Age of Heroes (Age of Heroes Chronicles)

Chapter 589: The first step (2)

A contingent of so many people trying to come in into the Empire borders would raise all kinds of alarms over the Empire.

If he was the king of this kingdom, the moment that the people from the outside enters the wall, they would send an army to escort 

Of course, he would not make the stupid decision to attack since that would make the refuges band together but instead he would use the carrot and stick approach.

But maybe it is not so easy to do that kind of thing in this continent. Since most of the people here very much value their tribal relations.

And if by some kind of miracle some people managed to take one of the states of the Empire, then with all kinds of failsafe in place, that state would be isolated. 

The Empire had conquered a lot of land but they also know to how to balances out power. 

The strategy of restraining one with the other, overcoming fire with water, is a method the Empire is very fond of using.

Most states border each other and like a domino, if one state is taken, all kinds of things would begin in motion. 

And each start of this motion benefit the empire. This is the reason why the Empire do not pursue full control of all the states under the Empire.

Instead they focused their power on the Central Government while weakening the other states under autonomy control.

Of course, such a thing could not be said for this kingdom 

The Empire had polished strategy of warfare into a work of art. Arial added.

'Even if they wanted to quickly take back this state, it would still take weeks for them to prepare supplies and reorganize the army. As you could see Giovanni, their way of fighting is quiet different from us. But, I think certain things still remains the same'

Then Giovanni sighed

'What is the matter?' Arial said.

He was about to address him as the Imperial Highness again and so Arial wave his hand and said

'Dispense the formality. The people here did not come from the Human Continent. If they follow you and the etiquette of the Human Continent, that would make it hard for them'

Giovanni nodded and then said

'my lord' he spoke to Arial like in the past. 

When Arial ask someone to dispense the formality, it is merely to make is easy to report to him. 

if everyone keeps saying Your Imperial Highness this, Your Imperial highness that, it felt like he is in the court instead of the tent of military barrack.

That is why during wartime most people would call him My liege or My Lord as it did not diminish his title. 

To them he is the Emperor and the lord of all the kingdoms in the Human Continent. So it did not matter much to call him by the appellation of my lord

Giovanni continued

'It is a pity that we could not contact the outside world. I have heard that they say that there are swirling tornadoes around the shores of the coast of the seas around the continent. It is a pity that we cannot surveil of the shores. If we could take Nuath which border the sea on its north, we could see if the shores there could be traverse'

And if it could be traverse? What would you do?' Arial asked 

'I would send a few ship to sail the Dark Seas and went back to Human Continent to ask for reinforcement. Leander is holding the fort. And you know how loyal he is to you. As long as he holds the reins on the military, my lord does not have to worry that the conflict between my lord family to affect the Empire that much'

Arial sighed inwardly. 

Yes, it is nots strange for Giovanni to have such thought. 

The stories go that when the trials begin, the New World will be isolated from the rest of the world.

This kind of stories appear like some kind of absurd story. But Arial knows it is not that absurd.

A world of magic and the divine. Magic while rare could still be seen and it is still practiced in many parts of the world

But divine abilities capable of shielding and cloaking an entire continent, this is divine matter. A divine act that most people would write off as some kind of fairytale.

But since Arial is entangled with divine beings, he now knows not all stories are just stories. Sometimes, those stories contained truth.

It is only when the Final battle ended that the effect of the battle between good and evil would be revealed.

And it would then affect the world. As Amara put it, if he won, prosperity. If he loses, darkness would take a hold of the world and it would start from Novus Gaia

But Giovanni and Santiago did not get the inside knowledge. It is hard for them to just believe the stories of folklores of the people of this land without confirming it.

Arial did not try to contact and send ships toward Human Continent because he was given the revelation by Amara about how there is tornadoes, storms, lightning and thunder all over the seas that is near the continent and any sea roads toward the other continent is blocked by some kind of mystical force. 

If you for some miraculous reason able to sail past all of those calamities, you would then meet a wall of white mist. 

When you past the white mist you would then be transported on another part of the sea which is still near the New World.

No one could escape when the trials is happening.

What Azief also didn't know was that to the rest of the world, the continent of Novus Gaia had disappeared. 

That one is something that Arial did not know. 

What he does knows was that if he had tried to send anyone to the sea, what they would found is merely disaster after disaster. 

Any attempt on doing so would only sacrifice yourself to the gods of the Deep.

'It is unfortunate. But we have to make do' Giovanni nodded and then he remains silent. Arial then raise his hand 

'I will begin giving titles. I would have wanted to do this in more formal way to honor this position but as you know, we are not exactly at peace'

The other minister nodded

'Arqua, the capital is probably going to send an army. They have the advantage of this being their land. Giovanni, Santiago, you see how large the state of Balhae right? What are your thought?'

Giovanni and Santiago both nodded. Then Giovanni said

'It is more like a kingdom by itself. If the standard of states and kingdoms is determined by some standard of size, I would venture that Balhae itself could be considered a large kingdom.' Balhae, the state itself is half the size of Vangua. And this is only one state of the nine states of Vernium.

The one thing that is fortunate was that even though the land itself is large, the population did not reflect that.

After all, most people living in the Three Kingdoms are the people of the Three Great Tribes. And they usually welcome outsiders. Of course this is not normal times.

Arial nodded hearing what Giovanni said.

'Not everyone here is the original inhabitants of the Three Kingdoms. There is still a lot of things I do not know. And the same could be said for every single one of us'

Santiago then said

'Some of the tribespeople that is integrated into my army had told me that the people of the Three Great tribes that lives inside the walled castles of the Three Kingdoms is different from the tribespeople of the Three Great tribes that lives outside out of it. Their culture is different and their way of life is also very different'

Arial nodded 

Giovanni then step forward toward the long table and pointed toward the borders of Balhae on the map

He hesitated to say something as he looks intently at the map. Then he asks

'This line of borders is it accurate, my lord?'

Neroian then step up and said

'I have some knowledge of this matter. It is a border that is set up by agreement of the Three Kingdoms. The Three Great Tribes have their rivalry but they are also very united and they view most people that is outside of their tribe as unworthy' 

There is a trace of anger in Neroian words

Giovanni nodded as he hears the answer and then he said

'It is without a doubt that Arqua would probably reinforce the cities around their borders, and attacked the cities that is far from our control right now, to make sure we could not expand. We need to quickly take the cities and stabilized the state before Arqua had the chance to do so. Since my lord has decided to take Balhae as the base, then we need to strengthen it as quickly as possible.

'I agree' Ragar said.

Arial smiles as he said

'I agree with all of you. But we must not spread too thin' The others nodded

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