Chapter 636 The burning ashes
?Two years later--
Residence of the Governor of the Ancestral Continent (formerly the Palace of the King of the Black Sun Kingdom)
"What do you mean production decreased again?!" The person sitting at the governor's desk stood up and hit his desk with his palms
It was not known whether that *person* was twenty or fifty years old. His features were young, but his forehead was full of wrinkled lines from knitting his eyebrows. His eyes were strong and focused, but the skin around them was dark, and their whites were full of red lines due to the lake of sleep. His hair was black and went down to his shoulders, but the white hair had begun appearing from overthinking, his fingers with which he hit the desk are tight and strong, but their tips are bloody and uneven, a sign that he is eating them to relieve his anxiety.
A fifty-year-old man standing in front of him spoke quickly and agitatedly, "Your Highness Alfred, please calm yourself down. I went to the talisman workshop in the City of Burning Flowers myself to confirm that perhaps there had been an accident that had caused them to delay, but they said that some of the rune masters had taken a vacation and that was why production had decreased."
"Production has decreased by 80%. Did all the rune masters over there decide to take vacations at the same time? And that happened the moment we asked for production to increase as well?!" Alfred's shouts became more intense, "What about the divine smith factories I asked you to visit?"
"Since the person in charge of that area, Saint Peter Burton died under mysterious circumstances and all the divine blacksmith factories are working as they please, every time I visit one I hear that some of them are sick, some of them want to spend time with their families, and others are demanding salary increases." The man in his fifties looked away sadly, "And not only the blacksmith factories and rune workshops, but the strikes and production disturbances have reached the beast farms, quarries, and search teams for ink supplies. Almost everything related to military equipment has been paralyzed since the request from the shadow swords to increase production!"
"A disaster. This is a complete disaster..." Alfred felt that his leg could no longer support the weight of his body as he collapsed in place
When Billy Burton decided that sitting behind a desk was no longer suitable for him and that he wanted to go to work as a general, he found no one better than Alfred Marley to be his successor. Firstly, because there is no living member of the Burton family who has experience in administration since almost all the elders died in the siege of the ill-fated Jura city, meanwhile Alfred received administrative training worthy of a king, and secondly, because the Marleys took a strict oath to serve Robin, and of course, Alfred's loyalty to Robin was tested and it cannot be doubted.
When Alfred heard the news that he had been chosen to be the ruler of the entire Ancestral Continent, he felt extremely proud and swore that he would do everything in his power to live up to His Excellency and prove to him that he had done nothing wrong by keeping the Marley family alive!
But...
"I wish I had refused... Oh, I wish I had refused..." Alfred scratched his head with his uneven nails until they turned crimson.
"Governor... What do we do now?"
Before Alfred could shout that he didn't know, another voice spoke in the room, "Leave us alone."
"Keh!" When the man in his fifties heard this artificial sound, he knew that one of the shadow swords had arrived, so he turned and quickly left the room.
As for Alfred, he did not move, but rather the scratching of his head had begun to get tougher, "Another shadow sword... what now? You came to tell me that I am a failure again? Do you all think that I do not already know this? Go and tell the superiors to bring in another ruler, I have had enough!!"
"Alfred, it's me.." The shadow of a handsome, long-haired young man emerged from the darkness directly in front of Alfred.
Alfred raised his head, "Theo? You're back...?!"
"I wasn't supposed to come back..." Theo's reply was simple but meaningful enough
Alfred returned to putting his head in his hands, "I understand... The reports of my failure reached you and made you abandon your mission in which you spent years, then you came yourself to remove me from my position or even imprison me, right? I knew it was a matter of time... I am sorry, I should not have accepted this responsibility, The other five continents are all running perfectly because I am not their ruler. I am a waste of air!"
Theo looked sadly with pity for a few seconds before sighing, "...Obviously I should have come earlier. We are indeed suffering from a lack of equipment, but I am not here to punish you. Get yourself together, Alfred. We know that this is not your fault."
"...Huh? What do you mean? Aren't you here to make me stand down?" Alfred raised his head in astonishment
"No, we have known the cause of these disturbances for years, but we decided to ignore them and work out short-term solutions to manage the situation in order to focus on the big picture, but they pushed their luck a lot by starting a mass strike when we were ordered to increase production. Obstructing His Excellency's plans is courting death." Theo spoke coldly
Alfred stood up slowly with a disbelieving smile on his face, "Really..? Don't you blame me?! I mean... What are you up to now? The entire continent is behaving strangely, even the factories and workshops run by a member of the Burton family are currently facing difficulties."
Theo replied with cold eyes, "I will hand you 5,000 shadow swords, and there is an army of 50,000 elite law users coming from the Imperial City as we speak, they will all follow your orders. Assassinate whoever you have to assassinate and kill whoever you have to kill. If you feel that you have to exterminate entire families, do not hesitate to do it. And I also want you to force all workers in the field of military manufacturing to recite a strict oath that forces them to produce a specific quantity per month, and whoever refuses, kill him or force him to recite an oath not to forge anything again in his life... Military industrialization is not a place where anyone can tamper with!"
"Five thousand shadow swords? I didn't even know there were that many... And fifty thousand elites from the Imperial City? Do you mean the Greenland veterans?! This... this will set the continent on fire again, it will remind everyone of the old fire whose ashes we have been working hard to cover!"
"...Reports say that those who went on strike, took leave, etc. have not stopped manufacturing. There are large quantities of divine weapons, talismans, and even arrays flooding the black market, but that is not what worries us since we can retrieve those weapons easily. The real problem is that most of the productive capacity of these individuals has not yet appeared on the black market, meaning they are stashing it! What are they collecting military gear for, Alfred?" Theo took a few steps until he reached the window
"Is this production dwindling?! Storing weapons in such quantities..." Alfred opened his eyes to the end, "But there is no other army on the planet Jorah that would benefit from this weapon. Why would they do something like this?!"
"None yet." Theo tilted his head to the side, "Whoever the hidden hand is behind what's happening is planning something big in the near future. We can't turn a blind eye any longer. We have to cut off that hand right now." Then he went back to looking out the window, "You say we're going to light a fire we were trying to cover its ashes, but their actions say they still see the ashes and they don't want to look away... If that's what they want, that's fine, Let's remind them of the past and light them on fire again."
"But…" Alfred clenched both hands
Theo turned to face him, "Don't worry too much. You won't repeat the massacre exactly as it was. Just use the forces carefully, focus on protecting the military production, and provide options for the guilty. As I told you, they just should know that there are consequences and realize that they are not as immune as they think they are. That's all." "
"...You say that I will not repeat the massacre, but this campaign will leave thousands or even tens of thousands dead... The Ancestral Continent will remember again!!" Alfred sat helpless again
"Good, let them remember!" Theo turned to face Alfred again, " I'm not here to put you on the spot or force you to do the dirty work, this is just the job of the governor and this is why I'm addressing you, You can of course refuse and resign if you find that the task is too much for you."
"I... I'll do it."