novelraw Chapter 127 : Chapter 127
Chapter 127 : Chapter 127
Chapter 127
The next morning.
Ian shared the recorded contents with the northern nobles.
“Y-Young Duke! What on earth does this mean?”
“This joke is excessive!”
“No matter how much you inherited Moner’s blood, there is a line that should not be crossed!”
The reaction was much worse than expected.
Because it was practically shattering their belief that Trimia was receiving the King’s full support.
As the recording continued, it was natural for their attitude to change.
“…….”
“Could it be… is this really true?”
No matter how simple the northern nobles were, they were still nobles in the end.
Nobles who have repeated power struggles throughout their family history.
No matter how absurd their belief was, the moment they saw Moner’s reality, they must have instinctively felt something was wrong.
‘So they must have participated in the training without saying much.’
Hints were everywhere.
Absurdly small troops compared to the reputation.
Absence of central support.
Equipment for soldiers made of monster leather and bones instead of iron.
Moner was practically lacking in everything.
If Moner really received the Royal family’s support, this couldn’t be happening.
After the recording ended, Ian left the room with just one sentence.
“The only time you can run away is now.”
It’s cowardly to suggest running away now, but still, he gave them a chance to choose.
‘At least they won’t spout nonsense now.’
No matter how insignificant it looks, justification is important.
Because the attitude of nobles being pushed into the battlefield by Moner versus those choosing to remain and fight for the north and the Kingdom on their own is bound to be different.
* * *
Diez, who had kept his mouth shut for a long time, burst into laughter.
“…Hehehe.”
“Does laughter come out now?”
At that question, Diez, bursting into mad laughter, slapped his knee.
“Ahahaha! How can this not be funny?!”
Just as everyone’s faces were becoming dyed with blatant displeasure, he took out a cigar from the cigar box neatly placed on the table and continued.
“Everyone, calm down. Didn’t the Count prepare even these cigars for us ‘gentlemen’?”
Diez lit the cigar leisurely, just like in the gathering of northern nobles where everything started, ‘Cigar Smoking Gentlemen’.
“Cough! Cough! Ah, actually I don’t smoke cigars.”
His gaze turned to Viscount Dotran.
While he was thinking about what would have happened if he had refused his invitation, Viscount Dotran bit a cigar and started chuckling.
“Kuhahaha! Right, we were Cigar Smoking Gentlemen. Nobles inheriting the great blood of the North.”
“That’s right!”
“Ah shit! Give me one too!”
Gentlemen, each biting a cigar, sprawled on chairs and glanced at each other.
As if hoping someone would make the heavy choice for them.
“So, Diez. What are your thoughts?”
At Viscount Dotran’s words, Diez burst into a hollow laugh.
“Are you asking for my opinion even now?”
He was the one who first brought up the theory about the 2nd Prince, and he was the one who moved the northern nobles.
In the end, everything he thought was wrong.
If he hadn’t stepped forward, if he had stayed silent instead of running his mouth stupidly, most of them would have spent a peaceful time in their domains.
“Do you really think so?”
Diez twitched his lips.
He had a lot to say, but he felt he wasn’t qualified to speak.
The ones who opened their mouths at that question were the other nobles.
“Did we look that stupid?”
“If we were going to run away, we would have run away the day we first arrived in Moner.”
“Soldiers were walking around wearing monster skins like some southern barbarian warriors; I almost fainted seeing that.”
“And what about the treatment? What were they thinking, training, training, training as soon as the banquet ended. It was practically telling us to roll appropriately and get lost.”
As Diez, furrowing his brow, looked at them reluctantly, Viscount Dotran chuckled.
“Although they say we are ignorant of politics, we aren’t stupid. We realized Prince Trimia was uncomfortable with us the day we met him.”
“Then why on earth didn’t you leave?”
The nobles laughed looking at Diez simultaneously.
“Kuhuhuhu! Could it be that you, who experienced the capital’s bitterness, didn’t feel what we felt? Since you were quiet, everyone just shut their mouths on their own.”
Viscount Dotran looked even happier now than when they were shutting each other's mouths.
“So, what is the reason we absolutely shouldn't run away even while rolling in mud pits?”
Diez spoke as if vomiting out his accumulated worries.
“That was the only way to save my domain and soldiers.”
He realized only after seeing the forest of demonic beasts and walking in it himself.
That Moner’s threat is the North’s threat, and this continent’s threat.
“…So you felt that too.”
If Moner collapses, next are the northern nobles.
The problem is that there’s no way the Royal family, who didn’t even help Moner, would move troops for the small and medium nobles of the North.
Viscount Dotran, chuckling, said as if in passing.
“Before Prince Trimia came, I met an outstanding wizard at the fortress. Thinking of borrowing the wizard’s wisdom, I asked him. That a problem arose because I made a wrong important choice, so what should I do.”
As expected, a wizard’s thinking was hard for ordinary people to understand, but it was simple and certain.
“That wizard said there is no wrong choice until the result comes out. He said if it was really wrong, just break the problem before the result comes out.”
It was an eccentric answer, but Dotran couldn’t forget that answer.
“Kuhahaha! If the problem is the problem, break the problem; that’s truly an answer worthy of a wizard.”
As Diez burst into laughter, all the nobles burst into laughter simultaneously, but none of them were laughing genuinely.
“Ahahaha! Does that mean if the Royal family is the problem, break the Royal family?”
“Exactly! Just thinking about what happened yesterday, it’s unimaginable!”
“Who knew a legion would move for a rebellion that was merely a rumor?”
No one talked about the content of the recording anymore.
Because for them, the choice of going back didn’t exist in the first place.
“It would be really good if His Highness Trimia sits on the throne someday.”
Just like magic.
They exchanged the exact same words as before listening to the recording.
“That’s what I’m saying! Since we can sincerely trust His Highness Trimia who stepped forward alone for the North!”
Choosing Trimia was no longer a mistake.
Whether the King acknowledged it or not, it would be fine as long as Trimia sat on the throne.
* * *
It was the night ten days after the Royal Army departed when Marquess Dmitry arrived at the capital.
What awaited him, who barely arrived at the capital after passing through over seven gates, was not the rest he waited for so eagerly, but an envoy of the Royal family.
“Your Excellency! Marquess, Your Excellency!”
The Marquess, soaked in fatigue, crumpled his face.
“His Majesty is looking for you urgently!”
Of course he would.
Normally he would have nodded, but not now.
Even the Iron-Blooded Dmitry needed sweet red wine and a bed just for today.
“Tell him I will visit early tomorrow morning after taking a rest.”
No matter what happened, even if the 1st Prince died suddenly or the King collapsed, he had no intention of turning his steps.
Since this incident was entirely the King’s choice, there was nothing for him to take responsibility for.
However, the moment the envoy’s belated shout was heard, the Marquess had no choice but to turn back.
“They say one-third of the Royal Army has died! His Majesty ordered to bring the Marquess no matter what happens!”
The news that one-third of the Royal Army, which had clearly decided to refuse battle and remain at the rearmost line somehow, had died was news he couldn’t possibly ignore.
* * *
While the Marquess hurriedly finished preparing to enter the palace, the Secretary-General’s report continued.
“The facts have not been confirmed yet.”
It meant there was no report from the soldiers with the Prince.
“Discard all lines on that side. So that even if contact comes, they won’t find out we are at the other end.”
“Pardon?!”
“It seems we’ve already been caught.”
Among all the nobles gathered in Obsol, there was only one person who didn’t receive a soldier’s gift.
“Or maybe they’re all dead.”
“Pardoon?!”
It was entirely possible.
Since he handed over communication stones to the knights to somehow find out the war situation.
Moner’s young master wasn’t a figure who would just watch that happen.
“It’s my fault. I underestimated him again.”
I thought there’s no way he would kill a Count family’s knight, but he’s a guy who killed a Count called the King’s envoy right in front of his eyes.
If it’s him, he would wield his sword without thinking twice even if it were a Royal Knight protecting the King, not a Marquess family’s knight.
“…Just what happened in Obsol?”
“That, after I return. What about the Royal family side?”
“It’s all information from that side. The Royal family still has spies remaining in the fortress.”
“…Well.”
All three people who received the King’s secret order didn’t know Moner had hunted Orcs.
If that spy had eyes, could they not know that they hunted over a hundred Orcs, not just one or two?
“Perhaps even this might be a play to gain justification.”
It was a thought he never would have had before, but after realizing the King was hiding something from him, he couldn’t trust him like before.
“It’s nonsensical. That one-third died in just ten days means they used the Royal Army as arrow fodder as soon as they arrived in Moner.”
The Knight Commander might be one thing, but General Garme is not a stupid person.
There is no way he would have watched the Royal Army being used as arrow fodder.
“Whatever the case, I have to confirm directly with His Majesty.”
* * *
The reason the King called the Marquess was simple.
“Just what on earth happened there?!”
Since the wizard disappeared, there was no way to obtain information on Obsol.
“Why, why on earth did the Royal Army walk into Moner on their own feet!”
“Moner’s Young Lord appeared in Obsol.”
The Marquess fulfilled his role.
To convey exactly what happened there without adding or subtracting anything.
Not long after, a question the Marquess couldn’t answer popped out.
“If your words are true, did my soldiers die in that damn land?!”
Because even he couldn’t know how the Royal Army, which should have been saving themselves in the rear, died.
‘At least His Majesty seems to truly believe the Royal Army died.’
“Is that information perhaps also from the remaining spies?”
“…….”
The intention of that question was simple.
“Are you saying Moner might be disrupting information?”
“Unlike knights who took an oath, spies are people who might turn anytime.”
“So you mean a third party, not Moner, might be disrupting information.”
The King, feeling a headache, pinched his brow.
“It’s not impossible. Since it is true that the backlash from noble families intensified after I moved.”
What was important right now wasn’t who disrupted the information.
“Whatever the case, wouldn’t the fact that the Royal Army died be false?”
“Probably.”
Just 10 days.
That one-third of the Royal Army died in 10 days is impossible.
And that the Royal Army is holding its breath waiting for the time to return.
“To not know the war situation at this important time…….”
The King’s worry deepened.