A Treacherous Courtier Manages the Empire Well

Chapter 85

85 – The Blood of the Innocents

The Teleport Tower.

Naturally, a massive teleportation magic array is installed there. It needs to be powerful enough to transmit information to thousands of televisions and radios. However, unlike Eilam’s teleport tower, the one in Karamba lacked one key function.

The material transmission capability.

“Of course, even though Karamba and Eilam were forced to improve their relations, there was always a concern that Sultan might have ill intentions and could modify the teleport tower to create a military passage.”

That’s what the Eilam people thought.

“While televisions and radios are great, there’s always a risk that those Eilam bastards might betray us and use the teleport tower to send a well-armed army to the heart of the Crescent Triangle.”

That’s why the Karamba people thought, and through mutual agreement, the decision was made.

And Rashid, who facilitated this agreement, said, “I know there’s no material transmission function! Can’t we modify it or manipulate it? Can’t we quickly do a temporary modification to add the transmission function?”

“It’s impossible. To do that, you would need at least 7 well-trained specialized wizards. It would take a minimum of 3 days.”

“Damn it!”

Ironically, they were in mortal danger because of that agreement.

From the lower floors of the teleport tower, screams could be heard continuously. Soldiers under General Ali’s command, without any mercy, were pushing their way up, even ruthlessly attacking the Eilam people working at the tower.

In a rush, the tower master and several staff blocked the stairs with office supplies and furniture, stopping the elevator to prevent further ascent. But the moment the sorcerer arrived, there was no way to stop them.

“What do we do, Prince Rashid!”

The tribal chiefs and other leaders trembled as they looked at Rashid. With a broken leg and an arrow in his arm, a wounded Rashid gritted his teeth and tried to think of a solution.

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Then, one idea struck him.

“What time is it now?”

“It’s 9:32.”

“At around 9:40, the dragon delivery from Lanpang’s Convenience Store heading towards the Western Plains will pass over the Crescent Triangle! If we go to the rooftop of the teleport tower and ride the dragon, we can escape!”

It was the only way to escape the Crescent Triangle. Rashid immediately began to confirm the escapees.

17 tribal chiefs and leaders supporting Rashid, along with 32 staff working at the tower, needed to escape. Rashid smiled brightly.

“If we empty the two container ships carried by the dragons, everyone can fit in! Hurry to the rooftop!”

Those who hurried to the rooftop of the teleport tower soon faced another problem.

“How do we signal the flying dragons?”

The tower master had a solution for this.

“While we don’t know the individual dragon riders’ frequencies, we know the communication frequency of Dargamba’s Lanpang headquarters!”

“Contact them immediately!”

The tower master hurried downstairs and contacted Dargamba’s Lanpang headquarters via magical communication. The headquarters connected them to the nearest dragon delivery courier at the Crescent Triangle, allowing the tower master to successfully request assistance from the closest dragon courier.

“They’re coming right away! Expected to arrive in 2-3 minutes!”

As the jubilant tower master delivered the good news, everyone cheered. But the joy was short-lived.

Thud! A vibration was felt beneath their feet.

Everyone knew that the sound of the stairs being forcefully breached, blocked with office supplies and furniture, was due to a powerful force.

The sorcerer had arrived.

“Hurry up!!! Block the rooftop door!”

Locking the rooftop door may have been futile with just one iron gate to stop the sorcerer. Rashid Prince’s face contorted in despair almost simultaneously.

“Hey!! Dragon courier here!!”

The dragon courier, flying at maximum speed, began to appear in the distance, pouring the goods from inside the container into the air.

A moment where hope and despair intersected.

Fortunately, the dragon courier arrived on the rooftop first.

“Get on! Hurry!!”

Opening the entrance of the container, dismantling two out of the four anchor lines to tilt the container in mid-air and spill the items, the dragon rider hurriedly started to reattach the two anchor lines and shouted.

People started to rush into the empty container.

“Hurry! Quickly!”

Rashid Prince, tribal leaders, and tower staff all boarded as the dragon rider reattached the two anchor lines and climbed onto the dragon.

As the steel door crumpled, the enraged sorcerer of the Amiir tribe’s execution squad and the palace guards, bloodstained from head to toe, began to enter the rooftop.

“Damn it! Depart immediately!!”

“We’re moving!”

The dragon started to take off. Seeing this, the sorcerer, shocked, began to launch attacks hastily. Dozens of blue-flamed sorcerer’s flames began to fly towards the dragon.

“Where!!”

The dragon rider agilely maneuvered to dodge the flames.

But not all could be avoided.

“Oof!”

One flame grazed the dragon rider’s side. Though he spat blood, he didn’t stop biting the pain and controlling the dragon. Eventually, carrying Rashid Prince and the tower staff, the dragon turned back towards Dagamba in the distance, eliciting a furious roar from the sorcerer.

But what could be done?

The core target of the rebellion, Rashid, had escaped.

“This bastard!!!!!!!!!”

Amiir smacked General Ali’s cheek with the back of his hand. The force of the blow was such that General Ali staggered and almost fell to the ground. Amiir shouted.

“Why did you kill Ailam Inn!! Why!!! Now Randor has a reason to go to war! The Emperor of Ailam now has grounds to bring humans, machine guns, dragons, and drakes to burn Karamba! It’s already a losing battle with just one dragon, how can we handle dragons too!!”

“R-Rashid Prince was about to escape! It was deemed unavoidable to capture them…”

“You should have prevented them from entering the tower in the first place! You damn idiots! You brainless fools!!!!!!!”

Amiir also struck the palace guard captain who had opened the encirclement for Rashid and the tower personnel to head towards the tower. Despite hitting and hitting, his anger did not subside, and Amiir drew his sword, beginning to smash everything in sight.

What was the problem? The core of this disaster lay in the military rebellion hastily decided overnight at the speed of roasting beans. General Ali was too impatient, and Amiir was too preoccupied with organizing the palace internally.

But analyzing the cause of failure now would be too late.

After raving for over 10 minutes.

Amiir suddenly burst into laughter.

“Ah, Amiir?”

As the generals looked on in confusion, he began to laugh strangely, gazing at the palace.

“Let’s go see Father first.”

Saying so, Amiir began to cross the palace with a sword in hand. The palace was now a bloodbath. Stepping on the blood of several people, he headed towards the Emperor’s residence where his father would be receiving treatment.

In principle, the entrance to the residence should not be opened until the Emperor regained consciousness or passed away. However, Amiir, who had already crossed too many principles, had no intention of following such musty rules.

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

Due to the anti-magic spell, except for some execution squad sorcerers supporting Amiir within the palace, no one else could use magic. The same applied to the sorcerers treating the Sultan.

Thinking that with treatment interrupted, the Sultan must have died, Amiir, who was about to enter the residence, suddenly realized that someone on the opposite side of the residence was being supported by the sorcerers, looking at him.

“This… What on earth is this, Amir.”

Sultan Saladin.

The great eternal ruler.

The emperor, who was once a conquering king, looked down at him.

Seeing Amir covered in blood and the imperial guards, the old emperor’s eyes trembled.

“What in the world have you done! Rashid? Where is Rashid!”

The coughing emperor didn’t seem content with just words. Perhaps miraculously, he had barely regained his senses after receiving intensive treatment. But it would have been better for both Amir and Saladin if he hadn’t regained his senses at all.

“Father.”

Amir gestured. In accordance with his gesture, the imperial guards began slaughtering the sorcerers and courtiers who had protected the emperor until the end. In the midst of a brutal massacre where blood and entrails splattered, the old sultan, having lost those who supported him, collapsed weakly to the ground.

“Ah, Amir! You!!!”

Astonishment. Anger. Sadness. Fear.

The conquering king fell to the ground in a state of weakness he had never shown before, coughing up blood.

Amir slowly approached his father.

Then, he grabbed his father’s hair, forced him to stand, and pointed a knife at the old man’s throat.

“You asked what this is all about, didn’t you?”

“Ah… ah.”

The emperor groaned weakly as he looked at the knife blade pointed at his own throat by Amir.

Amir laughed.

That grotesquely twisted laugh was more akin to a demon than a human.

“I am succeeding the throne, Father.”

The blade swung.

The head of the elderly conqueror fell from his body as if it had been detached from the start.

Covered in his father’s blood, Amir looked at the generals who followed him.

“When Aylam decided to turn against us in favor of Rashid, it was already a foregone conclusion. We have no chance against the dragons, machine guns, and the humanoids.”

General Ali bowed his head pale at those words. It had come to this because of his killing of the Aylam people.

But Amir continued to smile.

“It’s all over anyway. I might as well use this situation to crush Aylam completely.”

“What do you plan to do?”

Amir carefully took out one item from the body of the deceased sultan.

A horribly black octagonal gem that gave the feeling that the space itself had disappeared was held in his hand. The generals’ faces lost their vitality the moment they saw the gem.

“Your Highness! You can’t use that!”

“Wasn’t it rejected by the sultan a long time ago! It’s too dangerous!”

Despite the generals’ objections, Amir drew his sword and aimed it at them.

Aylam will surely kill us. It’s a 100% certainty. But although this is a rare chance, it’s a possibility we can control. The enemies have dragons and wyverns! We need dragons and wyverns too! Whoever opposes me, step forward. You will burn to death by Aylam’s dragons and wyverns. I will grant mercy by cutting your throat. It won’t be painful!!!”

No one among the generals dared to step forward in the face of Amir’s mad words. It was an implicit consensus. They were all in the same boat.

“But, Your Highness. Before using that gem, there’s a high chance that the Aylam army will first enter the Crescent Triangle. Consider the speed of the dragons they command.”

“I know that too. Using the gem requires a lot of preparation. There must be a target that can buy us time.”

Amir looked to the south.

The die had been cast.

There was nothing left to hide.

“General Azadi. Wasn’t it the general’s duty to manage the grand sorcerer obstructing the southern orc legion?”

“Your Highness! That’s!…”

“Dismantle the grand sorcerer. Let the orc legion advance north. In any case, before the Crescent Triangle District, it will be Malta, the golden plains and oil-producing land so cherished by the Randor, that will first encounter the orc legion. The Emperor of Aylam, who loves his people endlessly, will have no choice but to command the halt of the orc legion as a priority. A perfect ankle hold.”

“Your Highness! Please! I implore you! The orcs do not discriminate against blood! If you do so, the people of Karamba will also perish!”

“Do not address me as Your Highness.”

Amir sheathed his sword. Despite saying that, there was an expression on General Azadi’s face that he too had no other option.

“Call me Sultan.”

Amir smiled as he looked at the blood on his hands.

“To lure the orcs out, we must entice them with food, right? Since they have no interest in anything other than food. We cannot allow our people’s blood to be shed.”

Amir gazed outside with a sinister look.

“Arrest all the Aylam people from the Crescent Triangle District and send them south. It should serve as a sacrifice.”

The hunt for blood began in the Crescent Triangle District. Many Aylam people who had come out for trade were arrested by Amir and the soldiers supporting him, and taken south as sacrifices.

Although some managed to escape to Dagamba, they were few.

The dragon carrying Prince Rashid and the chieftains arrived safely in Dagamba. The dragon rider, less than a minute after arriving in Dagamba, succumbed to the flames of a sorcerer, worsening the side wound he had received and dying.

Rashid, without a moment to mourn the dying, immediately used magic communication to relay all this carnage to Randor. Randor went up to the capital with his wife and reported all these events to the Emperor.

The Emperor received the report in front of the civil officials in the Royal Palace.

Adran, who had never smoked in his entire life, began to smoke in front of everyone.

A hazy smoke rose.

More dense than the smoke was the aura emanating from the Emperor.

None of the nobles present dared to speak in the presence of the aura Adran exuded.

No one had ever witnessed the Emperor this enraged.

“Randor.”

After finishing a cigarette, the Emperor called Randor’s name.

Randor rushed to him and bowed his head.

“Give your command.”

“Use all means at your disposal to rescue the living Aylam people in Karamba. Mobilize the Suin tribes. Mobilize the dragon couriers of Lanfang. Use whatever means necessary. Bring my people back alive before me.”

“It shall be done.”

Randor bowed his waist.

“Commander of the Iron Blood Legion.”

Karia, clad in armor upon the Emperor’s command, stepped forward.

“Give your command.”

“Too much innocent blood has been shed in Karamba. As of this moment, I appoint you as the Supreme Commander of the Imperial Army.”

The Emperor proclaimed.

“Carry out the order. Retrieve the price of our people’s blood.”

It was a declaration of war.

None of the nobles opposed it.

Karia silently drew his holy sword and performed the ritual of the sword.

“It shall be done.”