“After you killed the Kitsun Lord, you didn’t annex his land in the Savannah Region. The three Lords of the Trilance annexed the Kitsun Lord’s former territory, therefore expanding their territory drastically in a matter of days. There was only one major problem: The three Lords’ military power had been on a constant low because of the Kitsun Lord’s attacks. Therefore, expanding their territory drastically forced the three Lords to spread their already low number of Soldiers all over their newly claimed territory. The other enemies of the Kitsun Lord and the three Lords’ opponents used this opportunity to attack. That was why the Trilance was formed. The three Lords combined their forces to protect their lands from invaders, each Lord protecting one border.”
Michael listened intently. He understood that leaving the Savannah region to the Zynur, Valyr, and the Laprix might not have been the best decision. But then again, it looked like they managed to handle most issues.
“Since the border to the Untamed Jungle doesn’t need much protection other than some Soldiers to hunt down the monsters that may accidentally stumble into the Savannah region, the Trilance has to protect the north, south, and west. Each Lord takes care of one border, therefore decreasing the pressure weighing down on them. That is a pretty good idea. What is the problem then?” Michael asked Opars, who continued to explain the situation.
“The problem is that there has never been an alliance in the Savannah Region. There had been a loose connection between the Zynur Lords, Valyr Lordess, and the Laprix Lord, but that had been uniformly acknowledged as necessary by the other Lords of the Savannah Region. Every Lord in the Savannah acknowledged the Kitsun Lord as the biggest threat due to the Cloud Domain.”
“With the death of the Kitsun Lord, the loose bond between the Zynur Lord, Valyr Lordess, and the Laprix Lord was supposed to cease to exist. However, it turned into the Trilance because the surrounding Lords decided to grasp the opportunity and attack them. The Lords decided that it was fair to attack the other Lords, but they were against the Alliance. Therefore, a multitude of alliances were formed over a few weeks and the entire Savannah Region was caught in the flames of war. To summarize the issue of the Savannah Region, I can only say that a chain of unfortunate events turned into a full-blown Region War.”
Michael swallowed hard. Region Wars were unpredictable. An entire region at war was definitely not something Michael wanted to get pulled into. However, he quickly realized something that made him frown deeply.
“The Trilance has a decent relationship with me and the Untamed Jungle, but other Lords might try to conquer the Untamed Jungle to procure the rare resources from within. Once the Trilance falls, I might have to join the Region War, even if I don’t want to,” Michael murmured, “That means I need to make sure the Trilance won’t collapse.”
It was only obvious but if Michael wanted to avoid fighting the Lords in the Savannah region, his cushion – the Trilance – would have to survive.
Michael had nothing against fighting a Lord or two, but he didn’t really want to join the Region War. It was not worth it since Michael had enough Inferior Energy Stones and other resources to strengthen himself, his subjects, and exchange the Inferior Energy Stones with resources needed to develop his territory. Other than that, Michael also had plenty of things to do outside the Origin Expanse. He was willing to start selling some of the Soultrait Symbols stored inside the emerald box. They would earn him a fortune which could then be invested into his territory once again.
Michael might have the means to fight other Lords mindlessly as of today, but he was not stupid enough to waste his time fighting enemies he didn’t have to fight. If anything, Michael should focus on earning more money to purchase all the necessary goods to build the Intermediate and Advanced level of the Sacred Knight Temple, expand his army, and improve the living standard of his subjects gradually.
“You should ask the Trilance what resources they need to guard their settlements and borders. I am pretty sure that our blacksmiths can do a pretty good job building large-scale weapons,” Michael ordered Opars right before his mind drifted to Zeroa, “The Elemental Empress can probably help the blacksmiths. Projectiles channeled with elemental crystals or elemental energy should be quite helpful, for example,”
Michael could think of a few ideas to support the Trilance, fortify their defenses and maybe even help their military force by supplying a bunch of resources. Of course, he would ask for an equivalent exchange of materials. Michael was not opening a charity organization, after all. Nonetheless, it was more important to ensure the Trilance’s survival for the time being. .𝒎
“Are you sure that you want to support the Trilance this much? What if they turn against us?” Mika asked lightly. He blurted out his thoughts without thinking.
“Interesting thought, but unnecessary. If they go against us, I will bulldoze them long before they can reach our settlement,” Michael responded similarly lightly.
If nothing much about the Trilance changed while Michael was away, the Valyr had only one Lowest-rank Tier-4 Higher Lifeform. Meanwhile, the Zynur didn’t have a single Higher Lifeform. As for the Laprix, Michael was not too sure. They might have one Higher Lifeform or two at most.
Higher Lifeforms might be scary to fight, but Michael doubted that the Zynur, Valyr, or Laprix owned Soul Techniques; otherwise, they would have been able to deal with the Kitsun Lord a long time ago.
Michael had Soul Techniques, and it was only a matter of time before he created more. His War Rune would reach Tier-3 soon, and he could unleash his full power inside the Origin Expanse. After all, Zeroa and Sun Demos were in the Origin Expanse, which meant that he could use the full potential of the Taming Soultrait.
Maybe he would have been a little bit worried if he were to encounter someone like Killian as a Higher Lifeform on the battlefield. But if someone was as strong as Killian would be once he advanced to Tier-4, they would have already conquered the Savannah Region.
“I don’t want any trouble right now. That’s the most important. I can deal with future troubles merely fine. There is no require to worry,” Michael mumbled. He cleared his throat and switched to the next topic, “So what’s the issue with the Zentika Empire? They haven’t been close to the Untamed Jungle for a while and given that nobody seems to be worried regarding the border to the Zentika Empire I can only presume that the Zentika Empire didn’t even bother to approach our borders. Or am I wrong?”
This time none of the Forest Elves answered. The border to the Zentika Empire hadn’t been their focus. Luckily, Tiara answered.
“The Zentika Empire is quite hard to figure out. The border to the Zentika Empire is unprotected, so I decided to infiltrate the empire with Icarus. We were a little bit bored training all day, so we chose to spend some time in the Zentika Empire. Of course, we stayed close to the border to return once someone discovered us. But that never really happened. The land below us drifted past as we moved closer to the inside of the Zentika Empire and we finally found some settlements. There were many small towns and villages, but also a bunch of cities. However, none of them was well protected,” Tiara exposed her adventurous side with a bright expression on her face.
She then pointed at her ears as she continued, “I used a special technique that allows me to momentarily increase my hearing sense. I could eavesdrop on the comments made by the residents within the cities. Apparently, the vast majority of the Zentika Empire’s military power had been called to the Ice Mountains. Taros turned against the Zentika Empire with the Dragon he bound to his blood, and they seemed to be wreaking havoc. That’s all I know.”
Michael had a hard time ignoring Tiara’s twitching tail. It swished left and right like crazy as she told about her finds even though most of her information seemed rather difficult to make use of.
“So the Zentika Empire is busy dealing with Taros…and his Dragon? I didn’t know Taros even had a dragon in the first place,” Michael asked again, his eyes following Tiara’s tail.
Michael never bothered asking Taros regarding his territory, or subjects. He didn’t really attention about that brute, muscular guy to begin with. Michael fought him once but that was it.
“I have no idea since when he started raising a dragon either. But I was wondering if that was somehow related to the Lord Rift since Taros’ attacks happened only a few months after we came back from the Lord Rift,” Tiara mumbled, not sure if Michael could handle this information.
“You think Taros was accountable for the Red Dragon’s rage?” Michael asked, but Tiara could only answer with a shrug, “I have no idea.”
Michael fell deep in thought.
‘What if Taros started raising a Dragon after the Lord Rift closed? Is it possible that the Red Dragon was a mother, who’s been searching for her egg? Is that possible? …if that’s the case, does it mean that Taros stole the Dragon Mother’s egg, resulting in the chaotic situation at the end of the Lord Rift? That would mean…Taros is accountable for Danny’s second death…” .𝒎
Michael understood that the probability for this scenario to be true was very low. But it was not zero.
Rage and anger filled his heart.
“Find out if the dragon is a young Red Dragon.”
𝘳𝑎.𝒸ℴ