Chapter 231: This Time It’s Different
The royal decree to subjugate Count Lantis plunged the Bagran Kingdom into a whirlwind of chaos.
Numerous nobles flocked to the royal capital to submit petitions and tried to persuade Prince Ruad.
To attack Count Lantis was tantamount to pulling out one of the pillars of the country.
Although his eastern domain was less developed and populated than the western region, which included the royal capital, he was still a count.
There were only four nobles with the title of count in the entire Bagran Kingdom, and he was the only one in the east.
Moreover, he owned a vast area of arable land along the Ob River, contributing greatly to the grain supply.
If a war broke out during the harvest season, hundreds of thousands of people could be affected.
But Prince Ruad rejected all petitions with bloodshot eyes.
“I understand your concerns, my lords. Indeed, Count Lantis’s influence is formidable. But he crossed the line. He did something unforgivable.”
“There must be some misunderstanding, Your Highness.”
“That’s right. It doesn’t make sense that he would join hands with Galisto in the first place.”
“There is evidence, evidence!”
Prince Ruad threw a stack of documents containing the contents of the meeting that Count Lantis had with the merchants.
“It all started from his grudge against Viscount Vandus! Yes, he must have been bitter after losing his Zaium nobles and getting his High Knight captured! I didn’t want to say anything until now! But what is this? Can’t you see with your eyes?”
Among the documents was a confirmation letter that Rohan Merchant Guild had sent 20,000 units of flour to Fermil Merchant Guild in southern Galisto.
Apparently, Count Lantis had intervened indirectly by making a deal between the merchant guilds.
The relations between Bagran and Galisto had been on the verge of collapse for decades, and they didn’t even have a minimum diplomatic relationship.
In such a situation, it was impossible for the merchant guilds to trade with each other.
The nobles raised objections.
“But Your Highness, there is no evidence that the count was directly involved, is there?”
“The merchants are notorious for their greed, so it might be just an anomaly.”
“He seems to regret it greatly this time…”
“Silence!”
Prince Ruad slammed his hand on the table.
His hand trembled with anger and his eyes stared at the nobles.
“Do you expect me to believe that a mere merchant colluded with Galisto? They are just businessmen! And I already gave him a chance to explain! If he had come to the royal capital and appealed to His Majesty, would things have turned out like this?”
“I’m sorry, but from the count’s perspective, it might have felt like pressure…”
“Then why did I tell Viscount Vandus to come to the royal capital? You’re contradicting yourselves!”
When he brought up the previous domain war, the nobles had nothing to say.
The atmosphere was slowly tilting towards Prince Ruad’s side.
No matter how independent a grand lord he was, he couldn’t get away with colluding with outsiders, and he shouldn’t have.
Especially if it was not Zaium Empire, which was willing to compromise on some issues, but Galisto Kingdom, their enemy.
The nobles who were kicked out of the palace barely knocked on Count Lantis’s gate and managed to meet him.
He looked so distressed that his eyes were sunken and his beard was overgrown.
“My lord, we understand your injustice, but this time you should lower your head a bit…”
“We will help you. If the palace is too harsh, we will contact Duke Prozhan and arrange a neutral place.”
“…No, it’s over.”
Count Lantis’s voice was hoarse as he spoke.
His castle must have been full of screams for the past week.
He licked his lips with his tongue and said,
“I trusted Vandus and he came out hard on me. But I don’t care. I’m not that easy to deal with.”
“My lord…”
“My castle is the strongest in the east and I have several magicians. It won’t be breached by a few Goliaths.”
“But Viscount Vandus used an airship raid strategy, didn’t he?”
If an enemy Goliath appeared inside the castle, the war was almost over.
But the count had a different opinion.
“No, they won’t be able to use an airship raid strategy. Because they will mobilize their fleet from Galisto.”
“…”
The nobles who came to persuade him held their breath.
It seemed that he had no intention of explaining himself at all.
“Then things will get out of hand, my lord!”
“That’s right. It would be better to install multiple ether cannons on the ground and go for a delaying tactic. We will ask Zaium for help.”
“No, there’s no need for that. I feel like fighting Vandus this time. I’ll test him myself and see how good he is.”
The count’s eyes boiled with pure hatred as he spoke.
He might have seemed inferior to Viscount Vandus, who had achieved many successes recently, but he was also a noble with ether blood and a proud knight.
He couldn’t repair a Zaium-class Goliath, so he wouldn’t be too far behind.
More than anything, he was a grand lord of Bagran.
He had hundreds of nobles and knights under his command, and the number of people in his domain was close to 200,000.
He couldn’t abandon them.
The nobles realized that they couldn’t change his mind and closed their mouths.
The only way left was for one of them to perish.
***
Galisto Kingdom ignored the demand of Bagran royal family to explain their position.
Instead, they deployed several airships and 30 Goliaths to the domain of Baron Fermil.
It was a sign that they would push down if they resisted.
Prince Ruad was furious and wanted to send out his royal guard, but Leobold stopped him.
“Your Highness, you can’t send out the elite of Bagran here. Do you need a big knife to kill a chicken?”
“They’re coming out like that and we can’t just sit still.”
Since Galisto declared their intervention openly, it was natural that the Bagran royal family had to step in.
But Leobold had a different idea.
“What if I stop their invasion by myself? How would they feel? They would be ridiculed for not being able to beat a single viscount even with the royal family involved.”
“Is that possible? Don’t you have to at least exclude Galisto’s forces?”
Even if it was Leobold, it seemed impossible to face both Count Lantis’s domain and Galisto at the same time.
He had more than three airships and 50 Goliaths, and quite a few magicians.
His goal was Count Lantis, so he had to take over his castle, but it was impossible to use a small-scale raid strategy like before.
It required a pure strength-to-strength fight, and Leobold was absolutely inferior in that regard.
Of course, if he could use the power that defeated the Shadow Elf pirates, it might be different…
But Leobold didn’t lose his composure.
“The victory is assured, so prepare the count title ceremony. I don’t want to inherit Lantis’s castle.”
From a baron of a tiny domain to a viscount, and now a count who ruled the east of Bagran…
Prince Ruad was pleased with his progress, but also secretly afraid.
He seemed too big for this small kingdom of Bagran.
‘Will he stop his march at the earldom? Or does he have another goal?’
To dispel this fear, he had to be firmly connected to him, but a loyalty oath was not enough.
He thought he could only feel relieved if he made a blood tie through marriage.
“Viscount Vandus, do you have any interest in Adela?”
Adela Bagran was the youngest of the royal family and Ruad’s sister.
The problem was that she was only 13 years old.
“I’m sorry, but Adela’s age is…”
“She’ll be an adult in three years. She seems to suit you well, don’t you think? It’s not bad to make a betrothal in advance.”
“I’m grateful that you care so much for me. But I’m afraid it’s difficult. A while ago, Count Croitz of Zaium came.”
“Did something happen then?”
“Nothing like that, but she seemed to like me a bit. She even said that if I wanted to marry him, I had to abandon Arma.”
Of course, nothing like that happened.
Croitz just kissed her cheek and left, and the one who restrained him was rather Arma.
But who would believe what happened between them?
When he mentioned the great noble of Zaium, Prince Ruad stepped back.
“Hmm, if Count Croitz said that, it’s no good. I’m sorry. Forget about it.”
‘The prince tends to back off easily when Zaium gets involved.’
It was understandable since it was such a huge country, but he felt that it was too passive an attitude.
In the end, he would become the prince of a ruined country, but it didn’t matter anyway.
The conversation with Prince Ruad ended there and Leobold summoned his knights.
Granden and Catina, Elwin were quite excited about the idea of fighting Count Lantis.
“Listen up, knights. Our enemies are Count Lantis and some of Galisto’s troops. There is no support.”
Catina and Elwin looked at each other in dismay, but Granden was different.
He was one of the people who witnessed Leobold slaughtering the pirates with his power.
He couldn’t imagine him losing to anyone unless the armies of Elbrangdena or Zaium intervened.
“It’ll be a big fight. Galisto has airships too.”
“That’s right. It’ll be hard to surprise them like before. That’s why we’re going to use a different method this time.”
They discussed that method for an hour.
Catina and Elwin were shocked to learn that they had to hijack the airships.
“Hey, my lord? They have ether cannons on their airships. Isn’t it hard to block them?”
“Don’t worry, we have living metal.”
Leobold picked up the sword that was shining in one corner of his office.
The shape of the sword changed into a shield in an instant, and Granden groaned.
“Hmm… So you plan to block the ether cannons with living metal.”
“That’s right. The ether cannons deployed in Galisto are not very powerful. This shield can block them.”
“But isn’t it hard to cover the whole airship? The accuracy of ether cannons is low, but we have to get close, so it’ll be offset.”
At his words, Leobold threw the shield on the floor.
An ether field spread out and the shield turned into a thin armor plate.
It was big enough to cover one side of the wall in his office.
“Wow.”
“That’s amazing. I can’t believe it can change so drastically.”
Leobold shrugged his shoulders.
“You can change it too.”
He turned the living metal into a sword and handed it to Granden, who cautiously grabbed the hilt.
“How do I do that?”
“Living metal changes with the power of will. Think of the clay that Eily plays with.”
Thanks to his father’s power, Granden was able to change the sword into a clumsy shield shape.
“It’s not working well…”
He was disappointed, but it was remarkable enough.
The way Asterian used ether sensitivity was different from ordinary psychers.
It was like putting diesel in a gasoline car, and to overcome this, he had to replace the engine, that is, the ether circuit.
‘Maybe I can make a hybrid circuit through research.’
It was still a long way off, but there were ether researchers and Arma, so results would soon appear.
Leobold threw the sword into the air and let it float there.
“Your mission is to hijack Galisto’s airships. They’ll think we have Goliath on board and pour out ether cannons. I’ll take care of it beforehand, so block them with that and get into close combat.”
“What do we do after hijacking them?”
Elwin asked and Leobold stabbed the sword into the map on the table.
It was the castle of Count Lantis’s territory.
“We’ll take over this island by force. With our own power.”
There would be dozens of Goliaths and mages waiting in the castle.
“It’ll be a tough fight…”
“Sh, should we write our wills? My lord?”
Catina and Elwin said weakly, but Leobold shrugged it off.
“Count Lantis can’t stop me. Now get ready to sail.”
—Some living metals had special properties, such as not changing back once they were transformed. This needed further research.
Anyway, living metal was not as invincible as initially expected.
And Count Lantis did not think that Leopold had more strength and skill than Elvrande.
“He is strong, no doubt. He might even be stronger than me. But he is doomed to fail as long as he has to rely on airships. Even if he breaks through them, he will have to face dozens of Goliaths in my castle. I don’t think he can do that.”
That was because the output of Goliath was fixed.
Even a Bephar-class Goliath was only a bit faster and stronger, but it could not overpower multiple Goliaths with brute force.
Let alone without it, the outcome was almost certain.
Count Lantis pointed at various places in the castle.
“Place magicians here. Use Greek magic to restrict his movements and give scrolls to the soldiers to spam magic. It won’t help much, but it will buy us some time.”
His plan was to use that little time to approach Leopold and force him into close combat.
“That’s a brilliant idea.”
“This will stop Zaium even if they invade.”
The aides praised their master without hesitation.
Their fate was tied to the count anyway.
“Sell everything you can and buy scrolls. I’m betting everything on this.”
***
The internal conflict in Bagran showed signs of escalating into a national war due to Galisto’s intervention.
If the Bagran royal family did not back down here, war would have erupted.
But Prince Ruad did not declare the royal family’s involvement even though he denounced Galisto.
As a result, Galisto received skeptical views not only from Elvrande but also from within Bagran.
—They must have been afraid to move even though Galisto’s involvement was exposed.
—It seems that the aftermath of the Great Elvrande War is quite serious. Galisto is the same, but they are big enough to have some leeway.
—Other lords are trying to sneak out quietly. They don’t want to offend Count Lantis.
—Then is Viscount Vandus the only one who participates in the subjugation?
—Is there any chance of winning?
Most opinions in Bagran and even among Galisto’s allies were that this was difficult.
Especially after it was revealed that Galisto’s fleet was equipped with ether cannons, the odds seemed to tilt sharply towards the alliance.
—If they use the fleet to bombard them, even Viscount Vandus won’t stand a chance.
—Even if they break through and enter the castle, they will face dozens of Goliaths. It won’t be an easy fight.
On the other hand, Zaium just watched this conflict.
If the Bagran royal family had stepped in, they would have ordered them to end the conflict by punishing Count Lantis moderately.
They didn’t like their subordinates fighting each other.
But since Viscount Vandus was the only one who joined the subjugation, they decided to watch and see what happened.
The person who led this decision was Count Croitz.
“Viscount Vandus is mine. So don’t even think about touching him. Any objections?”
Only Croitz could do such a crazy thing as stabbing a sword on the conference table.
There were complaints from everywhere, but she didn’t care.
“Be quiet and watch my future husband’s performance. He will crush Lantis in no time.”
She could act like this because it was not a meeting presided by the emperor.
It was just a meeting where some nobles showed interest in the conflict between two kingdoms.
There was hardly anyone who could oppose Croitz in such a place.
Even Duke Prozhan agreed with her.
“We won’t help much in resolving this situation if we intervene. We just need to hold the losing side accountable.”
“Does that apply when Viscount Vandus loses?”
Someone asked that and Duke Prozhan looked at him with displeasure.
“Are you sane? What did Viscount Vandus do wrong in this situation? He is fighting against Count Lantis and Galisto alone with courage. You can’t even praise him for that.”
“It’s not courage, it’s recklessness. I don’t know how he killed all the shadow elves, but if he thinks that luck will work against the alliance, he is mistaken.”
“I thought so too until my knight was captured. Do you know this? He fought a Bephar-class with a Jagan-class. Without any magic or traps.”
“Really?”
“That’s impossible!”
There were exclamations from all over that it was unbelievable.
That was because Jagan-class was considered junk in Zaium that was not even given proper troops.
Fighting a Bephar-class controlled by a high knight with that was suicide.
Duke Prozhan leaned back on his chair and Croitz whispered to him.
“Is that true?”
“I heard it too. Emil wouldn’t lie, so I guess I have to believe it.”
“He had normal ether…”
“Maybe he has a way to hide his power. There must be a reason why the saintess called him a hero from another world, right?”
Croitz had a complicated expression and Duke Prozhan smiled slyly.
“Don’t worry. He will be ours no matter who he is. When this war is over, prepare a banquet right away. I’ll give you a generous gift.”
Well, that was doubtful.
Croitz thought he seemed to be hiding more than just his strength.
For now, they had no choice but to watch the war.
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