No one expected the Church of the God of War's Holy Army to move so quickly. The reason these seven people at the pinnacle of the Kingdom of Dawn schemed against each other was that each person had huge confidence in the Kingdom of Dawn. They felt that even if they profited from it, the Kingdom of Dawn couldn't possibly have any problems, so naturally they should try to gain as much benefit for their families as possible.

But with the changes in the south, as the Church of the God of War became increasingly aggressive, only then did they realize that if they didn't resolve this quickly, major problems would definitely occur.

In this era, nobles almost never discussed war with anyone outside the nobility. Wars between nobles were often like games—sending war declarations, meeting in fixed areas. If possible, determining victory or defeat through "knight games" between a few generals. If the conflict was more intense, then they'd fight one battle!

The war's winner could demand war spoils from the loser. Even if the noble himself wasn't captured, they'd only demand the other's territory pay some ransom... Wars with beastmen and ice spirits were actually very special existences.

Anyway, in their view, war was how nobles distributed benefits. No matter what happened to commoners, at most they'd just enter the battlefield as knight squires and ultimately become unimportant sacrifices.

Under such circumstances, when the southern territory's crisis erupted, they subconsciously felt it definitely couldn't be a problem—just some peasants and slaves. However, when over ten families in the south were slaughtered clean and the Southern Duke's manor was besieged, they finally realized this time was truly different from usual!

Especially under the divine arts of the Church of War covering them, these farmers, slaves, and serfs actually unleashed powerful force. Rumor had it they gained strength enhancement—even some low-ranking knights might not be able to defeat them in a short time. Ordinary soldiers under their hands couldn't survive more than a few minutes. Paired with large numbers of priests, ordinary armies simply couldn't compete. After that, these seven people truly didn't have too many concerns this time.

Even if they still wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to gain benefits for their families, the seven of them still quickly reached consensus. It went even more smoothly than Berion and Viscount Roster's private discussions. Soon they decided to dispatch 80,000 kingdom troops to the south, all armed with Magic Conductor swords, all carrying over five second-gen magic bombs, 30,000 people carrying ray guns, successively providing 5,000 magic power railguns, 100 magic power super cannons, 300 "tanks." As for shells and magic bombs, they'd continuously produce and send to the front lines, striving to suppress the Church of War's Holy Army in a short time.

Besides that, all Church of War temples within the Kingdom of Dawn needed to close. War clerics who couldn't prove their innocence needed to be placed under house arrest, waiting for the war to end.

As for the general issue, to solve the fundamental contradiction, Berion simply suggested directly dividing into three forces that didn't affect each other. Thirty thousand people would head directly to the core area, the remaining fifty thousand divided into two teams, entering the south from two other routes.

Only when it came time for the decisive battle would they meet. Each had their own turf to eat from—wouldn't that make things go smoothly?!

Viscount Roster looked at all this being negotiated so smoothly with disbelief. His whole person seemed a bit floaty.

Such a huge order was confirmed just like that?

After the meeting ended, Viscount Roster immediately returned to his territory and convened the first territorial high-level meeting. Compared to before, after recent reforms in Roster territory, every department and every factory had a dedicated supervisor in charge. Over ten people, not all of them nobles, also including hired scholars and merchants.

"Everyone, the brief peace has ended. Large-scale rebellion has erupted in the south. The kingdom has decided to dispatch eighty thousand kingdom troops into the south. We also need to prepare!"

Quite a few people were slightly stunned at these words. They actually mostly knew about what happened in the south. Even if they weren't magicians, they'd already started using second-gen Magic Nets. After all, with Viscount Roster's identity as a technology believer, getting some second-gen Magic Net rings from Coffin-Carrying Heddy was easy peasy. Even asking Heddy to reserve them, Heddy wouldn't refuse. These high-level people naturally each had one. They'd already learned all this through the Magic Net.

But they didn't expect Viscount Roster would say such things to them in this kind of setting. Quite a few of them weren't nobles and didn't understand war games either.

"The form of warfare has changed. This kingdom military expedition requires using large amounts of Magic Conductors. These Magic Conductors will naturally be made by us... Lord Berion's intention was to have the Royal Mage Society, Runic Society, Magic Society and other magical organizations assist us, but I refused. I only told them the method for producing magic power railgun shells."

Viscount Roster paused slightly, waiting for everyone to digest this news before continuing. "The reason I refused—I think you all should know why. Our production capacity is just too terrifying. If we go full production, the kingdom's orders might only take a few days to complete. Such efficiency would make others have many ideas."

"Also, the Southern Grand Duke has already ordered large batches of weapons. Whether they want to use this to tempt me to protect them, or truly felt the crisis from this incident, we have more orders."

"I believe before long, even more nobles, especially southern nobles, will order in large batches."

"Besides that, I think we also can't truly only produce the orders' worth. We need to stockpile some weapons for ourselves too. I feel war is getting closer and closer to us. It's like an invisible big hand is closing in on us."

"Of course, we also need to innovate ourselves, develop more and more suitable weapons, just like the Magic Conductor sword."

This incident made Viscount Roster realize one thing—even the most steadfast allies, even allies with many nearly identical interests, weren't that reliable.

To ensure Roster territory's stability in the upcoming chaotic times, to ensure the Magic Conductor industry's development and expansion, then having sufficient power themselves became very important. Sharing money with those nobles—treat it as compensation for those nobles providing them with markets, or as chips that could cooperate on the surface.

True security still needed to be built by themselves.

Everyone present was stunned, but soon they showed expressions of understanding. In the current situation, choosing this way was unavoidable. Having their own powerful armed forces was key to self-preservation.

No one understood better than them what kind of wealth Roster territory had currently accumulated.

Wealth moves the heart!

The Goddess of Magic's divine realm.

"Sure enough, you guessed right. War really broke out, and in this form... Wars that start with holy war as the core often don't end in a short time and will be even more bloody and cruel than ordinary wars. I wonder how many believers we'll lose when this war ends." The Goddess of Magic watched everything in the mortal realm. Though her tone was calm, you could clearly feel her human component seemed to be growing.

"War—this is inevitable. We can use this opportunity to thoroughly push the era toward magic-tech industrialization... Plus, I thought of a feature that should be very suitable for the current situation." Ren seemed to suddenly think of something and slapped his thigh. "Oh right, if there are no problems with the second-gen Magic Net rings, we can popularize them too."

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