Building A Human Empire By Creating A Clan [EN]: Chapter 158

In the Greenhouse

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Clatter, clatter…

I sat alone in the carriage.

Calliope was outside, guarding the carriage.

The carriage, confiscated from some noble, was quite large, so sitting alone, I couldn’t help but feel empty. The fact that the interior, once lavishly decorated, had been stripped bare to the point of desolation certainly contributed to that feeling.

However, I had no time to worry about such decorations.

– Let me go!

A thought whispered to me.

– Please…!

A thought begging for its life.

Along with it, the mana within me surged.

I closed my eyes for a moment and calmed the mana.

As the mana subsided, the thought ceased.

– You morons.

Tiamar in the pendant scoffed.

– An old god, a monarch, begging for his life in fear?

The thought I heard begging for life came from an old god.

One of the old gods who infiltrated the Empire following Barmet and was consumed by me.

A soul that still had ego left, not yet completely absorbed into me.

The soul was struggling to escape from me.

– You acted so high and mighty before me and my father, and this is what you are?

Because you fear death, it’s a struggle to survive.

– Hmph. Just a strong moron.

It couldn’t be helped.

Lofty mana doesn’t necessarily elevate one’s will.

“They were arrogant simply because they didn’t die, meaning they weren’t punished. Once they know death is no longer far away, they have no choice but to shed the mask of arrogance.”

– That’s what I find pathetic.

“You are also an immortal. Do you think you are different?”

– Of course, I’m different! I saw my father fall as a mortal. I know that our immortality is neither absolute nor eternal.

The pendant released mana.

The mana flowed over me and settled on my shoulder, as if someone was hugging me from behind.

– But, we can last close to eternity.

“Do not test me. It is futile.”

– No fun.

I casually shook my hand to scatter Tiamar’s mana.

Then Tiamar sighed and fell silent.

Clatter.

The carriage stopped.

“Edar-nim, we have arrived. It is the city of Kalaban.”

Calliope opened the carriage door and informed me.

A fierce wind blew in from the open door.

It was a biting cold, and my breath turned white as I exhaled.

“It’s terribly cold.”

Rachel said, getting out of the carriage that followed behind.

Mersafone clung to her, shivering.

Even with multiple layers of coats, it seemed hard to bear.

Even as a familiar [a magical creature bound to a witch or wizard], she was just a child unless she borrowed my mana.

The nuns of the Holy Church who rode with them stood around to act as a windbreak.

“I’m really glad we issued the evacuation order in advance.”

The place where the carriage stopped was the city’s square.

According to reports, the city of Kalaban used to have tens of thousands of residents.

However, after the evacuation order and the cold, there were no citizens left in the city.

There were a few humans, but they were not citizens.

They were laborers mobilized to build the tower.

“At this rate, construction will have to stop.”

A tower stood tall in the middle of the square, unfinished.

It looked like construction had been stopped midway.

“This weather only affects us, right?”

This weather.

I looked at the sky where the wind was blowing.

The gloomy sky looked like it would rain.

Instead of rain, snow was falling fiercely.

I looked for the mana swirling within it.

“Not yet.”

“Not yet?”

“Before long, everyone in the world will live like this.”

Rachel’s eyes widened.

“You can feel it too, right? The mana gathered in those clouds.”

“It must be from the lies called old gods.”

“If they combine their power, they can bring winter to the entire world.”

She tilted her head.

“But… is there a reason for that?”

She said that the old gods’ enemy was only me.

Her reasoning was that the different races were allies.

“There is. More than enough. The old gods’ enemy is the entire world.”

They wanted to ask the world why they were trapped in the abyss.

Even Aleon, who freed the sinners, probably didn’t know that fact.

He probably only thought they hated Rod and his successors.

“What are they thinking…”

“They spent nearly ten thousand years in the abyss. How can that anger be light? Since all they can do in the abyss is think, they thought.”

Imagine spending ten thousand years in a cramped, dark space.

You would have to be immersed in thought to the point of madness.

The glory they enjoyed before being trapped in the abyss.

The reason they were trapped in the abyss.

“They hate Rod. They hate those who stood against them following Rod. And they hate everything Rod built, because all of that reminds the old gods of defeat and the abyss.”

“So, they’re going to destroy this world?”

I nodded.

“Ha…”

Rachel shook her head.

“If that really happens, what will be left? There won’t even be slaves to serve?”

“That’s a naive question.”

“Yes?”

“Why else would they be called gods? Slaves can be made.”

“Slaves… Ah, like us?”

“They can’t create something from nothing. But they can create life like kneading dough. The life they create will only be slaves with minimal intelligence.”

That’s how they will rule the world forever.

“Look over there.”

I pointed to the fishing gear.

Fishing gear left unattended.

Something stood beyond the frozen sea.

My finger pointed to it.

“That is…”

“It is a life created by their mana.”

“A golem, I see.”

The golem on the sea was a life made of ice.

It had a humanoid appearance, as if imitating a person, but it was a monster clumsily walking on two feet because it had no intelligence.

The old gods did not create that life with intention.

The mana they scattered simply mixed with nature and caused changes on its own.

“I issued several decrees immediately after creating the Empire.”

“One of them was to destroy the cemeteries and cremate the bodies.”

A decree that would have faced great opposition if I didn’t have absolute power.

But if I hadn’t issued it, it would have caused a huge disaster.

“The old gods are more accustomed to handling mana than any other race, because they are spiritual beings who create their own bodies by cultivating mana, not born from parents.”

A familiar threw a harpoon-like spear at the golem.

The golem reacted very quickly, unlike its clumsy walk.

It tried to deflect the spear, but its arm crumbled.

It was too weak a lump of ice to deflect it.

Its arm broke, and the spear pierced its chest.

Crush…

The familiar who killed the golem retrieved the spear and left along the coast.

He was a familiar in charge of coastal patrol, and there were four hundred such patrols throughout the Empire’s coast.

But even so, they couldn’t block the entire coast, causing all sorts of damage.

“Their mana changes nature. That change doesn’t just lower the temperature. It also creates life like that.”

“Is the epidemic spreading in the Empire also like that?”

“Yes.”

We entered the tower under construction.

It was under construction, but the construction was stopped.

There were several reasons for the stoppage, but the biggest reason was the weather.

“Ugh…”

“Cold, so cold… too cold…”

There were no separate sickrooms inside the tower.

Frostbite patients were sprawled everywhere.

Some had fingers falling off, some had toes, and in severe cases, some were missing below the elbow. No, in really severe cases, they would already be frozen to death.

“It’s serious.”

Rachel frowned as she looked around at the patients.

The familiar who supervised the tower construction was a priest, but even if he borrowed my mana, he couldn’t perform the same miracles as me. He could do something about minor injuries, but he couldn’t do anything about severely injured people like these.

I pointed to the injured and healed their wounds, making them regain what they had lost. They were all laborers mobilized for tower construction.

“The weather is too extreme. Just yesterday, a sudden strong wind blew, and a worker doing external work froze to death.”

“You made them work when it was cold enough to freeze to death?”

“No. The weather was suitable for work, but they froze,” he said.

“……..”

The priest in charge of Kalaban said so.

Rachel clicked her tongue and shook her head.

“Since the old gods’ mana directly touches it…”

The changes were more extreme the further out, where the old gods’ mana blew in.

Especially the northern and western borders.

Whoosh——

The wind blew fiercely, as if to collapse the tower.

It was a blizzard so fierce that it was difficult to distinguish even an inch ahead.

The priest pointed outside the tower, shrugging as if to say, “You saw it, right?”

“…The situation won’t get better.”

“Yes. At the current rate, that’s the case. The temperature is dropping every day, and the frequency of anomalies is increasing. Still, we managed to endure by devising a method, but how long that method will last…”

“The method? Is that what you left in the report?”

“Would you like to check it out?”

The priest led us to one side of the tower.

Whirr——

There was something like a fire room of a steam locomotive on the tower wall.

Fire broke out in the fire room, and the heat of the fire was being transferred to the inside of the tower and its surroundings through metal pipes connected to the fire room. Thanks to that, the cold seeping in from the outside was considerably alleviated inside the tower.

“I heard the report, but it’s strange to see it in person.”

Rachel muttered in a dumbfounded tone as she looked at the identity of the fire.

“We had no choice.”

The priest also scratched his head.

The relic I made was in the fire room.

The heat emitted by the relic was passing through the pipes.

It was crude, but I was reminded of one thing from that appearance.

‘An early boiler.’

There were gaps in the joints because it was assembled in a hurry.

But the important thing was that it went beyond conception and was realized.

“It was provided by the Ministry of Agriculture, Commerce, and Industry.”

“I see. Didn’t they leave any other words?”

“It’s just an experimental item. Since the steel mill is running, they said they’re making what they’ve only been conceiving so far. They boasted that what was introduced here was a steam boiler.”

Rachel ran her eyes over the pipes and asked.

“I’m not familiar with research like Pasimea or her younger siblings, but I know that considerable technological progress has been made.”

“That’s right. It’s like skipping an era.”

I placed my hand on the pipe.

The pipe was dewed with moisture.

Warm heat was transmitted to the palm of my hand that touched the pipe.

There were several problems, but it was operating successfully.

“Pasimea really makes all sorts of things even in the midst of her busy schedule.”

The priest’s expression hardened at her muttering.

“It will be needed a lot in the future.”

“Yes?”

“There is a high possibility that the current cold will continue in the future. The Ministry of Agriculture, Commerce, and Industry said that they are raising the level of industry in preparation for that,” he said.

“Did they say that knowing the purpose of this tower?”

“Yes. The researcher argued that the tower would block it to some extent, but it could not protect the entire Empire. Also, Pasimea said that we should not rely too much on Father.”

“That’s a welcome sound. Isn’t it, Father?”

Rachel looked at me and smiled.

“She complains on the outside, but she’s only thinking about Father on the inside.”

Then her gaze turned to Calliope past me.

“……..”

It was a gaze asking her too, but there was no answer.

The priest looked at the boiler, then opened the fire room and took out the relic.

The relic extinguished the fire when he held it in his hand, and a chill permeated the tower.

“Are you really okay?”

Rachel frowned at the worried tone.

“Kael, are you doubting Father?”

“It’s not about possibility or impossibility. I’m worried that Father might be consuming himself again, that’s why I’m asking.”

“I think that’s wrong.”

Priest Kael shook his head.

“Rachel, you are the head of the church, yet you have forgotten Father’s words. Father told us not to blindly follow his words.”

“…I know.”

Rachel coughed and closed her mouth.

I stroked her head at that sight.

“It’s okay. It’s not too much.”

“Really?”

The reason he was worried was simple.

Because he had the relic by his side.

Because he felt that power next to him.

“I believe in Father. But when I see Father’s power in this relic, I can’t help but worry about Father. Even the incarnation of the Lizardman can’t unleash such power.”

Of course, because he is weak.

The incarnation of the Lizardman is not a god.

Nor is he a being suitable to be revered as a god.

He is just a sudden mutation.

“Kael, worry and doubt have very small differences.”

I took the relic.

“The worry you have now is the same as doubt to me.”

“Father.”

I raised my hand to stop him from speaking.

“Look closely. I am not such a weak being.”

I poured mana into the relic.

The mana of the souls that had been quiet but waiting for their time.

The souls begging for salvation raised their heads again.

– Edar, Lundringgen…

– Successor of Rod.

– Release me.

The whispers of sinful souls.

I ignored the nonsense and raised my mana.

The relic ignited again and covered my body.

The fire that blazed did not give off any heat.

My mana, my flame, what could hurt me?

Thump…

As the fire grew, the mana spread in all directions.

The mana shook the tower and permeated the materials piled up in various places.

Flutter—

The ceiling of the unfinished tower opened.

As the makeshift tarpaulin disappeared, a blizzard came in.

But the cold could not approach in front of my fire.

I held the relic high, wrapped in both hands.

“My flesh, my blood, create a place for you to stay.”

Then the materials floated in the air and went to their respective places.

The uncarved sculptures took shape on their own, the mixtures mixed on their own, and all the materials were stacked up, soon forming the shape of a tower reaching half a hundred meters.

“Ah…”

Rachel and Kael, the nuns, and even Mersafone, the familiars who had faith in me, respectfully put their hands together and prayed.

The relic reacted to it and amplified the fire even though it did not imbue more mana.

The darkness hanging inside the tower disappeared, and the wind blowing outside the tower stopped.

The snow melted, the clouds cleared, and the temperature rose, and the frozen sea began to melt quickly.

“Take it.”

I handed the relic to Kael.

“Now you must stay here and guard the fire.”

“Yes.”

Kael took the relic and placed it in a box at the top of the tower.

The box was engulfed in the fire emitted by the relic but did not melt.

It only illuminated all directions like the light of a lighthouse.

The old gods’ mana was pushed far, far away.

As darkness is pushed away by light.

“I will protect the winter coming from that far away from reaching your territory. Father.”

Winter, the false winter created by the old gods.

Blocking it would be difficult, even impossible.

The Empire is too vast, and I am not yet an infinite being.

But I will protect it one by one like this.

The humans, in the greenhouse I created.