After a significant duel was over, there should indeed be enthusiastic cheers. But the nobles present were all too horrified by the ruthlessness the King had just displayed, and no one reacted for a while.

Except for one person.

The Duke of Buckingham.

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

The old Duke wore a scarlet cloak similar to that of his nephew. He walked out of the honored guest seats and came to the middle of the nave where he knelt down on one knee in front of the young King still on the high platform, performing a knight’s oath of allegiance. It was just like when the King was crowned here many years ago, and he had led everyone in swearing their allegiance to the King.

“God bless the King!”

The voice of the Duke of Buckingham echoed in St. Wyth Cathedral.

“God bless Legrand!”

The Royalists wearing iron roses followed the Duke of Buckingham and left their seats. They also came to the long and narrow red carpet and knelt down on one knee towards the King on the high platform.

“God bless the King!”

“God bless Legrand!”

Their voices rose together, stirring up the hot rushing blood in the people’s hearts.

The weapons in the hands of the New Royal Party nobles fell to the ground one after another. With pale faces, they left their seats one by one, joining this impromptu ceremony where they once again pledged their allegiance. In the end, all the knights present knelt to the ground, and this first large-scale deference to the throne after King Pureland I had ascended achieved its due political aims.

The cardinal had on a grim face as he watched all of this happen but was powerless to stop it.

He understood that his actions to strengthen the influence of the Holy See in Legrand this time had been in vain. Amidst the cheers, the royal sovereignty in the Legrand Empire was strengthened as never before.

His plans had gone up in flames! His dreams of promotion were over!

Outside the St. Wyth Cathedral, Edmund, the general of the Ingres army who was standing guard, sighed softly.

The people had mistakenly regarded a male lion as a stray dog this whole time.

General Edmund could foresee the glory of the Rose family flourish once again…..God! Please bless Ingres! He hoped that their gamble this time would not be in vain.

Cheers echoed under the glorious dome of St. Wyth Cathedral.

The winter wind whistled by, and the body of the would-be usurper lay lying under the throne behind the young King, blood still gurgling out. For hundreds of thousands of years, day after day, blood soaked the chair that symbolized supreme power. The King stood looking down on the people, his gaze passing over everyone.

This was Legrand.

This was the place ruled by generations of people who had the blood of the Rose running in their veins.

God bless the King!

God bless Legrand!

……………………

Rose Palace.

This historic palace once again welcomed back its true owner.

In the King’s room, the fire in the fireplace was blazing, and the light of the fire gave the exquisite relief paintings on the walls an even more lifelike ambiance. Here, rose patterns could be seen everywhere, and the floor of the room was covered with a carpet embroidered with complicated and slightly strange images.

The King lowered his eyes slightly, looking at the embroidered pattern on the carpet.

The craftsmanship was very exquisite, but what attracted the King’s attention was the content of the pattern.

It was a pale dragon skeleton with scarlet roses coiling and entwining around the bones. Judging from the ratio of the dragon’s bones to the mountains on which it rested, the dragon must have been shockingly huge before it died.

“Your Majesty.”

The Duke of Buckingham, who had changed his clothes, walked in. His nephew having returned safe and sound had him feeling a lot easier. When he saw the King, he smiled slightly.

“You arrived in time.”

“Thanks to you delaying them.” The King closed the book in his hand, and he placed a chair beside him, obviously for the Duke of Buckingham. With the King’s character, this was already a kind of implicit intimacy, “The Holy See’s hand stretches longer and longer.”

“They have been eager to move these years.”

Speaking of the Holy See, the Duke of Buckingham’s expression flickered with a trace of coldness.

“I heard that different factions have begun to fight in the Holy See on the other side of the Abyss Strait. Coupled with the booming trade, I am afraid that some old fogeys won’t be able to sit still.” The King remarked thoughtfully.

After that second pledge of allegiance at St. Wyth Cathedral, the young cardinal, the Pope’s special envoy, quickly left Metzl.

It seemed that he also understood that after the King’s return, the King must have deeply murderous intentions to kill him.

It was not impossible for the King to stop him, but now that the civil strife had just subsided, it might not be a good idea to completely antagonize the Pope. So the King only sent people to make a round at the cardinal’s residence. The young cardinal was so frightened that he climbed the walls of his residence and fled overnight in a hurry.

It could be regarded as a little bit of revenge from the King.

The Duke of Buckingham stared at his nephew, and let out a long sigh: “You have grown up.”

“You say that in a tone that makes it clear you still treat me as a child.” The King replied, “Let me remind you that I am an adult.”

The Duke of Buckingham laughed and said nothing.

The King also smiled.

In the eyes of others, everything that happened today might seem like a miracle aided with help from the Holy Lord or the Devil——well, actually it was indeed——but only the King knew that this was actually an all-out effort of cooperation from all sides.

Oh, Grand Duke Grice himself also contributed a lot of effort in this cooperation.

Though the Grand Duke wouldn’t be happy at all if he heard this.

The events must be analyzed from the beginning.

Naturally, the most critical turning point was the King rescuing the Duke of Buckingham in time in late September.

The King, guarding against possible assassinations and coups, sent the Duke of Buckingham back to the Rose Palace and granted him the right to reign as regent. Therefore, when news of the King’s death spread, the Duke of Buckingham could suppress the deterioration of the situation as quickly as possible.

While the Duke of Buckingham tried his best to reduce the influence of rumors at Metzl Castle, the King also sent the knight commander and another vow knight to act as messengers.

As an exiled member of the Ingres royal family, the knight commander went to contact the state of Ingres on behalf of the King himself, while another vow knight carried the King’s letter under disguise as he made his way to Metzl Castle as soon as possible.

This second letter was for the Duke of Buckingham.

In the letter, the King described his situation and the next steps of his plan carefully.

Due to the heavy military patrol from Grand Duke Grice along all the roads to the capital, the vow knight had to spend some time and energy in order to get rid of those pesky little mice, otherwise he would have arrived earlier.

Fortunately, the Duke of Buckingham, who was in the Rose Palace and loyal to his nephew, fought a strong open battle with Grice, winning precious time for the King. When the Pope’s envoy arrived, the vow knight also successfully delivered the letter secretly to the Duke of Buckingham.

The Duke of Buckingham, who had been almost desperate, received the letter from the King just in time and immediately regained his faith.

The King mentioned in the letter which route he would take to reach the capital. The experienced Duke of Buckingham immediately dispatched his subordinates to get in touch with the King. This was also the reason why the members of the Royalist Party who attended the coronation ceremony of Grand Duke Grice were so few.

After contacting the King, the Duke of Buckingham immediately gave up opposing the Grand Duke Grice and chose to give in.

In order to put up a realistic act the old Duke resisted the desire to cut off Grand Duke Grice’s head with his sword and even pretended to hold a welcoming ceremony for the occasion outside the gate of Metzl.

Of course, Grand Duke Grice, who had lost his life, was not that stupid.

He remain vigilantly on guard against the Duke of Buckingham, but this happened to be within the plans of the King and the Duke of Buckingham.

In order to attract the attention of Grand Duke Grice, the Duke of Buckingham refused to surrender the Rose Palace, and personally took up residence at the Rose Palace, forcing Grand Duke Grice to pay close attention to the Duke of Buckingham’s movement.

Let’s take a look at the general spheres of influence of the Royalist Party and the New Royal Party.

The Royalist Party represented by the Duke of Buckingham was mainly concentrated in the north, while the power of the Grand Duke Grice, which relied on the Five Port Alliance on the southeast coast, was mainly distributed in the south. In order to prevent any revolt from the Duke of Buckingham, Grand Duke Grice had to deploy troops to guard against the north.

However, while Grand Duke Grice had all his attention on the north, the King had led an army disguised as Grand Duke Grice’s troops and quietly circled around to the side of Metzl City from the south.

Much thanks to Grand Duke Grice for constantly shifting his troops to the north during this period. After the King had his army put on the white rose battle flag, the traveling speed of his army was much faster.

It must be said that Grand Duke Grice was truly a good man.

The Duke of Buckingham understood his old opponent very well and could guess which person the Grand Duke Grice would choose to command the reinforcement army. He promptly conveyed the news to the King.

After receiving the news, the King immediately realized that this was a good opportunity.

As the capital of the Legrand Empire, Metzl had a tall and thick city wall that was very suitable for defense. If one wanted to attack Metzl, it would not only consume a lot of manpower and material resources, but also take a long time. Originally, the King planned to cooperate with the Duke of Buckingham with one on the inside and one on the outside, opening the city gate from the inside.

However, Grand Duke Grice was closely watching the movements of the Duke of Buckingham, and doing so would be risky.

But now, Grand Duke Grice had practically placed the key to the city gate in the King’s hand.

The Ingres army traveled lightly and simply so the speed of their march was faster. In truth, on the evening yesterday, the King and his army had actually already arrived in the vicinity of Metzl.

After carefully observing the terrain, the King stationed his army on both sides of a valley that the enemy army must pass through. In the faint light of that morning, the reinforcement army of Grand Duke Grice arrived in the valley only to be met by huge boulders and tree trunks that rolled down the slopes on both sides. Many cavalrymen lost their lives before they even figured out what had happened.

That was not a battle at all, but a massacre.

The reinforcements were completely thrown into disarray and confusion, crowding together and trampling on each other, while the well rested army of the King was like sharp canine teeth ripping them to pieces.

In the end, they practically had to trod through blood and corpses. Including the King, everyone was covered in blood.

Baron Bourne survived.

But it was not because of luck or his bravery, but because the King had ordered to spare his life in advance.

Baron Bourne was the key to opening the gate of the city.

However, in order to prevent Baron Bourne from betraying them, Baron Bourne’s armor was stripped off, and when he rode away from the army, at least ten archers had their bows aimed at the back of his head——the King’s dictionary didn’t seem to have the words “follow the conventional rules”. He didn’t care whether the methods used were contemptible or not.

The white rose banner representing the New Royal Party, the familiar Baron Bourne, the correct semaphore…..

The city gate opened.

From that moment on, everything was decided.

The King returned to the throne in the wake of blood and war.

The Duke of Buckingham sighed softly in his heart when he listened to the King lightly recounting the events on the road.

Too similar.

To his father.

“Well, I am very happy.” The Duke of Buckingham gave a relieved smile, “Legrand now has a real King.”

The King hummed once and did not refute his words.

The King knew exactly how much risk the Duke of Buckingham took in this series of plans.

If the King really died, then the Duke of Buckingham would be completely ruined. If the King did not arrive at St. Wyth Cathedral in time, the Duke of Buckingham would have to fight to the death with the New Royal Party…..

And the final result would only be the Duke of Buckingham and Grand Duke Grice ending in mutual destruction.

None of this was mentioned by anyone.

The result was the desired one, and the people who should remember would naturally remember the things that should be remembered.

“God bless Legrand.”

The Duke of Buckingham said.

The King disagreed.

It was more appropriate to say that this was aid from the Devil.

The King defended his throne with the blood of Grand Duke Grice. The matter was largely over, but there was still a lot to do next.

For example…..

Settling accounts.

Ah, don’t forget that our King was also very good at holding grudges, and it was time for the New Royal nobles to pay the price for their actions.

It was worth mentioning that after the “coronation” ceremony, the King simply and directly invited all the participating nobles to the Rose Palace——he just had the soldiers aim their iron arrows at them and not put their blades on their necks. Wasn’t this already giving them the utmost courtesy?

“What do you plan to do?”

Asked the Duke of Buckingham.

“It would save a lot of trouble to kill all of them, right?”

The King replied nonchalantly.

In the eyes of the King, Legrand lacked everything, but the only thing it did not lack were nobles.

Of these noblemen, who among them did not have dozens of children waiting to inherit the title. With this group of troublemaking nobles dead, the time it would take for their successors to grow up would be enough for the King to strip their power clean.

However, after thinking about it, the King regretfully gave up this plan.

After all, in this era, the knights’ code of conduct was still there. In a battle, the nobles who were defeated would not be killed, but would be released after paying a ransom. Moreover, while the King was incognito during this period, he incidentally got a rough analysis of ​​the situation of the counties and the lower classes in Legrand.

The great aristocrats played an important role in the country’s political system, and getting rid of too many at one time would cause new turmoil.

It was very regrettable.

However, there were still long days ahead.

The Duke of Buckingham looked at the King speechlessly.

“It was a joke, don’t be so serious.”

The King said lightly.

No.

The Duke of Buckingham thought to himself.

I don’t think you are joking at all.

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

“Alright, let us go and meet these…..” The King stood up, paused, and revealed a meaningful smile, “These rich and generous gentlemen.”

He bit out the words “rich” and “generous” with much emphasis.

AN: King: Just kidding.

The Duke of Buckingham: You don’t seem to be just joking.

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