NOVEL NEXT Chapter 45. Artificial Miracles
Once Lacius's army returned to the Winter City, he ordered them to rest, while he returned to the palace.
This time instead of returning to the throne room, Lacius immediately entered his secret laboratory.
Inside the laboratory, Hars can be seen busy crafting a potion.
Sensing someone had entered the laboratory, Hars took a quick glance and his eyes immediately widened, "Your Majesty, what happened to your arm!"
Lacius ignored Hars's shout and instead pointed at the potion. "Focus your attention on the potions, don't waste any important material."
Hars took a deep breath to regain his composure and mechanically moved his hands.
Once the potion had been successfully created, Hars stored it in a glass bottle and placed it in a drawer. Then, he continued to question Lacius, "What happened to your arm? How did you lose it?"
"I underestimated Yuma, and his attack has pierced through all of my defense and successfully hit me," Lacius answered nonchalantly.
After he answered, Lacius tried to change the topic, "How many sleeping potions have you created?"
Hars saw Lacius's undisguised attempt at changing the topic and followed along, "I've created three potions while you left."
"What a pity, we won't have the chance to use it."
Hars asked, "Is the expedition a failure?"
Lacius nodded, "Yuma has escaped and I accidentally killed his family. I guess he will take revenge anytime soon."
Hars frowned and messaged his temple, "Once they hear about this news, they'll definitely cause a mess."
Lacius nodded, "that's right."
Hars suddenly said, "Your Majesty, unlike the hero's world where it has become a norm for the children from the royal family to become the next ruler. We still have no precedent of how the status of a king can be formally inherited."
He continued, "You have gained the title of king by killing the first king, and those nobles might even try to learn from what you've done and do the same thing. Which should be one of the reasons why they started to cause a lot of problems recently."
Lacius frowned, "What are you trying to say?"
Hars said bluntly, "You should marry and have children! Just say it's the will of god to have the kingdom to be ruled by your descendant. Even if those nobles don't believe it, this will still increase the difficulty for them to become a king and should make them a bit more cautious and cause less trouble."
Lacius fell silent and contemplated Hars's method.
Lacius felt most of what Hars said was right and that method was indeed feasible. Especially about mentioning it as an oracle from the creator god.
Even if the temple of the creator god that Tsukiko led has been destroyed, Lacius must say he is truly in awe of her method as many people still have faith in that religion.
A basic plan began to take form in Lacius's mind and he thought, 'By doing this, I should be able to push the focus of this mess away from me to my descendant or somewhere else. This will grant me more free time which I could use for doing experiments.'
'It's just… will the creator punish me for it?' Lacius wondered.
***
Inside the Divine Space, Cedric has long since spent most of his attention checking the Crystal Cube world and only occasionally went to study elven and dwarven anatomy.
He has overheard the conversation between Hars and Lacius and fell into contemplation.
What Hars said is right. Unlike on Earth where it's acknowledged that only the royal family can inherit the throne of a kingdom, the humans in the Crystal Cube world have never experienced the succession of a king through normal means.
Cedric feels this should be the side effect of his involvement in forcefully advancing the human civilization level from the Stone Age to what's basically the late Bronze Age. Then, the mess Lacius caused by starting a rebellion against Gratian further aggravated whatever the problem was.
Even with his low sociology knowledge, Cedric knew once Lacius died, the sacred kingdom would probably shatter into pieces.
At first, Gratian successfully integrated all human tribes and turned them into cities under his control due to the suppression on the technological level. Those tribes that still throw stones can't beat the copper weapons he taught Gratian to make.
As for Lacius, Cedric isn't too sure how he can stably become the king. But, it should have something to do with the chaos at that time where many city lords had just died, coupled with the support from the only remaining city lord, Yasu.
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But now, the situation is much more different. The kingdom has been created and there are several ambitious city lords and nobles that also have a certain level of armed forces.
Furthermore, some high ranking people still have records about how Lacius attained his throne. So, they'll most definitely learn from history and start a coup d'etat once Lacius shows too much weakness.
Actually, he doesn't care whether the Sacred Kingdom split into pieces or not.
But he is certain that if division indeed happens, a chaotic war will happen.
Furthermore, if it became a tradition to do a coup d'etat to change a ruler, Cedric can't imagine how much headache it would cause him.
So, even if Lacius doesn't agree to marry and have several children, Cedric will force him to do so.
Even if that means he will need to intervene, which might cause even bigger chaos.
He is actually unwilling to intervene for now. Mostly because he is curious whether his lack of intervention will cause a better result or not.
This is also why Cedric hadn't sent the continuation of the training method to Lacius, even though he finally knew that Lacius had done so many things just for the sake of discovering the method to reach Level 2.
***
Luckily, Lacius is determined enough to proceed with the plan he thought of.
Without a need for any push from Cedric, Lacius has spread the word of the god's oracle and begun collecting women as his wives and concubines.
Although many people feel a bit doubtful upon looking at Lacius's old age. With the help of potions he especially created, Lacius successfully caused more than ten women to become pregnant with his child.
Luckily, Lacius has always kept the existence of potions a secret. So, in the eyes of the people, what he has done is no less than a miracle.
The miracle of causing so many women to get pregnant at the same time while being at such an advanced age is enough to make the people believe that it's a will from the creator god.
After nine months of pregnancy and spending a lot of precious materials to create potions to nurture his wives and the child. Lacius's wives began to give birth and he immediately displayed his children to the public.
When the people saw the energetic babies that had many traits of Lacius, everyone cheered at the miracle of the god.
Having dozens of children at the same time and having all of them survive is a miracle in this era. But, Lacius easily achieved it by constantly feeding his wives some potions used to nurture the body.
'Luckily, I've invented this health nurturing potion while researching potions to extend lifespan. Although it took a lot of precious materials to make, and I can barely let all of my wives drink them once a month. But, I must say their effects are super effective.' Lacius thought while staring at the civilians and nobles.
Looking at the people shouting praises to the creator gods, Lacius felt a bit envious, 'Even after most of the temples in the Sacred Kingdom were destroyed and only some temples in other cities have been left, many people still remembered it.'
With the people's support, the nobles began to calm down and Lacius finally got more time to experiment.
But the stability doesn't last long.
A few days after Lacius's wives gave birth at the same time. Hars is busy at work due to the aftermath of several forest fires near Winter City that have gone out of control.
While talking with one of his subordinates if they have found a trace of Yuma, which he suspected to be the culprit. Hars suddenly fell unconscious.
Once Lacius left his laboratory, he heard about Hars's condition and quickly went to Hars's room.
Inside the room, there are two low leveled healers busy activating their blessed power.
Looking at Hars who has turned pale and seems to be ten years older, Lacius ignored the two healers and fed Hars with his most precious healing potion.
The two healers were shocked by Lacius's sudden movement and wanted to stop him.
But when they saw Hars's condition turn better after drinking the potion, they became shocked. They wanted to ask Lacius what he had just fed Hars with, but they fell silent upon looking at Lacius's gloomy expression.
Not daring to ask for any question, both of them went to silently continue their work.
Soon, Hars woke up with a cough.
When both healers saw Hars had woken up, they continued to activate their blessed power for several minutes to make sure his condition had stabilized, then quickly left the room.
Being in the same room with gloomy looking Lacius has given them heavy mental pressure.
Ignoring the two healers who leave the room as if they got a pardon, Lacius said, "You're getting too old."
"I know." Hars replied with a ragged breath while coughing several times, "I am already conceding to my fate."
Lacius's eyes narrowed.
He understood Hars meant he should let him go. But, Lacius is unwilling to see Hars die without a fight. "Please rest for now, I'll look for a way so you can live."
Lacius exited Hars's room and selected several trusted servants and guards to take care of Hars. He has also called granny Maude's only disciple to return to the palace and told her to take care of Hars.
After doing his best to extend Hars's life, Lacius sat in the empty throne room and began to look for countermeasures.
While biting his lips due to anxiety, Lacius finally decided to take an extreme approach.
Thanks to studying Tsukuko's corpse, he already has a feeling about the difference between those at Peak Level 1 and those at Level 2.
Right now, what's stopping him from reaching the next level is the lack of Peak Level 1 blessed as experimental materials.
While closing his eyes, Lacius thought, 'None of the blessed I sent to train will be able to reach my level anytime soon. So, I need to place my sight on ready made materials.'
He began to recall four blessed that should have also reached Peak Level 1 and prepared a plan to capture them.
Initially, he doesn't want to target them because all four of them are city lords with extensive influence on the kingdom.
Lacius knew for sure that once they went missing, their city would turn into a mess. Furthermore, none of them has earth or water elements.
Although he can use them to research the continuation of the water and earth training method that he has invented, it's definitely going to be much more inefficient compared to using the body of earth or water element blessed. But right now, he couldn't care about such a thing.