Chapter 850:- The Cost of War
Chapter 850:- The Cost of War
The fight with Robert is the toughest fight of Aditya's life. Whatever Aditya tried, it never impacted Robert.
He took Aditya's powerful attacks like it was nothing and came out with just a few minor burns and scratches.
At some point, Aditya felt like Robert was invincible. At some point, he even considered forcefully teleporting to the Dragon Palace with Robert.
Once inside the Dragon Palace, Aditya's stats would significantly increase. A 200% increase in his stats would have changed the tide of the battle.
But he was concerned about what might happen to his home. Regardless of what happened, the shockwave from their attacks would destroy the entire Dragon Palace. Not to mention everyone who was residing in it. The Dragon Palace wasn't just his residence; it was also the residence of the Royal Family and hundreds of others. The Dragon Palace was more than a just palace; it was a symbol of the Dragon Monarch's reign. As soon as the idea came to his mind, he dismissed it.
After the battle, Aditya lost his consciousness. He has no idea what happened afterward. •••
"How is he?" It was the Goddess of Wealth who asked the question. Almost every resident of the Dragon Palace was in the Emperor's bedroom. Some were sitting on the chairs and couches. Others were standing in various parts of the bedroom. Riya sat on the bed next to Aditya. She was currently checking his condition. Alicia, Julia, Lara, Sasha, and Lilith were sitting around the bed, gathered around Aditya.
Riya was holding his right wrist. She wasn't a traditional doctor, but her powers as the Goddess of Nature allowed her to sense if there was anything wrong with Aditya's body or soul. Just touching his body allowed her to know exactly which part or area of his body was damaged.
"I don't see anything wrong with his body. He is perfectly fine now." It would be strange if he wasn't fine. After all, when he passed out, she gave him another extract of the Dragon Grass and also fed him another Peak 5-star Healing Pill. "Then why hasn't he woken up yet?" Sasha asked the question. She and Riya nearly had a mental breakdown when they saw their man was about to die. Even now, Sasha was very worried about him. "Maybe he is just exhausted. I am sure he will wake up very soon." "Does that mean he is just sleeping?" Amelia, who was sitting on the nearby couch, asked. "It's a state similar to sleeping. It's like his body kind of switched off after this tough battle. Now that he has rested properly, he will wake up very soon." Her words relieved everyone. "Did he damage his foundation?" Lara asked, having seen him suddenly go from Mid-Fourth Order to Peak Fourth Order. "His Foundation is as solid as ever!"
"Even before this battle, Aditya was really close to Peak Fourth Order realm. I guess a little push was enough to break into the Next Order safely." "What is surprising is that he is just one step away from reaching Beginner Fifth Order. I have no idea how this happened, but his foundation doesn't seem to be damaged." Hearing this, everyone was surprised. "A 20 years of Beginner Fifth Order? I bet my life that something like this has never happened in this world." "But then again, he is Aditya." Nothing about him was ordinary. "He can create miracles." Hearing this, everyone smiled.
"By the way, now that the war is over, what will happen to the Dune Sovereignty Empire?" Lilith was very curious. "This morning, Brother Spencer went to the Dune Sovereignty Empire. Charles's daughter Soraya is going to be the next Ruler."
"By now, she must have officially become the Empress of Dune Sovereignty Empire." Nôv(el)B\\jnn
"Why didn't he just annex the huge territory of the entire desert Empire into the Istarin Empire?" Julia asked. Aditya always annexed the territories of the Empires that he defeated. This was the first time he had gone with a different approach. Since Aditya was sleeping, the question was meant for others. "The Dune Sovereignty's territories are just too damn big." The Goddess of Wealth perfectly understood Aditya's reasoning for taking this step even without needing to talk to him. "Simply put, more territories means more work for Aditya and Brother Spencer. The time that he spends with us is already limited. What would happen if his workload were to increase?" Julia nodded her head. Aria also felt relieved. If the territory was annexed, then she feared that she might never see her husband at home. There were also political and strategic reasons that Alicia did not elaborate on. Most people in this room weren't interested in politics, and those who were would understand the reasons without needing an explanation.
"Since the war ended, we have received many letters and gifts congratulating the Istarin Empire from various Empires and Kingdoms across the Six Continents." Watson personally received everything and put it in his Master's office. "It seems now that the Istarin Empire is the OverLord in the six continents; everyone wants to maintain a good relationship with us."
Who would want to be on bad terms with the Dragon Monarch who single-handedly could destroy an entire continent? The recent fight was proof that if he went all out, he could easily change the shape and size of an entire freaking continent. "Aditya has once again shown to the whole world that in the six continents, he is unbeatable. By this point, even an idiot would understand to not mess with the Dragon Monarch." As the first woman, how could she not feel proud of this achievement?
"On that note, what should we do about the Central Region?" This was a very heavy topic. It was also the one that everyone avoided talking about until this point. If Lilith hadn't brought up this topic, then no one would have talked about it until Aditya had woken up. "Till now, it's not clear how many people died." After everything concluded, the Istarin Empire sent tens of thousands of shadow guardians to estimate the number of people who were unable to leave the central region in time and had died.
All the people who lived near and in cities with teleportation arrays were safely teleported to other regions of the Beast Continent or to some less populated islands of the Istarin Empire. Millions of people, along with their belongings, were teleported to various locations around the Istarin Empire. The entire cost of teleporting millions of people was on the Istarin Empire. But that wasn't important at this moment. What was more important and regrettable was the death of those who couldn't leave the central region in time. After all, this whole thing happened on such short notice that it was impossible to evacuate everyone, especially those living in small villages or towns far from cities. "The number shouldn't be too high." Watson suddenly said.
He was the one in charge of evacuating the normal people from the Istarin Empire. Due to the war, he did not have enough men.
The troops that were deployed to the battlefield weren't used to evacuate citizens. "Its number should be less than one hundred thousand! I am 100% certain of it." If there had been no flying ships, perhaps this number would have been ten times higher. A part of him felt guilty. If he had given a little more time, then perhaps the lives of those could have been saved. Once the war started, Watson was left with two flying ships. They continued their evacuation operation until the very end. The problem was, other than one flying ship, the other flying ships did not have any teleportation arrays built into them. If this was the case, then they would have finished their evacuation around 3 to 4 hours before even the war started. "What are we going to do about the evacuated population?" These millions of people were displaced. They can't just put them in various parts of the Istarin Empire. If it was one hundred or even one million, then it might have been manageable, but putting the population of an entire region would destabilize the entire Empire.
It would create tons of new problems. Not to mention, they cannot just leave the central region as it is. "I don't know!" "The immediate solution would be to let everyone temporarily stay where they were evacuated. And the long-term solution would be to invest gold coins in repairing the central region."
"By repairing, you can't possibly mean rebuilding the entire central region?" Julia asked. "Of course not!!" "Luckily, we have the Goddess of Nature with us." "She will restore the land and bring back the previous vegetation." "Even if I went all out, it might still take me a month or maybe even more time." Though, she wasn't opposed to this idea. In fact, even if no one had asked her, she still would have tried her back to restore the land as to what it was. As the Goddess of Nature, she understood better than anyone else how this huge change would potentially affect the entire Beast Continent. The lives of the magic animals and the people living on it will be severely affected. The land has to be restored to its previous state. "Rebuilding the entire Central Region is impossible. But we can give this responsibility to the natives of this land. But before these millions of people settle back, we have to make sure that all necessities are available. By necessities, I mean food, shelter, water, land for agriculture, & roads, etc." "But that's just my suggestion. Who knows, Aditya may have better ideas. He might have a different approach." Ultimately, this was a situation that even the Goddess of Wealth had never encountered.
Besides, Alicia firmly believed that Aditya's take on this whole matter would be better than hers. The central region had become a wasteland. It would take hundreds, if not thousands, of years for the land to naturally heal. Rebuilding everything from scratch won't be an easy process. It's going to take Billions of Royal Gold coins and lots of time. Fortunately, for the Istarin Empire, money wasn't an issue. "By the way, what will we do with Robert's corpse?" Lilith asked the question. Before heading to the Dune Sovereignty, Amber had told her that there was a necromancer who was interested in turning Robert into an undead. "Why ask?" The corpse was with Julia. She intended to do some research and find out exactly what aspect of his body changed that made him so powerful against Dragons. Julia felt that she would be able to improve her alchemy skills through this research. "Amber told me that there was a Necromancer named Morgan who expressed her desire to turn Robert into an undead." "Oh...,her!!" Julia recalled who Morgan was. She was the former Commander commander of the Zulux Dynasty. Aditya turned her into a slave, and now she was a part of the Imperial Army. She was in Eleanor's division.
"Let's ask Aditya about this when he wakes up." "Alright! Let's talk about you!" Following Lilith, everyone looked at Rin, who had been silent this entire time. "Me?" "Yeah! You have been completely silent this entire time." "We are really curious about our new sister." Everyone nodded their heads while Sasha just looked at her. "Sure!" Rin wasn't the introverted type. She didn't feel pressured.
Sitting on the couch, Sylvie quickly took out a few oatcakes. This was going to be really interesting.
"Just how far have you progressed with Aditya?" There was a teasing grin on her face. This was going to be interesting. Even if she was extroverted, this was still a bit embarrassing. Aditya was her first love. "Progress?"
"We just confirmed our relationship." Her cheeks were slightly red.
"Oh.....!! Sister, let me tell you about something really important." Lilith was about to continue when Julia and Alicia covered her mouth with their palms. "Mmm.....!!" "We can talk about this later!!" Neither girl wanted Lilith to speak in front of their parents. Sure, there were only women in this room, but these women were their moms, aunts, and grandmothers. Lilith was about to protest, but seeing their cold smiles, she gave up and nodded her head. Around that time, Aditya opened his eyes. The first one to notice him was Lara. "Husband.....!!" Everyone's attention is on Aditya.