In a spacious secret chamber within an underground complex, Joseph appeared.
Besides Joseph, there was one other person in the secret chamber—Steward Canon, whom Joseph had come to meet.
At this moment, Canon, who had not changed much since the time he ambushed Undead Wizard Sande, was tall and skinny, his face set in a stern expression devoid of any emotion. Dressed in gray, he stood with his back to Joseph, squinting at a map of the Main Continent hanging on the wall of the secret chamber.
One could see that the map of the Main Continent was roughly divided into four parts.
In the south was a loose political entity called the Southern Free Federation.
The Southern Free Federation occupied about one-sixth of the Main Continent and consisted of hundreds of small kingdoms, duchies, city-states, Noble fiefs, and autonomous cities, including Jialan City and Great Delan Town. Due to the absence of a dominant force and ambitious politicians, most of the members (cities) were on friendly terms, with very few instances of friction or conflict.
In the north lay the largest political entity on the Main Continent, the Soma Alliance.
The Soma Alliance occupied nearly half of the Main Continent and also had numerous kingdoms, duchies, and autonomous cities nominally under its rule.
Logically, it would be unreasonable for such a powerful political entity as the Soma Alliance not to take action against the Southern Free Federation. However, for decades, the Soma Alliance had never interfered with the Southern Free Federation.
This was mainly because the Soma Alliance had only been established less than thirty years ago, and prior to its formation, there were four almost equal-sized kingdoms coexisting. It wasn’t until one kingdom, led by a once-in-a-century ruler who used astonishing tactics, managed to defeat and annex the other three kingdoms, and thus formed the Soma Alliance, becoming an unprecedentedly vast nation in the history of the continent.
Consequently, it was quite evident that the newly established Soma Alliance was plagued with internal strife. Due to insufficient time for integration, serious conflicts existed between the conquered kingdoms and the conquering kingdom’s populace.
Because of this, the ruler of the Soma Alliance had to invest most of their energy into maintaining internal control to prevent the alliance from disintegrating overnight, leaving no room to meddle with the Southern Free Federation.
The Southern Free Federation was well aware of this situation, knowing just how bad things were within the Soma Alliance.
Officially, the Soma Alliance was the victor of the conquest war between the four great kingdoms, having successfully annexed three similarly sized kingdoms. However, die-hard remnants from these three conquered kingdoms had not given up hope of restoring their countries.
After the kingdoms’ collapse, they each occupied a strategic and hostile region within the Soma Alliance—the northernmost Ice Sea Snowfield, the Chaotic Mountain Range bordering the Southern Free Federation to the south, and the easternmost Black Water Swamp. They continued to grow in these three locations, hoping to one day recover what they had lost.
The Soma Alliance could not tolerate this situation. Initially, the Soma Alliance attempted to use overwhelming military force to subdue these lawless areas at the beginning of its foundation.
However, the enemies in these regions were particularly cunning and resilient; leveraging the terrain, they taught the Soma Alliance a painful lesson—the loss of tens of thousands of troops, the deaths of nearly a thousand powerful Magic Knights, and the assassination of the Founding Emperor, who was severely wounded and later died.
Following the death of the Founding Emperor, the new Alliance Emperor, to prevent further losses, decisively ceased the aggressive policies. Instead, they turned to besiegement, planning to gradually bleed these lawless areas into extinction.
To ensure the effectiveness of this strategy, the new emperor established a capital near each of the Ice Sea Snowfield, Chaotic Mountain Range, and Black Water Swamp, respectively named North Capital, South Capital, and East Capital.
Along with the original Central Capital, the Soma Alliance had four capitals in total. The Alliance Emperor would rotate his residence and handle state affairs among these four capitals each year, ensuring the smooth progress of the besiegement and preventing counter-attacks from the three lawless areas, continuing thus for nearly thirty years.
Returning to our tale, apart from North Capital, South Capital, East Capital, and Central Capital, the Soma Alliance actually had a fifth capital—although not nominally a capital, many Soma people regarded it as the West Capital.
That was the Grey Stone Fortress, built on the southwestern border to defend against invasions from Sika Kingdom.
This fortress was the Soma Alliance’s iron great wall, and it was staffed by the Soma Alliance’s most elite troops and the most powerful Magic Knight Group.
It was precisely because of the existence of Grey Stone Castle that the Soma Alliance, the newly emerged leading political entity on the Main Continent, and Sika Kingdom, previously first and now the second-ranking political entity, were kept apart.
To the southwest of the Main Continent lay Sika Kingdom.
The territory of Sika Kingdom occupied about one-fifth of the entire Main Continent. Rich in history, before the establishment of the Soma Alliance, it had always been the most powerful nation on the Main Continent, respected and outward-looking.
Sika Kingdom had long been the center of civilization across the continent, home to the best Wizard Academy, the finest artistry, the most popular poetry, and the most beautiful clothing.
The four formerly coexisting great kingdoms paled slightly in comparison to Sika Kingdom.
However, everything changed with the establishment of the Soma Alliance.
Almost overnight, the Soma Alliance became the new center of the Main Continent. More and more freelance wizards gathered toward the Soma Alliance, and merchants preferred to do business there, gradually leaving Sika Kingdom behind as if it had imperceptibly become a second-rate nation.
Therefore, Sika Kingdom regarded the Soma Alliance as a thorn in its side, and there had been several frictions along the border. If not for the existence of Grey Stone Fortress and both sides maintaining a certain restraint, the southwestern border of the Soma Alliance would have long been ablaze.
However, many were aware that the current restraint was only temporary. A major battle between Sika Kingdom and the Soma Alliance was inevitable, and regardless of who won or lost, it would impact the entire structure of the Main Continent.
In contrast to these complex situations, the last part of the continent—the northwestern corner—seemed rather inconspicuous.
It was known as the North Wilderness, a barren land filled with mountains and harsh environments, occupying less than one-tenth of the Main Continent’s area, with a population making up less than one percent.
Aside from the occasional mining of rare ores that reminded people of its existence, most tended to subconsciously overlook it.
There, apart from the indigenous people, the only outsiders were those in seclusion or wizards practicing asceticism, or else extremely vicious criminals—they were driven there, shackled and forced to work in the mines until death.
This is the Main Continent, this is the map of the Main Continent.