Chapter 41
March 17, Year 761 of the Continental Calendar (Wednesday).
The long-awaited—no, only awaited by Eldric and Aiorin—wedding day.
It was also the day to commemorate the founding of Silbrenoa by the late King Solinor.
Though, of course, the latter was just treated as a mere sideshow to the former.
The Founding Day parade, which had been simplified year after year and outright canceled two years ago, managed to make a return this year.
Although it was piggybacking on the wedding procession of King Eldric and his new queen.
Still, regardless of whether it was a side event or not, if it was happening, it was happening.
As usual, there were no foreign dignitaries this year. Was that unfortunate?
It kind of felt like the entire country was being blatantly ignored, but then again, it was somewhat deserved.
The recent state of Silbrenoa was truly an utter mess.
Most countries were probably just waiting and observing, ready to swoop in only after a coup occurred.
Eldric, while generally indifferent to the opinions of outsiders, did have a tendency to host such events on a somewhat grand scale.
Not because he wanted to, but because his officials pushed for it aggressively.
Their motives were nothing but the typical schemes to embezzle from the budget.
Whether Eldric knew this or not, his attitude of “it’s fine as long as I don’t have to do more work” meant he gave the green light to almost anything.
Today’s parade was also technically for the queen, tied to their wedding ceremony.
The usual Founding Day parade, which he had to do alone, was something he found unbearably tedious.
So canceling it had been the obvious choice.
There were fireworks and feasts planned as part of the festivities, but Eldric was already looking forward to just returning to the palace with his new wife after the parade.
He had plenty of plans for the night, after all.
Snicker, snicker.
It wasn’t like he hadn’t waited long enough.
Oops, better hold it in.
Even as he tried to suppress himself, his lower half began reacting.
Well, after waiting so long, it was only natural.
It had been a week since he brought the young woman who would become his sixth queen to the capital.
But they hadn’t met yet.
Tradition dictated that the bride and groom only meet at the wedding ceremony.
Apparently, just before his parents’ wedding, his mother had sulked over a minor matter and run off, only for his father to bring her back just in time for the ceremony.
Because of that incident, royal weddings still followed the same odd tradition.
Eldric didn’t particularly mind. Waiting usually made things more satisfying.
Though his lower half certainly wasn’t satisfied at the moment.
Still, spending time in the palace with the useless old hags who drained resources while doing nothing was not an appealing option.
If it were up to him, he’d bury them all like he did with Irini, but since they were technically queens, he couldn’t just get rid of them without cause.
But tonight, he could let loose and celebrate with the excitement of uncorking a bottle of champagne.
The king stood on the balcony, gazing down at Solineum’s cityscape.
The thought of enduring tiresome ceremonies all day was already annoying, but he had no choice.
Women liked events to be extravagant and troublesome.
The woman he discovered during his last tour—a beauty.
She was different from his first and now buried second queens, who openly craved wealth and power.
Well, her character wasn’t ideal, but her appearance was absolutely his type.
Golden hair and a magnificent figure.
She vaguely reminded him of his mother.
His beautiful mother, whom he barely remembered, had disappeared when he was very young.
The fact that he remembered her at all was a miracle.
Without her portraits to refresh his memory, he might have forgotten her entirely.
His father had been absent from the start.
Perhaps that’s why the portraits of his father invoked no sentiment in him.
All he had were faint memories of his mother and countless tales of his father’s legendary deeds.
Oh, and the endless nagging from his father’s friends. Not that he ever asked for it.
Annoying old men. At least they were all gone now.
Corbin was the only one left, but the old man wasn’t much of a talker.
Even someone he trusted had betrayed him.
The palace had been thrown into chaos, and many lives were lost.
In the end, his father’s elderly friend had resolved the situation.
His father’s friends had all been extraordinary.
And they’d remained fiercely loyal for decades.
But the people Eldric chose were all either petty fools or traitors.
Unlike his father, he had no eye for people.
He couldn’t be the valiant hero his father had been.
Even as historians praised his father’s perfection as a king, Eldric knew he could never live up to that.
No matter what he did, nothing seemed to work.
He couldn’t satisfy anyone.
At least pleasing women was easy.
They were simple-minded, shallow beings.
As long as they were beautiful, they served their purpose as trophies for capable men.
If that’s all they were good for, then he might as well focus on satisfying them.
Eldric was fully aware he was a terrible king.
He knew his country was falling apart.
People might think he was a fool, but he wasn’t.
He had simply given up.
“Heh, heh… I wonder how many more years I’ll have to endure this.“
No matter how much he thought about it, it didn’t seem like this kind of life could continue for much longer.
Hadn’t the Spymaster recently caused a fuss about the movements of provincial lords’ forces?
Even without that, there were countless problems piling up.
A few days ago, the second son of a prominent merchant family brought a report claiming he had uncovered a rebellion plot.
Annoyed, Eldric tossed the matter to Corbin.
If things kept going like this, even if not immediately, his power would eventually crumble.
Would he be able to survive when that time came?
But he didn’t really care.
If a tyrant like himself died, there would surely be far more people satisfied than not.
Wouldn’t that, at the very least, count as a success—if he could satisfy people in that way?
***
The Founding Day event proceeded smoothly.
A speech was delivered in front of the Royal Palace.
The king waved his hand, and the crowd cheered right on cue.
King Eldric had his usual uninterested expression, but as long as no accidents occurred, things were fine.
Muriela stood next to her siblings, watching the scene.
Since her return to the world, today was the first time she had seen Eldric, even from afar.
“That guy. Handsome, just like me, but what’s with that expression on such a good day?”
As she watched, her attention was drawn to the trembling of large insect wings nearby.
It was Zephyr, the spirit she had kept close to her ever since the trouble with Florina last time.
He, too, seemed intrigued, observing the event with interest.
The number of people gathered in front of the Royal Palace was neither too many nor too few.
In other words, it was just right.
Though what “just right” meant was anyone’s guess.
In Silbrenoa, mediocrity was the norm, so it hardly mattered.
“-And thus, the late King Solinor-!”
“They talk an awful lot about me. Isn’t this a bit much?”
Solinor didn’t know it, but within the royal family, he was still the only truly popular figure.
In this declining nation and its deteriorating capital, Solineum, it was only natural for people to escape reality by drowning themselves in liquor every night.
In their conversations, they openly wished the late king had lived longer.
Solinor wasn’t someone from a hundred years ago; many still remembered his reign.
Though his so-called achievements were simply the work of capable bureaucrats, with Solinor only stamping his approval.
The widespread popularity of heroic tales about Solinor contributed to this nostalgia.
The struggling economy had led most industries to collapse, but the publishing industry held on, largely due to those stories.
In chaotic times, people crave heroes, and the more difficult the situation, the more appealing tales of extraordinary figures become.
“I didn’t live that way because I wanted to.”
Heroes are created by the times.
If one could become a hero simply by wanting to, wouldn’t the world be overrun with them?
If the country were filled with heroes, it would probably collapse entirely.
A single hero requires hundreds of thousands of ordinary people to support them.
Even the most exceptional person couldn’t accomplish anything alone, and Solinor understood that well.
Charging ahead alone and smashing through everything wouldn’t solve anything.
“Still, this whole plan is a mess.”
By now, he should have grasped the nation’s situation and recruited talented people to form countermeasures.
But nothing had gone as planned.
An old friend he reunited with after many lifetimes hadn’t been in touch.
His freedom to move inside and outside the palace remained incredibly limited.
Even after discovering her Spirit Mage abilities, Muriela’s first summoned spirit, Wendy, no longer responded.
Fortunately, she had managed to acquire a replacement mercenary, Zephyr, but still.
“Aiorin used to command dozens of high-ranking spirits. Where did she find all those exceptional spirits?”
The answer lay in the Fey Forest, home to nearly all of the continent’s high-ranking spirits.
It was only natural since Spirit Mages were exclusively elves.
It was already a stroke of incredible luck for Muriela, a human living in society, to have met even one.
“Princess! So many spirits are approaching us!”
Muriela almost shouted, “What?” but, thanks to Solinor’s quick thinking, she managed to keep her mouth shut.
“What’s going on? Why are so many spirits suddenly approaching?”
—
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