Chapter 167 – We Decided To Sneak In!
“So, that is why I mean to take back the crown.”
I declared, in the palace room. Mette was the first to raise her voice.
“Oh, so you are going to make Ylis the queen! Very well then, I shall charge in and take it!”
“Hey, Mette. The enemy are humans… Sir Joshua, I have no objections to taking back the crown. Ms. Ylis is a good person, and she is loved by her people.”
“In the first place, it is out of the question for a leader to be the first to run away. Not only that, but he turned Beyron into a villain, when clearly it is this Count Torlin who was in the wrong.”
“Yes. However…”
Iria seemed like she didn’t want to say it, and so Ecleshia opened her mouth.
“If we do that, won’t people hold a grudge against us?”
“Indeed. And that is why we will make use of Hide, which Ronea taught us.”
Hide had helped us when taking back the capital.
We had been able to deceive the skeletons completely. And we had already proven in Fendel that it worked against living people. Unless you were like Iria and the others, we should not be found.
Melk opened her mouth.
“Good idea. No one will know who took it.”
“But if you do it like that, how can you prove that it is the real crown?”
Asuha said, and then Ymir nodded in agreement.
“I saw the king’s crown when he escaped by boat. We dwarves could definitely make a copy.”
“A crown itself is meaningless…perhas. But supposedly, the Toria crown is magical. It was made by a demon king of ancient times. For a short while, it is able to create a light in the sky that is like the sun.”
Celes scowled at this.
“A human king with a demon king crown…”
Even the doll stones that were the Golem cores, were also made by demon kings.
In the first place, the majority of dungeons, which is where the monsters lived, were located up north. And so many of the rare artifacts found in them were kept as royal treasures in different countries.
It was then that Enna spoke.
“So, how do you intend to sneak in? If it is from the lake, we could go.”
“If necessary, we elves can shoot from far away!”
Monica joined in.
“Thank you. Both of you. However, we cannot attract too much attention. So we should go in small numbers… Huh?”
I noticed that things seemed very clamorous outside of the palace.
It was quite late in the night…
I left the room and headed to the throne room, where Ylis should be.
I saw that it was overflowing with nobles and knights.
“The king… The king has returned.”
“That is not our king! He abandoned his people!”
“Do you seriously mean to return the country to that worthless fool!?”
“We-we cannot be hasty! After all, there are only two thousand soldiers in the city!”
“Yes. And they have five thousand men!”
“If they take the city, we will be demoted! Count Torlin’s family will control the palace!”
There was chaos in the throne room as well. However, the majority of them were against the old king.
And so I made my way through the crowd and headed to the throne, where Ylis was sitting.
“Ylis. What is happening?”
“Just earlier, my brother entered the town that is north of this city. They should reach the capital by tomorrow morning. And so we are debating whether or not we should fight them.”
“That’s a lot sooner than expected.”
“Yes. They must have been marching all day and night.”
In other words, they would be very tired.
And when they see a king with no crown, their morale will drop.
After that, they might lose the will to fight entirely, once they see our magic and weapons.
“Ylis. I will head to them right now.”
“Be careful… I will keep my promise.”
After that, I took just Iria and Wiz with me, and left the city through the northern gate.
I told Mette and the others my plan to lower enemy morale, and had them wait by the northern walls.