185 The only thing I trust is the duke
***[Heroine Oscar]***
The Marquis of Hoven, as soon as he met the steppe tribes, entered and mingled with them, grabbed an official who could interpret, put them next to him, and acted with them for several hours.
Laughing and chatting, they even carry bottles of alcohol in the middle of the day and drink with the warriors.
‘As expected, I didn’t just come here without thinking.’
It seems that he didn’t come running simply because he wanted to see me, or to deliver the news of Crown Prince Robert.
‘Since I warned you about steppe tribes, you probably wanted to find out if it was true.’
To what extent did he find out the information he wanted, and around sunset, my grandfather went to my room with a bottle of alcohol.
In the other hand holding the bottle, there were two crude glasses.
As soon as he saw me, Grandpa smiled and offered me a drink.
“Now, take it. I’ll treat you like man to man tonight, not grandpa grandson.”
“…”
No, man to man aside, I don’t drink.
I smiled bitterly, but the butler who accompanied me to the fortified city quietly held out a slim bottle of wine.
It will always be a fruit drink.
The Marquis Hoven sniffed and smirked.
“What, you still haven’t learned how to drink. Fruit drinks are a baby. I’m going to have to make you get drunk sometime. But well, okay. Today, I’ll count this as alcohol.”
Grandpa murmured as he raised the drink bottle in his hand.
After pouring a drink into her glass and a fruit drink into mine, she serves it.
To be honest, fruit drinks are not something I like.
Benno has taken care of me since I was little, so I only eat it often, but most people seem to think that I like it very much.
hmm.
It doesn’t matter since there isn’t much to eat at a drinking party anyway, but what if I get diabetes because I keep drinking sugary drinks like this?
Sometimes I worry that I will suffer when I get older.
I took a sip while thinking useless thoughts, but my grandfather emptied his glass in one bite and looked at me.
“Oscar, I ask you as a grandfather and grandson, not as a duke and marquis.”
As I straightened my posture, my grandfather looked me in the eyes.
“I knew that the grassland tribes were going to attack right now. Now that I think about it, I think the reason why you developed magic bombs, bought food and stockpiled food, and even created cooling magic tools was because you expected this day. It costs you.”
“…”
“Goruka seems to be expecting the number of steppe tribes to attack this time around 100,000. No, not only Goruka but other warriors also had similar expectations. They said that that would be enough.”
Grandpa took a deep breath.
The smell of alcohol permeates the nostrils.
“It’s something that anyone can feel when they see the grasslands up close, but I know they’re strong.”
Grandpa looked at me without blinking.
“Do you think you can win this war?”
Grandpa, accustomed to war, would have realized right away how terrifying the 100,000 steppe tribes were.
The grandfather said that he would ask about blood, not the duke and the marquis, but those eyes belonged to the cool-headed marquis.
I’m desperate to notice all the little lies I have.
I set down my drinking glass and placed my hands on my lap.
“We can win, Grandpa. I’ve been preparing all along for that. I’m sure of it.”
It is different from an anxious mind.
I have already seen that the kingdom army wins in this world.
several times too.
In the past worlds I have seen, the kingdom has never lost a war against the steppe tribes.
This time the circumstances are a little different, but we will still win.
What was different from before was the situation on the side of the kingdom after the victory.
Indeed, this time, for whatever reason, it is only the difference between whether I will die or live, and no matter how miserable it will end, it is the kingdom that wins in the end.
Looking at my face carefully, my grandfather smiled.
“Yes. If you say it, I believe it must be true.”
Grandpa drank again.
After putting down the glass, my grandfather hugged me tightly and spoke in my ear.
“I’ll be back before the sun rises tomorrow morning. I don’t need to see you off.”
Grandpa gave strength to the arm that held me once.
“Until the day we meet again, please have no luck.”
“Please be careful too, Grandpa. Hold the reins well.”
“hahahaha, yes.”
Grandpa patted me hard on the back and got up.
I stopped walking toward the door and suddenly looked back.
“I’ll give you one piece of advice when you go into your first war.”
“…”
“Don’t worry too much. I’m going to do everything when I shut up. I don’t need to use my hair too much from now on.”
What is it.
When I laughed in amazement, Grandpa laughed even louder and went outside.
‘Shut up….’
As for me, I’m making a fairly confident expression, but the bravado might be visible to the experienced grandfather.
Early the next morning, Grandpa left as quickly as he had come.
Instead, it was about an hour later that someone from the Marquis Patry came to fill the spot.
The Marquis of Patry had a similar business.
He pretended to have come to tell the news that Prince Robert had been discovered, but in reality he wanted to know the truth and timing of the steppe invasion.
After that, people came from other families like candy.
Except for a few places, such as the Marquis of Hoven and the Marquis of Patry, most of them headed to the Duke’s family first and then to the fortress city.
As time passed in an instant in pursuit of the response, news arrived that a village on the border had been attacked by the steppe tribes.
***[Richard Wang]***
“What… What! Is everything you just said true?”
King Richard stood in the corner and looked at the man who was crouching.
The man who came with the messenger is said to be the first to announce the invasion of the grassland tribes.
He wasn’t a soldier who ate the kingdom’s rust, but he was hired by the local lord.
The soldier’s clothes were full of dust, and a haggard look was evident on his face after not sleeping for many days.
It looks like it’s going to break down right now.
The village soldier, who had never appeared in front of the king, nodded like a broken wooden doll while frozen.
“Yes, yes, Your Majesty. I saw it with my own two eyes. The number was so great that it seemed like a black cloud was coming towards me. I couldn’t see the end…”
The soldier trembled as if he remembered the scene.
A liaison officer from a border town followed suit.
“I think it’s written in the report, but when I put together the words of the soldiers, it seems that the number is over tens of thousands, even if the number is small. Maybe it’s close to 200,000…”
“So many savages crossed the border, what the hell were the garrison doing!”
After shouting, the dispatcher lowered his head.
The chamberlain whispered to King Richard with a pale face.
“Your Majesty, everyone has been bitten, but I don’t know where there are ears to hear.”
After saying that, the chamberlain asked the messenger and the soldier on behalf of King Richard.
“The report didn’t mention what happened to the garrison. It’s probably because we don’t know the exact circumstances. But you can guess. What on earth were you doing in the garrison? Did the Witchbeast come out and deal with it?”
“…”
The messenger hesitated without opening his mouth.
When the head chamberlain asked again, the messenger spoke hesitantly.
“I don’t know exactly. I set out as soon as I heard the news of the invasion of the barbarians. But…”
The liaison officer was speechless and hesitated.
As if frustrated, the chamberlain urged him again.
“Anything is fine, so tell His Majesty. We’re in a situation where we’re fighting over the fire. It doesn’t matter if there’s little information. While you’re hesitating like this, it’s going to be too late to come up with a countermeasure.”
“… that… it seems that the garrison has been wiped out, seeing as there was no contact at all.”
“what?”
It seems that even the chief chamberlain did not expect the answer.
The liaison officer glanced at the soldier.
The soldier trembled and nodded his head.
“Well, I don’t know what happened to the garrison. But the villagers I was in are all dead. They’re incredibly strong. My God. They’re all dead. The barbarians are all…”
The soldier spoke gibberish.
That’s not what King Richard wants to know.
However, no matter how hard I tried, it didn’t seem like a proper answer would come out.
The head chamberlain softened his voice and skillfully asked, and after a long gibberish, the desired answer began to emerge.
It seems that in the village where the soldiers were, there were barbarians working for the kingdom.
It is said that he ran ahead and told the soldier.
“He was the first to notice that the barbarians were coming. So he purposely ran to the village and told me to hide. I saved him from being beaten in the past, so that’s why he’s repaying the favor. I didn’t believe it at first, but After he left, after a while, they came in. I saw a cloud in the distance. It was a black cloud. Then I realized. That what he said was true. I was the only one who survived because he hid right away. He killed everyone. …he said the steppe tribes had annihilated the garrison.”
“How can you be sure that it’s true?”
When the chamberlain asked, the soldier blinked blankly and said,
“Because that person informed me that a huge number of barbarians were coming. Even though they didn’t have to come to our village, they risked their lives. They came just for me. But what’s the point of lying to me? I’m a high-ranking person. It’s not even a village, it’s Byeongsan. There’s nothing good for him by lying to me.”
King Richard leaned back in his chair and stared blankly at the soldier.
The soldier said something more, but nothing more came to his ears.
The words the Duke had warned him filled his mind.
[Their retaliation is certain. The steppes will not let go of the fact that their family has been kidnapped. will surely come. We have only two choices: stimulate them now and get swept into the war without any preparation, or prepare for a year or even a few months of preparation.]
I thought the duke’s words might be true, but I still couldn’t believe it.
If they did come, I thought it would be at least a few months later.
‘But.’
Come in in the middle of winter like this.
Even the border guards were exterminated?
At that time, the servant who was guarding the door came inside and whispered something in the chief chamberlain’s ear.
“Your Majesty, Prince Emil is asking to see you.”
“…”
King Richard looked at the chamberlain blankly for a moment and nodded.
“Yes… if it’s Emil… ask him to come in.”
If barbarians invade, someone from the royal family must go out and fight.
However, since he is too old to go to war, either Emile or Robert will have to go.
Prince Robert is coming by carriage.
I heard that he is losing consciousness, and above all, his appearance is strange.
His whole body was covered with wrinkles, so it seems that at first he didn’t notice that he was the crown prince, and he thought it was Igor and tried to arrest him.
Since Robert was in such a situation, Emile was the only one to go out and fight.
After receiving permission to enter the room, Emil busily walked in.
“Father. I heard that the steppe tribes have invaded.”
Emil gets very close to the duke and always speaks the same way as a parrot when it comes to the duke’s words, but today’s news seems to have shocked his son as well.
Emil’s face was the color of earth.
‘But… It hasn’t been long since the dispatcher arrived, but did the news reach Emil already?’
News spreads too fast.
It must have been because of the Duke’s warning.
Maybe everyone was paying attention to the news from the border while they were all busy.
Some families may have heard the news sooner than the royal family.
“It’s a big deal.”
As I muttered that suddenly, I felt anew how great the danger was.
While the chamberlain explained to Emil, King Richard was dazed and suddenly came to his senses.
“Anyway, it’ll be hard to hide now. No, the hiding phase must have already passed. Tell all the lords the news.
After saying that, King Richard looked at Emile.
Maybe it’s a relief that Robert isn’t here.
Since they had been warned for a long time, the Duke’s family should be prepared for the savages.
The same goes for the Marquis of Hoven and the Marquis of Patry, who are close to the Duke.
In this war against barbarians, the power of dukes is essential.
‘Then it would be better for Emil, who has a solid relationship with the duke, to step in.’
It was something to avoid for Emil or the duke’s reputation to rise too high, but in the current situation, there was nothing they could do.
First of all, the kingdom’s safety must be secured, so honor and everything else will have meaning.
King Richard got up from his seat and spoke to Emile.
“Emil, I’m making you the commander of the kingdom’s army. Go out and defeat the savages who invaded the kingdom and come back.”
Emil quietly bent her knees.
“I’ll take your three orders.”
Emil’s words spread hollowly in the quiet space.