Chapter 109

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 109

Chapter Title: The Crown I'll Take from You

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Twenty lashes wouldn't kill anyone.

But the problem was that the one receiving them was none other than Samon Claudio, blood of the Regent Duke himself.

Duchess Catherine Claudio looked as if she might faint. To think her precious son, whom she'd never even struck with a flower, would be flogged!

"Mother!"

"This is the royal law! Are you saying the Claudios are exempt?"

Even as the Regent Duke bellowed, the Queen Dowager stood firm. She met his gaze coldly and issued her command.

"The punishment will be carried out in the square before the palace."

Was she to show the people her Young Duke being whipped like a slave?

This was the Queen Dowager's warning to the Regent Duke.

'This seat is not yours. Cast aside any vain ambitions at once.'

The Regent Duke felt the eyes of those around him.

Any further resistance would reveal his disloyalty to all.

For now, he needed to accept the warning and show restraint.

"...Understood. The Claudios will obey the royal command."

The Queen Dowager nodded curtly.

"...Come, Medea."

As the remaining people exchanged glances, Samon was dragged away, screaming wildly.

"Let go! Don't touch me! Let go! Father! Father!"

Swallowing his humiliation amid his son's cries and the crowd's stares, the Regent Duke clenched his fists until his nails dug painfully into his palms.

Ch 6.

Campane Great Plains.

In the early dawn, fierce fighting raged between the allied plains tribes and the Baldina forces.

Realizing it was their turn after the Rasai tribe fell, the other tribes had united to ambush the Baldina army.

Blue blood dripped from the swords of King Peleus and his Royal Guard.

"Haa, Your Majesty. The enemy's numbers are growing. Leave this to us and prepare to escape."

Dianzel said as he wiped the sweat from his brow.

His voice carried a sense of crisis—they might not break through the tightening encirclement.

"I can't abandon the soldiers and flee alone. Has reinforcements arrived yet?"

The stifling heat of the battlefield seemed not to touch him; Peleus's face remained cool.

"Yes, Your Majesty. The enemies are closing in denser. Captain, let me escort His Majesty and break through the retreat path."

"I'm counting on you."

Dianzel nodded at the words of Pavel, deputy captain of the Agema.

"......"

"Your Majesty, we don't have time to dawdle! If you die, we're all dead anyway!"

Pavel shouted, catching the brief hesitation in those blue eyes.

Enemies fell like leaves under Pavel's sharp blade.

Here on this great plain, they proved the saying that one Agema could handle two hundred foes wasn't exaggeration.

"Your Majesty, this way!"

Having shaken off pursuers, Pavel pointed to the mountains on the high ground. Needing to assess the sudden ambush's state, Peleus nodded.

Peleus turned his horse. He spurred after Pavel.

"Your Majesty, over here."

Entering a densely wooded area, Pavel signaled that the target was in range.

'Forgive me, Your Majesty. The Regent Duke insists we must cut off your lifeline.'

The place he was leading Peleus to now hid assassins in ambush.

The moment the king set foot there, he wouldn't return to Baldina alive.

Pavel offered a faint apology to his lord's face, which trusted him without a shred of doubt.

'Sorry, comrades. No reinforcements are coming. I sent different orders.'

Pavel turned, gazing toward the camp where fierce battle still raged.

For betraying his lord and friends, Pavel had been promised a general's rank.

The treatment as an Agema Royal Guard wasn't bad, but it paled against the Regent Duke's offer of lifelong wealth and a hereditary title.

"Your Majesty, we should take shelter there first and assess the situation."

"Very well?"

Peleus stepped forward without hesitation.

But nothing happened.

'Strange, I definitely gave the signal.'

"I'll go ahead."

Perplexed, Pavel dismounted and walked forward.

Still, nothing happened.

'What's going on?'

As he scanned the area, he froze.

He'd found the assassins hidden in pits—all dead.

"Not the sight you hoped for, is it, Pavel?"

A chilling voice came from behind, and Dianzel's sword came down on Pavel.

Thud. Pavel dropped to his knees.

"Traitor! What did you hope to gain with your lord's and brothers'-in-arms' lives?"

Why was the captain, who should be fighting the tribes, here...?

Only then did he see comrades emerging one by one from behind the assassins' corpses.

Cheers rose from the foot of the mountain.

Pavel unwittingly turned toward the sound.

There, as if their earlier struggle had been a lie, Peleus's army was crushing the tribal alliance.

Reinforcements, meant to be heading south due to Pavel's ploy, surged in like a tide, sweeping away the enemy.

As if the perilous battle until now had been mere deception.

"H-how...?"

"I wanted to confirm it. Whether you'd truly betrayed us."

Peleus's blue eyes looked down on Pavel impassively.

"Ten years fade to nothing."

"Your Majesty, mercy, I..."

Before Pavel could finish, Peleus's indifferent blade struck.

His head rolled across the ground.

A pathetic end fit for a traitor.

"We've caught the spy!"

Dianzel shouted loudly over Pavel's corpse.

"Ha, we surrender. King of Baldina, show us mercy."

Finally, the tribal chiefs knelt.

The ambitious tribal alliance's ambush and pincer attack ended in utter failure.

Contrary to their hopes, uniting the scattered plains tribes led to their collective submission in one blow.

At the crossroads of life and death, their choice was clear.

Peleus stepped forward.

Vast, fertile land where Baldina could spread its wings freely under clear skies.

'Father, I've fulfilled your wish.'

Peleus bent and kissed the earth.

An aura of untouchable reverence emanated from the young king.

At last, Baldina's flag was planted here.

"Woooaaah!"

"We won! The war is over!"

It was Baldina's victory, drawing the curtain on the Ten Years' War.

"If Princess Medea hadn't tipped us off in advance, we Agema would have been wiped out in this battle."

Dianzel shook his head dizzily under the severed head of the spy.

How could they have known the reclusive plains tribes would unite, or that their trusted deputy captain had joined hands with the Regent Duke to betray them?

Even Peleus would have struggled to escape this layered trap.

And even if he barely broke the encirclement, losing the elite Agema Royal Guard...

'It would have been a hollow victory worse than defeat.'

Dianzel marveled.

"Has Princess Medea awakened divine power? How else could she know this battlefield like the palm of her hand from millions of miles away in Baldina?"

"Dianzel, watch your mouth."

For the first time, a frosty command fell. Her beautiful face was solemn, allowing no leeway.

If rumors spread that Medea had precognition, the Holy Kingdom would come running first.

They had long awaited a saintess to bolster the ancient faith across the continent.

"We've finally ended the war, and now I can see Dea."

Peleus had no intention of letting the Holy Kingdom steal his long-lost sister again.

Then, a staff officer rushed up.

After selecting personnel and troops to stabilize the conquest per Peleus's orders.

"Your Majesty, preparations are complete. Shouldn't we inform the homeland of the victory?"

"No need."

Peleus shook his head.

Instead of savoring victory, he mounted his horse again.

How long he had awaited this day.

What Peleus desired wasn't the moment of triumph.

It was fulfilling his father's legacy and returning to his sister.

Now that goal achieved, he hesitated no longer.

"We return to Baldina."

"Woooaaah!"

The soldiers cheered in unison.

After years wandering foreign, barren lands, their longing for home had peaked.

"We're going back! Finally home!"

"To our country, woooaaah!"