Chapter 75 : The Kingdom of Frangia
Chapter 75. The Kingdom of Frangia
For Yul, who had become a member of the Deep King Tribe, space could be compressed instantaneously without constraint. He had already been fast before, but now he could even fly.
The change was quite bewildering, as if someone who used to ride a bicycle was suddenly driving a supercar.
‘So that’s why the Deep King Tribe was almost free from the constraints of time and space.’
Perhaps the reason he had rarely seen members of the Deep King Tribe, even when he was an orca, was that they had already slipped free of such limitations.
Crossing the strait between the Kingdom of Britain and the Kingdom of Frangia in an instant, Yul moved toward a bay that hadn’t existed before.
He then went ashore and polymorphed. After wringing the water out of his soaked clothes, he changed into a fresh set.
He’d said he’d keep it above water and be careful, but maybe because it was his first swim, it had gotten wet anyway. Still, it was better than wandering around naked.
He headed straight for the capital of Frangia, Lotharingia, but he couldn’t tell if he’d arrived at the right place.
‘A shipyard?’
What he saw in the distance was a massive shipyard. Numerous workers were moving about.
But they didn’t look like they were working, more like they were fleeing from something.
“Aaagh! The Seaborn’s gone berserk!”
“How hard did you work it?! No, what is the Sinker even doing?!”
“The ship’s delivery deadline is right around the corner!!”
“Is this really the time to worry about work?! If you want to live, run!”
“Call a knight!”
From what he could hear, a giant Seaborn that had been working at the shipyard seemed to have started rampaging.
Yul walked toward the scene. With everyone fleeing in panic, getting there posed no problem.
“Is it that one?”
It had an appearance resembling a plesiosaur with a neck as long as a giraffe. However, it had become extremely ferocious, swinging its head around and destroying everything.
‘The Sinker is... gone. Did they just run away?’
Judging by its size, around four meters, it looked Elite rank.
He sent out a magic signal to try to communicate, but there was no response at all.
Yul confirmed that it was showing a magic pattern extremely similar to the Sea Horror he had encountered before.
“Perfect. I wanted to test a skill anyway.”
He raised his fist. Skill [Telekinesis] activated.
An ability that had originally originated from the Mantra of Armament unfolded as a skill.
Kugugugugugung.
With overwhelming telekinetic force, he slammed the rampaging Seaborn straight into the ground.
-KEEEEEEH!
‘The performance is way better than before.’
The Mantra of Armament had only applied to weapons, but now that it had transformed into Telekinesis, those restrictions were gone.
The plesiosaur-like Seaborn twisted its body by force, relieving the downward pressure. It found a narrow opening and slipped out of the range of Telekinesis.
Even in its fully berserk state, it seemed to recognize the one attacking it, glaring straight at Yul.
Yul stared back without changing his expression.
-KYAAAAAAAH!
Like a snake, it twisted its head and lunged. With minimal movement, Yul evaded the attack.
Thanks to evolution having pushed his reflexes and physical abilities to extremes, Yul could move with the agility of a knight.
As Yul dodged the downward strike, his eyes met the Seaborn’s at point-blank range.
He could feel the rage in its expression. At the same time, Yul knew exactly where the Sea Horror parasite was lodged.
Below the left canine. That was where the parasitic Sea Horror was embedded.
The plesiosaur snapped its head up and roared loudly, opening its jaws wide.
‘Roaring doesn’t help.’
For Seaborn, it was an instinctive action. But it would have been better to press the attack instead of wasting time roaring.
Yul lifted nearby materials with Telekinesis. The airborne ship components became excellent weapons by virtue of their sheer mass.
As he extended his hand forward, all the floating materials poured down at once.
Thud thud thud! Bang bang!
It dodged some, but many struck home, ripping scales away. The damage must have been severe, yet it was still brimming with fighting spirit and continued to attack Yul.
It seemed that when a Sea Horror parasitized a Seaborn, it not only drove it berserk but also stripped away its reason and amplified its ferocity.
The enemy’s attacks continued. Yul instantly read the spacing created by its large movements, evading while waiting for an opening.
When the chance came, he planned to smash the plesiosaur’s head into the ground, pin it down, and rip out the tooth.
That was when it happened.
Splash!
“The Knight of Salvation makes his entrance!”
A knight burst out of the water together with the Seaborn.
‘What is this? A dugong?’
The knight was riding a dugong and wielding a long lance.
“You evil monster! A form fit to appear in legend indeed! A decoration worthy of the glory of Henry, Knight of Salvation! Die!”
“No, wait!”
Despite Yul’s shout, the man—introducing himself as some kind of coastal defense(?) knight—charged with his lance.
“Brave steed, Padur! Aid me!”
The dugong used a skill, pulling a wave up onto land as if using it as a foothold.
‘Wave riding? No, wait, did he just call a dugong a horse?’
Riding the flow of the wave, the knight charged straight into the plesiosaur and drove the lance into its torso.
-KEGEGEK!
Blood spurted out like a fountain, as if the lance had pierced its organs.
Judging by the faint glow clinging to the lance, he seemed to be someone capable of forming blade energy with magic.
Pulling the lance free, the knight immediately kicked off the dugong, leapt upward, and drove the lance into the plesiosaur’s forehead.
The magic-infused lance pierced straight through the gem and skewered its brain. Instant death.
“…Crazy.”
He’d just killed the Seaborn outright. A man with no thought for consequences.
‘I knew something was off the moment he called his dugong a horse.’
Just then, someone came running from afar, wailing.
“N-no! That Seaborn cost me four thousand ducats!”
He looked like a young noble heir. It must have been a huge sum for him. But the knight merely snorted.
“Hmph! Fool! Buying a Seaborn on the black market is why it went berserk.”
“W-what?! You killed my Seaborn?!”
“I merely delivered salvation to the culprit causing harm! That is the duty of a Knight of Salvation!”
“You, you lunatic! You’re insane!”
“Hahaha! In chaotic times, only madmen survive! Now, Padur! Devour him! Gain experience!”
“……!!”
Everyone’s eyes went wide. The dugong-like Seaborn opened its mouth, revealing the sharp teeth hidden within, and began tearing into the dead Seaborn’s corpse.
“T-this is insane.”
“War spoils belong to the victor. Surely you have no complaints?”
“What nonsense is that?! That wasn’t even spoils to begin with! I was in such a hurry that I called the first knight I saw, and that was my mistake! Aaaaargh! What am I supposed to tell my father?!”
Watching this utterly deranged situation, Yul came to a realization.
‘Best not to get involved here.’
Go on, get yourself parasitized by a Sea Horror while you’re at it, you crazy knight.
While the uproar continued, Yul quietly left the area.
* * *
At the Wigma Academy shopping district, multiple copies of newspapers were being sold.
When it came to foreign news, they often relayed information by using newspapers published abroad.
There was quite a bit of coverage about the Kingdom of Frangia as well.
The biggest piece of news was the death of the Sun King.
He had been in the capital during the Great Catastrophe, so he had avoided immediate danger.
However, the moment he heard about the damage caused by the Great Catastrophe, he collapsed.
At first, it was thought to be nothing more than shock, but a later medical diagnosis revealed that he was suffering from lung cancer.
The cause was said to be the blast waves and his long-standing smoking habit. The Great Catastrophe merely acted as a trigger that worsened his condition.
Even while wasting away from illness, the Sun King governed the state diligently, trying to minimize the damage caused by the Great Catastrophe, but time was not on his side.
He attempted to pass the throne to his heir, Lui, but in the end, he died without ever witnessing the coronation. He passed away at the age of fifty-five.
And this was as far as the information went in the newspapers Yul had obtained back in the Kingdom of Britain.
But considering the speed at which newspapers traveled, it was only natural—and indeed true—that events here had progressed further.
The heir, Lui, attempted to ascend the throne as planned, but the situation took a sudden turn.
A rebellion finally erupted, one that had been waiting precisely for this moment. The Duke of Dawn, Gaston de Valcroix, who had been building his power within his own territory, revealed himself.
He was a cousin of the Sun King and had concealed his strength until now. The Duke of Dawn was still in his prime at forty-seven.
The moment the country fell into chaos due to the Great Catastrophe, ambition took root.
Moreover, when the succession of Lui, once thought unshakable, began to waver, many nobles defected, some even throwing their support behind factions entirely unrelated to the royal family.
The former royal, the Lothar Family. After Frangia conquered Lotharingia and made it the capital, the Lothar Family, once rulers of Lotharingia, had fallen into decline.
From a distant collateral branch of the Lothar Family, they unearthed an heir and stirred up a familial dispute.
He had been a boy living as a shepherd, tending sheep.
They sent assassins to kill Lui, but the attempt failed due to Lui’s desperate escape.
The moment Lui fled the capital to evade the assassins, they pushed that shepherd boy of the Lothar Family to the forefront.
Lui, the legitimate heir of the Sun King, had now been driven out of the capital and was gathering troops in his own territory, Ballonrûque.
The civil war in Frangia had turned into a three-sided conflict.
“It’s worse than I thought.”
With no internet in this era, information asymmetry meant that one side was always late in receiving news.
All Yul had known was that the Kingdom of Frangia was in an unstable state.
Yet a civil war and an outright rebellion had already broken out.
“I do have a connection with the Sun King. Should I help Lui?”
In human relationships, Yul valued ties and bonds more than money or immediate gain.
Rather than helping some unknown Duke of Dawn or a random shepherd boy, wouldn’t it be more reasonable to help the son of someone who had once helped him?
Still, depending on what kind of person Lui turned out to be, his thoughts could change.
‘Looking at the balance of power, Lui is further behind than I expected.’
The Duke of Dawn had been amassing troops for quite some time. The Valcroix territory, perhaps because it was one of the most fertile and prized lands in Frangia, boasted the largest force of 50,000 soldiers.”
Supporting the Lothar Family while holding the capital, Lotharingia, were the capital’s nobles.
Their army numbered twenty thousand—small, but backed by a considerable foundation.
Old nobles who secretly longed for the former Kingdom of Lotharingia, along with some nobles who resented the Sun King’s suppression of aristocratic authority, were lending their strength, and their forces were expected to grow.
Lui’s faction numbered around ten thousand. The troops he had gathered consisted solely of soldiers from his own territory.
He might well end up the weakest of the three factions.
But he possessed legitimacy that the others lacked, and for now, it was still a stage where everyone was watching and choosing sides.
Lui’s forces were weak? All the better.
Backing the strong side to help it win held little meaning. Siding with the weak and becoming a kingmaker, that was where the real profit lay.
Yul set off toward the territory where Lui was located.
* * *
Lui was holed up in his room, muttering to himself.
“I shouldn’t have fled the capital to avoid the assassins back then. Damn it. Even if it meant getting stabbed, I should have stayed.”
When even the butler closest to him betrayed him and plunged a blade into him, Lui was deeply shaken and fled the capital.
Because someone he trusted had turned on him, he believed his life was in danger no matter where he stayed.
That was why he left the capital, but now, in hindsight, all that remained was regret.
“At times like this, Father would have acted differently.”
His influence had dwindled sharply, and there were few who responded to his call. It was a matter of the royal family’s popularity.
The Sun King had pursued policies that suppressed the nobles, and the loyalist nobles were either few in number or lacking in power.
“Ugh. Is there really no way?”
“There is.”
“Who’s there!”
Lui stopped mid-thought and immediately thrust his sword toward the intruder.
A man with blue-black hair had appeared in his bedchamber. A gem was embedded in the man’s forehead.
“W-what in the...?”
“Put the sword down and let's talk first.”