Dictator From Outer Space

Leobold lay in a comfortable private room in the healing center.

Outside, the maids were running around and setting things up because of the sudden arrival of the lord.

“Change the bed sheets right away… What? He’s already inside?”

“He needs absolute rest. I’ll take care of the treatment, so please lower your voices.”

The commotion subsided when Arma stepped in.

Leobold felt more at ease and placed his hand on the communication device that connected him to the Duke Prozhan.

It didn’t work well at first, but one of the knights appeared and soon connected him to the Duke Prozhan.

“What is it? It’s a mess here, so I’d appreciate it if you could make it brief.”

The Duke Prozhan’s attitude had improved slightly since Leobold inherited the title of Count.

Even if he was a noble from a small country, he couldn’t be rude to an Count.

Leobold spoke slowly.

“I have executed the beast that assassinated His Majesty, the Emperor of the Empire.”

The answer came after a long pause.

“What did you say? You executed the beast?”

“Yes. It was a wood elf who was riding the Empire’s ceremonial machine. He cut off his ears, but wood elves are different from humans, you know.”

“How did you… That’s amazing. So, you mean, the one who attacked His Majesty and broke through the imperial guard went all the way there? Do you have any evidence?”

“The evidence is the wrecked Goliath and the elf’s corpse. I’m keeping them in a cold temperature for now.”

“By Kranix…”

He seemed to be in disbelief.

The Duke Prozhan didn’t believe it, but he decided to assume that it was true for now, knowing that Count Vandus was not someone who would make up nonsense.

“So, if what you say is true, he went south right after attacking His Majesty?”

“It seems that he have passed through Galisto and Bagran. Thanks to that, the two kingdoms are in chaos now.”

“We are in the same situation. By the way, how is your body? You must have been injured badly if you fought that monster…”

“Fortunately, it was not that strong, thanks to the empire weakening him. I was hurt a lot, but it was not fatal.”

“…”

You killed that madman with only minor injuries?

The Duke Prozhan did not know the details of what happened in the palace, but he had heard that dozens of knights and magicians died on the spot.

Not only that, but the emperor’s residence was completely destroyed, and the lives of dozens of royals were lost as well.

It was a disaster that could be called the worst in the history of the Zaium Empire, but Count Vandus said he had eliminated the source of it.

‘No matter how tired and wounded he was, he was a monster that even a high knight could not match. He killed such a thing…’

Maybe the beast was badly injured while passing through Galisto and Bagran.

They had a fair number of skilled knights, even if they were not comparable to high knights.

‘He’s telling me this because he wants something from me…’

He asked cautiously.

“Is there anyone else who knows this information besides me?”

“No. It depends on your will whether it will stay that way or not.”

This is it.

The Duke Prozhan clenched his fist.

The assassination of the emperor would bring him a great benefit.

He would have to express his sorrow and anger for losing the emperor and facing the beast externally, but then he would have to enter the power struggle.

The weapon he could use then was the new soldier who killed the emperor.

There were so many witnesses that securing Goliath alone would be enough, but he had the corpse as well. 

It was more than he could ask for.

With that, he would gain a lot of power in the future. 

That was obvious.

His voice became very soft.

“Count Leobold, you said something to me when we met at the palace of Bagran before.”

“You said that talent is more important than wealth. I wonder if you still think so.”

“Fine. Let me be straightforward. What do you want in exchange for giving me the beast’s new soldier and Goliath?”

“It’s not a big deal. First of all, I want you to take Princess Eolin with you.”

“Why do you need her in this situation? I see. You are planning to swallow Bagran.”

“I prefer to call it stabilization. After all, Princess Eolin is destined to be your wife, isn’t she? It doesn’t have to be right now, but that also means it doesn’t matter if it is.”

With the power of Duke Prozhan, it would be possible.

Zaium was such a mess that no one would care.

But there was something that bothered him.

“I heard that the former king has a young daughter. Do you intend to marry her? What about Count Croitz?”

“I think you misunderstood something. I swore loyalty to the royal family of Bagran and that hasn’t changed. I plan to serve Princess Adela as a regent after supporting her.”

“I thought you were a brave warrior who charged ahead, but you turned out to be a schemer. You said you would get rid of all the nobles who sided with Princess Eolin…”

“Are there any other conditions?”

“I want Zaium to leave Galisto alone for a while.”

“Do you mean that you will attack Galisto?”

“Exactly, I have to make it happen.”

“This makes me feel like I’ve teamed up with someone I can’t handle.”

“A noble of a small country can’t compare to a great noble of the empire. And I have a leash on me.”

“Well, you were supposed to marry Count Croitz…”

Duke Prozhan fell into thought.

Actually, he didn’t care much about what happened to Galisto or anything like that, and that would be the same for Croitz.

It was much better to form a solid alliance with Count Vandus and enter the power struggle within Zaium.

His goal was to become a grand duke.

It was a position that only one person in the empire could have, and it was currently occupied by an incompetent royal.

His goal was to oust that royal and become a grand duke with an independent force.

He had no conflict with Count Croitz, who dreamed of being the commander-in-chief of the military.

Therefore, it was beneficial for them to join hands.

“We won’t be able to pay attention to Galisto for a while anyway. If anyone tries to intervene, Count Croitz and I will take responsibility and stop them.”

“That’s enough for me. I’ll send you what you need through Altamaha.”

“Did you make such a promise with Count Croitz too? That you would visit his territory sometime…”

“I did receive an invitation.”

“I hope you stop by my territory too. I know it’s not much, but I really want to invite you.”

“Well, I’m planning to have a wedding, so it’s hard to give you a definite answer.”

“You’re having your wedding there? I’m sorry about that.”

“But you won’t have much time to see me anyway, right?”

“That sounds nice. If the news of your attendance spreads, the whole empire’s nobles will go crazy. You are very popular, you know.”

His popularity would soar even higher if the rumor of him killing the beast that assassinated the emperor spread.

But Leobold’s voice was calm.

“Count Croitz will take care of the fence for me. Anyway, I’ll see you then.”

The conversation ended and Duke Prozhan put his hand on the communication device connected to Count Croitz.

He was curious about her reaction.

***

The eastern part of Astera continent plunged into chaos as the emperor of Zaium and several other royals from different countries died at once.

This was not an ordinary assassination.

Many countries were on the verge of collapse as their royal families were destroyed, and some also lost a lot of their military power by losing many knights.

As a result, many cases arose where they didn’t know what to do or how to deal with it when the day broke.

It was difficult to cope because many countries had lost most of their royals.

In the meantime, the voice of anger against the beast grew louder, but it was not very meaningful.

—Who is he anyway? He won’t die easily once we catch him!

—It must be Elvrande. They are the only ones who can sneak in powerful knights without our notice.

—Those damn elves…

—We have to take revenge, but how? Is revenge possible against Elvrande?

—Let’s focus on stabilizing our internal affairs first. We have to somehow restore our royal family.

Of course, internal affairs did not go well.

It was natural that all kinds of things would rush in when the pillar of power shook, but it collapsed completely.

The powerful nobles of each country began to raise their voices in support of the surviving royals, and assassinations also occurred.

The beast claimed to be an elf, but anyone could see that it was an inside job.

In the midst of this, the news spread that Zaium Empire had secured the beast’s new soldier.

It was under the name of Duke Prozhan, who was not included in the investigation.

“The beast used the standard Goliath of his country to hide his identity and damaged his body. But even if he cut off his ears, the unique body of an elf did not disappear. Here, we have the corpse and Goliath of the beast, come and spit on them! And remember who we were attacked by!”

The corpse of the beast was displayed in a transparent tube that kept it at low temperature, and so was Goliath.

The citizens of the imperial capital flocked to spit on the tube and Goliath.

“Look at the cut marks on his ears and his skinny face! He’s definitely an elf!”

“Let’s kill them! The only good elf is a dead elf!”

“Revenge for the ears!”

The voices of vengeance boiled, but the Zaium Empire was not in a position to act immediately.

There was a huge power vacuum as many of the imperial family, including the emperor, died.

There were so many corpses of the imperial family that they could not even hold a funeral.

In the meantime, it was natural that Duke Prozan gained power by securing the new weapon of the beast.

He was busy boasting about Count Vandus, who had finally killed the beast, with Count Croitz and others.

“Of course, it is clear that the high knights of our country drained his power. But the one who cut his throat at the end was Count Vandus.”

The nobles around him looked incredulous.

“How is that possible? I heard that even dozens of high knights could not match him.”

“Maybe they didn’t drain his power enough? Besides, I heard that Galisto and Bagran also suffered damage, so he must have consumed his power continuously.”

“He had an amazing knight in that small country… Wait, is he the one who captured Emil?”

Duke Prozan nodded awkwardly.

“That’s right. I punished him at that time to make him humble, but now I think I should give him a reward. It’s not an ordinary thing to survive from him.”

“Oh my, oh my. A knight who surpasses even high knights.”

“Is it true that he has no family and is alone? I heard that rumor.”

“It’s true. He made a lot of money from the floating continent and silver mines.”

“Oh! It was him.”

Duke Prozan did not say that Croitz would soon become a thorn in his side.

It was enough to inflate the expectations for Count Vandus and divert the attention of the nobles.

Count Croitz, who came up to the imperial road late, was bubbling with anger but said nothing.

He understood that this work was necessary.

As Duke Prozan’s followers increased, his influence naturally rose on the imperial road.

He could not compare with the archduke and several dukes, but it was also true that they could not ignore the duke.

It left a big impression on many nobles that he had secured the new weapon of the beast that assassinated the emperor.

In addition, there was a growing voice to call Count Vandus to the imperial road immediately.

―We have to hear from him directly about what happened at that time. It’s not helpful to investigate by leaning on an ogre’s leg.

―We want to do that too, but Bagran’s internal situation is not good. Many royals, including Bagran III, died, so they won’t have time for that.

―More than anything, the duke himself was injured. It’s not fatal, but he needs to rest for at least a few days, so it’s hard to call him.

―It’s a pity. It was an opportunity to give him an imperial title.

There was a huge difference in status between a title from a small kingdom like Bagran and an imperial title.

From that point of view, everyone thought it was unfortunate for Count Vandus, but it wasn’t.

He recovered from his wounds and prepared to go up to King Road Roseon by airship.

Next to him were Valgard, Zion, and Lucia, who returned from the floating continent.

“Duke Townzent… He dared to join hands with Princess Eolin.”

“Hmm, why don’t we just kill him? It wouldn’t be a big deal to assassinate him with your ship.”

“Let’s burn down Astera first? Let’s shoot them one by one and start.”

Leobold looked at them who wanted to kill first and start.

“It’s not a bad idea, but we need a process that people can recognize in order to take over King Road.”

“What recognition?”

“We need at least some justification. If someone who is not royal becomes king, there will be too many people to kill. It’s inefficient.”

Valgard stroked his chin and said hmm.

“I think we can just kill them all, but that’s your choice. By the way, who is Adela? I thought Eolin was the only princess.”

“She’s a 13-year-old little lady. Unlike Eolin, she has a calm personality.”

Zion smiled wickedly.

“Are you planning to marry her and swallow Bagran?”

“No, I’m not interested in Adela. I’ll raise her well and send her to a good place.”

“You plan to dominate Bagran as a regent until then. And you’ll weed out the lords who don’t see it.”

“It’ll be enough in a year.”

Valgard nodded.

“I understand. Just tell me who I have to kill.”

“He’ll pick a fight from Galisto, so I’ll leave it to you two then.”

Galisto was one of the few countries that did not suffer much damage from this incident.

The king died, but the succession was easy because a promising successor survived.

It seemed that the nobles did not have any other intentions and supported the successor.

They would be able to attack this side without any trouble.

They had a lot of emotions accumulated.

Leobold looked at the Altema that was landing at the anchorage.

“Let’s go see the princess. She’ll be waiting for us.”

In fact, Eolin hoped that Leobold would die in an accident while riding an airship.

Of course, that did not happen.

***

After Bagran III and Prince Ruad died, King Road Roseon was quite chaotic.

Fortunately, Eolin and Adela survived, but they had no succession rights.

If another great lord tripped over it, a civil war could break out at any time.

Duke Townzent, who decided to support Eolin, was most concerned about that part.

“We can’t let Vanduss get away with this. He’ll pick a fight somehow, so we have to concentrate power on Princess Eolin.”

He was inflated with the dream of marrying Princess Eolin under the pretext of protecting the royal family.

Eolin herself hated it, but it was not so strange in the eyes of the citizens of Roseon.

Anyway, Roseon was in a very chaotic situation due to the lack of power.

Eolin was the most likely next king, but she was planning to marry a foreign nobleman.

Some nobles clung to that point and Eolin could not answer.

She needed Duke Townzent’s power, but she did not want to marry him.

She could not give up Bagran and rely on Duke Prozan either.

While she could not do this or that, Duke Townzent received oaths of loyalty from Gashin and some nobles of King Road.

“If you recognize me as Princess Eolin’s husband, I will share power with you.”

Most of the nobles did not like Duke Townzent, but they had no other choice.

Anyway, he was a great lord of Bagran and he was single, so it was not a big problem to connect with Princess Eolin.

They all hoped that someone would end this chaos.

In the meantime, Duke Leobold Vanduss appeared on an airship.

He paid tribute to the tomb of the royal family under the wary eyes of Duke Townzent’s side and knelt down to Princess Adela, not Eolin.

“I’m sorry for your loss of your beloved family. From now on, leave everything to me.”

“Ba, back… I see you.”

For Adela, who had been relatively neglected by her sister, it was a great support that she could not help but open her eyes wide.

She was 13 years old, but she knew everything. She also had eyes.

She preferred the young and sturdy Count Vandus to the old and small Duke Townzent.

Besides, he had several titles.

—The first person to land on the floating continent.

—The one who prevented any deaths in the Sagris silver mine.

—The one who caught a large number of sardines and subdued the pirate fleet.

—The one who defeated the Atlantis and Callisto alliance and finally became a count.

Surprisingly, it was not known that he killed the culprit of this incident, because it was only a story that circulated within Zium.

It would be known in time, but everyone was busy and distracted to pay attention to it.

Anyway, Leopold took advantage of the gap when everyone’s eyes were on Eolin and succeeded in securing Princess Adela.

The 13-year-old princess developed a liking for the count who showed interest in her, not her sister, and so did the other nobles.

—It seems that Count Vandus has more power than Duke Townsend.

—The west is more developed than the east, but Count Vandus also has connections with the empire. He has a bright future.

—Isn’t his personal strength also overwhelming? He said he crushed the Earl of Atlantis and his knights by himself.

—He also subdued the pirate fleet by himself.

—But when did he get those wounds on his neck and shoulders? He was fine when he stopped by the royal road last time.

—Well…

As their suspicions deepened, Eolin began to act up with Earl Townsend.

“Why did you protect Adela and stand up for her? What does she have that you want?”

“I wonder about that too.”

To Duke Townsend’s eyes, the only contender for succession was Eolin.

It was unlikely that a younger sister would surpass her older sister and claim succession, and the perception of the influential people was the same.

Unless Adela had some special ability or support, that is.

But as Count Vandus stuck to her, the situation was going weirdly.

Eolin imagined him sticking to her instead, but it looked off.

“I’m going to be the next king. Me, Eolin Bagran! Then you should bow down and come to me properly. Why are you being stubborn? Do you want to push Adela?”

Her hysteria included the reason that Leopold gave Adela valuable jewelry and dresses.

Not only that, but he also attached maids to serve her, so Adela’s face was always smiling these days.

On the other hand, Eolin was miserable.

No matter how sweet Earl Townsend spoke to her, she couldn’t cheer up.

It was natural that she felt sick when a young and capable nobleman didn’t stick to her, but a stingy and sinister snake did instead.

In the meantime, she received a contact from Duke Prozhan.

Eolin quickly complained to him about Count Vandus’s misdeeds, but somehow his reaction was not satisfying.

“Is that so? I’m sorry for the princess, but Zium is not so quiet either…”

“Then please visit in person and show your dignity.”

“That’s what I intend to do. And while I’m at it, I want to take you with me.”

“…What?”

Eolin’s face froze in an instant.

She was so surprised that she stuttered.

“Y-you’re taking me with you? Why, why…?”

“It seems that the situation is such… There is a lot of public opinion that it is not good to leave my fiancée alone for too long. So I’m thinking of taking you to my territory.”

“N-no…”

“Then I’ll see you soon. Oh, please tell Count Vandus that his bravery in subduing the beast was really admirable. Bye.”

“…”

The conversation ended and Eolin stared blankly at the air with her mouth open.

Duke Prozhan was coming to take her?

And the beast of this incident was subdued by Count Vandus?

Something was going wrong.