Chapter 493 – 493. The Past of the Fox (4)
Just because the war with the beasts was over, or because the irresponsible royal family and leaders abandoned the country and fled, it did not mean that the new kingdom established on that land was at peace.
Pernias was in danger from the time the country was founded, and the surrounding situation did not leave Pernias alone.
Many people died in the war, and Ortas, who had no concept of governance, simply had to work harder than others.
Leading the soldiers of a reconnaissance party and managing a country through politics are similar yet completely different issues.
Even after that, Pernias had to face many problems such as food problems, population problems, and interference with other countries.
The most annoying thing was diplomatic issues with other countries.
The territory of the entire kingdom, which had to be invaded by demon beasts at the front, was a weak country whose land was devastated and the population decreased day by day in the aftermath of the war.
As soon as the war ended, the royal family and leaders who had fled the entire kingdom came back to Pernias with the prestige of the central power on their backs.
“This is my kingdom! How dare you claim my kingdom!”
“For a subject who once abandoned and ran away, it’s good to make such a claim… !”
Naturally, Ortas and the nobles of Pernias were indignant.
On the subject of abandoning the country and territory and running away, their hearts were so vicious and vicious that they came to take them back after the war ended and they won a miraculous victory.
However, if it were only the leaders who had fled with the royal family of the former kingdom, they would have been able to easily subdue them, but in reality this was not the case.
Behind them was a large force of Central Powers.
Ortas’ Kingdom of Pernias, which ended the battle with the Witchbeast with difficulty, had to face the same humans.
“Why…”
Why do I have to fight again?
The peace found amidst the threat of demon beasts did not come.
What followed was a tragedy in which the same human beings were killed and killed.
Can’t everyone live peacefully together?
Ortas’ wish of sharing peace by faithfully fulfilling each other’s roles without fighting was not realized until the end.
The war between the weak Pernias and the Central Powers came to a simple conclusion without thinking about who would win.
“Why is the great power…”
Why does the Central Powers stand up for the runaway royals who have nothing to gain and help them take this land back?
“Maybe they made a deal.”
When the war between nations was in full swing without a chance to get drunk on peace, the nine-tailed fox raised his guess about Ortas’ question.
“… Transaction?”
“Promise that I will do anything in the future if I will bring my country back. For example, becoming a vassal state.”
It can be a certain amount of money every year, food or materials that accompany it, and furthermore, the people can also be an example.
In the first place, it is common for the surrounding weak countries that could not withstand the pressure of the great powers to preserve their positions or prosper in this way.
Ortas and Pernias, who resist fiercely, can be seen as special.
“Your majesty! Run away!”
Even before Pernias was founded, the servant who had fought alongside Ortas until the end shouted to Ortas.
Tell me to run away
But it’s like a choice you can’t choose.
“Look at me… To do the same thing as they did then?”
What on earth can he do by abandoning his country, abandoning his territory, and surviving alone?
If there is anything different from that time, all the leaders of Pernias want Ortas, the first king, to survive.
After Ortas was evacuated, they all insisted on carrying out their mission, determined to fight to the death, just like when they fought the final battle with the demon beasts.
Ortas couldn’t choose the option of running away from them.
“Why do we keep doing this…”
It’s a question that is never answered no matter how many times I hear it.
Even in battles with monsters, even in battles between nations, can’t the country you built find peace?
I tried so hard, and even though I wished so much, it didn’t come true.
Ortas belatedly realized the reason.
The reason why Fernias suffered so much was so simple.
“Because it is a small country…”
Because I am weak, because I have no strength.
Ortas expressed resentment by clenching his fists at the logic of power, which was so simple yet extremely irrational.
“Okay. If you are weak… If it’s because you’re weak that you have no choice but to be defeated…”
Be strong.
In order to gain the upper hand in this extremely simple and irrational logic of power, you need to discard weakness and become stronger.
‘But how?’
How can I become stronger?
Pernias was desperately holding out with a desperate struggle, but it was only a matter of time before he was eventually defeated by the mighty forces of the great powers.
It is impossible to become strong enough to reverse this hopeless situation.
Ortas thought about what the opponent didn’t have, what they had, and how to overcome this situation.
Then, the crazy thing in his mind is the existence of a miraculous divine beast who followed him into the world.
If it is the power of a divine being who restored his body, endowed him with mighty power, and bestowed the life of a long-life man who transcended the limits of his lifespan as a human being.
“Ortas. Things are so bad right now. As the servant said, now…”
Poo-wook.
“… ?”
The nine-tailed fox, who tried to persuade Ortas to let him escape, put on a dazed expression from behind him, feeling something piercing his chest.
“Nice… Ugh!?”
Before long, the pain spreading through his whole body belatedly caused him to lose his breath and slowly looked back.
Seeing the face of Ortas, who had pierced his chest with his bare hands, starting with his own back, the nine-tailed fox asked in a trembling voice.
“Uh… Because… ?”
“Sorry. Miho.”
“Why… !”
“This is the only way… Didn’t come to mind I’m really sorry…”
Ortas closed his eyes tightly and turned away from the gaze of the nine-tailed fox, who was trembling with a sense of betrayal.
There is no way he wouldn’t feel anything about betraying the existence that made a promise with him, believed in him and followed him, and betrayed the nine-tailed fox he thought of as his companion after stealing his heart.
“Nice… Ugh!”
The nine-tailed fox groaned as he saw the silver orb in Ortas’ hand that had pierced his chest from behind him.
Ortas had taken away the fox orb, a power source that acts like a human heart and activates energy throughout one’s body.
It was a fatal mistake that a normal gumiho would never have made.
The servants of this palace, including Ortas, are all comrades who survived through life and death in the final battle against the demons.
As much as he firmly believed in the trust that had been born in that fight and let go of his guard, he felt a great sense of betrayal at the behavior of Ortas who betrayed him.
“Really… Sorry.”
The nine-tailed fox was deprived of the fox bead by the man he trusted, and died in vain.
◆ ◆ ◆
Right!
Eun-hyeon snapped his fingers and unlocked his ability.
After the ‘fantasy world’, which reproduced a part of the past by interfering with reality, ended, the people who returned to the original reality looked at each other at a loss for words.
For a while, the royal family as well as the knights of Artia who were escorting them could not get out of the fantasy past story that Eun-hyeon had embodied with a dazed look on their faces.
Among the people of Fernias Kingdom, Riod was the only one who was looking at Eunhyun with a calm expression.
“This is the reality of the events that took place in the early days of the kingdom of Pernias.”
Eunhyeon slowly opened her mouth to wake them up in their thoughts.
Yuria, who hardened her face, rummaged through her own memories and recited her knowledge in her head.
“In the history of the kingdom… Shinsoo, who was dying after exhausting his strength, left a will saying that he wanted to bury his remains in his land and be of help to the people of the kingdom…”
“Whether you believe in the history book or the fantasy I reproduced, that’s up to you, the princess.”
However, it is undeniable that the decision to believe has already begun to lean toward one side.
It wasn’t just Yuria, it was everyone here.
The story of the fantasy world that he could see and hear with his own eyes and ears was more realistic than the history of his ancestors, which was only dictated in books.
Eunhyun added an additional explanation here.
“Like that, the first king, Ortas, put the fox orb he had taken from the nine-tailed fox into his body and won the war by using the power of the divine beast that was newly available.”
And Pernias, who was only a weak country, took the territory of the opponent powers who won the war on their knees.
No one would have expected that the result, which was expected to be defeated due to being crushed by force, led to a completely different result.
Afterwards, it became a stepping stone to be reborn as the present kingdom of Pernias, showing a growth trend by using the territory of a powerful country as its own territory.
“But there are problems too.”
“… A problem?”
Among those who listened to Eunhyeon’s story blankly without anyone answering, YuRia was the only one who answered the question.
“Yes. The body of the first king, Ortas, who swallowed the fox orb, in which the power of the mighty divine beast was condensed, began to develop side effects.”
The power of Shinsoo is not so green that ordinary humans can accept it.
The reason Ortas was able to survive even after swallowing the fox beads, the source of his power, was originally supplied with power from a nine-tailed fox, which created resistance in his body and prepared a foothold for adaptation.
However, it was impossible to accept the fox orb, which suddenly contained powerful energy, no matter how resistant it was.
“Ortas is looking for a way to solve the side effect of the lifespan rapidly being reduced due to the enormous divine power. The way he came up with was to anchor his soul in another body.”
“Settling the soul into another body… That… !”
Yuria quickly understood the meaning of Eunhyeon’s words.
If Ortas, the first king, died and only his soul had the means to settle in another body and live, there is also the possibility that Ortas is still alive.
“The body that can accept his soul and some of the divine beast’s power is fixed. They are the royal family who inherited his lineage and were born into the world. In other words…”
Eun-hyeon kicked the coffin she was stepping on, and the body of the current king, Andrea Fernias, was scattered on the floor.
“Eww…”
Eun-hyeon’s head was crushed by a javelin, and the body was severely damaged, but the shocking facts covering it made Yuria’s mind confused.
“It means that the current king, Andrea Pernias, also had Ortas Pernias as his inner essence.”
“What… What kind of nonsense… !”
Queen Diane, who had been listening to her story, distorted her face and denied Eun-hyeon’s story as if she couldn’t believe it.
“No wonder you can’t believe it. If my story is true, the queen will have another ominous imagination that she never wants to do.”
“Eww… !”
Queen Diane groaned, twitching her eyebrows as if she had been stabbed in the right place.
The imagination that I absolutely do not want to do is the seed that gives birth to the ominous thought, ‘Is she also the son she gave birth to with stomachache?’.
With her feeling that it wasn’t her, she turned her head and looked closely at her own son, who had been through the situation with a grave expression on his face from beginning to end.
“Damian… ?”
“…”
Prince Damian did not even pay attention to her mother, Queen Diane’s earnest call, and only stared at Eun-hyeon.
“No… No. It can’t be…”
At her son’s attitude, Queen Diane murmured softly as if embarrassingly, the uneasiness in her heart was amplifying.
When she can’t accept the shocking fact that the one who took her son’s body was her son’s father, her own husband, the king, and even the first king, whose essence is a distant ancestor.
“Were there any mistakes in my story that I have reproduced so far? Prince Damian? No… The first king, Ortas Pernias.”
Eun-hyeon openly revealed his identity, which had been hidden for hundreds of years.
