Lord: I have built a witch's sanctuary.

Chapter 218 The Grand Finale

The smoke of battle has not yet dissipated on the Red Maple Plain.

The ash that Thursmir had turned into was swept up by the wind, swirling and drifting into the distance, disappearing completely in the blink of an eye, leaving not a trace.

Catherine stood on the highest wall of the Tower of Babel, her pale purple eyes silently watching the scene unfold, remaining silent for a long time.

She subconsciously touched her face.

The face no longer bore the scorch marks from the lightning strike; it was as smooth as ever.

Six months ago, with Lorraine's help, she shattered her inner demons and regained her appearance from twenty years ago.

It was on that day that she discovered she could still laugh.

But at this moment, her feelings were so complicated that even she couldn't explain them.

Twenty years have passed.

Twenty years ago, she was just a little maid named Katie. To help Prince Thursmir ascend to the throne, she risked her life, stained her hands with blood, and killed countless people who stood in her way.

Then, at the last moment, she was abandoned by those she served and thrown into the fire.

She hates.

She harbored hatred for twenty years, to the point that she forgot what kind of person she originally was.

She thought she would never be able to avenge this in her lifetime.

How could a crippled witch, whose foundation is damaged and who is stuck at the fourth rank, possibly shake the Violet Royal Family, which has ruled the kingdom for hundreds of years?

But now, the royal bloodline that once betrayed and abandoned her, along with their last heir, has turned to ashes and been scattered by the wind.

And the one who accomplished all of this was the excessively young man beside him.

Catherine turned her head and looked at the figure not far away with his hands in his trench coat pockets.

His expression was calm, as if he had just crushed not a kingdom, but a bug blocking his way.

"It was worth it," Catherine murmured to herself.

Back at the White Wolf outpost on the snowy plains, she met this down-on-his-luck illegitimate son and, as if possessed, left behind that token.

At that time, she simply felt that this person was different from those decadent nobles.

Looking back now, it was probably the most profitable deal she ever made in her life.

She got her revenge, through Lorraine, cleanly and swiftly.

Catherine looked away, a barely perceptible smile playing on her lips.

At this moment, her initial attraction to this man completely transformed into something else entirely.

"Ms. Catherine, have you seen enough?" Lorraine suddenly spoke, without turning around.

"I've seen enough," Catherine replied calmly, her tone much gentler than usual. "And then?"

"Let's go into the city." Lorraine raised his hand and pointed to the vast capital city at the end of the plain. "We have to sit on that throne at least once."

……

The Tower of Babel once again took its heavy steps.

The steel-clad creature trod across the burning ruins and the wreckage scattered on the ground, slowly advancing towards the capital.

The city gates of the capital were already wide open.

没有抵抗.

Thersmere had staked the entire kingdom's fortune on the Red Maple Plains, and now that fortune was shattered, leaving only trembling nobles and bewildered commoners in the city.

Olivia stood on the watchtower of the Tower of Babel, her green eyes gazing at the vast city below, but her thoughts had already drifted elsewhere.

Unlike Catherine, she didn't harbor any deep-seated hatred; she was thinking about something else entirely.

The prince died, and the Violet royal family came to an end.

So, what Lorraine needs to do next is ascend that throne and become the new king of the entire kingdom.

Olivia gazed at the distant palace spire, her mind racing with calculations.

Born into nobility, she experienced the devastating famine during her childhood.

She still remembers those people who starved to death in the corner, and how she held a small bag of moldy wheat, afraid to even swallow.

I remember those days when people ate each other.

Because of that memory, the thing she is most attached to in her life is food.

And now, the opportunity has arrived.

Once Lorraine ascends the throne and becomes the king of the entire kingdom, her magical farmland will stretch from Frostwolf City in the North to every corner of the kingdom.

She was silently calculating in her mind.

The vast, abandoned plains in the south of the kingdom, and the fertile fields in the central region that were abandoned due to war, can all be planted with cold-resistant barley.

With the absurdly short maturation period and astonishing yield of Magic Farm...

Olivia's breathing quickened.

By then, everyone in the world will be able to eat their fill, and no one will have to survive by drinking their father's blood like she did back then.

There will never be a famine again.

This thought made her feel hot all over.

She turned her head and looked towards the control room, where the man was currently sitting.

She suddenly felt like laughing.

When she ignored the housekeeper's advice and gave the precious cold-resistant barley No. 3 seeds to that illegitimate son who was regarded as a plague god by everyone, she never imagined that today would come.

"I wonder what name Lorraine will give to this newborn nation?"

Olivia rested her chin on her hand, gazing at the palace that was getting closer and closer in the distance, her green eyes filled with longing.

The wind blew across the plains, carrying a slightly burnt smell, but she felt as if the wind already carried the fragrance of ripe wheat.

The colossal silhouette of the Tower of Babel slowly rolled over the city gates of the capital, casting its enormous shadow over the ancient city.

Along the streets, countless civilians hiding behind windows stared blankly at the moving steel behemoth.

The Tower of Babel stopped in front of the palace square.

The shadow cast by that massive steel city enveloped almost half of the royal palace.

Lyra stood not far to his side, her heterochromatic eyes, one black and one gold, staring unblinkingly at his profile.

After advancing to the fifth rank, her ability to glimpse the future became terrifyingly clear.

At this moment, she no longer paid attention to the fates of those matters concerning immediate interests.

She simply gazed silently at the threads of fate that were wrapped around Lorraine's body.

The lines were tangled and long.

She could see that in countless futures to come, she would still be by this man's side.

In some futures, they will encounter enemies more terrifying than the Winter Lord and Prince Thursmir;

In some futures, the rift in the abyss will reopen, and Khorne's demonic army will once again march south; in other futures, they will lose, they will be injured, and some will fall.

Obstacles and setbacks are never in short supply.

Clara looked at the lines, but she wasn't flustered at all.

Because in every line, she saw a figure walking straight ahead.

That figure never turned around, never retreated even a step.

This is the future she wants.

It's not a future without storms, but a future where there's someone leading them to weather them.

It is the future that can always follow Lord Lorraine.

"What are you looking at?" Lorraine asked suddenly without looking up.

Leila was startled, her pretty face flushed slightly, and she quickly looked away: "No... I wasn't looking at anything, I was just checking if the young master's future fortune is good."

"OK?"

"Very good." Leila nodded emphatically, revealing a bright smile. "A golden thread has tied all the good fortune to the young master."

Lorraine twitched the corner of her mouth and didn't ask any further questions.

Leila quietly breathed a sigh of relief and smiled with satisfaction.

What she didn't dare say was that she actually saw more than just the future.

She also saw that the little girl who had been driven away like a natural disaster and rejected even by magic would one day stand in a giant steel city that had conquered the entire kingdom, standing beside the man who had accepted her.

This is enough.

……

Anna, standing behind Lorraine, was also gazing absently at her young master's back.

Her fiery red hair hung down her sides, and her black maid outfit was spotless.

Now, she is a fifth-order Entropy Witch, the leader of the entire Witch Guild. But for some reason, looking at Lorraine's back, all that comes to mind are scenes from a very, very long time ago.

White Wolf Outpost.

That desolate place, exiled to the farthest edge of the snowfield, where there wasn't even a decent roof.

At that time, Lorraine was just a down-on-his-luck illegitimate son abandoned by his family, clutching only a few nearly depleted magic crystals. Everyone thought he wouldn't survive that snow season.

She was nothing more than a maid who had been sold into slavery by her mother to a nobleman since childhood, so lowly that she didn't even have the courage to look people in the eye.

A destitute illegitimate child, a slave with nothing.

These are the two people who have come this far from that icy and snowy land.

Anna still remembers the moment she jumped into the demonic fire.

At that time, she didn't understand anything; she only knew that the young master told her to jump, so she jumped.

She trusted him completely.

She persevered through every promotion, every ceremony, and every time she was torn apart by pain to the point of near unconsciousness.

Because she knew that as long as the young master stood outside the magic circle, she was not afraid of anything.

Along the way, they faced insect swarms, the Fimbulwinter, the Winter Lord, and a massive army of 500,000 demonized soldiers.

So many near-death experiences.

But in the end, they still managed to stand here.

Standing at the center of a kingdom.

Anna's eyes welled up with tears. She lowered her head quietly and blinked rapidly to force the moisture back.

Can't cry.

The young master said that she is now the leader of the witch guild, and she should act like a leader.

She looked up at Lorraine's retreating figure, and the corners of her mouth unconsciously curved into a smile.

She was very happy.

I am really happy.

……

The message traveled back to the distant Frostwolf City at top speed via the communication array.

At the gates of Frostwolf City, Hans, who had just registered to enter the city, was hunched over in the long line of refugees.

"Count Lorraine... has won!"

"The prince is dead! The count has stormed the capital!"

It's unclear who first spread this message out of the lord's manor, but it spread like wildfire throughout the entire troop.

Hans froze on the spot.

He opened his mouth wide, unable to close it for a long time, still tightly clutching the registration certificate he had just received.

"We won? We really won?" he murmured repeatedly, his voice trembling.

He thought of the villagers in his village who had been forcibly given black water and had grown scales and claws, and he thought of his uncle's eyes that had turned blood red.

When he escaped, he never dared to imagine that Lorraine could actually win.

That's the Violet Royal Family, who have ruled the kingdom for hundreds of years; that's a demonized army of 500,000!

But now, someone is telling him that the most remote lord in the North has actually crushed that behemoth underfoot.

Hans's tears welled up instantly.

He no longer needs to become a monster.

He can still be a human being.

Black Iron City, in the central North.

Lord Os was sitting in his study, grinning foolishly at the long list of purchases in the ledger.

Ever since he rode that magic-powered high-speed train and witnessed firsthand the fiery vines on the roadbed and the mechs on the roof slaughtering hordes of monsters, he became a fanatical follower of Lorraine.

In the past few months, he has practically emptied the vaults of Black Iron City and has been frantically buying goods from Frostwolf City.

Just then, the adjutant scrambled in.

"Lord! Breaking news! Earl Lorraine of Frostwolf City has breached the capital! Prince Thursmir is dead!"

The quill pen in Os's hand fell onto the table with a "thud".

He was stunned for a while, then suddenly slapped his thigh and jumped up from the chair.

"Great! That's wonderful!"

He paced back and forth in the study twice, his face contorted with laughter.

"Thank goodness, thank goodness..." Os wiped non-existent sweat from his forehead and let out a long sigh of relief. "Not offending this Earl was the wisest decision of my life!"

He knew it all too well.

Those lords who looked down on Lorraine and outwardly obeyed Frostwolf City are probably having trouble sleeping now.

As for Os, he had already latched onto this powerful figure early on, taking the high-speed rail and buying goods from him, and his relationship with Lorraine was extremely close.

"Quickly, prepare a gift!" Os rubbed his hands together, his eyes gleaming. "A grand gift for the Earl... no, I should change my address, a grand gift for His Majesty the King! We can't fall behind others at a time like this!"

……

Meanwhile, at the Alchemists' Guild headquarters in Frostwolf City, Guild Master Pym was leisurely gazing out the window, a glass of red wine in hand.

When the panting apprentice brought in the good news, the shrewd old fox, who had been clever all his life, simply narrowed his eyes and smiled.

"really."

He took a sip of red wine, leaving a streak of crimson liquid on the glass.

"The most successful investment I've ever made in my life is finally coming to fruition."

Pym put down his glass, turned around, and slowly instructed his assistant, "Pack your things."

"President, where are we going?" the assistant asked, somewhat confused.

"Where to? To the capital, of course!"

Pym tapped the table with his fingers and said smugly,

"Your Excellency has conquered the royal city; now it's time to establish a new order. As the future 'Governor of the Kingdom's Central Bank,' it's time for me to take over the royal treasuries!"

……

Royal Palace, top floor.

The grand hall, which symbolized supreme power, was empty except for the throne inlaid with amethyst in the center.

Ohm and Messiah, the twins, were huddled in a corner of the hall, chattering away.

"Sister, sister!" Ohm tugged at Messiah's sleeve, his silver eyes sparkling. "Tell me, once big brother becomes king, won't we be able to do whatever we want?"

"Hmm." Messiah, unusually, didn't have a stern face. His silver hair fell over his shoulders, and his expression carried a hint of longing. "The Universal Mechanical Repair Factory has been upgraded to the fifth level, and its production capacity is even higher than during the Golden Age."

"Then let's build industrial machine shops!" Ohm waved his little fist. "First, let's build machines that can build machines! Then one factory will become ten, and ten will become a hundred!"

Messiah paused for a moment, then slowly nodded.

She remained silent for thousands of years, watching the glory of the old era crumble into ruins, and witnessing humanity's repeated descent into depravity in the face of tumultuous changes.

But now, she suddenly feels that maybe things really will be different.

"An...Industrial Revolution," she said softly, a hint of excitement in her voice that she herself didn't realize, "brought to the entire Violet Kingdom."

"We will restore and surpass the glory of the Golden Age."

"Yes! That's it!" Ohm jumped up excitedly. "Then everyone in the world will be able to use machines, and who will be afraid of those monsters then!"

The two sisters looked at each other and saw the same light in each other's eyes.

That is the light of the future.

……

In front of the throne.

Lorraine stood alone, her dark eyes silently gazing at the empty chair.

He didn't sit down.

Behind him, the witches had fallen silent at some point, all their eyes fixed on him, waiting for him to speak.

In the void, the "Witch's Codex," which only he could see, slowly turned its pages and stopped on a blank page.

Should the newly established country be named?

Lorraine raised her hand and lightly touched the page with her fingertip.

"Our newly established nation will be called the Kingdom of Babel."

He pronounced the name word by word, his voice not loud, but clearly carrying throughout the entire hall.

"The Tower of Babel." Lorraine turned around, looked at the familiar faces behind him, and slowly spoke, "Human will conquer nature; we do not need the mercy of the gods."

"This country will remember where we came from."

Catherine, Olivia, Lyra, Anna, Ohm, Messiah, Victor... everyone stared at him in a daze.

"What path will we take, Your Majesty?" Catherine asked softly.

Lorraine smiled.

He remembered the secret book that only he could see.

With the Witch's Codex, he could answer any question, see through any secret, and ensure that every decision he made was the most correct one at that moment.

Since that's the case—

"The Philosopher King"

The entire country is ruled by a wise man of absolute reason.

In the past, such a political system existed almost exclusively in the fantasies of scholars, because human desires and limitations meant that no ordinary person could make the right decisions forever.

But Lorraine is different.

He possessed the "Witch's Codex" in his mind, which could see through all secrets and provide perfect answers.

As long as the secret manual remains, every decision he makes and every policy he implements will be the absolutely correct, absolutely rational, and optimal solution.

In this world of extraordinary power and unpredictable natural disasters, only a philosopher-king system that centralizes power in one person can lead humanity to overcome calamities and achieve revival with the highest efficiency.

Olivia looked at him, her green eyes brimming with laughter.

The land of the Tower of Babel.

She silently repeated the name in her heart and thought it was a really nice name.

This name will inherit the past, and this name will create the future.

From this day forward, this land will be planted with wheat, lit up with lights, and filled with the constant roar of machinery.

There will be countless springs where we will never have to go hungry again.

She raised her head and looked out of the hall.

The spring winds are blowing over the city walls of the capital and toward this vast land that is about to be transformed.

Lorraine slowly sat down on the throne.

He rested his hands on the armrests, the hem of his black trench coat spread out before the throne, and his black eyes reflected the ruins and rebirth of the entire royal city.

"A new era has begun," he said softly.