The doctor suffers from amnesia, but not complete amnesia.

"This is the Londinium riot that broke out in Victoria five years ago. The last Victorian emperor was hanged for threatening the nobles' interests. Afterwards, the eight dukes divided up the whole of Victoria and were sharpening their knives around Londinium."

"Also five years ago, Kazimierz launched a final large-scale counterattack against Ursus during the outbreak of the Ursus War, but suffered a crushing defeat, which led to the complete collapse of the political power of the Knights of Conquest. In the end, they had to establish the Supervisory Council to counterbalance the increasingly powerful Commercial Federation, so that they did not have the energy to counterattack when Ursus rebelled."

"As for going further back, the War of the Four Emperors led to the fall of Gaul, the rise of the Autonomous State of Rembiton led to the failure of various countries' colonization, and the independence of the colonies of Bolívar and Colombia. Oh, and poor Iberia, that's not the trouble I caused them."

Qiao Yelan placed one document after another in front of Therese.

"Including the Great Yan and Sherag, who never interfere, please tell me, apart from our arch-enemy Laterano, which race or nation has the energy and time to attack Kazdel?"

"Please tell me its name, and I will take responsibility for making it no longer a threat to you."

Chapter Six: Pleasant Cooperation

Looking at the documents in front of her, Therese remained silent for a long time before raising her head, her face pale.

"Was the Tower of Babel involved in all of these events?"

"No, that's not it. We don't have the ability to control countries or noble families. We just provide them with some basic intelligence. As for what those people do after they get the intelligence—ha, who knows?"

Qiao Yelan chuckled and shook her head.

The Tower of Babel has no ambition; we simply help people's ambitions flourish.

After all, people are always greedy, aren't they?

"So it's pointless for you to go to such lengths to deal with me—if you want to stop trading with us, just say so. I have a lot to do, a lot of deals to fulfill in Babel, not just Kazdel."

"So you're keeping Laterano out of reach because it's there to keep Kazdel in check, right? If even Laterano falls into chaos, then we can really take advantage of this vacuum to rise up."

Sarkaz's voice was somewhat hoarse.

“No, that’s not it. I don’t really have a good way to disturb Lateran. After all, they are connected by the sacred Kara. Unless I can find Amon and get into their rich emotions, there’s no way I can get involved.”

Even with that statement, Theresis couldn't believe that the other party truly had no means to deal with Lateran.

For the first time, Therese experienced an emotion called "fear".

"By the way, having addressed your second question, let's move on to your third, regarding the Sarkaz's split. I have a completely different view from yours. The split doesn't lead to weakness; I prefer to call it—'purity.'"

"How many of your men do you think truly obey you?"

Therese remained silent; the words Qiao Yelan had said to Therese earlier were like daggers to his heart.

"You and I can both see clearly that Theresa's actions are aimed at raising the banner of the Demon King and bringing all the wandering Sarkaz back to their homeland. Perhaps she has thought about it, or perhaps she stumbled upon it by accident. This is actually the only way to solve our biggest bottleneck at present."

"population."

Therese spoke again.

“That’s right, Kazdel is too desolate. We have too much barren land now, but not enough manpower to cultivate it. Moreover, because the Sarkaz are so susceptible to Oripathy, not only is the proportion of the non-working population high, but a large number of doctors are also needed to care for and treat them.”

"Therefore, I think that the appearance of a Demon King at this time is not a bad thing for Kazdel and the Sarkaz. The Sarkaz need a home, and Kazdel needs more Sarkaz."

Qiao Yelan tapped on the table.

"So how should the problem of division be resolved?"

“We can make you and your sister completely opposed, thus forcing all the Sarkaz to choose sides—one is the realistic Regent Theresis, and the other is the idealistic Demon Queen Theresia. Let the Sarkaz choose for themselves.”

"In this way, you can all gain truly loyal subordinates, which is actually a good thing. Moreover, this can lull the non-Sarkaz races into a false sense of security. A Demon Lord who cannot gain the approval of all Sarkaz is not a Demon Lord—they will be happy to sit on the sidelines and watch you tear each other apart."

The more Therese listened, the more familiar it seemed.

"Then we secretly communicated with each other, and kept fighting a low-intensity war of attrition, training our troops and stalling for time, waiting for enough Sarkaz to return to Kazdel. Those countries would even let the Sarkaz return on their own initiative—because they would come back to fight a civil war."

How is this any different from the battles fought between the coalition led by Kal'tsit and the Sarkaz resistance led by the Doctor two hundred years ago?

Two hundred years have passed, and the other side hasn't even bothered to upgrade their methods.

"Of course, you can even rebuild the real Kazdel. After all, as long as it's not a Kazdel built by the Demon King, it won't cause too much of a reaction from the surrounding countries."

"So how should we end this? Even a low-intensity war will deepen the hatred between the two sides, and this civil war will definitely not last short. In that case, it cannot be resolved by peaceful negotiations alone."

"It's very simple. Idealists gather together for an ideal, so if you want them to fall apart, just destroy that ideal completely."

The man said it casually.

“Theresia... Once she disappears, her forces will completely collapse. If you take this opportunity to take all the core command personnel away, then no matter how powerful a force is, it will crumble instantly and won’t even put up much resistance when it is absorbed by me.”

Therese stared at Qiao Yelan and asked her question almost word by word.

"Then how can I believe you that you only made Theresa disappear, instead of killing her?"

“You don’t need to believe me, Theresis. What you need is to believe in yourself.”

Qiao Yelan chuckled softly.

Therese's expression shifted from confusion to contemplation, then to trembling, and finally to overwhelming rage.

"My sister is a card you use to control me, always has been! So as long as I live, the stronger I become, the more carefully you will protect Theresia, because you know that keeping her alive will give you another pawn to use, while letting her die will only incur my wrath—isn't that right?!"

Therese stood up and almost roared out the last three words. His eyes were bloodshot as he stared at Qiao Yelan, his hands trembling as if he wanted to tear Qiao Yelan to pieces.

But he didn't.

He just stood there.

He could only stand there.

Without a doubt, Qiao Yelan's plan was flawless. It was the only way to allow Sarkaz to rise secretly under everyone's noses, and no one would realize the problem until the final step of the plan was executed.

To execute this plan, Qiao Yelan must stay alive by Theresa's side, shielding her from all attacks and devising strategies for her; otherwise, his sister will soon die—either from his own sword or from a traitor's poison.

He could certainly abandon the plan, but that would mean that once the news of Theresa being the Demon Lord got out, Kazdel would be attacked by all sides, while the Sarkaz would fall into internal division and be easily wiped out.

They, and the entire Sarkaz race, will once again be regressed to two hundred years ago, barely surviving under the feet of other races.

A hand was stretched out in front of him.

"I wish us a pleasant cooperation, Your Highness Theresis."

Sarkaz swayed slightly, his once straight back now appearing somewhat hunched.

"Wishing us a pleasant collaboration."

Chapter Seven: From the Dragon? The Election of an Emperor!

“Since that’s the plan, I have one request—don’t let my sister know the truth. In her eyes, I’m just someone who publicly broke with her because I couldn’t agree with her political views. Otherwise, her extra emotions will ruin the plan.”

Therese quickly adjusted her mindset.

“Of course, I was going to bring this up as well. It seems you haven’t been blinded by your emotions, Your Highness.”

Qiao Yelan was somewhat surprised and began to understand why she had emphasized the other person's character in her letter.

If it weren't for the constraints of race and his sister, this Prince Therese would be no less capable than the monarchs I've worked with before.

"So, when would be the best time to break out?"

"Later, we'll each make some preparations. You need to be prepared to receive the production materials we leave behind after our withdrawal, while Babel Tower needs to prepare combat capabilities for Theresa during her exile."

Qiao Yelan handed a document on Kazdel's real estate resources to Theresis. These places had been built with great difficulty, including the industrial park they were standing on, as well as several grain-producing areas and mines. These were places that could not be easily destroyed.

"Leave some people for me to use, otherwise I will find it hard to accept."

“The grassroots level will be left to you intact. You can’t take the population with you. Most people will definitely stay for the sake of their families. As long as you arrange some normal managers to stay, you can take over quickly. Manfred is a good one. He’s not the kind of crazy person who likes to kill, and he understands politics.”

Therese stared intently at the documents in her hand; the things the other side had secretly built over the years could not be easily destroyed.

"As for the timing, I'll wait until I return to Kazdel. Before the civil war breaks out, I need to go to Letania to sort out the relationships with the surrounding countries. After all, it's been many years since I've personally taken action."

“I understand—by the way, in order to secretly cultivate power, I established a guard called the [Pardoners]. Although they are somewhat strange, their power is genuine. Should I deal with them in advance?”

Qiao Yelan paused for a moment, feeling as if he had seen the name somewhere before.

"The Pardoner... the Pardoner... oh, found it, Quesatushta, the King of Usurpers?"

As Qiao Yelan pulled out a document, Therese's face remained expressionless, but she sighed again inwardly.

Sure enough, what I thought was a flawless cover-up was nothing more than a childish game of pretend play.

"Yes, he is a very useful ambitious man, and he has always coveted the position of Demon King. However, since he is not even one of the Ten Great Royal Courts, he has been researching artificial human technology—I want to use his power to create a Demon King."

"Artificial Demon King... Hmm, the information is here, but you can't take this information with you, you can only look at it."

Qiao Yelan pulled out another document.

Therese's hands were trembling, but she still opened the document.

"A chimera? Isn't that...?"

“That’s right, it’s the Chimera technology of Quesatushta. It’s a technology that’s on the right track, but unfortunately, I traded the right technology for the wrong one—and he seems to have become addicted to the wrong one as well.”

"Wrong route?"

Therese put down the document she could no longer understand and asked with some confusion.

"Yes, didn't he already create an adult chimera? That Sarkaz named Salus was just too disappointing in terms of strength, so he has abandoned the technology and instead devoted all his energy to raising his daughter."

"His daughter... those black and white devil sisters?"

Therese recalled the appearance of the two little girls, and then remembered where Qiao Yelan had just said she was going...

"Those twin assassins? Black and white lambs—were those twins your creation?"