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OPI Chapter 306: Biba’s Silent Influence
🕑 Added 2025-03-20 01:59:40 +0000 UTCThe war between the Kingdom of Reconquista and the Kingdom of Tristain happened very suddenly and ended just as abruptly.
The battle started at about eleven o'clock in the morning. By one o'clock in the afternoon, Louise's void magic had swept across the battlefield, forcibly securing victory for the Kingdom of Tristain.
However, even in a war that lasted less than three hours, there were quite a lot of casualties.
This required manpower to clean up the battlefield.
Otherwise, the terrible plague would come, and this truth was clear even to people in the 'magic world' who didn't know much about science.
Soon, night fell.
Biba was naturally highly valued by the Tristain dignitaries, but Louise was ignored.
Everyone subconsciously assumed that Biba had released the white light.
And Louise, as a 'zero magician' who couldn't even use normal magic, was definitely incapable of such a feat.
Biba noticed this but didn't explain.
In his opinion, it was better for Louise not to receive too much attention—it was safer for her.
As for recognition and rewards, these nobles were insignificant. The World Government would naturally give Louise preferential treatment in the future.
But strangely, Louise herself had no intention of explaining the situation. She even reminded Tabitha, Kirche, and Chelsea not to tell anyone.
This little girl simply didn't like her life being disturbed.
As long as she could be with Saito as usual, she would be happy. As for the title of 'Void User', she wanted nothing to do with it!
However, when questioned privately by Princess Henrietta, Louise couldn't keep it a secret.
She still deeply admired the princess.
So, she confessed everything.
With Princess Henrietta now aware, it was only natural that Prince Wales would learn about it as well.
At the same time, Tengen, who had remained on Albion's Sky Island, finally returned to the Dimensional Gate Camp.
Many figures in black occupied every corner of the camp.
Tengen assumed they were security personnel affiliated with Cipher Pol-No.1.
After undergoing a series of inspections and inquiries, Tengen was granted entry to the camp and met with Staff Officer Rodlin, who was responsible for liaising with their team.
These staff officers, transferred to the Other World Strategic Committee, were all considered subordinates of Coulson.
"Before you arrived, I had already spoken with Amatori Biba and was briefed on his plan," said Staff Officer Rodlin.
"After briefing Vice Chairman Coulson, we've decided to approve it in principle, but at this time the World Government has no intention of conducting a full-scale incursion."
"Therefore, after discussion, it has been determined that we will provide you with two Conqueror-type combat units, which will arrive the day after tomorrow. Then, we will withdraw."
Rodlin crossed his arms and stared at Tengen. "Due to the ongoing reforms within the World Government, there is no specific date for the next opening of the dimensional gate. I only hope that, when it happens, the situation in this world will be as Amatori Biba envisions."
Tengen simply listen in silence.
As a ninja, he never questioned missions—there was only the choice to accept or reject them.
Rodlin added with a cold smile: "The Academy of Sciences is also interested in the magic of this world, so tomorrow, take two people and capture a noble who can use magic and a commoner who can't. We need to take them back to the Biochemical Research Institute."
"Understood."
Tengen nodded in response.
Staff Officer Rodlin smiled in satisfaction.
"Alright, you can go rest now. If you have any messages for your wives back home, you can record a video or write a letter, and we’ll ensure it gets delivered to Starfish World."
Due to the fact that this "magic world" was separated from Starfish by the Giant World and the Demon World, it was impossible for Den-Den Mushi to directly connect to Wano Island on Starfish.
"Alright, thank you very much!"
Tengen was delighted to hear this. He really missed his three wives back home.
...
The next morning, the nobles of Tristain initially planned to leave a thousand men behind to continue cleaning the battlefield, while the rest of the army returned to the capital, Tristania.
However, they encountered a serious dilemma.
What should they do with the more than 60,000 soldiers from Reconquista’s army?
As mentioned before, they had merely fainted. By now, they had begun to regain consciousness.
The question was—how could they manage them with only 10,000 men?
At this moment, Prince Wales stepped forward, expressing his desire to take command of these troops and return to the Kingdom of Albion to ascend the throne.
Princess Henrietta fully supported his proposal, but the other nobles were not convinced.
They had fought for so long, so why should Prince Wales reap the benefits without making any sacrifices?
Among those sixty thousand soldiers, there were a large number of high-level mages. Could they not keep some of them?
In response, Prince Wales firmly stated that he would not hand over any soldiers. However, as a token of gratitude for Tristain’s assistance, he was willing to offer ten magic airships and fifty magic cannons.
As expected, this offer tempted many. Magic airships and cannons were valuable assets they lacked.
But it also sparked greed, with some nobles demanding more.
Prince Wales, however, refused to back down.
He recognized that Tristain had no viable solution for handling the 60,000 troops outside—except for Louise, who could unleash Void magic.
In reality, it was Tristain that was now 'surrounded'.
As for Biba, along with Levi, Tucker, and others, everyone—including Prince Wales—considered them to be his allies.
Helplessly, the nobles of Tristain had no choice but to accept the deal. They loaded the fifty magic cannons onto the magic airships and happily flew back home.
Prince Wales, meanwhile, busied himself with consolidating his control over the 60,000 troops.
Fortunately, his status carried enough influence over the defeated, leaderless soldiers, making the takeover relatively smooth.
Any fanatical believers who resisted were swiftly dealt with by Knight Ander and his men.
At this moment, Biba approached Prince Wales.
"Your Highness, once you return and reclaim control over the Kingdom of Albion, you should propose to Princess Henrietta."
"What?!"
Prince Wales was stunned, his pupils trembling. He was tempted. After all, what man would be willing to let his beloved fall into another's arms?
"But Henrietta is already engaged to the Kingdom of Germania."
Biba smiled.
"It's simple. Just send the letter Princess Henrietta wrote to you earlier to the King of Germania. He will break off the engagement himself."
"That doesn't seem right."
Prince Wales hesitated. "That might anger them. Germania is a great power, after all."
"Albion is too. If it also allies with Tristain, and with the prestige gained after defeating an army of seventy thousand men, I highly doubt that Germania would dare react with hostility."
Biba stared into the Prince Wales’ wavering eyes and delivered the final push.
"Tell me, Your Highness... Do you not love Princess Henrietta?"
…
Three days later.
Prince Wales led the newly conquered army of more than 60,000 people and successfully returned to the Kingdom of Albion on the remaining 90 or so magic airships.
At the same time, he also left the bodies of hundreds of nobles and generals who led the rebellion on the land of the Kingdom of Tristain.
Although Prince Wales looked gentle, after two years of war experience, he had already developed a perseverance and character that did not match his age.
In addition, with Biba assisting him, there was not much hesitation when issuing this elimination order, because he also knew that if these nobles and generals were not killed, there would be endless trouble.
Wales, having returned to his homeland, was in high spirits.
With an army of more than 60,000 people, he had no intention of dispersing his troops but instead marched straight to the capital of Londinium.
The various fortresses and towns along the way surrendered again without much resistance, and even when there was resistance, it was swiftly crushed.
Many rebellious nobles took private magic airships and tried their best to escape from the kingdom.
Prince Wales didn't concern himself with these people—because he couldn't afford to at the moment.
Previously, Louise's void magic not only burned the magic warships but also killed all the fire dragon knights, so now there was no air combat unit available to pursue them.
Now that they had left, the country was clean, which was ultimately a good thing.
As for the wealth taken away by the nobles, Prince Wales was not interested in dealing with it at this moment.
Right now, his only goal was to clean up the entire Albion Kingdom as soon as possible, ascend the throne, and then propose to Henrietta!
Wales was deeply moved by Biba's previous suggestion.
Because he loved Henrietta, and Henrietta loved him, he was willing to risk offending the Kingdom of Germania!
With this goal in mind, Wales was naturally full of motivation.
On the other hand, Biba traveled only with Levi.
Chelsea and Horobi had remained in the Kingdom of Tristain to protect Louise, while Tucker voluntarily stayed at the Magic Academy to continue his research.
Principal Osmond welcomed this decision.
After all, such a genuine alchemist was incredibly rare, and maintaining communication with him could only be beneficial. He even invited Tucker to give lectures to the students.
...
Thus, more than a month passed.
Prince Wales finally managed to stabilize the situation in the Kingdom of Albion and petitioned the Holy Romalian Empire to grant him the title of king.
Meanwhile, Biba had become the trusted right-hand man of Prince Wales.
With his help, the Kingdom of Albion had begun forging artillery once again and was preparing to modify thirty magic airships into magic warships.
Prince Wales questioned the necessity of acquiring so many magic warships.
The answer was clear: the dragon knight squadron had been annihilated in battle. Although there were still some young dragons left in the kingdom, and their extinction was not feared, rebuilding a dragon knight unit would be extremely difficult.
So, in the absence of fire dragon knights, the only way to make up for the lack of aerial defense was to rely on magic warships.
After all, the Kingdom of Albion is an air kingdom.
No matter which direction the enemy invades from, they can only arrive by flying, so an air force is necessary.
Wales had no objection to this reasoning, so he agreed to Biba's plan and continued to be busy with various preparations for receiving the Pope.
However, Biba's actions became increasingly aggressive.
He actually began contacting the craftsmen who forged artillery and developed a bolt-action breech-loading rifle based on the flintlock.
He was extremely familiar with this.
It wasn't that Biba didn't want to create better firearms—he simply didn't know how to.
Fortunately, this bolt-action breech-loading rifle could easily penetrate most of the armor in this world.
Moreover, its craftsmanship requirements were not very high, meaning it could be mass-produced using the techniques available in this world.
Although the initial output was not very high, when Biba assigned several magicians skilled in alchemy and reinforcement magic to assist, production increased at a visible rate.
Once a thousand guns had been stockpiled,
He and Levi trained the first batch of soldiers to use them skillfully, and then had these soldiers train more troops.
Wales was, of course, aware of the entire process.
Regarding the appearance of these guns, he was somewhat uneasy. He couldn't help but think that such weapons were too dangerous.
Not only would they make warfare incredibly brutal, but as Knight Ander and others had pointed out, they posed a severe threat to magicians.
Although magicians had various magical means to defend against bullets when prepared, they would be in grave danger if caught off guard.
Not to mention that low-level magicians needed to chant spells— even high-level magicians might struggle to react in time.
However, Biba’s words led Wales to accept the situation.
"Your Highness, while the possibility of the Kingdom of Germania launching a military campaign in anger is low, it is not entirely out of the question."
"If they do start a war, these guns will greatly increase the survival rate of our Albion soldiers on the battlefield. They will also better protect your love with Princess Henrietta!"
This was truly an impeccable argument.
Whether as a ruler or as a man, he had no reason to object.
Shortly afterwards, under the supervision of the Pope of Romalia, the investiture ceremony was held, and Prince Wales was proclaimed King of Albion. Overcome with emotion after the ceremony, he immediately wrote a marriage proposal letter to Princess Henrietta.
At the same time, following Biba’s advice, the letter that Princess Henrietta had previously written to him was sent to the Kingdom of Germania.
The objective was clear: to show the King of Germania that Princess Henrietta already had someone in her heart and that even during the engagement period she had maintained a loving relationship with him.
Although this would damage Princess Henrietta's reputation, after much deliberation, Wales decided to proceed.
His only desire now was to marry the woman he loved.
"Mr. Amatori, I hope everything goes smoothly. I really don't want this matter to spark another war—one that would bring death, and between two great nations at that."
King Wales looked at Biba helplessly, but Biba did not answer him. Instead, he suddenly proposed: "Your Highness, I suggest that you have Princess Henrietta become the Queen of Tristain first and then marry her. That way, the Kingdom of Tristain can be incorporated into our kingdom."
"What?!"
King Wales was shocked, even wondering if he had heard correctly.
