Emperor of Steel - Chapter 665:
Chapter 665: Prince of Ruined Nation 1
The western front of the Symphonia Kingdom.
At the news of the huge crowd of monsters coming in, the villagers took their household items and went to take refuge in a nearby castle or fortress.
“Hurry up! Quickly!”
“We never know when the monsters will come for us!”
“Wahhhhh!”
In the confusing situation, the children in the wagon were terrified and began to cry.
Then, a man in a priest uniform, who was following behind the wagon, tried to appease the crying children.
“Priest Isaac, do monsters really come to eat people?”
“There is nothing like that. Soldiers and knights will protect us to the end.”
“Really?”
“Yes. That is why you need to carefully listen to dad and mom.”
“Huh, I will.”
As the innocent children believed the man’s words, they started to talk to other people in the wagon with a little smile on their faces.
However, the priest’s expression went stiff after seeing the children’s smile.
‘Haa, I just wanted to calm them…’
Isaac sighed under his breath.
However, his real name wasn’t Isaac.
Aslan de Ferrierd.
A few years ago, he was known to be the illegitimate child of Duke Ferrierd, who rebelled against the Holy Empire’s pope.
Duke Ferrierd declared self-independence with the help of the Baroque Empire and became the king of Conrad Kingdom, and Aslan was treated as the prince.
However, such a great movie didn’t last for long.
It was because the Conrad Kingdom was destroyed with a full-scale suppression from the Holy Empire.
While running away with his father, he was attacked by the pirates, well, a special force of the Baroque troops who were disguised as pirates, and he almost drowned in the sea.
He was hit by an arrow and lost one arm to a shark, but fortunately, he was saved by a trade ship of the Southern Continent that was passing by.
Barely saving his life, he went to Marquis Mayers, the head of the noblemen who confronted the emperor, Rudolf.
He then exposed the Baroque Empire’s involvement in the civil affairs of the Holy Empire.
That resulted in the war between the emperor and the nobles, which divided the empire.
After that, Aslan was granted the title of count by Mayers, who became the king of the Milton Kingdom, and was appointed as the commander of a fortress near the Variand Mountains.
‘It was a good treatment for the prince of the ruin, but in reality, I was deemed no longer worthy and put in a corner.’
He felt very bitter, but Aslan wasn’t very dissatisfied with it.
He believed that everything given to him was sufficient as he was able to get revenge for his father’s death by destroying the Baroque Empire, the losing nation whose 500 years of ruling.
He thought that for the rest of his life, he would always stand on the front fighting what was left of the Baroque Empire.
However, within a year of King Mayer’s desire to conquer, the war broke out and the Milton Kingdom fell.
It was Luke de Rakan that took over the Milton Kingdom and established the new Symphonia Kingdom.
He did not oppress nobles of the Milton Kingdom and accepted them as his subjects. Aslan’s title and position were confirmed.
‘The problem was that the king has a great relationship with the Holy Empire.’
It wasn’t just an alliance. He invited the pope for the royal coronation ceremony.
In addition, there were rumors that Pope Veronica III was the lover of Luke, Reina, the princess of the perished Volga Kingdom.
As a result, Aslan couldn’t help but feel a sense of crisis.
Would the Symphonia Kingdom, which is close to the Holy Empire, abandon him, the son of a traitor?
He could be arrested if his identity got out.
As a result, Aslan escaped from Symphonia Kingdom when it was founded.
However, he couldn’t enter the Holy Empire and not the Baroque Empire.
The Volga Republic was too far to move, and the Grenada and Casta Kingdom could be reached only by ships, and there was no way he could avoid the checkpoints.
And the only place he could go to was the Libiya Kingdom.
However, as the travel was expensive, he disguised himself as a priest and settled in a small village for a while.
Although he couldn’t use any Divine power, he had no problem pretending as one as he was an observant person in the Holy Arthenia Empire.
He was thinking of going to Libiya once he earned enough money after teaching kids and listening to people’s confessions.
However, a year had passed, and even though he collected money, he couldn’t leave.
All of a sudden, the border between Symphonia and Libiya Kingdom was full of monsters.
And the monster never crossed the borders and attack the villages of Symphonia.
People thought that it was because of the alliance with King Shaikan of Libiya Kingdom, the Lord of Monsters.
Eventually, Aslan was tied to the village, which was in southern part of the Symphonia.
In fact, it wasn’t like he couldn’t go, somehow his life seemed to make sense while living with the innocent villagers.
“Priest, isn’t that troubling you? If walking is hard, please get on the wagon, we can ride together…”
Aslan shook his head at the words of the elderly woman that was riding the wagon with her children.
“No, it isn’t that difficult for me.”
“Really? Your face doesn’t look that good…”
“I am just concerned about what has to come. It isn’t because of the walk.”
Aslan looked around and saw the movement.
On the way to the fortress, the line for evacuation increased.
People from other villages too joined the path.
After a full day, the refugees, who had increased to thousands in number, arrived at the Verange Castle.
The Verange Castle was located in the Northwest part of the Symphonia Kingdom. It was built by the villagers and was declared as the administrative and military center of the region.
Although it had a population of 30,000, it was built for military purposes, so it could accommodate around 100,000 people including the refugees.
Aslan entered the castle with the other people and saw a flag being waved at the gate.
‘That is the flag of the 1st squad… Has the royal army been engaged already?’
His thoughts were right.
Commander Rogers was informed about the appearance of the large scale monster group and immediately led the 1st squad.
He entered the castle and prepared for battle while sending soldiers to help and control the refugees.
“All the men please come to this side!”
“Women and old people come over and get the rations! We have enough food, so don’t push and keep order!”
“Are sick people in here? If there are, then come over to the plaza for the medical treatment!”
Soldiers with medical supplies were standing on the palace and yelled.
While the people were being taken care of, men looked after the walls, handed tools, and built temporary houses for the shelter.
Men were being mobilized to work outside the castle with the soldiers.
Aslan was about to go out, but then when he was known to be educated, he was given another job.
“You are a priest? Then you must know how to read and write?”
“I do.”
“Please help with the administration. The situation is so urgent that there aren’t enough people over there.”
“I guess this is what war does.”
Aslan nodded at the soldier’s words and assisted the administrators in identifying the refugees that entered the castle and aligned the documents.
But that didn’t last long.
Suddenly, a knight of the 1st squad came to him with armed soldiers.
“Count Aslan de Ferrierd? You need to come with us.”
‘Kuek, have I been caught?’
He never thought that there would be knights in the castle that would recognize his face.
Aslan clenched his fist.
However, even though he was an intermediate Sword Expert, he couldn’t fight because he didn’t have any weapons on him.
Eventually, he let go.
His life, which had been twisted to the core, seemed to come to an end.
