[DISCONTINUED] Regrets and Wishes: To the Parallel Past

Chapter 10.5 - Chaos Throughout the World

Well, this chapter is basically just the same as the LN, manga, and anime. Almost nothing new happens, you can say. Maybe the only changes there are the changes in tenses used and some paragraph reconstructions. (English-translated LN primarily uses past tense, while I primarily use present tense)

You can also say that I upload this chapter to let you know that the hiatus period has been lifted up, because I somehow managed to finish my translation work in span of fourteen hours, nap time and other activities included.

It was a lot faster than I thought it would be.

I guess if I fully commited on doing something, it indeed would have been done faster.

~~~

(3rd Person's Perspective)

Catastrophe-class monster, Storm Dragon Veldora had disappeared; the one sealed for three hundred years, the living catastrophe.

His disappearance signified his return somewhere in this world.

But after exactly twenty two days since the first report of his disappearance came out, the Western Holy Church made a worldwide declaration, announcing his presence to have completely vanished.

Count Nidol Migam is furious.

"That's bullshit!" he curses while recalling what the finance minister has just told him. Simply remembering it makes his blood boil: The threat known as the Storm Dragon Veldora has vanished. Therefore, the special monetary support from the central government shall be halted, as of today.

And that was it. No back talk allowed. After being summoned to the capital. After being forced to wait for three hours.

Falmuth is, indeed, a rich kingdom. But so much power is tipped towards its central government that practically none of those riches reaches the nobility tasked with running its more remote regions. Redistribution of wealth is a foreign concept around here, and the countship of Migam never seems to see any relief from the taxes they're expected to collect from their citizens.

Like the other nations, they're taxed based on their agricultural harvests; and yet, they're also charged with defending their borders against the threats posed by the forest. That's the current source of the Count of Migam's fury.

That stipend has been a huge aid to them, certainly. The vount's lands go right up to the Forest of Jura, making it the primary defense line of the entire Kingdom of Falmuth.

But that isn't just Nidol's problem. It is a problem that haunts the entire country.

"And yet... of all the patronizing things they could have done...!"

Nidol is so angry. He can't help but verbalize his thoughts. There's too much to consider. He has to think about how he will keep the countship going.

Sealed or not, Storm Dragon Veldora is, nonetheless, a potent threat. He is a special S-ranked monster and thus ignored at one's peril. With the disappearance now a public knowledge, it was perhaps understandable that such "special"—i.e., provisional—monetary support no longer made sense.

But the timing couldn't have been worse.

The monsters are also a threat posed by the forest. But the Storm Dragon is just as much a threat to those monsters.

The fact that the dragon has disappeared can only be attributed to monsters' movement. No more dragon meant no more overlord to keep all of them in check.