Volume 20 Chapter 2, Column Kingdom

Calistreme, the Royal Castle of the Kingdom of Column.

It was the castle where the king of Column resided.

In a room in the castle that only a limited number of people were allowed to enter, there was a man.

His long beard showed his dignity, and his eyes were powerful enough to subdue anyone.

The person who occupied the best room in Calistreme Castle was, of course, the owner of the castle, King Balm Edrea Column.

For Balm, the king of a country, there was little distinction between public and private life.

The room he was in was a private room, but it was almost the same as his office.

In fact, even now, he was processing a mountain of documents.

There were kings who left most of the work to their subordinates and spent their time leisurely, but Balm was not that type of king.

As a result, a certain number of documents were brought to this room every day.

While Balm was sorting through these papers, a certain someone came to visit him.

As usual, he did not even knock.

During official business, he told the person that it was a waste of time and that he did not have to do such a thing.

If there was a bandit who could reach this private room in the first place, he would have to be an exceptionally skilled bandit.

Of course, even though it was a private room, there were several knights guarding it, so it was not unprotected in case of an emergency.

Naturally, only an important person in the country of Column would be able to pass through such a situation.

The person who came to visit Balm was one such person.

“….General Gadrea? What do you want?”

“Yes…. I received a reply from Central.”

At those words, Balm finally took his eyes off the document and looked at Gadrea.

His gaze urged him to continue on.

“Quite simply, the reply came from an unscheduled source. No, I guess you could say it was, in a way, as expected?”

Saying this, Gadrea handed a written document to Balm.

Balm looked it over and his face contorted.

“What did it say?”

There was a warning from Amamiya Tower.

Of course, it was not clearly written as a warning, but it was a distorted and roundabout warning.

In other words, the warning said that they would not allow any attempt to suppress the Central Continent by force.

It was undeniably true that the Column Kingdom was about to take military action against the city to the west of Central.

However, they did not intend to launch a full-scale armed invasion.

They deliberately had not prepared the numbers to do so.

It was a bluff, so to speak, that they could do so at any time.

Of course, they knew that they were being read.

However, it was meaningful just to show that they were ready to attack at any time.

“To be clear, I do not understand. As far as that place is concerned, it looks like information about our plans were easily discovered, but we don’t see the important parts of theirs.”

It was unexpected that Amamiya Tower would appear at this stage, neither for Balm nor for Gadrea.

They thought that if they did show up, it would be at a much later stage.

In the first place, Amamiya Tower did not seem to be actively trying to dominate the Central Continent.

The towns with transfer gates seemed to show reverence, but there was no indication that the Tower was actively working on that front.

It was as if each town had made its own decision and fallen into their hand of authority.

That was why they moved the army to make an example to the western towns, before it was too late, but it had the opposite effect.

“But now we will know how powerful they are, yes?”

“Yes, we will.”

Gadrea nodded, not denying Balm’s words.

“How are the other countries moving?”

“It seems that they have seen us moving and are restraining their movements.”

“Hmm. A wait and see approach, huh?”

The Column Kingdom was not the only one who was bitter about the current situation on the Central Continent.

Each of the cities to the east, west, south, and north had their own kingdoms claiming territory on the Central Continent.

Of course, the Column Kingdom would not be immediately crushed if it were to give up one of its cities in the west.

But the profits they were getting from it were far too large to ignore, which was why they decided to actually make a move like this.

“So? What do you want to do?”

“Nothing. We’ll go as planned.”

Reports continued to flow in that the influence of Amamiya Tower was, indeed, getting bigger.

But it hardly appeared to be a military threat.

The number of adventurers that Crown employed could certainly be considered a threat, but they did not expect all the adventurers to be able to operate.

Naturally, Column’s military action was based on such analysis.

While they did not expect the Tower to appear at this early stage, they were fully aware that it would appear later on.

If there was any concern, it was that a messenger had appeared, and the reasons for its appearance have been thoroughly investigated.

The analysis was also because, based on the actions of past representatives, were not motivated by military reasons.

The action was based on a solid analysis.

Thus, they were not going to halt their plans so easily.

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“Will it be good or bad?”

Leril Bacium, the lord of the western city, muttered to himself in his mansion in the western city on the Central Continent.

A letter was placed in front of his eyes.

The letter contained a request from the executive branch of Amamiya Tower regarding this matter.

The letter was an invitation for the western town to leave the Column Kingdom and join Amamiya Tower.

To begin with, there was no doubt that the western town was a town that prospered through trade with the Column Kingdom.

However, due to the military threat posed by its proximity, the city was being ripped off… It was also true that the city was a town in the west of the Column Kingdom

If what was written in the letter was really possible, Amamiya Tower would be more of a threat than the military power of the Column Kingdom.

If they could see it before others did, it was acceptable for them to accept the request written in the letter.

What was written in the letter was really a simple text.

[Please give your tacit permission for Amamiya Tower to move regarding the military action of the Column Kingdom. Amamiya Tower will not allow the intervention of military forces from outside the Continent. When the Column Kingdom tries to intervene, Amamiya Tower will deal with them.]

Such was written.

Especially, the third item was something that Leril could not ignore.

It was not clear to what extent the Column Kingdom would intervene this time, but if they could deal with the situation, it would be a historical moment for the Central Continent.

On the Central Continent, where the threat of monsters was great, it was not possible to have a force that could compete with the military forces of other Continents.

This situation could be turned upside down historically.

If Amamiya Tower were to possess such power, they would not be in the same position as they have been until now.

But that did not mean that they would simply reject the Column Kingdom’s demands.

That was why we decided to accept Amamiya Tower’s request for this matter.

In short, they decided to wait and see.

“If they really can get rid of the forces of the Column Kingdom…”

Leril shook his head, thinking about the future.

He reminded himself that there was no point in thinking about it as long as he did not know how things would turn out in the present situation.

Amamiya Tower’s demands were, for the moment, not outrageous, or even problematic.

Even if Amamiya Tower failed to deal with the situation, the western city would be able to maintain its indifference to the situation.

Of course, Leril knew that Amamiya Tower was aware of this.

Leril could not predict what the outcome would be at all, so he was very much focused on what would happen in the future.