Chapter 309: 163. The Ariana Family -1 (Part One)

Translated by A Passing Wanderer

Edited by RED

Hilda was currently riding in the carriage, a pouting expression dominating her face.

With her arms across her chest, she was muttering away in clear displeasure, “Didn’t get to hunt a vampire. Didn’t even get a chance to stuff a lycan, either! With things like this, what’s the point of even going there?”

The leader of the dwarves sitting on the carriage driver’s seat, Belrog, could only chuckle wryly at her complaints. ‘Yup, she’s sulking again.’

The Imperial Capital of Laurensis had suffered a large-scale invasion from the vampires. According to the report, around five hundred Progenitors and over fifty thousand undead had initiated a massive war.

Most importantly of all, even the Vampire King had shown up, which could only mean that the vampires were dead serious about bringing down the Holy Emperor this time.

Too bad for the undead, though...

‘They failed.’

Hilda and the dwarves quickly got ready to mobilise, but then, on their way to the Imperial Capital, they were greeted by the news of the situation already being sorted out.

Which meant that the combat force headed to the capital as military support ended up being a supply corps going there to help out with the reconstruction efforts, instead.

“Well, isn’t this more preferable, Your Highness? The war concluding quickly means the citizens will have suffered less losses overall. Indeed, this is a better result, ma’am.”

“That’s true. I shall agree with that sentiment.”

The corners of Hilda’s lips curled up as if she felt buoyed by the idea.

Belrog guffawed loudly at her reaction. Her swaying emotions swinging back and forth was like watching a cute daughter unable to make up her mind, at least in his eyes.

“...Mm?”

It was at that moment that he witnessed a large procession of carriages traversing the road heading to the city of Laurensis. But it didn’t look like a regular noble escort party to him.

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There were dozens of knights and a thousand-plus soldiers accompanying them.

Belrog instantly tensed up. Why was a large scale combat force heading to the empire’s capital at this delicate time?

However, he quickly changed his mind after finally noticing the crests etched on the carriages in the front of the caravan.

The crest of a shield and a spear overlapped together... That belonged to the Kingdom of Frants, a nation allied to the Theocratic Empire.

Belrog tilted his head while looking at the procession. “The Kingdom of Frants? And not only that, those carriages belong to the royal court, too... No, hang on. Is that the kingdom’s royal army? If they are from the Frants royal court, then could they be Lady Hilda’s...?”

“What was that?”

Hilda shoved Belrog’s head down and peeked her head outside. Her face brightened in an instant.

The procession belonging to the Kingdom of Frants had also discovered Hilda’s carriage and came to a stop.

Hilda jumped out from her vehicle and stared intently at the front, watching the door to the Frants royal family’s carriage open.

A beautiful middle-aged woman with striking red hair and equally red eyes stepped down from the vehicle.

Hilda’s expression brightened even further at this woman’s appearance.

The royal family of Frants kingdom enjoyed very close diplomatic ties with the Theocratic Empire. And that was because...

“Mother!”

This woman was Runan Ariana, the descendant of the Frants royal family, as well as the younger sister of the kingdom’s current king, Zayner Frants.

Also, she was Hilda’s mother and Crown Imperial Prince White Olfolse’s wife, as well.

**

(TL: In 1st person POV.)

“Gee whiz, why are there so many of them?”

I was sitting inside the Imperial Palace’s office. It had been ten days since the vampire war had come to an end.

As if to reflect the extensive damage caused by the vampires, there were literally mountains of documents piled up in front of my eyes.

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Charlotte was standing next to me to provide much-needed mental support, while Alice and Hans were bringing in more and more piles of documents inside the office while grunting away from all the hard labour.

“...Hang on, am I supposed to deal with them all by myself?!” I shot a glare filled with dissatisfaction at Charlotte.

She picked up one of the documents resting on top of the desk and scanned its contents before smiling wryly back at me. “It can’t be helped, sire. If we do not deal with them as soon as possible, the citizens will experience much difficulty.”

“Well, I guess it really can’t be helped in that case. But I gotta tell you now, I only picked up some stuff by watching the others take care of this sort of stuff, so there’s no guarantee that I can do this properly.”

“Nothing is more important than putting in your maximum effort, sire.”

Man, it really sucked to not even get a brief break...

I spat out a long groan, and with a crumpled expression, stared at the piles of documents.

It was true that the damages suffered this time were quite extensive. Only after we finished taking care of the reconstruction could we hold something like a celebratory banquet or parties or even go on a lengthy vacation.

Uh? Hang on a second here.

“...There’s some stuff about Aslan here, too?”

Not just any document, but a direct appeal made to me, no less.

Aslan was currently unstable; after conquering it, I basically had abandoned it to its own devices to come here. And that left the place in a lot of chaos.

As it was an emergency situation, Charlotte had to bring a portion of the troops originally dispatched to Aslan along with her, and the remaining few Priests were left in charge of the temporary management of the kingdom down south.

It was unsurprising to see the dissatisfaction of the Aslan citizens flaring up. Wanting to stop that festering any further, and also hoping to get a hold of the situation somehow, I temporarily handed ruling authority over to Tina, but then the surviving nobility began raising a ruckus instead.

They were arguing about how a queen who lost her throne could get to rule them again.

These idiots, they didn’t seem to know what ‘temporary’ even meant.

“Sire, once you’re finished here, you must urgently return to Aslan to handle the outstanding matters on that side, as well. That is Your Majesty’s personal territory, after all,” said Charlotte.

“...How come things are getting even more hectic for me after I got rid of the damn vampires? I bloody knew it. Governance isn’t something I should get involved in.” I rested my forehead in my hand, then pretended to be staggering unsteadily. “Urgh, I feel so lightheaded right now. Can you deliver some of these documents over to my older brother, Luan? Thanks.”

I pointed at some piles of the documents.

Charlotte made a surprised face. “Your Majesty, are you alright?”

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I was lying. Sure, I did suffer from the aftermaths of summoning Metatron, but that suffering amounted to me being confined to a sickbed for three days straight, that’s all.

Right, I only briefly suffered from a bout of murderous muscle aches and strong fever. Nothing I couldn’t handle, really.

And now, I was no longer under the side effects of the summoning process. However, I did enjoy seeing Charlotte’s flustered reactions, so I was just messing with her here. “The lightheadedness from summoning the Archangel is still sticking around, you know? I think it might get in the way of doing my job.”

Charlotte worriedly shifted her gaze over to Alice. But the latter smiled wryly and glanced back at me.

She then shook her head. “There is no problem with His Majesty. Even if you wish to dump the responsibility on His Highness the First Imperial Prince, he too is resting from overwork right now. It’s not possible to saddle him with more work at the moment, sire.”

As expected of a healer. Faking illness wouldn’t work on her.

I pushed my chair back and leaned against the wall behind me. A small commotion could be heard coming through the window so I turned my head to take a look.

Jars containing holy water were being carried out from the Imperial Palace to be loaded onto the waiting wagons so that they could be distributed to the citizens. Probably to treat the injured, or those who had contracted the plague and other illnesses, I figured.

“I wonder, will doing that be alright?”

I didn’t mind treating the citizens. Actually, I welcomed it. I mean, we had more than enough holy water to go around, after all.

My issue with this idea, though, was with the fact that that holy water was mine. I created it. We might have a hard-to-deal-with situation on our hands later if we carelessly distributed my holy water to the citizens.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine, sire. Everyone will grow to worship and look up to you, Your Majesty.”

...Hey, Charlotte? You do know what you just said was very dangerous and quite frightening, right?

She knew what my holy water could potentially do, yet she still said such things.

“I’m trying to become a loaded bum, not the leader of a cult, you know?”

Just imagine every single person in the capital morphing into zealots that focused only on me. Now that was as creepy as hell.

In a way, this was like my ten thousand troops plan was proceeding along swimmingly without my knowledge.

“Still, it’s not like everyone will Awaken, so there’s that.”

In the case of the northern region, the convicts were constantly exposed to danger, so they ended up Awakening in order to survive. The former slaves of Aslan became monks through Damon’s intense training, while I hadn’t heard any notable news coming out of Lome kingdom yet.

The latter probably indicated that it would be hard for regular folks to experience Awakening without training.

“I guess I’ll have to continue with the ten thousand troops plan a bit later.”

When I said that, Charlotte looked at me in surprise. “Your Majesty? You’re still planning to go through with that, sire?”

“Of course. You are supposed to prepare for war during the peaceful times, you know? We shouldn’t let our guard down just because the vampires lost their foundation for establishing their kingdom of blood. Most importantly...” I placed my elbow on the bookshelf and rested my head on my hand. “The Vampire King is still alive, after all.”

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