Chapter 24
Chapter 24
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: The Palace March
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Count Vladimir Savinkov was loyal to the Ruth Kingdom.
Not only because he was the king's relative by marriage, but because he truly loved the kingdom where he had been born and raised.
Economy, resources, population.
He had led this kingdom, which lacked in every aspect, all this time. He had somehow managed to unite the nobles who fought among themselves at every opportunity.
In the end, he had failed to control the nobles and ended up contributing to sending Victor off to the empire.
"Ha..."
In the late hours of the night when most people were asleep.
Even now, he was alone in an empty conference room, racking his brain for countermeasures.
To come up with an appropriate response and then summon the nobles again for a meeting.
"This is tough."
However, even Vladimir, who had solved countless problems before, couldn't quickly find an answer in a situation where one disaster piled upon another.
The army had been on the verge of exploding ever since Victor was sent away.
They couldn't reduce its size either, with a war against the empire looming in just one year.
Especially the 1st Legion—touching it would immediately spark massive backlash.
As the legion that had fought the longest wars, its elite status and organization were on a level incomparable to the others.
With even Victor, who had kept them in check, gone, it wouldn't be strange if they turned their swords on the nobles at the first opportunity.
To counter this, Vladimir had deliberately left Anna, Victor's handpicked successor, untouched.
For now, he planned to just keep watch to ensure they caused no trouble, and once time passed and their discontent subsided even slightly.
Then, appoint a proper legion commander through due process and bring them under control—that was his idea of the best approach.
In the end, come next year, all the legions would unite against the empire, live or die.
His plan was simply to stall until then without everything blowing up.
He wasn't sure if the Ruth Kingdom—without Victor and with territory already lost—could hold out against the empire, but it was still better than the kingdom collapsing outright right now.
"Of all times, Victor had to come back. Of all people."
Victor's sudden return had thrown everything into disarray.
Vladimir had been pushed by the nobles into sending Victor to the empire in the first place.
But regardless of the reasons, from the moment he sold Victor out, all he could hope was that Victor never returned.
The instant he incurred his grudge, Victor had become a bomb capable of destroying the Ruth Kingdom at any moment.
And yet, by the emperor's mere whim, Victor had set foot back in Zabrinsk.
"...Is this the emperor's scheme?"
The timing of his return was so perfectly timed that Vladimir even suspected it was all part of the emperor's plot.
The notification that Victor was heading to Zabrinsk had arrived just two days before he actually stormed into the city.
No one had anticipated his arrival exactly two days later, so the nobles, thinking they still had time, had split into factions and bickered as usual, each pushing their own opinions.
To forcibly impose procedures on someone with Victor's influence, they needed the support of at least the majority of the nobles first.
Victor had perfectly exploited that brief gap before they could gather and unify their opinions.
Vladimir had been confident he could rally the nobles again in just seven days.
No, five days for a threat as great as Victor. But before he could even prepare a response, Victor had already joined the 1st Legion.
Now that Victor had regained his power, an incident could erupt at any moment.
"Mikhail, Andrei, Nikolai..."
He worried about the nobles who had fled the conference room.
If they made some foolish move and provoked the 1st Legion, Victor—now with justification—had every reason to mobilize his forces.
Vladimir had given prior notice to the Royal Guard and the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Legions in case of emergency, but against Victor with the army's overwhelming support, he couldn't expect much from them.
"Please, just stay quiet..."
The moment Victor moved, the Ruth Kingdom was finished, one way or another.
As Vladimir reviewed documents on the kingdom's current state, he desperately prayed that nothing would happen until the next meeting.
At that moment.
"Count Savinkov! The 1st Legion is marching on the palace!"
His valet burst into the conference room in a panic.
"...Tell me the details."
"Acting 1st Legion Commander Anna has mobilized the troops, saying she must root out traitors!"
Vladimir clutched his head, feeling dizzy.
Root out traitors? He couldn't even begin to imagine how such a vicious phrase had come about.
"Traitors?"
"Yes! They claim the Royal Guard attacked them after falling for forged orders, so now they're hunting those who faked the documents!"
"Where is Royal Guard Captain Andrei?"
"No one knows! The guards say they haven't seen him since he left the palace a few hours ago..."
"Damn it all!"
-Thwack!
Vladimir irritably crumpled the paper he was holding and stood up.
He didn't even ask about the size of the force.
If they were moving to capture traitors, it was safe to assume the full 8,000 were coming.
There was no time to wake the king and get authorization.
He pulled out several blank orders pre-signed in the king's name, quickly filled them in, and handed them to the valet.
"Deliver these to the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Legion commanders as fast as you can. Tell them the 1st Legion has rebelled—mobilize immediately to stop them!"
"But...! Understood!"
He immediately gave up on any explanations.
Anna, who had shown no movement until now, mobilizing the army right away meant she had some basis for her claims, in one form or another.
Using the strong term "rebellion" despite not fully grasping the situation was to secure support from the other legions as much as possible.
To face Victor with the full army's backing, they needed at least an accusation of rebellion to make cooperation easier.
Proof could come after dealing with it.
Evidence was something the victor could easily fabricate, so once they captured Victor, they could pin the rebellion on him.
After the valet left the conference room, Vladimir made a quick decision.
The moment they mobilized on this scale, the 1st Legion's target could only be the palace.
They needed the king for any legitimacy.
If he joined the 2nd or 3rd Legion first and declared the 1st Legion rebels in the king's name, that would give the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Legions justification to move.
They surely knew this, so they would be approaching quickly.
The palace had only the Royal Guard without their captain.
Stopping the 1st Legion with them was impossible, so the best option was to escape the palace with the king before they arrived.
As Vladimir moved to fetch the king,
-Boom!
"Count Savinkov, Your Excellency! Spare us!"
Nikolai's group beat him to it, rushing into the conference room.
Drenched in sweat, some hadn't even removed the sacks from their heads in their haste as they knelt before Vladimir.
"What is it."
"1st Legion soldiers suddenly chased us—we barely escaped!"
"...Ha."
Vladimir could guess their situation from their appearance.
They had simply fled out of excessive fear.
There must have been some reason they chose the palace.
"Do you know what's happening?"
"No idea!"
"...Figures."
Vladimir abandoned the escape plan.
With such suspicious figures hiding in the palace, the 1st Legion would charge in with full confidence.
Being chased all the way here meant those soldiers had come very close.
Without confirming if they were definitely 1st Legion soldiers or how far they'd advanced.
There was no guarantee he could link up with the other legions even if he left the palace.
"Hide in the spare guest rooms."
"Thank you!"
"Haa..."
Vladimir sighed.
Kicking them out now would be pointless.
The 1st Legion would use them as an excuse to "search" the interior anyway, and even if he handed them all over, they'd make excuses to send in troops.
After sending the nobles away, Vladimir prepared orders and headed to the Royal Guard barracks in the palace.
If escape was impossible, the only remaining support was the Royal Guard.
He didn't trust their capabilities, but there were no other options.
And even that pillar of support
"The Royal Guard will not move."
"...What?"
Crumbled immediately.
"Are you defying His Majesty's orders right now?!"
"Without Captain Andrei, we cannot move."
"Ha."
Vladimir waved the orders threateningly, but the moment the deputy captain heard it was the 1st Legion, he chose surrender.
"The Royal Guard won't move when the palace is in crisis?!"
"..."
"How—how! Aren't you ashamed of the emblem on your chests?!"
Vladimir spat his rage as he looked around at the gathered men.
Seeing the other guards, including Mikhail and the nobles who seemed to know the full story, all averting their frightened gazes.
He didn't press them further.
"If you're not going to use it, at least take one."
"...Understood."
Instead, he tucked a sword into his belt and left the barracks.
Staggering down the empty palace corridor, Vladimir collapsed to the floor.
Visions of the palace falling and the 1st Legion purging the nobles flashed before his eyes, filling him with regret over past choices.
"...For those bastards, I..."
The nobles, who should have united to lead the country, had scattered for their own gains. The Royal Guard, meant to protect the palace, had chosen to save their own skins over the nation.
"If it had been Victor..."
If he had chosen Victor instead of these nobles—Victor, who had shown near-perfect exemplary conduct.
If, instead of checking him out of fear of that perfection, he had empowered him.
A Ruth Kingdom led by Victor.
"Ahh..."
As Vladimir imagined a Ruth Kingdom with Victor, he pondered to the end what choice would truly be for the kingdom.
After sitting slumped for several minutes in deep thought,
"If the kingdom is truly finished..."
He stood with resolved eyes and headed to the king's bedroom.
I believe the most important thing for a clean and comfortable betrayal is justification—first, second, and third.
With solid justification, the power and opportunity for betrayal come naturally, and enduring the aftermath becomes much easier.
The same holds true now.
Thanks to Andrei charging in so boldly, we had gained an ironclad justification.
Forged royal orders and a night ambush.
With such excellent material, properly cooking it up would create justification even to deal with the nobles.
The core was claiming they had forged the king's orders.
They hadn't even bothered with proper forgery—the scribbled content, and the king's signature and seal that looked like they'd been glanced at and roughly copied from the side.
It was such shoddy forgery that falling for it would be the real surprise, but once the orders fell into our hands, the quality of the forgery didn't matter at all.
Without those orders, we couldn't have moved so confidently.
What I needed to handle wasn't the Royal Guard, but the nobles behind them.
Mobilizing the 1st Legion had to wait until we had justification to deal with the nobles.
A simple ambush wasn't enough.
The implicated nobles had likely already prepared to cut off tails, and the only non-Royal Guard participant, Baron Oleg Likov, hadn't said a word.
If the nobles who sent them started claiming it was the Royal Guard acting alone, it would be hard to touch them.
Andrei was too timid to move without orders, but mere suspicion wasn't enough evidence to pin crimes on the nobles.
In the end, it would conclude with the attackers being punished.
I would strengthen security, prepare the soldiers to move at any time, and deploy them—that's where it would stop.
Waiting for justification to sweep the nobles away in one go.
But with the Royal Guard ambushing while carrying fake orders, the situation changed.
Previously, they had barged into the heart of the 1st Legion on a single order and arrested the supreme commander.
We could claim it was plausible for the blindly obedient Royal Guard—faithful to royal commands—to fall for fakes and launch such a grave assault on the 1st Legion commander.
Oleg's involvement alone backed the idea that nobles' intentions were mixed in.
A noble not part of the Royal Guard joining the ambush meant it wasn't planned solely by them.
This led to the conclusion that there was a backer behind the assault.
A group or individual capable of sending forged orders to the Royal Guard and planning a joint 1st Legion attack.
Since the entire Royal Guard was stationed in the palace, the culprits narrowed to those who could enter and exit freely.
That left only the nobles.
With this conclusion, we could march on the palace to protect the king and root out the conspiring nobles for punishment.
We had secured our own legitimacy, so as long as things didn't spiral to extremes, we wouldn't need excessive bloodshed.
I planned to return to the empire per the agreement, so I had to think ahead.
The 1st Legion trusted and followed me especially, but support from the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th wasn't weak either.
If we swiftly handled the nobles using this justification as planned, they wouldn't resist me.
Even if they did, it wouldn't escalate to serious danger.
They could become my strength depending on how things unfolded, so moving without sufficient justification would unnecessarily heighten friction with them.
Nothing was as inefficient as cutting one's own flesh, so avoid it if possible.
It was also for my personal reputation.
Though I wasn't openly leading the troops, not everyone would be blind to it.
High chance the label of "coup-leading general" would follow and hinder me.
To counter appropriately, I needed to prepare from now.
The less the damage and the solider the justification, the more I could say in my defense.
In the best scenario, I could even paint the nobles as the traitors instead.
"Drive out the traitors!"
"Protect His Majesty the King!"
The 1st Legion soldiers already saw this march as a traitor purge.
They chased any resisting or fleeing nobles as suspicious and even tried to tear down doors of noble houses.
This was the nature of the military.
Once it gained momentum, it was hard to stop.
Now, I just needed to steer the direction slightly.
A nobles' meeting had been held just yesterday, so most key nobles were likely still in Zabrinsk.
Capture them on sight, tie them up, secure the king under the pretext of safety.
Then pin the crimes on the nobles and purge them—that was it.
"We don't know yet who's involved, so take them alive without harm."
"Understood. Don't kill any nobles! Capture them alive!"
"Yes!"
I didn't forget to keep reminding Anna to prevent bloodshed.
From chats with soldiers earlier, their resentment toward nobles was worse than I'd expected.
To avoid backlash, I had to control the process carefully, subtly influencing Anna to adjust the troops accordingly.
"Huh? Where... is this..."
In the midst of it, Andrei, whom we might need against the Royal Guard and had been dragging along, opened his eyes.
-Thud!
"..."
Before he could say more than a few words, Anna's scabbard swung.
"Anna."
"Didn't kill him."
"...Right."
I glanced at her immediate excuse, then turned toward the footsteps approaching from ahead.
"Lady Anna!"
A soldier was rushing toward us.
"A suspicious group wearing weird cloths on their heads entered the palace! Some search teams are waiting for orders in front of the palace!"
He reported upon reaching Anna.
Suspicious group?
I didn't know who, but no reason not to use them.
"His Majesty might be in danger."
"...Pick up the pace! We must protect the king!"
"Yes!"
I whispered to Anna, and she immediately understood, issuing exactly the order I wanted.
Checking the minimap, no one seemed able to block our path to the palace.
The occasional Royal Guard we encountered fled in surprise at the sight of the soldiers.
We pressed on toward the palace without stopping.
The end of the Ruth Kingdom seemed finally in sight.