SON OF THE HERO KING

Chapter 554-555: Preparation for last phase

Setsuna may not have beaten two sages. Nor did she actually manage to completely conquer the bastion of Wratharis.

But what she did was in a way even more impressive.

A ceasefire.

After beating down the one known to be the fastest sage in a record time, she managed to completely impose her authority on both Wratharis and Lustburg.

This ceasefire wasn’t just something as simple as conquering a bastion.

It was a message. A message that was so loud and clear it sounded like Thunder rumbling in a clear sky.

She was Setsuna.

She was not just some fleeing princess. But someone with the right to the throne.

She was not just some political puppet. But someone who could inspire respect with her power, talents, and charisma.

The effects of this victory were far-reaching as some individuals started to fan the flame from behind and made the news spread even faster. So fast in fact that even fishing villages in Wratharis that were in the complete opposite direction of the battlefield managed to get access to recording and very accurate news.

For the simple citizens, what Setsuna did or the ramifications behind her acts did not matter in the slightest.

All they cared about was her power. After all, for many of them, the Seven Sages were bedtime heroes and legends. Something akin to gods already.

Finally, the form she showed at the end. The Giant Wolf of legend. A form only a King-ranked member of the royal family should be able to use.

Didn’t this mean that Setsuna was stronger than the current King?

Also, she was so beautiful and she seemed to be far less crazy than the current King.

Such an impression started to become common as whereas citizens did not care much about Setsuna in the past, news about her started to become more and more common.

To the point that everyone knew her story.

Barbs signed her history. Soldiers chatted about it between them. Even small books were shared among the populace.

Setsuna Ira. A princess born from their beloved and benevolent king who had brough an era of peace thanks to his strength and his skills in diplomacy.

Sadly, she had to leave her country in tears and blood as she was chased down by none other than her own uncle!

No name was given. But people knew who it was obviously.

This kind of news were shared everywhere and obviously, soldiers and guards under the order of Lupus started cracking down those gatherings.

Capturing those spokes. Imprisoning them and even executing some of them.

The goal was to inspire fear. But all it did was to inspire rage.

More fuel was added to the fire as news about the King stifled even the right of free speech by punishing it with jail and death.

It was important to remember that Wratharis was not a Kingdom like the other. At the very least, at first glance it was a Republic. This gave citizens many rights that were not present in other kingdoms but in a situation like this, those rights became akin to a cord that was slowly tightening around Lupus's neck.

Soon. The names of Tyrant and Usurper became more and more commonplace.

Whereas only truly loyalists of the previous king called him like this, more and more common people who refused to even have their most basic rights taken away from them started complaining.

Protests started to happen everywhere and while said protests were met with violence….Another to remember was that — Everyone had mana in this world.

Even more so people whose entire bodies were made for war and battle.

Silent protests transformed soon into riots as public outrage began to rise and riots gave place to looting and even more destruction.

Even the guards who were supposed to follow the orders started slowly rejecting them. Even though they did not dare to openly defy Lupus by refusing, they would act weaker or close one eye when some prisoners managed to escape.

Finally, open protests became common as people shouted for Lupus to take off the crown and accept Setsuna back as the official Crown Princess.

All of those events took only one week.

In just one week. The capital of Wratharis did not even see the fire of war but it seemed more akin to a powder keg ready to explode than anything else.

Clang~!!!

“Bastard!! Incompetent fool!! Rebellious Bastard! All the lot of you! They should all be hanged!”

The rage of Lupus spread through the imperial castle, causing all the servants to cower in fear as they could be killed at the slightest mistake.

This was always how Lupus behaved. Respect earned through Fear and power.

This had worked well for him during the last 10 years. But what he forgot was that the only reason such tactics worked was that.

One. He was the strongest.

Two. No one could contest his right to the throne.

Now though…

The fear he always inspired the servant slowly transformed into rage as well.

Because they knew.

They knew now that they did not have to bear this fear. They knew now that there was someone.

The old servants who once served the King back then but had been kept out of a sadistic sense of pleasure by Lupus talked about the good old days. Many of them even knew Setsuna and had taken care of her.

This knowledge gave them hope. This helplessness gave them even more hope. Making a deep yearning for the princess to come back to bloom in their hearts.

Meanwhile, deep in the sanctuary of Wratharis,

Kiku looked at her best friend with a bitter smile.

“You… You truly are very dangerous.”

Shuten Doji smiled, “I will take this as a compliment.”

There was nothing easier in this world than manipulating public sentiment.

“But in this case, the one you should thank is Lupus himself. He gave me all the ammunition I needed.”

She laughed and looked in the distance, “Now our job is done. We already softened the terrain for him.”

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Shuten's goal was not pure chaos.

Only organized Chaos.

The city might seem ready to implode. But everything was carefully working under her control, keeping things at a relatively boiling point.

Setsuna was the new trend and when she appeared to take the throne, there would be basically no complaints in fact, there would only be cheer as they welcomed their queens.

Shuten had the urge to laugh even more widely and become dead drunk. It was not time yet.

They could not celebrate yet.

Now that all the pieces were placed and the most important of the battlefields were in control.

It was finally time for the counterattack to begin.

Only then would everything they have done until now have a meaning.

If Lustburg could not reach the gate of Wratharis. Then it would have been meaningless and people would have died for nothing.

‘Now then little prince. How will you surprise me?’

Shouten was curious. She felt like Sol was a kindred spirit. Someone worth respecting, even though she had never met him.

A few days later, as Shuten received the new reports, she had to admit…She was truly beyond surprised.

***

When the news of Setsuna’s victory reached Sol, he had to admit that he was both proud and disappointed in a certain way.

His pride came from the fact that Setsuna had indeed proved her might and talent, shocking the world. Furthermore, her actions, as well as those of Lilin for that matter, managed to give back much honor to Lustburg as a whole.

Many people had been looking at his kingdom as some kind of dying powerhouse because they had not been able to produce truly splendid talents in a decade. This situation was now a thing of the past.

The White Knight, The Holy Daughter, the Sword Demon, and Setsuna.

They all managed to shine on the battlefield and keep the points they could not afford to lose from being breached.

His disappointment came from the fact that neither Sun Wukong nor Lupus took the battlefield.

If one of them did, then things would have completely changed. The absolute advantage would have gone to Lustburg instantly as he would have been able to send all his true force to wipe out everything.

He had initially sent a letter to Shuten, asking her if it was possible to have Sun Wukong attack.

He even planned to add the prize of being able to fight Lilith, since the Monkey King seemed to be so obsessed with it.

Sadly, it was refused. Sun Wukong refused to participate in any scheme and he clearly said that if he did act, he would go for the kill.

As much as Sol believed in the four directions or Isis’s king-rank undead, Sol could not bet on the safety of Setsuna or Lilith when facing a singularity like Sun Wukong.

‘Well. It doesn’t matter.’

The war had already shifted in his advantage even if it didn’t seem so. The people currently dying in the battlefield were criminals, and soldiers under the control of nobles who held rebellious thoughts or seemed to act as if they were some uncrowned king in their land far from Lustburg.

By the time the war ended, most of them would be completely eradicated and replaced by actual meritorious soldiers or witches.

Speaking of witches,

“Carla. How is the situation?”

“Your Highness, Lady Theresa is thankful for the help the witches proposed to give. She also said that by adding a few of your scales, the production increased greatly and they managed to gather 500 near Duke-class armor and over 1000 lower-ranked armor. But they are slowly reaching a limit in production.”

Sol whistled. The numbers were different from what was initially expected. But he believed in Theresa. Lately, he had basically become a free resource for material. But he did not mind. All weapons that were created with his blood and scales had his imprints. These weapons couldn't be used against Lustburg or even without his permission.

“Obviously, all the witches who participated took a vow, right?”

“Of course.”

“Good.”

Sol believed in Ambrosia and the four Directions. This didn’t mean he believed in the witches as a whole. It was always better to make sure they didn’t put some weird backdoor program in those weapons.

“How do they hold up against an actual Duke?”

“As they are based on you, the armor has higher magic resistance and physical resistance. A few witches fought against them and as long as a Zone isn’t activated, they have a hard time defeating them. One soldier was swiftly destroyed when Miss Milia. But the armor itself was not greatly affected.”

“So, basically they are equal to low-level Duke without zone?”

“More or less.”

Sol had to fight the urge to laugh. This was not the Astral realm. Top-ranked Dukes didn’t run around this part of the world and even mid-ranked ones were rare.

“Good. Very good.”

He stopped as he noticed that Clara seemed worried.

“Speak your mind.”

“You Majesty…” She hesitated before taking a deep breath, “Your Majesty. I believe. It would be better for you to single-handedly conquer the army itself than to activate those machines. At least not now.”

“Elaborate.”

Clara, seeing that Sol was not angry, nodded, “Those machines are revolutionary. But at the same time, they are extremely frightening in my opinion.”

In the Mortal realm, only a few hundred Duke ranks existed. All of them were the results of incredible talents, luck, and hard work. This was why the existence of the Duke was so lofty and respected.

But…With the advent of those machines, everything would change irreversibly.

“Those machines mean that everyone can become a Duke. It lowers the quality of Duke, and their importance and it makes you far far more dangerous than to the entire world.”

Clara's reasoning was simple, if Sol went alone and destroyed Wratharis, people may fear him, and rightfully so. But at the end of the day, he was only one person and one person could never conquer the world as long as they weren’t gods themselves.

They could destroy it. They may be able to kill everyone. But true conquest was impossible.

Things were different if you had somehow an army able to annihilate everything. This was why witches were so feared. This was also why necromancy was forbidden on the battlefield. But what about those special armors created by Theresa?

Theresa simply shuddered. Would there even be any reason to learn to fight and grow? Why bother training decades or centuries to become a Duke when you could simply train to fight in a weapon?

For now, only 1500 such weapons could be created but the technology was still new. What would happen in three or four generations? By then wouldn’t the world be filled with them? Perhaps those armors could even reach the king's rank.

It was horrifying just thinking about it.

“Your Highness, no matter how strong you are. You still have the risk of dying as a Blessed. The moment any of your children receive a Blessing your own time will be limited or at least this is what they will believe. So they can wait. They can support. But I fear that if you use those weapons, the entire world will rally against you immediately and go into an all-out war.”

She was pleading at this point, wishing Sol would listen to her, “This is not yet the time. Why take the hard way when you only have to wait? Five years, Ten years, twenty, even a thousand years. You have all the time in the world.”

By the end, she was raising her voice, “If the woman called Nent is the problem, as a phoenix she can easily come down any time in Lustburg. The same goes for the one named Kiyohime. As for the Titan, she had lived endless times longer than anything we could imagine. Even a hundred years would barely count as a nap for her.”

Finally, she asked the one question that had been bothering her.

Why was Sol in so much hurry? A conquest should take time. It wouldn’t be strange for the war to last years, even decades. Why was he speedrunning this?

In the end, Clara sighed and bowed her head, “I apologize for my overreaction.”

“Do not worry. I understand that you care.”

He waved his hand.

“I understand what you mean and if everything was normal…I would have done so. But…I cannot wait. 100 years? A thousands? I do not know

why, but I have the feeling that if in less than a decade, I am not a demigod at least, I will regret it.”

“A feeling…”

Had it been anyone else, She would have simply dismissed it as a ridiculous argument. But, one could never dismiss the feeling of a Blessed.

“Even then. I do understand your concern.”

What she was talking about was not wrong. This was akin to the creation of guns in his world. Things such as martial arts, swords, spears, and so on were slowly relegated to auxiliary, reaching the level where one man could cause half a country or at least many cities to vanish simply by pushing a button.

This is what made technology fearsome. It wasn’t something only a few chosen could have but something that could be used by everyone.

Sol could even imagine how the crime rate and chaos might rise.

But all of this would not happen.

After all, he would change the entire mortal world in his territory. As long as it was he who had the power to push the button.

What did it matter?

“Only 500 of the lower class armor and 100 near Duke will be launched. Let them have a skewed perception of our force. I will personally take care of the other's battlefield.”

It was time for Lustburg to counterattack.

“Also, we seriously need a better name for the power rank of those armors. Tell Khali to not go too chunni on me. She will understand what I mean.”

If he let Khali go all out she would bring names like Scarlet Red or perhaps Empty Void Level and he was still lowballing how crazy she could go.

Clara, seeing that at least her words did not fall in empty ears sighed and nodded before leaving. She had to warn Milia to start the dissemination of news such as Lustburg becoming too poor and lacking resources which was in reality, not far from the truth. She would also increase the rarity of the ingredients necessary.

As long as the world did not know they could mass produce those armors in the future then things would still be within controllable range.

Truly, being a secretary was not easy.