“For the Master!?”
King Zanac looked incredulously at the person before him, the one known as the kingdom's jewel, but now a monster sister with two heads and four arms. He had never imagined he would hear the word 'Master' from her mouth, and with such loyalty and fervor.
“Lana, who exactly is this Master you speak of? What does he want to do?”
The next second, Zanac, disregarding the fear in his heart, stood up and walked towards Princess Lana. His fat hands grabbed Princess Lana's gorgeous dress, his eyes fixed on her as he questioned her. He absolutely would not allow anyone to use his kingdom as a sacrifice!
“King, are you disturbing us?”
Princess Lana raised her head, the smile she usually wore gone, her cruel and twisted gaze silently watching her brother's ferocious and terrified face. At the same time, Kleiman, who had already merged with her body, wriggled and separated again.
“Your Majesty, please release Princess Lana. Otherwise…”
The separated Kleiman once again transformed into the righteous knight willing to give everything for Princess Lana, his eyes filled with murderous intent and determination as he looked at the King. The longsword at his waist had been drawn and placed on his neck at some point, completely unlike his previous obedient, puppy-like demeanor.
It was as if Kleiman had no memory of what had happened before, or rather, his personality had been split in two: one half was the righteous and loyal knight, and the other was the obedient, puppy-like follower.
“Alright, Kleiman, don't frighten the King.”
At this moment, Princess Lana's voice rang out with a hint of a chuckle. Kleiman turned to look at Princess Lana, then silently sheathed the longsword in his hand and stood behind Princess Lana, guarding her as always.
“Huff… Lana… can you let us go? As a price, we are willing to offer everything to your Master.”
Looking at Princess Lana's sweet smile and Kleiman's wary gaze fixed on him, even King Zanac felt a deep sense of powerlessness. After releasing Princess Lana's dress, he looked at her with an almost pleading tone.
As long as he could make the Master behind Princess Lana abandon his plan, no!
As long as he could let them live, he would be willing to give up his position as King. As the current King of the Re-Estize Kingdom, he had long known from the history passed down by the royal family that every few hundred years, an irresistible existence would appear in this world.
Usually, such existences were called 'Gods,' beings that mortals could not resist.
And the Master behind Princess Lana and the Great Tomb of Nazarick, which had declared war on the kingdom, were most likely such existences. Faced with such existences, they had no hope of resistance. He just wanted to live, even if it meant giving up all his rights.
“That won't do. Master is looking forward to it. Besides, our plan requires this world to become chaotic.”
On the opposite side, Princess Lana spoke the cruelest truth in the sweetest voice. From the moment Master Lu Minghao made his decision, the fate of the kingdom could no longer be changed. This was the sorrow of the weak; whether they lived or died was at the whim of the strong.
“…Then can you tell me why your Master chose us? Why do you want to do this?”
After listening to Princess Lana's words, King Zanac was silent for a few seconds before asking, as if using all his strength. At least before he died, he wanted to know the reason and meaning of their deaths.
“It would be too much trouble to explain from the beginning, but simply put, Master thinks it's too boring. He wants to see rivers of blood and mountains of corpses.”
Looking at his despairing brother, Princess Lana stood up and walked in front of him, her exquisite and beautiful face close to Zanac's ear as she whispered. The devilish words completely drained all of Zanac's strength.
“Just… just because of such a boring thing?”
“Yes, just because of such a boring thing.”
After speaking, Princess Lana raised her hand and gently patted Zanac's shoulder, then looked up at the bright sun outside the window. She raised her hand and beckoned to Kleiman behind her, thinking that it would be nice to have tea in the garden today.
Thinking of this, Princess Lana's beautiful face wore an innocent and expectant smile, and she skipped out of the room like a little girl, with Kleiman following closely behind with tea and tea sets.
Along the way, all the guards and maids who passed by couldn't help but reveal faint smiles when they saw Princess Lana and Kleiman like this, offering their most sincere blessings to their pure and innocent, jewel-like Princess Lana.
Thud!
At the same time, inside Princess Lana's room, King Zanac could no longer suppress the despair in his heart, and sat weakly on the ground, his eyes staring blankly out the window. The gentle sunlight was so cold and dazzling at this moment.
“Ha… haha… hahahaha…”
The next second, a collapsed and crazed laughter rang out. Zanac's fat face wore a smile that was uglier than crying as he laughed non-stop. His fat body nimbly climbed up from the ground and ran out in the surprised and puzzled eyes of the guards at the door.
But before he could run a few steps, Zanac fell heavily to the ground. Before the two guards could react from the series of events, Zanac got up again. Tears streamed down his fat face, saliva dripped from the corners of his mouth, and he ran forward with a crazed expression, laughing madly as he ran.
“What's wrong with His Majesty?”
At the door, the two guards looked at the departing King with a loss. How did he suddenly become like this when he was just fine? And looking at Princess Lana's appearance when she just went out, wasn't she in a good mood?
“Do you think Princess Lana gave His Majesty a good idea? Wasn't there a demon representing the Great Tomb of Nazarick who came to deliver a challenge letter before?”
Next to him, another guard thought for a moment and said tentatively. After all, apart from this, he couldn't think of any other reason why the King would become like this. It couldn't be that the King was scared crazy, right?
How could such a thing be possible? That was the incomparably noble King, the absolute ruler of the entire Re-Estize Kingdom.
“What should we do now? Should we chase after him?”
“…At this time, let His Majesty be happy alone.”
After speaking, the two guards looked at each other and gave themselves a thumbs up for their wit, then pretended not to have seen anything and continued to guard the door.
“He collapsed just like that? He's a king, but his mental fortitude is a little lacking.”
On the other side, within the royal capital's manor, Lu Minghao rested his chin on one hand, watching with a hint of boredom the King, who was running rampant within the palace, on the screen. The King's gorgeous attire was now covered in filth, his chubby face smeared with a sticky, dark mud, and a broken smile played on his lips as he ran aimlessly forward.
Behind him, several guards and maids who had noticed something amiss were following him from a distance, but dared not get too close. A quick-witted guard had already notified Princess Lana, informing her of the King's situation.
"Looks like I need to add a layer of buff to him, otherwise this grand show won't be much to watch."
As he spoke, Lu Minghao raised his hand and reached forward, his palm passing directly through space to appear behind King Zanac. The next second, Zanac, who was still acting like a madman, froze in place. Unseen by the guards in the distance, Lu Minghao's palm had already entered Zanac's body, beginning to remodel him.
A few seconds later, Lu Minghao, having completed the remodeling, withdrew his palm. Zanac returned to his normal appearance, but now his face was filled with confidence and majesty, and just looking at the guards in the distance made them instinctively kneel on the ground.
"Inform Marquis Reibun that I will personally lead the expedition in three days!"
With that, Zanac casually wiped the foul-smelling mud from his face, his eyes sweeping across the kneeling crowd behind him with unparalleled majesty. Then, he turned and walked towards his room, gesturing to a shadowy corner.
After Zanac left, a series of screams rang out, followed by a faint smell of blood permeating the air.
"Oh! Looks like the effect is good."
Inside the manor, Lu Minghao watched the performance of his new creation, a satisfied smile on his face. He began to anticipate the war in three days.
"The paean of humanity is the paean of courage, the greatness of humanity is the greatness of courage. Today, I have helped a human king who had lost his courage regain it. I am truly too kind, wouldn't you agree, Yulie?"
After speaking, Lu Minghao looked at Yulie, who was secretly stealing his snacks beside him, with a self-satisfied expression.
"Yes, yes, Master is right, you are the kindest slime."
Facing Lu Minghao's question, Yusha nodded, covering her stuffed little mouth, offering a perfunctory response as if to say, 'As long as Master is happy.' Then, she brazenly grabbed the snacks in front of Lu Minghao and stuffed them into her mouth.
"...."
Looking at Yulie, whose cheeks were puffed out like a hamster as she continued to cram things into her mouth, Lu Minghao sighed helplessly. How had his once well-behaved familiar become like this?
'Am I not suited to raising familiars?'
The next second, Lu Minghao thought of his first familiar, Sally, whom he had raised from an incomparably cute little loli into a commonplace girl, and couldn't help but begin to doubt himself.
.....
Just like that, as Lu Minghao questioned his life, three days passed quietly. The movements of the entire kingdom during these three days could be described as enormous. All the armies within the kingdom converged outside the fortress city of E-Rantel, located on the border.
In addition to the army, the King even took out a large amount of treasure and hired a large number of adventurers from the Adventurer's Guild. The huge commotion attracted the attention of several nearby kingdoms, and they all became extremely vigilant.
After all, they couldn't afford not to be vigilant. The Re-Estize Kingdom was completely posturing to prepare for war, which made the neighboring kingdoms uneasy.
During this time, the nearby kingdoms also sent many people to infiltrate the Re-Estize Kingdom to investigate what exactly was happening. But the more these kingdoms investigated, the more confused they became, because according to the information they gathered.
The Re-Estize Kingdom was doing this entirely because a force called the Great Tomb of Nazarick had declared war on the Re-Estize Kingdom, but they had never heard of this so-called Great Tomb of Nazarick.
Therefore, many kingdoms regarded all of this as a conspiracy by the kingdom, believing that the current King Zanac was ostensibly preparing for the declaration of war by that Great Tomb of Nazarick, but was actually planning to invade other kingdoms.
Thus, they dispatched their respective kingdom's top adventurer teams or reconnaissance teams to the vicinity of the fortress city of E-Rantel, silently lurking.
On the third day, as the sun slowly rose from the horizon, the dark night began to dissipate, and golden light shone on the earth. On the endless plains outside the fortress city of E-Rantel, hundreds of thousands of troops gathered, an endless army occupying the entire field of vision.
"Your Majesty, the time has come."
"I know."
Inside the largest tent in the center of the army, Marquis Reibun looked at the King in front of him, who was wearing armor and filled with majesty and confidence, and said softly. Zanac, the King who had been reborn with Lu Minghao's help, nodded and stood up, walking out of the tent.
As he walked out of the tent, the densely packed army was already lined up waiting, and in front of him, the kingdom's strongest warrior, Gazef Stronoff, stood there with a solemn expression, wearing dark red armor and carrying a gorgeous greatsword at his waist.
"Your Majesty, are you sure you want to personally go to the battlefield?"
Gazef lowered his head and looked at the King in front of him, asking with utmost gravity. He knew that even he was not 100% sure of surviving on the chaotic battlefield, let alone protecting the King.
"Enough said, Gazef, this time we have no room to retreat."
Facing such a resolute King, Gazef nodded after a few seconds of silence, not saying anything more, but carefully tidying up the King's armor and weapons, and leading the King's horse over.
"Advance!"
The next second, Zanac leaped onto the horse, his eyes full of majesty as he looked at the army in front of him. Then, he drew the longsword from his waist and raised it high. In the light of the rising sun, the longsword reflected a dazzling light.
"Ooooh!"
Instantly, the army of hundreds of thousands roared with morale and fighting spirit, and the army began to march forward, with King Zanac at the very front of the formation.
On the other side, at the end of the grassland, a patch of dark clouds suddenly appeared in the sky. The dark clouds then began to expand rapidly. Under the shadows, a dark mass of undead armies silently appeared there. Under the aura of death, everything began to wither wherever they passed.
The war is about to begin!
