Knights and Magic Wand
Chapter 469 - 469 219 Actions from All Parties

469: Chapter 219 Actions from All Parties 469: Chapter 219 Actions from All Parties “…You must help me defeat Ablo, you must fulfill your promise.” Caso clenched the armrest of the chair, gritting his teeth.

He came in person, but did not encounter the expected humiliation.

Lydwen still gave him a chair in the military tent, speaking with him as a sovereign.

However, Lydwen’s courtesy to a king ended there.

His sharp green eyes looked at the young man in front of him: “Nothing is a must; I’ve never given you any promises.”

“I have handed over the mountain pass for you to freely enter and exit the King’s Domain, allowing the Orland army to step into the forbidden land untouched for centuries; isn’t that enough?” Caso questioned.

The Orland Monarch was unmoved: “Yes, now that magnificent pass belongs to me, but it was just the price for meeting you, not enough for me to spend Orland blood to keep your throne.”

“But I’ve given everything—my dignity, my submission, and now even my life is in your hands.

What more do you want?” Caso said excitedly.

Lydwen shook his head, unfazed by this hollow display: “Your dignity is worthless to me.

But you still have a great city, soldiers to defend it, loyal Forbidden Guards, residents in the city, food, and wealth.

Do you think you can sit in the Royal Palace while I fight bloody battles with your uncle?”

Caso understood and asked solemnly, “You want my army?

How many?”

“All of it…

all the palace Forbidden Guards, plus at least four thousand soldiers, to leave the city and accept deployment.

My warriors will take over your Royal City.” Lydwen replied.

“Impossible!!

You might as well kill me now!” Caso shouted angrily.

“What use is killing you?”

Lydwen waved, and a guard promptly handed Ablo’s secret letter to Caso.

“You can refuse me, then I’ll just accept your uncle’s proposal.”

The young new King of Kantadar snatched the letter, quickly scanning its content.

He looked up with a sarcastic cold smile: “You believe my uncle’s nonsense?”

Lydwen was nonchalant: “No, but so what?

By retreating from the mountain pass and avoiding this needless bloodshed, I save countless precious lives from both sides.

At that time, Orland can still use those warriors to claim everything it has already won, using Ustato Mountain as the boundary to delineate new northern and southern territories.”

…Just devouring large swathes of land from the Kantadar North had already stretched the Orland lords to their limits; no matter how big their appetite, they couldn’t digest it all quickly.

This sudden large-scale war had been raging for over two months, with remarkable strain due to insufficient preparation and supplies.

Even if they wanted to use war to sustain war, the Kantadar populace, already ravaged by Aviout’s eastern expedition last year, could not bear more.

This southern expedition was intended to alleviate internal political pressure by conquering new lands.

If the new land turned into scorched earth, it would be a waste.

It wasn’t for this unexpected opportunity that Lydwen already considered stabilizing the current situation quickly.

A silent atmosphere permeated the military tent.

He did not rush this young king desperate for help, knowing that a gambler who had already lost ninety percent of his wealth would eventually put the last chips on the table.

…Finally, the new King of Kantadar succumbed.

Caso made the final concession, having no other choice.

Orland might allow him to retain his throne for easier governance and to promote the effective division of the Southern Kingdom.

But once Ablo breached the Royal City, every bloodline related to him and his father, all family members would be eradicated without a trace.

Agreeing to gather all troops to leave the city and accept command, Caso rose and departed.

Lydwen watched his back and said once more: “Rest assured, once my warriors take over the city, they will not step into the Royal Palace, and your family will be treated with courtesy.

I want the submission of the Kantadar Royal Court, not a bunch of worthless slaves.”

“…” Caso stopped his steps, turned back, and looked at the Old Dragon who preserved his last shred of dignity, saying solemnly: “I only wish you to keep your word.”

Once the new King of Kantadar left the tent, Lydwen’s attendant couldn’t help but ask the king: “…Are you just letting him return, Your Majesty?”

“If I don’t let him go, should I keep him here to waste my military supplies?” Lydwen was indifferent.

“I trust there are probably several Kantadar nobles in the city who prefer aligning with Ablo over Caso and us.

Letting Caso live will help manage the courtiers in that vast Royal City.

For now, all I want is to control this Royal City without a bloodshed….”

However, even controlling the Kantadar Royal Court, Lydwen did not plan to fight the Duke Ablo to the end.

No matter if his army could defeat the opponent, there was no need to help this kid Caso quell a rebellion.

Truly wanting to eliminate Ablo, who claimed to lead an army of hundred thousand, would turn this war into a quagmire, regardless of how inflated that army might be.

By maintaining Kantadar’s future division, keeping hold of the Southern King’s legal bloodline, and indirectly integrating the Ustato Kingdom into control, the situation would be just right.

But that Duke Ablo, who instigated the civil war, certainly wouldn’t obediently cooperate.

Only by taking advantage of the current southern expedition’s momentum, with a victory, can one make the other pay a bloody price and retreat knowing the severity.

Seeing Caso’s back disappearing at the end of the camp path, Lydwen couldn’t help but harbor ambitions for a future full domination over the Southern Land.

…He would become the Orland Monarch to whom the Southern King bowed.

He suddenly recalled ancient texts well-preserved by the Drakemar family, depicting ancestral times, especially the King of Kings who made all tribes submit, ruling above kings over the peoples of the continent.

old term, “Pope.”

…Also, the Felu language’s ancient term for “Emperor.”

Thinking even about the founder, the Dusk Knight who established Klonia, had to serve an ultimate authority.

This unexplainable excitement left Lydwen struggling for a while to suppress the long-dormant ambition.

Shaking his head, he knew it was too remote and unrealistic.

In his lifetime, seizing the opportunity now to dismantle the threats of the Southern Kingdom was enough to compare him to that ancient master who once unified the North.

People would commemorate him for the great achievement of defeating Kantadar, no longer caring about…

snatching a cousin’s throne.

In his reflections, it felt as if he had put down a burden carried for many years, leaving Lydwen in high spirits, and as the generals gathered for war council, he entrusted the task of overtaking the Kantadar Royal City to the most trusted troops.

While arranging the deployment of his army, a Forbidden Guard reported from outside the tent that another group of envoys was eager to seek an audience.

Lydwen paused the discussion, lifting his gaze from the makeshift sand table, feeling that even in Royal Capital Oran, it wasn’t as bustling as these few days at the front.

First, the Thorny Flower lords sought an audience, then Ablo’s secret envoy, and just after seeing the new King of Kantadar, where did yet another group of envoys come from?

“Where are they from?” Lydwen asked.

“…Those Knights who landed on griffins outside the camp are dressed in the attire of the Holy Sun Church, claiming to be from the Dinexion Kingdom, representing the Holy Court Throne, and on a mission across the kingdoms.” The Forbidden Guard replied.

“Holy Sun Church…?” Lydwen was surprised.

Although Orland bordered both the Seryan and Dinexion, the two Holy Sun Church Kingdoms, with relations not cold, Orland’s interaction with the Church over the years, apart from limited border trade, was scarce.

Especially since historically witnessing how the Holy Sun Church stripped power from the Dinexion Royal Family, the past Northern Kings remained particularly wary of the vast religion that controlled the faith of ninety percent of the Felu people.

The Kingdom continuously suppressed the spread of the Holy Sun Faith, both openly and covertly.

As a result, to this day, apart from a few eastern border trade areas and some nobles, there are still few Holy Sun believers in Orland.

Felu traditional ancestor worship and ancient Felu deities’ worship remain mainstream.

Regarding the Church’s myth of the Holy Prophet, the embodiment of the Holy Sun…

Although not wanting to offend the strong Church within the Felu nations, the successive Orland Monarchs, through the ancient texts passed down in Oran Palace for millennia, had always been indifferent to the Church’s myth.