Chapter 65: Princess

“Your Majesty, I need to be frank with you” Luen Donner spoke with a displeased expression on his face, as he held no respect towards Seth the First: “The Interkam Kingdom has reached its most critical moment”

“Once Ingmarlo falls, the Interkam Kingdom will also cease to exist. This is something that you cannot accept, nor can the Church of Divine Grace” Luen spoke without being reserved: “And the only solution now is to pool together all of our power to protect Ingmarlo”

“Right now, the only one who could achieve such a thing is Nala” Luen continued: “Her Dragon’s blood has already awakened, together with the prophecy, she holds an unrivalled advantage for gathering support in Interkam”

“As long as she comes forward, she would obtain the support of those aristocrats who have lost their territories, the Church of Divine Grace will also provide her our full support. Furthermore, the Donner family will also convince the remaining noblemen to provide aid with their private armies”

“Then by what name will she come forward with?” Seth the First understood it well, within the Interkam Kingdom, people had already spread and hailed the existence of a ‘Saintress of Salvation’, when things had gotten bad to this degree, the prophecy of the ‘Saintress of Salvation’ became nothing but believable.

“The Princess” Luen Donner replied.

“Then so be it” Seth the First didn’t try to negotiate anything for himself and made the verdict.

The reason why Seth didn’t negotiate the position of ‘Princess’ was because he already had no other chips to bet, while the Church of Divine Grace wasn’t the same. Although the Church of Divine Grace’s influence in Interkam was the largest, they had never stopped spreading their faith to the surrounding smaller countries.

For that reason, while the Church of Divine Grace would be greatly hurt from having their roots destroyed with Interkam, they would not fall to ruin completely like Interkam.

Seth the First had no other choice. Interkam had only managed to hold out for so long due to the Church’s constant aid, so he truly had no other choice but to accept and announce Nala as the ‘Princess’. With this legitimate identity, if Nala could truly turn the war situation around, then as the one in control of the military, she would then be able to force Seth to abdicate his throne and claim it for herself. Naturally, as the party that contributed the most to this, the Church of Divine Grace would also benefit the most.

Of course, the prerequisite to all of this would be that she actually managed to turn the war situation around and repelled the Royas Kingdom’s invasion, otherwise all these future planning will be meaningless. Furthermore, even if Nala could truly push Royas back, it wasn’t as if Seth had no way to turn everything around.

…

To announce Nala’s legitimacy, Seth hosted a grand banquet in his palace. He had a graceful and confident smile as if the King whose country was about to fall wasn’t him, the noblemen also greeted him amiably, as if the ones who refused to provide the men and funds to support the war efforts weren’t them.

If possible, Seth the First really wanted to kill every single one of these aristocrats, but he couldn’t do such a thing. Because if he really did, even without the threat of Royas, Interkam would fall to ruin, and it would fall even quicker.

Aristocrats were an indispensable part of a country, but they were also the cancer. The problem of aristocrats was one that plagued every kingdom without exception.

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The reason why the Royas Kingdom was so powerful was because Eldridge had conquered over half of the noblemen in his country. The authority and benefits of those noblemen had been reduced to its limit, so much that Royas had no choice but to declare war. Because if they didn’t, a civil war over benefits would break out instead.

In a certain sense, Eldridge had also gone down a wrong path. With his talents and abilities, he united the entire country and raised the collective aristocrats of Royas into a starving wolf, if their conquest of Interkam had been hindered in any way, this wolf would have turned its fang on him instead.

Fortunately, Interkam couldn’t even mount a reasonable resistance and had already allowed Royas to take over half of their territory, otherwise Eldridge would have also suffered heavy losses.

In truth, if not for Negary choosing to trust Granny Sea’le’s prophecy and helping Interkam by delaying some of Royas’ hidden forces in their country, Interkam’s fall would have been a lot more swift.

“Gentlemen, ladies, I have invited everyone here today to celebrate the return of the Tagula family” with a smile on his face, Seth the First gestured to Isabella among the crowd with a glass of red wine and continued: “The internal turmoil a number of years ago had caused Duchess Isabella to leave our nation, now that there are so few members of the royal family left, her return is truly something to celebrate”

What? Who else but Seth the First had caused the turmoil back then? The scarcity of remaining royal family members is a result of nothing but his fear of others threatening his throne. Moreover, what’s wrong with there being few royal family members left, Interkam itself is about to fall.

Of course, none of the aristocrats here openly declared such things, because that would be ripping off the thin veil of dignity. Aristocrats had rules for their aristocratic games, and breaking those rules meant that you want out from this particular ‘game’. Not only did leaving the ‘game’ at this point have no benefits, but it would also mean that you wouldn’t be able to take advantage of the power of the rules anymore, resulting in your untimely death the following day.

The numerous nobles nodded to greet Isabella, to which she responded with the proper noble etiquette. She appeared a little nervous as she had been living as a peasant woman for over 10 years. In the 7 years after her return to Interkam, this was the first time she had to participate in such an aristocratic banquet.

“The return of the Tagula family into the royal family records is gratifying. Furthermore, since Nala Tagula has awakened the royal Dragon’s bloodline, according to the heritage of the royal family, she is now Princess Nala Tagula” Seth smiled: “I will send Nala in my place to lead my army to the frontline of Colomier and fight for the Interkam Kingdom!”

Seth raised his glass of red wine and was about to point towards Nala when he saw Nala wearing a black dress, standing in front of the buffet table and quickly devouring dish after dish as if she held some sort of irreconcilable vendetta against food.

When she heard her name, while her fork was still stabbed into a large slab of meat, she slightly turned her head towards Seth who was standing in the center of the crowd. In that instant, Seth was a bit doubtful whether or not placing his hope onto this little girl was a good idea.

When she saw her mother’s tired expression, Nala quickly devoured the slab of meat with her knife and fork, then placed them down in the most graceful aristocratic etiquette she could muster.

“The awakening of the Dragon’s bloodline would certainly increase one’s appetite. Was the Founder of our Interkam Kingdom, George the First not also known for his gluttonous appetite?” Seth kept up his smile and glossed over Nala’s discourteous behavior.

Regardless, this banquet had done its job. Nala who had awakened the Dragon’s bloodline was confirmed to be the prophesized ‘Saintress of Salvation’ and ‘Dragon’s daughter’. Under the influence of the Church, the various forces within Interkam were pooled together and reorganized under the army in her name.

Having donned a male standard armor, Nala rode a tall white horse with a knight’s helmet, the helmet’s visor concealed her immature features while the flag of Interkam fluttered at her back, leading her army to reinforce the frontline of Colomier.

During their march, some people would occasionally choose to join this army, quite a few among them were aristocrats whose territories were taken over, but there were also a few young men who had their own personal ideals.

Such as Baron Rhys Laval.