Chapter 1234 Selected Location

With his attention brought back to the map, Michael returned to the task he had abandoned earlier.

Arianne remained beside him, and with her familiarity with the imperial capital and the surrounding areas, narrowing down a suitable location became considerably easier.

Before long, the two settled on a region northeast of the capital.

It was relatively open, sparsely populated, and close to one of the empire's military training zones.

The empire currently maintained three major categories of armed forces.

The largest was the Imperial Regular Army. It consisted mostly of ordinary knights, soldiers, cavalry, archers, engineers, and other conventional military personnel. Individually, most of them were nothing remarkable by supernatural standards, but their numbers were enormous.

They formed the backbone of the empire.

Because of their size, it was impossible to gather all of their training grounds in a single location. Barracks, forts, and training camps belonging to the Imperial Regular Army were scattered throughout the empire, particularly around major cities, trade routes, agricultural regions, and populated territories.

Very few of their main bases were built close to the imperial capital itself. Concentrating hundreds of thousands of ordinary troops around one city was not practical.

Above them stood the Silver Guard Army. Every proper combatant within the Silver Guard possessed strength roughly equivalent to a Rank One existence. Their commanders were considerably stronger, with some reaching Rank Two while many stood just beneath that threshold.

Compared to the Imperial Regular Army, their numbers were dramatically smaller, but they were still large enough to be divided into numerous posts throughout the empire. These soldiers were often responsible for dealing with supernatural threats that ordinary knights couldn't reasonably handle.

The final and strongest force was known as the Crown Legion. It was also the smallest. Even the weakest proper member possessed strength equivalent to Rank Two. Its officers and commanders naturally stood much higher.

Such people couldn't be wasted guarding ordinary roads or maintaining public order. Crown Legion units were stationed around important resource zones, dangerous borders, strategic fortresses, ancient ruins or secret realms, and other locations whose value justified placing powerful individuals there.

For that reason, most of the Crown Legion wasn't normally gathered near the capital either.

During periods of peace, however, many of its senior commanders spent roughly half of each year rotating through the imperial capital. It could either be on a week-on, week-off basis, or a month or two on and off.

It was partly ceremonial, partly administrative, and partly defensive.

The empire Michael had fought during his takeover hadn't represented its complete military strength. Had the entire empire somehow been gathered against him from the beginning, Michael's losses would undoubtedly have been greater. The final outcome, however, wouldn't have changed.

That difference mattered far less now.

These people were no longer enemies. They were his subjects.

The location Arianne eventually recommended was positioned close to one of the Silver Guard Army's divided training posts. That made it particularly convenient.

The arrangement itself wasn't something Michael had created after taking over. The previous rulers had deliberately positioned several Silver Guard posts within reasonable distance of the capital so that powerful troops could reinforce the city quickly during emergencies without permanently concentrating the entire force there.

Michael and Jester had seen no reason to change that structure. If anything, it remained useful.

Michael personally didn't require thousands of Silver Guards rushing to protect him. But the imperial capital contained far more than Michael. Officials, civilians, merchants, craftsmen, noble families, administrative facilities, storage depots, and countless other important parts of the empire existed there. Millions of lives ultimately depended on the city remaining stable.

Now that Michael ruled those lives, even if the previous him had been partly unserious about it, there was no reason to dismantle an effective military arrangement simply because he himself had little need for it.

More importantly, placing his experiment near a Silver Guard post solved several potential problems at once. If whatever the Universal Cornerstone created couldn't be moved afterward, the location would already possess a military presence. Additional defenses could be constructed easily. The nearby soldiers could guard it, maintain the surrounding region, and respond immediately if anything unexpected occurred.

Michael's attention settled on the selected location. For the experiment he intended to conduct, it was about as suitable as he could reasonably ask for.

As for why Michael had not chosen this location immediately, it was simply because it was not the only suitable option. There were several other areas around the capital that could also work, each with its own advantages. Some were more isolated, others had better terrain, while a few were even easier to defend.

Michael had been comparing them without much urgency.

Arianne's suggestion changed that. There was genuinely nothing wrong with the location she had chosen, and when Michael noticed the expectation in her expression after pointing it out, the decision became much easier.

She clearly wanted to be useful. There was no reason to overcomplicate the decision.

The site would do.

Michael glanced at the marked location one final time before straightening.

"Let's go check it out."

Arianne barely had time to respond before Michael stood. One arm naturally circled her waist, pulling her close against him.

The next instant, space folded. Both of them disappeared from the office.

When the distortion cleared, they were standing several dozen metres above a vast plain.

The land beneath them was mostly covered in short green grass, trimmed naturally low enough that almost nothing obstructed the view. The terrain was relatively flat, with only a few gentle slopes stretching toward the horizon.

Far in the distance, however, two enormous figures towered into the sky.

They weren't real creatures but projections. One resembled an enormous armored humanoid holding a spear, while the other looked like some kind of four-legged beast covered in scales.

Both were over a hundred metres tall.

Michael immediately recognized what was happening.

The nearby Silver Guard post was conducting formation training. Unlike ordinary military drills, units at this level often practiced fighting through large-scale arrays.