First Knight-Machine War

The **First Knight-Machine War** (第一次騎鋼戦争) was a War Event that took place 6 months (2 months in Earth time) before Infinite Dendrogram Volume 1. It was a war between the Kingdom of Altar and the Dryfe Imperium.

## Background

One cause of the war was the wide scale loss of fertility experienced in the Dryfe Imperium, beginning some years before the start of *Infinite Dendrogram* caused by the failure of the nanomachines the genius inventor Flagman had implanted in the lands of the then Zweier Imperium 2000 years prior.

The loss of fertility progressed until a third of the Imperium's cultivated lands were unable to produce any kind of crops, even potatoes. At first, the Imperium had tried to supplement their food supply with imports from foreign countries, however the commerial city state union of Caldina, one of their biggest exporters set a limit on the amount of food they exported to the Imperium. This sudden shortfall caused a famine in the Imperium, but they survived with imports from the Kingdom. However, soon after the Dryfe's civil war, which ended with "Reinhard C. Dryfe" assuming the role of Imperator, a conference between the two countries ended in failure, with the Kingdom cutting off exports to the Imperium thereafter.

Another reason was the perceived risk of Caldina invading Dryfe. The Imperium believed that Caldina was preparing to invade other countries, due to their restricting of exports, and hoarding of large amounts of goods and Masters, who were attracted to Caldina due to the large variety of goods from all over the continent found in their markets. The higher-ups of the Imperium believed that they would be Caldina's first targets, since they were the first country to have their imports cut.

Taking these two causes into consideration, the Imperium decided the best way to increase their national power to deter an invasion by Caldina and prevent the upcoming wide-scale famine was to annex the Kingdom, thereby taking the Kingdom's food stores for their own and adding the powers of the Kingdom's Masters to their own. The prevalent national opinion of Altar, which had sharply dropped after the failure of the conference and the cessation of imports, as well as Altar's weakened state after the attack of the Tri-Zenith Dragon, Gloria, and their relative closeness to Dryfe contributed to this decision.

## Before The War

Eldor Zeo Altar, the King of Altar declined to pay Masters for fighting in the war due to his own personal beliefs, instead trying to appeal to their sense of nationalism. This perceived cheapness caused many of the Kingdom's Masters to boycott the war as a form of protest. On the other hand, the Imperium offered to pay 5,000 lir for each soldier of the Kingdom killed and 50,000 lir for each Master killed, which also allowed them to hire many country-less Masters as mercenaries. This disparity heightened the morale of the Imperium's Masters and soldiers, while also lowering the morale of the Kingdom's Masters, causing more of them to avoid participation.

Another significant factor was the fact that the three top ranking Masters of the Kingdom, the Big Three, declined to participate for various reasons. Tsukuyo Fuso, the leader of the Kingdom's top ranking clan, the Lunar Society declined to participate personally due to a breakdown in negotiations with the Kingdom, though she allowed members of her clan to participate if they wished. Figaro, the Kingdom's reigning duel champion avoided participating due to his personal pacifism, as well as his inability to fight in groups. Unfortunately, during the newspaper interview in which he gave his statement, his opinion was paraphrased into not participating because of a dislike of "sloppy fights". Shu Starling, the top of the Kingdom's kill rankings was blackmailed into not participating by Sechs Wurfel, though his statement sent into the local news gave his reasoning as "not wanting his face to be seen".

Because the three top rankers avoided participating, morale fell yet again in the Kingdom, with many ranking Masters opting out as well.

## During The War

Gifted Barbaros, the Imperium's field marshal chose to invade the Kingdom via the former Lunnings Duchy, which was totally decimated during the Gloria incident and was thus totally unpopulated due to the ease of movement for the troops, rather than the Quartierlatin County which was adjacent to the Barbaros County, where the Imperium had a military base.

The battle was a total rout for the Kingdom, with the Arch Sage, viewed by many of the Kingdom's tians as a "guardian deity", being summarily killed by Behemoth. The knights, led by Langley Grandria and the Royal Guard were decimated by Logan Goddhart, with the Royal Guard losing 60% of their members, along with Sir Langley himself. The King was killed by Mr. Franklin, the leader of the Imperium's top ranking clan, the Triangle of Wisdom. The invasion continued and would have reached the capital city, if not for Caldina sending an attack against the undefended Imperium, causing the Imperium to call off their attack and return home immediately.

## Aftermath

The war ended with the Imperium managing to obtain a third of the Kingdom's total land area. However, their failure to capture the capital and annex the Kingdom made the war a failure overall for Dryfe. The land they had managed to obtain was not enough to completely solve their food issues, and the incomplete invasion was seen as a chance for Caldina to capitalize on the situations by allying with the Kingdom.

On the Kingdom's side, the loss of many of the Kingdom's key figures, coming soon after the Gloria incident, dealt a critical blow to the country. Many of the Kingdom's Masters and tians, viewing the situation as hopeless began to leave the country, which caused even more damage to the country. Both on Earth and within *Infinite Dendrogram*, the Kingdom began to be viewed as on the road to ruin.

The Kingdom's Big Three, who had previously been lionized within Altar became subject to harsh criticism for their refusal to participate. The Royal Guard were seen as failures for not preventing the King's death and their reputation within the Kingdom fell as well.

Due to the incomplete invasion, the Imperium began debating on fresh methods to continue their plans to annex the Kingdom, with the army advocating a continuation of the war, and the Prime Minister, due to the Imperium's diminished coffers, advocating for small scale operations that would have the same effect. The Imperator decided to go with the Prime Minister's plan, while preparing to continue the invasion. This led to incidents such as the attempted assassination of Liliana Grandria, attempts to subvert the Kingdom's nobility as well as terrorist attacks like Franklin's Game.