Chapter 124: Chaos in the Royal Capital

When word spread that the Grand Duke had rebelled and the king had ordered Banazaar’s arrest, the entire royal capital seemed to fall silent.

Who did not know that Grand Duke Banazaar was the King of the South, ruling three great provinces and commanding an army of two hundred thousand? Even with Banazaar in the royal capital, one had to consider whether the arrest could actually succeed.

Although Banazaar had brought only three hundred men with him to the capital, a considerable number of them were formidable warriors. Should he successfully escape, the Kingdom of the Stars would inevitably descend into turmoil. Besides, even if the intention was to arrest Banazaar, why announce it with such fanfare? Would that not simply give him time to prepare? Would a secret capture not have been wiser?

However one looked at it, the whole course of action seemed idiotic—utterly incomprehensible. Could the king truly be so gravely ill that he had lost his senses along with his health?

As a generation-defining warlord, Banazaar naturally had no intention of waiting meekly for death. His response far exceeded anyone’s expectations. Rather than flee the capital upon hearing the news, he openly raised the banner of rebellion and proclaimed that he was acting to “cleanse the king’s side” of traitors!

Three hundred men rebelling in the royal capital—what difference was that from seeking death? Had Banazaar gone mad?

Yet people soon understood why he had dared to rebel. Not long after he shouted his slogan, his forces had increased by ten thousand. These were elite soldiers who, over the course of the previous month, had infiltrated the capital one after another disguised as travelers, merchants, vagrants, beggars, and the like. They were a secret force Banazaar had arranged long ago. With the capital’s daily flow of people, the arrival of ten thousand men over a month had attracted no attention whatsoever. Now that Banazaar had rebelled, they cast off their disguises and once again became his elite army.

The royal capital had fifty thousand Imperial Guards in total, but most were stationed outside the royal city. Only a few thousand remained within it. Thus, when Banazaar rose in rebellion, he launched a lightning assault on the palace, captured all the royal ministers, and imprisoned the members of the royal family. It seemed that he had gained control of the kingdom’s authority with astonishing ease.

But Link knew that Banazaar was being manipulated like a puppet. The very Regent he had devoted himself to capturing, Lotherma, was sitting before him, playing chess.

From the very beginning, Lotherma had not been in the palace at all. The man inside had merely been a substitute. Lotherma had secretly come to the villa, wearing that inscrutable smile of his as he produced a board game resembling chess and asked Link whether he knew how to play. Once Link discovered that its rules and methods differed little from those of chess, the two of them began their game.

“Heh heh, Archbishop Neal, are you truly playing King’s Chess for the first time? I’ve lost again.”

Looking at his captured king, Lotherma spoke with a faint smile.

“By the grace of the Father God, this really is my first time playing,” Link replied with a smile. “Perhaps I learned quickly under the Father God’s guidance. But if we are being honest, Your Highness went easy on me. At my level, I would have found it very difficult to defeat you otherwise.”

Lotherma did not deny it. As he set up a new game, he said, “The Father God? If that deity truly exists, I would rather like to meet him.”

Once the game had begun again, Link stared at the board and suddenly asked, “Your Highness, is it truly all right to let Banazaar occupy the palace?”

Lotherma waved his hand dismissively. “It does not matter. The palace contains nothing but a nest of parasitic ministers and royal relatives. It is just as well to let Banazaar remove them for us.”

At those words, Link felt a chill run through him. Lotherma had not mentioned the king at all, and Link had no idea what had become of him. Yet when he connected the sudden grave illness of a previously healthy king with the string of idiotic orders that followed, it seemed likely that the two siblings had already taken action against their own father some time ago. They had then used the old king’s identity to force Banazaar into rebellion. Even if Banazaar later plunged the kingdom into chaos, the blame would fall upon Banazaar and the old king.

Such ruthless and cold-blooded siblings were difficult allies indeed. Link could not help wondering whether cooperating with them was truly the right choice.

As he continued playing, he asked, “Judging by the timing, Her Highness the Princess should be about to make her move, should she not?”

Lotherma glanced at him, the smile on his face unchanged. “It seems Archbishop Neal has already seen through my sister’s strategy. Indeed, this is an open scheme. Many people can understand it, so there is no need to conceal anything.”

As he spoke, he drew out a flat golden tablet and tapped it once. Images immediately appeared across its surface, much like those on a tablet computer. He continued, “This is a treasure I acquired by chance. It is called the Heavenly Eye. It seems to have come from the Dongyun Empire and allows one to view events taking place beyond one’s immediate surroundings. Look—my sister has appeared.”

As he spoke, the tablet computer known as the Heavenly Eye displayed an image of Sylvanas. She had changed into a set of purple ladies’ armor and was riding a black horse at the head of a great army. Her destination was the royal capital, and the troops under her command were the Imperial Guards stationed outside the city.

She had feigned critical illness, secretly gone outside the capital to consolidate the army, and then used the old king’s name to force Banazaar into rebelling before he was ready. By surrendering the entire palace to the enemy, she had ensured that Banazaar would become a turtle trapped in a jar, with nowhere to flee.

Ruthless, cold, audacious, and venomous.

Her schemes had been linked together flawlessly, each step setting up the next. It was no wonder Banazaar had fallen into the trap. Faced with enormous temptation and the threat of death, even a peerless warlord could make an unforgivable mistake—and become the stepping stone that placed Sylvanas upon the throne.

After watching the Heavenly Eye for a while, Lotherma smiled at Link. “My sister is fully prepared. It seems His Grace the Grand Duke will not be escaping this time. Speaking of which, I must thank you, Archbishop Neal. If you had not cured my sister, she would still have carried out this plan to eliminate the kingdom’s greatest menace, but in the end, she would have pushed me onto the throne. I have no desire to become king. I lack both my sister’s ambition and her ability, and I would never manage this country properly. Nor do I wish to be shackled. The endless sky—that is what I seek.”

At this, he shook his head regretfully.

“If Father had not stubbornly refused to make up his mind about dealing with Banazaar, and if he had not joined forces with him in secret to cast the Underworld Summons upon my sister because he feared that her rapid growth over the past few years would threaten his position, then we would never have shown him such disrespect.”

Link said nothing. Matters concerning royal secrets were dangerous enough merely to hear, let alone comment upon. He wisely played the fool. Still, Lotherma’s words had somewhat cleared away the unfavorable impression Link had formed of Sylvanas. It seemed that the old king had first made a deadly move against her, driving her to respond without mercy.

Lotherma did not continue the subject. After glancing at the images on the Heavenly Eye, he smiled once more.

“Look. My sister and Banazaar have met.”

The Heavenly Eye showed Sylvanas leading her army to the walls, while Banazaar, who had received the news long ago, had personally come to the battlements. He stared down at Sylvanas with a grim expression.

This was Link’s first time seeing the legendary Grand Duke. Banazaar truly was an exceptionally handsome older man, possessing all the charm of a mature gentleman. He was absolutely the sort of man capable of captivating young women. The Starshatter family’s bloodline was genuinely enviable; every member seemed to be a handsome man or a beautiful woman.

Neither Sylvanas nor Banazaar seemed concerned about a possible ambush. They stood facing each other at the very front of their respective forces. After a long silence, Banazaar said in a deep voice, “Sylvanas, my niece. You are truly ruthless. I have always considered myself a formidable warlord, but today I see that compared with you, I am still far behind.”

Sylvanas gave a cold snort. Then, her face filled with righteous fury, she shouted, “Banazaar, you traitor! I have learned the truth. The illness that afflicted me was the Underworld Summons. You sent men to curse me, nearly costing me my life. Only through the protection of my ancestors did I meet a great master at the moment of greatest peril, who drove the Underworld Summons from my body. And now you have killed my father and my younger brother! You cold-blooded beast, I swear before the heavens that I will never spare you!”

The soldiers who knew nothing of the truth erupted in an uproar. Their anger flared as they glared at Banazaar.

Although the old king had been weak-willed, he had governed civil affairs competently and enjoyed considerable prestige among both the people and the military. Sylvanas, meanwhile, was revered as a god of war. Upon learning that the old king had been killed, that Sylvanas’s incurable illness had been Banazaar’s doing, and that the Regent had also been murdered, the soldiers exploded with fury. Their morale surged several levels at once.

Banazaar neither confirmed nor denied the accusations. They were half true and half false, and any attempt at explanation would have been useless. Only a handful of people knew who had truly killed the old king.

At this point, Link could not help turning suspiciously toward Lotherma. Noticing his gaze, Lotherma smiled faintly.

“Archbishop Neal, there is no need to be surprised. I asked my sister to make this claim. I wanted to use the opportunity to sever myself completely from the royal family’s restraints. Having Banazaar ‘kill’ me was my own plan.”

Link nodded and asked no further questions. He turned his attention back to the tablet computer before him.

After that came the clash between the two armies.

Sylvanas led more than forty thousand soldiers against Banazaar, who had chosen to defend the city from within its walls. Both sides had prepared numerous trump cards, but Sylvanas proved superior. She had actually used the same method as Banazaar, infiltrating three thousand soldiers into the city in advance. They successfully opened the gates from behind, allowing Sylvanas’s army to surge into the city and forcing Banazaar to retreat.

Fortunately, Sylvanas quickly brought the situation within the city under control, limiting the great battle to isolated areas. Most districts were left untouched. Otherwise, the prosperous metropolis might have been reduced to ruins in a single night.

Once the city fell into chaos, Banazaar had intended to escape through the river port. But flames suddenly erupted there. Sylvanas had known the port could not be held, so she had decisively ordered it burned, leaving Banazaar with nowhere to run. He could only retreat into the palace.

By then, Banazaar had no avenue of escape. Unless the two hundred thousand troops he had left behind in the three southern provinces could arrive in time, he had no hope of turning the situation around.

And could such a thing possibly happen?

Naturally, the answer was no.

“Checkmate.”

After capturing Link’s king, Lotherma said with a beaming smile, “I’m sorry, Archbishop Neal, but I have won this game.”

Link nodded without speaking. At the end of the match, Lotherma had finally revealed his true skill, leaving Link utterly defenseless. Link had never studied chess in depth, and when an expert like Lotherma began to exert himself, the difference was overwhelming.

Yet Lotherma’s sudden display of strength was also a signal. It meant that he and his sister Sylvanas had already secured victory.

Lotherma rose to his feet. “Very well, Archbishop Neal. My sister has taken complete control of the situation, and I must take advantage of the chaos to leave the Kingdom of the Stars. You may keep this Heavenly Eye. It is only a disposable item anyway; once its energy is exhausted, it will be useless. You may as well watch how my sister deals with Banazaar.”

With that, Lotherma turned and left, leaving Link alone in the room.