Fantasy Starting from the Stone Age - Chapter 154
Only Noblemtl
Episode 154. Black Spider 2
If the strategy of the invincible one is based on ‘I’ll win if I fight anyway’ and the strategy of the Giri King in response is based on ‘If I fight anyway, the genie will run away’, then Liwaduwan took a completely different strategy.
‘If we’re going to fight anyway, let’s just not fight and win.’
… … is the strategy. Since Liwaduwan cannot rule the entire Dimanang by himself anyway, he decides to attack the weaker Luca Empire.
There is no need to destroy it militarily. That is not the only way to weaken a country’s capabilities.
“Cut off the supply line.”
First off, this is the same tactic as Darida, only this time we’re not attacking the supply line itself.
This is a story from the time of the Struggle, but when the demons of the Shujor region flowed in from the north, the crops in the north were terribly ruined. I mentioned it once, right?
Instead of the monsters that were brought in by ‘accident’, Liwaduwan slowly spread monsters across the Luca Empire by crossbreeding their more vicious relatives in the most evil way.
The 30,000-man army exists solely for that purpose. Instead of uniting to form a legion, they disperse, spread their beasts across fields, orchards, and cities, and then flee.
There were no major problems for the first few months. Liwaduwan suppressed the first supply group with his own force. After all, Anrai Liwaduwan, who had escaped twice alone, was a very simple task for him to destroy the supply group alone.
When Liwaduwan destroys the supply unit alone, the news is immediately spread to the Luca Empire. The saintess, the de facto ruler of the Luca Empire, gives the following instructions:
“Collect more supplies, bring more guards, and send out a supply team.”
After repelling it dozens of times, it had grown to a size that Liwaduwan could no longer defeat on his own.
Liwaduwan now sends aside the supply corps that includes superhumans and even saints, and only interferes to the extent of causing serious damage to the next supply corps. After that, direct attacks are only carried out occasionally when the opportunity arises.
Instead, we quickly head to the mainland of the Luca Empire.
That’s where the internal military power was weakened due to investing a lot of money in supply and transport troops.
However, this is not a strategy of burning everything like the previous one. Liwaduwan does not use such tricks.
Liwaduwan is a sorcerer. Sorcery is the power of emotions. Emotions are the power that affects perception… … .
Liwaduwan disguises himself as having red skin like Erin, then sneaks into the capital of the Luca Empire and pretends to be some sort of rich man.
Liwaduwan, who can directly extract memories through sorcery and brainwash ordinary people without any mystery.
In an instant, Liwaduwan legally took the position of noble in the Luca Empire, and no one could detect Liwaduwan.
Even the saintess. Even the eyes of the saintess who met him directly did not notice at all that Liwaduwan was actually Patchar, and that he was one-armed without a right arm.
Instead of killing the saint outright, Liwaduwan spreads demons throughout the city, quickly learning Erin’s language and commanding a force of 30,000 Patchar special forces in the capital of the Luca Empire.
Those special forces are all masters of sorcery. They can change their appearance to look like Erin’s, even if they’re not as good as Liwaduwan. They have no problem fooling even the most mysterious criminals.
Obtaining a legitimate position as a nobleman’s retainer and creating his own minions here and there wasn’t that difficult thanks to the sorcery that allowed him to somewhat manipulate the mind.
And after three years of infiltration, the Luca Empire finally detects an abnormality.
“Yes… …? There’s a famine all over the country?”
There had already been a famine for a year or two, but by the third year there was no country without a famine.
“How can that be? The Lucca Empire is so large that while one part is suffering from famine, another part is experiencing abundant harvests.”
“That, that.”
The saint suddenly had a revelation about this fact. Her mystical power sensed something.
However, in the future I sense, I only see black. In my dream, a giant spider crawls.
A spider without one of its front legs would slowly crawl in and grab her, then eventually bite her with its fangs and suck her dry.
A dried, twisted corpse. That was the future she saw.
“Ugh!”
“Your Holiness!”
“Oh, a disaster is coming. A disaster in the form of a black spider… … .”
“Can you explain in detail what that disaster is?”
By the way, the minister who is supporting the saint now is Liwaduwan, who has now gained trust and has entered the core leadership of the empire. She is completely unaware of Liwaduwan’s plot and mutters about the ominous future she has seen.
Liwaduwan tells the worried saint that he has found an amazing ‘wise man’ here, and he brings him a man with magical powers who can eliminate the famine in the Luca Empire.
This is a Patchar woman who is a ‘sage’ of Datang who has had her knowledge verified by Castel Laurent, and is seen as a perfect pure-blooded Erin male by Liwaduwan.
“This is because of the evil spirits that dwell in the ground. If you sprinkle this medicine, it will be fine.”
It is a medicine that actually works. It has the effect of driving away demons. In fact, the next year, the famine was over. The saintess came to trust Liwaduwan even more.
But… … . If you use this a lot, adaptive entities will appear. Liwaduwan knew that. The effect will gradually decrease. And with other monsters continuing to flow in, it won’t be long before the Erron region is covered in pests.
In particular, they deliberately required strange ingredients for making medicine. Plants and minerals that have no real effect and require labor to grow and mine. And crops that have no immediate effect but become toxic when accumulated in the long term.
But the Luca Empire had no ability to verify that. They could only see that the famine had disappeared for the time being.
“Saint, the evil energy in the ground is gradually disappearing.”
“Oh, after so many years, it seems like the bad energy is coming back. How about going to heaven and praying to drive it out?”
“As expected, the disease has been driven away thanks to the divine power of the saint and the one and only God. Now, instead of staying in the center, let’s go out and purify the provinces.”
“Leave the politics of the central government to me. I will never starve the great invincible army.”
And, strangely enough, from then on, all supply ships sent to the Invincible were strangely cut off.
Either the famine-stricken people take it, or a disaster strikes, or the supply line runs away along the way, or an unknown strongman appears and destroys it.
Or maybe the ship that set off strangely changed direction and went to Datang.
But the saintess doesn’t know that. Her most trusted confidant always sends her supply corps successfully, and she also receives regular replies from the invincible one.
For reference, the invincible people had only received supplies once in 12 years at this point, and were living off of grain from the Dimanang region. They were acquiring the weapons they needed by occupying eastern Baekkara and exploiting the Baekkans.
There was no choice. The letter the saint sent said, ‘Due to the wicked schemes of Datang, a famine has spread throughout the Lucca Empire. The people are starving, so I think you should occupy Baekara instead and supply them with supplies. I love you.’
As a result, a rift develops between the Dimanan region, where the Invincible Legion is stationed, and the Lucca Empire, as they exchange letters diligently but strangely, there is no exchange at all.
Liwaduwan reads the letter sent by the invincible man, makes corrections to the invincible man’s handwriting, tone, and sentence expressions, and then sends it to the saintess after processing it to make it more romantic. He leaves the sincere words sent by the saintess intact, but edits and revises them to reflect the circumstances in his home country.
“The invincible one has requested an army.”
“Yes. Then I guess we’ll have to send more troops.”
Meanwhile, the military requests requested by the invincible ones are faithfully delivered. The adult males of the Luca Empire and the military force responsible for maintaining public order are drastically sucked out and delivered to the east.
Meanwhile, Liwaduwan is the prime minister of the Luca Empire and the supreme leader who rules the empire on behalf of the saint. He does not reveal any womanizing, and he slowly encroaches on the national leadership with surprisingly loyal and capable subordinates under his command.
Of course, it doesn’t always happen like this. The saintess has nightmares more frequently.
She now feels the spider’s fangs reaching right up to her neck. Her entire body is wrapped in spider webs. Not just herself, but the entire Luca Empire.
“Whoa. Whoa! …! There’s a spider. There’s a spider! A spider has entered our empire!”
“I guess we need to do some quarantine work, my lady. This is tea made by our wise man. Try it.”
“Tea? What kind of tea?”
“It has the effect of calming the mind.”
I think it would be a modern expression to call it a psychotropic drug. The saint really drinks it and feels at ease.
And now, 25 years later, Liwaduwan has completely taken control of the government. As he is getting older by the standards of the setting, he slowly begins his next task.
“Coolook… … Your Majesty, I regret that I cannot see the end of my great undertaking due to my poor health.”
“Don’t worry. You’ll be up soon… … . Would you like some tea?”
“When I die, please hand over my position to my loyal aide. He will do well… … .”
“Yes… … . Here, have some tea and rest comfortably.”
Liwaduwan spills his tea, not even having the energy to drink it, and dies. When a famous person who supported the Lucca Empire dies, his funeral is held so grandly that it drains the national treasury.
And after being buried, Liwaduwan quietly digs a hole and escapes. And he speaks to the adjutant who took control of the central empire in his stead.
“You know the mission, right?”
“Of course, Liwaduwan.”
“Oh. But you came with a tail?”
“yes?”
No matter how much I thought about it, I thought the actions of the one called ‘Imperial Master’ were suspicious, so I followed him, but my loyal Erin was captured by Liwaduwan.
Liwaduwan’s right arm, woven with spider webs, grows longer. Liwaduwan’s one-armed prosthetic hand binds him tightly.
“Ugh, ugh!”
“But why…? You look like you’ve been terribly betrayed. Tell me, I’ll loosen you up a little.”
“I lied to everyone. This, this black spider bastard. He lied to the saint, and he lied to this empire… … . God will curse him…!”
Liwaduwan snickers. Then he strangles him and says:
“Did you think that during a war, you would be selective about the means…? … And I think you’re mistaken.”
“Ugh. Gulp. Gulp!”
“What curse can something that doesn’t exist…? I am your living curse…!”
This is how the brave whistleblower dies. Liwaduwan senses the surroundings through a communicator and quickly escapes the city.
The Luca Empire’s capabilities have already been sufficiently damaged. The population has been greatly reduced and the quality of life is at its worst.
But surprisingly, thanks to religion, happiness is relatively high.
I think it’s time to destroy religion itself.
“Let’s change the plan a bit. It’s worse than Erin thought, so it’s better to go for something blatantly bad than something sinister.”
Some time later, a pseudo-religion called the Black Bishop Church was born in the Lucca Empire. Their cult spread like a plague, curing the sick and alleviating famine in the land.
The population of the Luca Empire has fallen below 100 million, and civil unrest is occurring all over the place due to dissatisfaction with society.
There are still 40 years left before Liwaduwan leaves the Lucca Empire.