Chapter 339: In the Capital of Arturo Kingdom
In Arturo Kingdom, in the capital, the king is enjoying himself in his room. The fake king to be exact.
"This King Harold is truly blessed. He was gifted by excellent children that he doesn"t even need to do any work at all. Just wait and leave everything to them. I was lucky to have similar feature with him and chosen to be his impersonator. I even got the chance to sleep with his wives. Though it"s a shame that the queen killed herself. Although she"s the oldest, she"s the fairest of them all."
The fake king said that while drinking wine and enjoying the night view through the balcony.
Suddenly, someone flew inside the chamber he"s resting.
"Is it okay for you to be so relaxed?" The guest asked. He knows that the current king is an impersonator, so he doesn"t need to be formal.
"It"s fine. I left everything to Toni. He"s excellent, and he has no interest in taking the throne. As for the king"s wives, none of them realized that I"m an impersonator. That"s ridiculous. I guess that"s to be expected if they only married him for status and wealth. But now they have chosen to follow their children to support them to be the next in line for the throne." The fake king said.
"Hah. They don"t even know that whoever fit to be the king will be killed and replaced. We have found impersonators for some of them. It will be best if we find one for each child. Then, by using their popularity, we will get the whole kingdom to join us. Everything is for the True G.o.d." Said the guest.
"For the True G.o.d." The fake king replied.
"But about this Toni. I haven"t found anyone to swap with him yet." The guest said.
"I think it"s best to leave him be until our influence spread more in the kingdom. He"s too excellent in his job. I doubt the one who will impersonate him is good enough to do his job. And the best part is that his mother has joined us. And I have asked her to persuade him to join us. It will take time, but it should be fine." The fake king said.
"I see… you were chosen because of your similar feature, but who would have thought that you are smart enough to think that yourself?"
"Thank you for the compliment. Though I"m still worried about who was it that having breakthrough to expert level. I"m still intermediate level, so I"m afraid if I get attacked." The fake king said as he took off the wig that makes his hair look similar to the king"s hair.
In Arturo kingdom, Red hair means that the person is from royalty. It has been that way since a long time ago. But now, red hair has become more common. So, it"s no longer absolute fact that everyone with red hair are royalties. That"s why commoners who were born in the kingdom would dye their hair to other color if they have natural red hair. But everyone is free to have any hair color that they want. It"s not against the law to walk around in public with red hair. It"s against the law when the person who did it is claiming to be from royalty even though they are not.
"I think whoever that person is, they must have long gone. This person might be a summoner with a powerful summon that could defeat multiple expert level mages. But that summon must be injured and not as powerful as before because of the injury. That"s why the summoner escaped. I have asked some people to find that person, but there are no traces of their location. Don"t be afraid. As long as you are still useful in this kingdom, I will protect you."
"Thanks. It"s relieving to have expert level mage such as you to protect me." The fake king said.
Suddenly, the expert level mage looked outside and become wary of the surrounding.
"What"s wrong?"
Seeing something strange is going on, the fake king wore his wig again and hid behind the mage.
"Hmm… it seems like it"s nothing. I felt that something is approaching, but there"s nothing here. I guess I"m too tired. I"ll go take a sleep now."
The mage then sleeps at the bed in the king"s chamber. He can do whatever he wants to the fake king because even though the fake king has the highest status in the whole kingdom, the mage is more powerful and has higher status in the cult.
And the fake king also felt safer when the mage is around him, so he didn"t mind it.
Meanwhile, at the direction where the mage looked at before, there"s an invisible ghost floating.
"That was scary! I thought he wouldn"t notice me. I guess this is too close. But it"s good since now I know the range that they can detect me. And now I can just teleport to Toni"s location right away instead of teleporting somewhere else and fly toward Toni"s location since no one is that close to him in his room."
The ghost is Sonia. The friendly ghost from Ca.s.sau.
She was contacted to meet Toni, so she teleported to the location of one of Celestine"s subordinate in Arturo, and travel on her own. Out of curiosity, she tried to get close to the fake king and ends up almost got noticed by the mage near him.
But now since she knows the range the mage can sense her, which is already difficult to do since she"s a ghost who can hide her presence, she feels safe to teleport to Toni"s location directly.
Sonia teleported directly to Toni"s location, but someone entered Toni"s room so she has to turn invisible again and wait until their conversation is over.
"Mother, what"s wrong?"
The one who entered the room is Toni"s mother.
"I"m just worried since you work too much. How about you rest for a while?" Toni"s mother asked him to take a rest.
"Later. I still have some work to do. But if you have something to say, I can still listen." Toni said while his hand hasn"t stopped moving.
"Well, actually, mother just made friends with some n.o.ble wives. Turns out, they are much more fun to hang around with. I shouldn"t have flaunting my status and just have a good chat with them. My mind is clearer now." Toni"s mother said.
"Oh, really? That"s good. With whom?" Toni asked casually.
"It"s the one from Bloom family. Your father introduced us to each other. And we promised to meet again tomorrow. How about it? Do you want to go to? I"ll ask your father for you to take a day off tomorrow."
Hearing what her mother said, Toni"s hand finally stopped moving. His head is looking at the doc.u.ment, so his mother can"t see his shocked expression.
"A-aah. I don"t think that"s a good idea. Maybe some other time. I"m just too busy. This is also for the good of the kingdom." Toni said in refusal.
"I see. That"s fine then. But I don"t like that. It"s good that you think of the kingdom, but you need to think about yourself more. Well, I will return now. I"ll ask you again some other time."
With that, Toni"s mother leave Toni alone in his room. Except he"s not alone.
"Toni, what"s wrong? Was it that Bloom family she said?" Sonia asked.
"Yes. That"s also why I asked you to come here and relay the news to father. Is father doing well?" Toni asked.
"His health has improved. But he still has difficulty walking. He"s sitting on a wheelchair to move around with Queen Carmen pushing the wheelchair. What is the news you"re talking about?"
"…that Bloom family is close with the cult. After my father is replaced, that family keeps growing in wealth. And I see that impersonator is close with that family. But in the past, father said that Bloom family did something that makes the relationship between father and that family deteriorated. Father has always been trying to find any evidence of that family doing something wrong so he can bring them down. But seeing this impersonator getting close with them, it can be said that the Bloom family has fallen to the cult." Toni said.
"You mean… your mother is…"
"That"s right. Mother has also finally joined the cult. And she probably did it willingly. Sigh… just how much does the cult want to destroy my family!" Toni shouted in anger.
Luckily, the room is soundproof. His voice can"t be heard even by the guards outside his room.
"…sorry to hear that." Sonia said.
"It"s okay. After brother Fabio told me that the king has been swapped, I expected this. But it"s still painful to know. If you are going to fight the fake king and the cult, can I ask you to spare my mother?" Toni asked.
"I can tell the others, but you can"t expect it would happen. Roy has no mercy toward the cult unless Albert or one of his lovers told him to not kill her. And he has to see your mother first so he knows her appearance and to not kill her. As for the other, they won"t kill her if I told them not to. But if she has joined the cult, the only one fast enough to stop your mother from exploding her own head is Roy." Sonia said.
"If it can"t be helped then just kill her. But at least I want her to be captured unless it"s impossible. That"s what I asked of you."
"I"ll tell Roy to do that. But we can"t really count on his memory, so don"t have high hopes." Sonia said before she disappeared.
Now that Toni is truly alone, he just noticed his cheek is wet with tears.