In the same world.
There's another set of islands above the Pacific Archipelago.
Unlike the savage and primitive looks of the Islanders, the people living here wear robes and wooden sandals for both men or women.
Men often carry a weapon behind their back or beside their waste with them.
Unlike the western weapon called sword which is a long metal blade with both sides sharp and always exposed, the weapon of the people here were single bladed and always sheathed.
There's no single hint of savageness to their moves. They were as serene as stagnant waters without ripples.
Cherry Blossoms can be seen in every corner of the streets, lots of people were walking casually.
A chinky eyed man with pale skin and slim physique, equipped with a 'Katana' entered a blacksmith's workshop.
An old man holding a hammer and tongs stopped forging a blade when the chinky-eyed man entered.
"Mitsurugi-dono, after forging a thousand blades we've depleted a decade's supply of metals. We can make another 50 blades within a week by using the remaining supply. Can these lowly blacksmith know the reason of sudden bulk purchase of blades?"
"It's a secret information that only to us generals is available". But it won't be long before the Emperor announced it, so I will tell you what happened. We are currently preparing for a large scale war. The ZhongHua Oriental Palace wants our Emperor to surrender, he promised that we'll become a branch and our emperor will become the leader."
"I know that our country's power can't be compared to them, but we're not that easy to bully. I believe our Emperor will not surrender. We Nippons don't need their backing. We have shinobis, samurais, blacksmiths, kyudos, and our soldiers don't lack courage. We'd rather die than to surrender to our enemies." the old man said with conviction.
"Yes, that's why we're preparing for the worst when the emperor's reply reached the ZhongHua's Emperor. The delegates from ZhongHua may take 2 months to travel back. The 2 months might be short, but it's enough for us to prepare. After a week, the Emperor will announce and will force all the women, children and elders to evacuate. All men that is capable to fight will be trained. We will also prepare our defense on the borders to intercept all intruders. Shinobis assigned spies to gather Intel on what's happening outside."
In ZhongHua Oriental Palace, a man wearing dragon robe and a dragon crown sits in a big golden throne. A line of scholars on the left and a line of military officials on the right.
Every person here is a distinguished man, but they will all vow in front of the Emperor.
They were discussing or rather each of them reports to the emperor about the current state or the latest events unfolding. Every detail is important and may affect hundreds or thousands of peoples.
They were currently unifying the whole Oriental Continent because the Emperor is very ambitious as he wants to conquer the whole world to trample and reign over the other emperors, kings and leaders of all places. Like a Dragon among the other Hua zodiac.
Little did he know that there's also another Kingdom that wants to unify the whole world.
But not through Violence but by sharing their belief or faith. They want to lead a crusade to reclaim the promised land. But since they don't know where the promised land lies, they want to conquer the whole world and find the promised land or they can choose the best place and consider it as the promised land instead.
Those who opposed them will be labelled as heretics and will be judged or killed because they firmly believed that they need to do this in order to purge the evilness on their soul.
Those who will join their crusade will be rewarded and trained as defenders or soldiers of their faith, they will also choose stronger soldiers among them and appoint them to a higher rank.
They were converting weak territories, small cities, random village, or any of those who were not backed by the stronger Faction. This helps them to recruit small forces and increase their quantity and they don't bother with the Quality as these small forces can be raised by a notch if they will be trained by the Paladin's Holy Kingdom. Weak soldiers will become cannon fodders and stronger ones will be recruited to become part of their elite forces.
There's an old saying, "The news have wings and the ground have ears."
Wherever and whenever, "The walls have ears!"
Even the tiny palace of the Nippons can spy inside a bigger palace of the ZhongHua.
The Impending chaos spread to all four region.
Unless you're located on a very secluded area or you're secluding yourself from the outside, you'll hear about the prelude to an Intercontinental War.