Chapter 3 – Story 105: King of Deadly Poison
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Surrendering to the Divine son of Destruction; that offer brought back by Ponpius naturally triggered a tremendous stir within Holmea’s royal palace. No matter whether it was Ponpius, the one hailed as Grand Prime Minister…no, you could rather say it had such a huge impact on the palace because the message was passed on by Ponpius.
If anyone else had brought this matter to their attention, the lords and vassals would have rejected it without even batting an eye. It was such a crazy offer that just the idea of debating it would be regarded as filthy and repulsive.
Even if they were guaranteed to keep their property, no noble would readily agree if they were told their territory would be confiscated on top of their noble peerage becoming only nominal. Not to mention that the ones demanding their surrender were slaves, who had started an uprising, and zoan, whom the nobles had insulted as savage beasts thus far. Capitulating to such a group of people was a reckless deed equal to denying oneself at this point.
Moreover, many of the lords and chief vassals, who had stayed back here, had their territories close to the capital. In other words, they were long-standing retainers who had been serving the crown since the time of the old empire, and not some new retainers who had become vassals as Holmea expanded its domain. Naturally, they were a very prideful bunch and many of them were deeply loyal towards Holmea’s royal family.
Because of that, they cursed and slandered the western lords, who had submitted to the Divine Son of Destruction, with Luoma’s lord Mythos making the start, as having not a shred of pride. As such they couldn’t simply start talking about surrendering themselves at this point in time.
But, what allowed the debate to go on despite this wasn’t just the fact that Ponpius had brought up the matter. The violent conduct of Romania’s army, which they heard about on a daily basis, ironically kept pushing this issue to the forefront of their discussions.
Should they survive, even if it meant to give up their privileges by surrendering to the Divine Son of Destruction? Or should they choose an honorable death while preserving their pride as nobles?
Placing Princess Warina, the sole royal remaining in the capital of Holmenia, on the throne, the chief vassals and lords had heated debates day in, day out in front of her. Not only did some of them faint due to excessive agitation in the middle of it, but some started fist fights with those opposing them, and on top of that, there was one person who had been ordered to leave the hall after drawing his sword in the presence of the princess. Yet, all of this was clear proof of how intense the discussions had become.
However, even after going through all of this, they couldn’t reach a conclusion. In the end, it was the notice of the defeat at Caliraya that gave them the final push. Hearing that not only King Warius, but also General Darius had lost their heads, their last glimmer of hope was finally extinguished. On the day when the messenger delivered the news, the hall, which had been a cesspool of fervent debates over the last few days, fell deadly silent as if they had cold water poured on them.
Choosing this as the moment to make his move, Ponpius suggested, “How about you understand your duty as retainers and obey Princess Warina’s will, now that we have reached this point?”
Not a single vassal or lord objected to that. However, having the baton passed to her, Princess Warina was utterly confused. Because she had been hated by her older brother Alexius, Princess Warina didn’t get the opportunity to gather experience in statecraft up until now. Much less to say that she hadn’t imagined even in her wildest dreams that she’d be suddenly asked to make a decision which would affect the fate of the whole country.
Ponpius called out to her as she was blanking out, not knowing what she should do.
“Your Highness, I understand that you must be confused when suddenly being entrusted with something so important. But, you have been told about the principles of those leading others, haven’t you?”
No one taught me anything like that, Princess Warina almost blurted out, but then she suddenly realized. Those were the words of the sole person caring about her, who had been treated like air despite being a royal.
“Uncle Darius once said, 『The value of a defeated general can be gauged by how many soldiers he saved with his head』.”
As Ponpius lowered his head without objecting or doubting her words, Princess Warina was convinced that her own guess hadn’t been mistaken. And thus she had no reason to hesitate any further either. Being destroyed by Romania or surrendering to the Divine Son of Destruction, as a royal who was leading a country, it was needless to say which measure would save more of her subjects.
“I shall bear full responsibility. Holmea will surrender to the person called Divine Son of Destruction Soma Kisaki.”
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Several days later, Princess Warina was personally waiting in front of the western gate of Holmenia. The ones with her were Ponpius and the remaining vassals and lords.
It was a custom for the king, who requested a capitulation, to take along his remaining retainers to personally welcome the winner at the gate in the western regions of Seldeas. The former king wasn’t permitted to ride a palanquin or horse on this occasion. He should remove his crown and all decorations while wearing plain clothes. Those valuables would be entrusted to a chamberlain for the sake of passing them on to the victor afterwards. And the former king was supposed to wait for the winner while prostrating on the ground, barefoot.
This held the formal meaning of begging for the winner’s mercy by exposing your own misery on top of transferring everything the former king possessed――in short, the country’s sovereignty. Usually it was deemed advisable for the surrendering king to be naked or close to it. But, believing it’d be too pitiful to make the young princess embarrass herself like that, Ponpius and the others allowed her to put on a plain piece of cloth with two openings for her arms. It was something similar to the undershirt which was normally worn underneath an extravagant attire.
But, even that didn’t allow her to have a peace of mind. This was an era when it was considered indecent for noble and royal ladies to expose their upper arms. Because of that, Princess Warina’s current outfit was a disgrace, which was only slightly better than being stark naked, in the eyes of the people living in this era.
However, Princess Warina continued to resolutely wait for the Divine son of Destruction, even though all blood had drained from her face which was pale to begin with.
The vassals and lords, who waited behind her, couldn’t help but feel worried.
“Your Highness, the Divine Son of Destruction has arrived.”
Princess Warina was on the verge of fainting from all the nervousness and shame, but then got pulled back to reality by Ponpius’s announcement. And once she looked westwards, she spotted a group heading their way on the road.
Heeding the Divine Son of Destruction’s demand, Holmea’s delegation was avoiding to hoist any flags in order to prevent being noticed by Romania’s army, but the huge frames among the approaching group, which could be clearly seen from a distance, were dinosaurians. And the only one accompanied by such a number of those ferocious beings was the rumored Divine Son of Destruction.
“How bold,” said someone behind Princess Warina.
Even though they were marching into the headquarters of the enemy whom they had furiously fought just a few days ago, the troops led by the Divine Son of Destruction numbered less than fifty. The Divine son of Destruction had informed them in advance that he’d arrive with just a small number of troops ahead of time in order to not cause any unnecessary confusion within the capital, but not one of the vassals or lords had expected for it to be that few troops.
Certainly, at this stage it’d be pointless to even think of betraying the Divine Son of Destruction. All of them understood that it’d just worsen their current situation.
But, even if they were aware of it, they still had trouble believing that the Divine Son of Destruction would come here with such a small force. They couldn’t believe that he was a person so softhearted that he wouldn’t anticipate being betrayed by their side, given his ill reputation which had been spreading like a wildfire across all of the West. As such they convinced themselves that this was just what you’d expect of a man who was rumored to rule over the savage zoan and who is capable of even pushing ferocious dinosaurians around. That boldness triggered feelings of fear and dread in them.
As the Divine Son of Destruction came closer, Warina went down on her knees and prostrated herself.
“The young man on that horse is the Divine Son of Destruction,” explained Ponpius who was likewise prostrating himself.
Princess Warina slightly lifted her face. And then she blanked out.
The young human, the only one riding a horse while surrounded by dinosaurians, didn’t look like someone who was about to shake the order of a country and overthrow it. Rather, he looked like an average Joe who’s only redeeming feature was his kindness. If he wasn’t the only one on horse, he might have looked as nothing but a young chamberlain or a page.
Princess Warina wondered whether that man was really the Divine Son of Destruction. Noticing her bafflement, Ponpius called out to her.
“Don’t be deceived by his appearance, Your Highness. Please trust your own intuition.”
Princess Warina couldn’t comprehend Pnpius’s words right away. However, the young man noticed her prostrating and got off his horse. Following that, a single zoan, who seemed to be a woman as her armor was bulging out at the chest area, followed him as if it was very natural to do so.
That was all. And yet, Warina had the impression as if something that had been missing suddenly snapped into place. Accompanying that feeling, the impression she got from the man completely changed. Her eyes could only perceive the human and zoan, who hadn’t changed in any way from before. But, for some reason, Warina couldn’t think of them as anything but one person――one entity.
As the man walked her way while followed by the zoan, two zoan warriors, one with red and one with black fur, followed next. Thereupon the impression of the frail man changed completely. As if having the strength of those two zoan added to himself, Warina started to sense power from him.
Furthermore, dwarves, elves, dinosaurians, and people appearing to be human commanders followed. Each time another person joined the trail, their strength was added to the impression of the Divine Son of Destruction.
What one could see with their eyes were several people walking this way. But, to Princess Warina they all felt like one big entity.
At that moment, a legend crossed Princess Warina’s mind. It was the legend of a snake as it was passed down on the Seldeas Continent. That snake had apparently stolen the gods’ elixir of eternal life during the age of myths and drunk it. Because of that, it would live forever by shedding its body as soon as it became old, just to continue living in a new body. And after continuing to live like that, the snake grew a second head. And when another hundred years passed, it grew yet another head. This kept going until the snake finally became a thousand years old. At that point a final snake with a crown-like pattern appeared.
Having reached that point, the snake became the king of all poisonous beings. And even though it possessed ten heads, it only had one torso. A monster of multiple heads and one body. Its breath dried out the land. Its gaze turned gigantic elephants into stone statues. It was a terrifying monster which would even kill gods with its poisonous fangs.
“The King of Deadly Poison…!”
As Princess Warina trembled due to her own imagination, the Divine Son of Destruction finally came to a halt in front of her.
“Are you Princess Warina?”
He definitely didn’t use a loud or rough voice. But, Princess Warina suffered a shock so strong as if she’d been hit by a lightning strike.
“I’m the 『Divine son of Destruction』 Kizaki Souma.”
The one standing there was the King of Deadly Poison after it had taken the form of a human.
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