The Belossos Plains in the eastern part of Almeria Province.
On this land, etched into history as the site of countless decisive battles since ancient times, yet another clash was about to unfold.
Both front lines numbered five thousand soldiers. Looking from atop my horse, the enemy force appeared exceptionally well-equipped, and their morale seemed fittingly high.
"Your Majesty! The enemy has begun to move!"
"Mm."
Atop my gorgeously adorned white horse, I nodded.
Just as the soldier reported, the enemy army charged forward, kicking up clouds of dust.
The ground shook beneath the stomping of five thousand men, their roaring battle cries surging forward like a colossal wall.
"...Gulp."
Nearby, I heard the sound of someone swallowing dry spit—likely one of my soldiers.
I glanced back at the men behind me.
I saw neither fear nor cowardice, but the tension written across their faces was plain to see.
In that case, first things first.
I just had to shatter that tension!
"Leviathan."
I held out my hand and summoned Leviathan.
The magic sword Leviathan manifested with an overwhelming presence, a true symbol of power settling into my outstretched, bare palm.
A completely different wave of emotion rippled through the ranks.
"We take the initiative. Can you do it?"
『As you command.』
Leviathan replied with a voice that was powerful, yet utterly obedient.
As if her entire existence were composed solely of the duality between a rabid hound and a loyal dog, Leviathan had never once questioned my orders, nor had she ever claimed to be unable to do something.
This time, too, she answered without a second thought.
"..."
In silence, I raised Leviathan above my head, gripped the hilt firmly with both hands, and took my stance.
Then, toward the enemy army surging forward like a monstrous, furious wave, I swung Leviathan down.
Casually, yet with all my might.
As the tip of Leviathan sliced downward, it unleashed a massive wave of sword ki.
Crescent-shaped, the sword ki flew straight toward the enemy lines.
A colossal crescent soaring through the air.
Though the enemy army possessed the momentum of a giant beast, their sheer mass meant they could not halt immediately.
The crescent-shaped sword ki collided with their vanguard—and erupted.
The front rank of soldiers was cleaved in two along with their armor, a deluge of fresh blood spraying out amidst their agonized screams.
The sword ki, still unchecked, gouged the earth and triggered a massive explosion of dirt and dust.
The dust completely enveloped the carnage and screams, shattering the enemy formation and bringing their momentum to a dead halt.
"OOOOOOOHHHH!!!"
Witnessing my single strike, my own army let out a roar akin to a premature victory cry.
Not letting the momentum cool, I immediately thrust Leviathan toward the heavens.
"All forces, charge!"
A single command.
Spurred on by my strike, the highly trained imperial soldiers charged at the enemy forces with unprecedented ferocity.
Those who had their momentum crushed, and those who had seized it.
Having gone from the very vanguard to the rear, I watched the overwhelming battle unfold.
"A-Amazing..."
Hearing an excited voice from the side, I shifted my gaze toward it.
After the entire army had charged, a unit of just under a hundred men remained around me, the Emperor.
It was a unit composed almost entirely of young soldiers. Every single one of them was looking at me with eyes full of sheer admiration.
"So that's the legendary magic sword..."
"It's my first time seeing it up close."
"Such absurd power... Incredible."
Perhaps it was because their only remaining duty was to guard me once the front lines had already clashed.
The tension felt by these young soldiers just moments ago had completely vanished without a trace, as they realized they wouldn't even need to fight.
Did I blow away their tension a bit too much?
Shrugging my shoulders while still holding Leviathan, I continued overseeing the battle, gazing down upon the smoothly progressing front line.
☆
Evening.
Since the enemy had routed, I left instructions to wrap things up with a moderate pursuit, then withdrew early to the encampment.
Perhaps because word of our overwhelming advantage had already spread, the soldiers remaining in camp welcomed me and my small escort with roaring cheers.
Accepting the praise with composure, I returned to my tent.
"Ah..."
The woman inside noticed me, hastily rose to her feet, and jogged over.
"Welcome back, Your Majesty. I apologize for not going out to greet you—"
"Don't worry about it, Evelyn. There's no need for you to go out of your way for a minor skirmish victory."
"Is that... so?"
She tilted her head, puzzled.
Evelyn.
She was the first retainer I had sent out as a magistrate from my estate back when I was the Thirteenth Imperial Prince. Having steadily accumulated achievements ever since, I had recently summoned her back to the imperial capital to keep her by my side as a closer aide.
Currently, I had appointed her as the Fourth Prime Minister, having her oversee various domestic affairs.
"Start being mindful of your position. You are now the Fourth Prime Minister; you need to be aware of how your actions are perceived by those around you."
"Aware..."
"I mean you should carry yourself in a manner befitting your status. Especially in front of the soldiers."
"Understood. I will take it to heart."
Evelyn's expression grew dead serious, as though she were truly taking my words to heart and engraving them into her very soul.
Passing by her, I tapped her shoulder, saying, "Don't be so stiff," then walked over to the Emperor's desk and sat down.
"Has any word come from the imperial capital?"
"Ah, yes!"
Snapping back to attention, Evelyn rushed over, slightly flustered, and faced me across the desk.
She picked up one of the documents resting on the desk and offered it to me.
"Here is the report from this morning. It states that heavy rain has begun falling in Gopher. According to the local elders, it is the kind of downpour that will likely last anywhere from several days to ten days."
"Gopher... was, if I recall..."
"Right over here."
With that, Evelyn swiftly stepped aside.
The space in front of the desk cleared, and an expansive map of the Empire unfolded across my entire field of vision on the far side of the tent.
It was an enormous full map of the Empire covering an entire wall.
Not only was it wide, but it was also so tall that an adult man reaching up couldn't touch the top, requiring a pointer stick to use.
"Well prepared, as always."
"I am honored."
I stood up and moved in front of the map.
"Gopher was in the northwest, if I remember correctly... right here."
I pointed to the northwest of the Empire—the upper left of the map.
Because of the map's sheer scale, even I had to crane my neck to look at the northern regions.
"Yes, right there."
Evelyn tapped a spot in the upper left with a pointer stick she had produced from somewhere.
On the map, it was a highland region where mountain ranges stretched across the territory.
"I see."
"It is on the exact opposite side of Almeria, with the imperial capital sitting between them."
"So heavy rain has started falling there."
"Yes."
"When it comes to locals, especially elders, their experience is not to be underestimated. If it rains heavily upstream, the downstream water will eventually swell. It started raining this morning, right?"
"That is correct."
"Then there is no time to waste, but we can still make it in time. Have the entire downstream area evacuated."
"Understood."
"Depending on the scale of the downpour, there will likely be a fair amount of damage. First prepare food supplies, and after that, ensure building materials, farming tools, and seed rice are ready as well."
"Understood."
With each order I gave, Evelyn jotted it down.
After writing everything down and seeing that I had no further commands, Evelyn walked over to the entrance of the tent and called in a civil official.
The civil official took the paper from Evelyn's hand and moved to a desk in the corner of the tent.
Placing the paper on the desk, he set his hands on an apparatus equipped with two buttons.
He began pressing the two buttons on the device—which was connected to a thick line running outside the tent—alternating between them in an irregular rhythm.
I watched him work.
Since it was a system I had created, I could understand the message just by watching.
The combination of button presses matched the exact text I had just dictated and Evelyn had recorded.
"It is truly incredible... Your Majesty."
"Hm?"
Turning to the side, I saw that Evelyn had returned to my side before I realized it.
Her eyes gazed upon me with even deeper reverence than usual.
"The wired telegraphy Your Majesty created is a truly revolutionary invention."
"Hmph."
Wired telegraphy referred to this very process currently underway.
By utilizing the thread of the awakened Humbaba, it was a method capable of transmitting binary messages—black and white—over vast distances.
By converting combinations of black and white into ciphers and providing codebooks to both ends, information could now be transmitted in an instant.
Incidentally, "telegraphy" meant passing along messages sequentially—in other words, a relay.
Since it was a brand-new system, it would be a shame if an overly grandiose name made it difficult to understand, so I had simply named it "wired telegraphy" and spread Humbaba's threads across the Empire's major regions like a spider's web.
And now, it had proven its worth.
"From Gopher to the imperial capital, and from the imperial capital to these Belossos Plains. Conventionally, even with a super express courier horse, it would take ten days at best, and half a month if things stalled. Yet news from this morning has already arrived. No, considering the time spent gathering and summarizing the opinions of the locals this morning, the actual transmission of information took only a few hours."
"Indeed."
"It is magnificent, Your Majesty! The speed is entirely incomparable to anything before."
"..."
"Your Majesty? What is on your mind?"
"This system of wired telegraphy... the more I use it, the more I arrive at a single conclusion."
"What might that be?"
Evelyn tilted her head blankly.
"Magistrates, or rather, governors-general. Why do you think the Empire—no, why do all nations—station people like governors-general in the provinces to manage and rule the land?"
"That is... Ah!"
Evelyn gasped.
Clever as she was, the realization struck her immediately.
It was a profound line of thought, and once she grasped it, Evelyn grew instantly excited.
Her eyes shone with pure, youthful wonder.
"Incredible, Your Majesty! That means—"
"It's a double-edged sword."
I offered a dry smile.
I held up a hand to temper Evelyn's excitement.
Fourth Prime Minister Evelyn.
The first retainer to leave the Thirteenth Imperial Prince's residence, and the most successful of them all.
Having climbed all the way to Fourth Prime Minister, Evelyn was exceptionally sharp; hence, she had understood at once.
If information could be transmitted this quickly, it was entirely possible to conduct all governance directly from the heart of the Empire.
Why were governors-general and magistrates—who could effectively become the supreme authority in their respective lands—stationed throughout the realm in the first place?
It stemmed purely from the limitations of communication speed.
It took days for an emperor's decree to reach the provinces.
If one accounted for transmitting orders after receiving situation reports, it was not uncommon for the process to take weeks, or in the worst cases, months.
When governing, there were matters that demanded immediate decisions. In fact, most matters were like that.
Because communication from the central government took time, capable and trustworthy individuals had to be placed in the provinces, granted limited authority, and made to execute policies as proxies.
In short, it meant multiplying the number of brains scattered across the realm.
However, if there were a means to communicate between the center and the frontiers within a single day, those separate brains would no longer be necessary.
Taken to the extreme, only a single brain was needed at the center, while the provinces required nothing more than hands and feet.
No, perhaps eyes and ears would still need to remain.
In other words, while governors-general and magistrates would continue to exist, their power and authority could be drastically stripped away, effectively demoting them to mere local executive officers.
Ultimately, the post of governor-general might not even be necessary anymore.
"Further centralization of power becomes possible—and that is a double-edged sword."
"Even so! Your Majesty is incredible for creating such a possibility in the first place!!"
Despite my warning of a double-edged sword, Evelyn, who had not yet fully grasped the dangers of that reality, only grew increasingly thrilled.