Chapter 502: Loyal Chamberlain
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
At that moment, even the King himself was confused.
Who was he... Did he know him?
Under everyone’s perplexed gaze, the old man walked towards the King and kneeled on one knee right before him, completing a formal bow. The moment the old man entered, the general seemed to have recognised him.
"You’re... You’re not the chamberlain around here?"
The old man got up and nodded. He was overwhelmed with emotions, "I have watched over this granary for long. I didn’t think, in my remaining years that I would ever see Your Majesty ever again."
The King frowned, "You’ve seen me?"
The old man replied, "Your Majesty, you may not remember me. I am the chamberlain for this granary. Every year I would head to Gealorre to report to Your Majesty on the finances."
"I see..."
The King let out a dry laugh awkwardly as he did not recognise him in the first place.
Truth be told, he could not recall this granary chamberlain. So he probably was a lower rank official. However, he came out at a defining moment and knocked out the priest who wanted to set the granary on fire.
And... By the looks of him, he seemed to have waited the King for long. This was surprising to him.
Don’t tell him that there were a few confidants that lay hidden in unknown places?
Benjamin wanted to completely vanquish the priest. He flew over and couldn"t help but ask the old man, "You said that you have waited for long. Could it be that you already knew that it was a fake king in the palace and the real king was roaming somewhere out there?"
Did the fake king suck at persuasion?
The old man took a deep breath and paced himself, "I wasn’t very clear on His Majesty’s whereabouts. But the fake in the palace... I entered the palace last month and reported the finance as previous years. There was just something not quite right with the person sitting in the throne."
The King was suddenly interested, "What is the fake like?"
"Although it could be seen he was imitating Your Majesty’s talk but that feeling was not something Your Majesty would have." The old man continued, "Your Majesty is occupied with important matter and busy with many affairs. The matter of the granary was not much of a concern. Usually, I would be quick in ending the report. But this year I only spoke two sentences and the person cut me in with a concerning face, asking about this and that. He even flipped through the finances himself. You see, he was pretending to this extent, how could he be Your Majesty?"
"..."
Benjamin wiped his sweat at the side.
So... This subst.i.tute King gave himself away because he seemed too much of a diligent patriotic leader? Although he has never seen Mr. Subst.i.tute, but he couldn"t help but cry a tear for him.
But, when he thought about it carefully, he felt the matter on the Church finding a subst.i.tute to be a King to be quite huge flaw.
That was a King! There were millions of eyes watching every day. With the sudden change of a person, no matter how similar in looks, manners, actions, the slightest change would cause one to suspect. How could this escape everyone’s attention?
And of course, it wasn’t easy to fool everyone. This chamberlain of a granary was one example.
The old man still continued, "It was then there was the start of the rumours about the fake king real king thing. I have even intentionally returned to the farm in my hometown to investigate a bit. I didn’t think Your Majesty would appear in that farm. After heading back, I decided to guard this granary for Your Majesty and await the day of Your Majesty’s return."
The King was pleasantly surprised, "Farm?"
He couldn"t think but think that the days where he followed Benjamin to run around in the villages... Came to be pretty useful!
"Yes, now every farming community is spreading the story of Your Majesty. They were saying that one day you will return to the throne!" The old man was getting overwhelmed, "Just this afternoon, there was an order in Gealorre to have us caution over the bandit’s attack. I immediately thought of Your Majesty. Hence, I wittingly did not communicate this order to others and await for Your Majesty’s arrival tonight."
As he spoke, he kneeled down again and bowed deeply at the King. The guards that surrendered were also on one of their knees and were at the motion of paying respect to the King.
— They were not clear on the situation before. Now that the chamberlain has spoken, they needed to show for it.
The King was deeply moved at the sight.
"Please get up. You are my faithful people. Once I have returned to Gealorre, you will be heavily rewarded."
Benjamin shook his head helplessly as he stood at the side.
So that was it.
No wonder the defence around the granary was so lax. The chamberlain had receive orders but did not carry out on purpose that the process of their ambush went on smoothly.
If... If only he knew how loyal this granary chamberlain was, they wouldn’t need to bring men to battle. Just contacting this chamberlain and they had unlimited access to food supply.
That priest was sure darn unlucky. He thought that he could turn the tables with a fire but in the end was knocked over the head by a fifty sixty year old man.
"This old man here, how many more officials like you do you think in the whole of Carretas discovered the fake king is not quite right?" Benjamin thought for a moment and asked.
They were busy making rounds between every village so it wouldn"t just impact one granary chamberlain. Perhaps there were still many officials patiently awaiting the king’s return like this old man.
They would, of course, be well utilised.
"That... I’m not too sure myself but should not just limit to only me." The old man was dumbfounded momentarily and responded, "After the fake king took over, he didn’t really make much approaches. Only those who proactively went to see His Majesty would have a chance to see. But I believe that officials around Carretas knew exactly how things stand."
Benjamin nodded and looked at the King out of a sudden, "If that’s the case, why don’t Your Majesty take the opportunity..."
The general heard this and couldn’t conceal his excitement.
The King was a little confused, "Take the opportunity? To do what?"
"We can take down the granary in Long River Town. Take this opportunity to announce to the world that the real king of Carretas has returned." Benjamin punched his fist onto his palms while bubbling a slight excitement, "This way, those who are in support of Your Majesty would head for Long River Town and then we will have enough force to be up against the Church."
The King was stupefied.
Hearing Benjamin’s words, the soldiers, general, old man, guards around... Turned their head at this very moment to look at the King. There was a glitter in their eyes, as if antic.i.p.ating something.
In the midst of the rocking wind and thundering rain, what were they antic.i.p.ating as the people of Carretas?
In a quick moment, the King returned to his senses.
He turned to look at the direction of the Long River Town.
"Carretas, your King has returned!" As if he recalled something, he suddenly became overwhelmed and laughed out loud. He yelled at the empty road under the night sky.