Water Magician

Chapter 218: Royal Capital

The defeat on the Desborough Plains and the betrayal of the northern nobles were announced to the royal castle that day.

Due to the extremely strong gag order imposed, the citizens of the royal capital were not informed.

‘Information cutoff to suppress panic’ sounds good, but there was no telling the thoughts of the Kingdom’s government officials at that time.

However, no one knew that the Crown Prince, who had already passed away at that time, had taken several measures which would have a major impact on the future.

“I didn’t expect all the northern nobles to rebel…”

In the Minister of Finance’s office, the owner of the room, Fuka, groaned.

“The core instigator is Duke Flitwick.”

His subordinate Matthew answered calmly.

“His Majesty’s younger brother… Does he want to take the throne even at the cost of dividing the country? If he invites the Empire, it won’t end with a division of the Kingdom but our complete destruction… doesn’t he know that?!”

Compared to the calm Matthew, Fuka was angry.

Unlike the other ministers and bureaucrats who were upset, he could be said to be fuming.

Although there were arguments for and against his methods to the problems plaguing the Kingdom, Fuka had been collecting taxes and allocating the budget for the sake of the country.

However, with this outrageous act that threatens to destroy everything… it might be natural to get angry.

“The enemy army is heading south, likely aiming for the royal capital. Almost the entire northern region has switched sides, so they face almost no obstacles… but they will only reach after seven days? Their swelling momentum seemed to have disappeared.”

Matthew announced while looking through the report.

“In the meantime, we are trying to gather as many soldiers as possible from the surrounding towns. The Ministry of War is taking action but will it be in time …”

Fuka let out a deep sigh and continued.

“Well, with the height of the royal capital walls, we should be able to hold for a while. It seems that the strategy will be to wait for reinforcements from various places while repelling the enemy with the castle walls.”

“I believe this has happened before?”

“Yes. That said, it was hundreds of years ago. No matter what… the sight of enemy forces approaching the royal capital would be a great shock to the people.”

Fuka let out a deep sigh and shook his head several more times.

“Deputy Commander, our marching speed is unbelievably slow.”

Adjutant Jürgen commented while being swayed slowly on the horse’s back.

“This time, we have to go slow.”

Oscar, who was aware of almost all of Emperor Rupert’s plans, replied.

“But if we proceed slowly, putting aside the strengthening defense of the royal capital, won’t we face obstacles on the path to the royal capital?”

“First of all, since the northern nobles have switched sides, the only obstacles to getting to the royal capital are the garrisons in various places. It won’t be a problem.”

Oscar answered Jürgen’s question halfheartedly.

“I see. Then, what about the defense of the royal capital?”

“That’s why we who fought on the plains don’t need to siege the royal capital as well, right? There is no law stating that the same forces must do both the plains battle and the siege battle.”

Oscar’s words sparked something in Jürgen’s mind.

“No way, the siege forces are already ahead…”

“The reason why we made the Kingdom gather the garrison deployed in the north to the Desborough Plain and made the northern nobility switch sides was to allow a different squad to invade the Kingdom from a different route than ours. That was also the reason why we advanced so slowly in the battle of the Desborough Plains.”

“While the people in the royal capital are watching our movements, that unit will…”

“Well, that’s how it is.”

That night, there were shifting shadows in the darkness of the royal capital.

The shadows, strangely enough, were wearing the equipment of the royal capital guards of the Ministry of the Home Affairs.

It was not strange that the guards were patrolling the capital at night, or rather, it was a common occurrence.

Centered around the red-light district, there were many adventurers and other citizens who would cause trouble even at midnight, and the guards sometimes put them in prison until morning.

They knew the faces of many of the guards, but they didn’t recognize a single face among the guards that night.

The royal capital has dozens of large and small gates.

All of the gates, including the largest north, south, east, and west gates, are guarded by guards and the Kingdom’s Second Army reserves.

That was natural given the current situation that the enemy army was approaching the royal capital.

However, the four enormous gates of north, south, east, and west opened at the same time.

It was an unthinkable event in the current situation where enemy forces were approaching…

The numerous corpses lying at each gate told the story to anyone who came across them.

Then, through the open gates, soldiers on horseback invaded all at once.

Ten thousand of them.

For some reason, the guards that should have been stationed in various locations and the soldiers of the Kingdom’s Second Army did not come out to intercept.

It was later revealed that the food served at the guard stations was mixed with a strong, slow-acting sleeping pill.

Thus, with almost no resistance, the royal capital, Crystal Palace, fell.

On that day, there was direct communication from the Royal Capital Adventurer’s Guild Headquarters to the Adventurer’s Guild in Rune.

It is an alchemy tool that connects the headquarters and each branch on a one-to-one basis. Due to its extremely short lifespan and expensive materials, it is only used for vital communications.

Furthermore, since the possibility of eavesdropping cannot be completely ruled out, the cases where they used it were considerably limited.

However, it was used today.

From Grandmaster to Rune’s Guildmaster.

“Yes, this is McGrath.”

“Finley Forsythe. Hugh, listen calmly, leave your questions to the end. The capital has fallen.”

“!”

Hugh was about to say something because of the content, but he was told to ask questions last, so he waited in silence.

“The castle gates were opened before anyone knew it, and thousands of imperial soldiers invaded. The royal castle has already fallen. Adventurers and merchants with sharp ears escaped from the royal capital. Elsie escaped too. Thankfully, she was with me until just a little while ago. She has God’s protection.”

Hugh knows that Finley’s faith in God is extremely weak.

However, he didn’t say anything… as expected, it was not the right time to retort him.

Finley’s daughter, Elsie, left the royal capital safely. That should be the most important thing Finley wanted to say.

“I ordered the guild carriage with Elsie in it to ride non-stop to Rune. The first and last time I will mix work and private matters.”

“First … and last?”

Hugh couldn’t remain quiet for that.

Last? No way…….

“I thought I said to leave questions to the end. Naturally, the Grandmaster of the royal capital cannot afford to shirk responsibility. So I will remain here. I will sever the ‘System’. I entrust the management of the surplus money deposited by adventurers in each guild to you.”

“Yes……”

Hugh had no choice but to just reply yes.

“Hugh McGrath, please take care of Elsie.”

With those words, the communication was cut off.

Afterward, Master McGrath was left standing, unable to say anything.