The harsh reality of the current political situation was something that Adrian already fully understood.
In a direct, face-to-face conventional war, Oresfall could not fight against the Emperor or the combined Royal Army right now. It was just way too much power.
They had dozens of 3rd Circle mages. And if Adrian’s knowledge of the original novel served him right, the Royal faction currently had two 6th Circle mages on their direct payroll. Which was basically the exact same destructive power level as fighting against those two arrogant High Elves he had previously faced.
And on top of that? They also had one 7th Circle mage backing them up.
Which was even more terrifying. It was, in fact, much scarier than fighting against maybe even five 6th Circle mages at once. That was exactly how crazy the exponential power spike between the 6th and 7th Circle actually was. A 7th Circle mage could wipe a small city off the map with a single spell.
But that immense power did not mean that these high-level strategic mages were always readily available to just call upon for a minor border war or a petty dispute. The Emperor just couldn’t do that. They were strategic deterrents, not foot soldiers.
But he did have one specific high-level mage who was always nearby and was always ready to be there and brutally work for the Empire’s interests.
And that was none other than the Emperor’s half-brother, Financial Minister Roderick.
Adrian knew exactly who this man was because Roderick was one of the most important hidden antagonist characters in the original webnovel. He was the one who literally manipulated the original main character of the novel from the shadows to do the whole fight against the Demon Lord.
The current Emperor Maximillian was honestly nothing but a loud, arrogant puppet sitting on a golden throne.
And Adrian knew that if he truly wanted to teach anyone a real lesson, especially anyone within the Royal Family, he had to make sure that he somehow had Roderick cornered or under control first.
Adrian clearly recalled Cassius’s words from last night when he was basically mentioning that the Financial Minister was currently showing a little bit of favoritism toward Oresfall because of their tax scheme.
But Adrian did not want Roderick’s fake favoritism.
That man did not make real friends. He only wanted competent people he could endlessly use for his own gain. Everything and everyone was ’use and throw’ in his eyes. The man did not have the basic human concept of loyalty or friendship. And Adrian did not wish to deal with someone like that if he had the clear option not to.
Especially due to the fact that Roderick put the empire as his first priority no matter what. Their interests would merge here and there, but Adrian knew that if taken to the extreme, Roderick and him would just not see eye to eye.
Adrian walked into his bedroom and sat down on the edge of his bed, rubbing his temples.
His mind naturally drifted, thinking back to the chaotic, bloody fight he had with the High Elves a few months ago during the monster wave.
He had deeply thought about this specific battle multiple times in the past. He just couldn’t not do it. This is because he didn’t, for one, consider himself a chronic overthinker, but he just couldn’t stop himself from mentally playing back the times he got beaten up like crazy.
It is always better to learn from one’s near-death mistakes, and Adrian had, in fact, spent hours thinking about exactly how to beat those High Elves if they dared to attack him next time.
There were multiple ’win conditions’, as he called it, that would guarantee he’d win a rematch. And honestly, none of them were directly connected to his own personal strength.
He knew he could not fight those elves directly in a one-on-one duel, forget a two on one.
Unless, of course, he managed to somehow drag them directly into his safe zone dungeon and used the power of his Dungeon Master blessing to literally manipulate the environment against them. If he could spawn traps and control the terrain, then he could, in fact, have a chance at winning.
But once again, there was a flaw. He wasn’t actually the one who controlled everything inside the dungeon when outside entities entered. He couldn’t mind-control living creatures, especially those that did not naturally spawn from his own system. He could perfectly control the loyal monsters that came out from his dungeon, but not the hostile people who invaded from the outside world.
And due to this specific system limitation, there wasn’t too much direct damage he could do even if he took them to his dungeon. But it was still a solid tactical option.
However, the one thing that he was sure would easily help him win was none other than his guns.
He had a whole lot of them stockpiled now. Especially since he had heavily expanded the troops that he had trained specifically for suppressed magical rifle use.
Those elves could easily block the supersonic bullets with their innate reflexes. They could block one bullet or maybe even two bullets.
But Adrian knew the physics of this world. He knew the strict limitations of a standard Mana Shield. And he knew that if his elite rifle army; even if he only used twenty people, which was already way too much overkill, honestly even if he just used five, and they fired at once, the elves would die.
The sheer amount of kinetic force generated by five armor-piercing bullets hitting the Mana Shield at the exact same second was more than enough to instantly shatter it.
If he couldn’t beat the magical shield with one or two bullets, then he would just beat it with four or five simultaneously. It was just that brutally simple.
And forget five or twenty. Adrian literally had more than two hundred soldiers who were currently trained, equipped, and ready to fight with rifles.