Warhammer Divine Throne

The turmoil caused by Casvan’s defeat at the beginning of the year, weeks of stalemates, followed by peasant revolts and mass runaways, and even peasants openly rebelling and occupying the castles.

All these made Richard feel exhausted, the king was striving to mend the precarious relations within the kingdom, not only between knights and peasants but also among the knights themselves.

”I am very sorry, Your Majesty, but the Lady has sent an oracle: a massive Barbarian army has landed on Landri Island, slaughtering tens of thousands of subjects, and destroying the Lady’s temple. We must immediately organize a Knight Army to reinforce the Leonais Duchy, otherwise, Lord Dalheid’s forces will not be able to resist this formidable Chaos Army. The Lady has appeared in my dream, saying that this enemy is unprecedentedly powerful.” Jules said directly, without much ado, the Holy Grail Knight Commander put down his cutlery and spoke to Richard.

”Ding!” Richard’s hand trembled slightly, and his silver fork fell to the ground.

”Why... why do terrible things always come at once?” Richard’s face was filled with sorrow and anger: ”Chaos scum... they really know how to pick their moments, the kingdom is very weak now, Jules, did you know?”

”I understand.” Jules was not unaware of the political situation; on the contrary, he was very clear about the current challenges facing the Knight Kingdom.

”You understand... you understand, you don’t understand, dear Jules, Holy Grail Knight Commander, the northern part of the kingdom suffered heavy losses in this peasant rebellion, security is unstable, I need many troops to maintain order, and now you want to take them away.” Richard shook his head and slowly said to Jules: ”Do you know how much impact this will have?”

”Your Majesty, we have no choice, the Chaos invasion must be contained, we must confront the enemy head-on!” Jules’ eyes were bright and resolute as he looked straight at Richard: ”Your Majesty, Chaos is the great enemy of the Knight Kingdom, they must be eliminated first, or the entire kingdom will be engulfed in flames, countless people will be slaughtered!”

”I don’t need you to remind me, I know what the urgent priority is, I know which enemies are the real strong foes the kingdom must focus on!” Richard retorted irritably, picking up the silver cutlery and placing it forcefully on the table: ”The threat of Chaos was something my father told me about when I was just a three-year-old child!”

”...Your Majesty, it was impolite of me.” Jules was surprised by Richard’s anger, he immediately realized his discourtesy and quickly apologized.

Richard pressed his lips together, he closed his eyes, his body seemed to tremble with rage, he was trying hard to control his emotions.

Jules had a serious expression, his posture seemed to radiate a light of devotion like the sun, he came with the Goddess’s will, and he intended to fulfill his loyalty and duty to the Lady, he was waiting for the king’s answer.

”Jules, mobilizing the army is not that simple... I’ve said it, the kingdom is very weak now, the long-term unrest has made security very unstable, if I announce a mobilization due to the Chaos invasion at this point, it will inevitably cause panic among the people... The number of knights and troops in Kulona has dropped to the lowest point in nearly twenty years.” Richard took a deep breath and continued: ”Moreover, there is another important issue, which is that the granaries have very little supply left.”

Jules nodded cautiously, much of the newly harvested grain from the north was either looted or destroyed by insurgents before it could be submitted, and even for what was collected, the wages for the workers sent by Marinburg’s merchants far exceeded the expenses of peasants harvesting and submitting it themselves.

Unstable security, insufficient troop numbers, meager grain reserves, if the Knight Kingdom now wants to assemble a Knight Army to march out, it will face panic among the people, low morale, and the recently improved security level might undergo a severe test again.

However, just as Richard said, the king was also aware of why the threat from Chaos was so menacing. Facing the Chaos invasion from the north, the king must respond to the call of the Lake Fairy and send reinforcements.

After a long silence, Richard shared the difficulties he faced with Jules, who, not being a blockhead incapable of adaptation, thought for a while and said to the king: ”Your Majesty... we can seek aid from the southern dukes, where the political situation is relatively stable. Whether it’s Lord Bohemond of Bastogne or Lord Francois of Winford, or other dukes, their territories are stable, prosperous for a long time and have the surplus to support us.”

”Ah, I understand, in the face of a great enemy, personal grievances and internal affairs perspectives must be set aside, the most important thing in fighting Chaos is unity.” Richard slowly nodded: ”I will write letters requesting troops and resources from the south.”

”...Gather the troops! Jules! In any case, we must not let Chaos set foot on the Goddess’s land!” Richard stood up, from his aging body seemed to burst faint shadows of past glory: ”I will summon the army in the name of the king, this army shall be under your command, take as much food from the granary as you can.”

”I have only one request for you, Jules, bring back victory.”

”Yes!” Jules stood proudly, he looked up at Richard and then turned and left the Royal Palace.

Richard watched Jules’ departing figure and nodded.

”The Goddess’s land shall not be tread upon by Chaos scum!”

The king quickly finished his meal and entered his Throne Hall to begin writing letters. He appealed for help from the dukes of the south, sending letters to Bohemond, Francois, Bodric, Theodoric... as well as Laine.

Once the letters were written, Richard picked up the parchment, took up a quill pen, dipped it in ink, but quickly put it down, looking at the written plea on the parchment, he gave a bitter smile.

The quill pen was repeatedly picked up and set down, picked up and set down, the trembling fingers and the constantly changing expression on Richard’s face spoke of the king’s struggle.

Emotionally, the king did not want to write the letters for aid, as it was a blow both to his personal prestige and to royal authority. However, Brittania was not like the Empire, where powerful Prince-Electors could directly ignore the Emperor’s orders, regardless of their merits.

And in Brittania, although the dukes also enjoyed independent status, Richard knew that under the Knightly Spirit and the deep devotion to the Lake Fairy, if he wrote letters requesting aid, the southern dukes would surely respond.

The king silently looked back, the portraits of previous Knight Kings were behind him, watching over him: the First Knight King ’Unifier’ Arthur, the Second Knight King ’Reckless’ Lewis, the Third Knight King ’White Death God’ Guillaume, the Fourth Knight King ’Green-skinned Killer’ Rong’en, the Fifth Knight King ’Youngster’ Louis, the Sixth Knight King ’Strongman’ Philip... up until his predecessor, ’Tyrant’ John II, who was brutally deposed from the Knight’s Throne by the Lake God Witch and the Holy Grail Knights.

John I and John II were both denied by the Lake Fairy and were dethroned, so in the official records, Richard was the ninth Knight King of Brittania, his predecessor being the Rose Knight Taylor, and the portraits of John I and John II were erased, leaving a blank frame.

”Ha, the hardest word to write in this world is one’s own name.” Richard suddenly let out a cold laugh, he took a deep breath, clutched his trembling left hand around his right hand holding the pen, and finally wrote his name.

”Someone, send these letters to the Holy Grail Cathedral!”

”Yes!”

......

Assembling the army took longer than Jules had anticipated, the Knight Army took a week or even longer to gather more than half at Kulona, the originally anticipated three thousand knights and twenty thousand troops had now barely assembled two thousand knights and thirteen thousand men.

He now understood why Richard was so concerned about this.

”We cannot wait any longer! Mobilize the troops!”