THE DAY I STOPPED BEING THE ALDEBARAN STAR
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On the world’s single continent, there were four nations considered great powers. Each of these nations occupied a cardinal direction, and the other smaller nations were considered vassal states that fell under their protection.
Peace between the four great nations was held together in a delicate balance. Excluding the rising nation of Kararagi, this stalemate had not changed much in the past thousand years.
The Holy Kingdom of Gusteko in the north, burdened both with bitter cold and steep mountain ranges, was a harsh land to inhabit for humans and animals alike. The accumulated snowfall over many years made the land unfarmable, save only for the few crops that were resilient to cold. Instead, they raised livestock, and the craggy mountains were filled with plentiful magic stone veins. As such, the nation cemented its position by excavating and using magic stone.
The peak of Sacred Mountain Pardochia was where the mighty Odgras, one of the Four Great Spirits, resided. At the founding of Gusteko, Odgras made a covenant with his spirit mage, who assumed the title of Holy King. Odgras continued to play a role in elections for the Holy King into the modern day.
As the ruler of the Holy Kingdom of Gusteko, the Holy King was chosen not by bloodline or birthplace. Instead, Odgras selected someone from the nation whom he deemed worthy.
The city-state of Kararagi in the west was a younger nation with a shorter history compared with the other three. Until only four hundred years prior, the western part of the continent consisted of several small warring states vying for land. As none of these small states was especially mightier than the others, they each feared destruction under a coordinated attack and spent many long, tense years without any progress.
It was a merchant by the name of Hoshin who finally put an end to this stalemate. Of dubious birth and origin, Hoshin rose to power using only his words, his business savvy, and his ideas, until he was finally able to wield formidable magic against the warring nations—a magic called economic power.
Hoshin did not belong to any of the smaller nations, yet he had a hand in every nation’s market. As a result, most of the small nations bowed down to him, reclassifying themselves as city-states, all of which had Hoshin as their representative—this was how the nation of Kararagi was born.
Ever since, the name Hoshin had become synonymous with success. Even long after Hoshin’s passing, Kararagi was a place where many gifted people gathered, hoping to follow in his footsteps. And that was how the many city-states of Kararagi transformed into a nation that could match the other three great powers.
The southern Empire of Volakia had a much older history. With the long-held mantra of Enrich the country, strengthen the army, it was ruled by an emperor. This emperor held absolute power and handled all government matters unilaterally.
This system had not changed since Volakia’s founding, and the only reason the empire never went bankrupt under a foolish emperor was due to a grand law regarding the emperor’s succession of power.
During an emperor’s reign, he was obligated to produce children in all areas of the empire. These children then fought to determine who would inherit the throne. Losing this emperor-selection process meant death. These political wars to select the next emperor were a gruesome distillation of this world’s hatred and ugliness.
This nationalism trickled down to the empire’s citizens. The principles supremacy of the powerful and supremacy of a powerful empire were spread far and wide as inherent truth.
Volakia did have diplomatic relations with the other nations, but since their fertile lands and stable climate allowed them to be entirely self-sufficient as a nation, they were not particularly interested in trade. Instead, they had a savage hunger for expansion—a constant issue for neighboring Lugunica, which had to constantly keep them in check.
Because of this, a particular sense of impending danger loomed over Bariel’s baronry in the Dragonfriend Kingdom of Lugunica’s southwestern region.
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