Chapter 114 - Proclamation

One's ȧssumptions of him actually being a coward were further emboldened when he tried to get close to him. He was twitching, his eyes refusing to move away from his hands. 

He had also began to sweat profusely. A sign of immense fear. 

One sighed. His breathe reaching Wog's left cheek. He was frozen in place. Tears began to stream from his eyes as One got closer to him.

This is it, he thought.

I am going to die, he thought.

This was a mistake, he thought.

But One did the opposite of what he thought he was going to do. Instead of One impaling him with his energy blades, he gave Wog several soft pats on the back.

"Milord, you need not to worry. I am your vassal and will continue to serve you as a faithful vassal," One said.

He then knelt down and bowed down to the ground.

One had another idea.

"I wish to proclaim you, not just my lord or the lord of only this land, no," One said.

Wog was finally calming down but was kow curious as to what One was going to say.

"You shall be, not merely a lord," One said.

Get straight to the point god damn it! Wog thought, he was getting scared again.

"I proclaim you, my king," One said. 

With those words, something struck Wog's heart and an immense feeling of relief poured within him that turned into a relaxing sensation he had never felt before. As if the restraints that held him back for decades were finally severed and he was finally free.

A person cannot proclaim himself king without a rightful claim but there wasn't any spoken rule that another person can't proclaim someone else as their king.

One knew that legitimacy ultimately came from people who were willing to serve under someone and not from royal lineages or such. Instead, one must earn the trust of the people to be proclaimed their leader.

A mere commoner can become as great as a king with enough backing.

Even though Wog knew the risk of being proclaimed a king and only by one person. Wog had seen his vassal's abilities. He was no mere commoner. 

He was no mere human. Although this all started because he doubted his vassal's humanity, he now came to realize that One's race did not matter. He was a dwarf, with him was a female elf and a mysterious being with immense strength.

According to Republic and Imperial laws, they were all savages. Inhuman filth. 

If he was to become a king of the land he was given and with backing from his strong vassal. He may actually win his independence.

But he was also thinking that maybe he was jumping for too quickly to decisions but what power did he really have? He was being proclaimed king by someone with enough strength to take on a small army. 

If he declined, would his vassal seek another lord instead? Another lord willing to give him what he wanted?

One, on the other hand, were more focused on Wog's mental state and thinking.

If he was indeed exiled, he would've just sailed to another country but no, he feared for his life and so chose the so-called Forest of Death as a natural deterrent. The monsters weren't a problem because they avoided the lake.

How did One notice this?

It was because of the low readings of magic that came from the lake. The lake was actually absorbing the magic around it and so, theoretically, magic beasts would actually die if they got too near.

But that didn't explain why Wog wasn't dying because he too had magic and healing magic at that. 

But Wog's magic was unique. It was some kind of other form of magic that the lake could not suck out of him.

It was too dense, too concentrated within him. 

What sort of advantage One was to gain with proclaiming Wog as a king?

He needed a puppet.

Sure, Wog was his liege but One had no intention of blindly following him around until he found his way back to his Machine Empire.

One remembered what Hailey told him about kings from Earth that were merely puppets of their vassals' will.

With One being the most powerful and only vassal Wog had, he'd control him behind the scenes.

And once he revealed his identity as the Machine monarch, Wog would have no choice but to cooperate with him.

All of this was indeed fast.

One knew that Wog would need some time to take everything in and think things over.

"Milord, if anyone dares to go against declaring you as my king, then worry not, I will defeat their armies and burn their homes," One said. His eyes shining brighter than before.

The shining eyes of One further frightened Wog but he was more relaxed than a few minutes ago.

After he finished casting his healing spell on Patricia's wound. Wog stood up.

"Give me some time to think this through, young man," Wog told One.

"Indeed, please take a rest," One said.

"Y-yes, rest," Wog said. He then turned tail and slowly walked to his room and gently shut the door behind him.

His heartbeat had returned to normal but he was soaked with his own sweat. One watched through his thermal scanning how Wog jumped onto his mattress and fell asleep immediately.

One then stood and walked outside.

"Maybe, I was too reckless," One said to himself as he walked towards the clearing in the forest. The midnight sky was beautiful and the stars shimmered across celestial blanket of space.

One then noticed some particular constellations. He reminisced of the time back on Earth. When he would just look at the sky for long periods of time during the night.

His drones would look up to the skies as well when he did. As though mimicking their master.