Chapter 123
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Prime Works
Chapter: 123
Chapter Title: Extracting Investment Funds (3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Prepare to fire.”
Kiriik, chik! Chikgeuk!
This was the inner courtyard of the royal palace in the capital Magenta.
An officer’s voice echoed across the large training ground there.
At his command, fifty crossbowmen turned their windlass loading devices.
They nocked lethal bolts onto the strings.
The sharp bolt tips gleamed coldly.
At that moment, the officer issued his solemn order.
“Fire!”
Thupapak! Papak!
Fifty lethal bolts shot out in unison.
Each carrying 1,250 pounds of draw weight, they hurtled toward the target.
Queen Alicia Termina Magentano stood there.
“…….”
Alicia’s eyes flashed coldly.
Fifty crossbowmen surrounded her on all sides.
Their positions were higher than hers.
Thus, every bolt rained down obliquely from above.
She sensed all fifty trajectories instantly—through her skin, her hearing, her instincts.
Her response was immediate.
Chikgeuk, seuk!
The moment her sword cleared its sheath.
Silver aura bared its fangs in streams.
Seuk! Tseuk!
In the blink of an eye, twelve sword strikes poured forth.
Slicing, slashing, uppercutting, parrying, scattering, twisting cuts, thrusting, stomping, then diagonal cleaves.
The twelve streams of aura roared.
They swirled around her like a typhoon.
Then, as if it had never blown, they softened to a gentle breeze.
Tududuk……
The fifty bolts, precisely bisected, fell at her feet.
Not just cut—they were severed in identical length ratios.
At identical angles.
Not a single exception.
Yet Queen Alicia’s eyes showed no emotion.
This was mere warm-up.
“Again. Random sequential fire this time.”
Her dry command fell.
The officer, who had swallowed hard, turned to the crossbowmen.
“Prepare to fire, load!”
Kiriik, chik!
The fifty crossbowmen busied themselves once more.
As they loaded diligently.
Hundreds of bolts were stacked beside each.
Lethal bolts capable of piercing heavy plate armor for fatal wounds.
Yet amid this deadly scene, Queen Alicia calmly regulated her breath.
It was only natural.
To most, it looked utterly perilous, but to her, it was routine training.
‘Still, this isn’t enough.’
She needed to grow stronger.
Hone her sword further.
Becoming a Swordmaster was no reason to rest.
Do so, and she’d taste humiliation again.
‘Never again.’
That day flashed in her mind.
The day the capital’s suspension bridge was completed.
The banquet, the poisoned cup, Sir Cherni’s assault.
Even now, shame and rage surged at the memory.
‘I relied on others too much.’
Haviel, a mere nameless knight, had subdued Sir Cherni, a Swordmaster.
And Lloyd—what of him, thought to be just an ordinary young lord?
He’d unleashed unheard-of techniques.
Absorbed ambient mana indiscriminately.
Punched a massive hole in the banquet hall ceiling with a single dining knife.
‘While I did nothing.’
Shameful.
A Swordmaster, complacent.
It was herself she pitied.
Since recovering from the poisoning’s aftereffects, she’d thrown herself into this training daily.
‘Plus, headaches from various issues.’
No confession from Sir Cherni.
A Swordmaster’s ironclad mental barriers.
They’d deployed every drug and confession spell.
Like digging through steel walls with a spoon.
But they persisted.
Dozens of mages labored nearly a month.
Finally shattering Sir Cherni’s barriers.
What emerged was shocking.
‘Sir Cherni was… empty. Knew nothing.’
Precisely: powerful brainwashing had erased key memories.
Motive for regicide.
The mastermind behind it.
All forgotten.
Only etched deep: ‘Kill Queen Alicia per His will.’
‘There’s definitely something.’
Who brainwashed a Swordmaster like Sir Cherni?
Why seek her death?
Unknown.
Despite endless probes.
Lately, the east grew chaotic too.
‘Lloyd Frontera. His prediction was spot on.’
The monster domino from the eastern sultanate.
Far larger than foreseen.
Damage immense.
Seventeen eastern mountain domains reduced to wastelands.
Thupapak! Papapap!
Fifty bolts fired amid her reverie.
Even in random fire’s storm, her thoughts continued.
‘When he warned me, I saw it as a potential disaster. Thought domains could handle it. Never imagined this scale… My clear misjudgment.’
Underestimated gravely.
Seuk! Seukak!
Like these bolts slicing so easily.
If only this crisis were the same.
Then.
“Your Majesty, a reply from Frontera Barony in the east regarding the royal decree.”
A clear voice rang from the training ground’s edge.
Turning, she saw a palace official bowing.
Queen Alicia lowered her sword and wiped sweat from her brow.
“A reply?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. It arrived via messenger pigeon moments ago.”
“Bring it.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
She took the proffered reply.
Unfolded it.
[Your loyal vassal, Lloyd Frontera, humbly reports with utmost devotion.]
Lloyd’s slightly scrawled handwriting.
Queen Alicia’s eyes narrowed faintly.
‘Devotion? Hardly.’
No way that man harbored such.
She steeled her wariness, eyes scanning.
[Today, I solemnly received Your Majesty’s royal decree. I vow with all my heart to uphold it. However, I lack funds.]
“…….”
What am I reading?
Her eyes kept moving.
[The refugees’ plight is truly pitiable. Children are skin and bones from starvation; elders collapse, clinging to kin. I yearn to feed and clothe them per Your Majesty’s noble will. However, I lack funds.]
“Tch.”
Intent clear now.
Her eyes finished the letter.
[I sincerely wish to overcome this disaster wisely. However, I lack funds. I long to serve Your Majesty’s will loyally. Yet I lack funds. No food. No clothing. No necessities. Only my burning, fervent loyalty to Your Majesty remains—thus, despair grips me; day and night, I wail Your name.]
“…….”
Don’t wail it.
She wanted to say it earnestly.
Wanted to close the letter here.
But Lloyd’s devilishly whiny prose held her gaze captive.
[Thus, to conquer this sorrow together, I’ve hung a grand portrait of Your Majesty’s visage on the wall. Last night, with starving refugees, I gazed upon it long. And lo—hunger forgotten in devotion’s fire!]
“…….”
[Refugee woes too. This morning, we formed ‘Kingodisia’—praise of Your Majesty’s name. Yes, a club of those forgetting pain through loyalty and love: Your fan club.]
“…….”
Wait. What?
Are you sane?
[Hunger strikes? Gaze on Your portrait. Pain? Sing Your praises. Cold? Count days to Your birthday morn and eve. Thus, hunger, pain, cold—all forgotten; all smile happily.]
“…….”
Sounds dreadfully tedious?
[Far from it! Endless joy. Fresh thrill each time. Reporting thus, who knew lack of funds brought such bliss to refugees and folk alike? Penniless and starving—bliss! Broke and pained—joy! Poor and freezing—thrill!]
“…….”
Stop, you madman.
[What’s lacking funds? We embrace sole loyalty to Your Majesty! Thus conquer hunger, pain, cold. And in distant blooming spring, on our skeletal brows, we’ll carve Your lovely name tenderly. Ah, Your Majesty. Aaaah, Your Maaa-jes-tyyy!]
“…….”
Words failed her.
Resigned(?), her eyes dropped to the bottom.
[P.S. - As Your Majesty knows well, and I too, few domains remain in Creemo lands besides ours. Thus, if You recall even a sliver of warmth from carrying You on my back—please, funds… Also, send royal forge master Cogidus to our domain… Earnestly.]
“Ha, haha.”
Having read it all, Queen Alicia let out hollow laughter.
Prayer unanswered.
‘I erred again.’
Never should’ve decreed to Frontera Barony, if nowhere else.
Yet she did.
Gave Lloyd his opening.
Legitimacy to whine shamelessly at her.
‘Tch. Without the decree, I’d dismiss such whining.’
Never dreamed he’d whine so boldly upon receipt. Cling like a child at coattails.
‘Must expand aid beyond planned.’
Else more whining.
Worse than this, obviously.
No desire to soil eyes(?) again.
Support planned anyway.
Why not make it grander?
‘Make Frontera Barony Creemo reconstruction’s hub entirely.’
She recalled intelligence on Frontera Barony.
Twice repelled massive monster assaults.
Subjugated a colossal eastern mountain monster.
Relocated wasteland orc tribe to mountains.
‘Safest from monster domino now. With Lloyd’s skills and ample aid, reconstruction viable.’
Beyond reconstruction.
To Creemo’s second city.
Support Frontera’s growth thus?
‘Lloyd Frontera—my eastern shield.’
Population already exploded from refugees.
Stably house and settle them?
Frontera Barony swells overnight.
Into a metropolis.
‘Benefits kingdom and crown—no loss.’
Solid gains.
Enduring loyalty.
Lloyd was such a man.
His empowerment strengthens her throne.
Plus, shields against rival sultanate from east.
Low-risk investment overall.
Calculations done, Queen Alicia looked up.
“I decree: Palace Minister, enter at once. Convene special committee to review Frontera Barony’s elevation to county.”
Her solemn command fell.
♣
“So, not an order—more a request, you know.”
Meanwhile, early winter under blazing sun.
Far east from palace, in Frontera Barony’s vacant lot, Lloyd spoke.
“Ever tried a hamster wheel?”
“Podong?”
On his palm, Podong tilted its round head cutely.
Lloyd smiled fondly.
“Never, huh?”
“Podong!”
“As expected. Want me to make one now?”
“Podo-dong?”
“Twenty-meter diameter. Spin like mad. Sound good?”
“Podong!”
A play wheel.
Such surprise gift unforeseen.
Joy spread on Podong’s plump cheeks.
Its puffy rear wiggled instinctively.
Lloyd gazed at Podong, smiling warmly too.
Thrilled to gift a wheel?
Of course not.
‘Heh heh heh. Apartment gear approved.’
Podong spins wheel gleefully.
Connected machinery whirs happily.
‘Keeps cement unset!’
Thus, in sunny early winter Frontera Barony.
Lorasia Continent’s first apartment complex rose—via special mixer gear, aka ready-mix concrete rig.
A twenty-meter wheel for a mighty hamster.