Armida and I arrived at the desert city of Braham by taking a teleportation portal.
Braham was a city between Kara and the Polkin Fortress with a population of 150,000. It was less affluent and populous than Kara. Yet it had a significant influence over the whole desert tribes because it was ruling the regions around the Opis River where the most number of Shikar people lived. Also, the Great Western Plain endlessly stretching from west to north was under its rule.
The population of the Shikar tribe in these regions was at least two million. Braham was a suzerain state as well as the center of commerce. The river on the east of Braham was called the Opis River which was a lifeline of the Great Western Meadow. The upper reaches of the river started from the Icy Plain. Then it ran through the southern coastal city of Assad and eventually reached the sea.
‘What is that?’
I stood on the observation deck of the portal tower and looked at the paved road endlessly stretching to the east. There was a long queue of wagons, containing mounds of construction materials such as underground water pipes, bricks, and gravel.
‘Oh, they’re preparing for war. Kara also has enemies everywhere indeed.’
The Roboros Kingdom’s biggest obstacle in the war against Kara in the future was the Devil’s Trade Route. The reason was simple. To cross the route, it would take a month and there were few sources of water and grass for humans, oxen, and horses in the desert.
It was impossible to supply their troops. Let alone food for combatting soldiers, there would not be enough grass and water to feed oxen and horses transporting other supplies.
Thus, the construction of waterway and road pavement was necessary to supply at least water to transportation troops who should move quickly without getting lost in the Great Desert.
‘But Braham is constructing the waterway and paving the roads. What a stupid decision.’
Braham and Kara were rivals. Braham was the suzerain state in the Great Western Meadow and Kara was the center of the Great Desert Trade Route. They had long been spreading their influence to surrounding city-states and tribes by using their power and money with the ambition of unifying the entire Great Desert.
The problem was that they were right next to each other. Braham was in the west and Kara was in the east. The border between them was the Devil’s Trade Route. Therefore, these two were so close to each other. They could not expand their influences any further since it was too difficult for one to subdue the other by war due to the harsh environment of the Devil’s Trade Route.
Only conflicts and antagonism had continued between these two dominant powers but their biggest goal of unifying the Great Desert ended up as an empty dream.
They’re only fighting against each other in verbal battles through diplomacy. How could anyone of these two unify the Great Desert? Thus, they’re just maintaining the status quo.
Perhaps these construction projects were also rooted in their historical relationships. If Braham overcame the harsh desert environment of the Devil’s Trade Route by paved roads and waterways, it could certainly conquer Kara with its dominant military power.
However, Braham still had one more obstacle which was money. It didn’t have the financial capability to operate these kinds of huge construction projects because it’s only a small desert city-state after all.
Nevertheless, the fact they’re carrying out these construction projects meant that there was someone behind them.
It must be the Kingdom of Robros.
The Kingdom of Robros was the second strongest state in the Prosia Continent, rapidly growing into an empire thanks to its vast and fertile lands as well as the profits from the Great Desert trades. It definitely had sufficient money to support these construction projects.
But the question was why the Kingdom of Robros made a huge investment in Braham’s construction projects. Were they thinking they could make more money than construction expenses if they conquered Kara? Or they just liked the Emir of Braham?
None of them were true.
The reason for the Kingdom of Robros conquering Kara was to colonize the Great Desert in the future. In other words, it would start a war against Kara because it needed not only Kara’s wealth but also Kara’s status as a suzerain state of the Great Desert.
By the way, Braham was also one of the two strongest states in the Great Desert. So, when the Kingdom of Robros would start a war against Kara, it must also start a war against Braham which was the suzerain state of the Great Western Meadow regions. Only after conquering both Kara and Braham, the Kingdom of Robros could colonize the whole Great Desert.
‘Braham is like one who becomes blinded by a prey in front of one’s eyes but fails to see a tiger coming from behind. Tsk, tsk.’
Armida came over to me with her concerned face.
“Hey, little bro. By the way…”
“What’s up?”
“I am not sure if I could participate in this job.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You know I am a Valkyrie.”
“So what?”
“I am not supposed to get involved in matters happening in the human world.”
I scratched the roof of my ear with my index finger. She’s not supposed to say that after she followed me this far. I already paid extra 4 riffs of gold for her portal fee.
“Then what matters can you get involved?”
“Perhaps hunting demons, spreading the religions or finding Savondia who left Kronos, the Sky City.”
“Then it’s fine.”
“How come?”
“This job is a part of your mission to find Savondia. I told you before. By working at a detective agency, you can build a network through which you will find Savondia. Got it?”
“I remember what you said. But is it really possible?”
“Of course.”
“How?”
I shrugged my shoulders.
“It always works in the same way. Even a complete stranger becomes an acquaintance if you expand your network in a few levels. By going through a four or five-level network, everyone in the world would become to know each other. And Savondia is also in these networks for sure.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. So all we need to do is to build a network and use money we’ve earned to facilitate that network better. Then other people in our network will use their networks and find Savonida.”
Armida brightened up with a feeling of relief.
“Okay then, I can participate in this job.”
“Alright. Let’s go down. We should go to the Polkin Gateway quickly.”
As I was about to go down the spiral staircase of the portal tower, she stopped me.
“Hey little bro, we won’t take a portal?”
“No. There’s no portal tower at the Polkin Gateway.”
“Why not?”
“They don’t build portal towers in the major military fortresses. The enemies could launch a surprise attack through the portals.”
She expressed her curiosity with her subtle look.
“Just like the Holy Land of Divinum which doesn’t have a portal tower?”
“No. The Holy Land of Divinum has its own reason. It’s a sacred place. If people could go there easily via a portal, the place wouldn’t seem so holy.
“Oh, I see.”
I kept waving my hand from the downstairs.
“Anyways, move quickly. We don’t have a lot of time.”
Still, she insisted on not going down the stairs.
“Hey, little bro, why do we have to walk? You don’t know who I am?”
“I know, you’re a Valkyrie.”
“Then you know that I can use Teleportation Magic, right?”
Teleportation Magic was a high-level magic of 8-Term by which people could teleport to the far distance. It’s very difficult to cast this magic and also the way to use mana was really complicated so most magicians could not dare to use this magic.
I stuttered a little bit.
“Yeah, maybe…”
“Alright then. I will teleport us to the front of the Polkin Gateway.”
I stared at her with narrowed eyes.
Actually, I knew about Teleportation Magic as well but I still paid a lot of money and took a portal because I could not trust if she could use Teleportation Magic right.
If she made a mistake, we would end up under the ground or above the clouds. How could I trust her and rely on Teleportation Magic with such a huge risk? I would rather ride a carriage drawn by hot-tempered wild horses.
“Do you have the coordinates?”
“I don’t know. But I could check the book of teleportation coordinates.”
“When was it published?”
“Maybe around the time of the birth of human civilization…?”
If so, they were coordinates at least thousands of years ago. Then it meant after teleportation, it’s very likely that we would end up merging with buildings or trees.
“Forget it.”
“It would be okay. Just wait…”
Armida started rummaging through her sub-space pocket. Shortly after, she followed me with a sheepish face. She read my countenance and whistled awkwardly. She probably forgot to bring the book of teleportation coordinates.
‘If I rely on her Teleportation Magic, I would not call myself a man.’
A little after, we got outside of the west gate of the Castle of Braham and I summoned the Jet-Black Crescent Horse in front of the bridge across the Opis River. Usually, it’s a six-day walk from here to the Polkin Gateway. But with the Jet-Black Crescent Horse, we could arrive there within half a day.
Armida also took out a huge Essence and summoned her horse which looked similar to the Jet-Black Crescent Horse in general. But the strange thing was that black smoke, shaped like wings, rolled up from its waist.
I looked at my Jet-Black Crescent Horse and her horse one after another.
“Hey sis, there’s something strange.”
“What’s strange?”
“It seems like your horse better than mine. You didn’t give me a lower class horse than yours, did you? If so, I would be really disappointed in you. You and I are true friends, right?”
She avoided eye contact.
“Of course not~ they are both the same horses. Even their names are the same. Mine is also the Jet-Black Crescent Horse.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
“Then what are those wings?”
“Oh, they are like accessories. They’re pretty, aren’t they?”
“Really? Even if she flaps those wings, she wouldn’t fly or do anything like that. Right?”
“Well, it’s been a long time since the last time I rode her. So, I can barely remember what those wings can do but I think you’re right.”
As she kept avoiding my eye contact, I made a perplexed face.
“Okay. I will trust you for now. Let’s hit the road.”
“Yeah. We should hurry.”
We rode our horses at a high speed. But there’s something weird. Whenever her horse’s all four feet were floating in the air, she moved forward as if slipping and flying.
‘I think her horse can fly with those wings…’
After we traveled for a long while, we could see the Ipozium Mountains which looked like a long solid line from afar.
I gently stared at the Ipozium Mountains, revealing their magnificence. Currently, those thousands of meters of cliffs and endlessly stretching mountain peaks were borders between the Prosia Continent and the Great Desert. But during the Era of Destruction in the future, they served as barriers that stopped the advancement of a large army of demons coming from the Great Desert.
‘Polkin Gateway… It’s been quite a while.’
Soon after, I could also see the Polkin Gateway which looked like a dot from afar.
There’s a legend that this impregnable fortress, which was 210m long, 90m high and 60m wide, was built by the Great Saintess of the Earth who visited this place a long time ago.
Nobody knew that the legend was true or not. But anyways, the Polkin Gateway became a holy land of protection for the Prosia Continental people after it successfully defended itself from attacks by the army of demons for a significant time.
‘Well, would Duke Wastein still be doing well? I haven’t seen him only for a year or two but I kind of miss him.’
Duke Wastein was a great general who brought the golden days of the Robros Kingdom and also the commander in chief of Robros Kingdom’s army during the war against Kara in the future.
Ironically though, I had met him before. In the battle at the Polkin Gateway during the Era of Destruction, he was the commander in chief of the Polkin Gateway Army and I was the second commander in chief of the Yosrahim Empire’s reinforcement army. At that time, I was in charge of building and defending walls in the byway which demons had found out. But the defense was not strong so he blamed me a lot.
By the way, Duke Wastein was a very meticulous man and a war genius.
He put his mind to all of those military deployments on the battlefield, the necessary military supplies, both advantages and risks of the terrain in which the battle would take place as well as the change in battle situation according to the weather. Whenever I heard the war report from the information division, I was very surprised since all his predictions were right. Whenever he built a trap, the enemies always fell into it. When the battle started, the enemies crumbled by themselves.
Even Grandpa Cloud made an interesting assessment of him.
‘There is nothing to gain for anyone who fights against Duke Wastein, so it’s best not to fight against him.’
Grandpa Cloud was right. When the Duke Wastein started a war, then it meant it’s already over. The enemies might resist desperately until their death but for him, it’s like a predestined victory which he had planned beforehand.
And the moment when the Duke Wastein really came into his own was the battle of the Polkin Gateway.
During the Era of Destruction, the Prosia Continental Army first encountered the large army of demons at this Polkin Gateway and the Duke Wastein defended the fortress against demons for more than a year.
At last, the large army of demons failed to seize the Polkin Gateway which was the only passageway across the Ipozium Mountains. So, they had to detour around the Great Northern Orc Plains while the Prosia Continental Army could buy enough time to prepare the war. This event was the main factor that made Prosia Continent to last more than two years during the Era of Destruction.
Yet, Duke Wastein also had one weakness which was the old and jealous king of the Kingdom of Robros.
My little brother Yosef once told me. A great general would be revered by people as a hero but he would just be a thorn in the side of those in power. Why? A great general met nearly all the conditions such as administrative power, support from people, and military power to become a king. That’s why my uncle, who’s the Emperor, always hated the Grandpa Cloud. And of course, he loved me a lot in my past life.
* * *