Chapter 413 - 402: Kingdom Revitalization Plan
「The next day.」
The High Council Chamber in the royal palace of Golden Stone City.
This was the largest Grand Council the Aiselan Kingdom had seen in three hundred years.
The five Legion Commanders, twelve Hereditary Dukes, three deans of the Spiritual Arts Academies, and the governors of every province were all in attendance. More than fifty of the kingdom’s most powerful figures, the very core of its authority, were seated on either side of a long table.
Fourteen hours.
That number hung over them like an invisible mountain, weighing down on every heart.
The Beast Tide—which in years past had cost one hundred thousand lives and nearly ten days of bitter fighting just to repel—had been utterly crushed in less than half a day by that man, Weisren.
The eyes of the military commanders betrayed an unconcealable awe.
Meanwhile, Duke Dorne and several other old-guard nobles were grim-faced, their eyes darting between one another. Prince William stood at the front, his posture ramrod straight.
King Alexander entered from a side door and walked to the head of the table, but he did not sit.
He raised a hand. Two guards immediately stepped forward and, with a sharp rustle, unfurled a massive map of the entire kingdom down the center of the long table.
Alexander’s voice reached every person in the room, clear and distinct.
"I have summoned you all today to announce two matters."
"First, effective immediately, Lord Allen Wesren is hereby granted the title of ’Guardian’."
"This title transcends all secular peerage. His will shall represent the highest interests of the kingdom. His domain, ’Cybertron’ in the western suburbs of Golden Stone City, shall be considered an independent, sovereign territory, exempt from all laws of the kingdom."
The words had barely left his lips before the hall erupted in an uproar.
’Transcending peerage? An independent, sovereign territory? This is tantamount to placing a second king over Aiselan out of thin air!’
Before anyone could process this stunning news, Alexander dropped a second bombshell.
"Second, the Aiselan Kingdom will initiate the ’Kingdom Revival Plan.’ With the technical support of the Guardian, we will complete the kingdom’s full transition into an age of steel and industry within thirty years!"
The council chamber instantly erupted.
"Your Majesty! This is unacceptable!"
Duke Dorne was the first to object, stepping forward. The muscles on his one arm bulged and trembled with agitation.
"Entrusting the kingdom’s future, its very lifeblood, to an outsider of unknown origin? How is that any different from consigning our nation to ruin? The lesson of Lord Maurice is a fresh wound! We cannot make the same mistake!"
"He’s right! Your Majesty, I urge you to be cautious!"
"An independent, sovereign territory? Right under the Royal Capital’s nose? This is like placing the kingdom’s neck on the executioner’s block yourself!"
More than a dozen Hereditary Dukes and Legion Commanders stood in protest, the chorus of their opposition nearly loud enough to overturn the throne itself.
Prince William’s expression soured, and he was about to step forward and rebuke them.
But Alexander raised a hand to stop him. His gaze swept over his impassioned subjects below, but his eyes held no anger.
"We’re out of time, Dorne."
His voice was laced with a bleak sorrow that silenced the entire chamber in an instant.
"Have we not shed enough blood over the past centuries? The Beast Tides grow stronger with each passing year. Are the corpses of a hundred thousand citizens annually not enough to make you see reason?"
The old king descended the steps, his trembling finger jabbing hard at the blood-red western defensive line on the map.
"This is not a gift; it is a trade! We are trading our material wealth so that our children and grandchildren will no longer have to plug that line with their bodies! We are trading a moment of humility for the very survival of our civilization!"
He whirled on Duke Dorne, his eyes blazing with a terrifying light.
"You ask why I trust him? I trust him because he slaughtered three hundred thousand Heart Eaters in just fourteen hours! I trust him because his legion can ensure that our sons, and our grandsons, will live!"
"Tell me, what reason would he have to betray us? If he truly wanted to destroy Aiselan, he would only need to withdraw his legion and watch us be devoured alive by those monsters!"
Duke Dorne’s face flushed crimson, choked speechless by the king’s words. His lips moved, but not a single sound came out.
Alexander paid him no more heed, turning to face the rest of the assembly. His voice boomed like a great bell.
"Why would I grant him such extraordinary privileges? Because in return, I have secured the future our people have longed for!"
"The Kingdom Revival Plan!"
"Phase One, to be completed within five years! We will receive advanced technology from the Guardian to establish automated mining facilities at thirty-four untapped ore veins throughout the kingdom! Concurrently, we will lay Magic Energy expressways connecting the Royal Capital to the five major defense zones! And—we will construct a Spirit Communication Tower network providing coverage to the entire realm!"
"Phase Two, within fifteen years! Using our vast mineral wealth as a foundation, we will establish a central industrial zone in the Royal Capital and in each of the five major garrison cities, all powered by Earth Vein Magic Furnaces! We will select and train our first generation of one hundred thousand Alchemy Engineers and industrial workers!"
"Phase Three, within thirty years! We will progressively master the core technologies and possess a Steel Legion of our very own! By then, the Heart Eaters will no longer be a nightmare, but merely a whetstone upon which we shall sharpen the next generation of Spirit Mages!"
The old king’s every word struck their hearts like a sledgehammer.
Automated mining, Magic Energy expressways, real-time communication, a Steel Legion...
A new era, an age of roaring steel they had never even dared to imagine, was slowly unfolding before them.
The voices of opposition had, without anyone noticing, faded into silence.
But looks of doubt and resentment still lingered.
Alexander observed his subjects’ reactions and, in a tone that brooked no argument, delivered the final verdict.
"This matter is decided. It is to be carried out immediately!"
...
「Meanwhile, at Cybertron.」
In the main control room, Allen had no interest in the political drama unfolding in the royal palace.
Prince William had been relaying all the details of the meeting to him in real time.
Allen only cared about one thing.
"When can construction of the Spirit Communication Towers begin?"
"Father has already given the order. Three thousand Spirit Mages will be drawn from the Royal Capital’s Imperial Guard and the Spiritual Arts Academy to serve as the first construction workforce."
William’s voice held a hint of excitement. "You provide the materials list, and the kingdom will give its full support. The first experimental tower could be under construction on the outskirts of the Royal Capital in as little as a month!"
"One month? Understood."
Allen nodded and ended the call.
’That’s plenty of time.’
He raised his hand, and a design schematic for an Alchemy Creation instantly materialized on the light screen before him.
It was a thirty-meter-tall triangular spire, its exterior engraved with numerous Rune Arrays designed for signal amplification and reception.
This was the "civilian-grade" schematic he planned to give the Aiselan Kingdom. Its functions were simple, and its technology was so basic that the kingdom’s own artisans could maintain it with minimal training.
But this was merely a facade.
Allen tapped a finger, and the blueprint turned transparent, revealing the spire’s core structure.
There, a cube roughly the size of a basketball, composed of countless, meticulously nested layers of Runes, hovered silently.
Its shell was forged from a dark purple metal, so deep in color it seemed to devour light.
It was alloyed with the "Starfall Iron" Allen had requested from the King.
This peculiar substance, which could not be melted even by the flames of Spirit Art, was the perfect material for manufacturing communication nodes.
This encrypted communications module was the true core of the Spirit Communication Tower.
It was both the key to building the public communications network and a device to monitor all raw data passing through the tower, both before encryption and after decryption.
[Jarvis, using the map of the Aiselan Kingdom, cross-reference the topography and Magic Power field distribution to calculate the number of base stations required for full coverage and determine the optimal deployment strategy.]
[Calculating... Model established. Based on the communication capacity of a Spirit Communication Tower, while ensuring signal strength and network resilience, a total of one thousand three hundred and twenty ’Spirit Communication Towers’ will be required. Optimal deployment is a honeycomb grid pattern.]
On the light screen, the map of the Aiselan Kingdom was overlaid with a massive web of countless blue hexagons. A point of ethereal blue light pulsed at the center of each one.
One thousand three hundred and twenty points of light.
One thousand three hundred and twenty prying eyes, all about to open.
Allen gazed at the blueprint. In his eyes, the virtual network that covered the continent was like a slumbering behemoth, preparing to draw the entire world into its senses.
His second conceived Core Witchcraft, the "Allen Network," was finally taking its first step from abstract concept to concrete reality.