Chapter 123
Calendia's Greatest Secret
News traveled fast in the Palace, and by the time evening had arrived, the knowledge of the Captain of the Private Guard being humiliated in front of the Knights had reached Prince Mikael’s ears.
His Guards were elites created to protect him. They were his pride. How could he show his face in front of others now? That damned bitch. I should have her hanged!
“Father!!” the Prince burst into his father’s office angrily.
“What is it, son?” King Gerard was poring over documents. He answered without looking up. He had been staying up late these days to go over documents that towered over him. Then again, to the old King, these days the thought of sleeping was unpleasant.
Alrond was sitting nearby, checking everything over with keen eyes.
“Cornelia had humiliated my men in public! She must be punished!!”
Gerard placed his pen aside and sat back. His eyes staring at his son for a good long while. He then pinched the bridge of his nose and frowned. His fatigue had accumulated for a while now and the sound of his son’s complaints did not do him any good.
BANG!!
“Do you think me a fool, Mikael?! Do you think I have no eyes in my own home?!” the old King slammed his large fist onto his desk, causing the windows behind him to tremble from the impact. “Your man ambushed another person in a friendly spar with a killing move!! If it is done in the Frontline, I would have him beheaded for such act!!” the old king bellowed. “Having him incarcerated under house arrest is already the most lenient thing I can do!”
He stepped in front of his son and grabbed him by the lapels. “Do you think just because we have the blood of Kings in us, we are invincible? That we are untouchable? Do you know how many attempts at our lives that my men had thwarted without you knowing just this year alone?!”
Alrond put aside the document that he was holding and sighed. There would be no work done the rest of the night, he thought.
The gray-haired King roared, threw his son aside, and spoke, “Humiliation? By Junnaveil’s Grace, it is him that humiliated his bloodline.”
He then grabbed a decorative sword and shield and hurled them at Mikael. “Take them! And put up a fight!!”
Seeing this, the hunched Advisor made his way to a secure corner and cast Barrier on himself.
He watched as the King grabbed a decorative sword with a single edge and weighed it in his hand. At that moment, he was not a King. He was a soldier. One that had survived the battlefield and taken lives with his own hand.
“F-father!”
“HRAAH!!”
Mikael managed to put up a guard stance just as the King swung his sword. The impact sent him reeling back. The Prince had never fought his father before, as such, he did not know how strong he really was. But he realized with that swing alone that he was strong. Very strong.
“You are a Magic Paladin. And I am a Swordsman. You are gifted with two jobs. My job is weaker than yours. My talent is lower than yours. But I could kill you as many times as I want! HAAH!!”
“Heavy Bulwark!!” A blue light appeared as Mikael used his Skill.
“Earth Shatter!!”
The power of Earth devastated the shield and threw Mikael against the desk, breaking the innocent furniture into two.
“Stand up! I said stand up!!”
“Aagh!!” Mikael groaned as he tried to stand up. His back did not hurt as bad as his heart. He had never been hit by his father. Not like this.
“Haaah!” the Prince let out a roar and charged at his father.
The two clashed. The Prince’s swordsmanship was polished and beautiful while the King’s was straightforward and practical. It was clear that the Prince was better at using the sword, but the weight of his father’s swing was immense.
Soon the Prince began to lose stamina. His concentration faltered. And at that moment, the King launched an upward swing that slapped the sword from his hand. As Mikael was stunned by this, the King grabbed the edge of the Prince’s shield, threw his sword away, and smacked his face with a free hand.
The Prince staggered and covered his bleeding nose.
“Is that all? Is that all you can do, Mikael?!”
“Aah!!” the Prince was spoiled, yes. But he had pride.
An awkward punch landed on Gerard’s face. He did not shirk from it, and accepted the punch straightforwardly.
He did not flinch or close his eyes.
“This is something a man will learn in battle,” his father said, blood dripping from his broken nose. “Never close your eyes!”
He then gave him a punch that sent the Prince reeling.
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The fight then devolved into a common brawl one saw in bars after everyone had too much to drink. There was no longer skill involved. The two kept pummeling at each other until they were exhausted.
Black and blue, the once handsome face of the Prince was now swollen. He fell on his butt and spat out the blood from his bleeding gum. The King dusted his clothes and sat on the heirloom sofa that by some miracle was still whole.
“Alrond. Lock the room, will you?” King Gerard said, he used his thumb to sneeze out the blood from his nose and groaned. “You at least know how to throw a proper punch.”
“(Hah) (hah) Why are you doing this, Father?” Mikael gulped for air greedily. “You have never acted like this before.”
“Because it is the duty of a father to slap some sense to his child when he made a mistake.”
“I am not a child!!”
“Yes, you are!” the King bellowed. “You let others influence your decision! You have neglected the girl that I have set up for you! And not have the decency to compensate her loss! Worse still, you pandered to the Nobles too much,” the King groaned. “You are not just a King to the Nobles, Mikael!! you are a King for all the subjects of this Kingdom!! Its Knights, its soldiers, its citizens!”
“The Hero is the only reason why there has been no further movement from the Nobles. He kept them in check with his own faction. But even that is only a temporary measure.”
“Somebody said something that puts things into perspective to me recently,” the King said. “You are going to be a King, Mikael. And with that title comes responsibility,” there was hint of regret in his voice after a brief pause. “I am sorry that I was not there often to guide you in the right direction. I have left for the Frontlines for too long.”
“Father. I…” Mikael was befuddled. He was used to his father’s anger, but this was the first time the King showed outright disappointment. Even worse, it was the disappointment of himself.
He might not show it, but Mikael respected his father. Seeing him like this hurt.
“I…I am sorry father,” he stuttered. “I will try to do better.”
“You will, I know you will. You are a brilliant young man.” his father said, as he cupped his face with his hands. “But when? And how? You let that fiancée of your blind you to your duties. Cornelia did what you should have done. She dared to take things into her hands even at the cost of her own welfare,” the man smiled bitterly. “The daughter of the Steelheart House had done us a great service. If the Hero of Vorzenny was left rampant, imagine the damage that it would cause Calendia, and by extension, the world.”
“That is honor. That is pride. Can you do that? Do you dare to fight the enemy of Calendia even should it bring you nothing but harm? Even if it would be a fight against an opponent far stronger than you?”
“I…” Mikael dared not answer. He could tell from his eyes that he was not looking for the right answer. His father was looking for his. And he could not do it.
“…you have to grow up sometime, Mikael.”
There was a pregnant silence between them, it grew until Mikael felt uncomfortable.
“Maybe…maybe I have to force you to grow up,” the King closed his eyes in retrospection. “To show you how precarious the condition of our Kingdom really is.”
“Father?”
The King turned to Alrond, who returned his gaze with one of puzzlement, which then turned into understanding, and then admonishment. “Gerard! No. The boy is not ready!!”
“He will have to be, Alrond. We will have to make him be,” the King said. “Stand up and follow me.”
“W-what are you talking about?”
“War is coming, Mikael. We have to prepare for all eventualities,” he said somberly. “Even…in the event of my death.”
“Father?”
“I’ve been having dreams. Dreams that kept me up at night. I could never remember what it was, but I know that it was something horrible. Perhaps, it was the side effect of the project.”
“Father, you are not making sense.”
“It will make sense,” King Gerard walked to the fireplace and pushed a button hidden within. The fireplace slid to the right, revealing a hidden staircase.
“Once you see our Kingdom’s greatest secret.”
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The three of them descended down a row of winding stairs that went so deep it felt to Mikael that they were descending into the depth of the earth. Occasionally he could feel the walls rumble when he put his hand on them.
Alrond began to speak after a few minutes of walking. “How much have you learned about Demons? And by that I don’t mean the basics you learned in the Academy. I am talking about their way of life, their social structure, their political structure, and their beliefs.”
Mikael thought about this for a bit and realized that he knew almost nothing about it. “I do know that Named Demons are stronger than normal Demons. I always thought that they live in caves or some underground nests.”
Alrond agreed. “Yes, that’s how most of the world thinks. And do you know why that is?”
Mikael hesitated a bit. “Because…they eat human flesh?”
It was a crude answer, a simple one. He expected it to be rebuffed by the Advisor. To his surprise, he nodded. “Exactly. Their way of life is much too foreign for us. Their diet especially. Elves, Dwarves, and Beastfolks are different from us physically, but they are capable of diplomacy and understanding. We can talk with them, reason with them.”
“And they don’t eat us.”
Alrond frowned slightly. He disliked being interrupted. If he was not the King’s son, he would have burned him in a moment. “And here is the crux of the problem. In regard to the other Races, we can still capitalize on their desires. Women, men, treasures, and land, perhaps. But Demons do not have any interest in what we can offer. To them, we are not even their equals.”
“We cannot reason or live with them,” King Gerard stated. “The same reason rabbits cannot live with wolves. Either they die, or we do.”
The rumble grew more noticeable as they descended even lower. And as they descended, the atmosphere grew tense and none of them spoke anymore.
After what felt like forever, they arrived at the bottom where he saw a thick iron door barring their way. He could see strange, pulsing violet color from the gap between the bottom of the door and the stone floor. The smell of rot and sulfur wafted into his nose and he gagged.
ALrond turned to him and warned the Prince. “What you will see within is something that you will not speak of to anyone. No matter how close you are to them. Otherwise, I’d have to use a drastic measure.”
Mikael nodded silently.
Alrond then continued. “Do not listen to it, do not speak to it, just watch.”
Alrond knocked a few times on the door rhythmically. Three knocks, pause, two knocks, and then five rapid knocks.
The door groaned and creaked as it slowly swung inward. Alrond led them in through a long and empty corridor lit with torches. The smell grew stronger and stronger as they walked closer to the end of the corridor.
What he saw beyond the end almost made him piss his pants.
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The three were standing on a platform made of wood, surrounding a massive hole, above which a massive malformed creature was hung. Its long, jointed arms suspended by steel cuffs as thick as a man’s head. Only its torso remained, dried greed blood sticking on its innards like mucus. Tends of rods as thick as a pillar used to support houses were stabbed haphazardly into it.
Everything below its torso had been cut away, the wounds unhealed and untreated, yet the thing lived. For a Demon had a much stronger life force than any of the Races.
Around it, Mages and soldiers shuffled back and forth, doing Goddess knew what.
“Ah, the human king,” the Demon said from the mouth on its chest, its voice was grating and hollow. When the mouth opened, one could see two rows of fine, serrated fangs with pieces of its meals still on them, rotting and foul-smelling.
“Again, you come to watch as these servants of yours cut the flesh off my wretched body, did you?”
The creature let out a horrifying roar that rattled the ground and caused Mikael to throw up.
“HROOOOAAARRGGHHHH!!!!”
Alrond groaned as he withstood the roar.
“This…Mikael, is our greatest secret. The power source of Demonbane Cannon. The Ur-Nagud, Bet-Huda the Malformed.”