IYAMD : Episode 21

General Holland Des arrived near the Ferento territory and was left speechless by the horrific scene before him.

The Ferento territory had already been reduced to ashes. It became instantly clear why the reports had been so inadequate.

There was no need to send out scouts. From the hill overlooking the territory, the situation was visible at a glance.

“Minotaurs moving in packs…?”

Minotaurs were monsters that valued their own territory. They fiercely defended their domains, ensuring that they lived far enough apart to avoid encounters with each other.

Moreover, they were never this numerous. Across the entire empire, there might have been barely ten in total. Since the imperial palace compiled annual reports on sightings to track their numbers, even with some margin of error, the count would only be off by two or three at most.

But why? Even from the hill, over thirty could be seen. The large creatures roamed in groups of three to five, their movements almost resembling those of a patrolling guard unit.

Some were feasting on the corpses of the domain’s residents, while others were using their massive axes to smash what little remained of the houses.

The lord’s castle in the distance was in a similar state. The stone walls were partially intact, but remnants of what had once been an outer wall stood in only a few scattered pieces.

It was hard to believe that any survivors remained.

On the outskirts, there were still some intact houses, but it seemed the residents had already fled. There wasn’t a single human figure in sight within the domain.

“Oh, goddess…”

General Des resolved to report this immediately to the imperial palace. The presence of so many Minotaurs was alarming enough, but the fact that they were moving in packs suggested that something—or someone—was leading them.

With no way of knowing how many more were out there, recklessly launching an extermination campaign was out of the question. Reporting to the emperor and awaiting reinforcements was the best course of action.

Des stationed a few knights as lookouts on the hill and pulled the rest of his troops back. He decided to establish a base some distance from the territory and lure the Minotaurs out little by little, handling them strategically.

Letting out a heavy sigh, he gave the order to retreat.

A mere week. That was all it had taken for an entire domain to be wiped off the map.

Yet, seeing the sheer number of Minotaurs, it seemed as though it had taken even longer.

He didn’t know why they remained in this area, but they had to be dealt with before they expanded their territory further. That might require the emperor himself to lead the campaign.

As a general personally appointed by the emperor for this mission, Des felt too ashamed to even lift his head.

“General Des has sent a courier pigeon, Your Majesty.”

Deputy Chief Aide Emileo rushed into the office, out of breath, and handed over the general’s letter.

Marcilia had been taking advantage of Jaha’s temporary stability to focus on state affairs in his office for the past few days.

Reading the letter, a frown formed on his forehead.

[Ferento territory has been devastated. Dozens of Minotaurs have established a nest. Exact numbers unknown. Requesting reinforcements.]

Marcilia passed the paper to Serez and rubbed his temple.

“Hah…”

Serez let out a suffocated groan as he read the report.

“Minotaurs are living in packs?”

Instead of answering, Marcilia pondered for a moment with a grave expression before speaking.

“Serez, investigate if anything like this has happened before. Find out if there were cases where monster populations increased abnormally. Emileo, assist him. Search the empire’s early records—there might be something from that period when monster extermination was still a major concern.”

During the empire’s early years, monsters had been actively hunted down. There was a higher chance of finding relevant records from that time than from the more stable modern period.

Serez nodded heavily and asked,

“What about reinforcements?”

“We’ll gather more information before deciding. Tell General Des to hold his position and eliminate only those attempting to cross into other territories. He must monitor the situation closely and report any unusual activity immediately.”

“Understood, Your Majesty.”

After dismissing the two aides, Marcilia clasped his hands over his head, momentarily forgetting his paperwork.

The lack of detailed reports suddenly made sense—it hadn’t been an issue of poor communication, but of an unimaginably dire situation.

A single Minotaur was already too much for dozens of regular soldiers to handle.

If a Sword Master-level knight was present, three or four knights might be able to subdue one. But how many knights of that caliber would a single domain have had?

If dozens of Minotaurs had attacked at once, the territory wouldn’t have lasted an hour. Most likely, the distress signal had been sent out just before everything collapsed.

What was strange, however, was that despite the time that had passed since the attack, no reports had come from neighboring territories.

Had the other territories already fallen as well? Or were the Minotaurs still confined to Ferento?

Either way, the situation couldn’t be ignored. The longer it took to eliminate them, the greater the risk of the disaster spreading.

Marcilia immediately summoned the Minister of Defense and the Prime Minister for an emergency meeting.

“My aides are investigating whether such an event has occurred in the past. However, regardless of what they find, we must send reinforcements immediately. This is not a situation that can be handled by the Crimson Knights alone.”

General Des hadn’t even brought the full Crimson Knight Order with him.

No one had expected the situation to escalate to this scale, so he had only taken a mere hundred knights and a handful of priests from the medical division.

“Regular soldiers won’t be able to handle this, Your Majesty,” the Minister of Defense warned.

Marcilia nodded grimly.

“No matter how many there are, all that will increase is the number of corpses.”

“…First, request the temple to send more priests, and I will also try contacting the Mage Tower.”

Would the Mage Tower even agree to provide support?

In the early days of the empire’s founding, relations between the Mage Tower and the imperial family were not bad. Since the first emperor’s companion was the first tower master, mutual assistance was only natural.

However, as dependence on the divine power granted by the goddess gradually increased, the temple’s influence grew stronger, which became a problem.

Mages and priests were fundamentally incompatible, leading to intense rivalry. Then, a few generations ago, an emperor, swayed by the honeyed words of the then-archbishop, completely excluded the Mage Tower.

Enraged, the mages declared themselves an entirely separate force from the empire, and from that point on, the empire entered an era of mage scarcity.

On the surface, there seemed to be no major issues due to the emperor’s overwhelming divine power. However, in a large-scale subjugation like this, the absence of mages was sorely felt.

Marsilia tapped his fingers on the desk before asking the Minister of Defense,

“Offer the Mage Tower the minotaur byproducts at a bargain price in exchange for their cooperation. If they still refuse to send reinforcements, then I’ll personally take the field.”

He had been trying to avoid leaving the palace because of Jaha, but there was no other choice.

Marsilia drafted official requests to both the temple and the Mage Tower and discussed the scale of the knights’ deployment. Given the urgency of the situation, everything had to be prepared within three to four days.

“A banquet will be held in five days. Send out invitations today and select which nobles will attend. It’s been a long time since we had a large-scale subjugation—make sure the preparations are lively.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

The preparations for the banquet would be handled entirely by the palace staff. Ashton would take care of it perfectly on his own.

“The Minister of State should send messengers to the territories surrounding Ferento. Encourage the people to evacuate and strengthen border defenses. If the minotaurs begin to move, they won’t even have time to flee. Make sure they do it in advance.”

Marsilia emphasized his words with a stern expression.

“After the situation is resolved, the empire will assist with the reconstruction of the lands. However, if any governor idly drags their feet and causes unnecessary casualties among their people, they should be prepared to face the consequences. Tell them that if they’d rather rot in Aricto for the rest of their lives, I’ll make that happen. Let them decide whether their wealth or their lives matter more.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Ensure there are no obstacles to using the temple’s teleportation portals.”

The teleportation portals were one of the blessings granted by the goddess to the first emperor. The Arhen Empire, which spanned most of the western continent, had a total of ten such portals.

These portals, powered by divine energy, allowed travel between locations. Most grand temples were built around them for this reason.

The temple managed these portals and used the fees collected to fund its operations. While the fees were not particularly high, the number of users per day was strictly limited, making large-scale transportation nearly impossible.

A single priest could only facilitate the transport of a few dozen people per day. However, if the emperor intervened, the situation changed.

Past emperors had frequently used the portals to personally lead monster exterminations.

When General Des was deployed, the portal had been used as well. At that time, because of Jaha, Marsilia could not leave the palace and had to ask the temple to mobilize additional priests.

But this time, with a much larger force being dispatched, Marsilia would have to personally lead the operation—either to infuse divine power into the portal or to engage in battle himself.

After concluding the lengthy meeting and returning to his office, Marsilia was met with a mountain of paperwork he had postponed.

While waiting for his aides to return, he began tackling the ever-growing pile of documents.

Time passed quickly, and before he knew it, the stars had appeared in the sky. The lights in the emperor’s office remained lit deep into the night.

“Malek, send someone to the sleeping quarters to check on Jaha.”

Marsilia spoke without pausing his work, stamping documents as he issued orders. With Ashton preoccupied with banquet preparations, Malek, the deputy attendant, had taken over the emperor’s personal service.

“Find out if he has eaten and what he has been doing all day, then report back.”

He wanted to check on Jaha himself, but there wasn’t even time to swallow properly. He was so busy that he had skipped dinner and continued working.

With a deep sigh, Marsilia picked up the next document. There was no end in sight to his workload.