Chapter 584: Soldier (4)

The Parion Empire was the greatest nation.

There was an overwhelming amount of proof.

Ares truly had many continents.

Among them, more than forty percent of all nations—

Seventy-nine countries in total were being ruled under the name of an “alliance” with the Parion Empire.

Those nations had to offer grain, resources, taxes, and more every month in order to survive.

The money offered in that way was used for the administration and development of the Parion Empire, and for the training of its forces.

It was a structure in which the dozens of countries beneath them grew poorer and weaker by the day, while the Parion Empire prospered more and more.

When the average kingdom had two million citizens,

the Parion Empire possessed a population of one billion.

And it did not merely have numbers.

Beginning with the Parion Empire’s 1st Knight Order, the Heart of Parion, there were more than twenty knight orders in total.

They carried out various missions.

Subjugation.

When the wails of a country under their command reached a peak because of monsters, when that country was just about to beg them to save it,

they would send a knight order as if granting a favor.

Support.

When a subordinate nation had some unfortunate dispute with another country, they would sometimes send knights and bring the war to an end.

Alliance agreements.

That was what they wrote down.

What they called it was plunder. They sent a powerful army, pressured the other side, and took what they wanted.

And lastly—

talent discovery.

Hundreds of knights traveled across every corner of the kingdoms, uncovering hidden talents.

The amount of money poured into them differed according to their talent, and the people discovered in that way grew into military power within the history of the great Parion Empire.

*****

Pedro.

Twenty years ago, he had been a seedling discovered in a small country on the verge of collapse.

He had been a boy who resisted the Parion Empire’s cavalry with a rusty sword as they tore his village apart.

That day—

“Be loyal to His Majesty.”

Before Pedro’s neck could be cut off, he was granted a new life by Freng, commander of the 1st Knight Order.

And now.

Pedro had grown with vicious determination and become the youngest member of the Empire’s 1st Knight Order, the Heart of Parion, which was known as the place where a knight could seize the greatest wealth and authority.

Sixty-three subjugations.

Thirty-two support missions.

Forty-one talent discoveries.

Six alliance agreements.

Those were the achievements Pedro had built.

Before marching out,

Pedro looked at the army of five hundred thousand standing in perfect formation.

Among them, the twelve standing at the front were the principal °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° figures of the 9th Knight Order.

Though they could not compare to the Heart of Parion, they were still imperial knights.

Each of them could easily face ten knights from any ordinary kingdom alone.

Wearing armor made of silver and carrying a longsword, Pedro put on a helmet decorated with splendid feathers.

Then he looked at the five hundred thousand troops behind him and smiled.

Those five hundred thousand troops—

They were elite soldiers who had mostly been dispatched for “alliance agreements” until now, and they were the finest of the elite, raised and led by Pedro, one of the members of the Heart of Parion.

Ten subjugations.

Ten support missions.

Two alliance agreements each.

Their morale was high.

Every one of them possessed an astonishing level of real combat experience, and three ordinary kingdom soldiers would struggle to defeat even one of them.

It is His Majesty’s grace.

Even though he himself had raised such a great army, Pedro was a loyal subject who believed all of it was thanks to His Majesty.

“Bringing the Verd Territory into His Majesty’s embrace is the same as bringing the entire continent into His Majesty’s embrace.”

It was Freng, commander of the 1st Knight Order.

Freng smiled gently at Pedro, who stood in perfect posture, and patted his shoulder.

“I am pleased that you will be the one to begin that greatness. Once our army begins its stationing in the Verd Territory, we will begin sending forces across the entire continent.”

Ink that began as a small dot was bound to spread.

In the same way, Parion’s glory, once begun, would take root across the entire continent.

Even then, Freng’s eyes suddenly turned sharp.

“What is the current state of the Verd Territory?”

“......It is an independent great territory with nearly one hundred ten thousand citizens, fourteen thousand eight hundred soldiers, and two hundred twenty-one knights.”

It was almost laughable.

Fourteen thousand soldiers and two hundred twenty-one knights before an army of five hundred thousand?

In the first place, Pedro’s reason for marching out was to deliver intimidation and make the Monarch of that place, Musashi, obediently swear the alliance oath.

Freng heard the answer, but his expression said he wanted more.

Pedro smiled faintly and said,

“Upon arrival, I intend to demand that Monarch Musashi offer one thousand boys and one thousand girls to His Majesty, along with fifty million gold.”

The boys and girls would serve His Majesty.

And fifty million gold, by outsiders’ calculations, amounted to fifty billion won.

“Having heard an unexpected tribute demand, Musashi will be unable to pay it, and in place of that, I will make him offer the blood of his soldiers and citizens.”

“The citizens will have to kill themselves. If they do not comply, I will kill as many as necessary to match the unpaid amount, and as I read the imperial edict His Majesty is sending with us, I will demand that Musashi bow.”

It was necessary work in order to break the territory.

The citizens would lose their families, be as good as dead themselves, and then see Musashi bow because he had no strength left.

They would obediently become Parion’s dogs before the collapsing territory and its Monarch, and live on barking.

“Ah, I heard a special imperial citizen will be accompanying you.”

Freng showed interest.

“He is someone outsiders call a BJ.”

“BJ?”

It was an unfamiliar word, and Pedro explained.

“I understand that he is someone with the power to record the contents of history.”

“Ho?”

He was a mysterious person, but Freng did not find it all that strange.

Many outsiders possessed powers that went beyond their common sense.

And from the phrase “record the contents of history,” Freng understood.

“You wish to leave behind the sight of the man blocking the path to an entire continent bowing, and thereby spread His Majesty’s greatness.”

“......Thank you for understanding.”

Pedro bowed his head slightly.

The Parion Empire had to be the greatest.

The sight of a Monarch bowing would be recorded in the history books.

“May fortune be with you.”

“I will return and greet you.”

Pedro looked back over the entire army and shouted,

“We march.”

“We march!!!”

As Pedro marched out, the BJ he had mentioned approached him, bowing and scraping.

“Hehe, I’ll do my very best, sir!”

“It was called a...... video, was it? Show clearly how the Empire stands above the outsiders. Of course, only that part needs to go down in history.”

The dirty parts were not to be recorded in history.

History had to record it as “Musashi voluntarily swearing loyalty to the Empire.”

“Of course, sir!”

The BJ laughed with a hehehe.

And what was that BJ’s name?

It was none other than a man called Rollo.

Rollo.

In the past, at Vera’s request, he had tried to broadcast Atlas’s fall, only to be persuaded by Kabel and broadcast from Kabel’s side instead.

Rollo had received a request from Pedro, who came to him not long ago, and at that time, this quest had appeared.

*****

[Hidden Quest: Record.]

Grade: S

Restriction: One who has received Pedro’s request.

Reward: 200,000 gold.

Penalty: Loss of imperial citizenship.

Description: Pedro wishes to conquer a territory and leave behind the sight of its Monarch bowing to Emperor Bolond as a historic moment. Record that history.

NPCs accepted new culture through their encounters with outsiders.

To begin with, there were magic tools that “broadcast video,” so they seemed to think of Rollo as someone who recorded things in a new format.

Rollo had received from Pedro a quest that required him to film Musashi bowing before the world, and the reward was an enormous sum equivalent to two hundred million won.

However, BJ Rollo hated it.

No matter how crazy I am for money, what the hell is this......?

BJs did anything to make money.

They lived no differently from the trash journalists people used to talk about in the past.

But this was a quest with coercion attached.

In the first place, the reason Rollo had come to belong to this Empire was that they had dragged him here with force.

They had subtly threatened him with a kill order and put Rollo in this position.

Also—

They want me to broadcast a video like that?

Of course, he could broadcast a video of Musashi submitting.

But he hated it.

If one only cut out a fragment and looked at that alone, perhaps it would not matter.

But Rollo was someone who knew the “process,” and that disgusted him so much he trembled.

That Rollo recalled a meeting that had happened just three hours earlier.

Three hours earlier.

“Soldier Rollo. We need your power.”

A woman came to him.

Her name was Nell.

She explained what was about to happen.

She said that he was one of those soldiers.

“......What are you talking about? My Level is only in the mid-200s. If I leave the Empire, those bastards will issue a kill order and keep chasing me. And you know how insane that sounds.”

Rollo spoke coldly about the current situation.

“The average Level of the 9th Knight Order is 530. The soldiers’ average Level is 460. But what about Musashi’s territory? Their total military strength is less than twenty thousand. And if Musashi says he has decided to go to war, more than half of them will run away.”

There was also something Rollo understood least of all.

“What exactly can I do? I’m not outstanding like Kabel, and I can’t make artifacts well like Hyunsoo. There’s nothing I can do.”

Helplessness.

Rollo stood before a massive sense of helplessness.

Musashi.

He had been an arrogant ranker, but Rollo did not hate him.

At the very least, because Rollo knew many rankers, he knew just how much Musashi must have fought to reach that position.

And he had to bring such a man down with his own hands.

But I can’t do anything.

Then what mission had Nell been given?

Had Hyunsoo simply sent her because he had no time to persuade him?

No.

Nell knew all the information about famous users around the world, and she understood them.

Nell.

She said,

“BJ Rollo, with eight million subscribers.”

“.......”

“Please become the lantern of users.”

Once, there had been the name of a “lantern” that lit the world.

Rollo had looked at those lanterns and thought, I could never become like them. I could never reach them.

And now she was calling him a lantern?

“You know how to draw people in. You have a power Kabel does not possess, and you create stories that Hyunsoo cannot make. This is something only you can do.”

It was just as Nell said.

Hyunsoo could not lead eight million subscribers, and the cold and composed Kabel could not speak the way Rollo could.

Yes.

This was something only he could do.

“I accept the proposal.”

BJ Rollo.

Three hours earlier, he had accepted Nell’s proposal.

Now.

These fucking bastards.

The conversation Pedro and Freng, commander of the 1st Knight Order, had shared was far too shocking, and Rollo did what only he could do.

You bastard. This has been broadcasting from the very beginning!

Pedro had asked him to record only one section in history.

Because they knew how repulsive their “process” was.

However, Rollo’s broadcast, with its eight million subscribers, was already spreading across the entire world.

-This is going way too far, isn’t it? They’re telling him to offer a thousand girls and boys?

-Fifty million gold is way too much. This is just slavery! This is the first time I’ve ever felt bad for Musashi.

Yes.

The way BJ Rollo could fight was to reveal their atrocities to the entire world from beginning to end.

-Fucking bastards.

-What the hell kind of people are they?

-They’re taking what a user built with blood and sweat like this?

The viewers began to feel anger, and the number of viewers rose.

The viewers shared information with one another to the point that Rollo did not even need to explain the current situation, and the speed at which that number increased was beyond imagination.

[Current Viewer Count: 1,865,013.]

“Your Majesty. Please wait. I shall place a new loyal subject in Your Majesty’s arms.”

Pedro, who rode at the front, did not know.

He did not know that Rollo, standing beside him, was writing.

-How long are we going to keep taking this? I was dragged here by force too, and I’m filming the video right now. You guys have suffered plenty at the Parion Empire’s hands too.

In truth, there were no people who had played Ares and had not suffered some injustice at the Parion Empire’s hands, but the viewers denied it.

-It’s impossible. There are five hundred thousand of them.

-What can we even do?

-I’m Level 208.

-I’m 108.

-I’m a cook user.

-In the first place, this is a world where NPCs are the masters. There’s nothing we can do. They’re the finest elites, and we’re just users enjoying this game.

Everyone spoke only of the impossible.

And Rollo—

The truth was, he admired one man.

He had never imagined that he would say such words in his life.

Because he had thought of himself as nothing more than some entertainer who did BJ broadcasts.

But he wrote those words.

Following after him, he wrote that one sentence.

-Legends begin that way.