957 Personal interest
Poison Rock Planet-- Throne Hall
"..." Sitting on a luxurious seat, Marshal Snite rested his chin on both hands and stared ahead seriously
Usually, Marshals do not stay on their home planet Poison Rock for more than a few days on short visits for certain reasons before returning to their assigned planets again, so there are no designated headquarters for them, there are only nine luxurious seats below the throne of Pythor, and when the nine meet, a table is placed in the middle to explain plans and display papers and such.
Today there was no meeting, there were no tables and papers, there was not even Pythor... Just the huge empty hall, and a single person sitting on one of the nine seats anxiously, while another is walking around.
"Hey Marshal, do you believe that fate is making fun of us?" Near him, the tenth Marshal, Haros, laughed. He wasn't allowed to sit on any of the nine seats, and due to the chaos in the empire, a seat had not been made specifically for him yet. Of course, he could have chosen one of the seats of the marshals who had fallen in the war, but he said that was unlucky and refused. He simply walked lazily between the seats.
"Depending on what you mean…" Marshal Snite replied shortly.
"We were chosen to overtake Planet Gudah together, then we were chosen to stay behind when the invasion of Nihari began so I could guard Planet Gudah and you could take care of the empire's affairs, then for the third time we stayed together at Poison Rock to defend it and manage the affairs in His Majesty's absence, don't you think there's a certain annoying pattern repeating?"
"We should be grateful for His Majesty's trust." The Marshal replied formally without blinking an eyelid.
"I know, I know~ It's a great responsibility and honor and all that stuff, but sometimes it feels like a punishment, why do I have to stay behind with you all the time, old Marshal?" Harus stopped walking between the marshals' seats and raised his head up, towards the throne, "In my opinion, there are things more important than honor and responsibilities, there are also personal desires."
"...." Snite's eyes darted towards Harus for a moment before he looked back in front of him as if he hadn't heard anything, "Our job now is to focus on thinking of countermeasures in case the worst happens."
Haros is younger and stronger than him and is also close to Pythor's heart because he tells him what he wants to hear, perhaps the only one who can suppress him among the other marshals is First Marshal Celebus.
*Step* Haros began to climb the stairs toward the throne, "Haha the worst happened? And what do you think is the worst?"
"Defeat." Marshal Snite pressed his lower palm, "The True Beginning Empire is not simple, there is definitely something big behind it, these are not the specifications of an empire that was formed only half a century ago, even a village that was formed half a century ago would not be this organized and cohesive, we attacked all their bases at the same time and they emerged victorious in all of them, how can this even be possible?!"
*Step* "Isn't it enough for you that their leader is a user of a Master Law? We are only users of a minor law and we managed to establish an empire somehow." Haros laughed, "But their organization and strength do not matter, in my opinion, the war is over."
"Everyone said the same thing when we pulled out all our forces and invaded the True Beginning Empire, but we suffered a crushing defeat and four marshals died, one was vaporized, another only had his arm recovered, another was reported to have died and been eaten by freaking demons, and the last and only one who returned with his full body when we examined him, there was no trace of his soul domain." Snite turned to his colleague, "Do you understand? Those four had the same strength as us."
*Step* "During the meeting where this attack was decided, I came to Poison Rock with you. Do you remember what I told you when you informed me of the plan and told me to return to Gudah to continue protecting the planet?" Harus asked, putting his hand behind his back.
Snite looked down, "…You told me that sending an army like this would be like hitting a hammer with an anvil, that the losses would be devastating even if we won." He then looked up from the corner of his eyes, "But right after that, you went to the throne room and praised His Majesty for his strict style!"
"Hahaha, he made the decision and announced it, the deed was already done, whether I praise him or not he will do what he has in mind, isn't that why everyone is trying to gain the throne? You do whatever you want whenever you want and everyone obeys whether they like it or not." *Step* Harus reached the last step next to the throne and gently ran his finger over the cushion, "It doesn't matter if you have intelligent and competent followers, to have a strong empire, the Emperor himself must be intelligent and competent, otherwise all the competence of your followers will be wasted."
"Are you hinting at something, Harus?" Snite lifted his head up and narrowed his nonexistent eyebrows
"Me? They're just thoughts, no need to put explanations on them~" Harus smiled and slowly started to walk around the throne
"Oh? I want to hear your thoughts on the current plan, what do you expect from it?" Marshal Snite leaned back in his seat, this was the first time Harus spoke openly to him, perhaps because he finally felt that he no longer needed to put flowers on his words since they were now on the same rank.
"There's nothing to say, the war is over in my opinion. Out of the 500 Imperial Guards, the best 300 were selected and sent to Nihari, led by His Majesty Pythor himself, the one who injected himself with more blood than all the Marshals combined, the only one among us who refined a planet's spirit and received its Gift, and on top of that he took with him five Calamity Seal Cubes, each containing 40 years of the Overlord's cultivation and a shard of 50 units of his soul!"
"…And if that wasn't enough, 500,000 fully healed law-user soldiers were gathered into 4 fleets from the remnants of the armies that returned in defeat from the True Beginning Empire's planets, Jura, Greenland, and Orphan Blood, led by 600 surviving Martial Emperors, and they were all sent to Nihari two days ago. It is expected that when they arrive, the war will already be over, and they will just go survey and collect spoils."
Then he stopped and looked at Snite, "It's strange that after all these winning cards that don't accept interpretation, you still sit there worried and ask me what to expect? Maybe I should ask you if you're hinting at something hehe."
"...." Marshal Snite was a little shocked and then looked at the ground again, perhaps the shock of the recent defeat caused a crack in his confidence in the Great Serpent Empire, or the enemies' capabilities overwhelmed him?
*Bzzzz*
"Hmm?" Marshal Snite stood up slowly, "Is this the Capital Space Gate being activated?"