Chapter 124: Drop And Planning

"..." Although Nio had said it as a joke—that she hoped the world would be in ruins without her—reality wasn’t far off from her wish. After all, she was important in keeping her apostles from doing whatever they pleased.

"So, Vesta... what do you have to say about this?" Leon questioned as he tossed a stack of papers gathered by his intelligence network onto the table. His gaze shifted to Aster beside Vesta, and he thought about how he should have gotten rid of her before being betrayed. The betrayal had been sudden, just like Vesta’s emergence.

’At least Aster didn’t cause too many problems. She just decided to help this woman... Unfortunately, she’s still the strongest mage in the empire... what a troublesome loss...’ Leon thought as he waited for Vesta to speak.

"..." Vesta picked up the papers and began to read. A slight grinding of her teeth escaped her as she read about Melissa, who was the main focus of every page she held.

"It seems the Kingdom of Ortyr has fallen, from what I can see... Emperor, I must say I’m surprised. Your servants are quite capable," Vesta praised involuntarily, seeing how much good information had been gathered. She recognized several of Melissa’s troops from the descriptions on the paper.

"Hahaha, capable? Honestly, it’s not hard to figure this out. The Kingdom of Ortyr has a massive barrier covering it, and anyone on the outside can see strange insects wandering the entire perimeter of the kingdom."

"Besides, all of my servants who entered the barrier couldn’t get back out and were killed. I find that rather unsatisfactory," Leon said with light sarcasm, prodding Vesta to reveal more about the current threat.

"...I’ve already explained what’s relevant about the apostles, Emperor. Melissa is a type of apostle that generates troops based on the resources she has. Right now, she isn’t that big of a problem."

"That’s because at the moment, she must need considerable time to produce enough offspring. However, she’s a major future problem, since eventually her resources will run scarce. That’s when she’ll open the barrier. But trying to invade and attack her now isn’t a good idea," Vesta spoke pragmatically, even though she wanted nothing more than to destroy Melissa.

She still had to wait, because Vesta wasn’t ready and didn’t have the resources to fight another apostle. If she went to battle Melissa, the empire would likely be attacked in her absence. Or worse, even if she defeated Melissa, she might still die to some other apostle who noticed the fight and took advantage of the opportune moment.

"...A great kingdom has fallen. That breeds fear among the empire’s population. Vesta, I need something more concrete to help calm my people," Leon said, thinking of the practical problems.

Everyone already knew the world had "changed." Everyone had already noticed the fall of the Kingdom of Ortyr, while the populations of both the Theocracy and the Empire were gripped by immense fear.

"On top of that, there’s also this other problem. Look at the page underneath," Leon said, clasping his hands together and resting his chin on them as he stared at Vesta.

"..." Vesta began reading and saw that Haruna had massacred an entire small kingdom. She had eviscerated every living being with her blade, creating a cruel and bloody image that had spread by word of mouth through merchants who passed through the area.

"...It’s just—"

"Vesta, I don’t deny your incredible power, and I thank you for your service in protecting the empire. But as an invader involved in all this, you’re ignoring the fact that humans feel fear. I don’t know what you are, or what kind of monster you are."

"But your little friends are causing problems. Problems that reduce my resources. Resources that you demanded. Demands that you need in order to face these old colleagues of yours," Leon dumped the entire problem onto Vesta’s shoulders, pushing her to be more proactive in helping.

"...Hmmm..." Vesta thought for a moment. She really did need help to kill the apostles she disliked and expand her territory.

"If the problem is fear... then how about I conquer a small kingdom for the empire?"

"...Go on," Leon said, intrigued.

"I’ll go alone to a kingdom none of the apostles have touched. I’ll destroy their armies and force them to become a vassal state. You can use that to show that while others are collapsing, the empire is doing just fine—even more powerful than before. You don’t need to say how it was done. Just use the news," Vesta proposed to Leon, who reclined on the sofa.

"...That sounds excellent. A truly good strategy... Do it... And Aster, if you still decide to obey, you could help spread the news."

"Of course I’ll help, Emperor," Aster said with a nod, drawing a scornful smile from Leon.

"...Before you leave, Vesta, I have a question about Nio. If she was someone who dealt with you all, then does the Theocracy have ties to you?" Leon had been trying for days to figure out how deeply the Theocracy was involved in all this.

"No. Nio went to the Theocracy and helped it, but the Theocracy has nothing to do with us... Ah, but now it does, because one of the apostles decided to make it their territory. Other than that, you don’t need to worry. I won’t favor the Theocracy or anything like that," she said as she stood, her shield making a soft scraping sound against the sofa.

"..." Leon watched Vesta and Aster leave, and once they were far enough away, he relaxed a little.

"What a mess... this is going to screw up my plans from years of work... Not to mention that damn aberration is extremely strong, and Aster has allied herself with her..." Leon ran a hand through his hair in frustration.

"It’s frustrating that the empire depends on this monster to avoid being attacked, but it could be worse considering what happened to Ortyr... I wonder if there’s a way to control more of these monsters for my own use," Leon refused to give up on his plans.

In truth, he was simply thinking about how to adapt them. Whether with Vesta or any other apostle, Leon didn’t care about using them for his goal.

"On the bright side, Ortyr has fallen. That means if Vesta can defeat this Melissa, all of Ortyr’s territory will become mine. The Theocracy too... Now that the Theocracy has allied itself with an apostle, I have justification to attack them without causing religious problems."

"After all, a place that was supposed to be sacred now serves one of these monsters... As long as it looks like the empire controls these monsters, we won’t have any problems," he stopped muttering and stood up.

’I’m sure these things aren’t invincible... There has to be a way to kill them without needing to pit these monsters against each other. Vesta is useful, but when all of this is over, I need to get rid of her so she doesn’t try to take the empire from me...’ Leon grabbed a bottle of wine, wanting only to rest.

"Who would’ve thought Nio was one of these monsters... and the Theocracy didn’t know how to seize the opportunity. What foolishness."