The Extra Strategist’s Royal Road Chapter 226
Swish!
From dawn, the rain that had been falling started turning into a downpour as daybreak approached.
While walking around the palace interior accompanied by his vassals, Joseph looked out the window and frowned.
“Is it true that Prime Minister Railand was attacked?”
“Yes, my lord. The prime minister’s office is in shambles, and the prime minister himself has disappeared.”
“To do such a thing! Brother Landis…!”
Prime Minister Railand was appointed by the former king and had been involved in state affairs for a remarkable 40 years.
He was one of the most senior statesmen. As such, Joseph could not recklessly do anything to him, and there was no need to.
The prime minister had declared political neutrality and affirmed that he would hand over state administration to the successor.
However, a recent issue had arisen. The prime minister suddenly urged the succession and proposed discussions and adjustments for determining the successor within 7 days, hinting that he would exert his influence at that meeting.
Joseph was flustered, but also thought it was a good opportunity. The situation had been stagnant, and above all, he was confident he could outmaneuver Landis in the discussions.
Landis preferred wielding the sword over books – a reckless person. Joseph did not think he would be overshadowed in the discussions by such a man.
‘So he killed the prime minister, knowing it would turn out this way! What a pitiful person!’
Regardless, this was a strong message from Prince Landis. Killing the prime minister meant he would not end the succession battle through peaceful means.
As events could unfold as early as today, Joseph was bustling about despite the early morning hour.
He suddenly remembered to ask his vassal.
“Come to think of it, wasn’t the prime minister being guarded by Luc?”
“Yes, the whereabouts of Lucretia Akasha is also unknown. Her guard’s insignia was found near the scene, so it seems she was also attacked.”
“What a fool. If she had followed me, she could have saved her life.”
“There is one thing that’s troubling me, my lord…”
“What is it?”
“There was intelligence that Princess Rosa was trying to ascend the throne by using prime minister Railand and the Akasha family. Isn’t the attack on the prime minister also in this context?”
“Nonsense. Rosa is not the kind of person to pull off such a thing.”
The place they were heading was the throne room where the royal seat was located.
Since the peaceful succession was no longer possible, the condition for victory was simple.
Completely occupy the palace and suppress the opposing forces to seize the throne.
For this purpose, both Joseph and Landis had been secretly infiltrating their forces into the palace. The spies Ash had infiltrated had also come in at this time.
“What’s the situation around the throne room?”
“The royal guards are guarding the door. There are no signs of Prince Landis attempting to enter.”
“How many royal guards are there? No, I should see it with my own eyes.”
As Joseph headed towards the entrance of the throne room, he fatefully encountered Landis, who had also come to the throne room with his entourage.
“Joseph…!”
“Brother.”
A malicious atmosphere passed between the two as their eyes met. The vassals looked ready to draw their swords at any moment.
Then, suddenly, Landis thundered.
“You scoundrel–!!”
At Landis’ roar, not only Joseph’s men, but even Landis’ own vassals flinched.
Landis, who was renowned as the strongest warrior in the kingdom, poured his aura into his shout, and his might was overwhelming.
“To attack the prime minister, have you lost your mind? Prime minister Railand was Father’s partner and closest friend! To think you killed him simply because you saw him as an obstacle! Ever since you dared to murder my brother Proud, I’ve known you’re a heartless wretch!”
Joseph was just dumbfounded.
“It was you who killed the prime minister, wasn’t it, Brother? You staged this because you thought you couldn’t beat me in the discussion two days from now.”
“Audacious wretch!”
“It is you who is audacious, Brother.” Joseph threatened Landis with a growl. “Please restrain yourself, Brother. This is a warning. If you cross the line and even touch Rosa, I may lose my reason. I don’t know how I’ll treat you after I ascend the throne.”
“That’s my line. If you try to harm Rosa, I’ll cut off your head in one stroke.”
It was clear the stage for dialogue had ended. Convinced of this, both sides naturally reached for the hilts of their weapons.
But just then, a breathless subordinate came running.
“What!? The palace gate has been attacked!”
“Is that true?”
Ash and Lucretia had led a force of 200 soldiers to attack the palace gate. Ash had apprehended and incapacitated all the palace guards, then vanished without a trace.
This led both Joseph and Landis to the same conclusion.
‘So Brother Landis has infiltrated forces into the palace! To settle this today!’
‘Joseph has sent in his forces! He’s trying to reach a conclusion today.’
Given the recent attack on the prime minister that morning, they could only think this way.
Realizing this, they hastily ended their confrontation. There was no time to linger here.
Joseph hurried back to his quarters in the palace to hold a meeting with his vassals.
“We must quickly bring in the forces outside to the palace! Convey this to Dudet outside!”
And it was the same for Landis. Landis was also trying to urgently infiltrate the palace with the forces he had prepared in the city.
This resulted in the troop forces encountering each other midway, causing a street battle. The result was that neither Joseph’s nor Landis’ forces were able to enter the palace.
* * *
After the attack, Ash, who was hiding his body, scoffed at the military forces of the two factions engaged in street battles.
On the other hand, Lucretia’s eyes were wide open.
“S-surely Wade didn’t expect this to happen and order the attack on the main gate?”
“Of course he did. Who do you think he is? Ah, you don’t know Luc.”
Lucretia was a little upset by Ash’s informal speech, but somehow endured it.
“I’ve heard he’s a capable general.”
“From whom?”
“I heard it from him. And later from Meissen and Ms. Bisketa as well. There are so many exaggerated stories, like how he used the plague to annihilate tens of thousands of troops, or how he killed the opposing general in the first war…”
“It’s not an exaggeration. That’s all true. I even tried to take him on and got beaten.”
“You, you mean…?”
“I wasn’t even a match for him. I mean, I didn’t face him directly, but still. He’s several moves ahead of me as a general.”
Lucretia had felt Ash’s command ability to some extent through the recent attack operation. So to hear Ash speak so humbly was surprising.
“They say the mercenary Wade caused quite a stir.”
“Hmm…”
Now Lucretia had no choice but to believe it. She wanted to believe it. Because that was the only way they could win this succession war.
“But why isn’t Wade sending his troops in? Isn’t now the best time to push our troops into the palace while they are engaged in battle?”
“That’s true, but… It seems he thinks there is a third force.”
“A third force…?”
“I mean the force that attacked you, specifically Landis or Joseph.”
“…!”
Luc thought the force that attacked her was either Landis or Joseph.
“If not them, then…?”
“I don’t know the details either. Anyway, we’ll stab their flank when that third force tries to enter the palace.”
“So that’s why you’re ambushing here!”
“Exactly. To attack simultaneously from both sides and cut off their waist. Then once they’re in disarray, advance into the palace. That’s Ars’ instruction.”
Gulp! Luc shuddered as a chill ran down her spine.
This was a more meticulous plan than she had imagined.
She never could have dreamed that Ars, who was so carefree just playing with the baby earlier, had calculated this far ahead.
Luc sensed victory. This plan didn’t seem likely to fail.
However, Ash’s expression was not bright. When Luc asked him about it, Ash clicked his tongue.
“Whether the plan succeeds or not doesn’t really depend on us.”
“What do you mean…?”
“If we can’t retake that Princess Rosa, it’ll be meaningless. So it depends on them doing their part…”
Rumbling, bang! The downpour was intensifying. Ash looked worriedly towards the palace.
Then, as if he had decided something, he nodded.
It was just past 5 am, well past dawn, but the day was still dark due to the ominous clouds and heavy rain.
Rinoa’s group, who were carrying out the operation to rescue Princess Rosa, was stealthily searching the palace.
“This is the place.”
Erina, who had experience working as a maid in the palace, skillfully guided the group. Their primary destination was Princess Rosa’s room.
If Rosa had been there, it would have made things easier, but her presence could not be found in the room.
Rinoa bit her lip.
“This is getting complicated.”
If the plan was just to detain Princess Rosa, they could have just left her in the room. The fact that they kidnapped her means they want to use her to uncover something.
“They’re probably trying to dig up the mastermind behind this.”
Anduha lightly searched the room while speaking.
“We can’t underestimate Princess Rosa’s loose tongue, but she’s still a delicate woman. If tortured, she won’t be able to endure. Or if there’s a dark mage on the other side, they might use mental magic. In other words, our Branford family’s involvement will soon be revealed. If something goes wrong…”
The Branford family could be wiped out.
Rinoa scolded Anduha for his ominous talk.
“That’s why Wade immediately started the operation. And even those lawless people won’t recklessly harm Princess Rosa.”
On the other hand, the prime minister, Railand is different. That’s why Ars didn’t highly regard the prime minister chances of survival.
“Anyway, since the princess is not here, we’ll have to search elsewhere.”
Under Rinoa’s leadership, the search for Princess Rosa progressed.
In the process, they had to avoid being spotted not only by Joseph and Landis’ group, but also the third force that Ars had mentioned, so the search could not be said to be smooth.
When there was no progress in the search even after 6 am, Rinoa let out an anxious sigh.
“Erina, don’t you have any other ideas? Like a hidden secret room or something?”
“A secret room…”
Erina’s eyes sparkled.
“There is one place that comes to mind.”
“Where?”
“It’s a story from when I was teleported to the palace in the past…”
At first, Erina was imprisoned in the dungeon, suspected of being a spy. But in order to get out of the dungeon, she claimed that she was a maid working in the palace, and was able to get out by verifying this fact.
“There was a room where I was detained. Unlike other rooms, it had fewer pieces of furniture. But after I started working as a maid, I don’t remember seeing that room again.”
“It must have been a room for detaining important figures… The path to it would have been made difficult to access.”
Rinoa closed her eyes tight and tried to recall the structure of the palace.
If they had a blueprint of the palace, they could have figured it out quickly, but of course there was no such thing as a blueprint of the palace.
“…Could it be the one you’re talking about?”
Rinoa herself had experience being detained in the palace. After the Tragedy of the Forest of Lament, she had been confined in the palace for nearly a month.
Rinoa nodded as she recalled the rooms she had stayed in at the time.
“I remember now. Follow me.”
To get to that room, they had to climb a separate staircase. It was a secluded area within the palace, one might say.
Coincidentally, this area did not belong to either Joseph’s or Landis’ faction.
As Rinoa was hurrying towards that place, she was stopped by Elena grabbing her hand.
“Why are you-“
“Shh, there are people up ahead. Two, three… They are all quite skilled.”
“Then the princess is most likely there. We’re running out of time. Can we force our way through?”
“…”
Elena took a deep breath after assessing the enemy’s power.
Individually, they were weaker than her, but if the two of them attacked together, it would be difficult to easily overcome them. And if there were three, it would be even more impossible.
‘I’ll take out one with the first surprise attack, and then face the other two to buy time to rescue the princess.’
Having reached this conclusion, Elena nodded.
It meant for Rinoa to search the room while she created an opening.
“Then I’ll go.”
Thud, thud! Elena charged, stomping the floor. The unaware targets were taken aback by Elena’s sudden ambush.
“Ah!”
“Wha-!?”
The man who became Elena’s first target hastily tried to defend himself with a weapon, but he was too late.
Thud, thud, thud! His head was defended, but he took fatal blows to his heart and abdomen.
‘I’ve taken one down!’
Elena turned her attention to the remaining two.
‘Good, they can search while they’re distracted…’
But at that moment, she felt a thick murderous aura behind her back.
Whoosh! A halberd came rushing.
“What…!?”
Elena hurriedly turned her body, but she couldn’t dodge the attack in time and was severely cut near her collarbone.
“Kugh!”
Elena’s eyes widened in shock.
‘That can’t be! I was sure I pierced his heart…’
The man whose heart she had supposedly pierced swung the halberd. And to make matters worse, his wound was recovering rapidly.
“Hahaha! To think you could pierce my heart in a single blow. The outside world really isn’t as boring as I thought.”
The wound completely healed.
The man let out a sinister laugh.
“A spearman, are you? Hmph, you must be using it together with a sword, just like me.”
“…!”
That’s when Erina realized who the opponent was.
‘It’s that immortal man who fought against Lord Al!’
It was the terrifying knight Cuthbert, who had betrayed the Alliance and joined forces with the dark mages, standing in their way.
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