Chapter 228: The Platinum Knight Order
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 228: The Platinum Knight Order
Upon arriving before the audience chamber, the Chancellor saw the knights guarding the doors. Each wore armor of different patterns and colors, signifying they all belonged to different factions.
The Chancellor scanned them one by one, but once again, there were no knights from the Imperial family.
“Good day, Count Robert. Are you here for the meeting?”
“…I am.”
“Very well.”
After confirming Robert had no concealed weapons, the knights allowed him into the audience chamber.
The chamber was filled with the ministers who managed the Imperial Capital, court nobles, landed nobles from the outer territories, and the knights who served as their escorts.
Naturally, these knights were not of the Imperial Order either; they were brought by the nobles from their own family estates.
As the Chancellor held back a sigh at the chaotic scene, a middle-aged man, accompanied by a knight, approached him.
It was Count Pike, the administrator of the Imperial Palace and a close friend of Robert’s.
“Robert. You’re a little late today, aren’t you?”
“I was stopped twice on my way here.”
“Let me guess, they were trying to get a piece of the budget again. Why didn’t you just ignore them like you usually do?”
“I wanted to, but one of them was a duke. I couldn’t just brush him off.”
“My, if it was a duke, you must have had a hard time refusing. Honestly, the moment the Imperial family shows weakness, the jackals come running. What is this nonsense, bringing knights before Her Majesty under the pretext of ‘safety’?”
Count Pike glared at the nobles standing with their knights.
Robert let out a dry laugh.
“You say that, but you have a knight by your side as well, don’t you?”
“Ah, but I only brought one. If one of those other bastards loses their mind and starts something, who’s going to help me? I have to look out for myself. On that note, you should bring an escort knight with you, too.”
“I’m fine. If I start doing that, who will Her Majesty the Empress be able to trust and entrust her work to?”
“You stubborn old fool… That’ll be the death of you one day.”
As the two were conversing as usual, a trumpet blast sounded, and the doors to the hall swung open.
“Her Majesty, the Empress, arrives!”
The nobles and knights cleared a path, bowing their waists slightly in a show of respect. The Empress walked between them, ascended the steps, and sat upon the throne.
Then, as if on cue, the nobles straightened up.
The Empress hadn't even spoken a word.
It was their way of showing they would observe the courtesies due to the Imperial family, but they would not recognize her as the Emperor.
The Empress was more than accustomed to such attitudes. There was no point in getting upset over it now, so she began the meeting immediately.
A flood of demands, disguised as loyal counsel from the nobles, poured forth.
“Your Highness. The damage from monsters near the southern canyon of the capital is growing more severe. If Your Highness permits, I will dispatch my knight order to subjugate the monsters and protect the people of the canyon.”
“Marquis Kite! Wasn’t that the petition I presented to Her Highness at the last meeting? Wait your turn!”
“Count Memento, Her Highness already rejected your proposal, did she not? Why would Her Highness, who cares so deeply for her people, do such a thing? Could it be that she judged your forces insufficient to protect the people there?”
“Are you insulting my knight order?!”
“An insult? I am merely stating a fact. Is it not known to everyone here that my army is stronger than the Count’s?”
“Grrrk…! Your Highness! Do you think so as well?”
Losing the argument, Count Memento chose to push the decision onto the Empress. After all, no matter how much they argued amongst themselves, it was the Empress who made the final decision on matters within the capital.
“Yes. I do not require Count Memento’s help.”
However, the Empress did not side with Count Memento.
“Likewise, I do not require the Marquis’s help either.”
To be precise, she sided with neither of the two nobles.
“The Imperial family will manage its own territories.”
She wasn’t so foolish as to miss their dirty trick: pretending to protect the territory, stationing their troops there, and then subtly annexing it into their own lands or extorting a hefty protection fee.
But even if she saw through the nobles’ vile schemes, it didn’t change much.
“What do you mean by that? Surely Your Highness does not intend to ignore the suffering of your people?”
“Your Highness, please reconsider. If the late Emperor were here, he would have surely acted for the sake of his people.”
Such was the reality of the world: what you possessed would be taken by the powerful if you lacked the strength to defend it.
The Marquis and the Count, who had just been tearing at each other’s throats, now joined forces and bared their fangs at the Empress.
“Is it not our Noble Alliance that is responsible for the security within the capital and the subjugation of monsters outside it? What can the Imperial family, which lacks the power to even protect the heart of the Empire, possibly hope to defend?”
Other nobles, eager to carve out their own interests from the Imperial family that had nothing left but authority, chimed in.
“The Imperial family still has strength remaining!” the Empress shouted.
As she said, no matter how much damage the Imperial family had suffered, they still had enough power to protect their cities and territories from monsters.
The problem was that they no longer had the power to keep the other nobles in check.
“No. You do not.”
“Sir Ekin…!”
The Empress stared at Duke Ekin, her eyes filled with a sense of betrayal. She could understand the other nobles, but she had never imagined that one of the five great ducal families, who had shared in the Empire’s long history, would backstab her so openly.
Indeed, the other ducal families had either remained quiet or had already departed for their own territories.
However, the circumstances of the Leonar ducal family were different from the others.
Their domain had been directly attacked by vampires, and they had suffered damage on a completely different scale from the other ducal houses.
It was a rather sordid method, but they had to recoup their losses this way to avoid falling behind in the competition with the other ducal families.
“It may be difficult for Your Highness to accept, but the Imperial Knight Order has lost its strength. For the sake of preventing harm to the innocent people, please, you must accept this.”
“Accept it!”
The other nobles echoed Ekin’s words. They pressed the Empress to concede to their demands, and she bit her lip in frustration.
They are acting so utterly insolent…!
First, they pressured her by stationing their knight orders in the capital under the pretext of protection, and now they were demanding she hand over land.
It was an outrageously audacious act to threaten the Imperial family, but she lacked the power to punish them for it.
She was reaching her limit in fending off their demands at every meeting.
Is there truly no other way?
Was the Imperial family, with its centuries of history, to collapse like this?
As the Empress’s worries deepened amidst the nobles’ clamor, a commotion erupted from the entrance of the audience chamber. The nobles stopped their shouting and turned to look.
“What is this disturbance?!” Ekin roared.
A knight approached, flustered.
“Your Grace, it’s just—”
“Aaargh!”
Before the knight could finish his explanation, a scream rang out. The doors of the audience chamber burst open, and a knight flew inside, clattering as he rolled across the floor.
“A-An attack?!”
“An attack? This is the Imperial Palace. What fearless fool would dare trespass here?”
“It could be the remnants of the vampires!!”
The nobles murmured, thrown into confusion.
Their escort knights stepped forward, drawing their swords, ready to cut down any suspicious person who appeared. But the figure who emerged before them was someone they never expected.
“Have you all lost your minds?! Sheathe your swords, now!”
It was Bennet, the Platinum Knight Commander.
He strode into the audience chamber, his brow furrowed in anger.
The nobles stared at him with bewildered eyes.
“W-Why is the Platinum Knight Commander here…?”
“Could it be that he has already finished subjugating the Demon King and returned?”
While they were lost in confusion, Bennet knelt on one knee before the Empress.
“Bennet, Commander of the Platinum Knight Order. I have just returned, leading the Platinum Knights.”
“…Raise your head.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
At the words “Your Majesty,” the nobles’ faces soured. Did that mean the Platinum Knight Commander recognized the Empress as the Emperor?
In contrast, the Empress’s expression brightened, having gained the most steadfast of allies.
Before she could say anything, Ekin spoke first.
“Platinum Knight Commander. Setting aside your rudeness just now… have you returned after completing your mission?”
“If you are referring to the mission to eliminate the Demon King, then no. The Platinum Knight Order received an order from the Hero, Sir Cloud, and has withdrawn after defeating the last of the Four Heavenly Kings.”
At that, the nobles’ murmuring grew louder.
“Withdrawn? That’s just a fancy way of saying you retreated, isn’t it?”
“Since when did the Hero, Cloud, have the authority to command the Platinum Knight Order?”
“Are you saying you returned, leaving only two Heroes in the Demon Realm?”
Ignoring the mountain of rebukes, Bennet waited only for the Empress’s word. The Empress nodded and raised her voice.
“Enough! The authority to discipline the Platinum Knight Commander lies with the Imperial family. All unrelated parties will hold their tongues!”
“But, Your Highness…”
“It is Your Majesty!”
The Empress’s eyes blazed.
“I am the rightful Emperor of this Empire, having completed the coronation ceremony. Address me with the proper respect!”
The noble who had said “Your Highness” stiffened. But soon, feeling the gaze of the Platinum Knight Commander, Bennet, he bowed his head deeply and spoke in a meek, crawling voice.
“Yes… Your Majesty.”
The Empress smiled in satisfaction, then gave an order to the Platinum Knight Commander.
“The commotion outside must be because of the other knights, correct? Tell them to enter the audience chamber as well.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Bennet bowed his head, then turned and shouted.
“Platinum Knights!”
CRASH!
The closed doors of the audience chamber flew open again, revealing the members of the Platinum Knight Order scuffling with the knights who had been guarding the entrance.
At Bennet’s command, they threw the knights they were grappling with to the floor, strode majestically into the audience chamber, and knelt before the Empress.
The Platinum Knight Order shouted in unison.
“Long live Her Majesty, the Emperor!!”