Chapter 204: 203

Chapter 203

The Embers in the Furnace Remain the Same (1)

While Leonberg’s forces were fighting fiercely against the Imperial Army on the border, Maximilian wandered outside the palace day and night, trying to soothe the simmering public sentiment.

He traveled to large and small villages to console the families of soldiers who were on the front lines and did his best to resolve their grievances.

Because the men had left for the border, Maximilian would roll up his sleeves and help, not hesitating to get into the mud and dust.

When he wasn’t working, he was always with the people and listened to their stories. He looked at the circumstances of the poorest of the poor and sometimes blushed as he failed to overcome their passions or troubles. At first, some thought Maximilian was showing off. Some criticized his hypocrisy, asking how the high-ranking royal family could understand the lives of the lowly.

Some radicals even mentioned that war broke out in the kingdom because the royal family cried out for independence.

“What is independence? If it weren’t for the royal family, my son and his father would have been alive!”

As Maximilian heard someone shout at him, a stone flew in.

‘Shh~.’

Carls Ulrich blocked Maximilian’s front.

‘Gwang!’

The stone hit the knight’s iron armor with a gonging sound and rolled to the ground.

The palace knights quickly surrounded the prince while the royal cavalry and soldiers surrounded the people gathered in the lot.

“What kind of person are you?!” Carls Ulrich exclaimed in a low, frosty voice.

There came no answer. The disgraceful person who had committed the atrocity of throwing a stone at the prince had already hidden back into the crowd. Only the innocent were terrified by the sudden situation; they trembled. The palace knights glanced at the people, their gazes sharper than before.

If one of them saw anything suspicious, they would not hesitate to use their swords.

“Get back,” the prince said as he stepped forward.

“Your Highness, please stay where you are. If something unsavory happens, we’ll deal with it,” urged Carls, but Maximilian shook his head.

“Will stones thrown by these helpless people hurt me?”

“It was a small stone before. I don’t know what will come after that.”

“They will not come to talk with me as long as you are here.”

The prince was unperturbed while the knight repeatedly tried to hold him back.

“Get back. I am not here to scare people.”

“Your Highness…”

“Don’t let me say it twice,” Maximilian commanded, and Carls retreated, his face stern.

The soldiers and knight who had encircled the people also withdrew their spears.

‘Chun~’

Maximilian took a step forward, and his deep eyes glanced over the people. They did not dare look him in the eye as they hurriedly fell to the ground.

“I’m sorry,” came Maximilian’s apology as he looked at the state of the people.

“I am so deeply aware that your lives have suffered due to the imperiousness of the royal family. Therefore, as a member of the royal family, I cannot help but convey words of sincerest regret and apology to you.”

“Your Highness!”

Carls was frightened by the prince’s frank words. The royal family’s dignity would inevitably be undermined if the prince apologized instead of letting the person who committed the blasphemy to be sought out and punished.

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‘Shh~’

Maximilian raised his hand, preventing the palace knight from stepping forward, and he said, “We just wanted to make the kingdom a true kingdom. We hoped it would not be taken away, conquered.”

Maximilian told them that the war was to protect Leonberg, which had become increasingly impoverished due to the Empire’s exploitation.

“Therefore, I hope that the royal family and the nobles will live only for Leonberg and Leonberg’s people. I want the resources of the kingdom to be used for the kingdom. Not for the Empire, but for you.”

The prince looked at the people.

“You have lost family. The royal family has also lost a precious person.”

Everyone in Leonberg knew that the queen had fought until the end to protect the citizens of the capital.

“I know how their hearts are.”

Maximilian said he feared that his father and brother, who fought for the kingdom on the frontlines at that very moment, would act as the queen did.

“Nevertheless, the royal family will fight to the end,” the prince stated with an empowered voice.

“We no longer want the kingdom taken from us – taken away and left naked and starving! Because we want the king to live for the kingdom! The nobles to dedicate themselves to it! For the people to live as a kingdom!”

Maximilian’s voice had rung out in the lot; it now lowered.

“You may resent the royal family. I only know one thing: The royal family did not proclaim independence out of self-interest, nor did we move against the Empire for the sake of honor and glory. I hope you know that much,” the prince said to the people.

The people showed no reaction. They just kept kneeling, silent, faces to the ground.

Maximilian sighed.

“It doesn’t seem any work will be done today, so I think I have to go back.”

His face had become exhausted in a short time. Not long after the prince had left, the people who were lying flat on their faces raised their heads gently.

Then, one by one, they started talking.

“Now that I thought about it, the bad apples seem to be those empire guys.”

“That’s right. It’s the Empire who chose to come to our country and make war. They started it. If you consider that, the royal family is also a victim.”

“When I see the Empire’s robbers that come and go from time to time, I get real upset for the lowly blokes like us. So the royal family must feel even worse – the king and other royals.”

“That’s right. Have y’all forgotten how much the bastards working for the Empire squeezed us for their masters? The taxmen sent by the Leonbergers don’t push us like they did, at least.”

The people soon recalled how the royal and imperial nobles had betrayed and used them. And who had killed those nobles?

“The Empire’s guys hung the queen’s body on the wall. So- They are the rotten people in this world, to treat the mother of our country like that!”

The buzzing murmurs soon became anger. They remembered the last stand of the queen who refused to flee, who sacrificed herself for the capital’s citizens.

“Well.”

One woman didn’t speak while the other people swore and cursed the imperials and showed compassion for the Leonbergers’ situation.

She was the wife of a conscripted soldier who had died battling the Imperial Army on the border.

She stood there with a pained face as she listened to the people talking.

An indescribably complex emotion was on her face, and she was still feeling resentment and anger even if she lacked a direction in which to channel it. Her feeling was also of collapse and self-hatred – and deep grief.

“Mom?”

The girl who had been looking at her mother reached out her little hand, pulling her sleeve. The woman who had been standing, blank, snapped awake, and leaned over to pick up her daughter. She then quietly left.

Someone was looking at the woman from a distance: Carls Ulrich and the other palace knights. The knights, by way of their glances, asked Carls Ulrich what they should do.

“There are so many people… I don’t know who threw the stone right now.”

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It was an awkward response, but no one pointed it out.

* * *

Maximilian continued to travel through the kingdom’s great and small settlements to console the war-weary populace. No one any longer accused him of being a hypocrite because his attitude was too consistent. By that time, the resentment toward the royal family, which had existed even after the queen’s death, disappeared almost completely.

This was thanks to several rumors that arose from the war, with the Empire trying and letting happen several unsavory things. Of course, feelings of loss and resentment felt by those who had lost family could not disappear with just a few words. Those words were at least an opportunity for them to realize who their hatred should be directed at, however.

As the public sentiment became heated and united, the second prince was praised all across the kingdom. The people praised his virtues and good works, saying he was a merciful and welcoming man. They also expressed concerns that his health might be weakened by the unreasonable schedule he kept. And in fact, Maximilian was very tired of wandering across the entire kingdom.

His body had become as thin as that of a fasting monk, while his cheeks and eyelids had become as drawn and haggard as those of an ascetic. But in all that time, he had never lost his smile. His eyes remained so gentle and so good.

Even his lean and exhausted face looked reverent and noble. There was even a group of people who referred to him as a saint. Whatever the case, Maximilian didn’t care at all about what people called him.

While he wandered in all directions, he did his best to bolster public sentiment in his wake and improve people’s lives.

He didn’t even release if his body got wet from storms or weakened from his busy schedule.

“Your Highness, let’s stop now and go back to the palace,” Carls eagerly urged him.

Maximilian didn’t listen.

“Numerous soldiers and knights are fighting for Leonberg on the frontlines. My brother and his Majesty are fighting for life and death against the wicked Imperial Army, and their bodies suffer. Compared to that, what I’m doing is nothing.”

Maximilian said that this was the only thing he could do, and Carls Ulrich gave a long, regretful sigh. Carls did not know where the prince’s feelings of guilt originated from.

Was he disillusioned in himself for escaping the capital when the queen remained? Or was it his skepticism about needing to remain behind while his father and brother fought on the front lines?

Carls could understand Maximilian’s feelings fully because he also had to leave the capital without the queen and had to remain in the rear even though others were fighting for their lives.

He, too, was not free from guilt. That was why he so struggled to get the second prince to stand still, but Carls adjusted to the schedule in subtle ways. He reduced the distance traveled all at once and increased the number of breaks taken while traveling. When the prince questioned this, Carls said it was for the sake of the weary soldiers.

Once, the wheel of a supply wagon was deliberately broken to delay the schedule. Nevertheless, the prince’s schedule was still tough. It was no easy task to move through the wilderness in winter, with blizzards raging. If the war hadn’t suddenly ended, Maximilian would have collapsed on his journey.

“It is said that all the imperial forces on the border have withdrawn!”

The second prince had, in fact, almost reached his limit when the news came that the war was at an end.

“They say the Empire signed a humiliating treaty and pledged to pay heftily in compensation for the war! The Empire also transferred dozens of fortresses and strongholds near Leonberg’s border and gave up ownership of that area!” the messenger shouted in an excited voice. “The kingdom has won the war against the empire!”

Maximilian stumbled.

“Your Highness!”

The palace knights rushed in and supported the prince, helping him upright.

“Is his Majesty and my brother safe?” Maximilian asked the messenger.

“Both of them are safe!”

“Ahh.” Only did the second prince sigh in relief.

“His Majesty is now returning with the fleet. His Highness the Crown Prince said that he would return to the palace as soon as the front lines are cleared up and organized!”

As the messenger said this, the second prince took a few breaths and spoke again.

“I commend you for your hard work, you who must have run day and night to bring the news. Good work.”

“I don’t feel the hardness of travel – such is my joy,” the messenger responded with a smile, then said there were many other places he had to deliver the news to.

“The kingdom has won!

“I knew the Crown Prince would do it!”

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Knights and soldiers started cheering then, and everyone had faces brighter than ever before.

Carls Ulrich also smiled as he cheered the kingdom’s victory. But he soon remembered his duties and said to the second prince, “Let’s go back to the royal palace.”

This time, Maximilian did not reject his request.

“When your brother returns, someone will have to greet him.”

It was decided on that spot that all would return to the palace.

“As soon as we return, we can prepare for my brother’s triumphal ceremony,” the second prince said with a bright face.

* * *

The royal palace’s gate had been closed for a while; it was open once more.

The second prince brought all his brothers and sisters who had fled to Balahard back to the capital, and he didn’t forget to prepare the ceremony for the Crown Prince’s upcoming triumph.

The kingdom was set to pay the highest possible honor to Prince Adrian, as befitted the protagonist of the great victory. The capital’s citizens actively cooperated in arranging the event.

They roamed through mountains and fields, gathering petals for the triumph, or they took out their best kegs and willingly dedicated them for upcoming events.

The royal family and the citizens meaningfully prepared the ceremony with one heart. The scale of it was great and grand, its scope unprecedented in Leonberg’s history.

All that remained was for the hero of the war to make his return.

“They say that His Highness the Crown Prince is a day away from the capital!”

And finally, he came back: The great hero and his army who had destroyed countless imperial legions and finally forced the Empire to suffer the humiliation of a one-sided peace treaty.

The Crown Prince, proudly bearing the banner of the crouching lion, stood before the capital’s gates.

“Brother!” the second prince cried out. “I am very glad you came back safe and healthy.”

Maximilian seemed to have forgotten all the words of welcome he had prepared in his heart.

Prince Adrian softly smiled as he looked at his brother, and he spoke.

“…brought someone home.”

His voice was so soft that Maximilian had failed to hear the front words. When he asked his brother what he meant, the Crown Prince, instead of answering, pointed to something behind him.

There was a coffin, embossed all over in golden lions. The citizens and soldiers had been about to cheer the Crown Prince’s return when they shut their mouths at once. This was because they knew all too well who the owner of the coffin covered in royal flags was. There was only one Leonberger who had passed away in the war. It was the queen, she who chose to die for the citizens of the capital. The atmosphere of jubilation, the expectation of the triumph, became unclear. Then the Crown Prince spoke up as he looked at the people lined up along the walls, streets, and plaza.

“A memorial, an expression of condolences, is enough to celebrate this victory.”

It was low-key but loud enough for the capital’s citizens to hear. Silence reigned over the capital for a moment – a silence that was quickly broken.

“For Queen Margarita,” a knight said as he drew his sword and pointed it into the air at an angle.

That was the beginning.

‘Schuuck~’

The knights and soldiers of the capital raised their swords and spears and expressed their respect at once.

“For the brave and compassionate queen.”

The citizens grasped the situation moments later and started crying out.

“For the queen who was wiser and more devoted than anyone else!”

“Glory to Queen Margarita!”

Shouts rang out all along the walls and streets. The Crown Prince looked at the scene and began moving again.

“All glory to you,” a whisper escaped from his lips.

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