Chapter 340 - 297: A Second Empire, Huh? Surging Undercurrents of Power

Whatever crisis had befallen the Helunia World, however many Demon Worship Organizations were stirring up trouble in the Jade River Region...

All of it.

From the moment Reinhardt stepped out of the Teleportation Gate from the Eternal Battlefield, it had all come to an end.

Lord General Haven Meis—a young Lord who, despite the prestige of his ancestors, had long since faded from the Helunia World’s stage of power—found himself drenched in a cold sweat under Reinhardt’s relentless questioning.

He had to keep tugging at his collar to prevent his clothes from sticking uncomfortably to his skin.

It was now the sixth hour since Reinhardt’s group had withdrawn from the Eternal Battlefield. Contrary to what the Red Flame Son had expected, the entire Legion had not been scattered by the teleportation.

The one thousand three hundred eighty-six surviving Imperial Knights of the Red Flame Son, along with over six million veterans from the 33rd Infantry Corps, arrived in the Jade River Region as a cohesive force.

Under Fedor’s command, all soldiers made camp to rest and await orders.

Meanwhile, Fedor himself remained in the study, listening to the Local Lord’s report to Reinhardt.

Although he had long since faded from the stage of power, Haven was not like other Local Lords who had been subjected to an intentionally stultifying education.

As a Knight General personally ennobled by the Provincial Governor, Haven knew full well what kind of world he lived in. He believed in the Emperor and could speak the Holy Capital Language, albeit with a thick accent.

Standing before a blood-spattered floor-to-ceiling window, Haven wore a magnificent, crimson, double-breasted long coat. His once-meticulously styled curly hair was now a disheveled mess due to the chaos in his domain.

His hands, clasped cautiously before him, were adorned with all manner of expensive rings.

His effeminate face, which rarely saw direct sunlight, was now pale and bloodless, slick with nervous sweat after the successive shocks.

"...My Lord, I’ve told you everything I know. As for the situation with the Grand War you mentioned..."

At this, Haven raised an arm and wiped the nervous sweat from his face with his sleeve, his voice trembling slightly. "I’m just an ordinary Local Lord. Even the Lord Governor can’t get any specific news about the Verne Front Line.

But I heard... COUGH—!

I heard that the Imperial Administrative Region seems to have suppressed the rebels. I don’t know anything else."

Reinhardt held the helmet of his Avenger Armor in the crook of his arm. Thinker Bach stood respectfully to one side behind him, the purple electric glow deep within his eyes gradually fading.

"My Lord, I have made contact with the nearest Administrative Region Navy fleet. They will dispatch transport ships in twenty-four hours, Holy City Time."

Reinhardt recalled that the Vengeful Angels had carried out their rescue mission around March of the year 1460 in the Radiant Calendar.

But Haven Meis had told him that it was now November of 1461, Radiant Calendar. A year and a half had passed since the Grand War erupted in the Verne Star Realm.

Still, this was the best outcome he could have hoped for.

The Demon Void Realm was a phantasmal world with no concept of spacetime. The speed at which time passed there had no real meaning. In other words, the act of entering the Demon Void Realm and then returning to the Real Cosmos was essentially a random jump through spacetime.

Void Teleportation technology exploited this very characteristic of the Demon Void Realm.

If one were unlucky enough, a living being might spend only a few minutes in the Demon Void Realm, only to find that ten thousand years had passed in the Real Cosmos.

The information Reinhardt could glean from Haven Meis was limited, but he could at least conclude that the flames of war from the Verne Front Line had not spread to the entire Ash Soil Star Zone during this time.

Even a powerhouse at the Level of a Battle Group Company Commander was like an ant swept up in the Grand War, and Imperial Knight casualties were counted by the Battle Group.

But the scale of the war was still under the control of the Administrative Region.

The only problem he now faced was how to handle the Red Flame Son and the six million veterans of the 33rd Infantry Corps.

These regular forces from an Old Empire Main Battle Corps were in no way comparable to the Knight Warlords of the Ash Soil Star Zone that the Imperial Administrative Region usually dealt with. If they were to rebel, the consequences would be extremely severe.

In other words,

The threat posed by ten local Knight Warlords from the Ash Soil Star Zone combined would not even come close to that of the Red Flame Son and the 33rd Legion.

As a second-echelon main Battle Group of the Old Empire’s Red Flame Legion, the organizational Level of the Red Flame Son was even higher than that of the Death Battle Group and the Emperor’s Shield!

If Fedor had any thoughts of independence, it would not bode well for Reinhardt and the Imperial Administrative Region.

After Haven Meis finished his report, a silence fell over the study.

While Reinhardt was contemplating how to handle and accommodate the Red Flame Son, Fedor was also learning about the Imperial Administrative Region through Bach’s Spiritual Energy communication.

His first reaction was that this so-called Administrative Region was almost certainly a local warlord faction established by traitors, which was why his brow remained deeply furrowed.

’An Administrative Region?’

’You might as well call yourselves the Second Empire.’

’An independent political, judicial, and economic system; a complete supply and support network for weapons and equipment; they even conscript soldiers in complete disregard for the Imperial Regency Council and the Military Affairs Department.’

’If this isn’t treason, what is?!’

If not for their experience fighting side-by-side on the Eternal Battlefield, as a Battle Group Leader from the Loyalist Faction who was absolutely devoted to the Empire and the Emperor, he could hardly guarantee he wouldn’t execute these traitors on the spot.

However, Fedor was no hot-headed young Knight. Despite his mediocre political talents, he calmed himself and began to think.

’For him, the Great Rebellion was less than three years ago. But for these Loyalist Faction Battle Groups, cut off from the Radiant Star Realm by the Void Storm, more than twenty years of war was an eternity.’

’If it were him, if he had received no news—not even a scrap—about the Holy City and the Empire for so many years, he would most likely have assumed the Empire had been completely destroyed in the Great Rebellion as well.’

But he still couldn’t accept such an act of disloyalty.

Hearing Bach say that transport ships were coming to pick them up, Fedor fell silent for a moment, then rose and said, "Lord Reinhardt, forgive me, but I cannot return with you to the Imperial Administrative Region and throw ourselves into the next battle.

The brothers of my Battle Group need time to recover, and the 33rd Infantry Corps needs to be reorganized and resupplied."

Bach turned his head to glance at Fedor, remaining silent. ’Is what I feared most about to happen?’

On the battlefield, they were Battle Brothers who fought and bled side by side. But back in the Real Cosmos, faced with a stark and severe political problem, if they couldn’t come up with an effective solution immediately...

It was foreseeable that the Red Flame Son would refuse to submit to the Administrative Region’s authority. They might even become completely independent and turn hostile!