Southern Federation (1)
Seon Yul used Arachne thread to remove Cheon Li Yu’s handcuffs. Cheon Li Yu had been extremely tense because of the major crisis caused by such a huge mistake, but fortunately, they were able to escape the Empire’s prison without any problems.
“I’m sorry. This was completely my mistake.”
Seon Yul apologized to Cheon Li Yu.
He believed everything that happened today was his fault.
Through this incident, Seon Yul keenly realized that the person who had once been almost obsessively fixated on safety had somehow changed far too much.
‘Just because I gained a tiny bit of power, I became too arrogant. I need to reflect.’
While apologizing to Cheon Li Yu, Seon Yul continued to reflect on himself.
“It’s okay. I also made the mistake of focusing only on finding the target without carefully checking the surroundings. I really need to be more careful from now on.”
Cheon Li Yu shook her head back and forth as she spoke.
“But, Yul, do you happen to know where we escaped to? No matter how I look at it, it seemed like we were inside the fortress… but it feels like a place we didn’t see when we examined it from outside.”
“Hmm, let’s go outside and take a slow look again.”
Since Seon Yul and Cheon Li Yu thought they might get detected again by the mana detection device, they first moved to the Absolute Space entrance outside the fortress. Without leaving Absolute Space, they slowly observed the inside of the fortress.
“This time, instead of only looking above the fortress, let’s check the underground area too.”
In truth, until now, Seon Yul and Cheon Li Yu had carelessly focused mainly on observing people moving around above the fortress.
But when they started carefully observing the underground area, they began to see things they had missed before.
A passage deeply connected beneath the guard building located at the northern end of the fortress, and beneath it, a subterranean prison and several other facilities.
They were even able to find the mana detection device the man had mentioned.
“We… didn’t notice this place.”
“I guess the Divine Eye ability only shows the parts where you specifically select the field of view… so I didn’t realize there were facilities like this underground.”
The viewing range of the Divine Eye ability was very narrow.
Especially when seeing through objects or zooming in over long distances, it only showed the precisely designated area.
Because of that, it was impossible to observe the whole area from afar.
“It’s okay. What’s done is done. Let’s just be careful from now on.”
After reassuring Cheon Li Yu, Seon Yul began thinking about retaliation.
“We can’t just leave them alone…”
After quietly thinking for a moment, Seon Yul made a decision.
“Li Yu. That person we found before we got captured… can you find him again?”
“If he’s still inside there, I can.”
“Then please try to find him.”
There were a few things Seon Yul wanted to ask that man.
He had already obtained most of the information from the man who interrogated him, but there was still one important thing he didn’t know.
That was information about the ‘Federation’, which was said to treat Irregulars favorably… unlike the Empire.
Fortunately, the person Seon Yul and Cheon Li Yu were looking for was still inside the fortress. After finding him, the two immediately moved close to him and very naturally kidnapped him.
To be honest, rather than kidnapping, they had simply knocked him unconscious and taken him to a discreet place outside the fortress so they could talk with him secretly. From the beginning, they had no intention of harming him.
“You must be surprised, but as I mentioned earlier, we have absolutely no intention of harming you. We simply want to ask a few things we’re curious about.”
Seon Yul was still wearing the necklace enchanted with translation magic, so he could speak with the man.
“…I understand the situation for now. You two are Irregulars, correct?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“But it’s impressive that you managed to obtain a translation artifact.”
“Ah, there’s a bit of a story behind that… but anyway, we ended up obtaining it somehow.”
“If you’re Irregulars, then I should help you. My original job was being a Guide.”
“A Guide? What is that?”
“Ah, originally this fortress was built by the Empire 30 years ago to help Irregulars. Until the Empire’s policies changed after a certain incident seven years ago, most of the people here made a living by helping Irregulars and receiving small compensation in the process. A Guide basically refers to someone who professionally helps Irregulars. I also worked as a Guide for more than ten years in the past.”
“Ah…”
After hearing this, Seon Yul clearly understood why the man had spoken that way earlier.
“Then it’ll be easier for me to ask questions.”
“Yes, feel free to ask anything.”
“I’ve already heard how the Empire treats Irregulars. But I heard that there is a Federation that isn’t part of the Empire… and that the Federation treats Irregulars favorably. Is that true?”
“If you’re referring to the Southern Federation, then yes. The Southern Federation has a policy that favors Irregulars.”
“If it’s not too rude, may I ask what countries exist in this world?”
“Rude? Not at all. Of course, I can tell you. First of all, the place we’re currently in is the Kanon Empire. It’s the only empire in this world and the strongest nation, ruling the largest territory. If you use the Forest of Darkness as a reference point, the Empire’s territory stretches continuously to the northwest from the forest.”
The man continued speaking without hesitation.
“And the Southern Federation you asked about is the largest force that can somewhat compete with the Empire. As the name suggests, it’s a federation formed by many nations joining together. A total of seven countries of various sizes allied, and if you use the Forest of Darkness as the reference point, it borders the southern edge of the forest.”
Through the man’s explanation, Seon Yul confirmed the location of the Southern Federation. According to him, the Federation seemed to exist closer than expected.
“As for the remaining nations, there is the Silver Holy Theocracy beyond the Empire’s western territories, and beyond the Sky Mountains to the east lies a vast ocean containing numerous island nations collectively called the Maritime Kingdoms. There are also a few other nations scattered across the continent, but most of them are very small in scale.”
“So the major countries are basically the Empire, the Federation, and the Theocracy?”
“That’s right. The remaining small and medium countries probably won’t be very important.”
“What kind of place is the Theocracy? Do they also reject Irregulars?”
“No. The Theocracy considers Irregulars to be apostles sent by God. Because of that, they don’t really communicate with Irregulars but rather expect them to do things for them unilaterally, which can be uncomfortable… but in terms of treatment, they are extremely polite.”
“What about the Maritime Kingdoms?”
“You can think of them as a place where dozens of large and small island nations exist. In reality, they barely interact with the continental nations. They truly are kingdoms of the sea.”
After that, Seon Yul asked more questions about the various countries, and the man continued answering them.
Once Seon Yul had heard everything he wanted to know, he quietly stood up and politely apologized to the man first.
“We’re going to send you back to where you originally were… but unfortunately, you’ll have to lose consciousness one more time.”
“Hmm… there’s no way for me to go back without fainting, is there?”
“We also have things we need to keep hidden.”
“I understand. Please make it as painless as possible.”
“Yes, we’ll do it cleanly.”
The moment Seon Yul finished speaking, he immediately used the Arachne thread to lightly compress the man’s carotid artery, causing him to faint.
Because he carefully controlled the strength, it did not endanger the man’s life or cause physical damage.
Seon Yul then carried the unconscious man back to the place where they had originally kidnapped him and returned.
“You’re planning to go to the Federation, right?”
“Of course. It’s hard to do anything in the Empire where they basically treat us like slaves.”
The conclusion had already been decided.
“The southern side of the Forest of Darkness… we were really unlucky to fall near the northern side of the forest.”
“That couldn’t be helped.”
It was assumed that many mana users who had crossed over from Earth–104 had fallen into the Forest of Darkness. Among them, the unlucky ones fell closer to the north, while the fortunate ones landed closer to the south.
“But are we just going to leave those guys alone?”
“Those guys? Ah! No. We absolutely can’t leave them alone. For the sake of the other mana users from Earth–104… we should properly punish them before leaving.”
From the beginning, Seon Yul had never planned to simply leave.
Even though an emergency would already have been triggered when they escaped, he still intended to deal devastating damage to the mana detection device and the fortress guards.
“What are you going to use?”
After thinking for a moment about Cheon Li Yu’s question, Seon Yul slowly answered.
“If it were up to me, I’d like to strike them with the Hammer of God, but that feels a bit excessive… so let’s use long-range TOT bombardment.”
After deciding on the method of retaliation, Seon Yul immediately moved a suitable distance away from the fortress.
The wooden walls surrounding the fortress were quite tall, so he planned to bombard it using an appropriate high-angle trajectory.
After creating enough distance and finishing all preparations for the bombardment, Seon Yul handed the railgun to Cheon Li Yu while he took control of three K9X artillery units.
TOT referred to adjusting firing angles so that multiple shells land at the same point simultaneously, and executing such an attack required more work than expected.
But since he had done it countless times before, Seon Yul finished the setup skillfully.
“Imperial Fortress Guard Annihilation Bombardment… begin!”
At Seon Yul’s signal, the railgun and K9X units simultaneously roared to life and began firing.
It might not have the destructive power of the Hammer of God, but if these four artillery units performed a TOT strike, they could easily devastate an entire area.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Shells are fired consecutively at different angles.
All of them were penetrator rounds capable of digging deeply into underground bunkers.
Using the four artillery units, Seon Yul fired four volleys… a total of 16 shells.
Each of the 16 shells traveled at different trajectories, all set to land almost simultaneously at the target location Seon Yul designated.
Whoooooosh… BOOM! KABOOOOM!
Soon afterward, the sixteen shells fell directly above the underground prison where Seon Yul and Cheon Li Yu had been imprisoned.
They all burrowed underground before releasing their massive kinetic energy in explosive blasts.
Once the shells had landed properly, the facilities of the fortress guard located underground had no chance of surviving.
The fortress guard was annihilated.
Naturally, the mana detection device inside was destroyed, and the guards monitoring the fortress were also caught in the explosions and wiped out.
Seon Yul confirmed all of this using his Divine Eye.
If the destruction had been incomplete, he had intended to conduct a second bombardment to finish the job, but after confirming that it wasn’t necessary, he held off on the prepared second strike.
“This should be enough.”
“At least until they repair those facilities and send new personnel, the mana users who fell in the northern Forest of Darkness shouldn’t face major problems.”
They didn’t know how quickly the Empire would restore the fortress’s functions.
But one thing was certain: this attack would make the Empire realize that something suspicious was happening in the Forest of Darkness.
That could cause the Empire to take stronger countermeasures, which might actually make things more dangerous for the mana users from Earth–104.
Because of that, Seon Yul thought that once he returned to Earth–104, he should inform the Republic of Korea Gate Management Bureau about the danger posed by the Empire.
“For now, we’ve done everything we needed to… let’s head south.”
Seon Yul wanted to reach the Southern Federation as quickly as possible and properly adapt to this world.
He also wanted to enter the Towers, obtain more Soul Stones and Return Stones, return to Earth–104, and restore it to its original state as quickly as possible.
After all, their home was Earth–104, and everything would only truly end once Earth–104 was restored.
Irregulars could not truly live in this world. In the end, they would remain Irregulars forever.
The purpose of all Irregulars was probably the same.
The restoration of their own world.
That was why they were active here, and depending on their level of activity, the restoration rate of their home dimension seemed to increase.
“Let’s go. To the Southern Federation!”
Based on the information they had gathered, it seemed they would need to travel nearly 2,000 kilometers south to reach the Southern Federation.
Even for Seon Yul and Cheon Li Yu, who had been solving almost everything easily so far, that distance was quite far.
Comments (0)