13 (43)

“We have arrived.”

Time seemed to crawl sluggishly, then flowed like an arrow. Louis did not even know how he had come all the way here. It felt as though he had arrived after opening his eyes. Rough shouts spread here and there. The army halted. Receiving straight salutes, Louis drove his horse forward.

Each and every soldier said nothing, but they were sending absolute reverence. Louis drove his horse forward, meeting and passing each of their clear eyes one by one. The muscular warhorse that had originally had a good build had died during the war, so the horse Louis was riding now was small and docile compared to it.

Even so, perhaps because it felt some sort of excitement, the horse snorted and blew out a breath. A cool wind blew. The grass growing on the vast field around Lebledna bent its waist for a moment, as if greeting Louis. It was afternoon. As Louis drove his horse, he looked at the field and suddenly recalled his childhood.

As he grew up, he had given up many things, and a certain dream he had thought he would never reach was now being drawn concretely before his eyes. It felt as if he could grasp it if he walked only a few more steps. A scene so vivid it was hard to call it a dream continued slowly. Without even a moment to grow bored, Louis crossed through the soldiers lined up and looked at the castle walls spread out before him.

The castle walls, engraved with wrinkles as if boasting a long history, seemed alive. A hill stretched long and huge upward, growing thickly, and above it sat a gigantic castle, as if pressing down on the world. Comparing its size, it was certainly the largest structure in the Duchy of Eron, and this castle, said to have been aided by dwarves in ancient times, was an incomparably excessive building compared to the current prestige of the Duchy of Eron.

That will soon become his. Louis moved his gaze along its elegant lines. Behind it lay the coast, and that line connected to the Rhine River. It was not visible from here, but at the dock, a statue of Raifeunik, a former king of the Duchy of Eron, rose in the middle of the sea, and because of the abundant fish, food supplies were always smooth, so the people in the capital had at least a temporary measure.

The sunlight shone down well, and the weather was good. There were two soldiers on top of the wall, but seeing how their eyes were tightly shut, they already had no will to fight. Well, there was no soldier capable of withstanding the thousands of troops deployed on the field. If they insisted on resisting, there would be citizen militia, but through the spies and rangers he had sent ahead, Louis already knew that the rotten country and starving citizens were already on his side.

Citizens were simple. They thought the one who would feed them until their bellies were full was the better king. Soon, the castle gate began to rise cautiously. It was effectively surrender. One of the two soldiers on top of the castle waved a white flag here and there. Louis murmured, “So it begins,” and drove his horse forward. As Louis’s horse began to move lightly, all of Louis’s armed warriors began to follow behind him.

And behind them, the cavalry……. And behind them, the infantry……. Heads like a stream of water continued, tailing one another. With the huge castle gate opened brightly before his eyes, Louis was the first to pass through it. And what unfolded before him was an endless procession of citizens.

Indeed, when he blinked once and lifted his eyelids, people wearing sagging tunics made of linen cloth filled the way far beyond the central square and all the way to the entrance of the hill. Their appearances were hollow, perhaps because they were dirty and starving, and most of their tunics were a mess, but when they saw Louis, their faces brightened.

The murmuring deepened. There were no particularly vast cheers, nor were there criticisms. Louis entered inward while feeling those gazes of awe. Before long, he arrived at the castle. The gate was open, and the nobles were lowering their heads. Every one of them must have had heavy necks, yet today, not even a single gaze tried to meet Louis’s.

They were trembling, seized by fear, and afraid of Louis. Regarding corruption, Louis’s actions had been consistent. Louis wanted to whisper in their ears that when he gave them time, they would be better off fleeing. A new country did not need such creaking.

Even if he fully utilized points, if nobles filled their private greed midway, no matter how many unique buildings and social policies there were, all sorts of effects could decrease, or in the worst case, be reversed. The inside was spacious. There were female attendants wearing luxurious clothes, and the few guards who were present had placed their weapons on the floor.

The only ones entering this place with swords were Louis and the armed warriors and soldiers who had to assist Louis. As he went a little farther in, he also saw noblewomen wearing dresses. They were wearing dresses with puffed sleeves. Their shawls, and even the ribbons half-tying their long hair, were so decorated and neat that not a single part was disheveled.

Every one of them was beautiful, or otherwise gave off an antique atmosphere. Unless they were nobles of a considerable rank, they would not even be able to lower their heads before Louis, and that was the reason all of them were prominent nobles. At that moment, several suspicious sounds were heard from ahead, and he felt the atmosphere harden.

A middle-aged man with no hair at the front looked at Louis, politely bent at the waist, and said, “The king is dead.” Louis looked at him without answering. It was not as though he had anything particular to say to the king. The man carefully moved his body to the side and made way for Louis.

Louis walked again through the wide-open door. A red carpet stretched endlessly, and at its end stood a huge throne. The king was sitting there, lowering his head as if asleep. There was not a trace of blood in his complexion, and Louis knew he had already been dead for quite some time.

Perhaps he had died the moment Louis entered Lebledna’s castle gate. Louis swept his gaze to the right and left. The inside was full of high nobles. Just as when he had entered this place, everyone had lowered their heads, and no one dared open their mouth recklessly.

Everyone appeared to be sweating coldly and tightly closing their eyes, as if afraid to even see Louis’s shadow. The only one raising his head in this place was Louis. Even the armed warriors who had followed behind him had already knelt on one knee near the entrance and lined up. Louis walked lightly forward.

The old man’s eyes were staring into empty air, and they had already hardened. “It is the fate of an age.” Louis murmured so, slowly closed his eyes, and looked at the crown on his head. The crown was modest rather than splendid, much like the ancient Duchy of Eron. However, as expected of something touched by dwarven hands, its crest had become an advanced engraving difficult for humans to dare create.

Even the meaning of this complex language had now been forgotten, but it was a crown that would make one let out a brief exclamation just by looking at it. After finishing his inspection, Louis raised his hand and lifted the crown. The crown was as light as the dead Orpendius.

When he put it on his head and turned around, the people cried softly, “Your Majesty.” Because everyone said it at once, it was low, but it filled this place enough to make it feel narrow, and it was repeated five times.

Louis’s information window kept ringing as if groaning. The ducal territory that had served as the capital engraved in the information window changed into a special city, and the capital mark changed to Lebledna. Even the areas that had not been revealed were now brightly lit as Louis’s territory. There was no darkness, no red warning mark, no mark of any kind.

The one sitting on the throne was now Louis. Louis cremated the king and was proceeding with matters one by one. The first thing he had to do was deal with the humans before his eyes. The one kneeling was Vesk of House Redpeu, who until recently had possessed power greater than the king.

He was a fat, hulking man, but that did not mean he had trained even a little mana. He simply had an ordinary body. He was trembling so pitifully that Louis almost felt sorry for him. The one kneeling on the left was James of House Phillipeu.

He too was a man who had possessed tremendous authority, and unlike Vesk, he was a great noble with a solid body and a fair amount of mana. Both of them were clearly etched in Louis’s memory. Among the nobles of the Duchy of Eron, there was no one who could not know these two names.