“If you are in Ingres, what is your status?”

The King asked as he sat by the window, looking out at the streets.

“No status. Your Majesty.” The knight commander laughed bitterly. “In truth, before I was rescued by the Duke, I had a name. Modia Leverin.”

“Leverin?” The King caught on to the key word, “You are a member of the royal family of Ingres.”

You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e bl mu se . c o m )

“Yes.” The knight commander replied, “A descendant of an exiled prince. Your Majesty, this is really not something to boast about.”

The King quickly understood why the knight commander said so.

The matter went back to eleven years ago. It was related to a domestic struggle within the State of Ingres.

The father of the knight commander, one of the princes of Ingres at the time, failed in the power struggle for the throne and was accused of having the “intent to murder his brother”, so he was exiled and had to flee Ingres.

This was not a rare thing and such stories abounded in this era.

Right now, wasn’t the King himself experiencing the very same thing?

The only difference was that after the knight commander’s father took him away from the sad place, he unfortunately contracted typhoid fever. Before his death, the knight commander was entrusted to Legrand’s Duke of Buckingham by his father. Perhaps out of political considerations the duke arranged a new identity for the knight commander.

But the King should not have known this.

After hearing the words of the knight commander, the King was not disappointed, but smiled imperceptibly.

He thought that he had indeed stumble across a suitable candidate.

There was a long history of grievances between Ingres and the royal family.

The state was located in the southwest of Legrand.

The first king of Legrand took his cavalry and longbowmen deep into the abdomen of the state of Ingres, and forced the ruler of Ingres to surrender by force. Since then, the royal family of Ingres and Legrand had been repeatedly rocking back and forth between “surrendering” and “rebelling.”

What annoyed the Rose royal family the most was that three hundred years ago, the King of Ingres participated in a murder plot and joined forces with enemies of the royal family to assassinate the then crown prince. So in 1134, the royal family convened a parliament meeting and passed the law that established the inferior status of the Ingres nation.

Since then, the conflict between the two parties had become more intense.

There was no doubt that the ruler of Ingres, who had always been full of hatred for the Legrand royal family, would definitely get involved after news of Legrand’s “death of the king” spread. However, compared to people with bad intentions such as Grand Duke Grice, Ingres was purely a troublemaker.

They only wanted to be a thorn in Legrand’s eye and had no specific goals.

This was also one of the reasons why the King chose Ingres.

Who would have thought that the King would suddenly unite with the people of Ingres when they normally hated each other on a normal day?

In addition, the King also had his considerations.

Thanks to the Duke of Buckingham providing a qualified care for his nephew. Although Pureland I grew up to be a tyrant, he still received a systematic elite crown prince education and had a certain understanding of his own territory. Therefore, the King was able to extract information related to Ingres from his memory.

If it was said that the woodland aristocrats in the north were repeatedly ridiculed by the upper class, then Ingres was directly regarded as dirt underneath their boots.

The natural scenery in Ingres was extremely beautiful——large undeveloped forests, turbulent rivers, and majestic mountains. And it was these mountains, giant valleys, jungles, and rivers that limited the development of Ingres. The land there was barren and internal transportation was difficult.

A joke was often said, “Ingres’ yearly tariff cannot afford a button on the sleeve of Legrand’s King.”

The nobles only regarded Ingres as a laughing stock, but the King saw something that he could borrow and use at this time.

The soldiers of Ingres.

Poor natural conditions made it difficult for Ingres’ agricultural development. Many of them still relied on hunting as an important means of earning a living. The Ingres people who hunted bears and killed leopards in the Taigu mountains were very good fighters, and because of this, Ingres was able to set off rebellions time and time again.

What the King wanted was to borrow this knife that could slaughter bears and leopards.

Ingres’ fighters did not have the strong economic conditions to manufacture armor for their knights and soldiers, nor did they need to be like ordinary nobles in which a lot of retinue must be prepared to follow when the knights leave for war. Therefore, their marching speed was enough for them to be able to cross the mountains in the southwest to penetrate into the battlefield in central Legrand in the shortest time.

So, here was a problem.

How should the King convince Ingres, this hunting knife, to be used by him?

——He handed a letter to the knight commander.

The letter had been present next to the King from the moment the knight commander entered the door. After listening to the knight commander’s words, the King added a few more lines to the letter. Then, he personally sealed the letter with wax.

Except for the King himself, no one knew what was written in it.

“Take this with you, and make your way back to Ingres in the fastest possible time to meet your cousin.” The King said in a calm tone, “Tell him the deadline is only one week.”

The knight commander accepted the letter in confusion.

Ingres was a painful place for him. He vowed to the King that even if he left his life there, he would hand the letter to his cousin.

“Remember.”

When the knight commander walked to the door, the King suddenly spoke.

“You are the knight commander of the vow knights of the King of Legrand as well as the representative of the royal family of Rose.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

The knight commander took a deep breath and left with his head held high.

………………

“You’re truly amazing, my Majesty.”

After the knight commander left, the Devil walked out of the shadows in the room. He seemed to have found a new hobby, that was, to appear and disappear unpredictably.

“Look at that poor idiot who was taken advantage of. Even if you gave him a knife, so long as you give him an order, he can insert the knife into his chest without hesitation.”

“Then you might be disappointed.” The King said, “If there is such a knife, it will definitely not be stabbed into my knight.”

The Devil pretended not to understand the meaning of the King’s words: “Yo, I am your loyal hell knight.”

The King sneered.

The Devil was here to remind the King that he should leave.

At this time, besides the knight commander, another vow knight of the King also quietly left in the morning. He was also ordered by the King to escort a secret letter.

After the carriage set off, it took to the road leading towards the palace.

Along the way, more and more cavalry rushed past on the road. As expected by the King, the news that “the king was dead” exploded across Legrand with a thunderous speed on the third day after the attack.

When the King’s carriage stopped in a tavern again, they could already hear people discussing this matter.

The fireplace was warm, the bard and his harp played a frivolous almost lurid tune, and the tavern was full of joy.

Yes, joy.

Contrary to the situation when William III passed away, the people didn’t feel any grief at all……

To put it bluntly, most of the people were very happy. The passing of the tyrant was the best news this year.

The bard fiddled with the old worn strings, and the fools and jesters who also settled here tossed colored balls in a performance for everyone. Most of the people inside were drunk, and everyone toasted and celebrated with “Amen” and “Holy Lord Bless”.

The only sober one was the King’s table in the corner.

The King and his knights were disguised and sat in an inconspicuous manner. The Devil also looked no different from any other ordinary young man. Few people noticed their table, but the noise of the people could still be clearly transmitted to the King’s ears.

The Devil twirled the wine glass with his fingertips to make himself look like the group of drunks. Through the wine glass, he observed the King.

But he was destined to be disappointed.

There was no reaction from the King.

At this time, a clever jester sang an adapted hymn:

“The merciful Lord bless my King

Bless his people and his well-being

Let him live not so honorably, but die very gloriously

Let us sing happily

Thank you Holy Lord! “[1]

This song was originally sung by people on the day the King was born, hoping that he was as great and glorious as his father. At this time, a slight modification was done to the song, and the irony was as simple as it was mean——yes, for Legrand, the death of the tyrant was simply a blessing from the Holy Lord.

The knights at the table couldn’t bear it anymore and put their hands on the hilt of their swords.

The King put down the wine glass he was holding and stopped them with his eyes.

The knights were sitting at the table flushed with rage, while the King acted as if it was not his “death” being celebrated, listening to the noise in the tavern as usual.

At this time, someone had already continued the verse:

“……The benevolent Lord bless my King

Bless his judges and his sheriffs

Bless his forest officers and his guards

It’s best to let them be like my King

So that we can sing happily

Thank you Holy Lord! “[2]

Then they shouted in unison, “Thanks to the Lord.”

The King calmly listened to the whole song.

………………

However, there were still people who would grieve over the news that “the king was dead”.

The Duke of Buckingham was definitely the saddest one.

However, the grief of the Duke was soon buried deep down in his heart. He started investigating the specific course of the matter as quickly as possible as well as maintain a hold on the situation for his nephew.

He did not believe that his nephew was really dead.

“The bloodline of the Rose family cannot die so easily.”

Said the duke who once crossed the Abyss Strait and became the nightmare of the Bressians.

The Duke of Buckingham immediately gave up the cautious and restrained manner he had adapted for his nephew, showing his cold, iron fist. On the day of receiving the bad news, the Duke of Buckingham sent out the soldiers, and all those who dared to promote “the king was dead” on the streets were thrown into prison by him.

The prison in Legrand’s capital was filled in just a few days.

Such ruthless methods would undoubtedly damage the Duke’s reputation, but the Duke didn’t care.

——You know that, yes?

——The only person I can trust now is you.

The old duke recalled the scene on the day the King set off. He had a vague feeling, maybe the King had already foreseen something at that time.

How did he answer at that time?

“I will protect Legrand for you.”

More than ten years ago, he replied this way. More than ten years later, he still answered in the same way.

“Bring my sword.”

The duke ordered.

The Duke of Buckingham wore the red cloak gifted by the King, an iron rose badge pinned to it. His personal guard quickly stepped forward and offered the sword. He took the sword and hung it at his waist. The scarlet cloak covered it.

He was going to participate in the upcoming emergency parliament meeting.

You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e bl mu se . c o m )

The content of the parliament——

Who will inherit the throne?

AN: [1][2] adapted from a 15th-century British ballad, the original text reads “May the merciful God bless my King and his people, have him live great and die gloriously/let us happily sing/Thank God”, at that time, during the reign of Henry V, the country was prosperous and strong.

The Duke of Buckingham’s method of persuasion: Bring my sword.

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