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The Prince’s Virtue (6)
Before the knight was done speaking, screams burst out from all directions. Thick, laden screams; clearly non-human. Monstrous heads and limbs scattered into the air as they were severed.
‘Cheol-cheol-cheol-eok!’
The sounds of heavy metal tearing through flesh came from all over.
“Don’t miss a single one!”
“Leave the gnolls’ disposal to the knights. Soldiers, protect the villagers!”
As an eloquent voice mouthed orders, heavily-armored soldiers and knights appeared, cutting through the monsters like straw. And so, the slaughter began, and this time the monsters were on the receiving end. Hansen looked at it with a stupid face.
“Hah, are they really here?” a villager cheered as the soldiers approached. “And it’s not just them, but also knights in iron armor.”
The nobles and knights Hansen knew didn’t care about what went on in such secluded villages.
“When I first encountered a monster, I reeled from its stench, and my body hardened, so much that I wouldn’t have felt it if one of my limbs had been ripped off.”
A clear, polite voice entered Hansen’s empty mind.
“It is a great thing for a man that hasn’t even trained against such monsters to stab a spear into one of them. You can be proud of today’s work.”
Hansen turned his head to find the owner of the voice.
“Ah…”
However, at this point, the speaker had already disappeared. As Hansen looked around, he was filled with excitement as he saw the monsters being cut down by a sword of starlight.
“I know — it’s such an honor!” A man spoke to Hansen while he intently watched the battle. “The knight you’ve just met is a direct knight of his Highness the Crown Prince. And she’s not only a knight but his Highness’s dearest knight and one of the kingdom’s eight champions.”
The man was wearing leather armor, distinguishing him from the other soldiers.
“A champion…” Hansen muttered as he dully glanced at the soldier.
“What is her name?” he suddenly asked with shining eyes.
“She is Sir Arwen of Kirgayen County. Soldiers like us just call her the Knight of Steel.
“Steel Knight…”
Hansen had thought she looked like a knight of steel while watching her battle.
“What can I do to become a soldier?” he asked the man.
“They don’t recruit soldiers individually. But that doesn’t mean there’s no way to get it done.”
“Tell me how. I will do it.”
The soldier gave a cynical laugh as he turned his head. Hansen was unable to see his face.
“Go to Balahard in the north. Apply as a ranger there.”
If Hansen had seen the man’s face, he might have acted differently.
“If I do that, will they accept me?”
“Ah, be sure to say this once you reach the recruitment hall.”
“What?”
“I came to kick Jordan’s ass.”
“Who’s that?” asked Hansen.
“I don’t know. But if you say that, you’ll get the job. After that, it’s up to you.”
Hansen had experienced many strange incidents on that day and was more excited than usual. And so, he made a decision that he would come to regret all his life.
“Thank you,” Hansen said. “I know it’s no big deal, but here’s something for it.”
Hansen gave the soldier a few valuable items from his backpack.
* * *
“Two hundred and thirty-three. We took care of them to a beast.”
Hearing the knight’s report, Arwen Kirgayen urged him in a firm voice to once again make sure that no monster still breathed. The Balahard Rangers were already spread all over the battlefield, sticking their shortswords into the bodies of fallen monsters.
“As soon as our cleanup is over, we will leave,” said Arwen.
“Is that the right thing to do?”
“By coming here, we have affirmed his Highness’s statement that this would happen throughout the kingdom. If we tarry, many more will die. There is no time for delay.”
The knight nodded and suddenly mouthed his thoughts out loud.
“It’s just amazing how his Highness knew this would happen.”
“He is a man of innumerable depths. I trust him with all my heart, so I merely believe and follow,” Arwen said with a proud face. It lasted only for a while, for the signs of sorrow soon came upon her.
“If it was not for His Highness, how many people would have died? There are already so many deaths I could not prevent. How much would these people have suffered if we had not come?”
Arwen looked at the corpses of the elders, yet to be carried away.
She mourned for those who have died meaningless deaths for a long time until the knights announced that the battlefield had been cleared.
“Thank you! Thank you very much!”
Women who had escaped the tragedy expressed their gratitude toward Arwen in firm voices, despite their sorrow.
“There is no reason to be grateful toward me. I was merely following the orders of his Highness the Crown Prince.”
Arwen gave all credit to the royal family without the slightest show of contempt and decided the time for departure had come.
“Troops! Move along!”
“Troops, start marching!” Another knight shouted, and the soldiers of the extermination squad began moving again. As they continued the operation, they turned their horses’ heads whenever they found someone in need of aid. When they found monsters, they slaughtered them all — and all credit was given to the Crown Prince.
Similar scenes played out all over the kingdom.
The extermination squads led by champions roved around killing the monsters early in their rampages. Thanks to this, the panic that could have spread across Leonberg was quickly suppressed.
It was now natural for the people to raise their voices in praise of the royal family, who had noticed signs none knew off, even dispatching champions and other knights to ensure the people’s safety.
The heart of Lionel Leonberger, head of the royal family, was troubled, however. Of course, as monarch, he was glad that the people were safe and that more of them praised the Leonbergers.
“I’ve been told that the uproar in Brandenburg County has subsided, so why does he still not come back?”
The problem was that Lionel’s eldest son did not know how to return whenever he left.
“Well, it is said that his Highness has made the central fortress his stronghold.”
The king jumped up as he heard Bielefeld’s words.
“A base!”
“He commands the extermination operation unfolding across the kingdom from there.”
The marquis watched the king’s eyes, knowing that the prince’s advice and orders to the champions had been so timely that countless tragedies had been averted.
The king laughed.
When he had instructed his son to gain the trust of the people and cultivate the virtues vital to a Crown Prince, Ian’s best solution was no different from how he operated on the battlefield. Even while the king wanted to bring his son in and scold him at once, he had no justification for doing so.
As the marquis had mentioned, the reports from champions and lords praising the Crown Prince’s judgment were beginning to pile up.
“It’s all my fault. Since I was young, my heart could not be attached to the palace and its walls. So at his age, I was always going outside. Who am I to blame him now?”
The king sighed as he thought of his eldest son and his wandering ways. Then, one day, a messenger from the Crown Prince came before the king.
“His Highness has sent a letter to your Majesty.”
The man handed the king a carefully sealed letter. The king opened the seal without hesitation and checked the contents.
After scanning over the letter, the king burst into laughter.
“What? Did his Highness send a letter?”
After hearing the news, the Marquis of Bielefeld came to discover the contents of the message. The king silently handed the letter to the old man.
After reading it, the marquis also started laughing.
“Unlike usual, he added a bunch of unnecessary paragraphs, but I understand that he means he will only return after all the work is done. Did I get it wrong?”
“I interpreted it the same as your Majesty.”
The king sighed as he heard the marquis’ answer. Bielefeld, seeing the king in such a sorry state, carefully offered words of consolation.
“But, as is written in the letter, his Highness says he will refrain from entering battle as much as possible. It’s truly fortunate that our greatest worry is therefore relieved.”
“Do you believe my son’s words, marquis?”
The marquis avoided the king’s question.
It might be true that Crown Prince was quietly brooding in his fortress, but Bielefeld knew that the prince could grab his sword and run off to the battlefield at any time. The marquis knew this fact, the king knew it, and so did many others.
“But in some way, it cannot be said that his Highness the Crown Prince has violated your Majesty’s order.”
The marquis hesitated for a while and then decided he would not give up on his quest of comforting the king.
“People’s fears are settled quickly by swiftly removing the vile things that make them tremble in terror. And in the process of doing so, the voices of people praising his Highness’s virtue are heard all over the kingdom. Is this not what your Majesty wanted?”
The king couldn’t answer — the marquis was right.
Although the prince hadn’t taken care of the people’s pain face-to-face, it was clear that he was ensuring the stability of the populace by removing the source of the threat. It was not wrong to say that he proved himself possessing those virtues required by a Crown Prince. Of course, the method was greatly different from what the king had wanted. In any case, thanks to the Crown Prince, the turmoil within the kingdom quickly subsided.
However, not all countries upon the continent could settle the chaos as swiftly as the Leonberg Kingdom. Rather, the situation was getting worse in most countries as they failed to stem the confusion.
It was so in the Empire.
Hwaryong beset its southern territory, there were rebellions in the east and northeast, and imperial forces have been repeatedly defeated in the Dotrin Kingdom’s onslaught. As the situation was so chaotic, the Empire was unable to properly respond to the strange beings that moved in from all directions.
All over the Empire, lords screamed and cried out for salvation. The third princeps, having conscripted troops from gain the upper hand in the war against his brother, could not ignore their requests for aid.
Of course, the terrifyingly selfish and self-informed third princeps did not heed their pleas from the beginning.
“Your Highness, listen to their requests.”
“Why must I?”
The third princeps blamed the lords for not properly cracking down upon the troubles in their own territories. He didn’t consider that he was leading their elite troops and that they were truly struggling.
“We must inform his Majesty the Emperor and order all elites directly under the imperial family to smother the embers of chaos that have flared up everywhere.”
“If it was really the case, I would know about it. Must I now go teach these lightweight lords how to wage war?”
The princeps’ entourage consistently tried to persuade him.
“Think differently. If those territories fall, then the lands ruled after your Highness’s ascension may be reduced.”
“There must be some troops we can spare. It is the only way.”
“Even if they overcome the troubles, it is clear that they will be hit hard. This could result in fewer taxes and tributes that the imperial family will collect in the future.”
The greedy third princeps now began listening seriously to his aides. And so, after his closest allies spoke to him for a long time, the third princeps gave the answer everyone wanted to hear.
“Good. I will personally look into their difficulties. I will visit his Majesty. Once his Majesty permits me to take the troops serving directly under the imperial family, I will have the secret weapon to remedy the Empire’s chaos,” the third princeps grandiosely announced.
However, when the day came for him to meet the emperor, he started fretting, devising ways to prevent the meeting. The third princeps had become reluctant to stand alone with the emperor lately. In fact, it was with eyes shaking with fear that the third prince entered the emperor’s residence.
It had always been like this, but the feeling seems to have gotten worse. The princeps didn’t know when it had started. One day he just realized that his father was looking at him with gruesomely cold eyes.
At first, the princeps thought it was because the emperor was against the peace treaty and the fact that imperial land and fortresses had been handed to the Leonberg Kingdom. But over time, the princeps realized that it wasn’t that.
The emperor’s cold gaze was like that of a snake looking at a plump frog.
“No way… did his Majesty do something taboo, as my traitor brothers says he did?”
When the third princeps thought about the emperor’s withering gaze, he figured that his brother might not just be spewing empty words.
“I’m the only successor to the throne, anyway. What am I afraid of?”
The third princeps tried to thoroughly steady himself with the consolation that we as the only immediate imperial heir. While taking courage from that thought, the third princeps went to stand before the emperor and inform him of the Empire’s situation as his aides had related it to him.
“Not possible.”
The emperor did not even comment on the report, instead steadfastly refusing the princeps’ request. The Empire’s situation was so bad that even the third princeps, who did not care about the troubles of lesser lords, listened to the explanations of his close associates and realized its seriousness.
All the repeated failed invasions, the revolts, and the rampaging of the dragon — these were not light issues, and all of them were crises. However, as always, the emperor sat looking down upon the world and acted as if there was no crisis.
The third princeps suddenly frowned. As he thought about it, he realized that a casual handshake from the emperor had caused all the failures. It was he who had ordered the failed invasions of Dotrin, who had ordered the army to forcibly expand its frontline and attack the Leonberg Kingdom.
No ruler would intentionally cause his empire’s decline, so maybe the emperor wasn’t as great as everyone thought. The third princeps became inspired by all the rosy predictions his aides had brainwashed into him over the past several days.
And so, for the first time, he felt an emotion other than fear while facing the emperor. It was the recognition of imperfection; it was ambition.
The third princeps smirked and raised his head, making eye contact with the emperor.
The moment he looked into the emperor’s eyes, the peculiar ambition that had flared up in his heart withered into nothingness.
The princeps could only tremble. The emperor stared at him and waved his hand, and he couldn’t even give a greeting as he fled from the hall. The emperor sat on his throne for a long time as he stared at the spot where the princeps had stood. Then, he spoke.
“The great Burgundy blood has also become tame in the face of a thousand years.”
It was a strange thing to say about one’s own flesh and blood. It was said in a dry tone lacking any feeling or sign of regret as if the speaker was evaluating those not related to him. The emperor’s face suddenly twisted. Unlike before, it was now filled with emotions.
“Oaaf,” the emperor groaned like a beast and raised his hand. An ugly, throbbing vein popped up on his discolored blue hand as he struggled to raise it toward his head. His other hand’s nails scratched over the golden throne. If it had not been of gold, the Burgundy imperial family’s historic throne would’ve been marred by scratches.
The emperor continued to scratch his fingers into the throne for a long time. When he stopped, he raised his hand and looked at his fingertips. Blood poured out, yet the trembling fingers were slowly regaining their usual appearance. The only different thing was the broken mess of his fingernails.
“Tcha. If you put up with it a little, it will soon go away.”
The emperor then got up from his seat as if nothing had happened.