Chapter 90: The Difference Between Enemy Ships, Rewards, and Loot (1)

The Difference Between Enemy Ships, Rewards, and Loot (1)

The raging screams and ranting babbling broke off like a wave hitting a rock.

The nobles’ mouths moved like the puckered mouths of stranded fish, their eyeballs rolling back and forth between the king me in those white-bleached faces of theirs.

The king stared at me with widened eyes. His face was filled with anger – as if he would jump up and shout, yet he buried himself ever deeper into his throne. He looked like he was trying to hide in plain sight on a throne that didn’t even fit his arse.

I walked toward the dais, taking in the king’s tacky appearance.

Knights dressed in golden armor put their hands on their hilts and surrounded the king. They had cooler heads than those who had been swept away by tension and concern. The King of the Orcs, the Greenskin King, who had once made all the north tremble as he led his tens of thousands of orcs, had now become naught but a spectacle.

I picked up the Warlord’s head, straightening my waist as I stared at the dais.

Another king sat upon it, just as I held the head of a king in my hands.

I held that head out to King Lionel, and he rebuked me.

“How on this accursed earth can you show off that hideous thing with pride!?”

His eyes swam in anger, and without fail, hatred and contempt soon followed.

I hadn’t understood those feelings before – I hadn’t known what the original owner of this body had done.

Now I knew what I had carried on my back, unknowingly carrying such sin and karma.

Nonetheless, I could not sympathize with the king’s feelings. His was the karma of an unscrupulous monarch – one who had raised his sword but who had been unable to lead like a proper man.

Lionel Leonberger was an incompetent king who had a pair of eyes but could not see into shadowy corners.

Such karma, and the actions of the past, do not fall squarely on the shoulders of a child who had been thirteen at the time.

However, the king still behaved as if the failure of the great vision, and the increasingly miserable reality of the kingdom, had all been caused by a young boy.

The king had decided that he was not responsible for anything, and he didn’t correct anything.

He just resented reality and turned from it.

Lionel Leonberger did not even know that resentment and hatred had stained his soul.

He just hated his little son.

It all became so funny to me, all of a sudden – The karma of the son who had broken three-hundred-and-twenty-three knights and turned the centennial vision into nothing.

The karma of the father who sat and watched as the shield which had protected the kingdom for centuries was broken.

Whether on this side or that side – both Adrian and Lionel were covered in filth.

But the father did not even think of meeting his son’s gaze. In my eyes, his stained soul was so clearly visible. I looked at the king quietly.

I had the power of [Judgment], so his true essence was bared to my sight. His soul was naked, and his true shabby face revealed.

He was not weak, but he was not strong enough to withstand external pressure.

He was not stupid, but his mind was not agile enough to go ahead and get the job done.

He was not incompetent, yet not competent enough to take on the greater challenges.

Those eyes of his weren’t dark either, yet they were not bright enough to see the world outside of the palace.

His soul was a vessel that would have made him enough of a king if these times were peaceful times.

Yet, the vessel was severely lacking and could not overcome times of chaos.

Perhaps through his entire life, lacking the requisite traits, he had worn royal vestments that had never truly fit, and he had struggled to bear the weight of a crown upon his head.

He must have failed time and time again and became frustrated upon each failed attempt.

The negligent and uncertain manner in which he had dealt with the orcish war must surely be one of the failures that so heavily weighed on his heart.

“I fought for three months, waiting for reinforcements that never came.”

But it wasn’t just me who had been harmed by his blunders.

“Two corps, four thousand soldiers, that’s all that you sent. They weren’t enough. I lost my uncle, I lost countless numbers of comrades who I had laughed and joked with just the day before. There were more than ten orc corps, and soldiers had to stab each monster ten times with spears before they died. All the while, several southern legions and several knightly orders waited but for the king’s command to draw their swords and join their northern brothers. Such great castles and courageous knights, with hundreds of years of proud history, and they were never sent north!”

Even then, the king dared to make excuses.

“The Winter Castle, which had lasted for centuries, fell, and all those brave knights lost their lives.”

“In the end, you won! You came to my city, calling yourselves a victorious army, so you won!”

“A victory with such a great wound suffered is barely a victory.”

I refused to hear any more excuses.

“But I have sworn to never again bleed so much just to eek out such a victory.”

The king had thought about the meaning of my words, then rose from his throne and pointed at me.

“Go! I don’t dare spit it out from my open mouth! Do you know the meaning of what you have just said?”

I watched the clown king, and I regarded him coldly.

“It means that I will never fight alone again.”

“What!?”

I gave a glance at the stern-faced king and then turned to address the hall.

“All of the noble families in this kingdom had received a request for aid from Winter Castle!”

The nobles had been watching my quarrel with the king with some excitement, but they now bowed their heads in anger at my sudden outcry.

“Who of you have responded to our pleas? None!”

None of them had, and I didn’t hear a single one of them dare reply.

“What in all hell did you do while we fought and died!?”

Excuses in suppressed voices came from every quarter.

The distance was too far for a march, or they had no one to lead their troops; one said that he was sick at the time, another that he had never received a messenger.

“I won’t stand here, listening to your useless excuses!” I declared to all of them.

“If you don’t help now, then the north will not fight for you in the future.”

“Yeah!? So let’s hear it, and you say you’re not arrogant? If the north doesn’t fight, will you just open your gates and let the monsters pass?” came the cry from behind my back.

“Is there any reason for us not to do so?” I asked the king as I turned my head.

“Who are you turning your back toward, boy?”

I turned to face him.

“What then!?” he continued to shout. “Who the hell has given you such powers, to do what are you intending?”

“I am talking about the man who is qualified to act as he deems fit,” I said as I faced the king. “I am talking about the head of the Balahard family, the commander of the Third Legion, and the shield who guards the north.”

“What?”

“Do you understand that I believe Count Vincent Balahard to have qualified to act under his own autonomous power?”

“What are you saying, who gives you the right to-“

“If I have been entrusted with the loyalty and all the lands of the seventeen families north of the Rhinethes, am I not entitled to say such things?”

The king’s eyes stretched open even more as he noticed the approaching northern lords.

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“I state before God that I have transferred all rights of Count Bert of the Shurtol family to First Prince Adrian Leonberger.”

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“God, I, Guinness of the Ghurn family, transfer all my rights to the first prince.”

“Before God, I state that I, Anders Astein, give to Prince Adrian…”

One by one by the northern lords knelt before me and professed their allegiance.

“What!? What!?”

The king could only shout the same words over and over again, with a face that seemed to show the emptiness of his soul.

“Do you still believe me to be unqualified?”

There came no answer, for the king had fallen before the violence of the situation, and even if he intended to counter me, he could not do so. It was pathetic.

Once more, I shouted at the nobles as I turned my back on the king.

“All I ask is that we fight together! Is that so difficult!?”

They hurriedly cast their eyes down, not one of them answering me.

“I tell you all now: This is your last chance!”

They acted as if they had heard nothing, and I looked at noblemen whose tongues had turned to smoke.

“You will send one of your immediate family members to Winter Castle. I don’t care whether it is the eldest son, the second, or the youngest.”

“Why must we-” one of them dared to ask before I cut him off.

“They will become officers in the Third Legion, and will serve in the north for a time.”

“No way in hell!”

“I cannot accept that!”

Seeing that their children were so valuable to them made them at least look better than the king, even if they were equally incompetent.

As I looked at them, I heard someone cough from behind.

“Huhgm.”

It was the Marquis of Montpellier.

“It is impossible for me, as a foreign ambassador, to interfere in any way with the kingdom’s internal affairs.”

His sudden statement brought great confusion to the nobles.

“From my personal point of view, as a friend to the kingdom, I believe it will be an invaluable experience for each noble family, for are our children not the same people who will lead our nations? The defense of the north can always be stronger, so I do not understand why you view this so negatively.”

At least no one hurriedly spoke or cried out, yet they still struggled to understand Montpellier’s words.

“As an aside, His Highness’s concern exists because of the brutal nature of the war in the north, and he only wishes to prevent future bloodshed. I myself, as a friend of the kingdom, have been greatly reprimanded due to my failings of properly examining the difficulties of you, my friends. Be assured that if the same peril is faced in the future, that I, your friend Montpellier, will be in trouble if I fail to aid you.”

Even though I had not ordered him to, the Marquis of Montpellier had sold out his empire before a crowd of nobles. The effect that his words had was so good that it had begun to make me feel bad. The nobles, who had been rebelling as if they were about to enter open revolt, became gormless, dumb, and placid as they took notice.

As I watched their faces, my insides churned.

It still seemed as if they put far more stock on the words of foreign ambassadors than on the words of their own prince.

I stored that fact in my mind once more and noted those who most ardently worshiped the empire.

“As far as I know, the north is a poor place, not rich at all. So, here is my suggestion: What if we fund a portion of their armaments, and in so doing, share their burdens in a more intelligent manner?” an unknown nobleman asked Montpellier.

Many of the other nobles readily agreed and made fun of the northern economy.

“Now, I don’t know why you ask this of me, I am just a foreign ambassador.”

Montpellier glanced at me as he responded in such a fashion.

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“Your Highness, there is a person who has uttered an opinion, and I offer his request to you.”

The nobles’ faces became instantly pale as they noticed the ambassador’s blatant disregard of their plight.

Looking at their pale faces and their hazed eyes, I laughed and laughed.

My laughter completely enchanted them, and it had not even come into their minds to ask the king’s opinion.

Time passed, and not one of them had dared to so much as open their mouths.

The nobles were not looking good at all, for they now faced the prospect of sending their precious sons north, and the king seemed confused because he could not understand my behavior.

Perhaps he thought that I wished to serve my self-interest by manipulating everyone in the hall.

He most certainly wondered how an idiot who had sold out the secret knights could now dare to act in such a manner.

But I was no fool, and what I was hoping for wasn’t a mere reward from the king.

I looked at the nobles, and they knew that they would now have to give me a member of their families or the property they had so pampered themselves with. If they gave up their children, I would accept them as hostages and teach them to support the north. If they gave money, I would make them pay at least the worth of their son’s life in wealth.

Of course, I didn’t suppose that they would so easily bend to my demands.

They pretended to submit due to an imperial ambassador’s prestigious statements, but their faces would turn as soon as they reached the safety of their castle walls. Instead of sending their precious children, they would find a way to cheat me from having their sons, or the bastards would say that I pulled an unreasonable trick on them, and so they would refuse to pay.

That way, the north would gain nothing.

I had to force them to open the veins that they truly cared for, and at that moment, I possessed the bait that would make them offer up their most golden child.

I glanced at Montpellier, and he spoke.

“The fact that I have not properly examined and countered this recent war means that I have not been faithful to my duty as the plenipotentiary imperial ambassador and as the unparalleled friend of the kingdom. Therefore, we of the empire are fully aware of our failed responsibility after this last war, and so we want to prevent such a tragedy from occurring again in the future.”

The king gave Montpellier a bloody look with a face that showed he already had a headache trying to figure out what kind of trick the ambassador was trying to pull.

But today, Montpellier did not exist as the ambassador of the empire, so everything he was saying would benefit the kingdom.

“By the authority as the plenipotentiary ambassador granted to me by His Majesty the Emperor of Burgundy, I will open the kingdom’s tower which had been sealed under the treaty, up to a limited level!”

The king had been looking at Montpellier with a tired face but jumped from his seat as he heard those words.

“All, say it all again!” Lionel Leonberger demanded.

“We will release the seals on the kingdom’s tower up to the third floor, and we shall temporarily lift the ban on the training of wizards and the usage of combat magic, as had been set out in the treaty.”

“Tell me again!” came the king’s cry.

“Congratulations! The Leonberg Kingdom can now train wizards up to the third circle.”

The king was trembling with excitement, but I knew that he had become prematurely thrilled.

“This is an official matter personally approved by His Majesty the Emperor, and His Majesty, after taking into consideration the great torments suffered by the northern part of the kingdom, has allowed the construction of a new tower.”

The king looked as if he was ready to pass out after hearing such good news.

Only

It had pleasantly surprised him that the tower’s seal had been lifted, but he could scarcely believe that the emperor had approved a new tower!

“Further, the location of the new Spire is limited to the lands north of the Rhinethes River, and full authority over the construction and management of the tower rests with His Highness, Prince Adrian Leonberger.”

The king stretched his eyes and looked at me.

No, not only he, but all the gathered nobles were staring at me.

It seemed that the opening of the tower and my imperial puppet had been better bait than I had reckoned.

If you were to see people with dog-like faces, you only have to dangle a fleshy bone before them.

And soon, everyone gathered there began drooling like the dogs they were.

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