Emperor of Steel

Chapter 437: Into Brandon 1

The war between the Rakan estate and the Milton Kingdom ended with the victory on the Rakan side.

And in the next few days, the news had spread throughout the Milton Kingdom.

Luke too encouraged the spread of rumors through Argos and other information guilds.

“Marquis Luke is driving his army and coming into Brandon?”

“The nobles including Count Lao have surrendered and are marching alongside the Marquis, the new king of Milton.”

“He was always next to the king, why is he with the enemy? I don’t get it, why did he do that?”

“Well, it was said that King Mayers was the one who killed Count Bazzo. And the Count’s ghost appeared before the king and the guard every night, complaining about the unfair killing.”

“Damn, then this war had no reason.”

“And he made his nation look like this for a war without any justification…”

The people of Milton Kingdom chewed on Mayers, who just started the war without any cause.

Although he was dead, it still was a tremendous disrespect for the former King, however, no one was talking back to them.

What was weirder was that the monsters who were making a fuss all over the nation had stopped and retreated at the end of the war.

For that, a few priests said that the riots and fuss of the monsters was the punishment for Mayers who started a war.

In the end, the monsters disappeared, and the dizzying stability of the nation began to stabilize.

The bandits were wiped out as the troops who were fighting the monsters have returned, and the riots slowly began to subside.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

A week after the war, the troops of Rakan led by Luke entered Brandon.

On his way there, Luke hadn’t faced any resistance.

There was no power left in the Milton Kingdom to fight the Rakan army.

On top of that, Luke has entered Brandon with powerful nobles of the Milton Kingdom like Marquis Volant and the Gram brothers.

On their way to Brandon, many nobles surrendered after hearing to the lords above them.

The nobles who initially disliked the war responded normally to the subjugation, and they weren’t ready to lose their breath when they were being given their own estates.

“The royal road is bloodless.”

As Luke mumbled to himself, Philip responded as if he had been waiting for it.

“Oh, you mean was there no one loyal enough to fight for death?”

“Why do you think there was none? I heard that it had been cleaned up before we got here.”

Viscount Mager and his guards who were standing on the royal road didn’t know the truth about the king and were ready to attack Luke.

Well, he did hear the rumors, but he wasn’t ready to believe them.

Rather, he thought of it to be a rumor that Luke had spread to take over the kingdom.

“They all shut the gates of Brandon and were to battle until the end. However, they were suppressed and destroyed by the anti-war groups with the help of Count Malcom, the Minister of Home Affairs.”

“That’s…”

Philip’s expression turned bitter looking at the royal road as soon as he heard Luke said that.

The commanders and the residents of the city of Brandon were all uneasy looking at the soldiers and knights of Rakan march into their city with a proud expression on their faces.

It was good that the war had ended them, but they couldn’t be sure how the new ruler would treat them.

“It looks like the atmosphere in here isn’t as the time when we came to by the Gigant.”

At Philip’s words, Luke nodded his head noticing it.

“The expressions of their faces are dark.”

Most of the shops were closed, and there were signs of fire used in the battle.

Residents were feeling unsteady and struggling with anxiety.

The people didn’t seem to have eaten well and most of them were lean and sick.

In addition, many young men had been conscripted to war for the monster subjugation, so the young people were barely seen on the road.

The bright and vibrant appearance of Brandon which was alive till a few years back had faded.

‘Why did you have to make such a nation enter the fight and take my land? … That Mayers jerk, he really was pathetic.’

Even then, Mayers was still someone superior in political power and management.

But with the turbulent times he had seen, it seemed like Mayers turned into someone not much different from the other greedy nobles.

But seeing the nation in its current state, it could be said that it was much worse than it should have been.

‘Excessive greed leads to loss of reason, tossing oneself into the pit of corruption and at the same time, will make people around unhappy. This is something I need to keep in mind and be aware of.’

While Luke was trying to understand all that, he and his army reached the palace.

“Woah!!! Long Live Marquis Luke!”

“The name of Rakan, shine forever!”

A group of people gathered at the front of the royal palace.

They were the nobles who were on the royal road when Luke began his march, they welcomed Luke with happiness.

Like any person who would be sensitive to power, they brought out their relatives and showed them Luke, the new ruler.

“Marquis! Congratulations on becoming the ruler of Milton.”

A middle-aged noble who had mustache appeared as the representative for the group and bowed.

“You are?”

At the question of Luke, the middle-aged noble was flustered.

“I am Count Malcom. The minister of Home Affairs of the Milton Kingdom.”

“Ah, you are Malcom?”

Count Malcom, the Minister of Home Affairs, had a higher rank and status when compared to Viscount Mager, however, he wasn’t in the good graces of Mayers.

The reason was that he used to change his positions quite frequently in the past.

At first he was under Duke Butler, and after going to Nemesis, he got under Marquis Cavanill, and after the Marquis got assassinated he came under Mayers.

And as a result, even after the founding, he wasn’t able to gain much power.

Even when Mayers was going ahead for war, he had entrusted the royal town to Mager and not Malcom.

He was treated like that, but he managed to be a representative for that day.

‘I need to decorate Elina well and place her in the Marquis’s room. It is only a matter of time since Elina holds a child of the Marquis who has no heir.’

Count Malcom was thinking to send his youngest daughter to Luke. It was because he didn’t know that Luke already had someone in his heart.

Well, there was no reason for him to know.

He thought that being a ruler, the Marquis knew that needing an heir was much important than chasing a beloved.

Luke spoke to Malcom who was having weird thoughts in his head.

“You wiped out the men of Viscount Mager and his guards who were ready to fight on the royal road?”

“Yes, I took charge and arranged the killing of them.”

“And you killed the Milton family, right?”

“T, that is right.”

When Luke’s expression didn’t seem to be as great as he expected, Count Malcom started to doubt. He knew that something had gone wrong.

‘What? Did I do something wrong?’

Without trying to figure out, he spoke in a hurry.

“Marquis, the nobles who have followed me have prepared for a grand dinner at the banquet hall. People go in and enjoy with the commander who worked… Kuak!”

Stopping halfway from his words, Count Malcom was bent ahead.

And Luke kicked him right in his stomach.

Maybe the pain was too great, Malcom grabbed his stomach and rolled on the ground.

Even after seeing him in pain, Luke snarled at the man by stepping on his head.

“Who asked you to do that?”

“I, I just didn’t want Marquis to dirty his hands for that… uak!”

“Not for me, but because of your greed. Did you think that I didn’t realize that you were the one who made the people rebel?”

Luke had heard the story from his Argos agents who had infiltrated the Brandon city.

Some of the nobles who supported the anti-war provoked people who were dissatisfied with the draft and revolted.

As a result, Luke knew that some parts of Brandon were destroyed and plundered and he saw the damage the residents took.

In fact, the chaos of Milton could be linked to Luke, who was the one who pushed in the monsters in huge numbers.

However, that was only to disperse the power of the Milton Kingdom and not to cause pain to powerless people.

However, Count Malcom and his family, rather than trying to rectify the confusion, instigated people for their own political interests.

“Put Malcom in the prison. And arrest everyone who was on his side!”

At Luke’s orders, Malcom and his nobles turned white.

“T, that is a misunderstanding. We were only trying to help out Marquis!”

“Sire, there was no way us nobles would to this for ourselves! Please reconsider!”

Nobles who were getting dragged yelled and yelled, however, Luke didn’t even spare them a glance.

“That was good. Bats like those don’t help in building the kingdom at all.”

“That is true. No matter how much you decide to embrace the Milton Kingdom, rotten ones need to be separated.”

Rogers and Philip supported Luke’s decision.

Count Lao and the recently surrounded nobles pretended to not even see when they saw Malcom attend Luke.

It was because they were displeased with those men.

Yet, when they saw the men dragging them away, they felt a little cheerfulness and anxiety. They wondered if they too would be wiped out because of such cases.

However, Luke was the one who held all their lifeline, so no one even dared to ask.

“The dinner is canceled. Distribute the food to the poor outside the palace.”

“Understood, Sire.”

For the sake of his own benefit, Luke had taken away the betrayers and walked into the royal palace with a sense of pride.

And with a frightening pace, he began to calm the Milton Kingdom.