Chapter 174: 173

Chapter 173

Filling the Wineglass with Blood (5)

The Marquis of Bielefeld opened his mouth and started to stutter.

“Lo… Long…” his voice trembled, unable to bear the passion, “Long live the kingdom!” he then shouted as tears flowed from his wrinkled eyes.

“Long live Leonberg!” Count Kirgayen cried out in passion, following the marquis.

“Long live the Leonberger royal family!”

“Long live his Majesty the King!”

The nobles shouted one after the other, their voices filling the hall.

The king struggled to calm his wildly jumping heart as he sheathed his sword. Then, he raised his hand and stopped the cheering of the nobles.

“Marquis Bielefeld, step forward.”

Upon hearing the king’s words, the old man knelt beneath the dais.

“I appoint you as Marshal of the Kingdom.”

The old man raised his head and looked at the king, and despite the passion in the monarch’s eyes, his face was still darkly set.

In the past, the empire had divided the armies of Leonberg into sections so that the royal family could not unite them into a single force. This made them impossible to lead effectively, and so the position of marshal became obsolete and was done away with.

And now, nearly a hundred years later, the great army of Leonberg has been reborn.

“Let the marquis reorganize our army, which has been disbanded by the empire. Let the armies of Leonberg, divided into five, unite once more!”

“Your Majesty, I will do my best.”

Bielefeld’s face looked as if he greatly relished the prospect of his new appointment, and the king patted him on the shoulder.

“I believe you will do well.”

The king then almost whispered for Count Kirgayen to step forward.

“I appoint Count Kirgayen as the prime minister of the kingdom.”

The post of prime minister was also a position that has been disbanded by the empire.

That had been the beginning.

The king successively called the nobles to him to take on new positions and new organizations.

All were organizations that had been dismantled or privately taken over by the empire. The nobles praised the king with tears in their eyes and enthusiasm in their hearts.

“The years of sin and indolence shall be no more, but our immediate difficulties are indescribable. However, if you show dedication and passion, you will be able to overcome these challenges.”

“We will give it our hearts!” the nobles knelt with their foreheads touching the floor.

The king looked at those in the royal hall. His gaze settled upon his eldest son, who was standing with his back against the wall of a corner in the hall and looking at the nobles.

The king’s heart was complicated, for it still felt too awkward to speak dearly with his son, and he was too embarrassed to say that he had been an incompetent father. Nevertheless, the emotion that settled in his eyes was very gentle and firm.

“Adrian Leonberger.”

‘Stk,’ the prince stopped leaning his back against the wall.

“Come stand before me.”

At this, the prince slowly walked over and went to stand before the dais, straightening his back. Where everyone had knelt and paid their homage, it was only the prince who stood so proudly before the throne.

The king almost laughed, for even after having been summoned by the monarch, the prince had slowly approached and not even paid the respect due to the monarch. And how rough he looked, with his hair messy and his clothes bloody! If this had been the past, the king would not have liked the prince’s messy appearance and arrogant attitude, and the nobles would’ve shouted at the prince for his disrespect.

But such was not the case now: The king even felt proud of how the prince carried himself. If Prince Adrian had bowed at the waist before an incompetent father, then he would’ve bowed before the emperor as well.

“Tell me,” said the prince, and out of everything he could’ve said, all he did was urge his father to say what he wished to say.

The king gave a cry of joy and started laughing.

They were in a hall with floors still stained red by the blood of traitors, and it was an important moment in which everyone was determined to prepare themselves for the hardships they were to face in the future.

The king could not stop himself from laughing.

“We are truly the same,” said the king.

“You’ve said that before,” came his eldest son’s reply, and the king suddenly recalled a conversation they had a few years back.

“I see that you don’t even greet someone if they are your father. It seems that people who have passed close to the doors of death don’t always change.”

There had been a time when the king had quarreled and shouted with his eldest son, who had barely survived the piercing of a sword into his stomach.

The king still recalled those events in his heart, but as he thought about it now, he realized that he hadn’t needed to speak so harshly with a child who had nearly died.

“First, tell me what you wish to tell me,” the First Prince asked the king, who was about to apologize.

The king smiled and said to his son, “Adrian Leonberger, I name you the Crown Prince.”

The matter had already been decided, but this was the first time that it was revealed in a public setting.

All the nobles’ eyes widened, and all caught their breaths.

“Thank you.”

The prince’s answer was simple, and it might have been profound, yet the nobles wondered whether it was truly inspiring. It rather seemed as if it was a regression to his past behavior, and in some ways, it seemed a bit annoying to the nobles. But it certainly didn’t seem to bother the king, who suspected that his next proclamation might elicit a greater response from the prince.

“To the Crown Prince, I now bestow the title of the Golden Lion.”

The nobles raised their heads.

“If he is a golden lion-“

“The name as you think of it is correct,” the king interrupted Bielefeld.

“Huh,” said the old man, and the other nobles were a bit flustered. Only the prince was in the dark, not knowing what the title of Golden Lion entailed.

Bielefeld stepped up and started explaining its meaning to the prince.

“The titles of Regent and Golden Lion are both unique positions in Leonberg, both done away with by the empire when-“

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“Briefly, please,” said the prince.

“It is a position where, in almost any circumstance, you can make judgments and decisions without the need for royal authorization. You are, so to speak, appointed as his Majesty’s agent vested with absolute power. In fact, your authority and position will be little different from that of the monarch.”

The prince’s eyes stretched wide, and as the old noble looked at him, he spoke on.

“Only five persons have ever been granted the title of Golden Lion in the history of Leonberg, and they had been trusted, even by successive monarchs, who-“

“Hmm, that’s enough. You can stop,” the king said with a cough, cutting short Bielefeld’s explanation.

The king then said, in a rather rushed tone, “As it is the only position which allows one to exercise the same authority as the king, the responsibility is great indeed. Your resilience must be great as well, so do not blame me if you fail.”

The prince gave no answer, for he realized that being the Golden Lion was as good as being Regent, and this was something that made him think.

Of course, the Regent was appointed only in times of emergency, whereas the Golden Lion served in his position while the king still lived. So great was the power and authority granted by the title that the Golden Lion could arbitrarily pronounce death upon high-ranking nobles.

It was like having two kings in a single country, and the title was created in ages past because the successive kings of Leonberg had so many family members.

“Is your Majesty thinking about the royal family?” the Marquis of Bielefeld asked, aware of the history of the title.

The king nodded at once. “There is nothing you cannot do if you need it done,” he then told the prince.

The hall had been filled with words; now, it grew silent once more. It was only now that the nobles knew of the king’s determination, and they realized that the war was not a possibility, but a certainty.

“It will not be easy to reclaim that which we have lost in ages past. You all should immediately, without delay, set about rebuilding the collapsed organizations assigned to you,” the king ordered the nobles and then drove them from his hall.

* * *

“Your face tells me that you have a lot to say,” the king said as he watched the Marquis of Bielefeld, who was the only person who had remained behind.

“It is only that his Highness the Crown Prince, whose nature is to closely scrutinize matters, does not know that your Majesty has omitted many from the list of traitors.”

The king nodded as he heard the marquis speak.

“You are right. I knowingly omitted the names of some of them.”

“Is it then possible for them to absolve their sins?”

“It’s not like that. I know well that they were not only given imperial titles but that their treasonous acts and sins are not so different from the ones committed by those beheaded today.”

“Then, if…”

The king looked at the face of the fearful marquis and said, “My son said that no nobles are needed in this country. He said that it is enough to have those who are willing to sacrifice their lives. I think differently.”

It had been the nobles who had actually ruled Leonberg in the past hundred years since the start of the royal family’s decline. The power of the royal family was not the same as it had been, so if you cut all the corrupted parts from the kingdom at once, it could lead to an unpleasant situation. No matter how strong the northmen and the central army are, it is not possible for them to keep order over the entire kingdom.

“The survivors will be relieved that they survived after they see those who have been beheaded. Right now, they will observe the situation rather than plan a rebellion. Maybe they will consider the fact that they too could have been beheaded, and so start to actively contribute to the goals of the royal family.”

“Theirs is a vulgar nature that will soon be revealed, a foul greed that will harm the kingdom,” Bielefeld gave voice to his fears.

“Do not question my will,” the king said softly, “I’m not trying to embrace them, but I have to keep them alive. The commander of the palace knights sent me a letter. He wrote that the eldest and younger sons sent by the nobles serve at Winter Castle with greater faith than had been expected from them. Their temperaments have been winnowed and reformed in the blizzards of the north, and they are now truly noble. The commander has only praise for them.”

The marquis widened his eyes as he heard this.

“Before we break the roots of the rotting tree, we have to consider the healthy fruit which it has begun to bear. We must hope that the prince treats them well.”

Only then did Bielefeld understand the king’s will, and he nodded. Still, his concern remained.

“But these traitor nobles are the ones who will do great harm to the kingdom in the future.”

“There is nothing to worry about. Their deaths have only been delayed for a very short time.”

The king’s eyes brightened.

“They will die, and externally, it will seem as if they die as loyalists and not traitors.”

As Bielefeld looked at the old, burden-filled eyes of the king, he asked, “I am but a foolish old man, so it is hard for me to even guess your Majesty’s plans.”

“As soon as we have arranged things here on the rear, those nobles will be heading to the border. They will be with me.”

The king did not say whether he would force them to fight and die upon the field of battle, whether he himself would face the turmoil of battle or whether he was planning something else.

“All I hope is that Leonberg will be liberated, at least in the time of the next generation.”

The king then said that he did not know whether he would live to see that day, and his face became sunken as he said this.

“Your Majesty’s name will echo across the world as the harbinger of the era of light.”

The king did not respond to such words of praise.

He just sat on the throne and prayed that a time of freedom would soon dawn.

* * *

One hundred stakes were raised on the capital’s plaza, and a head was placed upon each one of these poles. They were the heads of those nobles beheaded in the palace.

The citizens of the capital were terrified by this sudden political upheaval. Palace knights were dispatched to tell the citizens not to be afraid as they listed the crimes committed by those who have been beheaded.

“Have you ever seen a more embarrassing sight!”

Those citizens who learned that all were traitors who had been given imperial titles became enraged and spat on the ground.

“Ugh!”

The citizens then noticed the nearby palace knights and became afraid because nobles were still nobles, and they did not know how the knights would react. However, the palace knights did not begrudge the citizens for their behavior; all they did was nail a parchment to each pole and went on their way.

“Beasts lower than the lowest of humans!”

“These fat bastards got hungry, so they crawled to the empire!”

The courageous citizens spat on the heads of the traitors and threw mud at them.

As the next day dawned, there came to stand more stakes with more freshly severed heads upon the plaza, for those citizens and merchants who had been affiliated with the traitor nobles had been hunted overnight, and their heads removed. The palace knights sorted the matter out, punishing the criminals who had intervened with the royal event in the span of a day.

A few days later, a noble who held the post of Minister of Justice appeared before people gathered upon the great plaza and declared the independence of the kingdom, which had become a de facto imperial province.

The northern armies had camped around the capital, but in time, they scattered in all directions. It wasn’t difficult to guess where these soldiers, fully armored and bearing swords and spears, were heading.

Shortly after they left, Leonberger’s declaration of independence spread across the continent.

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