Let's start over, Your Majesty.

Chapter 8 Why does this history book smell like...
After surviving a life-or-death ordeal, Caesar, still in tears, was carried home by Yumilia.

After being comforted for a while, Caesar actually fell asleep. When he woke up again, it was already dusk outside the window.
He slept in his cradle, with the history book beside him; Yumilia was not by his side.

Caesar sniffled, his eyes glaring defiantly at the ceiling.

How embarrassing! I was chased by a goose.

If word gets out, the emperor's authority will be completely destroyed!

He grumbled inwardly for a moment, then turned his attention to the history book beside him.

Let's get down to business first.

He rolled over and lay face down next to the history book.

I flipped back to the chapter about the Empire.

The first line indicates the years of the empire's reign.

"While I don't expect it to last for thousands of generations, it should at least last for two or three hundred years!"

Caesar closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and then continued watching.

The Holy Eldarria Empire (Year 1 - Year 51 AD)

"51 years."

Caesar did some mental calculations.

He entered the Cocoon of Origin in 18 AD, while the empire only lasted 51 years.
In other words, the country perished 33 years after he left.
Caesar remained silent.

Despite his disappointment, he continued watching.

The following section introduces the rise of the Kingdom of Eldaria, its expeditions, and the various policies implemented after unification.

They all said roughly the same thing, but between the lines they revealed an arrogance of a newcomer. They commented on the various measures of the empire with great expertise, giving the impression that "if I were the emperor at that time, I definitely wouldn't have done this or that, and I would have needed to do that or that."

This greatly displeased Caesar, who was directly involved.

For example, as mentioned above, Rean had a policy regarding the abolition of the slave status of tens of thousands of orcs.

At that time, orcs had low levels of education and their tribes were mostly in an uncivilized state. In addition, due to their racial characteristics, they were all good at working. Therefore, after conquering a tribe, all the orcs would be sold as slaves.

In order to gain the support of the orc tribes, he made a vow that as long as they submitted to the Empire, all orc slaves would be freed wherever the Empire went.

Later, with the addition of the orc tribes, the expeditionary force achieved successive victories and captured the demon capital, Gusledin.

Rean also kept his promise and freed all the orc slaves in Gusledin.

However, the author commented: "At the beginning of the empire, when everything was in ruins and needed to be rebuilt, it was not worthwhile to abandon hundreds of thousands of laborers. These freed orc slaves did not participate in the construction of the empire. Instead, they stole and robbed to survive, which further exacerbated the social chaos."

These remarks completely disregarded the situation at the time!
If tens of thousands of orc slaves were kept, setting aside the moral issues, the expeditionary force had just defeated the demons and was severely weakened. The addition of tens of thousands of orcs would directly lead to an imbalance of racial power within the army, making it too easy for the orcs to take the opportunity to rebel.

After careful consideration, he released all the slaves and increased the war-weariness of the orcs through speeches and lobbying. He also provided travel expenses for those who wanted to go home and kept a close eye on the orc army's movements, eliminating internal dissidents and preventing any thoughts of mass rebellion.

Although it was later proven that these were all unfounded worries—the orc tribes were numerous and diverse, and the orcs had no sense of belonging to those not of their own tribe, making them unlikely to fight for these tribes—Caesar naturally dared not gamble before knowing the outcome. Yet, the author of this book, in evaluating these strategies, exudes an air of superiority as a later strategist who knows everything, which is truly infuriating!
"Rean spent thirty years ending thousands of years of war and establishing the largest kingdom in history. He also created many groundbreaking things that are still relevant today, such as the Eight Military Disciplines, the population registration system, the county system, a brand-new official system, and a talent education program. The country's population also expanded to an unprecedented 600 million within a certain period of time."

"But what will be the price?"

"Heavy taxes and numerous laws did not improve the lives of ordinary people who had escaped the war. Forced deforestation and land reclamation destroyed the ecological environment, forcing countless races to abandon their cultural characteristics and join his so-called unified empire. Hundreds of thousands of laborers were conscripted to build this spectacle. We cannot know how many bones lie buried beneath the foundations of the Wall, or how much flesh and blood are mixed in with the bricks that were laid. In the end, all of this only gave us a spectacle that is merely a tourist attraction."

Caesar was speechless. Forget about the previous part, the Wall was built to defend against the Blood Demons of the north. This race was no different from beasts, and their behavior was no different from that of zombies. They ate humans and would migrate south every year to harm ordinary people and spread plagues. Moreover, they reproduced at an extremely fast rate, and several campaigns had failed to eradicate them.

That's why he conscripted hundreds of thousands of people to build the Great Wall, which stretched for thousands of kilometers, blocking it in the far north.

But now they're saying the Great Wall is only for tourism? Does that mean the Blood Demon Clan has been completely wiped out?
He continued looking down.

"In summary, Rean Tandin was not a capable ruler. The Kingdom of Eldaria was entirely built on his morbid pursuit of war. Through his unbridled wars of aggression and his insane territorial expansion, he inadvertently accomplished the unification of multiple races."

He attempted to build an eternal empire through standardization, centralization, and dehumanization, but fell into the abyss due to his complete disregard for humanity and ethics. His mistakes were not accidental failures in governance, but rather the inevitable madness that followed the unlimited expansion of power.

Although he masked his actions with the rhetoric of acting for something more noble, and indeed achieved what his supporters considered a great historical accomplishment—the so-called first unified regime—it could not atone for the heinous crimes he committed.

After reading it, Caesar could only sigh inwardly.

He wasn't surprised by this assessment; he just felt a little disappointed.

As I said before, he is prepared to accept all evaluations.

Anyway, he's just a historical figure now. He's done his best, and whether he's right or wrong, even if he's not recognized now, he'll naturally receive a fair judgment in the future.

This author is merely stating his own position; why get angry with someone who is over 600 years younger than him?

Thinking of this, he felt a little relieved and continued reading:

"Another reason why those Eldarian worshippers support Rean Tandin is his almost ascetic, romantic love story. They want to use Rean's devotion and lack of indulgence to prove the correctness of his actions and to elevate his personal character, but in my opinion, this is very one-sided."

The public often portrays the greatness of their romantic love by the fact that Greta accompanied Rean as a slave, learned to raise horses for him, risked danger to gather herbs to heal his wounds, warmed his bed on cold winter days, and accompanied him on the battlefield for more than 20 years as an ordinary person, while Rean regarded her as his only wife.

However, please understand that, according to historical records, when they first met, Rean was already twenty-two years old, while Greta was only ten.

Therefore, I really can't help but wonder about the preferences of our great Emperor Rean in certain areas, and his true feelings towards Greta.

Look at him, he is unusually strict with military discipline, yet he allows a frail young girl to exist in this high-pressure military environment and serve him inside and out.

Imagine Rean, covered in blood after a day of killing, returning to the military camp and meeting a beautiful young woman waiting for him. It would be the kind of romantic atmosphere described by those who sing the praises of love, one of mutual respect and courtesy.
I believe I don't need to say more about what will happen.

The fact that Grace became the only queen was merely the final step he took for this morbid love.

In conclusion, the so-called beautiful and romantic love songs set against the backdrop of chaos are merely fabrications by some ignorant fools who lack understanding of human nature, coupled with a bit of self-righteous, idealistic imagination. In my opinion, Rean Tandin's morbid views on love should not be discussed at all.

After reading it, Caesar remained silent for a while, then turned to the title page and saw the author's name.

Wendy Carroll.

He memorized the name.

When he grows up, he'll definitely kill this bastard!
(End of this chapter)