Chapter 211
Chapter 211
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 211
Chapter Title: Victory Defines Honor
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Despite all sorts of incidents along the way, Eugene and the knights finally had the capital in sight after just ten days.
However, with nearly a hundred heavily armored cavalry marching together, it was impossible not to draw attention.
They flew no banners announcing their identity and left ordinary folk alone, so no one knew who Eugene and his knights really were.
The problem was the nobles who had foolishly picked a fight and gotten thoroughly thrashed by Eugene.
Some had paid ransom and been released, only to immediately send letters to the royal castle reporting on Eugene.
But given the state of the realm, the messengers sent by those nobles were making painfully slow progress toward the capital.
Bandits had sprung up everywhere amid the chaos, and with monster control neglected, roamers were starting to infest various areas.
In such conditions, it was a miracle for a small group of two or three messengers to reach the capital unscathed.
In contrast, nothing stood in Eugene and his knights' way except a few deranged nobles, and so, exactly ten days after leaving Maren, they arrived right at the capital's doorstep.
"My lord, what do you plan to do now? Shouldn't we take a rest?"
The fake prince, Vizak, looked utterly exhausted. Aside from brief stops to eat and sleep, he had hardly dismounted, and his mind and body were worn to the bone.
Without occasionally consuming mana crystals, he would have collapsed long ago during the grueling forced march.
"We'll rest after we seize the royal castle. Besides, the prince hasn't even fought. You're whining a bit much."
". . ."
Vizak would have fired back in the old days, but now he was half-resigned.
In truth, Eugene and the other knights had handled everyone who blocked their path.
The imperial knights hadn't even drawn their swords to get this far, and the most comfortable ones in the group had been the prince, who stayed put, and Vizak.
"I'm asking out of curiosity how Your Highness plans to enter the capital and seize the royal castle, isn't that right, Your Highness?"
"Ah... y-yes, exactly."
Vizak cleared his throat awkwardly at Prince Rocaroph's interjection and continued.
"Ahem! Even if the duke and the others are as valiant as tigers, seizing the capital won't be easy. Even with most of their forces gone, hundreds will still be guarding the city and the castle."
"That's not for the prince to worry about."
". . ."
Vizak's forehead vein throbbed at the curt reply, but he swallowed his anger while glancing at Prince Rocaroph beside him.
"My lord, surely you're not thinking of using dishonorable means against a nation's king?"
"Dishonorable means?"
"Your power as one of the Night Clan. It might be fine against monsters, but in this case, it'd be a huge problem. Even if it succeeds, other kingdoms will cry foul, and Kailer nobles won't easily accept it."
Prince Rocaroph nodded slightly in agreement with Vizak's words.
Barbarian lands like Brantia might overlook it, but nobles of civilized nations nitpicked such things.
Especially in war—anything remotely dishonorable or cowardly drew immediate condemnation.
And that included the unique abilities and mysticism of non-human races.
It was one key reason vampires struggled to join the mainstream.
Eugene laughed coldly.
"That's not my concern."
"W-what...?"
"I'm not a noble of Kailer Kingdom. So what happens to this kingdom or how its nobles view me means nothing."
"But..."
"And besides."
Eugene cut Vizak off indifferently and scanned the others, who were subtly perking up at his conversation with the prince, speaking loudly enough for all to hear.
"That honor Your Highness just mentioned—isn't it all just from the victor's perspective?"
". . .!?"
"The ones who got everything they wanted make up rules like honor and chivalry to keep challengers at bay or tie their hands if they do show up. Isn't that what you're saying?"
". . ."
The prince's entourage gaped in disbelief, but the knights narrowed their brows intently, listening to Eugene.
They'd have scoffed if anyone else said it, but Eugene was the strongest, most honorable, and successful knight they knew.
To them, at least, he was the pinnacle and very embodiment of knighthood.
"It was the king and the cardinal who first attacked my territory and then turned blades on my allies. Why should I care about their honor or consider their feelings? If they intended to treat me honorably, they would've come straight to me first and issued a formal declaration of war."
Vizak's eyes shook harder at Eugene openly cursing the king and cardinal.
But the knights clenched their fists with satisfied grins, nodding vigorously.
"But my lord, think of the others cooperating with you. They could face trouble later—don't you see that?"
"Others? Oh, you mean the Maren leadership and Count Winslon?"
"Exactly."
"If they'd cared about honor, they wouldn't have sent trash like the Ash Heap Knights to Maren to pull their idiotic schemes. Right?"
"Ah, no..."
"They started this bullshit first—the king and that cardinal bastard. Honor? Mercy? Tolerance? Come on, Your Highness, could you feel all that sweet stuff toward enemies trying to kill and crush you? Is that the imperial style or something?"
". . .!"
Vizak clamped his mouth shut, eyes bulging.
Prince Rocaroph, the true target of Eugene's sharp words, stared back with a hardened expression.
Listening made the ones who drove him from his homeland to wander foreign lands spring to mind.
*Can I fight them fair and square and win? Before that—did they ever treat me honorably and justly?*
No need to think.
Just half a year ago, he'd shed bloody tears fleeing the empire amid plots and treachery.
No amount of that vaunted honorable, righteous bullshit could turn the tide.
That's why he'd sought help from Eugene, the daywalker Marekasio.
"Even so..."
"His Grace Duke Bartla is absolutely right, Your Highness."
"Eh? Ah..."
Prince Rocaroph turned from the flustered Vizak and met Eugene's gaze directly.
"Thanks to you, my eyes are open, Your Grace. The honor of foes who drew steel on me first? No need to consider it. If they weren't honorable? That's the loser's excuse. Whining about honor after defeat gets you nothing. Only the victor speaks of honor and justice."
And it gets packaged as the sovereign's magnanimity.
Because the greatest emperor in Roman Empire history, the Conqueror, had done just that.
Behind his glorious victories lurked every dirty trick and scheme. At least, the imperial bloodline knew it well.
"Your servant has remarkable talent, Your Highness."
"Ah, uh... thank you."
Anyone could hear it meant the servant was better than him, but since the servant was actually a prince, Vizak could only nod awkwardly.
"Ahem! So how do we enter the capital?"
"Your Highness, we shouldn't interfere that far. The supreme commander here is Duke Bartla. It might seem like overstepping."
"Ah... right. Then."
"No. This time, Your Highness must get involved."
"Huh?"
Eugene grinned at the baffled prince's group.
"There's a way to enter the royal castle without a single obstruction. Want to hear it?"
* * *
"Yawn..."
Viscount Horei of the capital guard let out a bored yawn.
With Count Hartres—his queen's brother and the guard commander—away leading the rebel suppression army, Viscount Horei, his aide, was in charge of capital security.
But there was hardly anything to do.
Other regions were in near-civil war chaos, but the capital area, firmly held by royalists, was peaceful.
So Viscount Horei and his two hundred guards spent another day listlessly performing perfunctory identity checks at the gates, utterly relaxed.
"Next."
After a cursory glance inside the cart, the guard lazily called the next in line.
"Huh?"
The guard's eyes sharpened.
All six riders were knights.
Tensing up, other soldiers sidled closer. No matter how lax they'd been, they couldn't wave through six fully armored knights.
"Where do you hail from, sirs?"
At the guard's polite question, the man in an unmistakably high-end black cloak raised his hood.
"Greetings, sir. I am from the Roman imperial capital..."
Reverting to his true role as servant for the first time in ages, Vizak presented a golden identity token emblazoned with the imperial seal.
"...and thus, the great Third Prince Rocaroph, inheritor of the golden blood, wishes an audience with Kailer's king."
". . .Hic!"
The guard hiccuped involuntarily at the imperial prince's appearance but quickly composed himself.
"P-please wait a moment! Captain! Lord Horei!"
Word of the Roman imperial prince's arrival reached Viscount Horei immediately.
Seeing the unmistakably genuine golden token, he fussed over the prince's group before galloping off like the wind to relay the astonishing news to the royal castle.
Naturally, the prince's party entered the capital without further checks.
"There's an easy way like this—why bother with my powers? Right?"
"Th-that's... quite the stratagem, my lord."
Vizak wanted to shout about how grand nobles like a Roman prince and Brantian duke could stoop to such cowardly, dishonorable tricks, but he just smiled awkwardly.
The prince had approved anyway, and it was done.
Now they had no choice but to follow the sly vampire noble's lead, however unorthodox.
Where it ended, who knew—but first, meet the Kailer king...
"No! My lord! What are you doing?"
Vizak freaked out.
Prince Rocaroph and the knights, waiting inside the guard barracks for a royal escort befitting his station, stared at Eugene in undisguised shock.
But Eugene ignored them, stripping off his plate mail and neatly stacking it before shoving it toward Princess Lilisein.
"You're the only one I trust to hold my gear and spirit. Don't lose them."
"An infinite honor! I'll guard them with my life."
Princess Lilisein scanned Eugene's near-naked form with heated eyes, then flushed bright red as she cried out.
"Eek!? S-sudden chills..."
Her scorching gaze was already locked on Mirian, who trembled pathetically despite his evolved power boost.
"Mwah. Good boy? I'll treat you gently... kindly. You trust me, right? Hoo, hoo..."
"Eek!"
Mirian dove into the pile of discarded armor, and the princess's eyes flashed red as she threw a fit searching for him.
At that moment, Vizak and the prince, still clueless about what was unfolding, asked hurriedly.
"No way! Someone from the castle will be here soon—what are you planning in that state...?"
Fwoosh...
Then, red mist rose from Eugene's body like heat haze.
Crack! Creak!
His body twisted grotesquely, soon shifting into something not human.
"Gasp!?"
"D-Duke!?"
A raspy voice emanated from what had become a monstrous maw as he faced the recoiling group.
"If a top-tier monster appears in the capital, even every last soldier won't be enough. So what should we do?"
". . .!!!"
Speaking for the wide-eyed, stunned Vizak, the shrewd Prince Rocaroph calmed himself and said,
"That gives our waiting knights outside a perfect excuse to enter!"
"Exactly."
No longer human but a monstrous half-beast eerily resembling a dragon, Eugene leaped out the window.
Moments later, the roar of a drake—land's mightiest monster alongside ogres—mixed with human screams in a chain reaction.
(To be continued in the next chapter)