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The empire’s intelligence on the North completely crumbled after the Great Northern War. We’d barely recovered half of what we had before despite efforts to rebuild it in the years following the war, and we couldn’t fully focus on rebuilding it because we were chasing the Rebel’s blood relative.

As a result, the empire couldn’t grasp the North’s military strength and internal situation in detail. And now that the Rebel’s blood relative declared himself Khan, of course we had to be on edge.

There was fear of the unknown, and added to that was the only experience we could refer to known as the Rebel’s rampage that nearly sentenced the empire’s Mandate of Heaven to death. Dealing with this lightly would be tantamount to declaring we were giving up on the empire and the Mandate of Heaven.

Is this the reality?

But now that the veil of uncertainty had been lifted, the reality before my eyes was shocking in an entirely different way.

Could we really call the current North a united force? Was it normal for internal traitors to act so openly and for no one to punish these traitors?

Is it an alliance?

No, it was even worse than that. An alliance, at the very least, would have shared goals and work towards them together. These people didn’t even have that.

The title of a Khan can’t be that light.

My head throbbed. I could understand it if it were a situation where a chief of a large tribe led some like-minded forces in an uprising, but the Rebel’s blood relative declared himself Khan. A mere influential figure and a Khan had authority of completely different dimensions.

For a ruler who claimed such a title to fail so completely at maintaining internal discipline was simply absurd. If he couldn’t even control his own people, then the Empire wouldn’t need to lift a finger—he would be torn apart by his fellow nomads. They would question his right to rule and cast him down themselves.

In fact, looking at the nomads’s history, there had been others who had declared themselves Khan in the past, but every single one of them had met their end at the hands of their fellow nomads. It was simply a fact too insignificant for the Empire to have taken notice of.

This shouldn’t be possible.

This wasn’t just personal bias—the weight of history itself confirmed it. There were only two possible futures for someone who declared himself Khan: either become a calamity ruling over all tribes like the Rebel, or fall into being a ghost of the steppes like countless others before him. There had never been a Khan who ruled without firm control.

And yet, here we were. It was incomprehensible and shouldn’t have been possible, but it had actually happened. If that was the case, then we had no choice but to think of countermeasures instead of denying reality.

If the Khan’s grip on power was this weak, then the Empire had an opportunity. We could exploit the cracks in his rule, extending our influence while gathering information from the tribes that chose to submit to us to deduce this bizarre situation.

A priest of the pagan religion, huh.

In that sense, the Barandiga tribe reported by the Invincible Duke was a top priority for recruitment. Religion was never just a matter of faith; it wove itself into the fabric of daily life, especially among the nomads. To control the northern territories, one had to understand their foundations.

The only stumbling block was that it was a pagan religion—

The Eternal Blue Sky.

Suddenly, I recalled the Crown Prince’s report on the revival of the World Tree.

I had looked into it closely because it was a monumental event where the World Tree, which had disappeared due to Apels’ atrocities, was revived during Kefellofen’s era. And I found out that the cause wasn’t Enen but the Prosecutors’ Office’s Executive Manager, who had come into contact with the power of another god.

I was dumbfounded at how the Executive Manager could possibly be involved in the World Tree’s revival, but now I could truly say that it was a stroke of divine providence.

A northern god resurrected the World Tree through an imperial citizen.

If that was the case, then there was no justification to oppress it as a pagan religion. Besides, the World Tree was also important even from the Dawn Sect’s perspective.

I activated my communication crystal as soon as I made the decision. The war continued even at this moment, and imperial soldiers were shedding blood in unfamiliar lands. It was an Emperor’s duty to quickly handle any method that could hasten the end of the war even a little.

— This humble servant of Your Majesty—

“Call Cardinal Lisiuco. I have urgent matters to discuss.”

I cut off the words of the bowing Minister of the Imperial Household and immediately gave instructions.

Cardinal Lisiuco was the head of the Ausen Archdiocese and the person with the greatest authority among Dawn Sect officials in the empire. He was also somewhat aware of the full story behind the World Tree’s revival, so convincing him should not take long.

***When I entered the tent after being summoned by the Invincible Duke, the multi-tiered recruitment ope—no, the map of the North received from Count Kaitana was spread out. It was the token of loyalty marking the territories of tribes with clear intentions to surrender.

“Inspector. Have you heard anything about the Barandiga tribe’s territory?”

I shook my head at the Invincible Duke’s words, who spoke while looking down at the map.

“I haven’t heard about that. Apparently, many tribes have moved their settlements over the past three years, and the Barandiga tribe is one of them.”

“Then we’ll need to contact a tribe other than Kaitana if we want to find them.”

“Yes, Your Grace. Unfortunately, that seems to be the case.”

Even this era’s top collaborator of the North, Count Kaitana, didn’t have precise knowledge of every tribe’s location. A tribe’s territory could change overnight, and without constant interaction, it was impossible to track their movements in real-time.

Moreover, a migration crisis erupted in the North when Kagan died along with the powerful tribes. The territories of powerful tribes were prime real estate even in the North, and these prime properties suddenly became vacant. For the tribes who had been watching from the sidelines, it must have seemed like a heaven-sent opportunity.

The Barandiga tribe didn’t miss this heaven-sent opportunity. And since Count Kaitana hadn’t maintained exchanges with the Barandiga tribe, he lost track of their location.

“However, I heard from other tribes that the Barandiga tribe is moving towards the front lines.”

Fortunately, Count Kaitana had secured some information at the beginning of the war. Thanks to that information, we were able to determine that the Barandiga tribe was neutral.

If they had been a priestly tribe seeking vengeance for their defiled faith, they would have rushed in foaming at the mouth. However, their movement speed was strangely slow, meaning that the Barandiga tribe hadn’t yet resolved to go to war. At the same time, they weren’t making any attempts to reach out to the Empire either, so it was too early to assume they intended to surrender.

“At least they haven’t gone into hiding.”

The Invincible Duke, who seemed to be thinking about something, finally seemed relieved upon hearing those words. Indeed, finding a tribe hiding somewhere in the North and finding a tribe that would eventually come to the front lines had drastically different difficulty levels.

“His Majesty said that he will rightfully embrace them if they wish to enter the empire’s embrace, even if it’s a pagan religion.”

“His Majesty’s compassion is truly as vast as the sea.”

The words of praise left my lips instinctively.

Honestly, given the Emperor’s character of prioritizing national interests, I had guessed that he would embrace them even if they were pagans. But as Kefellofen’s Emperor, who received Enen’s favor and upheld the Mandate of Heaven, embracing a pagan religion was a burdensome act. As a subject, I should praise the Emperor’s decision to bear this burden.

“We will initiate contact when the Barandiga tribe appears on the front lines. Prepare yourself, Inspector.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

I bowed my head and answered the Invincible Duke.

Negotiating with the Barandiga tribe would be likely more challenging than dealing with the Kaitana tribe. First of all, they didn’t have a firm will to surrender, and their faith must be strong since they were the last remaining priest in the North. And since I was personally responsible for crushing their religion into the dirt, they were bound to—

— A priest? There’s no one like that. They’re all dead.

Ah, that’s actually good news. That meant that there was no hard-headed religious leader to deal with.

...

...Huh?

I belatedly felt something off.

There were no priests... left?

***The Eternal Blue Sky, who had been speaking to me while avoiding the fairies, fell silent when I entered the North. No matter how distant a god was from mortal affairs, watching her own followers die en masse couldn’t have been easy. Besides, the Eternal Blue Sky’s main base was now the World Tree.

The Eternal Blue Sky broke her silence and spoke to me after a long time.

— I wouldn’t have fallen this low if there had been even one priest left. Because there are no temples or priests, I’ve been staying in your body.

And just like that, I received another piece of shocking news.

Come to think of it, it felt like I heard something similar when I first met the Eternal Blue Sky. Damn it, why did I forget that? Did the shock of meeting a god mess with my memory?

So the priests were wiped out.

Anyway, I started thinking once more with this new information update. If even the priests of the Barandiga tribe who didn’t follow Kagan were dead, then it meant that the empire went out of its way to kill even priests not involved in the war in order to crush the pagan faith.

This would make negotiations significantly more difficult. How could they trust an empire that attacked them when they were minding their own business—?

— Ah, the last priest died of old age. He passed peacefully, surrounded by his family.

...

The information updated again.

— His son inherited both the role of the chief and the priest, but... something must have gone wrong. He hasn’t performed any priestly duties.

The Eternal Blue Sky muttered something about ‘Maybe it’s because the temples were destroyed?’ but I couldn’t bring myself to speak.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

Lately, every prediction I made turned out to be different, or wrong.

Tribes openly deserting, Count Kaitana’s extravagant defection, and now even the last priest, who lived comfortably until his lineage ended.

Damn it.

Was the North really cursed? I couldn’t predict a single damned thing anymore.

***We had lamb last night, so should we have horse meat today?

“Chief, we’ll reach the front lines in a few days. We might clash with the empire.”

Meanwhile, drinking only fermented mare’s milk every day was getting unbearably boring. The wine from the Empire was too rare to drink freely, but still...

“You need to make a decision! As a priest, will you stand against the heretics, or will you follow the trend?”

Maybe I should drink something better once in a while. Alcohol was meant to be drunk, not to be a decoration—

“Father!”

“I’m listening.”

I answered indifferently to Shati, who was screeching.

Seeing my only daughter trembling like that did make me feel a little guilty, but the truth was that she had an overly romanticized view of what being a priest meant.

A priest, my ass.

What use was a priest to a faith that had lost its temple, sacred objects, hope, and future?

During the last war, our tribe remained neutral, citing my father’s old age as the reason. But that didn’t mean we were indifferent. How could we be? Kagan, the apostle of the Eternal Blue Sky, the High Priest, and the one who first unified the nomads. How could we turn a blind eye when such a being was pushing against the empire?

But that apostle has gone to the god’s side. The High Priest could no longer spread faith on this land, and Kagan crumbled before the empire’s sword.

We were finished. Our beliefs, our faith—everything crumbled that day. So what was a priest but an empty title now? And yet, others still looked at me with silent expectation simply because I bore that title.

Do they think priests can rise from the dead, too?

Honestly, I’d be lucky if the Empire didn’t decide to just kill me on sight.

I could simply abandon the title of priest, but it was unfortunately also the only thing holding our tribe together. That was the only reason I’ve carried this burdensome label for years.

And it was driving me insane. Like Shati said, following the tides would be the easiest option, but we were already too deeply entangled in this mess. And blindly clinging to a dead faith? That was just a good way to get myself killed.

This life sucks.

It was annoying no matter how much I thought about it. I could at least understand why my own people clung to the title of priest—it was the glue holding our tribe together. But why were outsiders looking at me like I was some kind of messianic figure? Had I ever done anything priestly or given them land? Had I ever gifted them a single horse?

If Kagan were alive, these bastards wouldn’t have dared to open their mouths.

This life is just doggone miserable.