Looking at Hawthorne on the stage, Saya had no idea how to feel.
His emotions were a tangled mess. "I really don't know if I'm lucky or cursed… Just my luck to bump into the first world war in over a hundred thousand years—and I'm not even a full-fledged wizard yet! What the hell am I supposed to do?"
This unexpected turn of events shattered nearly all of his carefully laid plans.
Now, he didn't even know what he was supposed to be doing.
He realized in despair, "With the skills I've got, all I can really do is… spectate."
'Who am I? Where am I? What should I be doing?'
It wasn't just him. These three questions were on the minds of most people in the wizarding world.
As for the mortal nations that had just received the announcement, they didn't even have the slightest concept of what a world war was.
A war that hadn't occurred in over a hundred thousand years had suddenly exploded in their faces, leaving them utterly unprepared.
To them, it felt more like a myth out of ancient legends.
Now it was suddenly laid out before them in stark reality—and they simply couldn't process it.
[Increase the population at all costs.]
Faced with this blunt command, many kings could only scratch their heads in confusion.
That was until the next day, when another decree was issued:
[Within three days, all marriageable men and women must marry, as long as there are suitable partners. Any refusal to wed will result in immediate execution by hanging.]
Only then did they begin to understand the sheer weight behind the phrase "at all costs."
Society instantly descended into chaos.
Countless bachelors suddenly found themselves with two options: get married or get executed.
To say it was a bit abrupt would be an understatement.
---
Day Five.
Thousands of meters beneath the surface of the Silent Heart.
Within a vast extra-dimensional space created through wizarding and an immense number of magical tools.
Saya was busy directing servants to deliver food and nutritional supplies to the beast pens.
The recently unsealed magical beasts, having only just awakened, were all in a severely weakened state. These supplies were essential for helping them recover their strength.
It was on the second day after the war announcement that Saya received this new post.
Only then did he discover that the academy he'd been living in for several years actually sat atop such a massive array of extra-dimensional facilities.
Thirty-six layers of beast pens.
Each layer housed billions of magical beasts. These creatures, from the moment of their birth, had their bloodlines and souls bound by wizardry.
Their intelligence and strength were heavily suppressed. The only things left in their minds were: kill, reproduce, and obey.
Where they once had human-like intelligence, now they were barely smarter than cats or dogs.
Once a beast grew to a certain level of maturity, it would be sealed away and put into storage.
This saved both space and resources, and also prevented them from dying of old age—turning them into reserve combat units.
If even the reserve spaces filled up, the overflow would be culled—sorted from weakest to strongest—and their bodies shipped off as raw materials for the academy's students and staff.
This was one of the Silent Heart's main sources of daily material consumption.
Currently, Saya was responsible for a small section of the 11th layer of the beast pens—managing over a million newly awakened magical beasts.
The weakest among them were late-stage Tier 2, and the strongest were late-stage Tier 3. There were no Tier 4s, as those were strong enough to potentially break free from their soul bindings, which placed them outside the realm of safety.
Watching cart after cart of supplies being hauled away, Saya didn't know how to feel.
Just days ago, he couldn't have imagined that a mere apprentice like him would be assigned to manage so many powerful beasts.
Any one of them, even the weakest, could probably kill him with a single breath.
With millions of them crowded together, even the passive pressure emanating from their bodies was enough to make him dizzy and weak in the knees.
If he wasn't wearing a robe designed to shield him from magical auras, there was no way he could do this job.
"I wonder how Charles is doing... Last I heard, he was assigned to care for the ancient wizards who were just waking up. Hopefully, they're not too hard to deal with…"
---
A white-haired, muscle-bound old man roared at a scrawny dwarf-like figure beside him:
"Eat my fist!"
Bang!
The smaller wizard didn't dodge or block—instead, he took the punch straight to the forehead. Yet, he didn't even flinch. Grinning maniacally, he taunted,
"Kekeke~ Pathetic! That all you got?!"
Seeing the little guy still had the nerve to mock him, the white-haired elder flew into a rage:
"You bastard! I'll have you know, I trained in Kalt-style Combat wizardry!"
The dwarf sneered,
"You're nothing but trash. In front of my Elslara Body-Tempering wizardry, you're a joke!"
"I'll beat—"
"You moron—!"
The two descended into another brawl mid-insult.
Spectators nearby could only watch helplessly. One two-headed old man rushed to intervene, pleading,
"Stop, stop! Please, I'm begging you—don't fight anymore! You're wizards! You can't kill each other like this!"
"Shut up! Who the hell needs magic? Magic's for cowards! Fists are what real men use!"
"Yeah! Hit him! Good shot! Nice left hook!"
"Who ate my flatbread?!"
"Anybody wanna sneak out for some whores—?"
"What?! My kingdom's been dead for forty thousand years?!"
"What?! The kingdom that destroyed my kingdom also died out forty thousand years ago?!"
"What?! That entire region's changed hands 985 times since then?!"
"I'll kill you—!"
Huddled in a corner, watching the chaotic madness unfold, young Charles was utterly overwhelmed.
"Do these people really need caregivers? They eat, drink, gamble, whore, brawl—full of energy like they're teenagers again!"
When they'd first woken up, they had seemed like proper wizards—solemn, dignified, imposing.
But just two or three days later, they had completely devolved—like lunatics on a rampage. On top of that, they were spitting everywhere and destroying any sense of hygiene. Their initial composed demeanor had completely vanished.
According to the information Charles had received, the muscular old man had been asleep for over forty thousand years, while the small, underdeveloped one had slumbered for ninety thousand—and had even fought in the last world war.
Aside from Charles himself (just there to watch) and the servants fetching tea and cleaning up, every wizard in this area had at least Tier 4 power.
Though they each had only a few hundred years left to live—being in the twilight of their lives—they were all absolute veterans of combat. That was why they had chosen to be sealed away, becoming a part of the wizarding world's hidden reserves.
Charles couldn't help but wonder, 'Isn't a few hundred years a long time? Why do they talk like they're about to drop dead tomorrow? Maybe that's just how the strong see the world…'
___
T/N:
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