your Majesty, the light of peace will shine across the land!” The elite priest suddenly felt his heart lifted and said with a bow.
It was strange hearing these words coming from an elite priest.
The priest was pleased. He knew St Ellis’s kingdom would be a big threat to them due to how powerful they were.
The orc empire was not in good shape at the moment. It was their weakest in the past 1000 years–especially after Abel had taken away so many of their powerful warriors and killed their elite priests to a dangerous level.
It was the priest’s mission to sign a peace treaty with the kingdom of St Ellis, and getting Abel’s affirmation was a big step forward.
To most guests on the spot, this was their only chance of interacting with Abel, and it was a chance for Abel to get to know his status in the Holy Continent as well.
From the conversation he had with emperor Aldous and Duke Chesterton, he realized the Holy Continent was just a training ground for fighters.
There was a clear border between the orc empire and the human world, which was mount Budapest. Outside Miracle Wall was the training ground for wizards and priests. They would eventually grow by killing each other.
No growth would happen without sacrifice.
Abel could understand the benefit of this from his status. If all wizards were like guardian wizards and just trained all day with their duchy supplying everything for them, they wouldn’t know how to fight at all.
He just couldn’t understand why this world needed so many powerful wizards and priests. From what he heard, the powerful ones would leave the Holy Continent once they passed a circle point. Who was their ultimate enemy?
No one on the spot to answer this question, not even Duke Chesterton and Emperor Aldous. Wizard Dunn knew, but he had promised Abel only to tell him after he became an elite wizard.
This was why Abel wanted to get over with the business of the kingdom and get back to his training. He had to become an elite wizard as soon as possible.
After the party, a lot of changes took place in the Kingdom of t Ellis. The Lord of Bennett proposed a state-run system. With Abel’s support and the consent of nobles, this system was soon in motion.
No one had expected Abel to run this kingdom this way.
Big nobles and different cities selected the members of the state. The members of the state would vote the head of the state through a democratic process.
This was almost exactly the same as the elves’ system. After all the members were selected, they would need to sign a loyalty contract to the emperor. Although it looked very simple, they were all magic contracts made by Bartoli.
Although those members of the state might seem like they were serving for the general well being of people, they were actually fully under Abel’s command after they signed the contract.
The power of the emperor also did not decrease. He was still the ultimate sovereign. The state was only the servant of the emperor.
Abel picked the first head of state, and no noble would question this. Abel had picked Earl Bennet, and Earl Bennett had become Duke Bennett ever since.
Because of this, the Bennett had truly become a big noble family in the Holy Continent. Earl Brook and also became one of the heads of the state. His power was just as big.
1
On June 1st, the state system of the kingdom of St Ellis was established. The first thing they did was signing peace treaties with the other 2 kingdoms, the dwarfs, the elves, the orc empire, and other powerful forces.
Abel would only show up to sign the peace treaty. Other than that, it was almost like he had disappeared. He was no were to be seen in any business of the kingdom.
The day when Abel had signed his last peace treaty, he did not return to his magic. Instead, he got another invitation, so he teleported to the dwarfs.
“The great Dunba majesty of the dwarf. The emperor of the kingdom of St Ellis bow to you!” Abel bowed a dwarf in a crown and a golden armor.
He was at the Holy Crown City, the royal city of the dwarf. Abel had never seen Dunba since he had gone into retreat. Dunba was a powerful rank 18 wizard–one of the top three of the Holy Continent.
“The great emperor Abel, the brother of the dwarfs, I’ve always wanted to see you!” Dunba said with a smile on his face and opened his arms for a hug.
Since Abel had visited by himself, Dunba also did not bring any guards with him.
Abel lowered himself and hugged Dunba. This was very rare among wizards since getting close to another would put one in a dangerous situation.
Especially since Abel was double attributed head commander and Dunba was a pure wizard. Dunba would not have done this if he didn’t have full trust in Abel and thought of him as a real brother.
“Dunba majesty, I’ve wanted to see you as well!” Abel continued to smile.
“Let’s go. We’ll talk as we walk!” Dunba held up one hand and said.
Abel and Dunba walked side by side into a huge ancient structure. It was around 20 meters tall, classic dwarf style.
Dunba did not stop as he led Abel down the stairs beside the structure.
“All of those up there are camouflage. We, dwarfs, will not greet our brothers up there!” Dunba said with a smile.
Both sides of the staircase were spilled with illumination circles. The style of this place was not consistent with the style upstairs. It was made with big chunky rocks, which have a brutal tone.
After some walking, a huge underground city emerged in front of the eyes of Abel. The shadow of dwarfs could be seen everywhere. It was completely different from the empty space on the surface,
“This is the Holy Crown City, the royal city of the dwarfs!’ Said Dunba with pride in his voice.
This underground city was wrapped up in a huge magic circle and an invisible shield. You could also make out the surrounding valleys and terrains outside. This place did not need those small illumination circles above the city. There was a huge one up above and the fiery red ground fire flickering. The city was alive.
Abel’s body was eye-catching among the dwarfs. They all bowed as they walked past “Dunba majesty, Grandmaster Abel!”
It felt strange. Abel had always been addressed as Emperor Abel in the human world, never as Grandmaster Abel.
If all the dwarfs were addressing Abel as Grandmaster, it meant one thing. The status of a Grandmaster to them was higher than an emperor.
Abel curiously looked around. This place had countless unique shops and blacksmith guilds. The sound of hammering metal could be ever from all places.
Dunba introduced this city to Abel as they walked along. The inner of the Holy Crown City was the core of the Dwarf.
Even the lowest rank blacksmiths were advanced blacksmiths. The forgery process was extremely well rounded. Every blacksmith who owned a guild in this place was a master blacksmith or a future master blacksmith.
Abel truly sensed the power of the dwarfs as Dunba kept explaining. There were so many blacksmith masters living in one place, and they would never leave. They dedicated their lives to forgery.
Abel also saw the Goff Family’s blacksmith guild, and he finally realized why they were always labeled as a trading family.
Compared to the trading city of the dwarf, this place was what made those weapons that were like no others. This place had the most advanced forgery technology in the Holy Continent.
It was a blacksmith’s city of blacksmiths, a city of forgery, and everything was built for it.
As Abel and Dunba walked along, a stone castle emerged. It was not huge as the others. In fact, it was a little small for Abel’s 2 meters tall body. But it was more suitable for the dwarfs.
Two 10 meters tall fully formed war puppets stood on both sides of the castle gate. If there weren’t powerful energy waves running through them, they almost looked like statues.
“These are war puppets. It’s too bad we do not have enough energy to run them even though we can make them. These are the only two we’ve kept!” Dunba saw Abel was paying attention to the puppets, so he helplessly explained.
The ones Abel got were a miniature version of these war puppets. Just think about how scary the ones Abel had were, and you could guess how powerful the original ones were.
Abel did not spend too much time looking at it. He had enough power on hand. Although those big war puppets might be powerful, they were too inconvenient.
They walked into the castle, and Dunba led Abel to a lounge room. A servant dwarf brought forward a glass of water spirit fruit juice. It looked like everyone in the Holy Continent had found out that he loved juice.
Dunba picked up a glass of grandmaster wine and took a big sniff. Afterward, he poured half of it down his throat.
“Ah!” He let out a long relaxing breath and said to Abel, “Abel majesty, I’ve started drinking your wine when I went in to retreat. Now I can’t drink anything else. Everything tastes like wax compared to your wine!”
“Thanks for the compliment!” Abel took a sip of juice and smiled.
“I heard that little bastard Bernie said that you had decreased a big chunk of your master wine and Grandmaster wine production. Is it because the dwarfs are not treating you well enough?” Dunba continued. He then put down his glass and said in a grounded tone, “Please don’t decrease the wine production. If you need anything, just ask. As long as the dwarfs can provide, I can make the decision to give it all to you!”
Abel finally knew the reason Dunba, the king of the dwarfs, had invited him. They wanted to make more trades, but Abel had no choice as well. The kingdom of St Ellis was already undergoing a big food shortage. He was already making more wine than he should.
The wine took a lot of food to make, and he couldn’t find any pre-made ingredients for wine in the Holy Continent. Even normal wine was nowhere to be found.
Master wine was made from the combination of 3 normal wines, so you could just guess how much food that would take.
Grandmaster wines were even more concentrated, so making wine would deeply impact his kingdom’s food supply. The dwarfs were not going to die without wine anyway, so that’s why Abel had said that to Bernie.
He didn’t expect that the dwarfs really couldn’t live without his wine. Even king Dunba had asked him personally, so he could no longer reject.
“Dunba majesty. The kingdom of St Ellis has a big food shortage. We no longer have enough to supply everyone, so I had to decrease the wine production!” Abel rubbed his hands together and said helplessly.
Dunba also knew about the food shortage. The way to resolve this was to give the food necessary to Abel, but they did not have enough to spare as well.
“Abel majesty, is there really no other way?” Dunba added.
Abel was a little hesitant. If he really rejected Dunba, his relationship with the dwarfs would be affected. He could not reject, but where could he find extra food?
Suddenly, he thought about that island in the ocean. There were basically unlimited amounts of fish there, so…
“Dunba majesty, if you can send someone to fish around the Titan palace, I can exchange master wine and grandmaster wine with the fish!” Abel smiled.
“Catching fish is no problem, but is fish in the ocean eatable?” Dunba asked with confusion.
Eating fish from the ocean was not common in the Holy Continent, so Dunba was confused by Abel’s suggestion.
“Of course you can. Maybe catch some fish first, and I’ll have a look. If it’s ok, then we’ll continue with the transaction!” Abel was confident in his decision.
“Ok, majesty Abel. If fish from the ocean is edible, it will not only resolve the problem of wine. It can also make the food inventory of the dwarfs even more wealthy!” Dunba began to laugh loudly.
Food was in front of them all along, and they didn’t realize. Most of the dwarfs who went to the Titan palace were elites, and a food shortage would not affect the elites no matter how serious it was.
All of a sudden, all kinds of ocean fish emerged from St Ellis’s kingdom in food shortage.
A lot of people thought the kingdom had sent ships out to the ocean, but they were all traded with the dwarfs. Ever since the dwarfs had a piece of land in the ocean, they began to harvest their resources. The minerals and spiritual beasts from the ocean had opened up a new path for the dwarfs.
The fishing process was also very smooth with the technology of the dwarfs, making fishing gears like a walk in a park.
The amount of fish they had traded with Abel was scary, but since the dwarfs had a base in the ocean with seemingly endless amounts of fish, that number barely even made any change.
The supply of fish had eased the food problem in the kingdom of St Ellis. Abel never thought a simple help of hand with the dwarfs could do so much good to his kingdom.
The civilians were getting used to eating fish. With the nobles taking the lead and their hunger at play, the fishy smell of fish was starting to taste good. In no time, fish was being served at every meal.