The choice of the empire's people.
Hearing those words from Cassius, Olivia felt her heart shudder violently. She wanted to look away, yet found her gaze drawn helplessly toward the people below—and above all, toward their faces.
"How could this be...?"
Far from displaying the terror, panic, or revulsion one would expect at the news of war, the citizens of the empire flushed with excitement. Radiant smiles spread across their diverse faces.
In the munitions factories, the workers rejoiced, for war meant orders falling like snowflakes.
Though working overtime was exhausting, it brought far richer compensation, allowing them to purchase a home in the city sooner and become true Isdalians.
In the army, the soldiers rejoiced, for war promised honor and standing.
In their eyes, under the protection of the Cinder Emperor—the embodiment of strength and victory—they were invincible and unstoppable. War was merely a ladder to higher rank, a trial for the brave.
Tavern keepers and servers rejoiced, for war brought booming business.
Once the fighting ceased, soldiers flush with pay and plunder would pour into the taverns, squandering coin and reveling through the night, scattering gold across every table and floor.
And the players were even more ecstatic. They popped champagne and even ran naked through the streets in groups, celebrating the long-awaited good news.
In their eyes, where was the cruelty of war? This was nothing less than a massive dungeon raid to farm experience and seize loot!
...
Seeing these imperial subjects of differing backgrounds and ranks, without exception cheering and leaping for joy at the coming of war, Olivia fell into profound self-doubt.
For a moment, she was at a loss for words.
Why? Why was everyone celebrating when they were on the brink of war? Could it be... that she alone was wrong?
Could an aggressive war of invasion truly be just?
Cassius's words echoed in her mind once more: *"War is a means, not an end." "The empire will bring true order to the Feanso Continent." "This is not born of selfish desire, but the collective choice of the empire's people..."*
The red dragon's voice seemed possessed of some magical sway, compelling Olivia to agree from the depths of her heart, dragging her thoughts step by step into the abyss.
In an instant, countless images flashed through her mind like oil paintings: Fadlan civilians wailing beneath bombardment, a red dragon wheeling across the sky, imperial workers laboring day and night in factories.
And finally, the vision came to rest on the ancient silver dragon, the symbol of the old order, plummeting from the high heavens...
Olivia shook her head violently, murmuring as tears blurred her eyes, "No, it shouldn't be like this. The future order shouldn't look like this. It's too cruel, too tyrannical."
Cassius lowered his massive head, leaning close to the silver-haired young woman with a faint smile. His scalding, sulfurous breath washed over her pale face.
The look in his pale golden slitted pupils was exceedingly strange, like gazing upon a newborn infant, making Olivia feel distinctly uncomfortable.
"Olivia, you are still too naive."
Cassius raised his head to look at the sun in the sky and sighed. "The old order is already teetering on the brink of collapse. Every obsolete economic form, every relationship adapted to it, and every political institution will be smashed to pieces.
"And once the old order crashes down, an age of chaos will arrive, from whose darkness and turmoil a new order will emerge.
"Like any metamorphosis in nature, this process must inevitably be bloody and cruel. It must come at the cost of countless lives and the ruin of countless families... and no one can stop it."
Cassius lowered his head once more, his gaze fixing upon Olivia, who seemed infinitesimally small within his colossal talons. In a heavy voice, he said, "Olivia, I thought you would understand me.
"I merely wish to use the empire's might to accelerate this inevitable process, to make people's suffering brief—like... using a scalpel to part the flesh and deliver a newborn child."
"Cassius, you..."
Olivia looked up, staring in bewilderment at that majestic face tinged with sorrow. For a time, she could not tell whether this was a genuine revelation of feeling or yet another deception.
Though she still could not entirely comprehend his words, she found herself subtly swayed.
Could it be... that this extraordinary red dragon was truly saving the world?
Olivia felt the space before her twist, the world spinning around her. When her senses cleared, she had been released from the dragon's talons, left stumbling upon the Grand Altar of Isdalia.
She looked up to see the red dragon emperor reveal his magnificent, towering form to his people, spreading his colossal wings to cast an enormous shadow over the city of Isdalia.
*Roar—!*
The red dragon slowly raised his head and unleashed a prolonged roar to the heavens, an earthshaking cry that reverberated across the entirety of the Great Anzetta Waste.
Olivia looked down and saw the people in the city gazing up at the red dragon in the sky with devout, near-feverish reverence.
"Cassius above, it really is His Majesty! It's truly Him!"
"Praise the Great Red Dragon!"
"As long as His Majesty is with us, victory is certain!"
They surged forward like pilgrims in a frenzy. Some even knelt to kiss the ground, for merely standing beneath the shadow of his wings was deemed a supreme honor.
Amidst the boiling crowd, people shouted until their voices were hoarse. Their cries and cheers crashed forward like ocean waves, one swell after another, as though their fervor would never dim and their strength would never run dry.
For the emperor in the sky was their greatest pillar of spirit and wellspring of power, granting them boundless strength.
"Long live His Majesty Cassius! Praise the sole, supreme Emperor of Anzetta!"
"Wings broader than the heavens; a spine mightier than the earth; a tail longer than mountain ranges... Let all peoples worship together the Great Red Dragon of the skies!"
The knights of the Dragon Oath Sanctuary solemnly recited their prayers, while the monks of the order sang the magnificent Hymn of Cassius in unison.
In this electric atmosphere, even Olivia was swept along, an inexplicable surge of excitement welling in her chest.
When she looked back up toward the sky, sunlight poured over scarlet scales. With the sun behind him, the red dragon spread his wings, the golden light outlining the near-perfect silhouette of his body.
Accompanied by stirring music, a solemn, sacred aura radiated through the air. In her fine blue-gray eyes, Cassius at this moment appeared like the statue of a deity—sacred, majestic, and inviolable.
For a time, Olivia's thoughts tumbled into disarray. A look of confusion appeared on her delicate face; she could no longer tell what was real.
She could not distinguish between the impassioned red dragon from moments ago and the godlike emperor before her now. Which of them was the true Cassius?
Or were they both merely different facets of the Cinder Emperor...?
Olivia could not help but whisper to herself, "Cassius... what are you truly like?"
...
Meanwhile, high above, the red dragon beat his wings, gazing down at the multitudes below and basking in the feverish adoration of countless subjects.
By virtue of his extraordinary tier and permanent spells such as True Seeing, Cassius could already perceive the nectar-like energy welling from the souls of his people—faith, pure and unadulterated.
*Good, just like this. When I claim true divinity, they will all become my wellspring of power.*
*But for now, what matters more is to awaken them, to kindle their appetite for war, so that this slumbering beast of the Cinder Empire may fully awaken.*
Cassius looked down at the crowd, thinking to himself.
In the next instant, the gem-studded Crown of the Supreme True Dragon appeared atop the red dragon's head, glittering under the sunlight and adding an aura of even greater majesty.
"My beloved subjects..."
The red dragon slowly parted his jaws. His thunderous voice echoed throughout Isdalia and, carried by the power of his Imperial Domain, resonated across the entire Great Anzetta Waste.
In an instant, whether in the northern reaches of the City of Baator and Northwind Keep, or in the southern strongholds of Stravburg and Blackstone Keep, massive phantom dragon heads materialized in the sky above every city belonging to the Cinder Empire.
It was their ruler, the Cinder Emperor Cassius.
And as Cassius spoke, the phantom dragon heads opened their gaping maws in unison, delivering the same momentous proclamation.
At this moment, not just the citizens of Isdalia, but nearly ten million citizens across the entire Cinder Empire—humans, hobgoblins, tieflings, and ogres, as well as wyverns and chimeras—all looked up as one toward the emperor in the sky.
"Greetings, my beloved subjects.
"I am Cassius Claubau Norixius, sole ruler of the Great Anzetta Waste and Emperor of the Cinder Empire."
There was little inflection in the red dragon's voice; he simply stated his identity in a calm, matter-of-fact tone—even though not a soul in the empire did not know it.
Yet that single sentence alone sent the entire empire into an uproar, millions shouting and cheering at the top of their lungs.
"Long live the Emperor!"
"Long live His Majesty Cassius!"
"Praise the Great Red Dragon! May Your Majesty bless us with invincibility! May our might smash all before us!"
There was no need for elaborate rhetoric, nor any need to recount his astounding feats. The mere sight of the Cinder Emperor standing there was a symbol of victory and hope, granting the people of the empire inexhaustible power.
Of course, there were also players from various local branches of the Dragon Lovers Association shouting outrageous slogans, eager to pet His Majesty Cassius's tail, his claws, and even...
In the end, indignant citizens reported them, and they were promptly arrested by the tieflings of the Imperial Guard.
Suspended high above Isdalia, Cassius paid no heed to such trivialities. He continued his address in a steady, powerful voice:
"Today, I send you forth on campaign not merely for the sake of war, but to defend justice and challenge injustice."
With his Silver Tongue trait in full effect, Cassius turned black into white, framing outright conquest as a defense of justice with such righteous conviction that millions of imperial subjects failed to spot the flaw in his reasoning.
"Those southerners possess lands far richer and more fertile than ours. In the words of a former Fadlan emperor, it is a land blessed by the gods, flowing with honey and milk, harboring buried gold.
"Yet we were confined to the desolate, barren Great Anzetta Waste, enduring thousands of years of poverty until the founding of our empire began to change our lot."
Cassius beat his wings again, whipping up fierce gales as his voice grew impassioned, even tinged with a touch of indignation.
"And yet—they did not cherish it! Foolish godblood slaughter one another to squabble over the legacy of the Holy Fadlan Empire. They greedily laid claim to every scrap of land in the continent's heartland, yet turned what should have been paradise into hell!
"Do the people of our Cinder Empire not deserve such land? Must we simply watch from the sidelines while those arrogant Fadlan mortals tear each other apart?"
"No—!"
Countless imperial subjects were swept up by Cassius's words, their faces flushed crimson as they roared in fury, their voices rising like a tidal wave.
Seeing their emotions reach a fever pitch, Cassius declared resolutely, "As Emperor of the Cinder Empire, I will not permit such things to pass!
"I want my subjects to possess a place in the sun as well, to throw back their shoulders with pride as citizens of the Cinder Empire!
"Only when our banners fly high above the lands of North Aethel amid shouts of triumph, and only when the remnants of Fadlan accept the arrival of peace, will my heart truly find rest, and will I know true tranquility.
"We shall make the name of the Cinder Empire renowned across the land of Feanso, so that those wretched southerners gaze upon us in awe and terror, never daring to harbor the slightest contempt again!"
"Conquest—!"
"Give everything for the great blueprint of the Cinder Empire!"
"We shall forge a new order! We shall make the name of the Cinder Empire their living nightmare!"
This string of declarations sent the emotions of the empire's people soaring higher and higher. Pumping their fists, their shouts and battle cries swept across millions of square kilometers of Anzetta's soil.
Though Cassius's speech was riddled with specious arguments and logical fallacies, under the sweep of this fanatic atmosphere, the citizens of the empire had long since abandoned reason, and even their very sense of self, becoming parts of a ferocious war machine.
Workers, officers, commoners, and merchants alike fell into this inexplicable war fever, which only intensified under the catalyst of the imperial order.
And this was precisely the effect Cassius had employed every means to achieve. Compared to the Great Anzetta Waste, the Feanso Continent was vast—so vast that if the empire halted for even a moment, it risked facing a devastating counterattack.
Therefore, once committed to war, the Cinder Empire had to conquer without pause, until the entire Feanso Continent was brought under its heel.
Now, summoned by its master, that monstrous beast of the Cinder Empire had fully awakened, its gaze fixed on its prey to the south.
At the summit of the Grand Altar of Isdalia, Olivia looked down upon the frenzied crowd and felt utterly out of place, a sense of desolation rising within her, as though she were naturally incapable of fitting in.
Perhaps she truly was the one in the wrong.
Chapter 606