Dictator From Outer Space

Leobold stayed in the empire for a few days and received the title and land of an earl.

The powerful people of the empire were surprisingly generous about granting him the earldom.

In fact, there were dozens of earls in the whole empire, so it was not a big deal.

To have a meaningful title, one needed land, power, and influence to match it.

Count Vandus had land and influence, but he had no foundation in the empire.

—The land that the crown prince gave him was close to the imperial border, but it was useless because it was used as a garrison by the imperial army.

—I don’t know why he asked for it, but he will have a hard time without a railroad.

However, Leobold had a reason for asking for it.

First, it was where the Goliath Albion of Valgard was excavated.

This meant that it was a land where a great war had taken place, and Arma advised him that something else might come out if he dug hard enough.

And being close to the imperial border had the advantage of being easy to deal with in case of an emergency.

It was also quite close to Countess Croitz’s territory, so it was a land that could be used for anything if he deployed airships properly.

Leobold asked the crown prince for one more thing.

“I need food for tens of thousands of people. The sooner, the better.”

“Food? Can’t you live decently in Bagran?”

“I’m going to send it to Resort and Banover, two kingdoms.”

“Why? Isn’t it over there already?”

The crown prince, who asked that, looked genuinely puzzled.

To the person who might become the ruler of the great empire, two small kingdoms were nothing more than that.

Some even analyzed that it was too late to take action now.

The problem was not only the lack of powerful leaders to lead the country, but also the land itself rotting away.

The black magic covered the land and caused famine, and no method was effective.

“They are also loyal subjects of His Majesty, aren’t they? As a fellow subject, I couldn’t stand by and watch their crisis.”

The crown prince’s eyes contained a meaning of ridicule that he lied in front of me.

“I didn’t know that Count Vandus had such a warm heart… Well, good. I’ll think so too. I’ll give you food without any compensation if you promise me one thing.”

“What is it?”

“Your loyalty.”

“Wasn’t it enough to prove my loyalty with one war?”

“No, that’s not it.”

He leaned back on the sofa and lit a cigarette.

“The dwarves’ blood is tobacco, so it’s a bit spicy. Anyway, I want to hear your answer…”

He seemed desperate for his support from his impatient question.

Leobold decided to raise his price.

“I will swear personal loyalty to you if you promise me one thing.”

“What is that?”

“A pardon.”

“A pardon? That’s not hard.”

“I want a pardon for all crimes except treason.”

The crown prince, who called for a scribe to write a pardon right away, flinched.

He realized that this was not something he could easily give.

A pardon for all crimes except treason was something that could only be given to a founding hero.

Judging by Leobold’s ability and ambition, he would not commit petty crimes. 

He would surely cause trouble that would shake up the empire at least.

If he pardoned such things, other nobles would rise up against him.

“I won’t use that pardon until you ascend to the throne.”

“Until I ascend to the throne…”

That changed things a bit.

The crown prince picked up a feather pen and asked.

“You said all crimes except treason?”

“I want an unlimited term. And I want things that happened within a month or two to be treated as the same crime.”

“You’re planning to cause a lot of trouble at once. Are you thinking of starting a civil war?”

“It’s hard to say this, but isn’t it always happening? At least it won’t harm you.”

“…Fine.”

The pen made of goose feathers touched the parchment paper.

As soon as the blue seal was stamped, the scribe who had been silent handed it over to Leobold carefully.

“Please don’t betray me.”

“I will be with you. Who do I have to kill?”

The crown prince felt fear from Leobold who spoke calmly.

This meant that he could kill anyone in the empire with confidence.

His combat power seen through the recorders was doubtful whether he was human or not.

Hundreds of people saw and heard it, so there was no room for manipulation.

The crown prince wondered if joining hands with him was the right decision.

Despite that, Leobold’s help was absolutely necessary.

“I don’t need your power right now. It will take a lot of time to sort out the allies in this chaos.”

“Then I’ll go somewhere else for a while.”

“You’ve made a connection with Countess Croitz, right? I’d appreciate it if you two could help me out. I’ll send you the congratulatory money by train soon.”

“Thank you.”

The meeting with the crown prince ended like that.

The war was over and Elvrande wouldn’t be able to make any big moves for a while.

But Leobold knew that the peace wouldn’t last long.

***

It was not clear who benefited from the war between Elvrande and the alliance.

At first glance, it seemed that the alliance won by burning the branches of Yggdrasil and defeating the Elvrande army, but it was not necessarily so if you looked deeper.

In the end, nothing changed.

The two kingdoms of Resort and Banover were still suffering from famine, and Elvrande did not apologize for the assassination of the emperor, let alone promise to prevent it from happening again.

The Meteor Strike that they activated recklessly caused a significant damage to Medea, but only a few people knew about it.

The Zaium Empire boasted that they had paid off their debt for the emperor’s assassination, but it was meaningless.

The only thing that could be counted as an achievement was that the alliance won the war.

The war ended in a mess because of the sudden appearance of the blue dragon, but the gossipers focused on the fact that Elvrande lost.

—It was their first defeat in decades. Perhaps there is no record of victory over Elvrande in any history book of any country.

—The leader of the victory was Count Leobold Vandus of Bagran Kingdom. He had already done great deeds such as catching the assassin of the emperor alone.

—The amazing thing was that he used Ether Blade on the battlefield. I thought it was a technique that only existed in history books.

—And his Goliath was a model called Black Knight, which was incomparable to any other Goliath.

As always, wars tended to generate more stories before and after than during.

In that respect, Leobold and his Black Knight were perfect topics for gossipers.

The countries in the alliance did not regard him as a big threat.

He was a subject of Zaium anyway.

But Elvrande had a fire on their heels.

After dealing with the fire of Yggdrasil, the parliament was busy demanding information about the unidentified Goliath.

The intelligence agency was mobilized, but they had no clue where it came from.

“It seems to be a derivative of Zaium model, but we can’t trace the original.”

“As far as we know, Zaium has not invested in new Goliath production facilities due to budget constraints. It’s definitely not an imperial model.”

“Then did Bagran make it?”

Considering the example of highly efficient Ether engine, it was not impossible to make Goliath.

But the director of intelligence judged that Bagran could not produce Black Knight for several reasons.

—Core production is not something anyone can do. You need an Ether engineer who can precisely control Ether output, and it is very difficult to obtain materials for the core.

—And Goliath is a tricky thing to handle for inexperienced people. Even in our country, craftsmen who work on Goliath line have to have at least 20 years of experience.

—Above all, there are some key components for the core, and the Ether allowance of the components we export is much lower than Belial level. Therefore, it is impossible to produce a monster like Black Knight.

“But it came out anyway?”

That was what bothered the director of intelligence.

Logically speaking, Black Knight should not exist.

A Goliath that easily smashed Belial level, which Tirendell, was unbelievable.

But the Goliath that appeared on Imagine Record was real.

“It’s quite big. Judging by the lack of distinctive glow, it hardly leaks any Ether. It’s a very high-quality work…”

He wanted to kidnap whoever made it right away.

The director of intelligence reported this to Keldian Minister.

He frowned as he read the contents.

“So you don’t know?”

“It’s a Goliath that shouldn’t exist.”

“Isn’t it your job to find out? You don’t know its core output or where it was made. What do you know?”

“I’m sorry.”

“The parliament is after you. You could lose your head at any moment. Is this how you deal with it? Yggdrasil doesn’t give you money for intelligence.”

As usual, practitioners shrank when budget talk came up.

Even though Keldian was not responsible for finance ministry.

The director of intelligence thought of a good way instead of bowing his head.

“We can’t find out the origin and details of Black Knight. But we can prevent it from being made.”

“Tell me how.”

“Cut off the supply of ignition stones and first-grade mithril used for circuits.”

Ignition stones were parts needed to start the core for the first time, and first-grade mithril wires were expensive processed products that went inside the core.

The two parts did not take up a large proportion of the whole Goliath, but they had no substitutes.

Mithril was produced in Zaium and other places, but the precision and quality were low, so they were not enough to put in the core.

And ignition stones were made by modifying Ether stones, and there was no substitute for them.

Only Elvrande could supply ignition stones.

As soon as he said that, Keldian’s face turned red and he started to get angry.

“Are you kidding me? Where do we get money if we don’t export that? Do you know what’s written on your finance ministry office?”

“Humans hate them, but not their money.”

“We earn more than 200,000 gold a year from Goliath parts exports. Ignition stones and first-grade mithril wires account for about 11% of that. You want me to give that up?”

“Isn’t that a mistake of Minister Keldian?”

“What?”

“Think about it. The hatred for humans has reached its peak due to the aftermath of this war. Not only in the parliament, but also among the Elven Knights, there is a claim that we can’t leave it like this. You are just cutting off the start of it.”

“I’m cutting off the start…”

“If we stop supplying parts, we won’t get paid. But that’s something the finance ministry will take care of. And the finance ministry is not under Minister Keldian’s jurisdiction, is it?”

“…”

Keldian looked out the window and pondered.

It was probably the same everywhere, but the three ministers were not on good terms.

Rather, they were competing with each other for power.

In such a situation, if he closed some mines that supplied parts and reduced the payment, the other minister would be blamed.

“I’m just using my authority to investigate illegal leakage of parts… right?”

“Special measures are needed in special situations.”

Keldian felt something twisted in his chest as he looked at the director’s forehead.

This was not a good way for Elvrande as a whole.

There was a fool who stabbed himself with a knife somewhere.

However, he felt the need to ring the alarm for the two ministers who were eager to retire.

“And limiting the supply of the two parts will also deal a considerable blow to the human kingdoms, including Zaium. They won’t be able to produce Goliaths above a certain output.”

“That’s true…”

“In summary, you can catch all those who are troubling you at once.”

“How much will it cost?”

“I’ll submit the budget proposal by tomorrow morning.”

“Implement it immediately.”

Soon after, Elvrande stopped producing ignition stones and first-grade mithril wires that they supplied through Denova.

As a result, several countries that had to produce Goliaths consumed by the war were thrown into chaos.

They didn’t have a stock management system, so they produced with the parts that came in at the time, but the supply chain was completely blocked.

The relevant people urgently contacted Denova, but they only got an answer that they couldn’t help it.

“The homeland cut off the supply. There’s nothing we can do.”

“Where is that homeland?”

They couldn’t say it was Elvrande.

In fact, the people who asked also guessed where the homeland was.

The deep relationship between Denova and Elvrande was not a recent thing.

They usually ignored it and traded, but they didn’t know what to do when the supply suddenly stopped.

In the meantime, Leobold returned to Bagran.

He looked very tired.

***

“I greet Minister Seopjeong.”

Leobold casually acknowledged the greetings of the bureaucrats and entered his office.

The forced march he had been on for the last few days in Camilla’s territory was hard even for him, who had a steel stamina.

He managed to get out of there with the excuse that he couldn’t leave Bagran for too long, but he thought he would have to visit again.

Otherwise, she might come here.

“I’m tired…”

He lay down on his chair and Arma brought him a plate of supplements.

They were all focused on enhancing sexual function.

She looked at Leobold’s face with a dry voice.

“I hope you had fun for a few days.”

“She and I have a business relationship. You’re the only one for me. We’ve been together for decades, why are you doing this? It was on the roadmap, wasn’t it?”

“If you think of me like that, please give me a kiss here.”

He did as she said and her businesslike expression disappeared and she returned to her usual Arma.

She coughed and moved on to the main point.

“Elvrande has cut off the supply of Goliath parts. Thanks to that, there’s a mess in several countries, including Zaium.”

“Is there no substitute?”

“Ignition stones can only be made by Elvrande, and mithril wires other than first-grade have much lower output limits. About 120E…”

“They must have thought of some drastic measures since they couldn’t overpower us with force.”

Leobold sneered.

He never thought he would be subjected to such sanctions on Terra planet, not Earth.

“They probably targeted me?”

“It seems so. Elvrande suffered a great blow to their pride due to this war, and they want to make up for it.”

“They have a lot of money, so they don’t care about some bleeding. The other countries must be having a headache.”

Elvrande and the human kingdoms were not on very good terms, but they did not completely cut off their exchanges.

Trade was going on quietly, mainly through private merchants, and especially trade through Denova was strong.

Zigarion had messed things up, but it was a financial district, and the commercial district was still intact.

It wasn’t a bad way.

Economic sanctions were very effective on Earth in the 21st century, and even more so on Astera.

Goliath was a weapon that any country had to have a certain amount of, and its core components had great significance.

If they made a mistake, it was that their opponent was Leobold.

He didn’t know if they aimed at him exactly, but it was clear that sparks flew, and he couldn’t let that go.

Leobold pulled out one of the Goliath mass production plans in a corner of his roadmap.

“I was going to get rid of Goliath anyway, but if they pick a fight like this, I can delay my retirement a little. Let’s show them the technology of the 22nd century.”

“How about taking over the leadership of Goliath ecosystem this time? If we mass-produce Black Knight, we can be completely independent from Elvrande.”

“I was planning to produce a few anyway, so it doesn’t matter much. How far do you think you can output in the end?”

“If we arrange mithril wires finely to increase Ether circuit density and improve ignition stones, we can achieve up to 250E.”

Black Knight stabilized at 200E level was already impressive, but if 250E ones were mass-produced, the whole Astera would be turned upside down.

But for Leobold, it was nothing more than a clunky can.

“Let’s go our own way. We can’t keep being bothered by them.”

“Yes, I’ll prepare.”