The Mechanical Era



2nd of Hiems, 5018. 

Sitting on top of a wooden chair in her office, Rose looked outside through the glass window to see the white snow raining down on her great, magnificent city of Vallina. Winter has finally arrived. For royalty, it often meant a plethora of fun activities to engage in, while for others, it often marked a time when people suffered from a lack of food, due to price hikes.

Thankfully, due to her position as the Imperial Queen of the Aceaton Empire, she had managed to devise a solution that would help feed her people, as well as weaken the northern states to make sure they won't rebel, essentially killing two birds with one stone.

Her strategy was surprisingly simple; force the northern tributary states to sell the food stored in their reserves for a marked-up price. This way, their government would be able to function properly, as it would have enough money to police their cities, while the common people of the north itself would have less food to eat.

The reason for this behavior was rather simple; to reduce the population of the north. With the introduction of the gun, the way the world waged war changed forever. It had made it so that the states that managed to arm and muster the largest armies win. 

To make sure that her tributary states won't get any ideas of rebelling against her, and overthrow her with a large army of their own, she decided to enact this policy. Though it did pain her that people would have to suffer, it was, in her eyes, a necessary evil to ensure the security and stability of her empire.

As she was looking outside her window, she hears a knock on her office door. The imperial queen quickly got up from her chair and made her way to the chair near the desk. Once she had prepared herself, she allowed the man on the other end of the door to enter.

"Come in."

Nathan walks right inside the office, and bows down. He greets the queen a good morning, before approaching her desk and sitting down on the chair.

"What brings you here, Minister Nathan?" she asks the minister.

"Your imperial majesty, the Association of Demonology had sent us this report to us, just today!" the minister claimed. Rose had a hard time buying it but heard him out first. 

"Really, what is it about? I thought that we already received a report on that. Didn't they claim that there was not enough evidence to warrant a panic?" she asked.

"Well yes. However, their stance had now changed. Apparently, they had discovered new pieces of evidence that the chance of ' the Calamity', as they call it, from occurring," Nathan replied.

"What are they?" she asked, now a little intrigued as to what new evidence has popped up.

"Well, first was the discovery of another abandoned fortress, about a week ago. There, they had managed to communicate with the creatures lurking within it and asked a few questions.

They mainly asked these questions to verify the other creatures' statements, from Jonus's expeditions, the findings inside the wall, and the permanent portal blueprint."

"I see... And what are the results of this expedition?" 

"Well, from what the report says, they had managed to confirm and verify a lot of the information. Although they say that it is not enough, it does lean the case toward Jonus' favor.

If your imperial majesty wants the specifics, I highly recommend you read through the report." Nathan then hands Queen Rose the report, so that she can look for herself. She flips the pages and starts reading through it all. 

The report, just like last time, was condensed with a lot of words and stretched to make it seem more complicated than it actually is. It felt as if a student fell short of writing a total word count, and had to resort to breaking up smaller phrases into longer ones to meet the word cap.

From what Rose could decipher from the writings, is that the evidence pointed to the creatures being a lot more trustworthy than expected, and the chances of 'the calamity' occurring might be higher than they expected. 

However, there were a few specific paragraphs that caught her eye. It read...

"Based on the information we currently possess, it would be advisable for her imperial majesty, Empress Rose Tippo Valline, to convene a meeting with all the monarchs of the continent, from within the empire itself to the tributary states, to communicate the discovery and gravity of 'the calamity', an event that is theorized to doom human civilization on Eden as we know it.

This meeting would serve as a platform to provide all participating states with the necessary knowledge and information to plan and take action in response to the threat, which by our estimates, can occur within the next 10 to 20 years.

Through such an assembly, it is possible to enhance the collective preparedness and coordination of all involved parties, which leads to a more efficient process of identifying the locations of the fortresses."

Rose stared at the report, before rereading it once again to be sure. After she is done, she places it on her desk and turns to face Nathan.

"It appears they would like me to host a meeting to communicate the findings to the other kingdoms," she remarked. Nathan stays silent, not knowing what to say. The queen leans back in her chair and thinks for a moment. Then, as if a light bulb switched on in her head, she got an idea.

"Minister Nathan, I got a task for you," the queen informs Nathan. 

"What is it, your majesty? Do you want me to prepare a meeting?" he asks while sitting up a little straighter.

"Yes. However, I do not want you to inform them about what it is, exactly. Just send them a letter that is important enough to warrant my attention, and set the meeting up. Is that understood?"

"Yes, your majesty. When would you like this meeting to take hold?" Nathan asks. Rose turns around to look at her calendar. Once she finishes, she looks back at Nathan.

"Is the 5th of Initium possible?" she questions.

"I will see what I can do, Nathan replies."

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