A Tale of Strategies For the Throne

The Northern War ended, and after Garlan commended the Northern Army, he led the Central Army on the road back to the royal city.

When road construction began, Garlan's first priority was the highway leading from the royal city to the north.

Now nearly a year has passed. A large amount of money has been invested. In addition, almost all of the people building the roads are liberated slaves. For the first time in their lives, they have exchanged their own property for their own property through their own labor. They are all very motivated. There was no need for supervision or urging from supervisors, so the road construction progressed very smoothly.

From the northern border to the royal city, from the muddy and uneven roads to the neatly built, spacious and flat avenues, everyone has truly felt the benefits of building roads.

The leading generals were particularly impressed. Since embarking on the new road, the army's marching speed has almost doubled or tripled compared to before.

There are side roads on both sides of the main road. Caravans can usually walk on the main road, but once they encounter an army marching, they must take the initiative to give way to the side roads.

As the army moved forward, looking to both sides, the side roads were full of bustling caravans. Compared with the sparse teams and pedestrians on those muddy roads, the new road here is full of traffic and lively.

However, even if there are a very large number of people, the side roads are not blocked at all, because a new 'road law' just announced by the Shamash Temple to the whole country stipulates that the side roads are only allowed to be one-way in one direction. If you are caught driving in the wrong direction, you will be fine. Heavy fines will be imposed.

This avoids congestion caused by large caravans coming from different directions.

When King Garlan's chariot passed by, the caravans and pedestrians on both sides of the road stopped one after another, faced the main road, knelt down respectfully, and bowed their heads in salute to their king.

After the king's chariot passed, they stood up and looked curiously at the black and endless majestic army on the road.

The troops returning from the battlefield carried a chilling aura of iron and blood, and that terrifying sense of oppression made everyone on the side stay silent.

For these soldiers who used their bodies to protect their peace and the security of the country, the people could not help but look in awe.

Many young people, both men and women, looked at those strong and powerful soldiers with burning light flashing in their eyes. Young men yearned for them and young girls admired them.

The gates of the royal city of Aaronlandis were wide open. Under the leadership of Shamash's high priest Shemuel, all the powerful ministers in the royal city came out of the city to welcome the return of King Gallan.

Amidst the cheers of the people on both sides of the city's roads, the young king rode his divine white horse slowly on the avenue, stepping on the flower petals thrown by the people on the road. There was a little floral fragrance left on the horse's hooves, and he returned after nearly two weeks. The palace of the moon.

On the night when Garlan returned to the palace, many people were tossing and turning in bed, unable to sleep at night.

Especially the powerful nobles who participated in the murder of Garlan were all terrified.

They had to pretend to be nonchalant during the day, because they were still holding on to a bit of luck, thinking that their collusion with foreign enemies was done secretly and would not be discovered.

They paid close attention to Garlan's every move, trying to make correct judgments from the other party's behavior in order to respond better.

But after King Garlan returned to the royal city, he was just busy dealing with the accumulated government affairs and did not take any action.

Because Garlan directly handed over the investigation and interrogation to Suojia.

The Nanna Temple will be responsible for torture in the future in his plan, so he has gradually begun to hand over similar matters directly to the Nanna Temple.

Knowing that this was King Garlan's training and test for the Nanna Temple, Suojia did not dare to relax at all. After receiving Garlan's secret order, he began to secretly investigate around.

Joining forces with Tal, the controller of the Intelligence Department, he found out everything as quickly as possible.

During the era of King Camos, the powerful nobles occupied more than half of the positions in the royal court and had great power.

However, it weakened a lot after the big battle two years ago.

Although the war caused considerable damage to Aaron Landis, it also destroyed the fiefdoms of many powerful nobles.

Coupled with Garlan's deliberate restraint after he came to power, now, only less than one-third of the powerful nobles who control the fiefdom cities are left in the royal court.

Some of these powerful nobles are still loyal to King Garlan, such as Kaleni, who was the city lord personally granted by King Camos' father. However, when King Garlan gave an order, he did not hesitate. Di gave up his identity as a city lord and worked tirelessly to guard the Western Territory.

Although some of them have no ability, they are better at being obedient and faithfully following King Garlan's orders.

There is also a small group of people who are extremely dissatisfied with King Garlan's approach of weakening their power and taking away their wealth.

During the murder of King Garlan, the powerful nobles with bloodlines from the royal family were especially happy.

Because Heimos, the only one with the legitimate right to inherit the throne, has died. If King Garlan also dies, then the next King Aaron Landis will have to be re-selected from the royal family.

They felt that King Garlan was also from a collateral lineage of the royal family anyway. Since he could sit on the throne, why couldn't he, who was of the same origin, not sit on the throne?

To be honest, being brown-skinned and of one’s own bloodline are more noble, isn’t it?

These nobles from the royal family, who were so secretly complaining in their hearts, had completely forgotten that when the Gastad people came over, they were afraid of becoming the target of the opponent, and they cowered their heads like quails and did not dare to move.

They completely forgot that when King Camos died in the battle, if King Garlan hadn't gathered an army to turn the tide, defeat the Gastards and save Aaron Landis, all of them would have become slaves and prisoners of the subjugated country. .

——Maybe they didn’t forget, but just chose not to think about it.

The allure of the throne dazzled them, and they decided to take risks.

They secretly contacted the old nobles of Karnar and the remaining forces of the Gastad people, colluded together, seized the great opportunity of King Garlan to go to Karnar, and plotted to kill King Garlan.

They managed to seize Mityas's wife and daughter, poisoned them, and threatened to kill Mityas with their lives.

A series of conspiracies unfolded.

First, the remaining forces of the Gastad people deliberately attacked Kalleni's army, delaying Kalleni's march and allowing him, King Chigarlan, to reach the royal city of Karnar in one step.

After arriving at the royal city of Karnar, Mitayas, who was an internal agent, secretly passed the news that Garlan would sacrifice the dead soldiers in the early morning to the old nobles of Karnar.

As a local leader, the old nobles of Karnar arranged archers on the only way to attack Garlan.

Of course they didn't think that such a simple strategy could kill King Garlan.

The purpose of arranging the archer attack was to put on a show.

Mitayas, who had known about the attack for a long time, deliberately let himself be injured by an arrow in order to protect Garlan, so as to gain Garlan's trust and be able to be in the same room with him.

In this way, he could take the opportunity to kill Garlan at night.

If it succeeds, once Garlan dies, Aaron Landis will be in chaos.

By the time Aaron Landis is too busy to take care of himself, the old nobles of Kanal and the remaining forces of the Gastad people can regain control of the turbulent Kanal.

The powerful nobles of Aaron Landis can also support the new king who is more beneficial to them.

In this way, all three parties are happy.

However, the hope is beautiful, but the reality is tragic.

The final result was that all three parties were completely defeated, and King Garlan won a complete victory.

The old nobles of Karnar and the remaining forces of the Gastad people were dug out and cleared away in one fell swoop. The royal city of Karnar has since been completely under the control of Garlan, and from there, control has gradually expanded to the entire territory.

As for Aaron Landis, after Suojia found out everything, the powerful nobles who intended to murder Garlan were all charged with treason and conspiracy, and their crimes were announced to the whole country in the name of the Nanna Temple. Then he was beheaded and executed in public.

Once these powerful nobles died, all the cities assigned to them were taken back and placed directly under the central royal court.

As a result, the number and influence of the powerful nobles in the royal court were further weakened.

The centralization of power that Garlan wanted to implement took another big step forward.

As for Mitayas' wife and daughter who were taken hostage by the powerful nobles, although they were rescued in the end, Mitayas's wife was a woman with a strong personality. After hearing about her husband's assassination of King Garlan, she So he gave his daughter, who was less than two years old, to a kind and honest couple who had never had children for adoption.

Then, she left a suicide note saying that she had no shame in continuing to live and committed suicide to apologize.

The Mitayas couple had no other relatives, so it was finally Caihos who came forward to collect their bodies and bury them together in an unmarked grave.

…………

It took a full month for Garlan to clear up all the follow-up matters and the relevant personnel involved.

Then, he was finally able to take a good rest.

While he was busy, time flew by and summer arrived again.

The courtyard is covered with greenery, tall olive trees stand among the greenery, and a crescent-shaped pool draws a curve in front of the pavilion. The clear water sparkles in the sun.

It was only early summer, but it was already very hot in the royal city, and all the lotus flowers were already in bloom.

Green lotus leaves float on the water. When the wind blows across the water, Aaron Landis's unique light blue lotus sways gently in the pond.

Garlan sat by the Crescent Pool, dipping his bare feet in the cool water.

A big lion with a golden brown mane was immersed in the water and swimming around.

As soon as it stopped, Garlan would throw a pebble at it, and it would swim obediently again.

Originally, in the summer, Nerga would become lazy and unwilling to move because of the heat.

But in this way, the big lion became chubby at a speed visible to the naked eye after eating and sleeping.

Garlan could not tolerate his majestic lion turning into a ball of flesh, so he brought Nerga here every morning and forced him to swim.

Nerga wanted to be lazy at first, but as soon as he was lazy, Garlan cut his favorite fresh meat in half, so in order to fill his belly, the big lion had to swim around in the pond it hated every day.

A cool feeling came from his feet, dissipating the heat in his body. Garlan shook his calves soaked in the water and felt much more comfortable.

Heimos, who was standing nearby, glanced at Garlan, with a smile in his eyes.

He raised his head, raised his right arm with the leather gauntlet, and blew a whistle.

There was a long cry in the sky, and a vigorous eagle fell from the sky, folded its wings and landed on Heymos's right arm.

Staring at its owner with sharp eagle eyes, Anu let out a short cry.

Garlan looked up at it and laughed.

"I was still worried about where it went, but it came back on its own."

When he returned to the palace, he found that Anu was already here, and Shermer, Tapti and others also learned that Heimos was safe and sound.

It turned out that Heimos didn't want him to worry, so he asked Anu to fly back to the royal city to deliver a message to him shortly after entering Canal.

It’s just that Garlan happened to have arrived at the Royal City of Karnar at that time, so he missed it.

Heimos fed Anu a small piece of fresh meat.

He said: "When I lost my way on the snowfield, it found me and took me out of the snowfield."

"So it saved your life?"

Garlan's eyes narrowed.

"No, even without it, I can get out on my own."

Heimos lowered his head and looked at Garlan who was sitting by the pool with a smile.

He raised his hand and sent Anu back to the sky.

He leaned over and knelt down on one knee.

His golden-red eyes narrowed slightly, staring deeply at the young man in front of him.

"There is only one person in this world... who can make me crawl back to him even if I die."

Heimos' eyes were soft and he whispered.

Then, he leaned over.

Seeing their faces getting closer and closer.

Suddenly, a cold glass cup was inserted from the side, blocking the eyes of Heimos who was approaching.

"Please don't come back in the form of a corpse, Lord Heimos. That will cause panic and cause us trouble."

The female official's voice sounded nearby.

"Here's your honey juice."

The ice cubes inside clattered, and the glass cup handed over by Tapti almost touched Heimos' face, completely separating Heimos and Garlan.

Heimos had no choice but to step back and raise his hand to receive the juice.

He thought for a moment and simply sat down next to Garlan.

Side by side, very close.

The female official standing behind Garlan couldn't help but raise her eyebrows. She was about to speak when Nerga, who had swam in a circle, came back with a puff.

It swam straight to Garlan, then walked up the underwater stone steps to Garlan.

His golden-brown mane was wet and clinging to his body.

So, as a feline instinct, the big lion who walked up to Garlan shook his head and shook up the water.

Garlan raised his hands to cover his face in time.

But Heimos, who was still holding the cup of honey juice in his hand, was caught off guard and was immediately splashed with water by Nega.

The black hair that was splashed by the water was dripping wet and stuck to his face. The water kept flowing down his face. The juice in his hand that had not yet taken a sip was splashed with a lot of water from the big lion.

He stared at Nerga expressionlessly.

Feeling the murderous aura, Nerga turned her head and opened her mouth at him.

Ouch——

Huymos continued to stare at it expressionlessly.

Oooooow——

One man and one lion faced each other for a moment.

Garlan, who was holding Nega's neck, was already lying on the big lion with laughter.

…………

The female officer standing behind looked at the bright smile on the young man's face, and her eyes softened.

She stood quietly, looking at the scene in front of her, with a slight smile on her face.

The author has something to say: Summer is coming

It’s time to learn from Nega and start losing weight【Ge Youpara】