Chương 46: The Ten-Thousand-Year Secret — Why the Exploitation?

The most restricted study, buried deep beneath the Royal Palace of Solaris, sat sealed behind twelve layers of soundproofing wards. At the center of the room, a massive three-dimensional magical map of the continent hung suspended in midair. Along the northern border, streaks of dark red light flashed in a steady rhythm, accompanied by low, warning tones pulsing from the message-crystals mounted nearby. Emperor Alaric de Solaris stood with his arms crossed in front of the map, his face heavy as lead.

Beside him, the Cardinal's forehead was slick with sweat, both hands gripping his staff in a visible tremble. Across the conference table sat Lucian, leaning back in a leather chair, Astra beside him in her pale floral dress, and Eleanor still in her knight's cloak. The diagnostic runes embedded in the magical map flashed red.

Covenant extraction output: -35% Barrier integrity: 65% and falling Northern spatial rift expansion: +12 meters Emperor Alaric waved a hand, projecting an enlarged image of the northern border into the air. Beyond the fortified wall lay an endless, roiling mass of black mist — the Void Abyss, where tens of thousands of misshapen beast-entities howled and clawed, waiting for a chance to tear through the light barrier and slaughter their way through the human kingdoms.

"You see this?" Alaric's voice was low, echoing through the sealed chamber.

"The Ancient Barrier was established ten thousand years ago to protect all of humanity. It consumes billions of units of mana every single day just to remain stable." The Emperor turned to Astra, his eyes heavy with tragic weight.

"The only known source in this world with mana pure and powerful enough to sustain it... is the energy extracted from your Hero bloodline. Breaking the Sixth and Fifth Seals has already dropped the barrier's power supply by thirty-five percent." The Cardinal stepped forward at once, his voice choked with emotion.

"Astra, child. I know you've suffered a great deal, but this is a necessary sacrifice for the greater good! Break all seven seals, and you'll be free — but the barrier will collapse instantly. Millions of innocent people out there will be ground to ash. Could you truly bear to watch the world burn just for your own freedom?!" Astra bowed her head, both hands gripping the fabric of her dress.

She stared at the red warning dots flashing steadily across the map, then at the grotesque images of the beasts massing beyond the border. Sixteen years of carrying a sacred destiny made her chest tighten, guilt pressing down on her like a stone crushing the air from her lungs. Beside her, Lucian tapped a finger lightly against the wooden table. This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Tap. Tap. Tap.

He picked up his teacup and took a small sip, glanced at Emperor Alaric, then at the Cardinal, the corner of his mouth curling upward.

"Let's put this plainly — you've been using this girl's free energy to dodge the maintenance costs on the nation's defense infrastructure for ten thousand years, haven't you?" The room fell dead silent. Emperor Alaric froze. The Cardinal's staff, raised mid-gesture, stopped in midair, his face going from pale to flushed red. Lucian set his teacup down on its saucer, his voice even.

"A continent spanning thousands of miles, with seven great empires, millions of mages, and hundreds of thousands of mana-ore mines... and instead of collecting a mana tax or building a shared energy-relay network, you've been holding down one orphaned child and forcing her to shoulder the entire national defense budget for the whole of humanity, single-handedly." He pointed at the magical map.

"You've used this girl's free labor for ten thousand years — not one coin of pay, no maintenance program of any kind — and the moment she wants her rights as a worker, you turn around and lecture her on the virtue of sacrifice. This national defense financial report is such a disaster that not even an accounting intern would dare sign off on it." Eleanor looked from Astra to the map, expression tightening. Alaric said nothing. The Cardinal opened his mouth, then closed it again. Astra slowly lifted her head.

She looked at Lucian, still tapping away as if running numbers in his head, then at the red streaks on the map. For the first time in her life, the shadow of guilt in her eyes faded, replaced by a fragile flicker of hope. She tugged gently at his sleeve, her voice soft.

"Lucian... is there a way for me to wear a pretty dress and eat strawberry ice cream, and still keep the barrier out there from collapsing?" Lucian glanced at her, pulled a quill and a thick stack of parchment from his coat pocket.

"Of course there is. There's no problem in this world that can't be solved by restructuring the contract and diversifying the funding sources." He turned to Emperor Alaric and the Cardinal.

"I'm not going to blindly tear through the remaining four seals. Instead, we're going to do something a lot more civilized: a National Energy Debt Restructuring." Lucian flipped through the pages one by one.

"First: the Holy Church and the Royal Family will pass a Public Energy Contribution Act, requiring every mage guild and great noble house to redirect two percent of their monthly surplus mana into the national grid, to share the load on the barrier."

"Second: I'll leave two of the safe seals intact on Astra as a governor, capping the barrier's draw at a maximum of twelve percent of her output during regular working hours. Outside of working hours — for a sudden war, say — if the barrier needs to draw more, it has to pay overtime, in premium-grade mana ore."

"And third..." Lucian stood, a sharp, confident smile spreading across his mouth.

"Tomorrow morning, I'll personally go down to the Energy Core beneath the Sun Temple and renegotiate these terms directly with the ancient Divine Will residing inside." Emperor Alaric stared wide-eyed at the ten-year-old in front of him. For ten thousand years, generation after generation of emperors and popes had simply obeyed the gods' covenant as an unchangeable fate.

No one had ever dared stand up and criticize the absurdity of the agreement — let alone imagine dragging a god to the negotiating table to renegotiate labor law. Lucian cracked his knuckles and tucked the quill back into his coat.

"Alright. Tomorrow, we're going to teach a god exactly what it means to work under a revised Labor Code."