Chapter 86 - Nobles, Princes, the King, and the Empire (3)

The unexpected appearance of an army turned The Capital upside down.

To the citizens, who had only ever seen the neatly dressed soldiers of The Capital, the army outside the walls was incredibly intimidating.

Though their appearance was shabby, covered in the dirt and dust of a long journey, their eyes and spirits looked fiercely strong.

The citizens were struck with fear by that sharp aura, which was fundamentally different from that of the soldiers of The Capital.

An affable citizen asked the guards of The Capital about the army's identity, and through him, it became known that they were the lords of the North and their soldiers.

However, the anxiety felt by the citizens of The Capital remained.

"But why are they just staying out there instead of coming in?"

"Do you think they might have some bad intentions?"

The citizens murmured, looking anxiously at the wide-open gates.

A merchant who happened to be staying in The Capital carefully offered a guess.

"Keep this between us. There's a rumor quietly going around that the Royal Family abandoned the North during the last war. Maybe they came all the way to The Capital and are doing that as a sort of protest..."

"Look at this guy. Eating good food only to spout nonsense again."

A citizen who heard the merchant snorted.

"His Highness the Second Prince, who participated in the war in the North, returned just the other day. What a load of nonsense. Hey! Watch your mouth. You'll get yourself in trouble."

"No, that's not it, just listen to me. When Winter Castle fell and the North was laid to waste, the Royal Family... Huh?"

The merchant, who had been speaking in frustration, froze in place. Before they knew it, the guards of The Capital had surrounded them.

"You sought to harm the harmony of the kingdom with lies and fabrication; there must surely be a motive behind this."

"No! That's not it! Oh man! I was wrong!"

The merchant belatedly regretted running his mouth and bowed down to apologize, but the guards of The Capital were merciless. The merchant was tied up with a rope and dragged away by the guards.

Similar scenes were unfolding all over The Capital.

"The citizens of The Capital are extremely anxious. They fear that the Northern army stationed outside the walls might harbor wicked intentions. The soldiers of The Capital are arresting citizens in the streets, which is only multiplying that anxiety."

Hearing his subordinate's report, the Second Prince, Maximilian, sprang up from his seat.

"I need to go see His Majesty."

Saying so, Maximilian immediately left his palace.

As he exited the Second Prince's Palace and headed toward his father's office, the atmosphere in the royal palace was unusually chaotic. It seemed the situation outside The Capital had fully spread within the palace as well.

Maximilian hurried his steps.

After walking for a while, he spotted a familiar middle-aged man in the distance.

"Marquis Bielefeld."

Recognizing him, Marquis Bielefeld bowed his head.

"Your Highness..."

"It seems you are on your way back from seeing His Majesty."

Maximilian looked at the marquis. His expression was not good at all. It seemed the conversation had not gone well.

"I will try speaking to His Majesty, so please put your worries to rest and head back."

"Then this old man shall trust in Your Highness and take his leave."

Despite his words, the marquis did not seem to be expecting much.

Taking one last look at the marquis, Maximilian headed straight for the King's office.

"Announce me."

At his words, the Royal Knight guarding the front of the office carefully knocked on the door and announced the arrival of the Second Prince.

"Enter."

"Please go in."

Beyond the door thrown open by the Royal Knight, he could see the King.

He had a look of utter displeasure on his face. But that was only for a moment; upon seeing his favored second son, the King's expression brightened.

"Your Majesty..."

"Come here. There is no need to act so stiff in front of your father."

Straightening from his light kneel, Maximilian looked at his father.

"Have you eaten? If you haven't yet, let us eat together. I was just getting hungry myself."

The more the gentle voice continued, the stiffer Maximilian's expression became.

"Your Majesty."

"Yes. Speak."

"Your Majesty. Please let my brother and the lords of the North into the castle now."

Frost instantly settled over the King's face, which had just been as warm as a spring breeze.

"It is not that I have not let them in, but that they have not come in."

At the voice as cold as his expression, Maximilian let out a sigh.

"If you welcome them with the honors of a victorious army, they will gladly enter The Capital as well."

"They are making such a fuss."

The King frowned.

"Did they fight alone? The Royal Family was with them, and the lords of the Central region were there as well. I cannot hold a victory celebration solely for them."

Maximilian secretly let out another sigh.

It was an absurd argument.

His royal father probably knew it, too.

Nevertheless, his royal father continued to list reasons why he could not grant their demand.

"Your Majesty. If we do not welcome them grandly, who else will be left to throw their lives away like straw for the kingdom as they did?"

"Born as nobles of the kingdom, it is their duty to protect their domains and protect the country. Whoever else had been in their place would have done exactly the same."

In the past, he had believed those words blindly.

To him in the past, it was only natural for those born noble to fulfill their duties and responsibilities.

There were corrupt nobles, but he thought such people were only a minority. He believed that the majority of nobles leading the kingdom were true nobles who understood honor and dedication.

But that was not the case.

Only after leaving the royal palace did he finally begin to see reality clearly.

He had seen the disgraceful behavior of the lords who, spurred on by the empire, stood by and watched Winter Castle fall, and he had seen with his own two eyes the lords of the Central region who abandoned the defensive line and fled.

There were far more pig-like men blinded by greed than there were noble-like nobles.

The kingdom was already rotten to the core.

Only his royal father remained unaware of this fact.

Maximilian smiled bitterly.

His royal father's attitude was exactly like his own in the past; if he himself had not gone outside the palace and seen the reality of the kingdom, he, too, would still be agreeing with his father and criticizing them for not acting like proper nobles.

However, the emotion he felt now was an unbearable sense of discomfort.

"If the Northern lords had supported Winter Castle on time in the first place, they would not have suffered such hardships. Their sacrifices were brought upon themselves, and their demands are a foolish attempt to boast only of their merits while ignoring their faults."

Watching his royal father's face as he spoke deploringly, he felt a wave of nausea rising inside him. Unable to bear looking at his father any longer, he ended up turning his head away.

Even so, the King continued to criticize the behavior of the Northern lords.

"Since ancient times, the Northern lords have been free of vanity and lived simply, so such a demand can be said to be uncharacteristic of Northerners. This, too, must be the trick of someone wicked; I have long known of his vanity and blindness to reason, but..."

At a certain point, the arrows of criticism against the lords naturally turned toward the First Prince.

"Because of his own vanity, he cares nothing for the anxiety of the citizens of The Capital or the hardships the soldiers will face. Because of his petty vanity, the soldiers who traveled all the way from the North are unable to sleep in warm beds, yet he gives no thought to such things..."

"Your Majesty."

Unable to listen any longer, Maximilian finally spoke up.

"Now is not the time to scold them for being un-noble, but the time to understand and embrace their war-torn hearts and the circumstances of their domains."

When his second son, who he naturally thought would agree with his opinion, openly expressed disagreement, the King's expression hardened.

"Furthermore, they are not asking for a massive reward, nor are they demanding anything else. It is merely a victory celebration. What they are asking for is not difficult to grant, nor does it require suffering a great loss. It is just a victory celebration."

Regardless of his father's reaction, Maximilian poured out what he had to say.

"It is only a march down the main street of The Capital for half a day at most."

As a child, seeing his father make such a face was certainly heartbreaking, but someone had to step up and convince his royal father anyway.

Besides, his brother had said they would turn right around and leave if they were not welcomed with the honors of a victorious army. For his brother, who had insisted on slaughtering the twelve Northern lords even when his own body was battered and torn, that was more than likely to happen.

If things really went that way, the North and the Royal Family would not even have a chance to mend the distrust that had sprouted during the last war.

"Your Majesty. Just one word is enough. A single word saying you will open the gates and welcome them is all it takes. I will take care of everything that follows."

Maximilian pleaded over and over again.

"You are..."

An indescribable emotion surfaced on his royal father's face as he looked at him.

"Your Majesty. Please, with just one word, show that you understand their hearts."

After staring at him silently for a long time, the King turned his body.

"Return."

"Your Majesty."

"Your request shall be fulfilled."

His royal father ultimately permitted the victory celebration. But what his father granted was not the demands of the North, but the request of his cherished second son.

Maximilian, who understood that difference better than anyone, was deeply worried about what would happen after they entered The Capital.

The eldest son who had left The Capital as if being chased out was no longer the pointed-at nuisance, nor was he the immature son his father could lock in a palace with just a few words.

On a personal level, he was a war hero who had ended the ravages of war in the North, and publicly, he was the powerful figure revered by the seventeen lords north of the Raintes River.

His presence was by no means light enough for his royal father to treat him carelessly by solely asserting his kingly authority.

He only hoped that his royal father would realize that fact quickly.

Because his brother would not just quietly endure it like before.

"They will be deeply moved by Your Majesty's thoughtfulness."

Hiding his complicated feelings, he offered up lip-service praise. And upon leaving the office, Maximilian immediately sought out the Palace Count and the captain of The Capital's guards.

"Prepare for the victory celebration."

The faces of the Palace Count and the guard captain, which had been heavily clouded by the chaotic atmosphere, lit up.

* * *

Turning anxiety into cheers was not that difficult.

Just informing the citizens of the trials the North had overcome was enough.

That alone caused the citizens, who had locked their doors and stayed shut inside out of fear, to throw their doors open and rush out, wanting to catch even a single glimpse of the brave warriors' faces.

They looked toward the gates of The Capital with faces full of anticipation. However, they couldn't even let out the cheers they had been holding in their mouths.

The first to reveal themselves were the defense forces of The Capital, acting as escorts. The neatly dressed cavalry of The Capital appeared as always, and behind them emerged the Northern army.

"Gasp!"

"Aaah!"

The citizens lining the main street screamed. The soldiers of The Capital controlling the citizens also let out gasps of horror.

The Northern army brushed right past them.

Seventeen banners symbolizing each of the Northern houses, and one of them was drawing out the people's screams.

It was not a banner.

Because instead of a cloth embroidered with a house's symbol, a severed head had been impaled on it, making it impossible to call it a banner.

A massive, dark-green head with its tongue hanging out long.

Among the citizens who met those glaring red eyes that remained wide open even in death, one after another rolled their eyes back and fainted.

The main street of The Capital instantly turned into a chaotic mess, and the soldiers of The Capital struggled desperately to calm the citizens.

Watching the scene from afar, Maximilian put a hand to his forehead.

"He said he was going to keep it safely enshrined in Winter Castle..."

Because the head the Black Lancers had hung up like a banner belonged to none other than the Warlord, the king of the monsters who had reduced the North to a wasteland.

It was not strange for the citizens of The Capital, who had never even seen a monster in their entire lives, to cause such a commotion.

Maximilian sighed.

He couldn't fathom the reason why he would deliberately reject cheers and a path of flowers, opting instead to march amidst screams.

Then again, it wasn't as if he had ever been able to understand his brother's thoughts before, so he didn't bother agonizing over it. Just as always, he would likely figure out the meaning before long.

However, that belief lasted only for a moment.

SWOOSH.

Finally, when they passed the citizens and arrived in front of the main gate of the royal palace, his brother slightly tilted the Warlord's head and thrust it out in front of the nobles who had come out to greet them.

"Eeeek!"

"Gah!"

Seeing the terrified nobles fall flat on their behinds, his brother's lips twitched.

Seeing that, Maximilian thought that perhaps his brother's actions—which he had assumed carried some profound meaning—might simply have been to mess with the nobles, or because he wanted to show off his trophy.

WHOOSH, WHOOSH.

The way he was waving the pole back and forth made it seem like, if left alone, he would keep swinging the Warlord's head around until the nobles passed out.

"Brother."

Maximilian stepped forward with a strained expression.

"Maximilian."

"You must have suffered coming such a long way."

"I told you it wouldn't take that long."

At the arrogant and overconfident tone he used as always, Maximilian ended up smiling without realizing it.

"Welcome back, brother."

Grinning at his younger brother's welcome, the First Prince raised his head.

On the outer wall of the royal palace, at a window high up, stood the King with a completely hardened expression.

SMIRK.

Meeting that cold gaze, the First Prince curled the corners of his mouth up.