He's in Love with the Devil.

Chapter 28: Glory

Before meeting the professionals the Duke of Buckingham had found for the King, the King met with another man.

That was General Edmund of Angers.

The Anglesey state was instrumental in making the king's plan work so well this time. After the coronation, they were ordered by the king to sweep through Metzl, taking out what remained of the Archduke of Glace's inner circle.

Of course, there's no such thing as a free meal.

It was not out of loyalty that the Angles were willing to do so much to put down the rebellion.

The king and the Angels had reached a cooperation.

"Thanks to the Holy Lord's blessing, I got away with accomplishing what you commanded, Your Majesty."

General Edmund humbly bowed to the king, his mind was still a bit hesitant at this point.

Because the next moment was the time to test the result of their Angles' great gamble.

"It is I who should say thank you, sir."

The young king held a thick book in his hands, and General Edmund scanned it as he entered, realizing that it was a codex on theology and lore. The king closed the heavy, yellowed book and spoke gently to General Edmund.

But General Edmund, who had seen how the king had smiled and spoken softly to a group of nobles, did not dare to take the king's gentleness seriously.

In fact, he was even more nervous.

"No need to be nervous, General." The king read his mood and said briskly, "You and your soldiers have done a fine job this time, perhaps you would like to bring back a beautiful Iron Rose to the mountains of Angell? May the friendship between House Rosebud and House Llewellyn bloom forever."

General Edmund's heart dropped when he heard the king say that.

He revealed a joyful smile.

The day before yesterday, before the new King's party was given a piece of paper to fill in the amount themselves, the royalists who wore the Iron Rose were exempted from the inheritance tax they had to pay before, and each of them was given other different rewards, and finally the King himself presented them with the new Order of the Iron Rose.

Now, when the king said that, it meant that he intended to fulfill his promise.

"Look at this."

The king picked up a treaty that had been drawn up long ago from a side desk and handed it to General Edmund.

General Edmund took it with both hands and quickly flipped through it, and the smile on his face couldn't help but grow.

The king observed his reaction, and in his heart, he had a clearer judgment of Engel's current situation - it looked a bit worse than he had expected.

"A year's worth of tariffs in Angell couldn't afford a single button on King Rogaland's sleeve" was a joke to others, but a deep scar to the people of Angell.

For they were indeed too poor.

Especially after the passage of the penal code that lowered the Anglesey nation in 1134, this situation became more and more serious. The Angell's mountainous and swampy nature inherently limited their agricultural development, and after the passage of the Criminal Code of 1134, the Angell not only had a low status, but also lost their eligibility to trade with the Rogaland border.

The bazaars on the border were completely withdrawn and replaced by military defense castles, and the royal house of Rogaland drew a long invisible, but real, blockade on the Angell border.

They were trapped in the mountains.

For three hundred years, the Angles had tried to break out of this blockade line by force, but the harsh natural conditions of the Angles had a very low population density, and even if they achieved a momentary victory with their military valor, they would quickly be pushed back. Three hundred years was enough time for something to become a habit.

For example, people's subconscious mentality of rejecting and disparaging the Angles.

They were considered barbarians.

This time, the King of Engel sent General Edmund, who knew the etiquette of Rogaland, for this reason. He tried to show it to the people:

Angell was not a land of mediocrity.

The king is baiting Angell where it hurts.

He had learned something recent about Engel from memory.

Over the past few years, Engel's rebellious behavior still existed, but in times of forceful conflict, their slaughter of villages was greatly reduced, and their treatment of prisoners of war was not directly brutalized like in the past, but instead they chose to engage in a ransom deal with Rogaland. This was actually a signal displayed by Engel.

They were seeking the readmission of civilized society.

But before that, the Roglans didn't care about these things at all.

The king was willing to give the Angles that chance.

If the Angles send their elite soldiers to assist the King in quelling this rebellion, then the commercial doors of the border will be reopened for the Angles, and the Angle's forests will be able to appear on the market once again, and in the meantime they can renegotiate the penal code of 1134.

"...... The thirty-six states of Rogaland are all one, and under the glory of the Holy Lord, the people of Rogaland, though contentious, are at last as brothers ......"

These were the exact words of the King's letter.

When necessary, the king didn't mind doing something in the name of the Holy Lord that would benefit himself.

The Knight Commander who was responsible for delivering the letter was undoubtedly a strong proof that he was a member of the Angell royal family, but the king accepted him and appointed him as his extremely important sworn Knight Commander.

The King of Angell hesitated for half a day before finally looking at the sworn Knight Commander and making up his mind to join this great gamble.

Here, I must once again thank Grand Duke Grice.

--In the past few decades, he was known to be tough on the Angles in order to earn a good reputation.

The King now felt that Archduke Grice was relatable, and look how much he had helped him without realizing it.

Watching General Edmund's joyful departure, the King thoughtfully summoned his sworn Knight Commander.

After some inquiries, the king confirmed his suspicions.

Angell's situation this year was indeed terrible, they had encountered a terrible severe cold ...... If the king hadn't sent that letter, then I'm afraid that they would have ended up voluntarily bowing down to the royal family of Rogaland.

"A natural disaster."

The king seemed to say with pity.

He knew what he had to do after that.

........................

Before General Edmund left Metzl with the Concordat, he left half of his soldiers behind for the king as a demonstration of Engel's sincerity.

Shortly after he left, the king met the man he wanted to see.

A Knight Commander Templar from the House of Rose - in the past tense, of course.

This former Knight Commander of the Templars had left the Holy Court and returned to Rogaland three years ago in the name of "having suffered serious injuries that could not be remedied while fighting for the Holy Lord, I wished to die on Rogaland's soil". From what the Duke of Buckingham said, it seemed that he had been in charge of driving away the dark creatures around Metzel all these years.

"You don't look like you're dying of serious injuries."

The king surveyed the former Knight Commander of the Templars in front of him with interest.

"Of course, Your Majesty." The former Templar seemed to have a good impression of the infamous king for a long time, and he quickly squeezed his eyes towards the king and replied, "You can't expect a true member of the Rosebud family to be devoted and harbor loyalty to the Holy Court, can you?"

"Then I suppose you must have a great distaste for Archduke Grice?"

The king asked with a smile.

"If that kind of fool who wags his tail at the Holy Court ends up winning in a despicable way, then I will cut off his head and throw it into the abyssal sea even if it is against the law."

The former Knight Commander of the Templars replied, standing up straight, the murderous intent in his tone indicating that this was not a curt remark, but rather a conviction he held on to.

The king understood a little.

It seemed as if the feud between the Rosebuds and the Holy Court did not start here in Pourland, but had been going on for a long time.

"What is going against the law?"

The king asked without moving.

"Well ......," the former Knight Commander of the Templars showed a hesitant look, "Please forgive me for hiding it, Your Majesty. Due to some constraints, I cannot explain to you in detail, but I can tell you that all of those like us, like those of the dark creatures, are unable to appear in the mortal battlefield in a proper manner."

The king pressed his fingertips against each other, remembering the day he asked the devil and received a similar answer.

There was still something restraining this world.

"So, let's get down to business ......," the king pushed some speculation down for the moment, "How do you deal with a powerful demon?"

"May I know the name of that devil?" The former Templar asked, adding immediately after, "Sorry, I doubtless pry into secrets, but in the laws of darkness, the name itself symbolizes a power. Not the name he claims for himself, but the name he presents on the deed, that cannot be hidden."

The king was silent for a moment.

"A demon's name is hidden on the deed that is because of what?"

The former Templar was also silent for a moment, taking the wording cautiously, "I can only think of one possibility, because he is old enough, so old that even the name itself is taboo."

Even the name itself is taboo?

The king thought about the way the devil had looked before him and was somewhat unable to connect that statement to that fellow.

"Then it's just beyond your coping range?"

"It's hard to deal with." The former Knight Commander of the Templars answered frankly, but he turned his words around, "However, your majesty, we are now in the Rosebud Palace. Here the Dragon Slayer's descendants are the true masters."

"The Dragon Slayer's descendant?"

The king raised his eyebrows slightly.

"I always thought that was just a legend."

"No, Your Majesty." The former Templar stood up, "See ......"

He walked over to the room's columns and smeared them with his own blood, one by one. As the blood seeped into the columns, which were carved with reliefs, the king began to hear a rattling - gradually a strong current of air swirled around the room, which was laced with an ancient, loud sound.

The king stood up and witnessed the bas-reliefs seem to turn into a coiling rose vine.

The legend of the origin of the Rosebud family came to the king's mind.

Slayers of evil dragons, they built their own kingdom in the land where the dragons were buried.

The land of the buried bones of the dragon, the palace of the Rosebuds that is the heart of Rogaland ...... heart ......

The answer cries out.

"Yes! Your Majesty!"

The former Knight Commander of the Templars stood in the center of the room, his hands covered in blood but unconcerned. Every pillar in the room was stained with blood.

He stood up straight and unfolded his arms proudly for the king to witness a scene worthy of a miracle.

In the king's vision, the pillars, the beams of the room changed. No longer cold rock, but a single, massive, white bone.

"This is the heart of the dragon! This is not a legend! Your Majesty!"

It was as if a giant dragon's gasp came across thousands of years, and the strong flow of air made the King's robes hunt.

Ancient legends intertwined with real history at this moment, and a family stood proudly in that torrent of time. The group of people marked by the rose, who founded Rogaland on the bones of the dragon.

It was the family of madman-like arrogance and fearlessness.

After they slaughtered the evil dragon, they built on its heart a palace for mortals!

"This is glory!"

"The glory of the Rosebud family!"