章節 20: THE MAD KING (PART 1)
King Francis was bored out of his mind as he watched his generals discuss war strategies. He had no idea why they always did the same thing over and over again when the threat over their heads was nigh zero. As the King of the whole Knight Kingdom, he expected others to sit through these boring meetings while he did something fun in his castle.
Francis was a young man in his early thirties. He stood a Little over 6ft, had broad shoulders and strong arms that he had inherited from his late father, King Bernard. His deep-set eyes that sparkled with an emerald fire and his thin nose, as well as his full lips, complimented his brown hair well and anyone who saw his handsome face remembered the old queen, charlotte.
The old king and queen had been very famous for their wisdom and strength. Together, they had ruled the knights to new heights and had spread the kingdom's name far and wide. Everybody had been happy under their rule. Even when the old queen died, and the king had been heartbroken, he still did his best to maintain the kingdom's glory. Up until he also kicked the bucket right in the middle of the great war and left his son, Francis to rule.
Within four years, The young Francis who valued partying over administration had ruined over 30 years of hard work and destroyed the kingdom's reputation beyond repair. He had replaced hardworking officials with his friends who had little to no knowledge about the positions he gave them. He was hoarding gold like a dragon and taxing the people like a tyrant. The army was demotivated. The people were hungry and the Kingdom as a whole was on the brink of collapse.
Somehow, Francis always survived the assassins sent to kill him. With every failed assassination attempt, he would publicly execute over five people just to return the favor. He didn't care if they were guilty or not, he just wanted to set an example.
To not get caught in the next mass execution, the court members had begged each other to stop the assassination attempts and to leave him alone. It had worked and for almost two years, no one had tried to assassinate him and none of the court officials had been publicly executed.
But as the sun rose and fell each day, things just kept getting worse. The soldiers kept suffering defeat after defeat at the hands of their enemies. Lives were being lost daily and the Kingdom was getting weaker and weaker. To regain their old strength, the generals had drawn all sorts of battle plans and had prepared all sorts of policies that they begged Francis to implement to appease the soldiers, but no matter what strategy or idea they brought to the table, Francis never seemed interested.
"When is this meeting going to end?" The king asked in a bored tone that irked his generals to no end. All of them had lost good men in the war and hoped to reduce casualties the next time there was a clash, but this guy never gave a damn.
"We just started, your majesty. There's a lot to talk about." Lemuel, the oldest of the generals in the room answered calmly. Only his twitching eye have away his anger at the brute who sat on the throne.
"I don't care when we started. When is this going to end?" Francis asked in an annoyed tone.
"In two hours my lord."
King Francis snorted in annoyance. He had people waiting for him in his chambers. Two hours of listening to these old farts was too much for him.
"Give a quick summary of your reports and leave me alone. I don't see why I always have to be here for these boring meetings." Francis glared at his generals as he said this.
Most of the people in the room, the guards and Lemuel included, had to take in deep breaths to not fly at the king in rage. They cursed their ancestors for making ascension to the throne hereditary and for giving a fool like Francis the chance to be king.
"Very well. If you'll look at the map carefully, my King-" Lemuel arranged the map so that Francis could take a good look at it.
"You'll notice that I've marked our outer boundaries which depict our colonies with red circles." Lemuel pointed at several circled territories with a long pole as he explained to the king.
"Didn't you already give the same report yesterday? You said those marked red are territories that need the capital's help or something. Right?" Francis scratched his head as he struggled to recall what the previous day's meeting had been about.
It took the generals everything in them to not facepalm or sigh in frustration as they listened to Francis.
"Kind of. Thing is, all the territories we've marked red are now lost to us. We used to have fifteen different colonies aside our own towns and cities. Now we only have six colonies left. The rest have all been seized by either the Vikings or the Samurai." Lemuel glared at the king as he said this.
"Why, are we losing our colonies?" Francis asked as if he hadn't been to all the previous meetings the generals had held.
"Because you refused to help them when they were under attack, my King." Lemuel snarled his answer but Francis took no notice.
"Oh, I remember now. The pawns I sacrificed. Well, I did it for the greater good. Our forces were spread too thin and I needed to do something about it. We can't Protect every other colony when our own cities need protection as well. I believe I did the right thing sacrificing those small towns." Francis shrugged and more than one general grabbed his knife in anger.
"That will all be good my liege if the towns you surrendered weren't contributing anything to our economy. Food, money, resources. All these were things the colonies we surrendered were providing us. Now our food supply in the remaining cities has dwindled drastically that we fear there will be a famine if we lose any other colony again." Lemuel sighed as he answered. He wondered the depths of King Francis' stupidity and asked himself if he was really king Bernard's son.
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