11 Technological Advances – 3 (2/2)
(Faust): ”Your Majesty, we've found traces of the mass slave escape from some time ago.”
Richard stopped writing, looking up from his paper.
(Richard): ”So? What can you tell me?”
(Faust): ”As Your Majesty knows, they devasted the slave city that kept them in and managed to run away from our armies. However, we found trails of them due the recent destruction of our border city and found traces of beastman in the Southern Forest.” He says, looking up to his king. ”We are close to tracking them, but they went too deep into the Southern Forest. I don't know if they are inside our borders anymore.”
Richard scratched his chin, pondering. His own grandfather had leaded the campaign to suppress the nearby tribes of beastman, expanding the kingdom and causing a massive slave influx. That caused a massive economic boom to Hara Kingdom, and losing a lot of their descendants, as well freshly captured slaves, was a good blow to the border economy of the kingdom in that area.
Tracking and capturing them would be the best course of action… if they were inside the borders of the kingdom, that is. You see, two generations ago, around one hundred years, slavery was something that was accepted, but was a dying custom even then, and Hara Kingdom's crusade for slaves was ill-seen by other kingdoms.
However, by then, Hara was the strongest kingdom around, and no one would oppose them openly or do anything about it besides frowning in their expensive cushions. However, Hara wasn't the only one to raise to power in this last century. While the economic boom was enough to solidify their power, other countries took on their own raising and are now around the same level of power.
And they do frown on slavery but cannot do anything about it inside the borders of the Hara Kingdom. However, if they see the army moving outside of it's borders to attack a beastman city with the intent of seeking slaves, they would certainly call that a just cause to interfere and cause animosity between them.
Not only that, the kingdoms of Zetia, Ferlun and Oratoria, the three great powers that surround Hara from the east, west and south respectively, are on a mutual help alliance, as well a protection treaty that demands that if one of them enters battle, the other two must assist.
The leader, Oratoria, is a deeply religious country, and the one that leads the fight against slavery as it preaches for freedom. The other two, Zetia and Ferlun, were converted to their religion and joined them to a great commercial and military raise in a short amount of time.
And between Hara and Oratoria, lies a natural barrier known officially as Southern Forest… and among the people as Death Forest. Although it isn't true for the whole forest, some of it's areas are filled with deadly fauna and flora, filled to the brim with dangerous monsters.
Although it is the dream of conquest for anyone wanting power due the enormous reserves of natural mana crystals and high density of mana, a gold mine for anyone with magic, the same thing spawns creatures and distorts nature in monstrous forms and giving birth to several horrors.
Because of that, as well the uneven and confusing geography of the place, it's nigh impossible to create a big city besides a few safe areas that are at risk at any given time. and if the beastman ran to there, the no man's land… he won't be able to make any more anytime soon to take them back and destroy their spirit.
(Richard): ”For now, send our soldiers to the ruins of the city that was destroyed. Under the pretense of reconstruction, send scouts to the forest. If other countries start to meddle, we'll do the Annual Training for our magic academy. We can cover with that. Be sure that our Shadows go as well.”
He said, decisive. Faust bows his head deeply.
(Faust): ”It'll be done, My King.”