Chapter 232
Chapter 232
The Iron Emperor — Chapter 232
"Protect the Duke!"
As soldiers of the Central Army Corps surged forward, the escort knights guarding the nobles and a handful of soldiers desperately rushed to block their path. Yet the disparity in numbers already left no room for a different outcome.
"D-damn it!"
"Duke Perisman, what is the meaning of this!"
Duke Perisman, who had come up dreaming of a return to central politics, could only retreat behind his knights in bewildered panic as the situation unfolded in an instant. Beside him, Viscount Mao, the envoy from the Holy Empire, rebuked him at the top of his lungs.
"Get out of here for now!"
"Kraaagh!"
A single soldier caught in the surge of shieldbearers was swept under dozens of trampling feet with a scream and vanished. Even so, the knights of the Holy Empire and those protecting Duke Perisman did not retreat and began fighting back.
"Kill every last one who resists!"
"Yuaaagh!"
At the command of a knight of the Central Army Corps, the soldiers let their killing intent blaze and charged with weapons raised.
Three or four spears struck at a single knight at once, but they could not fully pierce the knight's thick defenses. In the end, however, even that knight was borne down by sheer force and fell, screaming as he met a gruesome death.
"Do not simply hold—fall back in good order as you fight!"
"Fire Ball!"
KABOOM!
"Aaaagh!"
When the wizard who had accompanied them as a personal guard cast his spell, five or six soldiers were hurled aside, scorched and rolling on the ground. Perhaps because the magic had been effective, the soldiers, despite their overwhelming numbers, could not help but recoil. To ordinary soldiers, magic was still an object of awe.
"All knights of the Central Army Corps, advance to the front!"
"Glory to the Divine Bird Trakhan—the three-legged crow!"
Clack-clack-clack-clack.
Invoking the Divine Bird whom the ancients had held sacred, the knights closed in, their ranks and files perfectly aligned.
"Damn it!"
The soldiers alone were already a formidable force, and when the knight order joined them, despair began to spread across the faces of the escort knights. The next ball of fire that hurtled toward them was no longer effective.
"Protect from Fire!"
KABOOM!
Even as the Fire Ball erupted into blossoms of flame in midair, arrows of ice flew past the blaze toward the Duke's wizard, who had cast the spell.
"Kraaagh!"
"Wizard Redin!"
Duke Perisman cried out for the wizard in a voice thick with anguish, but the man had already become a frozen mass, toppling to the floor.
"Holy Knights—cut a path to the rear!"
"Block them! Do not let them escape under any circumstances!"
The clamor of those trying to break out and those trying to stop them tangled together into chaos. What allowed them to hold out at all was largely the fact that Duke Perisman had brought a substantial portion of his knight order and private soldiers with him as a demonstration of power.
"Your Grace, this way!"
"This way, Viscount Mao!"
Even in that desperate moment, Duke Perisman never once forgot to look after the Holy Empire's envoy.
How could he possibly forget?
With the king arresting every last one of the pro-Imperial nobles, it went without saying that the Holy Empire was the only place left for the Duke to go.
"Duke Perisman, if we can reach our concession, we can make an emergency escape! A warp formation stands by at all times—if we can simply reach it..."
"Understood!"
The Duke answered, but it was his knights who carved the path. In the end, after bitter melee fighting, Duke Perisman and the Holy Empire's envoy Viscount Mao barely managed to activate the warp zone installed at the Holy Empire concession and escape. The three wizards who had activated the warp zone without any idea of what was happening, their mana utterly drained, were killed by the enraged soldiers.
Having now seized nearly every noble who had been present in the hall, the knights of the Central Army Corps began to split into small detachments and scatter outward, moving as though following a prearranged script.
"Each unit, proceed to your assigned area and secure the power bases of the captured nobles!"
"Moving out!"
"Mount the wagons!"
Because they had been able to prepare all their matériel under the pretext of the military review, they could move swiftly. The troops aboard the wagons struck out with lightning speed toward the key neighboring domains. Even the small and mid-sized domains collapsed without being able to mount any meaningful resistance.
It was partly because they knew full well that resistance was pointless with the major nobles already all taken prisoner. The estates of nobles who lay slightly farther afield had already been secured at precisely the right moment by the soldiers and mercenaries raised by the descendants of the ancients who had been lying hidden.
Naturally, this would have been impossible with the Haian Kingdom's own strength alone. What tipped the balance were the Northern Mercenaries from Gauri.
Ironically, this made the rallying cry of freeing the nation from the grip of foreign powers ring rather hollow. Yet the meaning of this revolution was the restoration of absolute monarchy—and the first decisive act taken by a royal house that had long wavered among the Three Great Empires and stood by amid the plundering of its own people.
Moreover, the success of the Gauri expedition had poured fuel on King Bera Han's confidence.
The civil war within the Haian Kingdom was thus snuffed out so swiftly that calling it a civil war at all felt almost excessive. That was not to say that resistance, however negligible, was entirely absent.
There were still many forces who had barred their gates and prepared to endure a siege for the sake of vehement resistance. But these men were forced to face, beyond the Central Army Corps of Haian, a far more terrifying enemy.
The Pyeonjeon archers who had been sent in small numbers from Gauri. Precision strikes with the Pyeonjeon were reaping the lives of the few surviving enemy commanders one by one.
This war had to be made something that King Bera Han planned and carried through entirely on his own. Only thus could the royal authority gain strength and avoid becoming an obstacle to future progress. That was why the Northern Mercenaries had been sent—the fact that they had proclaimed a return to the ancient kingdom posed little political obstacle to supporting them.
Of course, for visual effect, when King Bera Han used an item to return to his original appearance, the Northern Mercenaries had been made to shine alongside him.
This had yet another effect: a kind of show of force. With so many of the ancients' descendants appearing together in one place, the morale of the nobles was certain to plummet further.
The results spread with astonishing speed.
* * *
The great hall of the Haian Royal Palace, which had always been an arena of endless factional strife among nobles, at last became a proper venue for deciding the weighty affairs of the kingdom.
"His Majesty the King of Haian enters!"
The long, ringing voice of the chamberlain echoed as King Bera Han, accompanied by Queen Lian Su, strode into the great hall. No one knew when he had prepared it, but a mantle bearing the three-legged crow was draped over his shoulders, and Lian Su's ceremonial robes were embroidered with the three-legged crow as well.
Once the royal couple had taken their places, Viscount Gaun was the first to bow his head and pay his respects.
"I, Viscount Gaun, offer my respects to His Majesty King Bera Han, father of the Haian Kingdom."
"We offer our respects."
As the nobles all bowed deeply in unison, a surge of overwhelming emotion welled up from somewhere deep in King Bera Han's chest.
The thought that he himself might bring an end to the history of regret and anguish his ancestors had endured clouded his vision again and again beyond his control. But now was the time to stand unshaken.
"Henceforth, our Haian Kingdom shall permit no political interference whatsoever from the Three Great Empires. This is also a proud declaration that we rise now in true sovereign independence."
As King Bera Han's voice resounded, the hearts of the descendants of the ancients—those whom pro-Imperial nobles had long banished to sinecures or remote frontiers by leaning on the empires' power—began to burn hot in their breasts alongside it.
"Furthermore, the Haian Kingdom shall stand together with the Gauri Empire. This is also meant to ensure that we never repeat the errors of our forebears. Beyond that, it is a choice made to hold back the might of powerful foreign forces. I ask you, my ministers, to lead this kingdom forward in accordance with that will."
"Until His Majesty's will is fully realized, we swear to devote ourselves completely."
"Viscount Gaun, in recognition of your great merit this day, I bestow upon you the rank of Marquess."
"I shall serve with all my heart!"
"Baron Shuan Wi, I bestow upon you the rank of Viscount."
"I shall become a sword that moves at Your Majesty's command!"
As rewards according to merit began to flow from King Bera Han's lips, each of the newly risen nobles bowed their heads and swore fealty. Of course, neutral nobles who were not descendants of the ancients, and nobles who simply had the kingdom's welfare at heart, likewise received rewards without discrimination. The domains and properties required for these were amply covered—and more—by what was confiscated from the old vested interests.
In particular, the wealth seized beyond the lands themselves was so staggering it made jaws drop. In Duke Perisman's case, a colossal hoard of treasure totaling five times the Haian Kingdom's entire annual budget came pouring forth. Marquis Iwaen's confiscated wealth, though no match for Duke Perisman's, was nonetheless revealed to equal twice the kingdom's annual budget. In the end, the total sum of all seized assets exceeded the tax revenue the Haian Kingdom could collect in a decade. It required no separate calculation to understand why the common people had starved and suffered despite the kingdom's immense trade.
Once a portion of that wealth was released and applied at once to the relief of the starving populace, the people's praises seemed to pierce the very heavens. As the Haian Kingdom itself was a center of trade, so long as there was no one in the future to plunder it, it was certain to continue to prosper on its own.
"Marquess Gaun."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Ride now to the eastern border and escort His Imperial Majesty the Yeolje of Gauri. And along the way, do not forget to prepare wine and provisions for the Gauri soldiers as well."
"As you command, Your Majesty."
The nobles, too, understood well that checking the great empires of the continent required an even greater concentration of military strength. Even for that reason alone, the alliance with Gauri simply had to be brought to fruition.
The storm that had erupted so suddenly thus heralded a decisive continental shift in the balance of power.