A Treacherous Courtier Manages the Empire Well

90 – The End of the Mirage

The Red Dragon soared high in the sky.

“Lord Red Dragon. We can’t continue the bombardment any longer! Everyone is exhausted!”

William, the leader of the Dragon Knights, flew towards the Red Dragon and shouted like that. The Red Dragon nodded.

“Retreat. You’ve all done enough.”

“Yes! We’ll take it from here!”

The 2000 Dragon Knights began to fly back to their respective positions. Some were returning to the aircraft carrier, and others were heading back to the ground forces’ base. The Red Dragon glanced down.

“Stop them!! We must stop them at all costs!!”

The beastfolk were firing bullets to the point where the barrels of their machine guns glowed red, while infantrymen were busy detonating gas to spread across the Casolea Plains.

The mages were casting spells fervently, and the beastfolk and warriors from the southern part of Karamba were dealing with orcs who had breached through machine guns, barbed wire, and gas, entering the stronghold.

“Kill them! Don’t let them cross the stronghold alive!!”

It was a desperate fight.

The exchange rate was overwhelmingly in their favor.

For every soldier from Aylam and Karamba who fell, thousands of orcs perished. However, even with such a grim exchange rate of thousands for one, the problem was that there were still too many orcs left to contend with.

Tens of thousands.

No.

Perhaps even millions.

The Casolea Plains were already forming small hills of dead orc bodies, yet more orcs kept coming, not deterred by the mounds of their kin, pouring in every day.

The stronghold would have been breached long ago by the overwhelming orc assault if not for the Red Dragon’s intervention.

“Kneel! I will unleash my magic!!”

The Red Dragon shouted towards the stronghold. Seeing the soldiers preparing, the Red Dragon began to gather mana.

9th Circle Magic.

Even in this age of advanced magic, it required dozens of mages fueling up on elixirs to cast. Hundreds of such spells were cast in an instant by the Red Dragon’s command.

“It’s a Meteor Swarm!!”

“Everyone, brace for impact!!!”

From hundreds of magic circles filling the sky, enormous boulders with immense physical force began to rain down.

From Noble mtl dot com

The orcs had no anti-aircraft equipment, nor did they possess major magical defenses. In the midst of the gathered orcs on the Casolea Plains, the Meteor Swarm descended, leaving the orcs with nothing to do but to scatter in all directions.

The terrain of the Casolea Plains shifted as if

“Kyaaahhh!! It’s hot! Hot!!!”

“If you wear it, it won’t be hot. Turn back!!”

Seeing the orcs, who, after relieving their kin’s suffering by decapitating them and using their bodies as shields, were picking up the corpses and charging back into battle, even the Red Dragon couldn’t help but feel disgusted.

Today alone, the Meteor Swarm had been used for the third time. It wasn’t just a Meteor Swarm; it was hundreds of Circle-9 spells cast simultaneously.

Yet, the number of these creatures showed no signs of decreasing.

“These disgusting orc bastards for real!!!”

As if exasperated, the Red Dragon shook its head while surveying the battlefield.

Thanks to the orcs obliterated by the Red Dragon’s bombardment, a gap had formed in the orc wave, allowing the Aylam and Karamba coalition forces to prepare for the next wave. Observing them busily exchanging positions, the Red Dragon let out a sigh.

“Damn it! Why did I even make a contract like this!!!!”

Venting his frustration, he turned back to the aircraft carrier.

He needed to rest quickly before the next battle.

Yet, there was some good news: the frequency of orc appearances was gradually decreasing.

The numbers they had been dealing with seemed to be dwindling.

“The end is in sight! Let’s push a little harder!!”

This was the day before the Battle of Casolea Plain.

Adran and I, along with dozens of nobles, were watching a large television screen in the War Room. It was a television set up to share the view they were watching through powerful dragon magic.

“I see the Crescent Triangle.”

In the screen, the dragons had teleported from Aylam Palace to the Crescent Triangle in an instant. It was an incredible distance of thousands of kilometers covered in a blink, all made possible by the dragons’ transcendent mana-powered teleportation magic.

In an instant, the dragons appeared in the sky above the Sultan’s Palace, and the chaos below caused by the dragons was conveyed to us through their eyes.

“What should we do now, Your Majesty? Should we wipe out Amir and all the armies that supported him, including Amir, to ensure they never touch the Skull Lord’s crown again?”

Adran shook his head at the dragon’s suggestion.

“Full-scale bombardment should be reserved as a last resort. It may be impossible to confirm if Amir’s body is buried in the rubble. Besides, retrieving the Skull Lord’s crown would be difficult.”

“Do you have a separate plan in mind?”

“Yes. There is a way to minimize casualties and capture only Amir and his key aides. If this method fails, then you may proceed with the full-scale bombardment.”

“What is it, Your Majesty?”

Adran looked at me, and I, in turn, looked at the Emperor.

Through our exchanged gazes, Adran could understand what I was thinking.

The method I had reported to the Emperor, a strategy to sow discord, which Caria would have used if the orcs had not been unleashed.

The so-called internal strife.

Despite the variable of the orcs being in play and Caria engaging with them, the situation of six dragons far outweighed the threat posed by a few wyverns. The strategy Caria had planned could still be utilized effectively.

“Elond Changeback. Aren’t you the one for this? Create an ambassador and convey the message to the dragons.”

“Leave it to me, Your Majesty.”

I brought the communication crystal connected to the dragons in front of me and cleared my throat, preparing myself.

Then.

“Dragons, I am Rendor. You can convey my words as they are from now on.”

I began to speak with a voice that nearly compromised the unity of the Empire.

Hamad stared up at the sky in terror.

“It’s… it’s a dragon!”

Indeed, it was a dragon.

Not just one, but six legendary creatures capable of erasing thousands of wyverns with a single spell were hovering in the air.

He was a veteran among veterans who had never been frightened even once since joining the Sultan’s army, but even he was not so brave as to withstand the spectacle of six cosmic horrors floating in the air.

Amidst everyone trembling in fear,

a white dragon, boasting its white color among the dragons, steps forward.

“Listen, Sultan’s army and people!!!!”

A thunderous voice begins to echo throughout the crescent triangle.

It was a huge voice that made civilians who had been hiding in their homes to avoid Prince Amir’s politics of suppressing fear, gradually stick their heads out.

“The Prince Amir you worship is trying to break the seal of the crown of the Skull Lord, passed down from generation to generation to the Sultans, and revive the Skull Lord at the western edge of the land to confront Aylam!!!!”

Confusion deepens with those words.

Skull Lord.

Among the people of Karamba, there was no one who did not know about him.

Amidst the resounding voice, Hamad immediately looks to his superiors.

“Senior Commander. Is that true? Is Prince Amir really trying to revive the Skull Lord?”

“If that monster is resurrected, Aylam won’t be the problem! Our tribe people in the western plains will be the first to be slaughtered!!!”

“Unless Prince Amir has gone mad, he wouldn’t have set his mind to such a crazy act!”

Even the senior commander, amidst the soldiers murmuring, could not give an answer. He, too, was in a state of confusion, hearing the dragon’s words for the first time. But as a senior commander, he spoke the words ordered by the generals.

“Do not believe the wicked lies of the dragons! Prince Amir has risen to eliminate the Aylamians who assassinated Sultan Saladin! Do not believe their lies under any circumstances!…..”

Before the words of the senior commander could finish, the words of the white dragon continued.

“Of course! Whether you believe it or not, that is your freedom. But you should know this. If Prince Amir and his closest aides, as well as all the officers and generals who participated in the rebellion, are not brought before me within the next 10 minutes, we will immediately bombard the western plains with magic.”

The soldiers’ faces turned pale.

Most of the troops who participated in Amir’s rebellion were soldiers based in the western plains.

“My, my father!”

“My mother! Please spare my mother only!!”

“I have sons and daughters! Please!!”

The soldiers panicked. The senior commander drew his sword and shouted for them to calm down, but with dragons floating in the air looking down at them, the soldiers had no way to regain their composure.

“Time is passing. It’s 10 minutes. Bring Prince Amir and his closest aides, as well as the generals, all to me within 10 minutes. Otherwise, your tribe will be wiped off the face of the earth.”

Along with the dragon’s threat, an illusion of a hourglass slowly counting down time appeared in the air.

Unable to bear it, Hamad drew his sword.

“You, you! Hamad! What are you doing right now!…….Swish!!”

The neck of the senior commander flew off by Hamad’s sword. As blood sprayed out like a fountain, Hamad looked at his fellow soldiers.

“Choose. Prince Amir or your tribe and families!!!!”

Everyone could vaguely sense what was happening.

Amir’s actions were a military rebellion.

He claimed it was to avenge the life of Sultan Saladin, but when asked if starting an unwinnable war for revenge was truly justified, there was no answer.

During this time, a single word from the dragons stirred up a storm.

There was no one willing to sacrifice the lives of their families for a single prince who had caused a military rebellion to satisfy his own ambitions.

“Capture them!!!”

“All senior commanders and top senior commanders! And the generals and Prince Amir’s aides, capture them!! Right now!!!”

Hamad was just the beginning. All the soldiers stood up.

Even the wizard units had joined the rebellion.

Like a flood, they poured into the palace and captured all the bewildered generals and their aides at the sudden appearance of dragons.

“Yes, you rascals!! What on earth are you doing!! What is this!! What are you doing now!…….Argh!!!”

“Shut your mouth!! Because of your mistake, not only us but our families have suffered death!!!”

As the soldiers threatened the generals by thrusting their bloodied swords, the generals trembled, unable to say a word, and could do nothing but be dragged away.

“Prince Amir!! Prince Amir is also here!!!!”

Prince Amir, who was in a frenzy on the imperial bed, was swiftly arrested by the soldiers and brought before the dragons.

“You rascals!! Do you even know who I am! How dare you lay hands on me!!!”

Despite Prince Amir desperately struggling and shouting until the end, no one acknowledged his authority.

Thus, in just 10 minutes, Prince Amir’s reign of terror came to an end.

Watching all this on television, we shouted and rose from our seats.

“It’s over!! It’s resolved!”

Truly a hollow solution.

The dragons were indeed cheats.

The Emperor let out a long sigh of relief and sat back in his seat.

“If only all six of them were deployed to the front lines from the beginning, it would have ended much faster.”

I agree, Your Majesty. However, dragons do not operate based on human common sense.

“I had already requested it. But they didn’t even pretend to listen. If it weren’t for the bait of the Skeleton Lord’s resurrection, they would still be inactive.”

In the early stages of the war, Karia and I personally sought out the six dragons excluding the Red Dragon.

Despite pleading with them.

“You can’t defeat a Red Dragon with thousands of lesser dragons? Annoying. We don’t want to get involved in your petty fight, mortals.”

It was those six who simply refused out of annoyance. The duty of the Empire. We brought up the lives of many Empire citizens who were dying, and so on.

“The Empire is not facing destruction, is it? If it faces destruction, step in. We have plenty on our plate already.”

Those dragons who brushed it off with that one comment.

The senses of an absolute being and a human were so different.

No matter what happened.

The past is the past.

I raised the communication device.

“Lord White Dragon. Please take the Crown of the Skeleton Lord from Prince Amir.”

“Understood. Randor Changeback.”

The White Dragon lifted Prince Amir, who had been brought in by the soldiers, and pulled him towards himself.

Watching that scene on television, the Emperor and I finally thought that all this turmoil had come to an end.

However.

“Hmm?”

Prince Amir, being pulled close to the White Dragon, suddenly began to convulse and have a seizure.

“Damn it! Did he ingest poison!……..”

At the moment I urgently shouted.

Prince Amir’s appearance began to change.

“Where, where am I? Why am I?………”

Into the rough and unimpressive appearance of a slave.

And the magical species, the dragons, immediately recognized the true nature of the spell.

“Damn it! It’s a decoy! Changing appearance with magic and linking their mind elsewhere! The real body is somewhere else!!”

This quick-witted little bastard had put his entire legion and generals on the line as bait and had managed to escape all by himself.