As the shouts of death and gunpowder smoke gradually dissipated, the orange double-headed eagle flag representing the empire slowly lowered on the nearly intact city wall and was replaced by a strange black dragon flag.
The next second, a series of messages flashed across Sherlock's kingdom panel.
【The East China Sea Empire no longer exists.】
[Ao Guang gave up his identity and joined the South China Sea Empire. 】
[Ao Jia gives up his identity...]
[Ao Yi gives up...]
【Ao Ding...】
"Well, half of the scheduled 1800-day time limit has passed, and the task of restoring the glory of the Rakad Empire has only been completed a quarter, and only two 'Certificates of Overlord' have been found..." Sherlock stood at the top of the city.
, checking his own panel: "The most troublesome thing is, in order to avoid negative traits, I have never executed those lords who are buzzing like flies. Now they all fly to the South China Sea Empire. In time, they will definitely bring a group of lords with them.
Only the elite troops are out and about, but there are no 'undercovers' there this time... Do you have any suggestions?"
"..." The surrounding air was quiet.
"Ms. Instiana?" Sherlock looked around suspiciously: "Really not here?"
Previously, whenever Shylock occupied a certain proportion of the cities in the East China Sea Empire, she would suddenly appear, bringing some intelligence and support that were better than nothing, as well as troubles that needed to be solved.
For example, "Arzagos sent people to contact the bandit hideouts near a certain city. I don't know what conspiracy they are planning. Please deal with it as soon as possible." "Alzagos sent his men disguised as soldiers from the Smaug Empire to plunder the villages of a certain country.
Please stop them", "Arzagos plans to transport resistance materials from a certain city to a certain city, please intercept them" and so on.
Could it be that after destroying the entire country, she and her companions would have to deal with more things in an instant?
At the beginning, due to Alzagos's troubles, the "old guys" that Instiana mentioned basically did not appear. They only provided the function of automatically changing decisions as needed even if the city was not managed by a governor. Of course, according to them,
It's a covert influence, not "automatic".
She's not worried about burning a bridge by crossing the river, is she?
Hmm... If you were NPPC, you might indeed have similar concerns. After all, the Smaug Empire has grown into a behemoth comparable to any other empire.
But this is still just a guess. Since she does not show up, she will continue to act according to the established plan. After entering the "next stage", she must explain how to restore the glory of the Kalad Empire, otherwise she will have to bear the burden of "Smaug"
The name "Empire" has unified the world.
"——"
Sherlock was staring at his information panel and thinking when he heard a commotion coming from the city. When he looked over, he saw that Irene arrived at the city gate with dozens of recruits recruited from unknown sources and was stopped by dedicated guards.
It would be strange if this didn't stop her. She didn't change sides like those lords, and she was still flying the flag of the extinct East China Sea Empire.
"[I want to meet Stephen Strange.]" Erin directly used the keyword without much hesitation.
"[Meet again, Eileen.]" Sherlock responded directly at the top of the city without waiting for the messenger to appear.
"[I have something I want to talk to you about.]"
"[I'm listening.]"
"[I want to join the Smaug Empire and become your vassal.]"
"[You are a famous adventurer. I am happy to accept your allegiance. Next, please recite the oath with me...]"
After a brief oath, the family flag of Eileen's team instantly changed to the black background of the Smaug Empire, and the guards who had previously blocked her from entering the city opened the city gate as if nothing had happened.
————
After a while, the Lord's Hall.
Shylock is holding a meeting with his only two vassals.
"Next, we need to confirm whether the target is the South Sea Empire, which is cut off by the Great Rift Valley in the south, or the North Sea Empire, which is blocked by the polar ice sheet in the north. Although the West Sea Empire is not impossible, it is blocked by the North and the South.
It cannot be reached by land, so we can only build ships and take the sea route. However, because we have been fighting on land all year round, the technology of shipbuilding, navigation and naval warfare is in a state of anachronism, so we must go to the surrounding small seaside country Q... um... to learn."
"We all trust your judgment." Watson immediately gave up thinking.
"Me too." Erin followed decisively.
"The problem now is that we are short of manpower." Sherlock looked at the two of them: "Watson added agility, Irene added strength, and I added intelligence. After overall planning, it is enough to confront the same empire head-on.
, but facing two or three at the same time will cause problems. Those cities with only garrisons and no governors cannot even resist the attack of the same number of troops."
"Why... oh yes," Watson paused mid-sentence: "In order to avoid falling into boring farming, every kingdom will find an excuse to declare war on its neighbors after two months of peace, and now we are taking the place.
The territory of the East China Sea Empire borders...ten countries."
"Farming is not boring at all!" Irene, who came from a farmer's family, glared at him first, and then became a little worried: "I studied navigation and naval warfare when I was fishing in the East China Sea Empire. They mainly rely on agility and intelligence, and strength is only in
It is only useful when joining a gang in hand-to-hand combat or exploring treasure maps. The most outrageous part is that without advanced navigation skills, just boarding and disembarking will take a whole day, and the effect of a surprise attack will not be achieved at all.
"
"Well... Under the premise of agreeing to Instiana not to recruit local indigenous lords, we can only wait and see what happens, wait for which country is brave enough to declare war on us, and then destroy it as quickly as possible.
Being robbed and occupied by one or two cities by other countries is barely acceptable." Sherlock nodded.
"What if it's the other three empires?" Watson touched his chin.
"Then we can only——"
【The North Sea Empire no longer exists.】
[Ao Shun gave up his identity and joined the South China Sea Empire. 】
【The West Sea Empire no longer exists.】
[Ao Run gave up his identity and joined the Nanhai Empire. 】
"..." Sherlock looked at the suddenly updated important news and was a little confused: "How did the Green Lantern Corps and Asgard move so fast?"
"They didn't promise not to recruit local lords, and the war started earlier than us. They should use their own strengths to push forward, right?" Irene and Watson also saw the news.
"That's fine," Sherlock nodded: "Each of us destroys and occupies an empire and then competes with each other. It is in line with the theme of this game, 'Triwizard Hegemony'. It just so happens that we still have a few team members in their neighboring countries, so -
