Exploring Technology in a Wizard World-Chapter 1298 - 1296: Fast Forward

Richard blinked and continued to ponder.

Could it be that Oscar and the Alliance Emperor believe that after gaining power, he will be compelled by moral pressure or face to desperately fulfill his obligations, thereby trying every possible way to help the Soma Alliance achieve victory?

In other words, is the other party trying to exploit his value?

Speaking of which, it’s not out of the question. After all, from Oscar’s perspective, he did wipe out an entire branch of the Truth Society. No matter what methods he used, Pompeii was indeed destroyed by his hands. If they truly squeezed out this kind of value from him, it wouldn’t be a loss for the Alliance to offer up the books from the Royal Library.

But... if they really think this way, they might be a bit mistaken.

His moral sense has always been weak. It’s one thing to occasionally do a short stint for the other side, but it’s absolutely impossible to work long-term.

To be honest, if it weren’t for not wanting to lose face too badly, he would have been tempted to leave the Command Room halfway through directing the battle. However, considering that he had already put in so much effort, leaving would also mean a loss for his contributions, he persisted till now.

But this is the limit, the limit of his fulfilling obligations.

Since he knows his power is real, there is no need to continue testing it. After all, true power is about having choices; the ability to use it or not, being forced to use it means it becomes an obligation, that’s working for someone else.

It’s like on Earth, if you can casually inspect a building, it means you’re in a position of leadership. But if you’re forced to inspect the building every day, sorry, you’re a security guard.

Right now, he has no desire to be the latter, only the former.

Simply put, working for others is impossible; his time is precious, he can’t overly consider others, he has to live for himself.

Having helped the Soma Alliance so much and spent a week of his time is already benevolent; for them to expect him to continue directing battles, impossible. He wants to focus on his own research now - the books obtained from the Royal Library haven’t been fully studied, and the Balta text deciphering hasn’t been seriously undertaken, all of which require time investment.

From this point on, he, as a Command Consultant, will take a vacation for himself, letting Soron handle everything. After all, Soron had said that even without him, this war would still be won, just with a bit more difficulty.

And whether it’s difficult or not, what does that have to do with him?

He should understand that the Soma Alliance isn’t even his motherland; he’s not even from the Main Continent, having been born on the distant Smans Island of the Blue Lion Kingdom.

If we delve deeper, being born in the Blue Lion Kingdom pertains only to his present body, his soul, his original memories are from another world, with no sense of belonging.

It’s precisely because of this lack of belonging that he wants to decipher the world’s truth, to understand how he came to be, and how to return.

He has no sense of belonging to the entire world, so what belonging could he have to the Soma Alliance? At most, the Soma Alliance is just a collaborator. If not for Oscar’s influence, he might have tried to collaborate with the Sika Kingdom.

Therefore, he doesn’t care at all about whether, without him, Soron and the Soma Alliance would face great difficulties.

Anyway, it was what Oscar had initially promised—he can completely let go, only wielding power without obligation, and he will uphold this agreement earnestly.

Slowly exhaling, Richard made up his mind and walked back to his residence.

Then, one day passed, two days, three days.

For three whole days, he rested in his residence, hardly leaving his bedroom.

After three days, Soron sent a messenger from the Command Room, inviting him to attend the highest military meeting again, aiming to discuss how to execute the next steps of the attack, to gradually push forward the front lines and force the Sika Kingdom to surrender.

He politely declined, informing him that he was feeling unwell and leaving everything to Soron to decide on his own, not interfering.

A day later, Soron sent another person, a staff officer this time, still requesting his participation in the military meeting.

He refused again, sincerely apologizing and stating that he was still unwell, leaving it all to Soron to decide on his own.

On the third day, Soron sent a prior White Robed Staff, Kun Darsie, with a genuine invitation.

He declined for the third time.

Then Soron understood and stopped sending people to bother him, only sending a message indicating that when Lord Richard’s health improves, he is always welcome to visit the Command Room for a casual chat.

Richard didn’t entirely dismiss Soron’s courtesy either, occasionally visiting the Command Room every other day or so, not staying long, roughly half an hour. During these visits, he only engaged in some brief conversations with Soron, never touching on any military maneuvers.

In this way, the two reached a mutual understanding—Soron commands solo, while Richard pursues his own research.

...

To be honest, after being busy for so many days, suddenly letting go of national warfare affairs, Richard still felt slightly uneasy.

On the first day of breaking away from the national war, he spent nearly a second overcoming the unease before diving into the busyness of his own endeavors.

Day one, research.

Day two, research.

Day three, research.

Day four...

Time flew by quickly, with Richard almost completely absorbed in his research, unable to extricate himself. During this period, he also discovered some conveniences he hadn’t thought of before, namely leveraging power for personal gain.

After all, he was still a Command Consultant, the second-in-command of the entire army. Now, even though he no longer wished to contribute or continue giving commands, he could still issue military orders to have logistics gather some necessary materials for him.

This was mobilizing the national machinery, utilizing the strength of the entire nation to serve him; most requests could be met swiftly.

Arguably, this was consuming war resources. However, the amount of resources he needed was not even comparable to a regiment, so no one dared to question it, given some privileges come with being a Command Consultant.

Thus, aside from occasionally meeting with Soron, he spent the majority of his time on his own affairs, completely unconcerned with the progress of the war.

Nonetheless, from the snippets of conversation from others, he learned that under Soron’s solo command, the second offensive of the Soma Alliance went smoothly, with the vanguard advancing rapidly, even overwhelmingly. The Sika Kingdom’s five defensive lines were breached, leading to a defeat, significantly weakening them, with the main forces retreating into the depths of their territory, while the remaining second-tier troops couldn’t stand up to the Soma Alliance army, continuously retreating and losing territory.

As a result, the former frontline of the Soma Alliance had now transformed into the backline, and to facilitate command, the Command Room located at Reef Rock Castle kept moving forward towards the Sika Kingdom.

As a Command Consultant, Richard couldn’t be entirely away from the central hub despite not engaging in command duties, so he moved along with the Command Room.

First, he arrived at a military city in the Sika Kingdom called Wind Sand Castle, then to a city in the Sika Kingdom named Kukochi, followed by a place called Silver Sand City.

This didn’t considerably impact Richard’s research work, as he carried Eden and Balta with him, allowing him to easily pack everything, with relocating being merely a minor interlude or a brief respite in his research work.

In this manner, by the time he moved along with the Command Room to a place called Grey Stone City once more, more than a month had already passed.

...