Unification War - Deharon (6)
Unification War - Deharon (6)
For over 24 hours, without even catching a brief nap,
the situation in the Dharon Kingdom's strategy meeting room, where they had been engaged in a battle of nerves with Archesium.
"The news just came in. It is reported that 10 minutes ago, an attack by Her Majesty Empress Belletria Lien Archesium completely destroyed the southern wall of Rohaton."
Due to the messenger who had just brought the new news, the atmosphere there sank down, piercing through the floor and plunging underground.
And simultaneously, everyone keenly felt that the time had come to make a choice.
"I thought we could hold out for four days... No, that was also assuming the Emperor wasn't participating in the war. Helderon, Commander of the Capital Defense Force, in your opinion, how long can we hold out with the hastily gathered 40,000 troops?"
In response to Count Besner's question, Helderon fell silent for a moment.
Then, receiving for a very brief moment the gazes of the nobles filled with hope, resignation, anxiety, and worry all upon him, he hesitated and opened his mouth with difficulty.
"Calculating with all variables left open—soldiers who will give up fighting midway and surrender, kingdom citizens who will cooperate with the Imperial army and guide the way, and so on... At most, we can hold out for about two days."
"Two days... So completely stopping them is impossible?"
"If reinforcements are sent from the allied nations, if battalion-level or larger units do not surrender, and if the Emperor, like before, only stands by after the initial attack... The opinion of the Corps Chief of Staff is that we could hold out for at least a month...."
Lieutenant General Helderon trailed off after speaking that far.
Because he thought this much was enough.
To make the nobles, who only chatter with their mouths in the kingdom's safest place, recognize the reality.
And the nobles, who fully understood his meaning, soon left the meeting room and began preparing to welcome the Empire in their own ways.
Some, using the lordship rights they already possessed in another kingdom, fled.
Some prepared to surrender to the Empire by disposing of all their estate's assets.
Some accepted all reality and chose to just quietly watch as the Empire devoured everything.
Finally, Count Voltas, Duke Hern, and Marquis Vane, who had tightly gripped power in the Dharon Kingdom for decades.
The three nobles also each made their choice.
"I, Count Voltas Starden, choose to surrender."
"For me, to not tarnish the faces of the previous dukes who are watching over all this, I will fight to the end."
"I am the same. The moment I am discovered for instigating the prince's assassination, I will cleanly lose my life fighting the Imperial army."
With their voices as the last, not a single sound occurred in the strategy meeting room.
And in the heart of Dharon's royal castle.
There, receiving real-time reports on the command's operations and the progress of the war, the King of Dharon.
Leontista Jermadin Dharon, after receiving the news that the nobles had decided to survive in their own ways.
Was preparing for the end on the spot, together with his family.
"Abamama. Didn't I urge you to surrender early on?"
The 1st Prince Serkain let out a long sigh and was the first to speak.
"Why were you swayed for decades by those incompetent nobles, and why did you trust their cunning tongues until the end? This is the result now."
He slammed his fist down on the table.
At Serkain's sharp rebuke, the 2nd Prince Elian standing beside him hurriedly grabbed his arm and dissuaded him.
"Brother, calm down. Blaming Abamama now and regretting the past is useless."
"Elian...."
"Even now, we must immediately declare our intent to surrender to Her Majesty the Emperor. If we kneel first... perhaps we too, like Rehentra, can barely maintain Dharon's lineage. That is the only path to survival."
At the two princes' conversation, the two princesses standing behind them, anxiously holding each other's hands tightly, also nodded their heads repeatedly with pale faces.
"My second brother is right. Before the Imperial army breaks down this royal castle's gate and pushes in, before it's any later, all of us royals must bow our heads at that Emperor's feet."
"Only then can we avoid having our heads wretchedly cut off...."
The voice of the 2nd Princess Rohenna, clutching the hem of the 1st Princess Selea's skirt, trembled finely.
Just as the royals, including the King and Queen, were trembling in fear that they might die if things went even slightly wrong.
In that heavily sunken air.
The youngest prince, Jerhael, who alone failed to grasp the atmosphere, suddenly stepped forward.
"No, why is everyone getting so scared prematurely? Perhaps a good sign has come."
Jerhael dusted off his lapel and lifted his chin with an extremely arrogant expression.
"Am I not superior in every aspect to that filthy Rehentra bastard idiot bastard? In looks, in cultivation, we can't even be compared."
"Jerhael."
"Watch your tongue, youngest. That person is about to become the Imperial Consort."
At his childish nonsense, his siblings' gazes simultaneously turned toward Jerhael.
But the youngest, paying no heed, snorted and chattered on.
"Aren't they just a couple talked about with words, not even having a betrothal ceremony, let alone a wedding? With good luck, I might catch the Emperor's eye, push aside that blockhead, and secure the position of the Empire's Imperial Consort. If the Imperial Consort's position becomes mine, won't Dharon become the Empire's most solid ally overnight?"
"Jerhael!!"
At the oblivious youngest's vain dream, Serkain and Elian pressed their foreheads as if it was absurd.
The princesses simply turned their heads away.
King Leontista just silently listened to his children's heated discussion.
Then soon, with a slow and feeble hand, he removed the Dharon's golden crown resting on his head and placed it on the table.
The symbol of power that had supported the kingdom for decades rolled on the floor pitifully.
And the king's back as he rose from his seat with difficulty was bent endlessly, more than had ever been seen before.
He gazed for a moment at his children still arguing and commanded the awaiting messenger.
"Tell all kingdom forces, the war is... over."
"Understood...."
The messenger, finally shedding the tears he had been holding back, drip by drip, deeply bowed his waist for a moment,
then wiped his tears and hurriedly left the room with trembling footsteps.
Afterwards, only a heavy silence descended in the room.
Listening quietly to the fading sound of the messenger's footsteps, the king looked at each of his family members with resigned eyes.
"Let us... finish the preparations."
"Abamama...."
"The preparations to meet the master of the continent...."
The morning of the day when the dawn of the Empire's history being newly rewritten brightened.
The thick darkness that had settled all night receded, and red sunlight poured down over the collapsed walls of Rohaton.
Dharon, unlike Rehentra, chose even quicker surrender and submission.
'Well... There probably wasn't any other option besides that choice.'
Unlike Rehentra, Dharon was not part of the Kingdom Alliance.
Regardless of how they received their support, as long as their support didn't continue.
Dharon was destined to be devoured much faster than Rehentra no matter what desperate struggle they made.
'Still, I thought they'd hold out for at least a week... Were they more hollow inside than I thought?'
Gazing at the rising sun, I was momentarily lost in thought, then glanced to the side.
There, the nobles who chose to surrender and the kingdom's royals were all bound in a kneeling posture.
Feeling my gaze, as if they had made a pact.
Facing Belletria, standing nobly as she met the morning breeze carrying dew.
They simultaneously buried their heads.
"Ah, the true master of the Ahtera Continent...!"
King Leontista shouted first.
"Your Majesty, more great and perfect than any emperor in history! Please, please bestow upon us insignificant beings who dared to block the bright and righteous path Your Majesty will tread with foolish and dull choices, just once, mercy as vast as the sea!"
"We, the most noble bloodline of Dharon and all nobles, swear eternal obedience to the Empire here! We will become Your Majesty's loyal hunting dogs and lead the charge in the great undertaking of continental unification!"
Prince Serkain added to the words and pressed his forehead to the ground.
An oath of submission filled with the meaning of surrender, so desperate it was almost servile.
With each thud, thud sound, the shoulders of the princesses kneeling beside him flinched.
Just as Belletria, looking down at their pitiful state with languid eyes, was about to open her mouth.
Finally, the youngest prince who couldn't hold back his frivolous words.
Jerhael, likely confident that he was quite a distance from the Emperor and that Serkain's head-banging sounds would prevent hearing.
Burying his head, he muttered very softly.
"Haah... No matter how I look, I'm a hundred, a thousand times better than that Rehentra blockhead bastard. Why is everyone making a fuss only at me, Abamama, Eomamama, brothers, sisters? Tch. It's so embarrassing, how am I supposed to return to the Academy later?"
"......."
However, in the stillness where almost all figures kept their mouths firmly shut due to the Imperial army's overwhelming momentum.
That small whisper didn't escape Belletria's sensitive hearing.
Her head slowly, very slowly turned toward Jerhael.
"Just now... with that trivial mouth, what did you say?"
Her gaze precisely pierced Jerhael.
Instantly, sensing that something truly big had happened, Crown Prince Serkain and the Queen, their faces turning pale, hurriedly opened their mouths.
"Y-Your Majesty! This child is still immature...!"
"Please retract your anger! I will take his place...!"
"How dare."
Two Imperial soldiers guarding Belletria's side instantly sprang out,
pressed down on the Crown Prince and Queen's shoulders, and slammed them into the ground.
"Do not open your mouths recklessly without His Majesty's permission!"
"Daring to interrupt while His Majesty is speaking, how insolent!"
The other royals couldn't even breathe, gagging under the overwhelming aura emitted by the Emperor.
And Jerhael, who had been singled out, perhaps realizing it was already irreversible, instead lifted his head sharply with an expression of defiance.
Staring directly at Belletria with eyes full of fear, he spat out all his thoughts without holding back.
"Yes! I did it because it's unfair! That Rehentra bastard standing over there just got lucky catching Your Majesty's eye and changed his destiny, but I am a legitimate prince of Dharon! In looks, in talent, I am far superior, so why must I receive such treatment?!"
'Oh... Wow shit, what the hell. What kind of stupid bastard is this? Is he planning to get his entire family massacred?'
It's a bit annoying to get cursed at to my face, but my pride wasn't important right now.
Calming Belletria's anger, which was about to explode, was the priority.
Getting cursed at, I can just summon him separately later and beat him up.
But if I can't calm her down now, even the surrendered nobles will all be done for!!
I tried to step forward somehow to calm her down.
But that was when.
Belletria noticed my movement and, with her gaze still fixed on Jerhael, uttered just one word.
"Ruamel."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Restrain my fiancé so he cannot move a single step."
"Understood."
Ruamel showed not a moment of hesitation.
"Wait, hold...!"
Before my words even finished, she slipped behind me and, with tremendous force, tightly gripped and immobilized both my arms.
While I struggled to break free from Ruamel, Belletria slowly began to move.
The remaining royals, bound and watching the scene, belatedly came to their senses and bowed their heads.
"Y-Your Majesty! Please! Please forgive him just this once!"
"This child has just become an adult, so his thinking is still a bit short! It's our fault for pampering him too much because he's the youngest! Rather, kill me instead!"
King Leontista and the princesses wept and shouted, but Belletria's steps did not stop.
The Imperial soldiers, watching the situation, promptly and easily subdued even them and gagged them.
Soon, Belletria standing before Jerhael.
She looked down at the prince, trembling in fear, for a moment, then stretched out a slender hand and tightly gripped his neck.
And lifted him, who had the build of an average adult male, lightly into the air.
"Gk, ugh...!"
Jerhael struggled in the air, trying to tear at Belletria's arm, but her arm didn't even budge.
Belletria gazed at the prince, whose face was turning purple from lack of oxygen, with truly indifference and spoke.
"Seems like you're acting like this after hearing the unworthy rumors that have been spreading across the continent lately...."
Her red eyes flickered.
"Do not be mistaken. I am merely, for the man I love, enduring and being patient. It is not that my nature has changed."
As strength entered her fingers, Jerhael's neck bones made a chilling, creaking sound.
She applied crushing force as if she would burst his head at any moment,
then, as soon as the prince's eyes rolled back, he lost consciousness, and his body went limp, she plopped him down onto the ground.
With a dull thud, Jerhael was slammed onto the ground.
Belletria looked down at him as if viewing an animal carcass, dusted off her hands, and said.
"Consider yourself lucky. If it weren't for Idelon, because of your stupid, trivial mouth, all of Dharon's royals... no, all of Dharon's humans would have been massacred today."
"Thank... Thank you, thank you for sparing the youngest!!"
"...Tsk, you are the first human to incur my wrath head-on and survive."
With those words, Belletria turned away.
Then, directly facing the tens of thousands of Imperial troops waiting beyond the collapsed walls of Rohaton down the hill, she shouted.
"The war is over."
As soon as her declaration echoed across the battlefield.
"Waaaaaaaaah—!!! Long live Her Majesty!!! Long live Archesium!!!"
The Imperial troops filling the horizon roared with cheers.