Published at 29th of July 2022 8:58 am

Chapter 471 - Pith Refugees

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Days later in the capital of Bosque, there were people littered on the empty streets with haggard and hungry expressions. Some were dehydrated from crying too many tears and others rummaged the burned ruins of what may or may not have been their home.

It was a sorry sight, and the royal family tried its best to provide for these hapless people. The problem was that with the entire palace collapsing, the food they could distribute was limited.

The merchants that came by didn’t help either. They were like vultures and they intended to take advantage of the situation.

“With all the dangerous monsters out there, protection costs have made the prices really rise” “I’m taking a huge risk, I might be offending a dragon!” “Don’t let others say I am taking advantage of you! This is the most generous price I’ve ever offered anyone!” Miller Bosque heard all sorts of things from the merchants.

He did encounter a few good willed merchants but at most they’d break even and the amount they’d sell wouldn’t be much. In the end, the Bosque royal family had no choice but to give into the vultures. They could afford it anyway, it just stung.

Much of their wealth was lost when the palace collapsed but the royal family was not stupid enough to store all their things in the palace alone. It was unfortunate however that Mite was not stupid enough to not know that.

Most food warehouses were burned by his army and any not located in the capital would take long to arrive. Buying from the vultures was too costly but the people couldn’t afford to wait.

“Duke… Did the other nobles say when they would offer their support?” Miller asked slightly nervous.

The duke shook his head.

“Most of the western nobles have sided with the Harvest march” The Duke replied. This turn of events was not unexpected. The Duke and Miller were never able to stamp out the Harvest March in its entirety..ᴄᴏᴍ

With the right opportunity, the Harvest March could try to form a revival as they had. The nobles knew that the Duke’s side was the weaker one after what happened at the capital.

While that sounded worrying, now that the dragon decided to make them a vassal the Harvest March and the royal family were technically on the same side.

“That’s… Do you think they’ll rebel?” The harvest March was probably promised the throne, if they couldn’t receive it they might consider breaking off from Bosque instead.

“Yes” The Duke responded with a simple yes but this was an answer he came up with after much thought.

The Harvest Marquess obviously had the ambition, they wouldn’t take kindly to being cuckolded by the Volcan empire. The Duke had to admit that the Volcan Empire was definitely unhinged, they acted like they had already conquered the world and held no regard for other nations.

“The truly worrying thing is that the Galeburst dynasty hasn’t done anything…” The Volcan Empire could only afford to be unhinged thanks to the inaction of the Galeburst dynasty.

While it was on one hand good to let the enemy weaken themselves by going on conquest battles, there was still a limit to these type of things. If the enemy finished and digested their meal by then the balance between these continental superpowers would break.

Currently, The Duke and Miller were having this conversation in a cleared out field within the capital. Many tents had been set up to treat the injured soldiers as well as the people.

Needless to say there were also tents for the healthy. They had to sleep somewhere, but there was a good chunk of people sleeping outside.

“Thankfully this hasn’t been a harsh winter” The Duke muttered before remaining in silent contemplation.

Mother nature had been kind but human nature only knew cruelty. The harshness of this winter came from the people not the weather.

After a good minute of silently watching the busy people shuffle here and there Miller asked a new question.

“Should we go see Samuel?” The adventurer’s body had been worn and torn in the previous battle. He had yet to wake up but the Duke and Miller himself made sure to visit him regularly. Why?

Guilt.

The Duke and Miller forced him to face a dragon that in the end, he couldn’t defeat. Calder Lansworth, the Duke, was a manipulator at heart. But that meant he still had a heart.

Miller himself was less guilty, but somehow more concerned. At some point, Samuel become a reliable coworker that he grew somewhat attached to. Even so, he allowed the Duke to have him take on the role of dragon slayer.

It was a role no one was fit to occupy.

But if there were a fit, no one but Samuel Oakley could come to mind. The inevitably lessened the guilt but a heavy load was heavy even after removing a single gram. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀ​ꪶ​

“Let’s go” The Duke said. Miller got off the simple chair he sat on and started wheeling the Duke towards Samuel’s tents. The knights that guarded them followed closely behind them. Samuel was getting a lot of visitors.

On the other side of the spectrum, Brennan Bosque was being treated as a person that simply existed.

After being found in what could only be described as a surprisingly pristine state, the former king was taken to one of the nursing tents. He was kept there to rest for the night but soon after dispatched on the basis that he had no injuries.

Brennan found that to be unbelievably shocking. No injuries? After being dispatched he came up with a reason.

The monster.

There was a problem, however. Brennan had not heard from the monster in quite a while. At first, he had a conviction to expose the monster and makes its life miserable but after noticing the monster’s absence these thoughts faded.

This gave him room to worry about more important things. The whereabouts of his two sons.

He ran through the campgrounds and spoke to all the knights he could talk to about their state. Initially, he was turned down. The incompetent people did not realize he was the former king.

Once the misunderstanding was clear up he was assigned a couple of knights and was allowed to visit and care for his sons. Both the second and third prince had been successfully escorted out by the knights assigned to them so they only suffered light injuries.

Aaron Bosque, the second prince, was the one to suffer the most though. He was sickly and all the smoke from the burning capital caused his symptoms to worsen. He was on the road to recovery though and that was always good.

“Father” The voice of the third prince spoke.

“Yes?” Brennan turned and asked the boy laying on a soft mat.

“Are we going to be ok?” The young prince asked. The death of his eldest brother had scared him, especially after finding out about his evil intention. But the events that transgressed after his elder brother’s death took the cake when it came to scaring him.

The young boy asked a difficult question.

“We should be” As former royalty they had it good.

“No, I mean, what about second brother? I heard he worsened…” The prince, Alvin Bosque, was a normal child. Although he was already a C-class adventurer, he was just a child. He was understandably worried about his only remaining brother.

Brennan did not take long to give him an answer.

“He is fine. Actually, I heard he is feeling even better than before!” Brennan said with a gleeful smile. He wasn’t making this up, his second son was making a recovery! While Brennan didn’t know the reasons, he was happy.

Alvin returned a brilliant smile after hearing of this good news.

“That’s good!” He was young but he was technically no child by the standards of this world. The smile he shone nevertheless could only be said to contain the innocence of childhood.

Brennan cherished this smile for the first time in a long time. He finally realized something.

‘Adelio, I failed you’ As a king, he never got to cherish the smile of his eldest son. It sounded like an excuse but he never found the time to care for his son.

From young, Brennan was destined to be king, the idea that he needed to have a descendant was deeply ingrained in his mind. He had children for the sake of it, and although he did care for them, he never had the time nor thought to show it.

“I’ve failed you all, my children” Brennan whispered emotionally.

The idea of spending more time with his children from now on sounded rather attractive. As for the wishes he asked the monster… they were looking a bit silly now, weren’t they?

It took the capital burning to a crisp at the whims of a dragon for Brennan to realize that the kingdom he yearned for was nothing much.

Thus, as long as him and his children were allowed to have a peaceful life within whatever shape the capital took in the future, Brennan would be satisfied.

Even if W returned, Brennan was confident that he would not change his mind.

Fortunately for Brennan, W was no longer interested in his body. The issues it brought him were greater than he foresaw.

W decided to instead find a new host, maybe someone he could return to the dungeon with. Wasn’t it about time he checked in with Ed?

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