The witch thought I am a Demon God
Chapter 922 - 476: The True King and the Pseudo King_2

Chapter 922: Chapter 476: The True King and the Pseudo King_2

Jalen made decisive decisions, his gaze harboring a tinge of madness.

He turned to look at the most cunning old fox, the new Minister of Finance, who immediately put on an apologetic smile. "Your Majesty, how could we betray you to side with a traitorous scoundrel? Many of us here hold grudges against him. Even if we wanted to betray, we lack the means and path to do so."

Many in the audience had changes in their expressions, reminded of their betrayal to Ivita’s father, indeed holding grudges against Ivita himself—if they were to surrender directly, they might well be skinned alive, indeed they could not just yet pledge allegiance to a new lord.

They still needed some bargaining chips in their hands.

At this time, Minister of Defense Marcellino Bowman suddenly spoke to Jalen, "Your Majesty, for the sake of your safety, I think you should take most of the officials from the court and leave the Royal Capital, leaving behind some Generals you trust, like me, to resist the coming Ivita from the south."

"That way, no matter what happens, you will still have some leeway. You can call on the nobles from other parts of Alsace to continue the resistance against the Pseudo King Ivita."

"What do you think?"

The Alsace Chief Justice, also a high-rank Wizard responsible for the failure to create Dark Soul, Kulatos Pritzker, also spoke up, "I am also willing to stay in the King City to help the King deal with the Pseudo King once and for all. Please trust us, we or our fathers have blood feuds with Ivita, and at this point, it is a fight to the death. You being in a safe rear position allows us to fight with a peace of mind for you, to battle to the death with the Pseudo King Ivita."

Ronan Anderson, Minister of Intelligence and a master Ranger, who was a middle-aged half-Elf minister, then said to Jalen, "Your Majesty, please leave the King City immediately, gather troops in other cities to fight the Pseudo King!"

Jalen was deeply touched. Although he had been somewhat fierce in appearance, he now looked gratefully at the three ministers who had spoken. He knew that with these ministers, who held blood feuds with Ivita, standing by him, he had not yet lost.

"Very well, though my body leaves the King City, I will use Dragon Flame Law to aid you, I will always be with you."

"To all of you, and the families behind you, as long as you can help me through this hardship, your families will be respected by the generations of Alsace kings to come, forever enjoying honor and glory. This will become the ancestral instruction of the Alsace royal house!"

The ministers all showed smiles.

The reason they could hold positions in this Hall of Discussion was not only due to their individual capabilities but more importantly their family background and the resources their families represented.

Therefore, they were willing to do anything that could benefit their family’s interests.

Jalen regained his confidence and said to the ministers, "That Ivita only took advantage of a time difference, preventing us from assembling troops and recruiting high-level professionals in time. As long as you hold him back for me, I can quickly assemble resources, letting Ivita realize how tremendous the resources a King can have."

"The three ministers just now made sense. As a King, the son of a thousand gold pieces, I cannot take risks by staying in the King City any longer. I will leave all troops within the King City behind, with Minister of Defense Marcellino Bowman as Marshal of these troops, also the Chief Justice, Minister of Intelligence... all of you are Generals, I am counting on you to defend the King City well, waiting for my return leading the troops."

The ministers in the Hall of Discussion all paid their respects to him, expressing their loyalty, each one also emotionally denouncing the traitors.

That very afternoon, Jalen led one thousand Imperial Guards tasked with protecting the Emperor, as well as court ladies, musicians, dancers, the Queen, and a host of officers and porters, leaving the Royal Capital and heading to the largest city in the west of Alsace, Yodo City, which also happened to be the domain of the loyal Yodo Family.

Earl Yodo was a comrade-in-arms whom Jalen had met in his teenage years in the barracks, who thereafter followed him to achieve great things and was now his most capable assistant.

Had Earl Yodo not been so young, Jalen would have wanted to grant him a Marquis title, to allow the Yodo Family to develop faster within Alsace, becoming an even greater support to him.

Three days after Jalen left Royal Capital, Ivita led his troops to break through the suburbs outside the King City and surrounded Althas City.

Alsace still had an army of over five thousand people, with many professional soldiers among them. Moreover, they had temporarily mustered over three thousand civilian professionals from within the royal capital, many of whom were Great Knights.

It could be said that on paper, this was a respectable display of strength.

In addition, looming over the king city’s skies were the incarnations of Law: four-headed red dragons. For Ivita’s forces to take this city, they would have to pay a steep price—it might take a considerable length of time to overcome such fortifications.

On the city walls, Chief Justice Kulatos Pritzker, Minister of Intelligence Ronan Anderson, Defense Minister Marcellino Bowman, and other high-ranking officials from the Hall of Discussion stood with solemn expressions, gazing at Ivita’s army.

The four ancient red dragons addressed Ivita with a tone filled with hatred and mockery. "Lord Ivita, you’ve finally stopped skulking into the King City like a thief and now stand before me with an army at your back. Hahaha... but you’ve misjudged the military potential of a kingdom. No matter how you managed to corrupt my nobles before, now you find yourself at a loss against the King City."

"This city was built up step by step by your ancestors. The ramparts alone number five. Within the cluster of buildings are large furnaces filled with Dragon Flame, ready to unleash the largest scale of Dragon Flame you’ve ever seen. Here, the defenses are as solid as gold; the Dragon Flame will burn to ashes any enemy that comes close. You would have to fill the city with the bodies of your soldiers to breach this wall of flame. Do you truly wish to expend your troops as mere tools?"

Ivita’s eyes were cold. Behind him, the Two Souls Three Realms appeared, and a Thunder Dragon materialized in the sky. Dark clouds gathered densely above, and under the amplification of Two Souls Three Realms, the Thunder Dragon transformed into a thousands-of-meters-long thunder serpent with three pairs of wings and four sets of dragon horns. It inhaled clouds and exhaled mist, shooting lightning with its breath.

A giant lightning bolt struck the bodies of the four-headed red dragons. Ivita, observing the red dragons as they gradually healed themselves, said, "Now it’s you who dares not face me."

"Little mouse, you’ve made a grave mistake. As a king, once you voluntarily leave the Royal Capital during a civil conflict, do you think you’re still a king? Hahahaha..."

The voice of Jalen among the four-headed red dragons noticeably changed; he was really panicked. "Nonsense, a king is a king no matter where he is! Without the King City, I am still the king. Marcellino Bowman, command the archers to attack."

On the city walls, Marcellino Bowman looked up at the sky, at Ivita’s oppressive magic. His expression changed several times before he suddenly broke into laughter.

All the officials from the Hall of Discussion on the walls laughed with him.

The Chief Justice, the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Intelligence...

Marcellino Bowman addressed the flaming dragon above: "Is someone who has left the royal capital really still a king? We were extremely dissatisfied with you from the beginning. You kidnapped our wives and children, but in the end, they were well cared for by His Majesty Ivita."

"In the Hall of Discussion, you let crude soldiers wantonly insult the kingdom’s ministers, and we made you voluntarily give up the King City. Yet you still believed those words. You’re nowhere near deserving the title of king. There’s not much difference between you and your father; the only distinction is that you are younger, and perhaps slightly braver, although you do not even dare face our true Your Majesty."

Marcellino Bowman ordered his flag officer, "Give the command: all troops are to lay down their weapons and open the city gates to welcome our king, His Majesty Ivita Alsace, the God Chosen King by the God of All Things, into the royal capital."

He knelt on the spot in the direction of Ivita. "This is the welcome gift we present to our king."

With such a welcome gift, they became the original members supporting Ivita.

The shift in allegiance was indeed wondrous.

In the sky, one of the heads of the four-headed red dragon controlled by Jalen immediately withered, followed by a second head beginning to deteriorate.

The legitimacy of a reigning king who had left the King City was further diminished, especially in the midst of this civil war, where the boundary between the true king and the pseudo-king had begun to blur; the red dragons of Law would no longer offer their full support.

Jalen realized only now the grave mistake he had made; he had been outmaneuvered by those old and cunning families!