Chapter 254 – Path of a King 2
Chapter 254: Path of a King (2)
‘It doesn’t even reach one thousand.’
Mills Voisa, with a pale face, exhaled a long sigh.
They received an unexpected attack at the Sedes Castle and lost thousands of soldiers.
And the retreat of suffering that followed.
In that process, the soldiers who suffered big and small wounds died or fell behind.
In the end, the number of soldiers who survived to the end and were following Mills’s back did not reach one thousand.
A wretched and horrid situation.
But even whilst that, there was a point that was good.
‘There is no pursuit force.’
Mills tightly clenched his teeth.
‘A little more, let’s endure just a little more. If we can just join up with the Byron Kingdom Army……’
The moment his thought reached about that point.
Sswaeeeeck!
A sharp shriek of air struck his ears.
Pbububuck! Pbubuck!
Following that and together with chilling sounds, the commanders and soldiers who followed his sides fell.
“Huhph!”
Mills crouched his body with a greatly shocked expression.
‘Damn it!’
Curses naturally pushed up.
The commanders and soldiers all died with arrows struck on the center of their foreheads.
‘Perfect accuracy.’
It was just a single shot.
A soldier fell per a single arrow shot.
‘A sickening archery skill like this……’
It simply couldn’t be seen as a human’s skill.
“Counter! Counter!”
“Raise the shields!”
“Shoot the arrows!”
The surviving commanders and knights gave out vain orders.
A final struggle.
Pbububuck! Pbubuck! Pbubuck!
Even during that time, the arrows endlessly poured down.
The arrows, as if they had eyes, perfectly pierced the knights and soldiers’ foreheads.
After who knew how long.
“……”
His surrounding became silent.
The sharp shrieks of air were no longer heard.
Similarly, the screams, curses, and the shouts filled with rage also weren’t heard.
“Ah……”
Mills let out a long sigh.
A despondent look was clear on his face.
‘Everyone is dead……’
The one that survived was only himself.
‘Damn! It!’
Mills who was completely crouching his body kicked off the ground and jumped up.
“Who is it! Come out! Come fight me fair and square!”
From rage and shame, he lost his sanity.
At that moment.
Sswaeeeeeck!
Once again a sharp shriek of the air pierced into his ears.
“Hph!”
Mills who had gotten completely frenzied gulped empty air without even having thought of dodging.
Puuck!
The arrow exactly pierced the tip of his helmet.
Clang!
A dull sound echoed as the iron helmet fell to the ground.
Gulp.
Mills dryly swallowed and brushed with his right hand the top of his head.
There was not one injured spot.
It had precisely taken off just the helmet.
It truly was a shocking archery skill.
“Uuuuh.”
In the end, Mills powerlessly fell onto his knees.
It was the moment everything ended.
He stared at the hills with a blank gaze.
Soon, the owners of the ghostly archery skills showed themselves above it.
Hundreds of archers who deeply wore robes over their faces.
They, carrying across their backs arrows far longer than their bodies, casually walked up.
“Who, who are you……? Are you people Roan Lancephil sent?”
Mills asked with a powerless voice.
At that moment, the archer who was farthest up front took off the robe she had deeply worn.
“Ah……”
Mills let out a quiet exclamation.
The archer was a woman he too knew well of.
“Princess Aily……?”
Mills roundly opened his eyes.
‘But she hid her trails after her key action in the Capture of Miller……’
That her had suddenly appeared in the kingdom’s Northeastern Region.
Aily made a faint smile.
“Mills Voisa. I have been waiting.”
It was a gentle and soft voice, but he felt a power that couldn’t be carelessly treated. It wasn’t comparable to Roan’s, but she too naturally exuded the aura of monarch as the queen of the elves.
“Had Roan Lancephil saw this far down, princess?”
Mills shook his head with a resigned look.
He raised his head and looked straight at Aily’s eyes.
“Then the Byron Kingdom Army and the Istel Kingdom Army’s situations too must not be good.”
Aily slightly nodded her head at those words in place of an answer.
“Huu.”
Mills couldn’t hold it in and spat out a long sigh.
He made a bitter smile as if having given up everything.
“Will you cut off my head, princess?”
A crestfallen voice.
Aily still faintly smiled and shook her head.
“No. Your life will be used at a far more important place.”
“By important place……?”
Mills tilted his head with a puzzled look.
Aily, in a very small voice, answered as if to whisper.
“We……”
Her eyes twinkled and shone a light.
“Plan to trade with the Holy Palace.”
*****
“We can see the Miller Castle, sir.”
The coachman shouted in a slightly exhausted voice.
“I hope we aren’t too late.”
The fief lord of the Neike Region located in the Rinse Kingdom’s Midwest, Baron Valent Neike tapped his knee with a restless face.
“We hurried here, so we will be fine.”
Baron Victor Beuriting, who sat on the opposite side, laboriously smiled and collected his breath.
Although his words spoke so, he too overflowed with an anxious look.
“To think Sir Duke Francis Wilson who hid his appearance had the royal family’s crest and the national seal…… it really is a shocking turn of events.”
At Valent’s words, Victor bitterly smiled and nodded his head.
“You said it.”
The inside of their heads were complicated.
The nobles who didn’t answer even at the Grand Commander, Roan Lancephil’s mobilization order and watched the war situation while being holed up in their fiefs bleached pale with shock at the news that the Lancephil Fief Regiment had finally defeated the North Rinse Kingdom and even the Estia Empire.
They hadn’t incautiously added in their strengths because they had thought that even for Roan this time at the least wouldn’t be easy, but instead they had ended up getting pushed out from the central power because of that low and stingy decision.
Because they too had eyes and ears, they knew well that the rumors Roan would climb to the peak of political power as the next king, or as the next queen’s husband was circulating between the kingdom’s citizens.
‘If so, then us who didn’t answer at the mobilization order and didn’t provide support will be pushed out of his eyes.’
‘Even if Count Roan Lancephil does not push us out, those who fought with him seizing greater wealth, honor, and power is something obvious.’
In the end, it was an outcome of getting pushed out to the edges of political power.
‘I was planning to line up at Count Lancephil belatedly at the least, but……’
At that very moment, a news was delivered from the capital, Miller.
A letter sent to the entire kingdom’s nobles.
The sender was none other than Duke Francis Wilson.
[The Rinse Kingdom’s disorder has been settled. Until now, I, Francis Wilson has kept safe the royal family’s crest and the national seal by the order of late his majesty the king Deni Von Rinse. Now I plan to follow the late king’s will and make the suited person continue the crown. I would be thankful if the kingdom’s nobles come to the capital, Miller, and join me on this. This is for the Rinse Kingdom’s prosperity and……]
The letter was long, but its content was simple.
That he would open the Rinse Kingdom Nobles’ Grand Conference.
Valent stared at Victor and formed a hazy smile.
“Then we will be choosing the next king with our hands in this grand conference, right?”
“Right. And that is why we are hurrying there like this.”
Victor readily nodded his head.
The reason the two people hurried to the capital, Miller, the moment they received the letter.
They had to raise to the throne the one most palatable to their tastes at this grand conference.
In that case, they planned to raise the one who could guarantee their current wealth and power, no, the one who could give them even more to the throne.
Probably, the nobles swarming from the entire kingdom were all thinking of the same thought as Valent and Victor.
By the news, they said tens of nobles had already gathered at the capital, Miller.
‘They are all those who didn’t join in Roan Lancephil’s camp and watched the situation.’
In short, they were the ones who did not look after something like the safety of the kingdom and the kingdom’s citizens to protect their wealth and power.
Their thoughts deepened.
‘Let’s avoid just Roan Lancephil.’
The two people looked at each other and nodded their heads.
At that moment.
“We are entering the Miller Castle, sirs.”
The coachman’s voice was heard.
“Oh! Finally……”
“It is the first visit since the war began.”
The two people opened the carriage’s window with slightly elated looks.
To the nobles, the meaning the capital, Miller, held was special.
There also were cases where having a mansion near the palace was one’s goal and purpose in life.
“Hhm.”
“Hm?”
Valent and Victor who spiritedly opened the window soon let out a groan.
Even on the faces where the elated looks were clear, a dark light settled.
Countless residents of the castle were lined up on the street spread outside the carriage.
The problem was that their expressions were heavy and cold like clumps of lead and the lights in their eyes were fierce.
Gulp.
The two people unconsciously gulped dryly.
There was not once when ordinary commoners dared openly showed animosity like this.
At that moment.
“Booooooo.”
Who, nor where it began was unknown, but a small sound of booing flowed out.
“Booooooo.”
“Booooooo.”
The sound of booing spread like wildfire.
“Wha, what?”
“Ha, have these bastards gone mad?”
Valent and Victor creased their faces and glared at the castle’s residents on the street.
But the more they did, the sound of booing turned even fiercer.
“D, damn it.”
Valent spat out a curse and closed the window with a disturbed look.
The knights and few soldiers who followed behind the carriage were also the same in being confused at the booing of the castle’s residents.
Few among the soldiers waved their swords and spears and shouted threats, but the booing had no sign of stopping.
“Damn it. Run faster.”
“Let’s head to the palace.”
In the end, they hurried like being chased and entered into the palace.
“Impudent things. To dare pour jeers upon nobles.”
Valent and Victor, who entered into the palace, moved their steps towards the grand hall where the Noble Grand Conference was held as they burst out in rage.
“It looks like their minds have gone out from the long war.”
Their voices were full of irritation.
“We will have to raise the issue at this conference’s time.”
“Right, right. We have to berate them.”
The two people formed bloody smiles at the thought of punishing the Miller’s residents who poured down jeers.
When they opened the giant grand hall’s doors, the nobles who swarmed from the entire kingdom were seen.
The brilliant grand hall, which had been completely empty during the entire war, finally for once swarmed with people.
Valent intentionally raised his hand and greeted in a loud voice.
“It has been a while everyone. But have you seen the reactions of the castle’s residents on the way he……”
However, the greeting couldn’t quite complete its end.
‘What the? The mood is too heavy.’
Valent realized the mood inside the grand hall was not usual.
For the ones who found a new chance, a breakthrough in front of a dead-end wall called Roan Lancephil, their expressions were far too not good.
Valent and Victor walked up towards the nobles they were familiar with.
“Was there something, sir?”
At the cautiously asking words, Baron Banel Tendler exhaled a short sigh.
“Shouldn’t you know it if you passed through the castle’s inside, sir?”
At those words, Valent creased his brows.
“What do you mean, sir?”
An expression saying he simply didn’t know what he meant.
Banel shook his head as if to show his frustration and answered.
“I mean the faces and mood of the castle’s residents, no, the kingdom’s citizens.”
“Aha! If it is that, I also have something to say.”
Valent added on with an angered expression.
“The lowly things dared to arrogantly jeer towards……”
The moment his words reached around that point.
“Uhuh. Baron Neike. It seems you still haven’t properly grasp the situation, sir.”
“Eh? What do you……”
Valent who had gleefully chattered soon closed his mouth.
Victor too creased his brows and tilted his head.
Banel pointlessly searched once the nearby nobles’ faces and then answered in a small voice.
“The mood of the kingdom’s citizens isn’t usual, sirs. They are sending stinging gazes at the nobles who had pulled back to the sides in this war.”
“Those worthless things dare……”
Victor spat out a curse without even grasping the situation.
Banel creased his brows.
“It’s not a situation we can ignore because they are worthless. Baron Marcus Brown threw fists at the castle’s residents who poured down jeers and had his carriage broken.”
Instantly, Valent and Victor roundly goggled their eyes.
“Eh? What are you……”
“Mere commoners broke a noble’s carriage? And he just stayed still even then?”
Cold air stretched out on their voices and eyes.
Banel nodded his head.
“Of course he can only stay still.”
“What do you mean he can only stay still? Lowly bastards have broken a noble’s carriage, but are you saying we can only let that just be?”
Valent and Victor glared their eyes.
Even killing intents hung on their voices.
Banel exhaled a short sigh.
“Huu. That can’t be helped, sirs. Since the Miller Castle’s residents, no, the kingdom’s citizens have a power stronger than any noble in here.”
Valent and Victor, still hadn’t realized, creased their faces.
“Power?”
“What power do you mean those bastards have, sir?”
Banel, seemingly truly frustrated, clicked his tongue and shook his head.
“To be this tactless…… listen carefully. Behind the kingdom’s citiznes……”
His voice turned slightly more smaller.
“Is Count Roan Lancephil.”
Immediately, Valent and Victor’s eyes widely goggled.
“C, Count Lancephil you say?”
“Why is Count Lancephil……”
The moment his words reached about that point, the grand hall’s doors abruptly opened.
“An urgent message, sir!”
A knight hurriedly entered and shouted at the top of his throat.
The urgent message’s content was simple.
“Count Roan Lancephil has exited out of the Sedes Castle and began to march south!”
Instantly, all nobles inside the grand hall turned their heads towards the knight.
The knight dryly swallowed, then added on in a loud voice.
“The destination is the capital, Miller!”
At that moment, a quiet voice was heard from the innermost of the grand hall.
“Have you observed his flags?”
The nobles’ gazes that poured down onto the knight headed towards the grand hall’s inside.
From the darkness, a middle-aged man appeared.
Valent and Victor made slightly surprised expressions.
‘Duke Francis Wilson!’
‘So he was already inside the grand hall.’
The middle-aged man was Duke Francis Wilson who appeared with the royal family’s crest and the national seal.
The knight deeply lowered his head.
“Yes sir. I have observed the order of Lancephil Fief Regiment’s flags as instructed.”
Francis slowly nodded his head.
“And the observed result is?”
A composed voice.
However, his eyes sharply shook.
The knight collected his breath for a moment and then answered.
“The flag farthest in front was the Count Lancephil House’s flag, the next was the Lancephil Fief Regiment’s flag, the next was Count Roan Lancephil’s flag, and the next was the Amaranth Troop’s flag, sir.”
“Hhm.”
As the report continued, Francis let out a groan.
Few aged nobles and nobles whose heads were rather bright too dropped their heads with mournful expressions.
In contrast, dim-witted nobles including Valent and Victor couldn’t tell what the knight’s report signified.
Francis raised his head and looked up at the grand hall’s ceiling.
“Huu.”
A long sigh flowed out.
“So in the end, he didn’t raise the Rinse Kingdom Flag and the Grand Commander Flag……”
The situation wasn’t good.
However, it was not something he hadn’t foreseen.
Francis once again lowered his head and stared at the numerous nobles.
“Prepare yourselves everyone.”
He, from his inner pocket, took out the royal family’s crest and the national seal.
Gulp.
Every noble dryly gulped.
Francis rapidly turned his body enough for a wind to whoosh.
“I will go see Princess Katy.”
“Ah……”
Numerous nobles let out quiet exclamations.
‘So Sir Duke Wilson eyed Princess Katy as the next king.’
‘Right. Princess Katy who is a Rinse Royalty is far better than Count Lancephil.’
‘Princess Katy is still young and soft. We will be able to raise her to the throne and aid her as we like.’
Base greed and ambitions mixed.
They soon followed Francis’s back with short and quick steps.
‘The only one who can stitch together this crisis is Princess Katy.’
Francis tightly bit his lower lip.
Among those left within the Rinse Royalty, the one who could be called the true bloodline was only Princess Katy Rinse.
‘I cannot leave the Rinse Royal Family to collapse like this.’
Francis floated up his deceased father and the late king’s will.
He had the responsibility to absolutely continue on the Rinse Royal Family’s existence.
‘Count Roan Lancephil. Why have you not chosen Princess Katy instead of Princess Aily?’
When he thought of Roan, a disappointed feeling did emerge.
However, he wasn’t a person of the Rinse Royal Family.
And they couldn’t leave Katy aside and bequeath the throne to Aily just because so either.
‘I simply need to aid Princess Katy well.’
Although still young, she would be able to become a good enough queen since she was kind and talented.
Francis thought as so.
However, he was overlooking the most important problem.
“Princess Katy. I present the royal family’s crest and the national seal to the princess. Please climb to the throne and lead the Rinse Kingdom onto a path of pros……”
The moment grandiose words reached about that point.
“I don’t want it.”
Katy cut off his words in half with a cold face.
“Eh?”
Francis merely blinked his eyes in confusion.
The most important problem he had overlooked.
That in fact was Katy’s desire.
She had absolutely no thought of climbing to the throne.
“I said I don’t plan on climbing onto the throne.”
A firm expression and voice.
Francis sincerely and greatly flustered from his heart.
“P, princess. Now isn’t the time to be so unreasonably obstina……”
The moment his words reached about that point, Katy once again cut off his words in half with a cold expression.
“Sir Duke Wilson. And the many noble sirs and madams who followed behind. Do you not hear that sound?”
Her gaze turned towards a window.
Francis and the numerous nobles closed their mouths and leaned their ears, but no sound at all was heard.
“Just what sound……”
“We don’t hear anything, princess.”
At those words, Katy made a bitter smile.
“It’s because you are closing your ears so tight that we became like this.”
She slowly closed her eyes.
“I can clearly hear it. The shouts, desires, longing, and hope of the angered citizens of the kingdom.”
Strength slowly went into her voice.
“It is so loud that my heart is racing.”
Katy once again opened her eyes.
Her gaze swept past Francis and the many nobles.
“P, princess……”
Francis flustered and stuttered his words.
He, who for his entire life had only swore fealty to the Rinse Royal Family, did not wish to accept the current situation.
Katy stared straight at such Francis and formed a bright smile.
“Sir Duke Wilson.”
Francis couldn’t answer.
In the first place, Katy too did not want an answer. She, with a very relieved and refreshed expression, added on.
“The Rinse Kingdom is over.”
<Path of a King (2)> End.
Translator: CSV
Proofreader: Deathwing