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Volume 6 Chapter 6 Part 1

Translator: Kell

A few minutes after I defeated Rian the Viper, we gathered in a room in the royal palace, discussing the aftermath of the battle.

The new king had not only lost his palace temporarily, but even his protectors, the Royal Guards. Restoring the situation would take a lot of effort.

And we have no intention of dealing with the most troublesome part of it all. In fact, we can’t. It’s not the kind of work we do, or can do, for that matter. Can the king do it, though? It’s not so simple, either.

“It will take time to rebuild the Royal Guards.”

“How long?”

“A month simply to form it. Another year to turn them into a military asset. We will not have that much time.”

I see. As far as the time it takes to build an army, it feels rather short. Problem is, even a year is too long in this case.

“For the record,” I said, “we’re not gonna stick around for long. We have a lot of things to do as well.”

The king is important, yes, but if you ask me if he’s important enough for us to spend a whole year protecting him, then the answer is no. We can use that time instead to make ourselves stronger. Spending a long time on security and halting your own development will only benefit the enemies.

“I will not ask you do that much,” the king said. “We’ll figure it out.”

“Can you?”

“We have no other choice. Failure means death.”

Hmm. Well, he can’t just die after all the trouble we went through to save him.

“If you need it, we can lend you a portion of Count Meigis’ troops,” Sachylis said. “Eld had trained them to fight, but as for the other necessary requirements for being a member of the Royal Guards, like etiquette and basic proficiency, it might be a little difficult to teach them those in a short period of time. I’m sure Marquis Maiar can provide more credible personnel who are more fit as Royal Guards.”

“Hmm. Asking Maiar sounds like a good idea. I suppose I will rely on him in the meantime while the new guards are being trained.”

It looks like the Marquis Maiar is going to lend his troops to work as Royal Guards. In other words, the king’s life is in the hands of our faction. I don’t intend to abuse that fact, but we’re in a pretty good position right now.

“Does this mean the problem about guards is solved?”

“We can’t say that just yet, unfortunately. While it was a surprise attack, my father’s personal guards, the best in our kingdom, were wiped out. I don’t mean to demean Marquis Maiar’s troops, but his men can’t fully make up for our loss.”

“Yeah, they’ll definitely be underestimated.”

I’m sure there are plenty of people in the kingdom who want to overthrow the king and take his place. The Marquis’ troops taking over as the king’s guards is nothing but good news to them.

After all, if the king’s guards were only at the level of a noble’s troops, and only a portion of them were hired, they would be the perfect prey. I’m not sure if there are any nobles who would dare to pick a fight alone, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them teamed up to try and take the throne.

If that happened, it would be the beginning of a civil war. The king’s army is not only meant to fight, but also to intimidate the kingdom. Losing them would be rough. That’s why…

“We’ll just let them be scared, then,” I said.

“Pardon?”

“Yeah. We can just keep our involvement secret. Let the public know that the king’s troops protected the palace from powerful enemies.”

“The entire Royal Guards has been wiped out,” the king said. “There are no soldiers to protect me… No, wait. I see what you mean. That will definitely scare them.”

For a moment, the king almost dismissed my idea, but quickly understood what I was getting at.

“People won’t know who protected you,” I said. “That’s much terrifying, if you ask me.”

The soldiers, whose identities would be completely unknown, defended the king from invaders powerful enough to cause such huge explosions. There was not even a single trace of them left in the palace.

Enemies would be freaked out, for sure. If you knew how strong your opponent was, you could get people stronger than them. But if you don’t, that’s a different story. All the more so when you don’t even know their identity. There is no way you can possibly launch an attack.

To top it off, you’d be going up against the king himself, and though he might not be as powerful as other kings, he was still the leader of the kingdom. If you challenged him and lost, your whole clan would be beheaded and you would not even be able to complain.

“Yes, truly frightening,” the king said. “If I were a member of the anti-royal family faction, I wouldn’t dare attack at least. I might urge others to do it, though.”

“No one’s gonna do it. No one wants to die. There’s also the possiblity of the assailants being caught and forced to reveal who ordered them to do it, which makes people think twice.”

“That is a great point. If we openly show favorable treatment towards Count Meigis, we can also protect his domain.”

“Yeah. The enemy will assume that Count Meigis is hiding some fierce monster who defeated Georgis and even protected the king.”

With the puppet government gone, Count Meigis will receive Cardinal Georgis’ domain as originally planned. People will be envious of the Count’s sudden expansion in territory. This “monster” will be a deterrent, protecting the Count and the king from possible invasions.

“It’s not even assumption,” the king said. “There is a monster.”

“Where?”

“Over there,” he said, pointing at me.