Chapter 79 : Retaking the Capital
Chapter 79. Retaking the Capital
When humans encounter a Seaborn on land, the types they usually face are fairly predictable.
Typical examples are sea creatures that normally move between land and water—crabs, sea lions, turtles, penguins, saltwater crocodiles, and the like.
However, this was likely the first time anyone had witnessed a flying species of Seaborn on land, soaring through the air.
For that beautifully shaped creature to harbor such cruel murderous intent was a true calamity for the enemy.
‘Does my telekinesis get stronger when I dispel Polymorph?’
Yul unfolded his telekinesis outward, pushing everything away from himself.
It spread like a kind of force field.
‘Unlike other skills, the performance of telekinesis stays the same.’
Since it was an emitting ability rather than a skill that strengthened or altered the body, its power was identical whether polymorphed or not.
Wrapped in the force field, he spun his body once and charged straight ahead.
As the massive creature passed directly overhead, people forgot even to fire their guns, staring blankly up at the sky.
One pair of Yul’s six pupils glowed. There was a faint tingling sensation in them, as if they hinted at an ability yet to be revealed.
Instinctively, he knew the reason—it hadn’t been long since he became a Deep King, and that power had yet to fully awaken.
Each pupil was precisely locked onto its target.
In particular, he could pinpoint the exact locations of the mages.
The mages who became the targets understood immediately that they were marked. He was flying straight at them, ignoring the soldiers entirely.
“Th-that thing is a Seaborn?”
Some stared wide-eyed as if seeing a Seaborn for the first time. But the moment it closed in, terror crushed them.
“The formula! Don’t just stand there, weave the formula!”
“Flame of the deepest darkne—gyaaak!!”
One mage openly chanting was crushed outright beneath Yul’s torso.
Squish.
Some nearby creatures were caught up and crushed as well, but Yul couldn’t care less.
“「Fireball」!”
The instant he heard a chanting from somewhere, Yul smoothly twisted his body to evade the incoming spell, then swept his tail fin across the ground.
Human beings were crushed by the massive weight, and fragments of flesh splattered into the air.
“R-run away!”
“「Lightning Strike - Flash」!”
A lightning-like spell struck Yul’s body, but he endured it with ease.
‘It does sting a bit.’
Still, it dealt no meaningful damage.
As Yul smashed and obliterated mages one by one with his fins like swatting flies, he realized there were quite a lot of them.
‘Seal their chanting.’
Reciting verses was called chanting, and it was done solely with the mouth.
Experts could form spells using trigger words without chanting, but most relied on chanting to release magic from their hands.
In that case, all he had to do was stop their tongues from moving. And the force needed to pin down a tongue was about as much as a single human finger. Even divided across twelve directions, that wasn’t difficult.
Using all twelve pupils of both eyes, he observed every mage, identified the position of their tongues, and simultaneously applied telekinesis to the tongues inside their open mouths, sealing their chants.
“Mm! Mmmph!”
“Mmmphmmmmph!”
If he could apply telekinesis to internal organs, he could kill them from afar—but exerting telekinesis inside the bodies of magic-bearing beings was difficult. The mouth, however, was easy.
And this chant-sealing would only last a moment. The enemy would respond soon; he couldn’t afford to waste time.
Even this brief window was enough for Yul.
There was no need to deal with every mage. He only had to eliminate those in his way before reaching his destination.
He identified the mages along the route to his target, calculated the shortest path between them, then hugged the ground and flew as if sliding, killing them all with body slams.
Every mage on his winding, snake-like trajectory was crushed, and at the end of that path lay the very center of the enemy lines.
“Insane! The monster’s coming!”
“Re-retreat! Retreat!”
With his belly torn and aching, he soared lightly above the enemy lines at the end and swooped down in a final assault.
Unless they had known in advance, it was impossible to devise countermeasures against Yul in such a short time.
He immediately surrounded the king and the old noble standing beside him with his forefins.
The capture was complete. All that remained was the conclusion.
* * *
Yul’s exploits caused an enormous stir.
The number he personally killed did not even reach a hundred, but Yul was impossible to miss anywhere on the battlefield, and he captured the most critical target of all—the usurper king.
Seeing Yul’s power, Lui stood there with his mouth hanging open.
‘A-are Seaborn really this strong…?’
In the first place, how many Seaborn could even appear on a land battlefield? But the moment it became possible, Yul turned into an overwhelming strategic weapon.
‘T-this makes it possible. So this was the source of Yul’s confidence!’
The captured usurper king and Marquis Ahmandus were brought straight into the camp.
The usurper king, who had put up fierce resistance, was dragged along by soldiers, but Marquis Ahmandus walked on his own, expressionless.
“L-let me go! I never wanted to be king or anything!”
As if sensing his own end, he made no excuses even when standing before Lui.
“Marquis Ahmandus! Do you have any last words!?”
“I only wished to dream.”
There was no need for a trial. Lui listened to his advisors and pondered for a moment before issuing an execution order for Marquis Ahmandus, the one behind it all.
Immediately, a knight from the Knight Order waiting nearby raised a longsword and struck down the marquis's head.
The severed head rolled across the ground with a dull thud.
After confirming that Marquis Ahmandus had been dealt with by summary execution—
“P-please spare me! I never wanted to be king!”
“Bellos Lothar, the Shepherd King. I sentence you to exile beyond the borders.”
“Th-thank you! Thank you!”
“However, that tongue of yours will be taken as the price for your life.”
“W-what do you mean by that? Don’t! Don’t do it, mmph. Mmph. Ghk!”
Lui did not even blink at the resolute punishment.
Those under his command thought he had delivered a fair and convincing conclusion.
“Dauphin, it is time to march on the capital.”
“Very well.”
The results of the battle were overwhelming. Splitting the forces in two, Lui entrusted Godfrey Bachet with cleaning up the aftermath of the engagement, while he himself headed for the capital first with part of the army.
Yul was riding alongside him toward the capital. He already knew how to ride, having learned it while killing time at the Beltaine Family estate.
As they traveled, Yul and Lui had a brief private conversation.
“Yul, have you established a Communion? Do it with me. If you do that Communion thing, you become a Sinker, right?”
“I already have.”
“Damn it. How do you undo a Communion?”
“I don’t plan to.”
“Can’t you do it for me? Is it impossible to have a Communion with two people?"
“You can’t. It’s set by the rules.”
Lui immediately wilted. At times like this, he needed praise.
“I can’t establish a Communion with you, but still, you’ve done well so far. To be honest, you looked just like the Sun King.”
“I-I can’t even come close to my father’s heels.”
Even as he said that, the corners of his mouth curled up slightly—apparently something he couldn’t suppress.
He was still incompetent and still the type who loved praise, but regardless of what was inside, outwardly, Lui was doing things properly, just like the Sun King.
That was an objective fact.
“What did you say I should do once we reach the capital?”
“As Martin Ferrand said, it would be best to ascend the throne. Then the Duke of Dawn will truly become a rebel.”
After revealing his treason this far, there was no way the Duke of Dawn would remain still. He would move, without fail.
Indeed, according to incoming intelligence, he had originally planned to deploy after autumn, but upon seeing Lui crush the capital’s forces at tremendous speed, he had grown desperate and was now trying to march on the capital with whatever portion of his troops he could muster.
“By now, the Duke of Dawn is facing a devil’s dilemma. If he waits, he’ll be branded a traitor. If he moves quickly, he’ll have to come with an incomplete force.”
“To think my uncle would do such a thing……”
Come to think of it, for this guy, it was kin fighting kin.
“In any case, I’ll leave once even the threat of the Duke of Dawn is gone.”
“You’re really leaving?”
“I already have someone I’ve established Communion with. Communion levels rise faster when you’re together.”
“Who is it?”
A faint sense of discomfort crept in as Lui smiled brightly. Still, it wasn’t like he’d kill Lucian.
“A student at Weimar Wigma Academy.”
“Ah. From that island nation?”
“Why?”
“No reason.”
What was that? Was it just his imagination? He felt a trace of killing intent, but there was no way this guy had that kind of backbone.
“Well, anyway, you’ll be king soon, so prepare yourself.”
“Got it. I’ve thought about a lot of things during this time. I don’t have my father’s overwhelming charisma, but instead, during my reign, I’ll seek advice from many advisors. Yes, just as Martin Ferrand suggested, it would be good to establish a council.”
“Oh? That’s a good idea.”
Voluntarily choosing to divide the king’s authority was not an easy decision.
But by making that choice, he would be able to draw countless nobles—who had been wavering over whether to stand by Lui—over to his side.
“I’ll share authority with the council.”
The royal family’s power would weaken, but through the council, Frangia would grow strong.
Soon after, they arrived at the capital.
The moment they entered, citizens came out waving the royal banners. Watching the welcoming crowd, Yul covered his face.
‘That orca painted over there is seriously embarrassing.’
A single orca, boldly emblazoned by King Jean, occupied one corner of the royal standard.
Ah, well, he wasn’t an orca anymore, so whatever.
After completing the march on the capital, the Dauphin’s army held a brief ceremony of rewards and commendations, then immediately began preparing for the king’s coronation.
Knowing that the Duke of Dawn’s army would arrive, the coronation was to be conducted in a simplified form.
Lui suddenly became incredibly busy. Originally, Yul had needed to stay by his side and keep him under control, but after the victory, Lui had gained some breathing room and was now listening well to Martin Ferrand.
‘He’s doing better than I expected even without me.’
It felt a bit bitter, but thinking of it as Lui’s growth wasn’t a bad thing.
In the meantime, Yul decided to finish up a task Lucian had entrusted to him.
“What was it again?”
A bookstore called Labellum, was it?
In a secluded alley of the area known as Shop Street No. 23, west of the capital…….
Yul wandered around Shop Street No. 23 and soon found the alley.
“Is this it?”
It was a sparsely populated street. Buildings that had been haphazardly expanded caught his eye.
In the capitals of old countries, it wasn’t unusual to find such chaotically constructed buildings. Unless it was a newly planned city, labyrinthine structures like this were to be expected.
At some point, the presence of people thinned out.
After wandering through the alley for a while, he finally found the bookstore called Labellum.
‘He said it was a book called The Gray Baran. And what's specifically needed is the card tucked inside The Gray Baran.’
The moment Yul stepped inside the bookstore, he felt as though the space itself was overlapping.
“Welcome. Welcome to Labellum.”
A smiling angel stood before him.
This was not a metaphor. Wings were attached to her back.