Chapter 31
Chapter 31
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 31
Chapter Title: Audience with the King of Crossing
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After crossing the border into Crossing, it took us four days to reach Cross Hone, the capital of Crossing.
We had considered stopping by nearby Rainpole first, but no matter what, we couldn't put off an audience with the king as our second priority, so the capital came first.
Cross Hone, the capital of Crossing.
This coastal city was characterized by its gloomy atmosphere.
Perhaps because of the barren land. The city pursued nothing but practicality.
Even as the capital of a great power, the royal palace was laughably small, and there was no hint of artistic flair on the streets.
On the contrary, the smell of fish enveloped the city, giving it an objectively poor impression.
"What a squalid city."
Eonia, who harbored ill feelings toward Crossing, spat curses, but I thought the opposite.
"I rather like it. It doesn't feel extravagant. The citizens' faces look pretty bright too. Well, basic hygiene is a concern."
"I-Is that so! Now that I think about it again, it seems like a really great place!"
Eo switched her stance to match mine.
This girl. She's got the makings of a sycophant, through and through.
In any case, after settling into Cross Hone, I disguised myself as Wade and headed to the palace.
"We've been expecting you, Sir Wade. Please come inside."
Juras must have given prior notice, because the guards guided me straight into the palace without a hitch.
The interior of the palace was no different from the image I'd seen from outside. It was so modest it barely felt like a royal palace.
Finally arriving at the reception room, I came face-to-face with Juras, grinning slyly.
"Welcome, Wade. Has it been half a year?"
"Precisely seven months. More importantly, can we handle this quickly? I'm not at ease being in enemy territory."
"Haha, if I had any intention of doing something to you, it would've happened long ago."
That was true.
"Make yourself comfortable. The king will be here shortly."
"Here? Isn't there a separate audience chamber?"
"This is the audience chamber."
"This shabby reception room?"
"Heh, everyone reacts that way. You're just the first to say it out loud."
Seated on the audience chamber's sofa, I reached for a teacup, my throat parched, but Eo freaked out and stopped me.
"You mustn't! Al… Sir Wade!"
"It's fine. As the man over there said, if they meant to do something, they wouldn't bother poisoning tea now."
"Even so…."
I brushed off Eo's hand and went to sip the tea, but… come to think of it, I was wearing a helmet.
Juras smirked and said,
"Why not take it off? I'd like to commit your face to memory while we're at it."
"That sounds like a polite way of saying 'please don't.'"
As I bantered pointlessly with Juras, Crossing's king, Paraine Mallorn, made his appearance.
"Oh! So you're Wade, the one who beat Juon at chess! Glad to meet you!"
"..."
"Care for a game with me? I've been dying to see your skill!"
For a moment, I thought Juras was just messing with me.
An elderly man in casual clothes fit for a commoner, happily carrying a chessboard like a child.
It was hard to believe this was Crossing's king, called the root of all evil in the game.
Paraine Mallorn.
Formerly the eldest son of the Mallorn ducal house in the Pensilon Empire, he had been the most likely to inherit the family.
The reason such a man was ousted by his brothers and exiled to the east was simple.
He opposed the noble system.
His brothers, in backlash, split the Mallorn ducal lands to found Albad and Bekavia Kingdoms, while Paraine fled to this barren land and established a republic.
Thus, the Crossing Republic was born—with a king, but no nobles.
'And yet they promote slavery. What an incomprehensible nation.'
It seemed this shabby man was indeed the king.
Perhaps a little over seventy.
Like a child, he placed the chessboard on the table.
I couldn't help but remark,
"Isn't this too defenseless? No guards at all."
"Hmm. The guards are a pain with their nagging."
"Do you realize that if I wanted to, Your Majesty could lose your life right here?"
"Is that so? Juon's here, though."
"The two behind me could easily subdue him."
At those words, Paraine looked at Ymir and Eonia, then asked Juras,
"Is that true, Juon?"
"Hmm, probably. Never mind the Valkyrie… that beastkin woman over there is no ordinary foe either. Even I'd have to stay on my toes. If they came at us together, I wouldn't have time to protect you, Uncle."
"Oh, if even you say that, they must be impressive."
Even as he said it, Paraine showed no concern whatsoever.
I shrugged.
"Well, I have zero intention of trying anything like that. Your Majesty knows that, which is why you're so relaxed."
"No, I'm always prepared to lay down my life."
"...What do you mean?"
"If you seek my head, it means you have ambitions of that scale. Or perhaps you're commissioned by someone with such ambitions. If taking this old man's head advances those ambitions, wouldn't that be a good thing?"
What the hell was this guy talking about.
Willing to offer his neck for someone else's ambition?
"Anyway, I'm ready. Shall we play a game?"
"...Sure."
Curious about this man, I decided to indulge him with chess first.
*
*
*
Chess pieces moved in silence.
Paraine's chess skill was nothing special.
He'd played a lot, but rarely against strong opponents, so he fell for even simple traps.
Finally, checkmate. He said,
"You had questions for me."
"Yes."
"Ask anything. I'll answer whatever I can. Consider it your prize for winning at chess."
"Then I'll ask: why are you trying to start a war?"
Crossing, obsessed with military buildup.
Because of this, Albad and Bekavia, which shared borders with them, along with Caliper and other kingdoms, had to expand their own militaries.
This led to military expansion across the entire continent.
Simple military buildup might not be a problem.
The issue was that they actually started wars.
Now, the continent was a powder keg on the verge of explosion, starting from the Three Lions War ignited by Crossing.
"That, huh…. Mind if I tell a bit of an old story?"
"Go ahead."
A bit of an old story. King Paraine spoke of the Pensilon Empire era.
"Hmm, do you know why the Pensilon Empire fell?"
"Not in detail. I heard they lost public support by recklessly forming an expeditionary force to find an unknown continent, leading to civil war."
"That's the official story. But no. Pensilon back then was fundamentally beyond saving."
"Beyond saving? Why?"
"Population."
"···!?"
This world's unusually large population.
That was the problem.
"After unifying through the Unification Wars, Pensilon faced a dire issue in its 114th year of founding."
With wars gone, population began exploding.
It grew beyond the state's control.
As commoners multiplied exponentially, challengers to noble authority and the emperor's arose.
In a feudal structure exploiting commoners, food shortages from population growth fueled discontent rapidly.
"Pensilon made the mad choice of starting a civil war to solve it. Under the pretext of finding a new continent, they recklessly formed expeditionary forces and stirred division. Nobles who agreed raised armies, sparking civil war."
"You mean they deliberately created war? To reduce population?"
"Exactly. That's when the empire went astray."
Civil war couldn't halt population growth or commoner discontent, so they targeted the root cause.
"The emperor at the time blamed divine miracles for the population boom."
Priests healing all wounds without aftereffects via holy magic called divine miracles.
Like how Eonia's severe burns vanished completely—the effect was tremendous.
It wasn't limited to wounds. It aided childbirth too.
Just recently with Mother's difficult birth. Without their help, she would've been in grave danger.
"People who should've died from injuries or illness. Babies that should've been stillborn. Lives saved meant faster population growth, he thought."
"That's…."
"So they branded priests as the axis of evil and tried to wipe them out."
A witch hunt began.
But backlash exceeded the emperor's expectations.
Faithful nobles banded together in rebellion.
"Divine miracles are relics proving the gods once existed. Nobles judged they couldn't abandon that. The emperor was executed, and the nobles who did it discussed succession."
Those were the ancestors of today's ruling kingdoms.
"Even then, they debated population solutions. As Mallorn's representative, I argued to abolish the inefficient noble system that bred commoner discontent and advance food technology to keep pace with growth."
"Not accepted, I take it."
"No. So I left the Mallorn lands to my brothers and came here to Crossing."
"You weren't ousted?"
"As if they could've forced me out. I came to this barren Crossing to develop food technology. I believed thriving agriculture here would advance it greatly."
But he failed. Ultimately relying on fishing, hunting, and trade instead.
"Because of that, my lifelong wish ended in vain. Other nobles were already warring over Pensilon's territory to cull population and revert to the old ways. One man's power couldn't achieve reform anymore. I had no strength left to run."
That explained his oddly listless demeanor.
"But that doesn't answer my question. If anything, it makes even less sense why you're trying to start a war."
"To find ambition."
"Ambition…?"
"This broken world needs to reset to the starting point."
Starting point. In other words, unification.
"If the empire had chosen differently, we might not have reached this point. Pensilon was divided into hardliners and moderates. Hardliners seized power, causing it all. I think: what if moderates had won?"
Paraine feared most the solidification of continental division.
Thus, he forcibly stirred wars.
Hoping chaos would birth one with unification ambition to unite the continent and lead to a better end.
*
*
*
Crossing Republic, thought the axis of evil.
Hearing the inside story, I couldn't help but sink into thought.
'Crossing bears a proper mission….'
Extreme method of inducing war, but ultimately desires the world to head right.
"What do you think? I'd like your thoughts."
"…I agree on advancing food technology. It can keep up with population growth. And growth plateaus at a certain level."
Like the modern world.
Advance science and culture, and explosive growth becomes manageable.
"Heh, I never knew having someone understand me could bring such joy. What about the war?"
"That I can accept too."
I understood choosing war as means.
To topple entrenched kingdoms, no other way.
I asked Juras,
"Was that why you valued me? To show me to the king craving new talent?"
But Juras shook his head.
"I'll say upfront: I differ from Uncle. The world should just flow as it will. Missions or destinies are trivial in humanity's grand current. With you, I'm just personally curious what role you'll play in that flow."
"Let it flow…."
Juras's view felt right too.
"Anyway, I hope the talk with the king helped, Wade. Or rather… Als Ilrain."
"Tch."
So he knew my identity. Well, he wouldn't let an unknown chat with the king.
"It helped plenty. Thank you, Prime Minister Pamillion. And Your Majesty."
I bowed politely, and King Paraine smiled contentedly.
"I'm the one grateful for hearing my stale old tales. I hope you're the man I've sought."
"Not sure I can live up to expectations."
"Hmm…."
Paraine groaned briefly, then cautiously asked,
"If it's not too much, could you show your face? I'd like to etch the features of a youth who might make history. With my days numbered, all sorts of thoughts come."
"..."
"If it's hard, feel free to refuse."
"No, it's fine."
Only Juras and the king here anyway.
Click! I unfastened the clasp and removed my helmet.
Paraine, ever composed, went wide-eyed in shock.
"Wha-what-what…!?"
He couldn't close his mouth at my face.
No, not my face exactly.
When I removed the helmet, a necklace dangling from my clothes caught his eye.
The one Ymir gave me at my coming-of-age ceremony.
"How do you have that…!?"
Then, he whipped around, staring piercingly at Ymir, whom he'd ignored till now.
"You, the beastkin… Don't tell me you're Ymir!? The beastkin slave Lizna took in! You rescued her child from that situation!?"
"..."
Ymir said nothing, neither confirming nor denying.
Seemed like circumstances, so I hesitated to ask, but Paraine suddenly clammed up.
Then, sighing as if ten years older, he muttered,
"Is this fate too? How intriguing."
He did something unexpected next. Summoned a man to the audience chamber.
I hurriedly tried to don my helmet, but Paraine waved it off.
The man who appeared wore crimson armor. Anton, the Red Knight who'd served as my limb in the Carrington battle.
"Your Majesty. You summoned me."
"Anton, the time has come to fulfill the Quinter house's oath."
"…!"
"This man is whom you shall serve from now on."
Anton immediately knelt and prostrated before me.
"I, Anton Kairos Quinter, shall serve my lord until my dying breath!"
As I blinked in confusion, unable to follow,
Paraine summoned one more—a woman.
Crossing's second princess, famed as the Black Jewel.
He introduced Melodiana Mallorn and proceeded with a marriage proposal.