Magicless Extra: The Villain’s Survival Method – Chapter 163.2

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟔𝟑.2: 𝐓𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐩 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 (8)

“Tch.”

Seok Seong-ryeon, the Minister of War, clicked his tongue and shook his head. In his youth, he had been praised as a hegemon, blessed with both brilliance and outstanding martial prowess. However, the Emperor that Seok Seong-ryeon, the Minister of War, faced today was a far cry from a hegemon.

“It seems that a lot of time has passed.”

“Shh, someone will hear you.”

At Seok Seong-ryeon’s words, Gongson Gi, the Minister of Justice, looked around and cautioned him.

“Hmph! Let them hear it! Anyway, we graduated from the same school and most of the Imperial Guards have gone out to guard the borders of the province, so what’s the problem?”

“Aren’t the Imperial Guards still here?”

At that, Seok Seong-ryeon, the Minister of War, simply frowned and said nothing more.

After returning home, Seok Seong-ryeon thought that in order to resolve the current situation, the Emperor would have to step down and the Crown Prince would have to succeed him. However, as long as the 20,000 Imperial Guards remained in Chengdu, it would be difficult to depose the Emperor.

‘𝘈𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵, 𝘸𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘸 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘎𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘳 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘱𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦.’

Or they could just draw in the Imperial Guards or the Eastern Depot, which would be enough to suppress the Imperial Guards and finish the job. The only variable, however, was the Emperor himself. No matter how old he was, he was a man of the sacred dragonian lineage.

‘𝘊𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘏𝘪𝘴 𝘏𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘗𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦?’

While Seok Seong-ryeon, the Minister of War, was thinking dangerous thoughts. . ., the Minister of Rites, Sunwoo Yoon, headed straight for Gansu Province.

Of course, he had to move cautiously because the so-called Qin troops were stationed on the border of Gansu Province, controlling the movement of the population. If Qin was worried that their diplomatic mission was headed to the Western Empire, they might try to kill them to silence them.

The Minister of Rites and the Imperial Guards disguised themselves as refugees as much as possible and soon left Chengdu Prefecture and headed north.

A week after the Minister of Rites left, another Governor in the south declared independence and proclaimed the founding of a state.

“Your Majesty, an envoy has arrived from the Yue Kingdom.”

At the words of the Minister of Rites, the Emperor ordered the envoy to be admitted.

“Your Majesty, I am Sam-gye, the Crown Prince of the Yue Kingdom, and I pay my respects.”

“You have traveled far. How is the King of Yue?”

“He worries for Your Majesty’s well-being and has not had a peaceful day. Thus, I have come this time to bring medicinal herbs and inquire after Your Majesty’s health.”

“As expected, it is only the ministers from the outer regions who care about me.”

The Emperor warmly welcomed Sam-gye, the Crown Prince of the Yue Kingdom, and held a banquet to congratulate him, even in these times. Furthermore, Sam-gye was the grandson of the current Emperor Zhu Shangluo. To be more precise, he was the child of the daughter of Zhu Shangluo, the Princess of the Great Zhou Empire. The fact that they were related by blood meant that they had to be treated even more specially.

However, the reason Sam-gye had come here was most likely to spy. Qin had declared independence, and from what he had heard here, Feng Guozhang, the Governor of Guangdong Province, had declared independence of the Feng Kingdom, based on Guangdong Province, Guangxi Province, and Fujian Province.

‘𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨.’

The Yue Kingdom, which had lived as a vassal state and tributary of the Great Zhou Empire for many years, intended to take this opportunity to gain independence from the Great Zhou Empire and establish itself as an autonomous state. In particular, the Yue Kingdom had frequent maritime trade with the Western Empire, Imperial, so it knew that the Great Zhou Empire was not the strongest power in the world.

In addition, the Yue Kingdom had amassed wealth through maritime trade, and internally, it had vast farmlands, giving it an economic power that could rival the Great Zhou Empire.

Especially now, with the plague halving the population of the Great Zhou Empire, and with the central government’s control not reaching the provinces, rebels were appearing, so now was the opportunity for the Yue Kingdom to gain independence from the Great Zhou Empire.

‘𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘠𝘶𝘦 𝘒𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘥𝘰𝘮, 𝘣𝘶𝘵. . .’

The other vassal states would surely object. Just as Sam-gye was of the bloodline of the Great Zhou Empire, the other vassal states had also married the daughters of Zhu Shangluo and had children, so they were not inferior in terms of bloodline.

‘𝘈𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵, 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘶𝘢𝘯 𝘒𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘥𝘰𝘮 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘰𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘱𝘢𝘺 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥.’

Thus, while the Great Zhou Empire was in great turmoil, the northern Qin began to recruit able-bodied warriors, claiming that they would fight the plague. Since Sam-gye had heard that most of the warriors had already come to Sichuan Province, he wondered if Qin would really be able to gather many warriors.

‘𝘛𝘴𝘬, 𝘏𝘪𝘴 𝘔𝘢𝘫𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘦 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦.’

Just 200 years ago, the current Emperor had shown the demeanor of a hegemon, capable of fighting the chaotic barbarians in the north.

‘𝘐𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘦, 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘌𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴, 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘶𝘴.’

They would sever their long-standing tributary relationship and spread out into the world as a proud, independent nation.

🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸🔸

Meanwhile, Oswald asked the Order for support to fight the plague’s forces. No matter how strong he was, he couldn’t fight many people at the same time.

In particular, the Archduke of Plague was a being that had descended to this land through a massive sacrifice. He was incomparably more powerful than the other archduke demons.

Even if he gave it his all, it was hard to say whether he would be able to defeat such a being, and he was not confident that he could face the other duke-class demons on his own.

━It seems like it will take a little time, brother.

“How long do you think it will take?”

━I think it will take at least one to two months. . .

The Champions, who had been fighting demons in succession, were exhausted. They said that they had entered 100 days of prayer in order to recover their stamina and holy power. In any case, it had already been 40 days since they had begun praying, so they said they would not come out for at least 60 days.

“I understand. . .”

Oswald was lost in thought after ending the communication. He wanted to ask the Dark Brotherhood for help as well, but there was no way to contact them.

‘𝘋𝘢𝘮𝘯, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘶𝘱 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮. . .’

Currently, most of the Dark Brotherhood had gathered in the Huan Kingdom to fight the Archduke Demon of Sloth, Belphegor. Because of that, this place had been unintentionally left unattended.

‘𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦’𝘴 𝘯𝘰 𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦. . .𝘐’𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘴𝘬 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱. . .’

Oswald told his Deputy Commander, Yuilhan, that he would be away for a while. He then used the Teleport Artifact to teleport somewhere.

“Long time no see, Headmaster.”

“Student Oswald. . .no, Earl of Valencia. It has been a long time.”

“Headmaster.”

“What brings you to me again this time?”

“Please help me.”

“What can I do for you?”

“I would like you to fight alongside me against the plague’s forces.”

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