Chapter 40

Chapter 40: < Departure. >

“You know the reason, right?”

“What reason?”

“Isn’t the Aztec Empire doing things that are beyond the limit? They might be ripping out the hearts of innocent people for their god even at this moment.”

The Warrior of Wood furrowed his brow.

He felt disgusted just by thinking about it.

But the man tilted his head as if he didn’t understand.

“…What does that have to do with you? Those sacrifices have nothing to do with you anyway, right?”

“That’s true. But, that’s not important.”

“Not important?”

“Yes. It doesn’t matter who they are, the fact that they are doing the abominable human sacrifice doesn’t change. As someone who serves the great spirits, we cannot tolerate any act that goes against the will of the spirits.”

“…”

To be honest, the man thought to himself, ‘Is that all?’.

But he didn’t completely disagree with his words.

He didn’t know what kind of beings the spirits they served were, but this kind of faith could sometimes be a sufficient cause for war.

He didn’t have to look far, the Aztec’s Flower War was also similar.

The Aztecs waged periodic Flower Wars to secure sacrifices for their god.

Besides…

‘He doesn’t seem to be lying by his eyes.’

The eyes of the Warrior of Wood who finished speaking were very firm.

He seemed ready to do anything for his faith.

He believed that the Aztec Empire deserved to be destroyed.

His Majesty was the only spirit who walked on the earth.

That meant, the will of the spirits was everything His Majesty said.

His Majesty said that the Aztec’s disgusting human sacrifice was wrong.

His Majesty and the great spirits were greatly angered by their behavior.

Then, shouldn’t they follow the words of the great spirits?

It was because of their blessings that the Wakan Tanka Empire existed now.

If they were disappointed and took away their blessings, the Wakan Tanka Empire would surely decline quickly.

This was a common thought among most of the imperial citizens, not just the Warrior of Wood.

“…”

Silence lingered for a while.

The man crossed his arms and thought hard.

‘What would be the right choice?’

He somewhat accepted their actions, but he still couldn’t trust them enough.

The fate of his tribe depended on his choice.

After a long time of deliberation, he opened his mouth.

“What if I don’t accept your proposal, what will you do?”

If what he said was all true, even if he didn’t ally with his tribe, they would fill that big ship with warriors and come to this land anyway.

As expected.

The following words were not much different from his expectation.

“The great emperor of our empire has a strong will for the Aztec expedition. Even if you don’t accept our proposal, we won’t change our plan. If you oppose us, your tribe will be our first target.”

“Hmm…”

It was a clear threat.

In the end, the imperial warriors would land on this land anyway.

That meant he had to fight against a powerful empire that could make such a big ship if he stopped them.

At this time when they were facing the threat of the Aztecs, he didn’t think he could stop them at all.

‘Is there no other way…’

His thoughts were slowly leaning towards accepting their offer.

And to solidify this atmosphere, the Warrior of Wood spoke up.

“If you are worried about the Aztec’s retaliation in case our expedition fails, I want to tell you that you don’t have to worry about that. We won’t lose to them anyway.”

“…Don’t you underestimate the Aztecs too much? You haven’t experienced them. They are very powerful.”

“Haha. Then have you experienced our empire?”

“Well, no…”

“Good. Then let me show you some of our empire’s power. Then you will realize why I said this so confidently.”

He said so and winked at one of his warriors who followed him.

The warrior, Cozy Rock, nodded as if he understood.

They had already agreed on this before they came here, so Cozy Rock wasn’t surprised.

“I’m going to shoot an arrow at that warrior in front of me. With this one.”

Cozy Rock was covered in steel from head to toe.

Could an arrow pierce such a heavy armor? And with a stone arrowhead?

‘No way.’

The result was obvious. They were just doing this to show them something.

The Warrior of Wood took out his bow from his back and handed it to him.

“Check it out.”

“Hmm…”

It was to show that they didn’t use any tricks or anything like that.

The man took the bow and arrow from the Warrior of Wood.

He pulled and released the bowstring, and touched the stone arrowhead.

And he realized.

‘This is a better bow than what we have.’

He meant that the quality of the bow was excellent.

The man confirmed this and returned the bow and arrow to the Warrior of Wood.

“That would hurt a lot if you get hit by that arrow.”

“Haha. Don’t worry. That won’t happen.”

While he was saying that, the stage was set.

About ten meters away, the Warrior of Wood put an arrow on his bow and pulled the string.

Whoosh!

The Warrior of Wood released the string without hesitation.

Then, the sound of the arrow cutting through the air was heard, and it quickly approached the chest of the warrior.

He aimed at his chest.

The man widened his eyes.

He seemed to be pierced by the arrow and get a big wound any moment.

But that didn’t happen.

Ting!

“…How is that possible!”

The result was too disappointing.

The arrow was easily bounced off by the steel armor.

There was not even a scratch on the steel armor that was hit.

‘How can such a strong armor exist?’

He couldn’t believe it easily.

But it was happening right in front of his eyes.

And the Warrior of Wood didn’t stop there.

To show them the sure power of steel, he shot five arrows in total.

The last arrow even hit his helmet.

But none of the arrows could damage the steel.

That wasn’t all.

Swoosh!

Cozy Rock drew his sword from his waist.

And he swung it down without hesitation at a prepared obsidian sword.

The result was obvious.

The obsidian sword couldn’t withstand even a single blow. It broke into two pieces so easily.

“Hmm…”

The Warrior of Wood looked at the man’s facial expression and realized that his demonstration worked.

“What do you think of our empire’s weapons?”

“…They are amazing.”

The man admitted it without hesitation.

That their weapons were incomparable to theirs.

And he also realized why he was so confident.

“If you join hands with our empire, your warriors will also get better weapons.”

“What do you mean?”

“Our empire plans to provide weapons to our allied tribes.”

The man’s eyes widened.

They would provide such powerful weapons!

It sounded too good to be true for a moment.

“Is that true?”

“I haven’t lied once today. As proof, I will give you some of the weapons we brought on that ship today. Of course, if you join us.”

The man swallowed. His heart started beating faster.

“What do you say? Will you join us?”

The Warrior of Wood finished his words.

And he was sure.

The man wouldn’t be able to refuse this offer.

***

In the end, the tribes around the Gulf of Mexico joined hands with the Wakan Tanka Empire one by one.

The iron weapons they provided played a big role in this.

‘Of course, they are just iron weapons like the ones we sell in the Andes region.’

They had no reason or capacity to give steel weapons to their allied tribes.

It was already not enough to arm their imperial warriors with steel they produced.

Kim Ki-woo looked closely at the map of Mesoamerica.

There is a phrase in The Art of War that says ‘know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be in peril’.

If you know your enemy and yourself, you won’t be in danger even if you fight a hundred times. That’s what it meant.

Kim Ki-woo started to investigate every detail of Mesoamerica when he decided that his war preparations were almost done, and he allied with the tribes around the Gulf of Mexico.

This was the result of the map.

The map showed the current situation of various factions in detail.

‘It’s smaller than I thought.’

It was quite different from the Aztec Empire that Kim Ki-woo knew.

But if history had followed its original course, the Aztec Empire would have quickly expanded its territory.

Of course, that wouldn’t happen now that the Wakan Tanka Empire had intervened.

In fact, it hadn’t been long since they had supplied weapons to the allies in the Gulf of Mexico, and the expansion of the Aztecs had slowed down considerably.

On the other hand, there was a faction that did not stop expanding at this moment.

‘The Purepecha Empire…’

Kim Ki-woo didn’t know much about them.

But as he began to investigate Mesoamerica, he was able to confirm their existence.

The Purepecha were located west of the Aztecs.

They were rapidly growing their power based on their strong military force, just like the Aztecs.

Of course, objectively speaking, they were weaker than the Aztecs. But they were not to be ignored.

Therefore, Kim Ki-woo contacted them as well.

He had to go through an agreement because they were located on the Pacific side.

The best scenario would be to attack the Aztecs together with them, but unfortunately that didn’t happen.

‘At least they won’t interfere in this war.’

Instead, he got a promise from them to remain neutral.

The Purepecha Empire and the Aztecs were adjacent to each other.

There was no conflict yet, but the Purepecha were wary of the Aztecs as well.

They also knew about the cruelty and strength of the Aztecs.

Perhaps that’s why they accepted the neutrality proposal fairly willingly.

Of course, even if they joined the war, Kim Ki-woo was confident enough to win. But there was no need to take a harder path than necessary.

‘It seems that the situation I feared won’t happen.’

The only thing Kim Ki-woo was worried about was that the Aztecs would interfere with the landing of the Wakan Tanka warriors.

He had to land troops and supplies smoothly in Mesoamerica.

As long as this process was not hindered, Kim Ki-woo was confident that he could bring down the Aztec Empire.

But this threat was virtually gone.

He had formed an alliance with the tribes living in the Gulf of Mexico.

‘Even if they preemptively attack our allies, they won’t be easily pushed back with the weapons we’re supporting.’

The Aztecs were not fools either. They must have heard about the movement of the Wakan Tanka Empire.

They were trying to weed out as many spies as possible, but they were already acting loudly in Mesoamerica.

How could the Aztecs not know such news?

As a result, signs of war preparation were also detected in the Aztecs.

‘Is it time to start for real?’

There was no need to delay any longer.

Kim Ki-woo made a decision.

To start a war with the Aztecs.

And finally,

Many ships carrying Wakan Tanka warriors poured out into the sea.

< Departure. > The end