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During the eight days of the nature elves’ war against the duchy of Wagran, the elves had managed to sweep away any resistance they found on the way to the capital of Wagran.

The request for aid sent out by Wagran was still in the process of negotiation when news of the fall of Wagran’s ruling house came.

Following that decisive victory, the elven soldiers scattered across the lands like wind, hunting down every last human soldier. Once every avenue of resistance was nullified, the guilty nobles were next.

When news of this slaughter came to light, the territories that had received Wagran’s call for aid were silent. To begin with, anyone with even the slightest hint of inside information could figure out why the elves chose to attack Wagran.

The nature elves could be said to be the most pacifist race in the Western Human Realms. While they did partake in meat, they mostly subsisted on fruits. If there was ever a person who such a peace-loving race would attack, they most likely deserved it.

When the elves first attacked Wagran, the duchy dispatched every fighting force it could muster to the battlefield. Thanks to that, the elves with their magitek knights had to waste an entire eight days to reach the capital.

In all likelihood, if the war had dragged beyond ten days, Wagran’s call for aid might have really been answered.

It wasn’t just Wagran who the elves bordered, and some friction was only to be expected. The only reason no help had been forthcoming was because each territory was waiting for the most opportune moment to send aid, in order to extract as many concessions as they could.

Unfortunately, none of them had expected the entire duchy to fall within ten days. Not only did the duchy fall, the duke was executed in public as well.

With no one left to aid, there was naturally no reason for those territories to fight the elves; not when they were at their strongest. Although, they could still send troops to the territory once the elves left. After all, those elves had no interest in ruling a human duchy.

In some ways, they did get their “most opportune moment”, though, what awaited them as the new neighbors of the nature elves was a topic in itself.

Of note was that elves sent out three overlords along with 600 magitek knights of their own make. To the other countries, who knew nothing of the magitek knights, this force was measly, even if there were three overlords helming the charge.

The swift conquest of Wagran put a full stop on that foolish line of thought.
Unlike the elves however, Andassis’s invasion of Ertalon was fraught with difficulties.

Soon after it began, a third kingdom entered the fray, causing what was supposed to be a complete domination to one of a land grab.

While Andassis might have been the one who reneged on the treaty, the 500 magitek knights he sent out demonstrated a nigh unstoppable force, putting them on a highly favorable position in any negotiations. Plus, the third kingdom did not meddle too much, thus the land grab continued.

Well… that was true until the forth, the fifth… the eleventh kingdom started intervening in this conflict. It was at that point that Andassis the Seventh realized that this ship had sailed.

By this time, Ertalon had one-fifth of its territories occupied by General Cleoz…

Just like that, this war ended abruptly, with Ertalon ceding the territories occupied by Andassis, and paying an enormous sum of gold coins in exchange for peace.

The latter was quite important for Ertalon, as in exchange for the gold, the two countries would have a ten year truce, witnessed by all the other kingdoms.

In other words, Ertalon now had ten years to recuperate. If Andasiss were to try and renege once more, the other eleven kingdoms would form a coalition to invade Andassis.

A single kingdom had no way of resisting eleven other kingdoms at the same time, at least Andassis couldn’t right now. Even so, this war was a win for Andassis the Seventh. The war had yielded territories exceeding a minor duchy’s worth. The gold coins surrendered to Andassis was over ten million… that wasn’t a number Ertalon could laugh off.

But at least Ertalon managed to keep its independence, right?

It was only when Cleoz and his army returned from Ertalon that I learnt why those eleven kingdoms had intervened by sending delegates.

The magitek knights!

Naturally, being the architect of these armors, I was invited back to the capital to participate in the daily revelries and mingling with these delegates. I had no way of skipping out either; those delegates weren’t just any old delegates. They were either princes, or important members of the court. Thus I had better smile, even if I had a knife in my hand behind me.

Honestly, all that mingling felt like a waste of time, but if that was the fastest way to spread the magitek revolution to the entire world, then smile I will.

Everything to be as prepared as I could be. Thankfully, my current position meant that I could do more than just smile.