“Saintess Lydia, we’ve captured the royal family along with their most loyal supporters.” Cardinal Godfrey smiled.
John, Pete, Lydia, Leo, and some others from Hydra appeared in the throne room armed. In front of them were their enemies. Tied, muffled, and slightly roughed up from the armed monks and nuns. Lydia couldn’t help but smile brightly at the sight of this unexpected boon. This wasn’t even a plan of hers!
“I’m impressed, Godfrey. I didn’t think you had it in you to give me such a good surprise.” Lydia happily replied.
“It wasn’t much, Saintess. Once our people heard Hydra was on their way, we immediately started to plan for your arrival.” Godfrey explained.
King Andrew shouted all of his fury and hatred out toward both Hydra and the Church. Since his mouth was muffled, nothing he said could be understood. Although, everyone knew the gist of what he wanted to say. Pete calmly walked over to the captured members of the King’s court.
“If only you spared the time to care about someone other than yourself.” Pete happily lectured the bound king. “Then we probably wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place.”
“An idiot through and through.” Lydia clicked her tongue. “Why go against the people that make up the majority of your kingdom? Jealousy? Incompetence? Insanity?” Lydia only shook her head as she already started to think of how to improve this kingdom for the better.
“Should we execute them?” Cardinal Godfrey asked.
“No. Not yet.” Pete shook his head. “Their execution for their crimes toward the kingdom needs to be a public display. Everyone needs to know that this wasn’t a treasonous uprising but an undertaking of righteous justice. For the betterment of everyone and the punishment of those who wished to do wrong to the innocent.” He explained.
“Understood.” Godfrey motioned for his men to take them to the dungeons.
“I’ll keep watch.” John offered as he followed the trained monks and nuns.
“Thank you, dear! Love you!” Lydia called out.
“Love you too,” John responded back while keeping an eye on the prisoners.
“Right, so, now we gotta run a kingdom, boys.” Pete looked at his Heads. “Before ya start pissing your pants, let me tell ya, it won’t be that different from what we’ve been doing before. Me and Lydia will do most of the hard work and thinking. All you knuckleheads need to do is just listen to us and don’t get fucking conceited. I’m still your boss. It’s just that now I'm gonna be your king. A simple change of address and a few other stuff won’t be too hard, will it, boys?”
“No, Your Majesty!” The Heads responded.
“You’re starting off great already.” Pete laughed as he sat on the throne.
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The next few weeks were spent preparing for the execution of the previous king and his closest followers. It was a public event as everyone was invited to come watch in the front of the palace. There were attempts to free the royal family and previous advisors for the king, but John swiftly stopped them without much trouble. These supporters of the royal family were simply added to the dungeon cells—more heads to chop off when it was time for the execution.
Pete, Lydia, John, and the other Heads stood on the podium with the chained criminals. John held the executioner’s flail as Pete prepared to speak. Pete was dressed in royal attire alongside his wife and children. He walked forward and silenced the crowd with just his presence. It was an impressive sight for a man who was previously just a regular Lord. John knew that Pete had something that made him worth following, and it was that something that allowed him to capture the crowd without any words or actions. He couldn’t put a name to it, but he could certainly feel it.
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“My people. I bring you all here today to witness justice in action. No longer will this kingdom allow corruption, success through connections, and injustice to run freely. Andrew Marys has failed to properly run the kingdom. He overtaxed those who worked hard every day just to have enough food to feed their families. He punished those who did nothing wrong for the sake of pleasing nobles to feed his own vile greed. He cared little for the suffering of commoners and only the problems of the nobles. It wasn’t enough that he didn’t care, but Andrew Marys actively went against the very heart of the kingdom. That heart, being you all. You are the heart of this kingdom. Without you, there is no kingdom. I am your king, but I cannot run this kingdom without the help of all of you. I seek to fix all of the wrongdoings of the previous king and show you all a much better life. A life where your king has your best interests at heart.” Pete took a breath. “And my first act of showing you all that is by punishing the ones that actively sought to destroy our very home. My good friend John, punish those that have been poisoning our home for so long and without any remorse.” John raised his flail in response and swung down multiple times over.
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John executed the royal family and their closest supporters. Each one had their head smashed in despite their struggles, cries, and begging. The crowd cheered at the sight of justice being done. John shouted alongside them as they dealt with one of the biggest illnesses eating away at their Kingdom. Hope rose within all of the citizens as Hydra took over the most powerful positions in the Holy Kingdom of Hydra. The pope made this day a special holiday in the holy calendar.
A huge celebration was held the next day, which was all funded by Hydra. Food, drinks, games, and acts of kindness and charity were all done at the celebration. After all, it was the founding of the Holy Kingdom of Hydra. What better way of imprinting this day as a great day than by directly improving the lives of their citizens? The celebration was done through Pete utilizing John’s unknown source of funds along with the income from Lydia’s many businesses. There wasn’t a dent in the royal vault because of those two loyal Hydra members.
Lydia was made the Grand Advisor to King Pete. She would be his right-hand man in helping him manage the kingdom. In Pete’s mind, there was no other person better suited for such a position. As far as he knew, there wasn’t another man or woman alive smarter than Lydia. It was only because of her help that Hydra came so far. There was no doubt in his mind that making her his Grand Advisor was the only correct choice.
Of course, there was some resistance and muttering from noble lords about a woman having so much power and status over them. These simple-minded Lords thought a woman incapable of relying on logic and reasoning, as most men thought of women as emotional creatures. Not creatures capable of managing a kingdom. A household, sure, but a kingdom? The scales were far too different in their minds.
Lydia silenced them immediately with actions instead of violence as she would have in the past. Her first action was swiftly cleaning up the mess made by the previous administration. She started a system of records that made it incredibly difficult to be a corrupt official working for the court. Numbers, reports, and personal funds were checked three times over. If any discrepancies were found, all those related would be fined and removed from their positions as long as it was proven not to be incompetence but intentional mistakes.
Positions were steadily being filled up thanks to Lydia and her men directly hiring students from Desmont University. Previously, these people were unable to find higher employment due to the previous administration caring more about status than skill or experience. It was a purposeful effort on Lydia’s part to toss out these fossils that got by through the last king’s laziness and replace them with her own investments. Even the slightest signs of corruption or discrimination based on status would have them sacked.
Due to Lydia and Pete’s efforts, the Holy Kingdom of Hydra was quickly entering an era of prosperity. As the King and his Grand Advisor were working on improving the situation around the kingdom, John was made Knight Commander. It was his job to train, improve, and lead the army. A task far too easy for the follower of Lord Feedback. With the rewards given to him by his Lord, he transformed the royal army into an insurmountable force that could only be resisted with the combined force of three foreign nations.
Leo worked as the King’s Shadow and protected him from all that wished to harm him in the dark. It wasn’t as glamorous of a job as he thought it would be, but from time to time, he had some fun. He had a harem of concubines and more children than he knew what to do with. John made sure everyone knew of the King’s Shadow and his impressive peerless strength. Knowing that Leo loved attention and would probably get bored if he didn’t have people constantly talking about him.
As the years went by, The Holy Kingdom of Hydra became an unstoppable nation. John and Lydia never had any descendants, and not for a lack of trying. Neither complained about their circumstances but did adopt a few children as they couldn’t simply die without experiencing parenthood at least once. All of John and Lydia’s belongings were split between their three children. Three children went on to revolutionize the world thanks to their parents' upbringing. In other words, the myth of Heroic Giant John and the Saintess Grand Advisor went on to create further legends in history. None knowing that it was only possible, thanks to Lord Feedback supporting John all this time.