After listening to King Edomari's explanation, the nobles and ministers gathered in the grand hall finally began to stir once more.
At first, they had all assumed this was nothing more than a handful of clueless enemy spies—hardly enough to affect the bigger picture.But once they heard the details from Edomari—the scale of the casualties, and the rapidly deteriorating situation at the front—their unease turned into genuine panic.
Do you think these ministers were worried about the lives of those soldiers?
Of course not.
What they truly feared was that if Marisu, the royal capital, were to fall, their own positions and wealth would inevitably be threatened.
Watching the nobles—who had originally marched in, full of righteous indignation, ready to demand answers—now reduced to restless, anxious wrecks, King Edomari felt his anger flare all over again.
In his eyes, these people were nothing but useless parasites.On normal days, they were more than happy to point fingers, scheme for power, and fight him tooth and nail over利益. But when the kingdom truly needed them, they were completely worthless.
"Your Majesty,"one noble stepped forward from the murmuring crowd and spoke toward the throne,"have we determined which country those who fought the Knight-Commander belong to? Perhaps we could dispatch an envoy to lodge a formal protest with their ruler. We could threaten them with war between our nations and demand that their forces immediately withdraw."
To everyone's surprise, Edomari actually considered the suggestion seriously—after thinking it over, he even decided it wasn't a bad idea.
(And yes, don't doubt it—the original version really portrays him as this stupid. Even after the so-called Demon Lord had wiped out his army, this man still wanted the enemy to kneel and apologize.)
In Edomari's mind, the Kingdom of Farumusu was one of the strongest powers in the region, boasting formidable commercial and military strength.If the enemy truly came from a neighboring nation, then surely—just to avoid a full-scale war—they would rein in their forces.
After all, as far as Edomari was concerned, Farumusu was invincible.Other nations had to give him face—simply because he was its king.
"Your Majesty,"a calm voice cut in,"I believe that plan will not work."
The speaker was Archbishop Rekishimu, who could no longer remain silent as he watched the king and nobles eagerly discuss sending envoys.
"At present, we are the ones at a disadvantage. And the battlefield is already at our capital, Marisu. If you were the ruler of that nation, would you really abandon such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?"
Rekishimu found the entire situation absurd.Their capital was on the verge of falling, yet they were still talking about threatening others. There had to be something seriously wrong with their heads.
"Then, Archbishop," Edomari asked stiffly, "do you have a better solution?"
The nobles—experts at embezzlement and power games—were utterly useless when it came to actual crisis management. With no constructive ideas from them, Edomari could only place his hopes on the man beside him.
"At this point," Rekishimu said gravely,"the only option left is to seek aid from neighboring kingdoms. If we are willing to concede certain interests, I believe there will still be nations willing to help us."
Edomari's expression immediately soured.
This wasn't the answer he wanted to hear.
Ask other countries for help?Even Farumusu's elite army couldn't hold the line—what good would reinforcements from weaker nations be?
As for nearby powers, the only one Edomari truly acknowledged was the Armed Kingdom of Doragon.But would they really come to help?
More likely, upon hearing that Farumusu's capital was in danger, Doragon would seize the chance to loot them while the fire was still burning.
And to convince any kingdom to send troops, Edomari would have to offer benefits substantial enough to tempt them. For a man as miserly and greedy as him, that pain felt like a knife cutting into his own flesh.
Just as Edomari reluctantly began considering Rekishimu's plan—comforting himself with the thought that he could always default on those promises later, since the smaller nations wouldn't dare challenge Farumusu anyway—another soldier burst into the hall.
Seeing the guard rush in without regard for protocol, the previously useless nobles immediately reverted to their aristocratic habits, loudly condemning the soldier's lack of decorum.
Unfortunately for them, the soldier—who once would have trembled before nobles—now looked at them with open disdain.
If not for the Knight-Commander's final order, he wouldn't have bothered with these pieces of trash at all. He would've fled long ago.
While Edomari and the ministers were still debating what price might entice neighboring kingdoms, the battlefield situation had already shifted—again.
War changed in an instant.Yet the king and his ministers contributed nothing, instead wasting time squabbling over trivialities.
When the soldier finally delivered his report, Edomari collapsed limply against his throne. The other ministers were so terrified that they sank to the floor.
According to the report—
Knight-Commander Fuken had been killed in battle.With the loss of his 『Commander』 ability, over thirty thousand soldiers immediately surrendered.
Farumusu's strongest mage, Razen, had been captured alive.The otherworlder Tachibana Kyōya had been cut down in a single strike by the enemy leader.
At this point, Marisu had completely fallen.
The soldier hadn't even come to deliver a battle report in the first place.He was only carrying out Fuken's final order—telling the king to flee while he still could.
Although the capital had fallen, Farumusu still had other major cities. If they escaped there, the enemy likely wouldn't pursue them further.
After all, the original cause of this disaster had truly been nothing more than a trivial conflict. The enemy probably hadn't intended to conquer the kingdom at the start.
To be honest, not even Fuken had expected things to turn out like this.
Even Ren Kuroda himself hadn't anticipated it.
It was like those old cultivation novels Ren used to read—where the protagonist merely offended some insignificant outer disciple, only for events to spiral out of control.
Beat the small fry, the bigger one appears.Beat the bigger one, the elder shows up.What began as a nobody's grudge eventually escalated into a blood feud with an entire sect—ending with its complete annihilation.
Ren used to think those plots were absurd.
Only after experiencing it himself did he realize such things could actually happen.
The only difference was that Ren was strong enough to skip the whole "Don't bully the poor young man" phase.
If there was a grudge, he settled it on the spot.
At first, he truly only wanted to teach Taguchi Shōgo and his two companions a lesson.But their arrogance—and their willingness to go straight for the kill—completely enraged him.
After dealing with the three otherworlders, another equally arrogant figure, Razen, jumped out and declared that if Ren didn't release them, he'd never leave the city alive.
As if that was something Ren could tolerate.
The founding emperor of Farumusu probably never imagined that the nation he built would one day face collapse—all because someone tried to beat up a little girl.
After relaying Fuken's final order, the soldier ignored everyone else and fled.
As for whether the king would punish him later—who cared anymore?
Frankly speaking, whether Edomari would even survive the day was anyone's guess.
In Farumusu's commercial district, the landscape had been completely erased by the fighting.
Buildings lay in ruins, streets reduced to rubble. Yet not a single corpse could be found.
Before the battle began, both Ren's side and Farumusu's forces had given civilians ample time to evacuate, so no ordinary residents were caught up in the destruction.
As for fallen soldiers, they had been dragged into underground nests by Spider Princess's summoned familiars. That was why the area was nothing but ruins—without the usual gruesome remnants of a battlefield.
Back in the palace, Edomari could no longer hear Archbishop Rekishimu's desperate advice.
He simply couldn't comprehend how the mighty Kingdom of Farumusu had fallen so far.
That very morning, he had been an unrivaled emperor.In less than half a day, he had become a ruler preparing to flee his own capital.
Most of the nobles had already left the palace to pack their valuables the moment they heard Marisu had fallen.
Those who remained fell into two categories:
Some planned to flee alongside the king, hoping to preserve their noble status.Others harbored darker thoughts—intending to defect to the conqueror of Marisu.
To nobles like them, it didn't matter who sat on the throne. As long as their wealth and status remained intact, everything else was irrelevant.
Edomari's fall simply meant another emperor would rise sooner or later.And the relationship between emperors and nobles was inseparable.
They didn't believe the occupier would wipe out the entire aristocracy and replace them wholesale.
"Ren-sama,"Spider Princess said with interest,"this palace is quite impressive. It's definitely grander than the headquarters we built ourselves at the 『Kidōin』."
Having inexplicably conquered Farumusu's capital, Spider Princess and the others suggested that Ren meet the kingdom's highest authority. That was why they had come to Marisu's royal palace.
Ren walked at the center, holding the little girl's hand, while Tengu, Amanojaku, and the others flanked him on both sides.
The moment they entered the gilded halls, the mountain-dwelling Amanojaku gasped like a country bumpkin, marveling loudly. He even thought that if their Kidōin headquarters looked like this, it would be unbelievably majestic.
When Ren and his group stepped into what had once been his palace, the vacant look in King Edomari's eyes finally regained some color—only to be replaced by boundless fury.
The enemy was shockingly young.
Edomari had never imagined that the one who annihilated Farumusu's fifty-thousand-strong army would be a man this young.
"How laughable," Edomari sneered bitterly."To think the mighty Kingdom of Farumusu would fall to a brat who hasn't even grown all his hair yet."
He glared at Ren, his voice trembling with hatred.
"Who are you, exactly? A general from some foreign kingdom? One of the western powers? An agent of the Church?"
"…Or are you," he spat,"part of a Demon King's faction?"