Chapter 10: Chapter 10 - Enemies On All Sides!
A room in Wolfenstein castle.
"Damn it! Damn it! Who does he think he is? Barging in and humiliating me?!"
"Shodan bastard! Who was he really anyway?! Feihren? That bastard will pay!"
Gritting his teeth because of the seething anger, the young king Louie is seriously infuriated due to what unfolded a few moments ago. What happened confused both Charles and Louie.
They had stayed in the same room since that incident that happened in the throne hall.
Unlike Louie, Charles was calmly leaning on a wall, silently thinking, with his eyes shut as if he was asleep. Charles Rudyard, the True King of Wolfenstein, is the total opposite of his idiotic cousin. He was only 12 years older than Louie, though he believes he is way wiser than this cousin of his.
5 years ago, Charles' father has perished due to an unknown disease. This was the story that the masses were fed. However, Charles had found out that the noble faction within the kingdom was the one who plotted the murder of his father.
His father was a caring person to commoners and nobles alike. He was the one that pushed for taxes to be lowered so as to help the poor on the eastern side of the kingdom. This caused the uprising from the nobility faction. In all honesty, reducing the taxes would never affect the royalty faction, but would directly hurt the 'greed' that the people from the noble faction were trying to quench. Assassination through slow and gradual poisoning made the death appear as if he died by a disease.
Louie's idiocy was definitely inherited from his father, whom was a joke of a king. After the death of King Louie, Louie the 2nd had never provided any good contributions throughout his 7 years on the throne. He slowly led the entire kingdom to become gradually weaker. He was a puppet of the noble faction who had no spine to stand up on his own, no vision, no life perspective, no long-term goal or direction, a definition of an idiotic leader.
The death of Louie the 2nd was actually plotted by Charles. Surprisingly, Louie the 3rd has initiated the assassination.
As to his reason, he had his own goals which Charles didn't bother with. It was inconspicuous as to how this cousin of his to want to resort to such methods, but assassinations within families were not uncommon within this world, a power struggle has always been played through survival of the fittest. You'll lead if you're strong, you'll live if you're smart. After the death of his father, Louie the 3rd held the entire royal faction as Charles seized the opportunity to take a hold of the entire noble faction who is in chaos at that time.
Louie was just a figurehead, an image of a king. But in all truth, Charles just wanted the betterment of the country, though he does not believe that supporting the commoners can cause any good for the country. The more slack one is given, the less he'll work. Everything can be done better through straightforward decisions, as such…
"I have heard that after leaving the castle, they took the route going to the east, I believe that Marvin would return to his family and would settle there for now. As for that Feihren guy, we'll see if he also stayed there."
"I'll handle drawing these rats out…"
Charles seemed to have found a great solution. For years he had learned that pressuring people had always yield great rewards, as for nobility pressure the people on their lands, It was a piece of cake.
...
Meanwhile in Shodan Continent,
The Ranustin Kingdom, holding the most prominent position within the Shodan Continent, is starting to stir up trouble. Within the past 3 years, they have gathered the other powerful kingdoms within the continent with one goal in mind, to seize the entirety of the Old Jujelei Kingdom. This would be including the territory that the Wolfenstein Kingdom is currently residing on.
Being at the edge of the Blaz Continent, it has always looked easy to conquer this small yet rich kingdom. But because of the natural geography shielding it, a huge amount of resources would have to be expended should one attempt to wage a war against them. If they took the direct route in the north, they would face many perilous days as they needed to cross multitudes of gigantic mountains before reaching Wolfenstein.
Talking the Southern path would be a roundabout path, and would end up turning into an even longer travel time. They would also have to cross the Jujelei River, which was fine when only a few people would cross, but thousands? Hundreds of thousands? It would take weeks, months even. But now, a new intelligence report arrived that would change the outcome of the long dormant plans.
According to the newly arrived scouts and spies they had sent there a few years ago, the agricultural lands of the Wolfenstein Kingdom were now their best bet in having a much smoother travel for the war. The eastern district of the kingdom was now occupied by the Dwarven race. The dwarves had legitimately acquired the lands through the agreement of King Louie II. In exchange for giving them the lands, the dwarves would help them in metal works and maintenance of the agricultural lands.
When the regime of King Louie II ended after he perished, the agreement seemed to have weakened. Some of the nobility is slowly taking charge of some parts of the land and raising disputes. As such the eastern gate now has few people guarding it. More good news was that parts of the mountain that were once occupied by the Dwarven race have collapsed and the mining caves imploded because of having nobody to maintain them. This created a seeming straight path in the middle of the towering ranges. And it's a few hundred meters wide! Enough for a good number of their troops to pass through without alarming the enemy of their presence!
It would take around a month for war preparation and another 2 for the entirety of their forces to arrive at the mountain range.
...
Late evening in Coboro Village
A peaceful atmosphere surrounds the village, with crickets chirping in a harmonious manner.
Two figures could be seen still chattering in the middle of the village.
"How do you know about 'guns'?" Feihren inquired with a serious look in his face. He had thought, up to this point, that guns would be a unique existence within this time-forgotten world as it has very low technological advancement, but it seems that the term "Guns" does exist here.
"Ah? No, no, I just assumed this is called one, it does resemble this..."
He pulled an elongated object with around a meter and a half in length from a sack bag he had strapped on his back. It was a well-polished wooden stick with a seemingly protruding metallic rod on one end, but along the smooth wooden handle was a trigger.
'M1 carbine?' He seemingly remembered something like this in one of the gun books showing the guns from previous ages the history of earth, and it heavily resembles the one the Dwarves was currently holding. 'But one thing seems different. The barrel does not have a hole in it! Looking at it close, Feihren noticed that there was no magazine either. It's just a plain wooden plank with a metal rod and a trigger on it.
"If it wouldn't bother you Sir Sherwin, how does this thing work? Could you show me?"
Feihren was now definitely curious as to how a "gun" without a barrel would work.
"Ah, I don't mind, but I am curious as well. Was I right to call your weapon a gun as well?"
Feihren nodded.
"Hmm, then I don't mind, let us test both of them out. It does look different so I am curious as well"
Feihren nodded in agreement as he was eagerly looking forward to this.
They had to move to the open fields to prevent disturbing those who were already sleeping in the village.
Old Mendi and Feihren then prepared to fire.
Sherwin started in a similar posture as anyone who was preparing to shoot a gun. As he squeezed the trigger, a faint light started to gather around the entire metal rod, and in the next instant the light condensed at the tip and…
*Phew**Bang*
'It was strong enough to topple a thick tree?' Feihren shocked, he went ahead and inspected the tree, only a minuscule amount of burnt parts were seen, but the entire tree toppled down as if it had been hit by a blunt force!
"Guns were created by our brothers in the Jejuron continent, and they have passed the idea amongst our race. I've heard that they have created some improvements recently, but I haven't witnessed it yet. The purpose of the weapon was to draw out and condense magic and to deliver it at a specific location, depending on where we are aiming at. As you have known, the world's mana pool is still highly unstable, thus we can't cast these spells on our own, so we require things that would act as conductors."
"So, can you show me how that gun of yours works?" Sherwin added as he smiled eagerly while looking at the beautiful gun in his hands.
'Eh, so its' power is dependent on the user huh? And it looks like Old Mendi is a strong one'. Feihren smiled.
The killing potential of the Dionysus AK-9 he was using was indeed top notch, but is definitely not for show.
Feihren sighed as he prepared to shoot, right eye on the scope, closing his other…
"Eh, knights?"
Within the scope, he saw a group of cavalry knights seemingly rushing towards the village, killing intent was apparent with how they seemed to move forward in haste.
'Well, it seems like that brat Louie does have a bad temper. But kudos to him for sending me free targets. I don't have to worry about how to show off my gun anymore'
A grin appeared on Feihren's face.
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