Arthus walked through the familiar hallway with an unconcealable smile on his lips. he had been waiting for this day for a long time and he couldn't help being excited.
He entered the throne room and sat down before taking a glance around the room, The floor directly in front of him was filled with nobles kneeling in subservience, some more sincere than others. Arthus sneered when he caught sight of a particular group of nobles closely bunched together.
"rise" ordered Arthus.
The sound of shuffling filled the room as they stood up and Arthus' enhanced hearing didn't miss the grumbling from one side of the room.
Just as Arthus was about to start the meeting someone asked "your majesty, why have we been sending all of our prisoners to the new city, this silliness is interrupting our business"
Arthus glared at the man who spoke before his turn and coldly questioned "silliness, are you saying my orders are silly"
The man bowed slightly while giving an insincere apology before adding, "no sir I wouldn't dare, however, why aren't we just killing those prisoners in their cells or holding public executions where they did their crimes, instead we are filling wagons meant for trade and sending them to a new city"
Another man spoke up in the Kings defense, "His Majesty has his reasons for everything he does, you don't have the right to question him"
Arthus' mood was dropping by the second and he wasn't going to let his political enemies dictate the flow of his meeting. He slammed his fist on the throne's armrest sending a deafening sound echoing around the throne room, several people covered their ears and complained as Arthus stood up.
Arthus placed his hands behind his back and started, "Now the reason I called this meeting was to inform you of a Kingdom changing occurrence" everyone perked their ears up, especially those who were in the noble faction because they had no idea something big was happening catching them off guard.
Arthus continued "but first, there are a few things I would like to rectify, Duke Eraknil", The man in question jumped at his name being suddenly called and several of his close followers had their breaths freeze for a moment.
Eraknil replied "yes your majesty" as he moved in front of the throne and bowed with more courtesy than he intended. His nerves were more shaken than he thought, normally the King simply ignored his existence because he couldn't do anything about him.
Arthus waved his hand and moments later the ornate double doors at the side of the throne room burst open, everyone except the king looked on in surprise as knights dragged a bloodied man towards the throne.
Eraknil felt something crawling ups his spine from the strange turn of events, the man being dragged was unrecognizable, his face was so swollen even his own mother wouldn't recognize him, but Eraknil felt the man was familiar.
As the man was dragged past his group he noticed the beaten mans hands and all the blood drained from his face.
Arthus was watching Eraknil closely and his grin only grew deeper as his enemy realized the enormity of the situation.
Once the knights roughly shoved their prisoner into a kneeling position in front of the thone Arthus asked, "and this is?"
One of the larger knights saluted and replied "your majesty, this is a traitor who has something to confess to you"
Eraknil was shivering by this point which covered up his slightly moving lips.
Arthus ordered "speak"
The man started to talk, however, only gurgles sounded out because he was beaten so badly, the knight next to him sighed started casting a healing magic causing the man to jump in fright.
Moments later the swelling went down and several nobles in Eraknil's group recognized the man and stiffened.
He felt his face and the tiniest measure of relief showed in his eyes before he started telling his story.
"Your majesty, I was originally a noble who was loyal to your majesty" dozens of people from the Kings faction glared at the man at his confession, "b-but. Times were tough for my family, our lands were raided by the duchies men disguising themselves as bandits several times, we were only a small territory that an upstart baron could manage and even though I was given this territory to protect due to my skills, it wasn't enough.
Sometime during the winter, I became sick. The bandits found out and attacked the poorly defended villages Crugas and Summmer hill in my territory, killing everyone and burning everything.
With noone alive on my small territory to pay taxes I couldn't afford to get medicine--"
Arthus interrupted "Yes we can all guess the rest, what are your crimes"
The man paused as the reality that the King was uninterested in hearing of his plight and the lost opportunity of painting himself in a good light hit him. After breath of resignation he continued "We attacked the Duchies farms and villages in full Swadian military gear" More than half the room audibly gasped at the confession and some quickly realized the implications of such an act, this wasn't just simple revenge against so-called "bandits" because they wore their Kingdoms gear when conducting the raids, if it was they would pretend to be bandits just like the Duchies have been doing.
Arthus got straight to the point and directly asked "you say WE, who else was working with you"
The man started rattling off names of soldiers or knights that worked with him to attack the villages, Arthus couldn't help but frown when he realized all these people couldn't be directly connected to Eraknil, so instead, he raised his hand and ordered "Silence... I don't care about the low-level brutes behind this" he slightly leaned forward in his seat without anyone noticing and expanded mana out of his feet onto the ground like a web for grip. "don't you agree Eraknil"
Arthus was grinning at Eraknil knowing that he had to either answer and cancel the spell he was secretly casting, or activate the spell and kill the man for no justifiable reason"
Eraknil gritted his teeth and dissipated the spell he was concealing before answering politely, "yes your majesty, if someone is inciting squalor amongst the populace we should find out who is behind it and demand justice from them"
Eraknil cursed the King in his heart, he had no idea that Arthus knew about his Dark magic abilities, something which he kept strictly secret and was only known to two people including himself, just a little longer and he could have made it look like the man suddenly died from his injuries, although it would look suspicious the King wouldn't be able to pin the blame on him without proof.
Now Eraknil would have to use a spell which he could cast instantly and the basic fireballs spell the only spell he could do so with.
The moment Eraknil stopped speaking the King asked the man while speeding his words up which sounded strange to the others present, "so who ordered the attacks"
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The man was caught by surprise and after a moment of hesitation he said "Duke Era--"
The words were drowned out by an explosion which sent panic throughout the throne room, several nobles used to battle got ready for a fight, knights and dark clothed man burst into the room from hidden doors. The more experienced people noticed that there were two explosions so close together that most thought it was only one.
Knights surrounded the nobles and looked for any threats as the smoke cleared, several men in black stood next to the throne with slightly confused expressions under their masks. They weren't here to protect the King he was too strong to need protecting from them, however, finding the King missing was another matter entirely.
All this happened in the span of several seconds and after the smoke cleared the beaten man was a mangled corpse on the ground, Arthus stood with Eraknil held up by the throat.
Eraknil's followers started loudly remarking, "why is the King attacking a Duke, obviously the Duke saw the scoundrel attempting to assassinate the King and stopped him, isn't this like repaying kindness with a knife in the back"
"how could the King do something like this, wouldn't the Kingdom's subjects become disillusioned with the Kingdom and rebel"
"The great duke Eraknil has been a loyal subject of the crown for decades and this is how he is repaid, especially just after he saved the king"
Each and every one of them quickly and efficiently created a narrative and backed each other up in reinforcing it, turning black into white before anyone could tell anything of the situation.
Arthus suddenly burst out into laughter, "You don't think this fool is the only proof I have of Eraknil's treason.
I have been keeping tabs on his friends and family ever since the rebellion, fool me once, haha. First he has been smuggling weapons and armor to the duchies, I have had those "secret" caravans being watched for a long time now, although I couldn't directly pin it to this 'Duke' here personally, I'm sure that my agents would have found all the necessary evidence now that they are searching your manors now" Eraknils group looked between each other at word "manors" and it being plural worried them greatly.
Arthus continued "Some of my advisers created a "tree" which details all the deaths of nobles in Swadia, it is quite suspicious that almost half the deaths in recent years have been your opposition is it not", he looked at the struggling Eraknil while smiling.
Another man from Eraknils faction spoke up, "that's because Duke Eraknil's friends have territories far away from the duchies, all those nobles died from wars"
Arthus countered "it is indeed interesting that all of "your faction" have your territories far away from the fighting, which is convenient isn't it, which is why I requested for each and every one of you to send magic crystals to the university and troops to the frontline, however, the magic crystals only have started to be delivered now, which is months late, and as for the troops, I've yet to receive a report of reinforcements to any of the border territories, which is another crime...
what no rebuttal this time, well let me continue", Arthus then went on to list dozens of crimes he attributed to Eraknil's faction, some with proof but most without and the only ones with concrete proof were minor crimes for someone of the Dukes standing.
Although there was no concrete proof pinning the duke to these crimes, everything together along with the small things Arthus did have proof of painted Duke Eraknil guilty. The king's faction, those who stayed neutral and even some people who were leaning towards Eraknil were certain that Eraknil was guilty, and the fact the King had the man gripped by the throat after he attacked a defenseless man, who was probably about to announce his own guilt helped along the credibility.
Observing the atmosphere and unconcealed disgust directed towards their faction leader one of Eraknils followers questioned, "so what if the Duke did a few minor things, all nobles have some blood on their hands, that's the price of being above the masses, so why are you publicly announcing crimes that any duke would be left alone for, are you perhaps getting rid of anyone you don't like the look of because none of the Nobles will listen to you then"
Arthus was no longer laughing, if he really did start punishing Dukes for things a baron wouldn't be punished for then he would have to worry about rebellion at worst, and just plain insubordination from every noble in the Kingdom, as they all dragged their heels in every command in protest at having their "noble privileges" revoked.
Arthus ground his teeth as he seethed with anger. Since becoming King he had cultivated a strong hate for politics, it annoyed him to no end that even as a king there were things he couldn't do.
However, today was different, he glared at the man and practically growled, "when the assassin that crippled me entered my study, he entered through a passageway only known by Eraknil", Arthus's looked towards the terrified man in his grip and his grin deepened as he blatantly lied to Eraknils face, and whenever he struggled to speak Arthus would squeeze the worm's throat harder.
The man that had just argued against Arthus stumbled for a moment then his mind rapidly spun, after a moment he countered, "there are dozens of secret passages in the castle, the assassin could have been told by someone else you didn't know who knew about the passage", his tales and excuses were becoming more far-fetched and his confident demeanor was gone, replaced by a sweating man who looked ready to flee. he continued "or the assassin found the secret tunnel by accident"
Arthus laughed "the secret tunnel constructed by Merlin was just "found" by accident"
The man was stuck for several long awkward seconds before he unconvincingly replied, "anything is possible"
Everyone in the room could tell this was a farce by now even the guards, however, the man kept arguing "you never answered my question, why are you announcing petty crimes"
Arthus savagely answered, "because I am going to "clean house"
Dozens of older nobles jumped slightly as a cold chill swept through their bodies, they knew what this "clean house" meant, as they were alive during the last "cleaning".
The man seemed to understand the reaction from the older nobles and panicked "you can't punish us without proof of any crimes"
Crack, Eraknils head was suddenly facing the wrong way surprising everyone, including Arthus even though he was the one to twist Eraknils head off.
Arthus regained himself and replied "You say that I "can't" punish you, but you seem to forget that I am King, proof what need to I have for proof, I know your guilty the same as that bag of shit, so I will kill you, not because of any evidence of some sort of crime, but because you are scum that skirt the line of the law, pushing it to the absolute limits in the places you know you can get away with, killing you is a service to the Kingdom.
But most importantly of all, The kingdom has just come into a great windfall which will push Swadia to greatness, and I don't want to share any of that greatness with your kind, you don't deserve it, all your deserve is this"
Eraknils followers thought the King had gone crazy and started looking for a way out, however, they found the Knights blocking their paths, they ordered them to move and even threatened them with their titles, however they seem to have forgotten that the Knights in the castle only take orders from the King, and if the king wanted them dead then the Knights would help make that happen, even if the King was crazy.
It only took several minutes for Arthus to slaughter those who he deemed guilty, although he kept himself to only killing those who directly threw their lot in with Eraknil because if he killed everyone associated with the man, then half the court would be empty the next day, so those will lesser dealings with the man or who didn't do anything major were spared.
Although he was slightly disgruntled about not being able to slaughter everyone who was disloyal he still stopped, Arthus could see the frightened expressions of the nobles as he could guess their thoughts, with nearly 20% of the court now lying dead on the floor. With the cleanse finished he had to do cleanup which means reassuring the remaining nobles.
Arthus took a moment to clean his hands and sat in his throne before speaking, "AHEM, first things first, Abraham, I will assign you to electing the new leaders of the households who just lost their patriarchs" this immediately solved the issue of headless families who would infight amongst themselves for the patriarch position and destroy their noble households, and most importantly Abraham was one of his most trusted advisors so Arthus was sure that the new family leaders would be more "loyal", and in the event the family tries to group together to rebel, Arthus doesn't mind having a noble rank or two freed up for his subordinates.
Arthus could see several nobles peeking at the door and decided it was time have everyone come together under his banner, so he grandly gestured as he gave the earth-shattering news.
"Everyone, as I said earlier in this meeting I've got something to announce which will change this Kingdoms future... In the new city, a sentient dungeon has been found"
Discussion erupted amongst the nobles, the smell of blood and guts almost completely forgotten once they heard the news.
Arthus waited for a moment then continued "silence... it seems you all understand what this could mean for Swadia, well I have even better news..." everyone listened intensely, as if afraid they might miss a word, "I have struck a deal with the sentient dungeon called Lucifer"
This time the smell of blood really was forgotten as discussion exploded, some nobles directly cheered, others regretted not being in the Kings faction from the start, however, most of the feelings were of the positive variety as everyone knew of what this could mean for them and their kingdom.
Although it wasn't said most of the nobles were glad that Eraknils group were dead, such traitorous people didn't deserve to see the day when Swadia rose into a mighty empire, and it meant more benefits to them.
Arthus waited for discussions to quiet down before he closed the meeting, "everyone remembers this day, let it be remembered as the beginning of the now renamed city of Morningstar, and the beginning of Swadias RISE"