Chapter 314: Battle for Kingship part-4

A few hours ago, Zuweth city;

In the courtroom of the Imperial palace, without the presence of any audience, the ministers, the second prince who became the crown prince after the previous one is dead, the king and the queen were having a heated discussion.

Some are against the Prime Minister's proposal while others are supporting it. As for the Archangel Nebula, he was silently sitting on his seat.

Usually, the courtroom used to be busy with discussing various affairs of the kingdom but right now, all of them are discussing only one topic or rather, one man.

"Are there any witnesses that Time Traveler didn't take outside help to take him down? Not the outsiders but a native..." After hearing out everyone, even the king joined the debate. "I agree with the possibility of Evelon's king, not in his peak condition due to the previous battle. A surprise attack might have taken his life."

He sided with the ministers who are speaking against the Prime minister's proposal of honoring Wil for his contributions to the war. 

From what they gathered the information from the Starlight and Blackfall, Wil indeed nearly wiped out half of the Evelon's army alone on the very first day itself, which helped them to conquer two of its regions.

It was also true that, on the third day, he even killed the king and ended the war.

However, the King doesn't want to acknowledge Wil's contributions to the war.

How can he accept the proposal after losing his favorite son in the hands of this Llyne's prince?

He even blamed Wil for the deaths of the crown prince and the third prince. He blamed Wil for everything…

Going another step further, the King said, "I can't trust the words of otherworlders. The best I can do is to leave him alive if he stays silently in his town."

Even though he said that… he was actually nervous inside. All of his hopes were placed on Rikilda's plan.

After sending a huge army and several of his trusted generals with Rikilda, he was now hoping that Wil really possesses the Imperial sword.

So, when he tries to siege the city, he will fall into the trap, set by him.

He knew that otherworlders can't be destroyed completely. So, there's no use in killing him once.

However, if he were to destroy his attempt of claiming the throne, he can exile him away while taking away the right to claim.

Once it happens, even in the future, if Wil ever attacks Zuweth, he can mobilize the Archangel to subdue him.

So, in this way, not only he gets to secure the Llyne province, but he can also take revenge on his son's killer like this.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere in the courtroom turned tense and the ministers who were supporting the prime minister fell silent.

Now that the King stated his stance on this matter, they don't know how to proceed. 

Feeling a mixture of hatred and determination in his tone, the prime minister also shook his head with a sigh. 'His Majesty can't see the upcoming crisis.'

No matter how many ministers supported his decision, if the king doesn't agree with it, then, nothing can be done about it.

Right then, Nebula, who kept silent until now opened his mouth. "Your Majesty, a grave news for you."

"Eh?" Everyone turned their heads towards this old man, who then looked at the king and spoke with a straight face, "Llyne has fallen into the hands of Prince Llyne. Rikilda Llyne, Arry Llyne, all the Generals, Royal Knights, and the soldiers… every one of them is now dead."

"What!" The King immediately stood up from the throne in shock. Followed by him, everyone also stood up on their feet.

"Impossible." He has an expression of disbelief on his face. "Please tell me that you are just joking. I sent thirty thousand soldiers. More than a thousand Royal knights and 20 generals. 8 of them are even our best of the best…

That Llyne prince only has thirteen thousand soldiers and one General.  The other generals who might support him were all sent away to the north."

As the King tried to give several reasons, Archangel Nebula explained, "Once the Llyne Prince killed the Governor Rikilda Llyne, everyone lost their motivation. All of them ended up dead. As of now, Llyne is no longer under our control."

The King felt his legs became weak and he lost his balance, falling on his back.

Luckily for him, the throne was right behind him, so, he saved his image before the ministers.

If Wil kills Evelon's king, that can be considered either accident but if the same thing happened twice, then, it's no longer him being lucky. It proved that Wil has the strength to kill a level-500 which means, he can also be killed.

Fear rose in his heart. The King lost all the desire for revenge. His facial expression also no longer seemed confident.

Now he only hoped that Wil won't set his eyes on Zuweth's throne in the future.

"What should we do now?" The King asked the old man with a shaking voice. After all, their invasion of Llyne was his order.

However, Archangel Nebula kept silent. Or rather, he looked like he doesn't care a bit. Now that he already acquired what he wanted to achieve, it doesn't matter for him whether this king lives or dies. 

While Nebula didn't give a response, the Prime minister who somewhat expected this kind of result, replied, "Your Majesty, we can still control the situation."

"Tell me." The King asked him.

The Prime minister suggested, "As a reward for killing Evelon's king, we can share a part of Evelon with the Llyne and ally with his kingdom. That way, we might even gain a powerful ally instead of an enemy."

For a second, the king thought of going with the plan. He knew that Zuweth's current military strength is a lot weaker now that more than 17 thousand of their soldiers were dead.

The only good thing is that the remaining 13 thousand of them are former Llyne soldiers who swore loyalty to Rikilda. 

Now all he needs is enough time to raise their military strength. Then, he can take back the lands from Wil.

Just when he was about to accept his suggestion, a soldier entered the courtroom and said, "Your Majesty, a messenger requests an audience."

"Messenger?" The King frowned at first but then thought it must be someone from the neighboring kingdom who was sent to give congratulations to them.

A part of them thought it might be from Llyne. However, he threw the thought away as the war at Llyne city is just finished.

Will he send a messenger to Zuweth as soon as he acquired Llyne instead of focusing on the kingdom's development? Unless he was crazy enough to go to war, right away, he won't do that.

The King assumed that Wil must have also lost a considerable number of soldiers in the battle.

So, he won't be in a position to wage another war.

Thinking that it is useless to worry by himself, he gave the permission.

Soon, a 1-star Alchemist player entered the courtroom.

"Who are you?" asked the prime minister. "State your identity." 

"Your Majesty, I'm Silverknight." He introduced himself and then said, "King Time Traveler sent you a letter."

"Prince Llyne?" The King's face darkened in response. It turned as he feared it to be. He wondered whether it is just a formal letter or it is what he was thinking it is…

Taking out the scroll from his inventory, Silver gave it to the prime minister, who then started to read loudly.

"I, Time Traveler, the rightful heir to the throne of Llyne, managed to overthrow the traitor of our kingdom, Rikilda Llyne, and liberated our kingdom.

I wanted to say that the Llyne is an independent kingdom and no longer is in the control of Zuweth. 

Putting such matters aside, as a person who invaded our kingdom and the person who aided his support to the traitor with thousands of soldiers and several generals, you are guilty and are entitled to be punished by death penalty, according to our laws.

The only way to redeem yourself is to handover the Evelon kingdom as well as the Zuweth kingdom.

Along with that, I also want all the members of the royal family to relinquish their rights to the throne, forever, by presenting the Imperial sword to the Llyne. And then, you will kowtow before our late king's tomb and beg for forgiveness.

In exchange, I will let you take one region of your choice to rule it forever. Of course, you can't take the capital region. And neither your Generals nor the soldiers that are loyal to you will be allowed to follow you.

Don't accept my goodwill, then, I will crush you and your army with everything I have. Every soldier will die before your eyes. I will burn your capital city and the citizens within it. Only after that, I will take away your life.

Yours truly, Time Traveler."

The prime minister slowly closed the scroll. The entire hall became silent in response. Even Silver was surprised about it. He didn't expect Wil would be that bold to humiliate him in his own palace.

"How dare he…" As expected, the King roared in response as his eyes became red. All of his disappointment turned into rage. 

"He wanted the war, right? Then, fine… I'll give him one."

He was angered by the way Wil wrote the letter.

Silver then remembered Wil's words when he was handed a letter.

"Silver, don't be shocked if you were killed right away."

At that time, Silver thought Wil thinking of demanding Zuweth to give a part of Evelon or the entire Evelon but didn't expect he was completely asking this king to surrender everything that he owns.

It was obvious that this king would be angered.