Gunpowder Plate Armor and the Magic Revolution

Raymond subconsciously looked around to make sure that the students around him were noisy and no one was paying attention to their table before moving forward and lowering his voice as much as possible, afraid of being overheard.

"This is a wound that can't be brought to the forefront in the federal government. It's forbidden to mention it in any public place, supposedly out of fear of discrimination. But how can this blood debt be so easily forgotten?"

"When the revolution first started and the people united to fight the Empire, the Federation only had four republics: Sjorga, Veria, Edric, and Orentia, which are now the four core republics."

"Back then, Kut was an independent feudal principality in the north, sandwiched between the Federation and the Empire, not connected to either side, and constantly vying with the 'barbarians' in the west. It wasn't until after the great victory in the Central Lands that it changed to a republic and got closer to the Federation."

"At that time, the great victory in the Central Region had just ended. The Empire appeared to be in retreat, but in fact, its main force was not seriously injured. The two sides turned from a decisive battle into a tug-of-war."

"The Empire also seized this opportunity of tug-of-war. Knowing that the Federation had just been integrated and the various member states were not of one mind, they started to play the game of dividing and winning over."

Raymond tapped his fingers lightly on the table. "While they were mobilizing heavy forces to press on the border of the Republic of Kurt, forcing Kurt's border guards into retreat, they slowed their offensive on the front lines of several other federal republics, feigning peace talks. At the same time, they sent a large number of spies to infiltrate Kurt, promising high-ranking positions and making threats. Using both soft and hard tactics, they created a climate of fear and disunity among Kurt's leadership."

Noze frowned as he listened. He was all too familiar with this tactic: befriending distant states while attacking nearby ones, dividing and weakening the enemy—it was the most ruthless and effective open strategy in war.

"At that time, the Kurt people were not so determined to join the Federation. They were afraid of the Empire's military might and also afraid that the Federation would use them to fight the war and then swallow them up."

"Most people don't want to see their own people bleed while others reap the benefits, so their high-ranking members are in a complete mess, with some advocating peace, some advocating surrender, and some wanting to follow the Federation."

"The real trouble will come in the Battle of the Golden Knife."

Raymond's voice lowered a few decibels. "In the eleventh year of the Thirty Years' War, the Federal Army General Staff devised a plan to divide the army into two routes: one westward from the center, and the other eastward through the territory of the Kurt Republic, to flank the Imperial Army and launch a surprise attack, a war of encirclement and annihilation."

"Initially, the Kut high command agreed, promising to let the army pass and providing food and supplies."

"And what happened? The two armies had barely crossed the border of Kut and stepped into the Empire's territory when they fell into the Empire's ambush. What's worse, when the western army tried to retreat, Kut itself experienced a very successful coup, completely turning against them, sealing off the border passes, and blocking the Federation army's retreat route."

"That battle was extremely brutal. There were ambushes ahead and no way to retreat. The valley was full of corpses and blood. Of the more than 20,000 elite troops, less than 3,000 survived."

This was an almost devastating defeat. Noze instantly understood why the war had been dragged on for thirty years—such a crushing defeat, with all its elite troops wiped out, was enough to completely halt the Federation's counter-offensive momentum, forcing it to shift from proactive offense to strategic defense and severely weakening it.

"It was this battle that brought down the Federation."

Raymond sighed. "The original encirclement and annihilation plan has completely fallen through. The battle lines have been contracted across the board. What could have been an early end to the war has been dragged on for almost twenty years."

"And then what happened?"

Noze pressed further, "How did the Kurt people end up joining the Federation?"

"The Empire is no good either. The Kut people betrayed the Empire and received its promises in return. But after the Imperial army defeated the Federation army, it turned around and occupied the richest plains in Kut. It also forced the Kut to pay taxes and provide able-bodied men, exploiting them even more harshly than before. Only then did the Kut people realize that they had been used as pawns, but it was too late to regret it."

"Five or six years later, the Federation recovered and launched a counter-offensive. The Imperial army suffered repeated defeats, and the Kurt people themselves revolted, overthrowing those who had cooperated with the Empire. They then turned to the Federation for peace and joined the Federation, becoming the present-day Kurt Province."

"But because of what happened before... the Federation doesn't trust them, the Empire looks down on them, and although they have a large territory, most of it is grassland, so there isn't much space to build cities. The Federation doesn't care much about this province, treating it simply as a buffer zone to defend against the barbarians and the Empire from the west."

"That's how the name 'traitor' came to be."

The table fell silent.

Sunlight streamed in through the window and fell on the plates, but none of the three of them had any appetite left.

Nozer finally understood what Andrew Hart's almost self-destructive desperate struggle was all for.

He was born in Kurt and grew up in the Commonwealth, carrying the mark of a "traitor" left by his ancestors from birth.

In this military academy filled with the descendants of soldiers, and perhaps even war orphans, his very background was a sin.

He could only do his best, mastering every subject to the extreme, in order to silence the critics and prevent people from magnifying a small mistake into the conclusion that "the Kurts are unreliable."

It seems that the boy who stands straight in class and answers questions flawlessly carries behind him nearly fifty years of historical grievances and prejudices etched into the bones of countless people.

"So now you know why he works so hard."

Raymond picked up the remaining half of the bread, but lost his appetite.

Following his previous gaze, Noze looked again at the corner of the cafeteria.

Andrew Hart sat there, alone at a table, with the simplest black bread soup and fried sausage in front of him.

He sat upright, head down, slowly eating, the surrounding noise seemingly separated from him by an invisible wall.

The cafeteria was packed with people, but the seats around his table were empty; no one sat down or talked to him.

He was like an isolated island.

He seemed to notice the gazes directed at him, and slightly raised his head. His light golden hair fell over his forehead, and his pale face was expressionless. His gaze briefly met Noze's before he quickly looked away and continued to eat quietly, as if nothing had happened.

Noze looked away, feeling a little uneasy.

He had seen too many things like this; a speck of dust in the era, falling on an individual, becomes a mountain.

It's all too common for the mistakes made by ancestors to be repaid and proven by the descendants with a lifetime of hard work. But when it actually happens to a teenager, it still feels heavy.