Night of the Soulless Heathens – 422



#422. Southern King 3

After returning from subduing Bisen Azadin now prepared to intervene in the succession battle for the throne of the Arangi Kingdom.

However such preparations are not something that can be done in an instant so they take a long time.

Even while Azadin was away from Banreung for a while there were countless preparations to be made to ensure that Banreung’s internal affairs ran smoothly.

The seasonal season became spring while the administrative work of deposing Vissen and making Sevron the Count of Sandokar succeeded Count Ivechek of Sandokar.

*********

-Wheww!

A blizzard was raging that day.

Azadin had been managing internal affairs while preparing cold-climate wheat and barley for the next sowing. But on this day it happened to snow.

“To be honest I can’t predict the chances of success Azadin. First of all the people here are not accustomed to northern crops and the power of the druids I serve is the power of wild magic. As long as the spirits of wild magic reject you Azadin I don’t think druid magic will be able to do anything.”

Wild Druid Cedrin warned as he sowed the northern crops.

“What about Sunwoo’s sun?”

Azadin asked Sion Etar.

“The Senate is against it. As you know we of the Etar bloodline are cooperating with Your Majesty but the other herald clans do not accept Your Majesty.”

“Then is it being used in the Senate?”

“No. As you know the Herald Clan’s sanctuary is located on high ground…”

The Herald Clan’s sanctuary in the highlands has a continental climate with hot summers and cold winters making it difficult to plant crops since the start of Fimbulbert.

Furthermore in order to activate Sunwoo’s Sun an enormous amount of magical power was needed and if a living being were to pay that much magical power even a great magician would immediately wither and die.

It cannot be used unless it is in the form of external magic that brings in magic power such as the light of the royal fire emitted by the throne of Yaegas or wild magic nether magic but the messenger clan’s magic book Flower Bird Wind and Moon was a magic book that was thoroughly made to use the caster’s personal magic power.

“If you can’t use it at least give it to me.”

“The Senate has not yet given up on negotiating with the Northern Qi side. And it is clear that personal feelings toward Your Majesty are also at play.”

Many of the Heralds had ill feelings toward Azadin. This was because Azadin had shattered the Heralds’ wishes and ruined many of the projects they had been working on in alliance with Naga.

“Then I should treat the Etar clan even better. Isn’t it quite unreasonable for them to form an alliance with me?”

“I am truly grateful for your understanding.”

“Don’t say things you don’t mean.”

Sowing northern crops and obtaining the Sun of the Sunwoo is not easy. However Azadin cannot sit still and prepares for the Aranggi expedition.

Get notified for updates: https://discord.gg/93rmBjgP6B

*********

With the death of King Karnago IV of Arangi and the disappearance of Prince Grigsval the Kingdom of Arangi was divided into factions and fighting broke out among the various nobles.

They were largely divided into three groups with some supporting Prince Balthazar the second son after Grixbal as the successor.

Prince Balthazar was a Northern Margrave who had his own army and was a skilled soldier who had accumulated many achievements while protecting his country.

The problem is that Prince Balthazar is a half-elf and unlike the other princes he cannot manifest the power of the Arangian Guard. So there are many complaints about why they would put a half-elf prince on the throne when the elves killed the king.

And the next force to go was the one that entrusted the kingdom to Cohen Lionaire the King of Kings as ordered by the King’s Church and ruled the kingdom through a council of nobles.

This was a proposal to have a separate king in name only and have the nobles divide the country up as they pleased but the backlash was fierce.

Because the elf queen who murdered the king was the daughter of Cohen Lionaire.

Although Cohen Lionaire avoided responsibility by declaring that he would cut ties with his daughter because she was involved in socializing he could not avoid the fact that he was the father of the king’s assassin.

I felt very resentful about entrusting the title of guardian of the kingdom to such a person.

It wasn’t easy to establish a council among the nobles to manage the kingdom as the Arangian Guard opposed it.

And finally there were the Arangian guards.

The Arangian Guards were insisting that they should select the best general among the princes to rule the Arangian Guard and make him the successor to the throne.

In other words the Arangian Guard will become the kingmaker and evaluate and post the princes to support him.

In fact they will be directly involved in the succession to the throne.

It was something like this.

The problem is that the Arangian Guard although small in number is a powerful armed force that holds the capital of the Arangian Kingdom.

If the Arangian Guards decide to rise up the Arangian Royal Castle will become an impregnable fortress.

In other words the current Arangian Kingdom was in the midst of a three-way war between the Arangian Guards who controlled the capital the noble alliance controlling the outskirts and Prince Balthazar the northern border lord.

*********

In this situation of a three-way battle where no one could see what would happen next King Azadin of Banreung led his army into the Kingdom of Arangi at the invitation of Viscount Eremba.

The residence of Count Eremba was a shabby mansion that could hardly be called a lord’s castle.

It was a building that was more like a post office than a mansion.

“Hmm. You’re Viscount Eremba right?”

Azadin was quite embarrassed when he saw the shabby estate of the Viscount Eremba.

If you were to invite a foreign power to participate in the war of succession to the throne wouldn’t they have to have some degree of power?

Although Viscount is not a very funny title Viscount Eremba’s territory did not seem to have any special properties or special products on the way.

But Azadin wasn’t the only one disappointed.

“Ah Your Majesty Azadin. I heard that you are a three-headed six-legged demon with a lightning cap on your head.”

Count Eremba said something that was hard to tell whether it was a joke or serious but his disappointment was obvious.

This is because the composition of Azadin’s army was mostly made up of refugees with a small number of cavalry.

It is no wonder that Count Eremba is disappointed seeing that soldiers who are worse than rookie mercenaries have been brought here as the king’s soldiers.

“I don’t have a lightning cap but I’m willing to strike anyone who wants to be struck by lightning. So I’d like to hear your plan.”

“Oh yes. Your Majesty. May I speak to Prince Sram for a moment?”

After asking for Azadin’s understanding Count Eremba summoned Prince Sram.

“No isn’t that a different story? Sram.”

“What are you talking about Uncle?”

Join our discord and ping me to update more chapters. Discord: https://discord.gg/93rmBjgP6B

“King Azadin is such a great guy isn’t he? But this isn’t like the rumors? No matter how great he is he brought soldiers and beggars to be his subordinates. Are you looking down on the Arangians? Soldiers armed with slings in this day and age? We’re not living in the past a thousand years are we?”

“No uncle. King Azadin has been able to win many times with such an army.”

“아니 외세를 끌어들인다고 욕을 처먹을 판인데 욕을 처먹으면 이겨야지. 이러고 지면 그냥 천하의 개새끼로 끝나는 거 아냐? 셀레스철 파이어는 어쨌어? 잘생기고 예쁜 미남미녀들로 그득한 천사의 군대가 있다고 하지 않았어?”

“손님을 불러놓고 그렇게 말하는 것도 충분히 천하의 개새끼 같은데요.”

“Guests are guests. Those beggarly soldiers don’t eat the same amount of food. Think about my position as the one who has to provide that food. Food is already expensive. I thought I would be able to see Celestial Fire!”

Prince Sram and Viscount Eremba’s conversation was between themselves but Azadin could hear it clearly.

Azadin smiled bitterly.

‘I guess you were counting on Celestial Fire. But we don’t have many proper cavalry either… Sorry Celestial Fire but we really have to roll it around a lot.’

Azadin sent Celestial Fire there to gain combat experience and military distinction to combat the monsters that threatened the trade routes in the region of Sandokar Naisandokar.

The Celestial Fire Knights used two Celestial Fire Knights and five regular cavalrymen as a sort of veteran force so that the Celestial Fire Knights could train the regular cavalrymen to become even better knights.

While Celestial Fire is being used to raise the training level of the cavalry it seems that Viscount Eremba was simply relying on the splendid appearance and angelic appearance of Celestial Fire.

“What should we do? Should we reprimand and punish him for his rudeness?”

During the expedition to Bisen he governed the internal affairs of the palace but during this expedition to Aranggi Jibek who had come along asked Azadin about his intentions.

“Well if I were to invite you as a guest and cause trouble right away that would be a problem. Anyway I guess you had high expectations for Celestial Fire.”

Azadin said so and made a knock on the door to Zibek.

Jibek approached the room where Prince Sram and Viscount Eremba had disappeared and knocked on the door.

“Oh yes. Thank you for waiting so long. Let’s have a banquet right away.”

“No in the current state of affairs in Fimbulbert let’s not hold a banquet or anything Viscount Eremba. I have some thoughts on the issue of succession to the throne of the Kingdom of Arangi.”

“yes.”

“Even if I don’t become king it doesn’t matter as long as someone else can bring the light of the crown to the throne here. In that sense I think the Arangian Guard can be persuaded enough.”

“yes?”

“I want to form an alliance with the Arangian Guards. Can you arrange a place for me?”

“Oh I see. Then yes.”

Although Viscount Eremba was half-hearted about Azadin he couldn’t help but agree when Azadin set out a specific course of action and made his demands clear.

‘I see you thought that anything would be resolved with the Celestial Fire and the Light of the King’s Flower without much thought.’

As Azadin predicted it is clear that Viscount Eremba summoned Azadin because he was charmed by Azadin’s ability to manifest the Light of the King’s Fire and gain the loyalty of the Celestial Fires and that he did so without any specific plans for the future.

Even though he was this kind of person he was still a source of food and was on the supply route to the Kingdom of Banreung so he needed to be treated well and not be offended.

*********

“If there is no outside intervention Prince Balthazar will become king.”

Azadin came to that conclusion as soon as he heard the story of the three-way battle in the Kingdom of Arangi.

“Why?”

Jibek began to question Azadin’s words which had already been decided the moment he heard them.

“But isn’t Prince Balthazar’s organization the most secure in terms of command? The noble alliance is handing over the throne to the Northern Qi and saying they will become the actual rulers but would Prince Balthazar just sit still? In the end armed conflict will break out and if they want to go to war each and every noble has to provide private soldiers. And that’s all about money. Money. On the other hand what about the Arangian Guard? If there is no other prince to put forward as king besides Prince Balthazar then their plans are just empty words. That is unless there is outside intervention.”