Grand Duke of the Heibern House

＜Episode 37＞

A bronze lion statue that symbolizes the Heibern family.

The throne of the rider as huge as that lion statue.

Kazen, the rider of the kingdom.

He was looking down at the knights while holding a heavy gold-lining lion.

The lion king of the Hibern family, heavily armed with steel armor, a red badge, and the bravery of Sahol.

His vassals and collateral knights were silent heavily as he saw him regain all his former authority.

And Dane, who is watching it all.

‘older brother… … ?’

right side of the seat of power.

Ruin, who was touching the bronze lion statue, was smiling at himself.

Dane didn’t know what his older brother’s smile meant.

The person who should be angry more than anyone else is smiling.

Such a brother walked slowly and stood by his side before he knew it.

A brother’s voice in silence.

“Things are pretty much better than I thought.”

Dane follows his brother’s gaze and gazes at the vassals and collaterals.

But I couldn’t read what my older brother was willing to do.

They are still looking at their father with intense eyes that do not know whether it is loyalty or protest.

They are showing off their power with their family flags in their hands and attendants at their disposal.

Gorgeous electric horses with all kinds of decorations.

Knights armed with the best armor.

My father must have been silent because he sensed their clear intentions.

“You still don’t know?”

“older brother? what… … .”

Ruin scanned the vassals.

“Aren’t the two flags empty?”

Dane, who had been scanning the ranks of the family for a moment, burst into exclamation as if he had noticed it only then.

“ah!”

There are no flags symbolizing beacons and laws.

The beacon of Ledeo, Sauveurga.

The statutes of Bismund, the House of Arlsshire.

The flags of two of the five great vassals were nowhere to be seen.

“There’s Knight Breeze over there.”

The now one-armed knight, Brise Sauveur.

Dane couldn’t help but be dazed as he looked at him holding the reins with a large sword on his back.

“… … Uncle Breeze?”

At first, the Dane thought he was a horseback squire.

He had no armour.

All he had was a tunic that had faded to white like a shroud.

“The author is Sir Beul Harden.”

The same goes for Beul Harden.

To the extent that his nickname as the storm guardian was colorless, he was also wearing the worn-out and faded uniforms of a servant.

It was only then that he began to take a closer look at the knights gathered by Dane.

In the end, he also figured out that prominent knights were hiding among those who looked like servants.

“They did not raise their family flag. They do not cling to their seat, but simply scatter and join the ranks.”

Ruin looked at his brother again.

“What do they have in common?”

“They are knights who have experienced the grand banquet of blood relatives.”

“Yes. To put it in more detail, they were knights whose sins were relatively light, that is, they were able to return to their families without being imprisoned in the dungeon.”

It was only then that Dane understood why the two families had joined the ranks in military uniforms.

“At least two families have heard of your father’s health.”

“okay. It’s a rare situation that happened because of the information gap. The sight of Lord Ortega, who is called the Judge of Dawn, rolling his eyes like that, is truly a rare sight.”

Just as Ruin said, Lord Ortega, the head of Podom’s Iron Blood, Gastoga, was shaking without rest. To the extent that I could clearly feel his bewilderment.

“As expected, the nickname of the lion king, the rider of the kingdom, is amazing.”

Ten years is a long time.

Even so, they did not forget the Lion King’s authority.

They were forced to tremble again before the fear that was ingrained into their bones, the power of the ruler who had seized their consciousness.

“… … .”

But Dane’s anger did not subside.

Even some of the vassals did not change anything.

that the owner is weak.

That alone could not be a reason to abandon the oath of the vassal family that lasted for more than a thousand years.

Nonetheless, they dared to show their claws against their master, Hiberngar.

Ruin, who read the intense hostility in Dane’s expression, tousled his hair.

“You just want to make them follow their master?”

“yes?”

“Unless you want to be a dog owner.”

Luin smiled brightly.

“Don’t force the dog’s way on them. Dane.”

Dane blankly stared at his older brother, who laughed like that and walked away.

that buck that buck

It was so quiet that the archduke’s footsteps could be heard loudly.

Ruin, the archduke, turned around the lion statue and approached the seat of power.

Several knights who recognized him clashed their weapons against the armor and saluted with a sound.

Ruin took a look at the ranks of knights that filled the Lion Hall and knelt down towards the seat of power.

“My lord. It seems they have all arrived now. It would be nice to have a dinner to encourage them, but since the campaign is urgent, you should hurry up and appoint a commander.”

Kazen looked down at Ruin indifferently.

He slowly raised his lips and showed curiosity.

When Ruin proposes to appoint a commander first, there must be a reason.

Clearly, that sneaky son has some plans.

“The Archduke, come closer.”

When Ruin climbed the red stairs and blocked the knights’ view, Kazen’s lips twisted even more strangely.

Soon a large ring fell from his thick middle finger.

“I will temporarily entrust the Grand Duke’s seal to the Grand Duke. The archduke should organize the knights according to his convictions and appoint a commander.”

buzz buzz.

The knights were so agitated that their discipline was disrupted in an instant.

At the gathering of all vassals and collaterals, the king of the kingdom, who showed his authority to the utmost, suddenly delegates the authority of the head of the family?

Among them, there were also knights who saw the Archduke for the first time.

An archduke in name only who had only heard about it through bad rumors.

The situation in which they had to listen to the orders of such a scarecrow grand duke would not be pleasant from their point of view.

To them, the grand duke was a being without any feat or authority.

Ruin crumpled his face.

Soon he lowered his voice and twisted his lips like a father.

“You will regret it.”

“Isn’t the head of the household always going to be played by the grand duke?”

Louin’s head was pounding.

A father who suddenly turned the picture he had planned.

My father’s intentions were so blatant that it made me laugh out loud.

He wants to present his eldest son to everyone in the family.

He wanted to convince the family of the grand duke who had changed so much.

That is why he wants to be nailed down as a grand duke that no one can help but acknowledge.

I couldn’t.

In the end, Ruin obeyed his father’s will and put the Grand Duke’s seal on his finger.

Kazen grabs the chair in surprise.

As soon as he took the seal of the Archduke, Ruin became a different person.

An unimaginable authority descends on his face.

Just by looking at it, all the hairs on the body stand on end.

A grand duke of a thousand years, that heavy seat of power was carried on his back in an instant.

Such Ruin was staring at the ranks before he knew it.

“All knights without armor, come forward.”

A sharp blue voice, a truly overwhelming gaze scans them.

The knights in military uniforms came forward in unison and prostrated themselves.

“insect! Glory to the House of Hibern!”

“I take orders!”

They remembered the archduke’s blade-like logic and justice that pierced the knight’s beliefs.

The appearance of the grand duke who overwhelmed the grand banquet of blood relatives.

The humiliation as a knight, such shame, was perhaps more despair than the bloody purge.

“Knight Breeze.”

Received Ruin’s name, Breeze lowered her body and bowed.

“Brize, wait for Ha Myung.”

“Who allowed you to die like a dog?”

Ruin’s gaze tightens as if dissecting it.

Breeze couldn’t grasp the true intentions of Ruin’s words, so she just kept bowing.

“Hibern never asked you to die.”

“That word… … .”

Only then did Breize, astonished, as if realizing it.

“Are you saying you’re allowing this Breeze to fight?”

The Hibernians were by no means gentle swordsmen.

He never dreamed that he, who had plotted rebellion, could go out on the battlefield again and make a contribution.

For Breeze, who had thought that her life as a knight was over, Ruin’s words were nothing short of a miracle.

“The Heibern family does not order weak knights to muster. We will open the armory in Berna to you, and you will be fully armed before going out.”

themselves who were traitors.

I thought I would support the battlefield by doing chores, but I can’t believe I’m on the battlefield again!

Breeze shook her shoulders thinly.

“my… … I am… … Are you still a knight?”

“What is that thing you are carrying on your back?”

shaking.

“knife… … no see.”

“Yes, it is a sword. I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

Ruin smiled quickly.

“Couldn’t it be that the red-eyed knight, the one called the god of death on the battlefield, has become weak just because his arms have become one?”

Suddenly, Breeze’s red eyes burned with the will of a strong knight.

“Could that be? If you command me, I will cut down all opponents, even if they are gods.”

“excellent. Your sword will advance once more on the battlefield.”

At those words of the Archduke, thick tears fell from Breeze’s eyes.

＜Have you forgotten even that? A knight’s sword that does not grow together with the mind cannot advance even one step after all?＞

The voice of the Archduke, which was embedded in his chest.

Then he told me that his sword could move forward.

His voice that wets the heart more than any other prayer.

The feeling of gratitude that awakened him rises from the depths of his heart.

“thank you. Archduke.”

swish

However, the back of the Archduke, who had already gone too far.

Before he knew it, Ruin, heavily armed with expensive armor and a treasured sword, had arrived at Prince Ortega holding the family flag in his hand.

“Lord Ortega, the iron-blooded lord of Podom.”

Ortega looked at Ruin with a soft smile.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you, Grand Duke. Ortega returned to his old healthy self… … .”

“Kneel.”

“yes… … ?”

Ortega dazed.

No matter how much they are bound in a subordinate relationship according to the oath, in private, even that lion king pays tribute to himself.

Also, in the hierarchical system of the Heibern family, the head of the Ohdae vassal family is on the same level as the grand duke.

In addition, unlike the Grand Duke, who had no feats or fame, he had been famous on the battlefield for forty years.

How dare you kneel to yourself, who has a reputation in the kingdom as the Judge of Dawn!

The Archduke in Ortega’s memory was just a small and sickly child.

Now, such a lump of blood is trying to trample on his honor.

“Heh heh, this is it. I don’t know what the Archduke meant.”

“The Archduke?”

Ruin revealed the Grand Duke’s seal with eyes like the abyss.

“Tell me again. Archduke?”

Ortega bit his lip until it bled.

Only then did he realize his mistake.

Although it was temporary, as long as he took the grand duke’s seal, the current grand duke is the grand duke of the Heibern family.

“Where is the right to dare to look down on the Grand Duke written in the original family’s Gayul?”

In the end, Ortega bit his lip and knelt.

Then, Ortega raised his sword in both hands and offered it as an example of a knight.

“Ortega, lord of Podom. Meet the Grand Duke of House Hibern.”

Louin looks down at him with half-closed eyes.

“I can ask for rudeness to your Gastoga, but since this is our first meeting, I will be merciful.”

Before long, Ruin looked over the articles of the Gasto family.

“Also, I highly appreciate the loyalty of the Gasto family as they responded to the call with much more supplies and troops than the Heibern family ordered. I will organize all the articles of the Gasto family and give them a chance to make a contribution.”

“yes… … ?”

Ortega didn’t bring all the knights of these many families to the battlefield.

It was to pressure the Heibern family through the strength of the Gasto family and the family’s status that had changed over the past decade.

The release of the eldest son, whose life or death is still unknown, must be obtained before we can talk about the next one.

But you’re going to skip all the negotiating process and put all of the Gasto family’s knights into the formation?

The Archduke had already gone too far before the flustered Ortega could say anything.

He was soon sweeping the ranks again, expressing his will.

“I will appoint a commander before the organization.”

In everyone’s mind, the heads of the Odaebongsin family came to mind.

If you are not one of them, it is next to impossible to bring this enormous force together.

however.

“Nigen Iol Vissel Vern. Bring him here from the dungeon.”

Dane with his eyes wide open.

Yukain, a knight of the royal guard, stood to the left of Kazen.

Even Kazen, the rider of the kingdom.

Everyone in the lion war had faces of astonishment.