Chapter 3 – Story 106: Worst Humiliation
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Flying atop the rampart of Holmenia weren’t the lion flags, symbolizing Holmea. The flags fluttering in the wind up there instead had a strange crest, which had been scrawled on the fabric with vermilion paint. And the same crest had been stitched with silver thread onto a huge jet-black flag, exuding a majesty which easily overshadowed the other flags next to it on the tower that was positioned in the center of the gate.
That crest was eerie, appearing to combine 8 and ∞, or two snakes which had entangled their bodies while biting each other’s tails and squirming.
It was none other than the crest, said to have been granted to the Divine Son of Destruction, whose infame was known all over the West, by Aura, the Goddess of Death and Destruction.
What is the meaning of this?
Unable to process the spectacle in front of him, King Doldea could only look up at the flags while dumbfounded.
Ahead of him, Solon proudly explained, “My liege, Lord Soma, arrived in this land mere five years ago. Back then, he didn’t wear a single dagger on him, let alone a silver coin. No soldiers were following him and he didn’t possess even the smallest patch of territory. ――But, he didn’t care!”
Solon spread his arms widely with the flags of the Divine Son of Destruction on the rampart in the back.
“Within a short amount of time, he made the zoan, who hated humans, bow their head towards him. Not only did he lead them into recapturing their plains, but he even repelled Darius, the man called the strongest general of Holmea. And just the other day, he even smashed the Black Wall. In addition, he has now obtained Holmenia as you can see with your own eyes,” Solon bragged proudly.
But then he completely changed his demeanor, pointed at King Doldea while baring his contempt, and said, “Compared to that, how many years did it take you to come all the way here despite being the king of a major power like Romania? How many tens of thousands soldiers did you let die? How many riches have you thrown down the drain for it?
And that’s not all either! Can you achieve even one of the great exploits of Lord Soma? No, you cannot! Even after having taken this much, it’s obvious that you aren’t even worthy to lick the feet of my liege! The highest bliss for a retainer is to serve a superb lord. So, why must I discard that bliss and serve a foolish king like you!?”
Having such scathing trash talking thrown into his face, King Doldea’s face turned bright red, his mouth turning into a thin line as he was clamping his lips. But Solon didn’t think of stopping and instead went for the finisher.
“Come on, what’s wrong, Doldea? Lost your voice or something? Then again, you’ve always been like this, ever since you were a brat! Whenever you’re unable to talk back, you try to weather through things by shutting your mouth like that! You haven’t grown up at all!”
King Doldea trembled slightly as if having spasms in front of Solon, who was cackling with his long beard trembling.
It’s a disgrace. Have I ever been humiliated like this?
Reviving the old empire by subjecting Holmea was a dream King Doldea had spent half his life on. Just as Solon had pointed out, he had sacrificed tens of thousands of soldiers, wasted enormous wealth, and experienced several setbacks. Yet, he had been continuing to chase that dream.
And at the very moment when he was about to turn this dream into reality, it was snatched away by a brat of merely twenty years in age. On top of that, he had to endure being insulted as inferior and more incompetent than the cowardly, foul thief.
That denied not only half of King Doldea’s life, but his very existence. And as far as he could remember, it was the worst humiliation he ever experienced.
In this era, where violence dominated everything, King Doldea was one of the rulers who reigned over their lords, who would always plot to usurp whenever they found an opening, with an iron fist. It was unthinkable for such a king to have nothing more than a gentle personality. Moreover, his pride and conceit as king of a powerhouse like Romania was naturally high up there as well.
And for all those reasons, it was impossible for him to stay calm after being insulted like that. It was impossible for him to remain composed without flying into rage.
King Doldea heard the sound of something snapping inside his own head.
“…Kill that bastard!”
King Doldea roared.
“Kill him! Tear him apart!”
He ordered the knights standing nearby.
But, in this era it was an unspoken agreement to not hurt an envoy, no matter the reason. If Romania were to break this rule, it’d be criticized as a savage country of brutes who don’t know any manners.
Because of that, Romania’s knights couldn’t move at once, even if the order came from their lord in person. King Doldea threw his scepter at one of them while angrily yelling, “You slowpokes, didn’t you hear my order!?”
Upon hearing this rebuke, the knights of Romania had no choice but to draw their swords. But, it was already too late. The donkey with Solon on top had long since quickly trotted towards Holmenia’s gate. Watching the back of Solon getting away while laughing, King Doldea drew his own sword and jumped out of his palanquin.
“Wait, Aurelius! I will crush that insolent head of yours with my very own hands!”
The knights turned pale and restrained King Doldea who was about to rush after Solon any moment. But, the frantic words of consolation by the knights didn’t enter King Doldea’s ears. With the resolve to be punished for their rudeness, they had no other option but to bind the king’s arms behind his back.
Even so, King Doldea continued to hurl abuse at Solon, his saliva flying all over the place.
“You…you…damn you, Aurelius! In addition to kicking my benevolence with your feet, you insulted me to such a degree! I will definitely capture you and whip you with my own hands until your skin peels off! And then I will lop off your head as you beg for your life and feed it to the pigs!”
◆◇◆◇◆
Entering the city with King Doldea raging behind him, Solon wiped the sweat off his forehead with a long sigh. Then he remembered his own thirst, grabbed the wine bottle hanging at his waist, and put it to his mouth.
But, after taking one sip, Solon grimaced.
“…Nasty.”
For some reason, it tasted very disgusting. As he spat out, he could still hear the remaining echo of a sweet voice, telling him, 『It was my mistake. Forgive me, Aurelius』.
Solon clicked his tongue and drained down the wine in the bottle as if to wash away the lingering traces of that voice.
The conquest of Holmea was King Doldea’s dearest and longstanding wish. Solon had been well aware of King Doldea’s abnormal obsession with it, too. And now he had finally managed to reach that goal.
It was only logical for King Doldea to be delighted about that. Solon also understood the king’s feeling of wanting to get revenge against Holmea, which had caused him such terrible trouble. He could also understand that King Doldea wanted to triumph over the Romanian lords, who had secretly blamed him for his repeated Western expeditions, by showing off his military power.
“But, if you’re a king, you must swallow such things…,” muttered Solon bitterly, recalling his own words from the past.
『Today’s hated enemy could become tomorrow’s comrade. Hence, it is a much better strategy to sway the enemy through authority and virtue, and accept them with mercy and respect, instead of crushing them with strength while embracing hatred and fury』
When King Doldea announced to his soldiers that he’d conquer Holmea right after being crowned, Aurelius had used those words to warn King Doldea about expanding westwards. If King Doldea would have heeded those words this time, accepted the submission of Holmea’s lords, and welcomed them among his subjects, Holmea would have collapsed long ago. Ponpius would have asked Romania, and not the Divine Son of Destruction, for surrender.
In such a case, even Souma wouldn’t have been able to get his hands on the capital Holmenia. Also, if King Doldea would have punished the looting of Holmean people in the east while aiming to pacify the land, Souma wouldn’t be able to use the countermeasures he was about to take from now on.
“Bloody hell. What a fool. He hasn’t changed in the slightest, huh?” Solon spat out while tossing the empty wine bottle away at the same time.
The one showing up at that moment was Marchronis, who had been appointed as human general in the Divine Son of Destruction’s camp.
“Very well done. I watched it from afar. King Doldea was in a state as if his body was ablaze.”
A 「body being ablaze」 was a figurative way to express that someone was expressing an extreme level of anger. This saying stemmed from a historical incident on Seldeas where a man supposedly burned to death after catching fire from getting too enraged. It perfectly described King Doldea’s state just now.
Just as one could tell from Marchronis’s praise, Solon didn’t request a conversation with King Doldea to ask for peace, but he went out there to provoke King Doldea from the very start. As far as Marchronis saw, Solon achieved that magnificently.
However, despite his success, Solon exuded a sullenness at something, contrary to his usual, aloof demeanor.
“Yeah, I see, I see. That’s great to hear.”
Once he spat out those few words, he hit the butt of his donkey, making it walk.
“I’ve worked too much, so I’ll drink some more wine and then go to sleep. Tell the boy: I won’t forgive you, if you lose now,” he declared and quickly headed off somewhere.
Because of this behavior, Marchronis tilted his head, wondering whether something happened. But, no matter how much he’d think about it, he wouldn’t understand the reason either way. Hence, he had no choice but to report the facts back to Souma just like that.
When Marchronis went up to the gate tower, Souma was looking down at Romania’s army, accompanied by just Shyemul and a few guards. After hearing Marchronis’s report, Souma tilted his head, apparently considering it odd as well.
“I wonder what happened to Mr. Solon.”
Souma would have been troubled if Romania’s army concentrated all its energy and tried to capture the capital. Accordingly he had consulted with everyone whether they knew a way to somehow provoke King Doldea. Back then, Solon had nominated himself for that task. Thus, Souma didn’t understand why Solon would pout after leaving things to him.
Shyemul called out to Souma as he was racking his brain over this.
“Hey, Soma. Those Romanians have started to move.”
Once he looked down at the Romanian army due to her pointing this out, he spotted new movements among the soldiers with horsemen, who seemed to be messengers, continuously galloping around.
Seeing that, Souma ordered the dwarven messenger standing nearby, “Contact Dvalin and Norðri and tell them to start the attack as soon as the enemy enters the fire range.”
As the dwarven messenger ran away on his short legs, Souma called out to Erica, the elven girl in the black outfit of an elven archer, her mouth hidden by a black veil.
“Tell the same to Shahata. He doesn’t need to worry about the remaining arrows.”
Erika bobbed her head and rushed down. At this moment, Shahata was in a section of the wall, leading a unit of black elven archers. He seemed unhappy about having been relieved from his bodyguard post, even though it was just temporary, but it’d be a waste to not use his archery skills which excelled those of the elves in range and power. Souma had personally persuaded him to join the attack.
Afterwards, Souma ordered Marchronis, “Please take up your position as well, Mr. Marchronis. ――Also, please keep a close eye on Jahangil.”
In contrast to Shahata, Jahangil, who was supposed to be Souma’s guard, had already left Souma in delight, now waiting gleefully at his position. His vigorous desire towards battle was encouraging, but on the other hand, Souma was worried that he might overdo it because of that fervent desire.
“As you command. But, I would like you to keep in mind that I do not possess the means to restrain Sir Jahangil,” Marchronis answered with a bitter smile, before leaving in order to take up his own position.
Moreover, Souma called out to Shyemul, “Tell Garam and the others that they have to endure for now and stay on standby.”
Thereupon, Shyemul threw out her chest, telling Souma, “Don’t worry. Us zoan have to hide ourselves in the thickets for long periods of time to carry out our hunts. Even when approaching our prey, we will sneak up to it through the thicket while being on all fours. It’s only natural for us to await a chance to hunt our prey.”
With those words, Shyemul began to beat the drum, hanging at her waist. And lastly, Souma addressed Morad, the giant dinosaurian who was supporting the big flag.
“Morad, please wave the flag widely.”
Due to this, the taciturn dinosaurian started to swing Soma’s Black Flag around by shaking his whole body left and right.
Souma closed his eyes and carefully listened to Shyemul’s drum sounds which reverberated into the transparent, azure sky――a clear contrast to the bloody battle which was going to unfold from now――and the flapping of the huge flag as Morad swung it left and right. But then he suddenly threw his eyes open.
“Now then, a raging King Doldea is going to attack us!”
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