Chapter 369 - Without Subjects, There Is No King

How many more of them were coming? This was getting far too chaotic. The owlbear turned toward the latest speaker. "Encrid?"

The monster recognized another face and spoke his name without thinking. Encrid surveyed the surroundings—more precisely, the people who had come and the man in the feathered hat—before looking straight at him. Their eyes met. In that instant, Encrid sorted several facts in his head.

This man knew him. He was probably a noble. He had ties to Black Blade. He could transform into a monster, and he knew how to use that ability. Those brown eyes resembled someone he knew. A name came to mind. A trained physique, a rank smell, a man who insisted on proper manners.

He had scarcely seen the man since then. But hadn't he served Count Molsen? Did that mean Count Molsen and Black Blade were in this together? New questions arose, but Encrid thought he knew who this was.

"Viscount Vantra?"

He recognized him on sight. His heightened Sixth Sense told him so. Only then did Vantra realize why those faces looked familiar. He had briefly encountered them on their way into the palace.

The moment he realized that, he kicked off the ground. He intended to flee. He knew what those men—the so-called Lunatic Company—had done. But escape was impossible. WHOOSH! As soon as he leaped, a disc came flying overhead. His instincts reacted the moment he heard it. Jump up and he would die!

It was a thrown axe traveling at an absurd speed. He dodged, sensing force that even his monstrous body could not withstand. Instead of springing upward, the owlbear ducked and crouched, abandoning his escape and stopping where he was. "Right. I'll cut you down."

The blond swordsman approached him as he spoke. He was the one who had been radiating that terrible sense of foreboding all this time. He had barely finished speaking when he closed in, his blade plunging straight down like a thunderbolt. In his monstrous form, Vantra puffed up all his feathers and crossed his arms overhead to block. CLANG! CRACK, CRUNCH! For a moment, the blade seemed to stop. Then it cut halfway through his arm. "Aaargh!"

An agonized shriek erupted, a blend of monster and human voices. "Hey. This is for my comrade."

Meanwhile, Aesia, who had arrived with Encrid, sent her thin blade hurtling toward his heart. She had stood all but unnoticed behind Encrid before darting out with a thrust. 'Damn it!'

The owlbear tightened his chest muscles and leaped backward, saving his heart from being pierced. The slender blade punched between his feathers, into muscle and flesh, then withdrew. A stream of darkened blood followed it out. His opponent was a proto knight from the knight order.

No, that wasn't the problem. Besides the proto knight Aesia, five others here were at least as skilled as she was. Turning into an owlbear—or the grandfather of all owlbears—would make no difference. This fight had been over the moment they met. Finding him was the challenge, not fighting him. In other words, all they had needed was for the moon to rise.

It might have been different if a proto knight—if the knight order—hadn't intervened. Once they did, this was precisely how it ought to end. The only surprises were that Krang had sent his guard and that the guard captain had come himself. Well, that meant at least a few people cared about the city's safety and order. That was no bad thing. ROOOAR! Vantra roared several more times.

"Fuck!"

He held out, cursing.

"Spare me!"

In the end, he begged for his life. Watching them, the south gate guard captain in his feathered hat briefly reproached himself for failing to recognize their caliber.

'They're all monsters.'

What else could he call fighters who toyed with an actual monster like an owlbear? Only now did he realize that the rumors from Border Guard were true. People in the capital still dismissed them as baseless rumors and fanciful nonsense.

'What a load of fucking bullshit.'

Having narrowly escaped death, the guard captain wanted to tear apart the mouth of the bastard who had spouted that bullshit. The owlbear held out and held out, until a hole was punched through his thigh and his skull was cracked. Finally, an axe blade severed half his neck. SPLURT! Rem, who had been watching, delivered the blow that sent Vantra to the ground, dark blood gushing from him. He pitched forward headfirst. As the monster's blood drained through his mortal wounds, the transformation broke. He reverted to human form. His feathers fell out, and his entire body shuddered. The torrent of blood diminished sharply.

Becoming human again did not change the fact that his wounds were fatal. "Cough."

Vantra lay coughing up blood. Encrid walked over and squatted before him.

"Now why would you turn up here?" he asked. Naturally, Vantra had no desire to answer. But as he lay dying, regret surged within him, and he spoke with resentment.

"It's not fair." The arrow of his resentment was not aimed at Encrid. It was aimed at the being who had made him this way.

Being intoxicated by desire and pleasure was a side effect, not what he had truly wanted. He had lost his identity as a human when he became a monster, but now, before death, he had recovered a fragment of his humanity. That was why it felt so unfair. "How did you become a monster?" Encrid asked.

"Drugs. Drugs."

Vantra murmured as he died. The light in his eyes was slowly fading. He would die soon. Encrid could ask no more questions. Vantra squeezed out the last of his strength. He would not be able to rest in death without telling him this.

"I'm not the last."

* * *

Count Molsen nodded at the report.

"He was discovered and killed sooner than expected."

His subordinate stood in the middle of the study. Leaning back in his chair, the count replied indifferently.

"It doesn't matter. He was an expendable piece anyway." Was it Encrid and his men again? They were proving quite a nuisance. Still, he meant it when he said it didn't matter. "The preparations?"

"Less than fifteen days remain."

"Good." The full moon shone that night. The count, who had been savoring the night along with his wine, set down his glass.

"I'll see you in fifteen days, Your Majesty."

They would know then whether it would be him or the Queen sitting on the throne.

* * *

Before the owlbear's corpse—or rather, the corpse that was now Viscount Vantra—the guard captain in the feathered hat gave Encrid a military salute.

"Please forgive my earlier discourtesy."

"I wouldn't call it discourtesy."

Guarding the gate had been his duty, after all. "You have my thanks for your assistance," the captain said.

Encrid thought little of it. Someone had needed to do the job. He was more concerned with what Viscount Vantra had said before crossing the river. "By the way, were you allowed to leave your post?"

Encrid directed the question at Matthew. He didn't know what was happening inside the palace, but he knew the situation was extraordinarily dangerous. Yet Krang's guard had come here? "Without people, there is no nation. Without subjects, there is no king."

Matthew spoke, and Encrid understood. Those would be Krang's words. Becoming king would mean nothing to him if he turned a blind eye to people dying at the hands of the Moonlight Beast. Encrid liked that very much, too. Krang was the sort of man who made you want to help him. "Anyway, it looks like we've dealt with it."

At Encrid's words, Rem complained that it had been a letdown and suggested they spar instead. Ragna wiped blood and grease from his sword. Off to one side, Dunbachel lifted her curved sword and nodded.

"I like this."

Encrid had simply picked up the weapons an assassin had carried and given them to her, but she seemed thoroughly pleased. "Were there any others with that rank smell?" Encrid asked.

Dunbachel shook her head.

"I haven't come across anyone who smelled like him." Then what else was out there, and where? If there were more, would they have stayed so quiet? Had there been more than one Moonlight Beast?

No, the man had been intoxicated by monster blood. He had surrendered to instinct and sought pleasure through slaughter. Even without the south gate guard captain's account, Encrid had inferred that from his inquiries. Encrid wondered if Vantra had simply been rambling as he died, but the man had meant those words. Encrid wasn't too dull to recognize that.

Then what was out there, and where? It wasn't in the capital. So what was it? What else was there? After a brief consideration, he spoke.

"Count Molsen has created chimeras."

With that single sentence, Encrid reached his conclusion. "Hey, I need to report that to the palace right away."

Aesia spoke and left. Late at night or not, this was urgent. "Well..."

Before leaving, Matthew approached. In the end, Encrid hadn't even seen him use his whip. Only Rem, Ragna, Dunbachel, and Aesia had taken part in bringing down the owlbear. "Something you wanted to say?"

Matthew searched for words several times, then clenched his teeth once, as though making up his mind, and spoke.

"Please help my lord." "All right."

"Just once, when danger comes..."

"Sure."

"... Hmm?"

"I said I'll help him." Why did he think Encrid was staying here instead of going home? He was here to see what Krang had set in motion and wield his sword at his side. Krang would be a king who served Naurilia. More than anything, by sending his whip-bearing guard here, Krang had backed his words with action. He had said he would serve the nation, its people, its subjects. He had said he would be that kind of king. And he had also said he would be Encrid's friend. A man like that was more than worth wielding a sword for, even if Encrid wasn't about to become his knight. He had already thought it through, so his answer came immediately. That was why he had answered quickly enough to bewilder Matthew. ["He isn't a man who will stop at my side. So I won't ask for his help."]

Krang had said that himself. He had said he would accomplish this through his own strength. It was a gamble, but he had also said that without gambling, he couldn't win. "Until next time."

Matthew turned to leave as well. When night passed and morning broke, news reached Andrew's mansion. It was not about the night's events. Even Viscount Vantra's death had been hushed up. Everyone kept quiet about it. The story of the Moonlight Beast's capture, and the credit for it, had already been buried. The news concerned a ceremony to confer the title of grand duke. It was the signal Krang had sent up. Perhaps because of that, Aesia no longer came by. After seeing her and spending time with her for days on end, her absence left a gap. Even Rem asked after her.

"What, that proto knight isn't coming?" "They say there's going to be an investiture ceremony. She'll be busy."

Encrid answered, sweat running down his whole body. He was disappointed too. 'It would've been nice to try another hundred times. No, two hundred.'

Then he could have broken Point Aim. It would have taken far more time to actually overwhelm Aesia and defeat her, though. He regretted missing all those opportunities. She was someone he wanted to fight dozens, hundreds more times. "Guess I'll have to settle for beating you up, Captain. Come on."

Rem smacked his lips and offered just what Encrid had been itching for. Encrid felt the same way.

* * *

The situation inside the palace changed by the day, all as Krang intended. Then he added more fuel to the fire. "Are we just going to stand by and watch? A grand duke!"

"Is she digging her own grave?"

It was enough to bring every noble up in arms. In a palace where marquis had been the highest noble rank, the Queen had announced that she would make Krang a grand duke. "Where has Viscount Vantra gone?" Viscount Mernes asked.

He was the man who had now united every faction in the palace. One reason those scattered factions had come together was the presence of Krang on the opposing side. Having won over Marcus Vaisar and several other nobles, Krang had immediately secured the Queen's backing and sought the title of grand duke. Everything he did threatened the nobles. Starting with reforms to strengthen royal authority, none of it was something they could simply stand by and watch. Clearly, he had to be removed. He was threatening the nobility as a whole. The Queen seemed to be supporting him from behind the scenes, but the first to be removed was always the loudmouth who stepped forward. 'Does he think he can act so arrogantly just because the Queen is behind him?'

Viscount Mernes concluded that Krang's actions were ultimately the Queen's will.

'Why have you done this, Your Majesty?' This would end in catastrophe. Of course it would. The factions had gathered and united. If their combined strength was not directed outward, trouble was inevitable. The Queen had dug her own grave. The investiture ceremony was in a week.

Viscount Mernes set the assassins' alliance in motion and called upon the power that backed him. The Black Blade Bandits' remaining fighting force entered the palace. He deployed the members of the Royal Guard on his side and informed those from the knight order who had defected to him that they were taking up arms. 'This is true loyalty.'

The balance had already tipped. Civil war would only eat away at the nation. Then all he needed to do was quell everything before it could even begin. If the Queen intended to use her younger brother, who had suddenly appeared from who knew where, as a shield...

'That brother of yours will die.'

Then the Queen would never attempt anything like this again. She would become a doll seated on the throne. After that, he need only allow the true king to enter. 'And that will be the end of my task.'

The viscount murmured quietly. Everything would be over the day before the investiture ceremony.