This is bad, really bad.
If the emperor who cut off the Dragon God's head a thousand years ago was Iron Dome, then without a doubt, this is the Iron Dome Empire.
That year, the emperor led the world in slaughtering the tyrannical dragon race, establishing the Iron Dome Empire, and it was also in this year that the world's epoch was rewritten.
Dragon Prosperity Year 1322 became Dragon Extinction Year One.
Mom said the dragons were annihilated over fourteen hundred years ago...
That is to say, the Dragon Extinction Calendar has now progressed to over fourteen hundred years.
Small territories have this disadvantage.
Information is not well-circulated, and there are few books to read.
So, the problem arises.
When he was setting the stage for the male protagonist, he had already set up a political upheaval within the empire during this period.
The fifty-fifth emperor of the empire was incompetent and comatose, fond of rare treasures, and heavily invested in building world wonders.
The Fourth Prince took advantage of this, leading cults and foreign powers to invade his own country, plotting a coup and usurpation, which brought immense turmoil to the entire nation.
The empire directly split into three major factions: the Old Imperial Authority, the New Political Army, and the Mages.
The Old Imperial Authority and the New Political Army engaged in annual civil wars, both forcibly levying money and grain from their subordinate regions, leaving most common people unable to afford food and even forcing them to sell their children.
Not only did the government, the Morning Dawn Church, and the New Political Army oppress the common people, but some Mages, who prided themselves on wisdom, fairness, and integrity, also succumbed to the power that came with authority, wantonly harvesting the children of commoners to serve as their slaves, completely disregarding how difficult life was for the empire's populace.
He originally thought it was another world.
He never expected it to be the other world he had written about!
Knock knock...
A knock on the door.
Seranya put down the fairy tale book in her hand and looked towards the bedroom door, "Come in."
The young maid Annie walked in. She was young and quite lively, so flustered that it took her a while to steady herself. She quickly bowed her head in greeting, "M-Madam, Master is calling you to the guest room for a talk. A guest has arrived..."
"A guest? So late, what kind of guest could it be?"
Seranya showed a puzzled expression, but she still closed the fairy tale book and smiled as she turned to instruct Shen En, "Mommy needs to change and go out for a bit. Xiao En, you be a good boy and wait for Mommy here, watching your sister sleep, okay? Don't run around like before, be good."
"Mm."
Shen En was still pondering the problem, so he only nodded at his mother's words.
According to the years he had learned, it should now be the year 1409.
Just in case, he absolutely had to reconfirm the time.
"Mommy."
"Ah? Do you still want a hug?"
Shen En used an innocent and cute expression, "W-what, what time is it now?"
"It's night."
"No... not that."
Seranya saw her son shake his head and pondered for a moment, "It's autumn now. If you're asking about the year, I can't quite remember either, but it should be 1409."
After speaking, Seranya confirmed with little Annie, and it was indeed Dragon Extinction Year 1409.
1409!
That means the coup won't happen for another 14 years!
At this time, the naive male protagonist hasn't risen to prominence, the plot he wrote hasn't even begun, and the empire is still the strongest country in the world.
In 1420, the former emperor passed away, and the fifty-fifth emperor ascended the throne, beginning the empire's decline.
In 1423, under the rule of the foolish emperor, the empire's corruption became increasingly evident. The Fourth Prince began to collude with the Witch Cult to plot a coup and usurpation, causing the empire to split into three factions and become a chaotic era.
This is when the plot officially begins.
Shen En should be 17 years old then, and the male protagonist in the book hasn't even left the Novice Village yet.
This is very good, meaning he has enough time to develop.
"Alright, be good now ~ Mommy is going out for a bit."
"Mm!"
Seranya stroked her son's head, changed into formal attire, and quickly left the bedroom with the little maid, closing the door behind them.
......
After his mother left, Shen En lay on the bed and began to think seriously.
So... how should he use these 14 years?
First, he couldn't just read books; he also had to read magic books.
Second, rebellion... developing the territory's strength was also essential.
He knew the true nature of all three factions that split from the empire.
It's better to trust himself than them; he needed his own territory!
Then, the Fourth Prince's coup also meant that the Witch Cult would definitely invade the empire.
To seek revenge and realize their ideal of resurrecting the "Witch," the Witch Cult planned to use this opportunity to severely wound their archenemy of several millennia—the Morning Dawn Church.
They would begin infiltrating slowly from the border territories five years in advance, disguised as border rioters.
Although both the Morning Dawn Church and the Mages resisted, they never took it seriously due to their constant infighting.
This led to the Witch Cult's power growing stronger and stronger.
When writing a book, as the author, he certainly wouldn't write every detail when outlining.
When he wrote the setting of the evil cult invasion, he just wrote a sentence about it infiltrating from the eastern part of the empire; it was impossible to write in detail from which village or at what specific time it began.
But his own territory seemed to be on the border, and it seemed... it was exactly in the east—
Shen En broke out in a cold sweat at this thought.
No, he had to check Old Ai's map!
There should be one in the study!
He immediately got out of bed, pulled a chair with all his might to the door, found two books, stood on them, and stretched hard to barely open the door.
Shen En poked his head through the crack in the door, peeked down the hallway twice, and after confirming no one was there, he scurried to his father's study door.
Fortunately, the study door was ajar, so he pushed it open and entered directly.
Three leaded arched glass windows allowed thin moonlight to filter in, cutting the study into alternating strips of light and shadow.
The east wall held bookshelves, and the west wall displayed the family crest—a silver wolf carved on a black iron shield.
Behind his father's black iron magistrate chair was a horizontal elm weapon rack, with two Norman-style cruciform swords hanging crossed.
Old Ai's chair was made of black iron, and Shen En simply couldn't move it, so he could only climb onto it little by little through the gaps.
The open wax tablet notebook on the desk still had Old Ai's annotations from last night, and a line next to the quill pen read—"Displaced households increased to 47."
Shen En lit a candle, rummaged through the drawers, and then through dozens of administrative documents on the desk.
After about half an hour, he finally found a map, presumably of the empire, tucked inside a book.
Shen En couldn't recognize all the foreign world characters, but he knew the settings in his own book.
To the north was the Northern Territory, to the west was the Federation, and to the east were the Kingdom and the Eternal Night Forest...
Hmm, it all matched up.
This meant it was the empire's map.
He had to find his own Klaist family.
The Klaist family...
"Found it!"
Shen En's face was full of joy, but he quickly became unhappy.
Because the Klaester Territory, belonging to the Klaist family, was coincidentally located at the border between the Kingdom and the Eternal Night Forest...
It's over.
It really was a place that would be invaded by the evil cult!
And in his setting, the name of the Klaester Territory had never appeared.
This meant that in seven years, this place would be completely overrun by the Witch Cult!
He plopped down onto a pile of books, his mind frantically brainstorming countermeasures.
The Witch Cult would invade in seven years.
Without a doubt, his primary goal was self-preservation, to seek protection from a major power, or to relocate the entire territory.
He was the author, true.
But even an author couldn't just get a cheat code when he was three years old!
The best method Shen En could think of at the moment was to give some of the magic settings he knew to the demi-human mages of the Arcane Tower, in exchange for their help.
Compared to other factions within the Arcane Tower, the demi-human group was the most friendly.
Yes.
That's what he had to do.
Furthermore, while the Witch Cult's invasion was true, misfortune and fortune were intertwined.
When Shen En was writing the novel, he had arranged the Witch Cult's attack process.
First, they would harass the border for several years in advance, making the empire complacent about the Witch Cult entering the border.
After successfully lulling the empire into a false sense of security, they would suddenly launch a massive attack in year 23.
With the Fourth Prince's cover, the Witch Cult would transport a dragon egg into the city, and by sacrificing the dragon egg, create a "Pseudo-Dragon God" to cause panic in the imperial capital, and at one stroke severely damage the Morning Dawn Church's stronghold—the Morning Dawn Holy Radiance Institute.
That dragon egg was the key!
No one knew yet that the dragon egg was the offspring of the Dragon God, that is, the egg of the Imperial Giant Dragon.
If he could secretly obtain that egg through someone from the Witch Cult...
......
"Wait, what is this?"
Just as Shen En was about to leave, he suddenly noticed a silver bracelet in the drawer of his father's desk.
He immediately found it familiar.
He picked it up, turned the silver bracelet to its inner side, and eight Chinese characters were clearly engraved on it—"Shen Ji Su Sui Yong Jie Tong Xin" (Shen Ji and Su Sui, forever united in heart)...
What the hell?!
How did this thing get here?
"Xiao En?"
At this moment, Seranya's figure appeared at the study door. She had just seen the light in the study and Shen En squatting on his father's desk.
Discovering the desk was a mess because of her son, she looked a bit angry and walked in with a frown.
Without a word, she picked up Shen En, tucked him under her arm, pulled down his pants, and spanked him.
Smack!
"Naughty! What did you promise Mommy just now?"
"I, I was wrong..."
His mom's spanking didn't hurt much, but the act of being spanked was simply too embarrassing for Shen En.
He even saw the little maid Annie standing at the door covering her mouth and laughing at him.
"Where were you wrong?"
Smack!
"At night... I should... I should listen to Mommy and not run around."
"Good that you know."
Seranya doted on her son quite a bit. After he said he knew he was wrong, she only reprimanded him a couple of times.
"Then I'll take you back to your bedroom first. I want to see how you managed to get out."
"Mommy..."
"What is it?"
Shen En pulled out the silver bracelet he had just found, "What is this?"
Seranya saw the bracelet in her son's hand and recognized it, "It fell from the sky the day you were born."
"From, from the sky?"
"Yes, your father found it at the doorstep when you were about to be born. According to him, it suddenly fell from the sky. Everyone says it's a treasure bestowed upon you by the gods, but to me, it's just a silver bracelet. Who knows, maybe some bird stole it from town."
"Does Mommy recognize the characters on it?"
Seranya shook her head directly, "I don't recognize them. They don't look like common script either, but they do resemble the script used by demi-humans. However, since there are characters, it further suggests that some bird stole it from somewhere. If you like it, keep it. It is pretty, and I was planning to give it to you anyway."
"......"
Shen En didn't answer again but accepted the bracelet.
Although he really didn't want to see anything related to his ex-wife, it was at least a memento of his old home.
This silver bracelet was also what his former mother gave to Su Sui...
Seranya walked out of the study holding Shen En, and just at the doorway, she bumped into Old Ai.
Shen En saw him dressed in casual clothes, with a robed old man following behind him.
The old man had a full white beard and held a withered wooden staff much taller than himself, nearly 1.9 meters long.
This appearance...
A Mage?
......