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Chapter 185: Empire in Turmoil

Several days after the Emperor’s funeral, as Vasilius had foreseen, an enraged Remus returned to the imperial capital. He stationed his heavily armed “Imperial Sword Knights” and tens of thousands of troops outside the city while sending a protest envoy to question the proceedings of the funeral that had occurred in his absence.

The response to this envoy further infuriated Remus, who was already seething with anger. In summary, it stated that “Prince Gnaeus is already designated to ascend the throne, and the protest itself is a futile act. Prince Remus must immediately disband his army, or all shall face suppression as rebels.”

Remus immediately attempted to march towards the imperial capital, but his loyal followers managed to dissuade him. They reasoned that attacking the capital would indeed brand him as a rebel. They advocated taking advantage of the fact that the “Imperial Sword Knights” were under the direct command of the Emperor and proposed that they should continue to encamp in front of the imperial capital.

The “Imperial Sword Knights” was a knight order directly under the late Emperor’s command, and there was no reason to obey orders other than the Emperor’s decree. Since Gnaeus had not yet ascended to the throne, there was no need to heed these commands.

Meanwhile, they could create a plausible pretext to attack the imperial capital. In fact, making up such a pretext was a simple matter, given that mere accusations would suffice.

As Remus’s loyal subordinates brainstormed to devise a plan for this purpose, a major event shook the empire even more than the Emperor’s assassination. News suddenly arrived from the southern regions of the empire, where multiple nobles had declared their independence.

These newly independent nobles simultaneously announced the formation of a military alliance. To everyone’s surprise, Vasilius, who had quietly made his way to his mother’s ancestral home, emerged as their leader.

The nobles who declared independence were kindred spirits, driven by various reasons to seek independence. They had been covert allies for some time, and their unity was stronger than anyone had imagined. It would be difficult for the empire to destroy their union, even with significant concessions.

For the empire’s high echelon, the southern nobles’ declaration of independence and their military alliance came as a bolt from the blue. Not only had they failed to grasp that Vasilius and his allies were trying to become independent, but they were also unaware of their intentions to break away. Rather than saying that the high echelon of the empire was incompetent, one should actually praise Vasilius’s tenacity in concealing his plan until the very end.

In response to this movement for independence, the empire’s high echelon was, of course, furious. However, there were those who were even more panicked. They were the neighboring lords… or rather, the nobles who held territory bordering this newly emerging union.

They had gathered in the imperial capital following the Emperor’s funeral, right after the victorious parade. While they had entrusted their lands to their acting lords and other officials in their absence as nobles, none of them could be so oblivious as to believe that everything would be fine, especially when a neighboring independent nation had emerged. In fact, every lord was convinced that their territories had been encroached upon.

Their suspicions were not unfounded. Troubles between neighboring lords were bound to occur to varying degrees. These newly independent territories had been harboring grievances significant enough to fuel their desire for independence, and many of the nobles believed that they themselves were the root cause of those grievances.

It was possible that their lands were already seized, and this thought left them unable to stand idly by. Their fears were justified, as their territories were indeed attacked and taken at the very moment the declarations of independence were made. This marked the beginning of a long civil war within the empire.

Upon learning of this situation through carrier pigeons and message orbs, the nobles requested to return to their lands. However, Gnaeus and his camp did not permit it. They feared that if they opened the gates from within to allow their return, Remus would seize the opportunity to attack.

This response didn’t sit well with many nobles. While the Emperor was indeed the symbol of the empire and an absolute authority figure, they acknowledged and swore allegiance to that authority only because it safeguarded their interests and rights.

It was unreasonable to suppress discontent when the prerequisites that guaranteed the Emperor’s power were being overlooked. What made it even more aggravating was that this negligence came from a prince who had not yet ascended to the throne. There was no way to quell the nobles’ dissatisfaction.

However, some of the core members of Gnaeus’s camp were his maternal relatives and nobles with their own land. They understood the nobles’ dissatisfaction, yet they were not unaffected by the disadvantages resulting from the declaration of independence.

So, they devised a plan: to invite Remus for a peace negotiation, then execute him.

The outward face of this plan was to make it seem like they would persuade Remus to suppress the rebels who had declared independence, with some concessions. Once he entered the imperial capital for negotiations, they would detain him and swiftly execute him as a rebel.

The army stationed outside would have to disband if they lost their leader, Remus. Afterward, they planned to absorb his forces and reorganize the imperial army to suppress Vasilius and the other rebels. This was the plot Gnaeus’s camp had devised.

Their plot proceeded smoothly up to a point. Remus, enticed by the promise of concessions and the potential for recognition through suppressing the rebels, played along. To be cautious, he entered the imperial capital with elite guards in tow.

However, what proved unfortunate for Gnaeus’s camp was the lack of individuals capable of accurately assessing Remus and his troops’ military strength among their key figures. While some of Gnaeus’s subordinates were military officers and advised them that it would be difficult to restrain Remus from a military perspective, their advice was dismissed.

Moreover, the fact that Remus had anticipated such a scenario from the beginning played a significant role. After ruthlessly killing the soldiers who had come to detain him, he and his elite guards broke free from the imperial capital using brute force.

Remus and his team’s successful escape can be attributed in part to their superior military strength, but more so to Gnaeus’s camp’s overconfidence in attempting to capture them with only their own subordinates. If they had consulted with experienced generals and strategists, they likely would have succeeded in capturing Remus, no matter how powerful their military might have been.

Upon returning to his army, Remus was seething with anger like never before. He once again proposed a reckless assault on the imperial capital, but his loyal subordinates managed to pacify him and suggested using this incident as a pretext for their cause.

Subsequently, Remus issued the following statement to his army and the imperial capital: “Gnaeus, who tried to capture me under the pretense of reconciliation, only to resort to treachery, is not fit to be an Emperor. The empire’s prestige is at stake, and before it deteriorates any further, we shall march on the imperial capital and restore the true image of the empire. This is a fight for justice.”

Many individuals find it hard to bear the fact that they are on the evil side of things. Even if they were actually aware they were evil, they feel hesitant about accumulating evil deeds. Hence, Remus’s legitimization spurred his army and boosted their morale.

On the other hand, Gnaeus’s camp remained composed and issued a statement of their own: “Remus’s claims are fabrications, and, in fact, it is his side that attempted to assassinate Gnaeus. With this fact in mind, we deem both Remus and the army outside the imperial capital as rebels.”

They had indeed failed to capture Remus, but the fortunate aspect was that they hadn’t sought external cooperation. Had they requested external assistance and still failed, Remus’s claims might have been revealed as true. It was truly a blessing in disguise.

Incidentally, in later generations, all three imperial princes were mentioned as suspects in the plot to assassinate the Emperor. Some argued that Gnaeus must have planned it when Remus was absent, while others insisted that Remus had orchestrated it to create a pretext for attacking the imperial capital.

However, the theory implicating Vasilius as the mastermind was considered an unusual one. This was mainly due to the absence of any concrete evidence and the scarcity of existing records. This case served as a clear example of how difficult it is to determine the truth in the absence of sufficient documentation.

Leaving that aside, the siege of the imperial capital began under these circumstances. The Rakil Empire was the strongest nation on the Enzo Continent, and its imperial capital was too vast to defend effectively. Remus, well aware of this, believed he could open a breach swiftly.

However, in reality, instead of creating a breach, the fierce assault was easily repelled. The reason for this was the presence of Imperial soldiers who had gathered for the victory parade. Sufficient forces were available to defend the vast capital.

Remus also knew about the military strength of the imperial capital, but even taking that into consideration, he thought that a breakthrough would be easy. What overturned his expectations was, unfortunately for him, the achievements of the Demon Regiment.

Apart from the Sea Demons, the other Demon Regiment units had already gathered in the imperial capital when Remus arrived. He didn’t think it would become this critical, but one could credit Marcellus for foreseeing that something was bound to happen.

Demons possessed significantly greater physical power and speed compared to normal humans. Whenever Remus’s army attacked, they could swiftly rush to the scene, no matter where it was.

Moreover, many of them could see in the darkness of the night, so even if they tried to sneak in secretly, they would always be discovered. Remus had to make significant revisions to his initial plan of swiftly conquering the capital and had no choice but to settle in for a long and slow siege.

The Imperial capital seemed well-defended, but its internal situation was far from unified. Given the current sense of superiority and the expectation of what would happen after this civil war ended, there was a scramble for glory and plots to get ahead of the competition.

In fact, the soldiers actively engaged in battle, and the officers who understood the situation knew that this siege wouldn’t last long. Battles with Remus’s powerful army were always on the brink, and no matter how vast the Imperial capital was, there were limits to the stored provisions. There were not enough food reserves to satisfy the people of the imperial capital and the stomachs of the soldiers.

Furthermore, the north was in disarray due to the war with the Republic’s army, and there was that independence movement in the south. This made reinforcements seem like a distant hope. The areas surrounding the Imperial capital had long since succumbed to Remus’s military might. In truth, the capital had been hoping for a short, decisive battle.

However, it would be extremely dangerous to take on Remus’s army in a field battle. This was the power of the elite “Imperial Sword Knights”. These specially selected soldiers, enhanced by the armored suits of the Republic, possessed tremendous combat capabilities. Whenever they were deployed in a siege, they would cause heavy damage.

If this was their state while they were protected by city walls, what would happen if they engaged in a field battle? They might be easily brushed aside, allowing the enemy to infiltrate the imperial capital. The Imperial Sword Knights’ combat prowess was enough to make anyone hesitate about going into battle.

Several days passed with the war in a deadlock when the unexpected happened. It was a sudden turn of events. The majority of the demons within the Imperial capital began to suffer and then lost their sanity, going on a rampage.

Remus, who was outside the city, didn’t know exactly what had happened. However, he wasn’t foolish enough to miss this opportunity. He rallied his entire army and launched a full-scale assault on the imperial capital. Siege weapons and defensive weapons clashed, with spiritual arts filling the air as a fierce battle of bloodshed unfolded.

Right after the most intense battle of the empire had begun, a lone demon suddenly appeared high above the Imperial capital. Nobody knew yet that he… Antares had arrived.

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TN: A fitting entrance for Antares.