The Devil's Evolution Catalog

The Royal Andessean Academy started off as a school for future knights of the royal family. Due to the changing times, this mission expanded to include a variety of other talents -mages, tacticians, and even artisans…

To qualify as a magister knight, one needed a strong will, which translated to magical aptitude, and a matching level of strength.

For our pilots, we needed candidates that were at most three-stars. Anymore and it would be a waste of their talents, given that the magitek armors were only designed to output a power at the level of a five-star. After all, if they were stronger than the machine itself, why ride it?

Our final decision was to use the students from the academy. As the highest education institute in the kingdom, there would surely be enough to fulfill our needs.

As for the last problem…

“Lady Mo Na, now that we’ve found our candidates, how much time do you estimate has been saved?”

I contemplated for a second. Based on my experience on Gaia, factoring in the Messianic series' own specifications, my final answer was, “If the pilots are able to synchronize well -ten days.”

“Ten days… of training. And we still have to factor in the logistics of sending them over to the battlefront… that’s still too long!”

“Maybe with some support from the back, and if we are extra stringent with our pilots… perhaps we can increase the load of their training and shorten that duration by a further two days.”

“Eight days…” Andassis paused for a couple of seconds, brows furrowed in thought. “Misseger, have Headmaster Engert prepare the candidates, I want them sent to the training grounds tomorrow. Inform Cleoz, I want him to hold down that fort for another ten days, no matter the cost!”

While the Western Human Realms might not possess a telephone, they did have magical tools capable of long-range communications, albeit at a high cost…

“Understood.” Misseger acknowledged the command and prepared to leave…

“Wait. Inform Sword Saint Kuranshid and Hierophant Bodo Kazan that I want to see them after this.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Sword saints and hierophants were the nine-star equivalents of their respective occupations. At that level, even a monarch had to book an appointment before seeing them.

With Misseger’s hasty departure, Andassis the Seventh slumped back against his chair and took a deep breath. Bracing himself, he said, “Lady Mo Na, your pilots should arrive tomorrow, I hope you can train them for me.”

“Huh?”

You, as in me? No way!

“That’s right, I hope Lady Mo Na will lend us her strength once more… It’s because you have experience piloting a magitek armor… Even though I haven’t experienced them myself, I’m sure their operation is no easy feat. I can think of no other who can accomplish this task within 10 days…”

He was right – there was no one else who could train a hundred pilot candidates on such short notice.

But that group of pilots he was handing over to me was no small army either. Adding on my magitek armor that was on the level of an overlord, was it truly okay for me to handle such power? I was just an otherworldly visitor… at least to Andassis the Seventh I was… but he really had no choice, did he?

It was trust me or accept his doomed fate. On my part, immense power and influence was at the tip of my fingers, all it took was a single nod of my head. Technically, they still belonged to that haggard man over there…

So. Should I help him? A human conflict… can’t say I’m particularly keen on it.

Based on my original plan, this kingdom was a testing ground for the magitek armors. Once their effectiveness were proven, it did not matter if Andassis sold the schematics or just gave it away, I was the one benefiting. And once this style of warfare catches on, the progress would increase exponentially.

An arms race, so to speak. And being on the forefront of this race, Andassis was poised to reap the greatest benefits!

Once the Apocalypse starts, countless generations of magitek armor should have already been produced and deployed, much to the chagrin of the devils.

However, there was an unplanned hiccup in this plan of mine. The appearance of a spy was the start of a war that could potentially end this kingdom, and my arms demonstration, before it could take off.

After all, magitek armor or no magitek armor, there was no halting Ertalon’s war now.

The majority of the countries in the Western Human Realms ran on a feudal system. The lords of each region had high autonomy, and merely had to pay taxes to the kingdom. Even in the event of a war between two territories, the monarch had no reason to broker peace or send aid. In some cases, war benefited the king. Only lands under the direct ownership of the king could be said to be truly in his control; his level of control over his nobles was usually weak. Military might was an absolute must in maintaining this tenuous position!

In actuality, a large-scale uprising of one’s lords under an enemy nation’s banner was rare. Even in the annals of the history books, such massive defections only happened when the monarch was a tyrant of the worst degree…

And based on my observations, Andassis the Seventh did not fit this bill.

Such a massive uprising could only be a result of decades of planning. A strike to heart at the opportune timing. In some sense, my magitek armor was a lifesaver for the king.contemporary romance

The king looked at me with a hopeful gaze, almost pleading me to help. I could tell how much the recent events had affected him. This was, after all, a war that could end his lineage.

“Lady Mo Na, I would like to make this request of you as well!” Meister Amori suddenly stood up and bowed at me after I remained silent for a while. “Please help us…”

His sudden act caught me off-guard. I quickly reached out to the colleague I had been working with these past few weeks and helped him up. “Meister Amori! There’s no need for this!”

“Lady Mo Na…”

done.co