Chapter 722 – #96. Jinhaesol (26)
The news that the king had fallen was delivered, and the knights went into a frenzy.
It was obvious that the hyenas aiming for the throne would covet the palace while the king had fallen.
The knights in an emergency surrounded the palace where the king resided without any gaps and went into a state of alert.
If the king were assassinated or even poisoned by someone instead of dying of illness, all the knights of the knights’ order would die according to the contract.
It also meant that there would be a gap in the biggest power in the kingdom.
“How long do you have to stay asleep?”
“We need a little more time. You’ve recovered a lot from your sleep, but if you wake up now, you’ll collapse again. And then…”
The priest couldn’t finish his speech and it was cloudy.
The knight asked again as if to hurry up and answer all of them to the end.
“When?”
“…You’ll never open your eyes again.”
“Shit..!”
Since the king’s life was the knight’s life, he couldn’t help but be nervous.
“If your physical strength recovers to a certain extent, you will wake up naturally. For now, it’s best to watch until then.”
He said that the way the king can survive the longest is when he wakes up after recovering naturally.
The Knights had no choice but to send a priest and a healer.
The king will not wake up today.
“The situation is like this, what should we do?”
“When Your Highness wakes up, he will surely use his time to make the prince his successor. Nothing will change. So don’t act rashly.”
There were many things the king had to do to pass the throne to the prince.
Among them, handing over the knights contract was quite important.
“What did Her Highness do?
“He said that after losing her youngest prince, he didn’t want to care about the next successor.”
“Are we just going to watch…? Is that okay?”
If the King were to ascend without handing over the contract to the Prince, the future of the Knights would never be bright.
‘Because the entire Knights will be out of contract.’
Even if they pretended not to, there were already some frivolous ones among the knights.
He began to express his own opinions unnecessarily.
The side that it was right to stand on the side of the prince, and the side that it was right to stand on the side of Lord Oddman.
‘The King will never release us. The contract will eventually be handed over to the prince.’
So, it was right for the knights to stay by the prince’s side and protect him.
However, there were those who were forced to become knights of the king through a contract.
‘Those who were kidnapped as children and received brainwashing and education are docile…’
The problem was those who had not received brainwashing education because they were clumsyly from aristocrats.
They were exceptionally greedy, so they were giving their opinions to support the Duke of Oddman while the royal palace was cluttered.
They didn’t choose Oddman because they liked the ball.
‘Opposition for the sake of opposition.’
And if you side with the prince, there is a high probability that the contract will be handed over normally.
That’s why he’s stepping out to support Prince Oddman, hoping that the royal palace will become more chaotic.
‘Stupid things.’
The longer the king’s absence, the more it is felt that the Knights are being divided.
Then, if someone unexpectedly acted and the king had a problem, he was not the only one worried about what to do.
Even so, if the king woke up and handed over the contract to the prince, it would all be useless.
“Did you hear the news? Prince Oddman started moving in earnest. An invitation was even sent to me.”
“It looks like the nobles who came to deliver the words of Oudman are moving.”
“That’s right. And some of the knights have been in contact with them.”
“Tsk.”
The authority of the nobles also comes from the authority of the king.
However, the king’s authority fell to the ground and was rolling on the floor.
If the trustees were installed, there would naturally be more thieves in the country, and the people’s lives would become more difficult.
The head of the knights couldn’t stop the complicated thoughts in his head, even though he knew it wasn’t something he had to worry about.
“Excuse me.”
“Prince?”
The knight leader who was protecting the king’s palace tilted his head at the sudden appearance of the prince.
It was unusual for the prince to visit the palace again because he had already gone to see the king’s condition early in the morning.
Moreover, he was talking to knights, not courtiers.
Since the prince had never had a conversation with a knight before, it meant that he had other intentions.
“This is the first time we’ve had a conversation like this, right? I was hesitant because everyone was so reticent that they wouldn’t accept me even if I greeted them. Can you give me some time?”
Among those who didn’t want the king’s death, there were knights, but the prince was also a desperate man.
So, the prince was one of the people who could easily enter and exit the king’s palace.
“Captain, is that right?”
“…Yes, that’s right.”
“Let’s talk for a minute.”
As the nobles began to move, did the prince feel impatient?
The leader, who could not just ignore the prince’s request for a conversation, decided to arrange a meeting.
“…It’s hard to have a conversation here, so I think it’s better to move.”
“Yes. Then.”
“You guys would know even if I didn’t tell you, right?”
“…Yes! I will be more vigilant.”
The captain guided the prince into a suitable room.
“Sit down.”
“Thank you.”
“Would you like some tea?”
“No, I’ve already had enough. By the way, the palace is very noisy, right?”
“…Everything will be settled when Your Highness wakes up.”
At the leader’s polite words, the prince shook his head and said,
“The courtiers are busy carrying information here and there as if they were rats, and the nobles are busy going in and out of the palace without hesitation and poking around here and there. Is not there.”
It was a fairly candid evaluation, so the leader felt unfamiliar with the prince for a moment.
‘Was he like this?’
At least the leader of the knights was a new figure of a prince he hadn’t seen before.
“We can’t leave it like this forever. Of course, when Your Highness wakes up, things will be sorted out, but we can’t rely on someone who is sick forever.”
If the prince leaves the palace tidy when the king wakes up, the king will not have to spend the rest of his time handing over the throne.
It would also prevent the knights from doing strange things in the hope that they would no longer be.
“Your Highness has chosen you as your successor. So even if you stay still, everything will be settled when the King wakes up. Wouldn’t it be better for you to stay under our protection until then?”
If the prince does well, it’s the best thing for the leader.
However, there should never have been a prince acting recklessly and being adversely affected by nobles.
So he said, would it not be better for him to remain under his protection until the king wakes up?
The knight commander had the confidence to protect the prince until the king woke up.
“That would be one of the good ways.”
The prince also knew that the leader’s words were an easy way.
“But don’t you think there are times when you have to move even if you know it’s dangerous to avoid losing your place?”
It would be good if he ascended the throne so easily.
But in the end, the king will die, and I will have to spend a lot of time to regain control of the nobles.
In order to be comfortable when governing the country in the future, you must control the nobles now.
And the prince was showing confidence as if he had enough ability to do so.
“As far as I know, I heard that the knights are loyal to Your Highness because of the contract.”
“Even without a contract, we will be loyal to Your Highness. But it is also true that we all have contracts with Your Highness.”
It is a truth that has nothing to hide.
“If His Highness passes away, what will happen to you?”
“The contract of the knights will be handed over to the next heir to the throne.”
It was originally contracted like that.
Loyalty to the next heir to the throne.
So, in the end, the knights must be loyal to the king until death.
“However, Your Highness must hand over the contract directly to the heir. Otherwise…”
“If not?”
“The knights are free according to the contract.”
But that won’t happen.
In the first place, she was not loyal to the king because of the contract.
Uncommonly, she was truly loyal to the king.
She might not have become the leader of the palace knights if she had hoped in the first place.
“You don’t have to worry about our affairs. When Your Highness wakes up, everything will be settled. Those whose loyalty is wavering will be taken care of on our own.”
“In the end, it means that Your Highness will wake up to sort things out. If you ask me to be loyal to you right now, that means you won’t listen.”
Accurate.
It’s not going to happen, but wouldn’t it be possible for the king to wake up and hand over the throne to Prince Oddman?
“I’ve been thinking about it since I found out about the contract, but I don’t think this is a very good tool.”
“…Yes?”
“I think the knights seem to have forgotten the essence of it all. It’s probably because of the contract. They became knights to be loyal to the king, but right now, everyone is bound by the contract and loyal to avoid death.”
Hearing the prince’s words, the captain’s face twisted.
I knew the fact that the Knights had been degenerated for a long time, but I was offended to be directly pinched.
“If it were me, I wouldn’t have forced loyalty into a contract like that.”
“!!!”
Perhaps the prince was lying to deceive himself, but he could not help but be moved by his words.
Aside from being loyal to the king, the leader felt a deep sense of skepticism about the existence of the contract.
“Even if there was no contract, the knights would have been loyal to His Highness. It seems that the oath of loyalty, which should have been clean, was tainted because the contract was inserted in the middle.”
“…”
“I will tell Your Highness. If possible, we can break the contract that has been handed down from generation to generation.”
The captain sighed inwardly as he watched the prince calmly say what he had been saying.
It’s nonsense.
“Prince, the Knights are the only tools that can stand against the nobles. If you break the contract, assassins targeting you will invade the palace every day.”
“Are you going to disobey me after breaking the contract?”
“As the prince said, the Knights have changed. The contract is what keeps them from rotting.”
