Building A Human Empire By Creating A Clan [EN]: Chapter 118

They say human history is only a thousand years old, but history is just a record; humans existed even before history. It’s like how some elves have lived for over ten thousand years, even though elven history only spans ten thousand years.

However, there’s a reason why pre-historic humans couldn’t leave a record.

“Do you know why humans are so similar to monkeys? It’s because until a thousand years ago, humans *were* no different from monkeys, crudely chipping stones and gibbering like animals. If we hadn’t taught those monkeys, they’d still be chattering nonsense.”

This is a common elven mockery of humans.

Thus, humans, unable to create their own history, were seen by other races as fundamentally inferior, unsettlingly similar to animals.

“The human race is neither one thing nor another. They’re not as beautiful as elves, not as skilled as dwarves, and not as strong as orcs. Aren’t they just inferior creatures imitating other races?”

In an era with little regard for human rights, prejudice against humans was rampant, and their treatment was harsh.

“Still, they’re useful *because* they’re inferior. Orcs and goblins find them useful for reproduction, nagas use them as hosts for subspecies, dwarves use them as mining slaves, and elves find them suitable as test subjects.”

In this era, humans were commodities.

Compared to other races, they were physically weak and mentally resistant to magic, but at least they understood language, unlike dogs or pigs.

Their resemblance to other races was an advantage, allowing them to be assigned to simple tasks. As long as their upkeep was covered, the more you had, the more profitable they were, making them valuable assets.

– Recently, every household is buying humans. It’s a trend of seeing humans as objects of speculation, like the tulip mania [a historical speculative bubble in the Dutch Republic during the 17th century] before, but humans are a crop that’s incomparably harder to raise than tulips.

– Humans have the burden of needing protection in their mother’s womb for a year, the slowness of not reaching adulthood for over 10 years after birth, and the weakness of deteriorating after only a few decades as adults.

– And that’s not all? Humans who aren’t harshly taught from a young age are more savage than monkeys. Those blockheads who have only seen humans after education and development wouldn’t know how wild these hairless monkeys can be.

As humans gained popularity as commodities, books on how to train humans were published, all starting with the premise that humans were inferior, savage, and difficult to raise.

In reality, humans raised by non-experts resisted their owners, ran away, or even took their own lives.

Only after hundreds of years did a consensus emerge among the other races that humans raised by professional breeders should be bought. Accordingly, breeders mobilized all sorts of means to create superior humans that customers wanted.

“Feed them opium. Giving them opium reduces their sleep time while increasing their dependence on the owner, making them docile.”

“What if we pair humans who instinctively feel affection for other species? It’ll take dozens of generations to see results, but we have plenty of time, right?”

Thanks to the breeders’ efforts, humans became assets that were noticed by other races. However, unlike the attention and steady increase in demand, the supply couldn’t keep up.

The human race itself was a species that was difficult to drastically increase in number.

“Let’s use the southwestern peninsula as a ranch to raise humans.”

While discussions continued to secure a stable supply of humans, someone suggested that.

The southwestern peninsula, where residence had become difficult for those sensitive to magic due to Tiamar’s seal [a magical barrier or curse].

Rather than leaving the land, which the Council considered should be left uninhabited for over a thousand years, to lie fallow, the idea was to release humans there and use it as a ranch.

“The southwestern peninsula is a place where it’s difficult for us to intervene. If we release humans there, can we control them?”

“We should place superior breeds in the ruling class. Thanks to selective breeding over a long period, they instinctively feel affection for other races and have a tendency to want to be ruled by them.”

The first humans sent to the southwestern peninsula were given the duty of assisting Horbid and his descendants, and later they built a country named the Theocracy [a system of government in which priests rule in the name of God or a god].

As the first settlement succeeded, each race and country began to settle humans in various parts of the southwestern peninsula. The settled humans grew stably under the protection of the Council and regularly offered their own kind and various goods to their masters in the name of tribute.

At first, some thought sending humans was a waste of resources, but when they saw the tribute coming in regularly, they all sent humans to the southwestern peninsula.

“When humans were grinding stones and cutting grain, where were kings and slaves? Humans are humans. Humans are not livestock!”

Occasionally, there were variant humans who suppressed their genetic instincts and rebelled, but they were nothing more than candles that would be blown out by other humans or Horbid.

“The reason we, who were mere monkeys, were able to build a civilization is thanks to the protection of the great ones. When humans first came to this land, there were only tens of thousands of us, but look now. We’ve prospered so much that we can’t fit in the southwestern peninsula.”

“Slaves are humans who are not humans. Our noble ancestors inherited the bloodline directly created by the great race before settling in this land, and slaves are merely livestock wearing the guise of humans who did not.”

As nearly a thousand years passed, the genetic traits that the breeders had meticulously managed were diluted in most humans, but the nobles, who frequently intermarried, retained the traits from before settlement.

Therefore, as humans prospered, they naturally offered their own kind as tribute, and the other races had more supply than demand.

The reason why most of the human ranches operating outside the southwestern peninsula disappeared was precisely because of the collapse in the price of humans due to this oversupply.

The reason why I say *most* is because the lizardmen maintained human ranches while enduring deficits.

“Humans are offerings to the gods. If the offerings are not made with sincerity, it is an insult to the gods.”

This idea was reaching its limit in the face of criticism that they were wasting too much land to raise humans and the cheap humans pouring out of the southwestern peninsula.

However, the situation changed with the emergence of the Human Empire.

As the Empire became hostile to the Council and banned human trafficking, the supply drastically decreased, causing prices to soar, and the value of human ranches also rose.

The lizardmen saw this moment as a boon.

They, who had been dismantling ranches one by one, intending to completely shut down ranch management in the near future, now began to squeeze the ranches as much as possible to maximize profits.

“Wasn’t the ritual last month? Why are you taking us again… Great race!”

“What good would it do for the likes of you to know?”

When a group of lizardmen arrived at a human village and conscripted young men who had just become adults, the village chief grabbed the lizardman’s leg and pleaded.

“We have faithfully served the great ones until now. But this is the third time this year. It’s difficult to maintain the village like this. Please have mercy…”

“We’ve shown enough mercy by keeping you alive.”

“But, but…!”

“Monkeys talk too much.”

*Swish!*

The village chief’s head rolled on the floor.

The lizardman flicked his tongue and glared at the group of humans who had followed the village chief. The humans lowered their heads and cowered to avoid his gaze.

“Tsk, that’s the problem with natives.”

The lizardman ordered a human of similar age to the dead village chief to succeed him and dragged the young men away.

In the village where young people had disappeared due to three conscriptions this year, only children and the elderly remained, collapsing in despair.

“What, what on earth is going on…”

The same thing was rampant in all human settlements.

Villages that were too small to withstand the conscription became the target of conscription themselves and were annihilated, and even villages that were somewhat large had all their young people dragged away.

However, sometimes people returned.

This was the case when they were mobilized for farming or construction purposes.

These people were also sources of information, conveying news from other tribes and the state of affairs of other races, as they had contact with other villagers at the site or overheard conversations between lizardmen.

“Human Empire?”

The village chief’s eyes widened.

Why did they suddenly increase the conscription?

The middle-aged man who returned from mobilization gave the village chief, who was curious about that, an unexpected answer. A nation called the Human Empire had appeared in the southwestern peninsula, and it was fighting with other races by banning human trafficking.

As a result, the value of humans had risen, so they were increasing the conscription to make a quick buck.

“Tell me more. Is that Empire a nation founded by the Council?”

“I don’t think so. They rebelled against the Council and fought a war, and they won there too, completely stopping human trafficking.”

Humans rebelling against the Council?

Beyond rebelling, they *won*?

“That can’t be… impossible. Aren’t you mistaken?”

“No. I’m not the only one who heard it.”

“……”

The village chief swallowed his words.

He had imagined countless times defeating the other races.

But imagination was just imagination.

It was something that could never be achieved in reality.

Knowing that, he had lived in resignation until now, but a human nation that stood against the other races under the name of the Human Empire had appeared?

He felt a surge of excitement.

“Village chief, what if we ask the Empire for help?”

“The Empire? How?”

The village chief shook his head.

The human ranch was deep within the lizardmen’s territory.

It was clear that they would be discovered as soon as they left the settlement. Even if they managed to escape the territory, they would have to break through the Nerup Plains, where orcs and goblins were entrenched, to reach the southwestern peninsula where the Empire was located.

Were there any strong people among the tribe who could endure this danger and reach the Empire?

“Even if we were lucky enough to reach the Empire and inform them of our situation, there’s no guarantee that the Empire would help us.”

“Then, are you going to wait to die?”

The middle-aged man raised his voice.

“If we are conscripted like this year next year, no one will be left. You know they’re not showing us any consideration anymore. Have you forgotten how many villages have disappeared?”

The village chief lowered his head.

The middle-aged man was right. Until now, even if they forced conscription every year, they seemed to adjust the amount of conscription so that human society could be maintained, but it was different now.

At this rate, this village would also meet the same fate as the other villages that had disappeared without being able to withstand the conscription.

“……”

He recalled his predecessor, who had been beheaded.

“Summon the warriors.”

In the village, warriors were those who had been mobilized as gladiators in the arena or auxiliary border guards and survived.

The village chief selected fourteen of the most skilled among them.

“Go to the Empire. Go and confirm whether the rumors are true: whether humans have won freedom and whether they are fighting against other races. If the rumors are true… tell that person our hardships and ask them to save us from our hardships.”

The warriors left the village at dawn.

They hid during the day and moved only at night to reduce the risk of being discovered as much as possible. Even if they *were* discovered, they volunteered as bait to save their comrades.

When they arrived at the Nerup Plains, only one person remained out of the fourteen.

That one person had lost her left eye, several finger joints, and her whole body was covered in deep, pus-filled wounds, but she finally arrived at the Empire.

She was rescued by the Imperial Army, who were thinning out the orcs, and sent to the Emperor of the Empire.

‘The rumors were true.’

She saw a light brighter than the sunlight shining through the window at noon. It was not a tangible light, but the presence emanating from the human sitting in front of her. When he rose from his seat and took her hand, it actually became a light that enveloped her.

The light healed the wounds on her body that were driving her to death every moment and made her forget the despair that had settled deep in her heart.

To the eyes of the flesh, he was just a young, tall man, but to the eyes of the soul, he was the figure of a giant that could not be contained in the eyes.

Perhaps the act of inadvertently asking if he was human meant this.

Because no being she had ever seen was as powerful as him.

“Your Majesty… no, my God.”

Even after he withdrew the light, she felt the light emanating from his presence, reached out with both hands, and tightly grasped his hand.

And she put her forehead on his hand and, in a trembling voice, told of the hardships that humans were facing under the rule of other races.

“God of humans, save us from our hardships.”