Emperor of Steel

Shortly after the 200,000 troops left Sherwood Castle, the Symphonia and their allies declared war against the Baroque Empire.

Rudolf, who was watching over the restoration in the ruins, hurried up to his office when he received the report and confirmed with Count Voltas.

“What was that? Six nations along with Symphonia have declared war on us?”

“That is right. It was said that the Holy Arthenia Empire, Volga Republic, the Castia Kingdom, Irea Kingdom, and the Navarre Duchy have formed a military alliance.”

“Damn it! That Luke was quiet for a while. He must have been making up something like this!”

Rudolf never assumed that the six nations would snarl at the Baroque Empire. In addition, the subordinate Navarre Duchy too.

At best, Rudolf always thought that the Symphonia Kingdom or the Holy Empire, and if there was another nation that hated Baroque, it would be the Volga Republic.

“What on earth is their reason for this?”

If the six nations had declared war at the same time, there should have been a plausible reason for their decision.

It was because the justification of the act was very important when it came to forming an alliance.

“That… We were told to be secretly weaponizing Vers in our Empire, and we were asked to stop all the research on it, destroy the facilities and the personnel related to it, and to not touch the temples or sanctuaries.”

“What was that? We are weaponizing Vers?”

At one time, the Baroque Imperial Magic Tower did study Vers.

Well, they weren’t just researching it, but they had a plan to spray it on the border cities and forts of the Libiya Kingdom to cause confusion.

However, the operation was a huge fail, and Vers accidentally spread inside Nemesis causing great damage.

At that time, the number of people who died was huge, and the damage to the public sentiment and the human lives, which were all lost in the process of suppression, weren’t yet recovered.

As a result, the wizards, who were studying Vers, were either executed or banned from working and all the research facilities and documents were abandoned.

But when the reason came that the Baroque was still investing time on Vers, Rudolf couldn’t understand.

“It doesn’t matter if that is true or not. The problem is that they are already down for military action.”

“What? They have already entered into military action?”

“Yes, we are hurrying up and trying to gather the information, but we only know that the troops of Volga Republic, the Holy Empire, and the Symphonia are gathering in the forts and cities in the borders. It is clear that they will cross the border if we don’t accept their demands.”

“Yah! They think I am a coward!”

In the past few years, the power of the Baroque Empire had shrunk in half, but at one time, it was known to be the strongest nation in the Rhodesia Continent.

Even to this day, it was a military powerhouse with tens of millions of people and thousands of Gigants.

Although they couldn’t fight against six nations and win, they could still cause enough damage to the enemy nations if they rushed ahead.

But from where did they hear such false information which made them declare war on the Baroque Empire?

“If they come in, can we stop them?”

It was impossible for their demands to be met.

It was because there was a great possibility that the ancient ruins under the Imperial Palace and its identity would be revealed.

“To be honest, we cannot stop all six nations with our power alone.”

“Then?” Rudolf asked with irritation.

Count Voltas knelt down and said, “Please join hands with the Libiya Kingdom.”

“What? Are you telling me to join hands with that lower man, Reichard?”

“Only then can we stop our enemies. Please bury away your pride for the survival of the Empire!”

The reason why the Libiya Kingdom didn’t declare war along with the six nations could be because of some disagreement.

Recently, they heard that a large monster legion from the Libiya suddenly invaded the Symphonia Kingdom, maybe it was because of that.

‘The reason is unknown, but for our Baroque Empire, the chance given by him would work wonders. It has to be done!’

As Count Voltas was determined, Emperor Rudolf opened his mouth.

“Fine. I will accept your words.”

“Really?”

When Voltas looked ahead, Rudolf tried to not show his anger on his face and said, “Yes, but only for the reason that our nation needs to be protected.”

With the same intention, he wanted to destroy the Libiya Kingdom.

But the most important thing for him was to make the ancient ruins work.

If he could get it to work, he could turn back time and erase all the sufferings he had to face.

And to do that, Rudolf had to buy some time.

The fact that Arsene took over Shaikan’s body and the fact that the Baroque Empire wasn’t the only target of the alliance of the six nations wasn’t known to Rudolf.