Chapter 50: The Rebel Army?

Eh.

Huh.

HUH!!!!???

....Rebellion. Huh?

I knew she was just kidding before, but this was indeed very shocking.

Idmon: "Rina, I expected that you might have at least a group under your command, but this place is your rebel base? No one is here!"

The Old Man Wizard and I followed her here. She said this is where she stays. The Old Man was able to travel underwater inside his < floating bubble.

Rina: "I told you that, didn't I?"

This place had nothing! No guards, weapons, or armor. No soldiers were getting ready for war. I even thought for a moment that she was kind of a royal princess.

So with her one-woman army, she wanted to overthrow a king? What if I didn't bump into her?

Rina: "Ah. It's a good thing we met! Now... You said earlier you were a king, right? Let's go to your army next! I just came here to get a few things."

I just came and got a few things. What?

Idmon: "(t) If I may..."

Rina: "Yes?"

Idmon: "Do you have some sort of plan in mind?"

Rina: "We sea dwellers have this ancient Rite of Ascension."

She explained it to us. Basically, all the powerful guys would fight each other in a bloody tournament, and whoever comes out on top wins. Champions can also compete for a person. That person would be Rina.

Rina: "The Great God of the Sea, Drib Ulf, gave us this ritual. No king will be able to reject a challenge since it is a rule of our god."

Idmon: "(t) How do we get ourselves permitted to join this Rite of Ascension?"

Rina: "First of all, a challenger needs to be a sea-dweller. Since you have me as your master, you are allowed to fight."

A champion can be of any race as long as they fight for a sea-dweller.

Rina: "Second, to qualify as a challenger. We need a powerful army strong enough to stand against the main army of the Sea Dwellers."

Idmon: "Are we going to use my army?"

Rina: "Yes. And once the God of the Sea sees such a huge threat to the kingdom, they will hesitate to wage an all-out war because the loss will be much greater than the rewards."

Idmon: "(t) I see. The king can surely squash a single fool trying to take his throne. What a clever use of the army."

Rina: "Lastly, you must agree to give up your life and all of your belongings if you lose, since winning means you get it all. All of the Sea Dweller's Kingdom as its king."

Idmon: "(t) I can live with that. But this is a really huge favor you're asking me here."

The funny thing is that this rite is the same as my goal. If I could take out the opposition with this strategy, I could gain two allies at once.

Idmon: "How can I be certain that once you attain the throne, you will not abandon me? Or Queen..."

Rina: "It's easy! Since you're giving me this favor, you can ask a favor from me too when I become queen."

Idmon: "(t) Is that al-"

Rina: "No matter how big it is, and since it's a favor, I can grant it to you as long as we're on good terms. Even a temporary alliance."

Idmon: "It's a deal. Old Man!"

Wizard Ybab: "Yes, Milord?"

Idmon: "(t) Can you produce something for these kinds of agreements? Like a conditional spell or something."

Wizard Ybab: "I could produce some papers. You can write on them with magic. I can put a penalty on the one who breaks the agreement."

Idmon: "Let's go with that. Rina?"

Rina: "Sure!"

Wizard Ybab: "Okay... ."

A scroll comes out of his magical inventory. Very similar to my

We write our agreement on the scroll.

On it, it says...

"This shall serve as proof of the agreement between King Idmon and Future Queen Rina. Lord Idmon will help Rina acquire her rightful place as a queen. If Lord Idmon succeeds, Rina will go into an alliance with Lord Idmon's army. Rina shall also fulfill a request of Lord Idmon as an additional reward for his services."

The wizard then cast something else. ."

The penalty spell would be continued exposure to a powerful lightning spell for as long as the transgressor lives."

This penalty should happen if one of us disobeyed the agreement, so we better be careful.

Rina: "Signed!"

Idmon: "(t) Signed."

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Wizard Ybab: "Then, the agreement is sealed." ."

Something like an ancient drawing formed on her wrist; for me, it was on my bones. It must be the penalty spell.

Wizard Ybab: "It will stay with you until you finish the agreement."

Rina: "Okay, thanks."

Idmon: "(t) Thanks, Old Man."

After that, we left the cave of Rina, and she guided us towards the Grave Isles.

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(Bon POV)

It's been an hour since we left the Grave Isles to search for Lord Idmon.

Bon: "King Yalk, how are you navigating this serpent? You can barely see anything in front of you."

Yalk: "Heh. It's instinct. Instincts."

That can't be all that there is.

Bon: "And?"

Yalk: "Well. This zombie serpent also has a skill called

Bon: "It works even on undead?"

Yalk: "Life energy, negative energy, elemental energy, holy... as long as their energies."

Bon: "That's actually pretty impressive."

Yalk: "I know, right? Hehe."

King Yalk seemed like he knew what he was doing, so we stayed quiet for the rest of the ride.

Yalk: "He's near."

Bon: "Hmm?"

Yalk: "The Skeleton King's near. I can feel the response from the zombie serpent's sensor."

That's fast!

Yalk: "How do we call out to them so they won't attack us?"

Bon: "The classic way seems fine to me."

King Yalk then shouted. It was deafening.

Yalk: "HEYYY!!! SKELETON KING!!! Your men are here!!!"

So we just followed his example.

Others: "LORD IDMON!! WE'RE COMING!"

When they noticed us, they produced some sort of light source to guide us to them. Come to think of it, who are they? I'm pretty sure Lord Idmon did it all by himself.

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(Idmon POV)

Idmon: "(t) Thanks. Nice to meet you, King Yalk. I'm sorry you had to go out of your way to greet me."

Yalk: "No problem, man. By the way, are you okay?"

Idmon: "(t) Yes."

Yalk: "Why are you with the runaway princess of the Sea Dwellers?"

Idmon: "(t)Hmmm? Princess..."

Yalk: "Did you kidnap her?"

Is he talking about

Idmon: "(t)Wha... Rina!?"

Rina: "Whoa!"

I chased her around to give her a good scolding.

Yalk: "And who's this old man? He's human..."

Idmon: "(t) Ah. Don't worry about him; he's with me."

Yalk: "I see."

He was irritated. It's a good thing he tried to hide it since I don't want a fight to start between these two.

Yalk: "Okay, let's go back to the Isles to get this sorted out. We can't have a discussion down here."

Bon: "I agree."

Bon said that and helped us get on the Zombie Serpent.

The Searcher: "Lord Idmon, what about Lina?"

The searcher asked a weird question. It sounded like something I'm supposed to know already.

Idmon: "What about her? Isn't she with the others on the Grave Isles?"

The Searcher: "Right after you fell underwater, she dived to follow you. I thought both of you would meet up. But it's not that surprising if it's this dark here."

I can't leave her all alone.

Idmon: "(t)I understand... King Yalk!"

Yalk: "Yeah?"

Idmon: "Can you do me another favor and help me find Lina the Ice Witch?"

Yalk: "Sure, we need all your men accounted for if we want to win this war anyway."

Idmon: "(t) Thanks."

So we would go in deeper and follow Lina's traces of energy. It's a good thing we had this zombie serpent.

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(Lina POV)

Wahi: "Big Sis Lina!"

Lina: "What is it, Wahi?"

Wahi: "A big snake is coming towards our cave! Some weird guys are riding on its mouth too!"

Lina: "It must be... Lord Idmon!"

Wahi: "Eh?"

Lina: "Was he looking for me??? No, no, no... That can't be... But if he was..."

Wahi: "Big Sis?"

Lina: "Ah, forgive me. Let's go outside and meet them. I believe that they are my comrades."

The Witches of the Deep went outside with me. They decided to name their group. They said that they would work under me and follow me wherever I went.

It was indeed boring to be here in these dark and empty waters. They also wanted to be in the same class as me, an ice witch.

They're still in training, like Lea, but they have great potential.

Nanu: "My Queen is the King inside the mouth of the serpent."

I don't know why or how it became like this. Everyone except Wahi is calling me Queen now.

Lina: "Yes, it's Lord Idmon. The Skeleton King."

Nanu: "Isn't that the Zombie King Yalk besides him?"

Lina: "Hmm... Oh, they already met?"

The Zombie Serpent stopped in front of us.

Bon: "Lina! Get on. We have a lot of work to do."

Bon called out to me. I floated towards them.

My witches are right behind me.

Idmon: "Welcome back, Lina."

Lina: "I'm... glad to be back."

Lord Idmon greeted me. I was about to cry but held it in. I missed him so much, and I was distraught.

Idmon: "It seems like you made a lot of friends."

Lina: "Ah, yes, Lord Idmon. They would serve under me and will be a great addition to your army if you accept them."

Idmon: "Of course, I accept them. If they're with you, there's nothing I need to worry about."

Lina: "!!!"

Ah, Lord Idmon...

My eyes were spinning from what he said. To think he trusts me this much!

Bon: "Oi. Oi! Lina."

Lina: "Ah!"

Bon brought me back to my senses. The Witches of the Deep were currently swearing their oath of loyalty to Lord Idmon.

Bon: "You did a great job. I was planning on scolding you for diving underwater carelessly like that, but it turned out great in the end."

Lina: "Thank you..."

I usually glare at Bon, but Lord Idmon's words still had an impact on me, so I didn't.

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(Idmon POV)

Yalk: "Wow. Is that your queen, Idmon?"

Lina's beauty held King Yalk speechless. Or he was just a pervert.

Idmon: "(t) She's an Ice Witch, and she's one of my generals but not the Queen. There is no queen in my kingdom."

He was nodding on his own.

Yalk: "I see. I see. I understand now. That's why you don't have a harem!"

Definitely a pervert.

Idmon: "(t) Okay, okay. Let's go back now. We have to prepare for war."

Yalk: "Yep! Lets go!"

Something hard suddenly rammed us. We were inside the Zombie Serpent, so we were thrown around by force.

Bon: "We have enemies! Everyone prepares for battle."

But before we could prepare ourselves, thousands of magical tridents were attacking the Zombie Serpent from outside, and it was only a matter of time before they tore its body apart.

Yalk: "Outside! Abandon Serpent! Abandon Serpent!"

We quickly followed King Yalk towards the mouth of the Zombie Serpent.

But...

"Hold still, or we will unleash all of our tridents at you!"

An army of sea-dwellers was waiting for us.

Yalk: "We surrender."

Idmon: "(t) Indeed, we do."

Rina: "What? You found us already."

I hid Rina behind my back.

I should have expected them to use a large army to search for their princess.

There were like thousands of them. Around five thousand, maybe? We only had about 150, even with the Witches of the Deep; we can't fight them all.

Idmon: "(t) Rina, hide for now. Get inside my ."

Rina: "Eh, it's pitch black in there!"

Idmon: "If they spot you now, they might imprison you, and we won't get a shot at the Rite of Ascension."

Rina: "Okay. Wooops!"

I was able to hide her without them noticing.

Yalk: "Idmon, this is bad. We can't call for backup."

Idmon: "Actually, I can. But let's hold it for now. I have a plan."

Yalk: "I wish it's a perfect plan since they already captured both kings."

We were being tied up with some magic shackles to restrain our movement. It even works on ghosts.

Rina: "(t)Ahhh. I didn't expect them to pull an ambush on us. The kingdom is wayyy far from here."

Rina can still talk to me via telepathy when she's inside my Void box.

Idmon: "(t) Is that so?"

For now, we have no choice but to surrender. We arrived at the Sea-Dweller Kingdom the next day.