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Chapter 697: Old Friend

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

Every day, the situation in Eich became more chaotic. The undead, demons, and all sorts of invaders from other dimensions would cause bad news to be brought to us on a daily basis.

The Holy Church was also becoming ever more active. They had already sent out many Cardinals in a tentacle-like manner, spreading everywhere. The Cardinals were doing their best to grab as much attention as possible on the battlefields in countries everywhere. Of course, everyone would want free reinforcements and healing support, but when such “free” help came with the requirement that you cede military authority to the Cardinal, then it would be unwanted.

I knew that the Cardinals were so motivated because the God of Holy Light had promised them that the Cardinal with the greatest accomplishments would become the candidate to become the next pope, as well as obtain eternal life in the God of Holy Light’s divine kingdom. Although such promises caused even the greedy Cardinals who valued their lives above all else to start moving, sometimes, blindly taking action would be worse than not doing anything at all.

Back in the game’s history, the Cardinals had taken advantage of the Holy Church’s reputation and how common Holy Light worship was in the mortal plane to go to all the war areas with their personal guards and swiftly steal the commanding military authority for themselves. The Cardinals then started doing whatever they wanted.

There were a few Cardinals who knew that they understood very little about military strategy, so they left the command up to the original commanders, which was a great thing. However, such Cardinals were an extreme minority. Most Cardinals were the type who would steal all achievements possible while placing all blame on others. Even more common was that even though these Cardinals had never been to military school before or even read a single military stratagem in their life, they all believed themselves to be military geniuses. They would instantly steal the right to command and then give inexplicable orders that would cause easily won battles to somehow be lost.

“...The defeat of Cardinal Xisor, who left a sturdy fortress to instead try and ambush the undead outside in the open.”

“...The calamitous defeat of Cardinal Amuer, who led four knight squadrons in forcefully marching 1,400 kilometers, traveling in and out of demon-controlled territory several times, and losing because he didn’t prepare any supply lines.”

“...The pitiful case of Cardinal Feen, who opened up the castle gates in front of a beastmen army, and angrily tried to personally scold the evil beastmen and teach them their wrongs, trying to convert them to the Holy Light. However, the beastmen instantly cut off his head and easily slaughtered the city due to his opening the castle gates.”

These were all names from the game’s history. These Cardinals had done such ridiculously foolish things that they achieved “eternity” in a different way... that was how much of a mark they had left on history.

Of course, the human countries finally had enough of the Cardinals after learning enough of a lesson. Although the human countries couldn’t directly refuse the Cardinals, they found plenty of excuses. They started either obviously or covertly refusing the Holy Church’s interference, and by the end of the Holy War, plenty of human countries even directly resisted the Holy Church’s commands. The Holy Church also suffered a severe blow to its reputation after countless failures. However, the terrible losses incurred by the Holy Church’s Cardinals taking command early in the war would be impossible to recover from.

Now, things were far better than in the game’s history. The Holy Church was no longer the only ruling religious force in the land. Even the Cardinals understood that times were different. They would behave slightly less arrogantly, so such disasters caused by the Cardinals would be fewer.

Of course, there would still be some military disasters caused by the Cardinals. The Cardinals definitely wouldn’t be content to remain silent, as they desired “eternal life” and the position of pope. They would definitely still want to take military command. Even if some countries would now reject them, there would always be human countries with steadfast belief in the Holy Light that would accept them.

But regardless, the overall situation was still far better than in the game’s history.

The biggest difference was that the Underground Faction hadn’t attacked, nor had there been a cruel human internal civil war. The losses from the elemental war were also within acceptable limits. This was all great news, and the fact that the Holy Church had taken great hits to its reputation already was also a really wonderful fact.

But, there would always be advantages and disadvantages to everything. Although we had eliminated Goddess of Chaos Cynthia already, which stopped the certain bad ending where everything would be annihilated, this had also broken the eternal cycle of the Holy War. The Chaos Abyss was no longer under the control of the will of the Chaos Abyss. It was likely that the Chaos Abyss would send out its most explosive, unrestrained amount of power ever.

Of course, I had already done everything that I could. The current situation was already much better than I had originally expected. This world didn’t belong to myself alone. I still trusted the resilience of the humans, elves, beastmen, and other species. I believed that they could survive this upcoming calamity... And even if I didn’t trust in them, there wasn’t much else that I could do. This world was far too big. No individual would possibly be able to deal with everything when the entire world was at war.

During the days, I continued to grind experience against fire element creatures, and at night, I continued to absorb magical knowledge through Harloys’ soul books. Although my improvement was quite obvious, I still was unable to make a breakthrough. But, what made me happy was that some old acquaintances came to see me.

“Diana, Victoria, long time no see... Momo, long time no see.”

The highest-ranking individuals of the dark elves had just appeared in front of me. Victoria was the high priestess of all dark elves, who held the highest religious authority. Diana held the highest military authority of all dark elves. They were both old acquaintances of mine.

In a way, it was only natural that they would arrive here. As work continued on constructing the new Elven Empire, the dark elves would need to express themselves and communicate as they were one of the four Superior Elf species. Rather than going to find the extremely busy clone Elven Empresses, it would be far more effective to simply come find myself and the lazy cat on my head.

If I only judged my three visitors by their physical appearances, the three of them seemed almost the same as before. This was because eight years would be almost nothing to a dark elf. However, there was a great difference in their auras.

Victoria was still as astonishingly beautiful as ever. But, her past traces of softness had completely disappeared. She had a calm expression, and she wore a white priestess robe that appeared quite simple. Yet, the divine power on her robe was frightful to behold. Victoria still had a pretty face and seemed to be quiet, but there was something quite authoritative in her eyes. As she was the true ruler of the dark elves, she appeared more like their ruler now.

Diana was also far steadier than before. She now had her long hair tied up in a single ponytail. She was obviously happy to see me, but not overly excited, instead simply nodding slightly at me. She wore an incredibly plain set of black armor. The heavy sword on her back didn’t even have any magic enchantments on it. As Diana was the first ever anti-Holy Knight, her arrival caused the Elemental Tide in the area to decrease and be suppressed.

As for Momo... cough cough, I should probably get on with the serious business. I refused to admit that this dark elf who stared at me while shouting “It’s harvest time! Her Highness Reyne was correct, a mature version is also quite nice!” was actually a proper knight. It was likely that Momo had changed the least out of the three dark elves, both physically and internally. The past eight years barely seemed to change her at all.

Whenever old acquaintances met each other again, it was only natural to discuss the past and future. Although they had formerly been my subordinates, I no longer had any official position, so I didn’t need to act so formal or pretend to be so respectable.

The dark elves didn’t have any specific mission here. They were here simply to chat about the past and make preparations for the construction of the Northlands Elven Empire.

I also learned from them that the situation in the Underground was quite good right now. Under the control and direction of the four Underground Lords, more and more Underground residents had successfully immigrated to the Northlands. However, what made me feel rather helpless was that no matter how much they had desired to live in a world with ocean and sun before, or how much they swore they were certain that they wanted to return above ground, more than 70% of the Underground immigrants would apply to return to the Underground by the next year.

“The sky is so scary. I feel like I might fall into the sky at any moment.”

“This wind is so scary. There’s the scent of more than ten other species as well as magical beasts. I don’t feel safe at all here!”

“It’s so cold here. The Underground is far warmer.”

There were all sorts of strange reasons that they gave. In the end, it was considered quite good already even if only 30% of the Underground residents stayed in the Northlands. And as the Underground residents went back and forth between the Northlands and the Underground, the Underground residents now understood much better that the real world up above ground wasn’t as beautiful as they imagined, and that their own world wasn’t that bad after all. The number of Underground residents applying to immigrate naturally started decreasing in number.

Of course, another reason why fewer people started immigrating was also because the Underground Lords were indeed doing a good job.

Back in the day, nobody had counted on the Underground Alliance actually lasting for very long. But as humans, dark elves, beastmen, and dragons all became unified, they became a foundation for the new generation. The trading of mining resources brought plenty of other resources for everyone. The spread of the Church of Law in the Underground made the society quite safe. People were able to stay warm and have full bellies without needing to commit crimes. This heated land of exiles was actually beginning to cool down.

The complete unity and alliance between the four Underground Lords, along with the constantly patrolling dragons in the sky caused those with ambitions to keep them hidden. Only idiots with death wishes and the reckless who thought they were the best in the world would dare to challenge the new order in the Underground.

The Underground was becoming ever more peaceful. This naturally meant that it had become a better place for the natives to stay at. Trade brought them a large amount of products from above ground. The Underground’s special products could also be sold for much higher prices above ground. Since staying in the Underground seemed to be better than immigrating, and everyone was having better and better lives, they would no longer consider immigration.

Of the four major Underground species, the beastmen had immigrated in the greatest number, to the beastmen plains. That was because their own kind was waiting for them there. Dragons were simply too few and number and still lacked presence. The dark elves who abandoned Lorci worship were now peacefully interacting and even living together with other species. Although some time was still needed for everyone to get along better, it was at least no longer at the point where dark elves and others would instantly start fighting upon seeing each other. Of course, another main reason for this was that dark elf society was gradually getting rid of the slavery system.

The busiest and messiest group to deal with were still the Underground humans.

They had been the largest faction in the Underground to begin with. They had the most cities, which meant that they had the most population by far. Compared to other species that were far more unified, the Underground’s human city lords were similar to domain lords above ground. The city lords were only responsible for their own, and they had already gotten accustomed to a feudalistic, fractured Underground society. They would only pay surface respect to other lords.

It could be said that Annie, the Underground Lord of the humans, had the most difficult job of the four Underground Lords. Just trying to avoid conflicts between all the human Underground cities under her command would take up all of her efforts.

I frowned, as this was indeed difficult to deal with. It would be awkward to pressure other city lords with Sulfur Mountain City’s status. The human city lords were too accustomed to feudalistic society where each local lord ruled like a king. Forcefully trying to centralize authority would cause all the city lords to rebel. If it wasn’t for Annie having sufficiently strong support from us, it was likely that even her position would be unstasble.

“It would seem that I need to find a chance to kick that brat Adam down there to take some responsibility. I think he’s had enough free time to have fun outside. It’s time to end his vacation.”

“Roland! We’re back!”

Oh, speak of the devil. Adam actually returned right at this time! But before I even saw him, I heard his voice first.

“Eh? What’s this bottle with a red liquid inside? Some potion that’s the same color as my hair? Great, I’m really thirsty right now, can I drink it?”