Der Werwolf: The Annals of Veight Volume 11

1. Auflage 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7183-3120-4
Verlag: J-Novel Club
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 250 Seiten

Reihe: Der Werwolf: The Annals of Veight

After successfully assassinating Kuwol's king, Zagar continues forward with his plans to seize control of the nation. Being the only one privy to Zagar's scheme, it's up to Veight to put a stop to it. Subtle attempts to thwart Zagar do little as Veight sees an inevitable confrontation on the horizon. The virtuous Black Werewolf King and the greedy mercenary captain soon come to blows, with the fate of Kuwol hanging in the balance. As if that wasn't enough, a new Hero-creating device gets thrown into the mix, too!

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hyougetsu

Weitere Mitwirkende

Nishi(E)da

Ningen

Leseproben

Chapter 11

I’d traveled to the far south to the scorching hot land of Kuwol to help mediate the conflict between the nation’s king and the coastal nobles. However, now that the king had been assassinated, I was stuck dealing with the aftermath. The person responsible for this was Zagar, the mercenary captain Birakoya Bahza had employed. If word got out, Granny Birakoya would be in deep trouble. She might not have ordered the assassination, but Zagar was still her responsibility. Seeing as she was our main link to Kuwol, I wanted to avoid getting her in trouble. Of course, since Zagar had impersonated me to lure the king out, I would be considered a prime suspect as well, should news of the king’s death leak.

“...Kuwol’s king came here under the impression that he would be meeting with me. That means the people in the palace must know I’m in Karfal.”

“So he got baited out by the fake messenger, then killed by Zagar,” Monza recited, exchanging glances with me. The two of us were sprinting back to Karfal. We didn’t have hard proof that was exactly what had transpired, but if that was the case, then we were in for a real mess.

“The king probably told at least one of his aides that he was going out for a covert meeting with someone. He brought some guards along, after all.”

“Guess that means everyone’s gonna suspect you, boss. Ahahaha.”

I needed to find some proof of my innocence in case word of the king’s death got out, but in a medieval-era world like this, there weren’t many options available to me. There wasn’t even a concept of standardized time, so I couldn’t craft an alibi. For now, my best bet was to report all of this to Birakoya and see what she had to say.

The moment we got back to Karfal I wrote up a letter and sent a messenger to deliver it to Bahza. Hopefully, she’d take some kind of action within the next few days. I’d written down everything I’d seen, as well as my hypotheses regarding Zagar. Of course, with the king now dead, his new taxation policies were gone as well. The coastal nobles weren’t interested in overthrowing the government, so at this point, they no longer had any reason to fight.

With the monarch now absent, their focus should be on ending this civil war and stopping Zagar. If the war ended, they wouldn’t have any reason to keep him employed. Moreover, they could even put a warrant out for his arrest, but if they did that he’d likely start a revolt. There were only 4,000 or so mercenaries, but under his command, they could easily defeat the coastal nobles’ forces around Karfal. Besides, even if they did succeed in capturing Zagar, there was no guarantee that the other mercenaries would quietly surrender. At this point, they’d already evolved from a mercenary company to a revolutionary army.

I could have my werewolf squad start hunting down the mercenaries, but there were way too many of them. If it came to a head-on clash, some of my men would likely die. I didn’t want to lose any of them, so I decided to proceed cautiously for now.

The next morning, I gathered all my werewolves for a meeting.

“Zagar doesn’t know that we’ve discovered his plot. Things will get messy if we fight him now, so let’s wait and see what happens.”

“You sure we can afford to take it easy like this, boss?” Jerrick asked, and I nodded in reply.

“We need to gather as many allies as we can while we still have time. Fortunately, Captain Zagar’s generous gift will come in quite handy here.”

“He gave us a gift?”

“He sure did. Oh yeah, keep the king’s death a secret from them for now,” I replied. Turning to Fahn, I said, “Please call the three girls in.”

Fahn brought over the three former maids of Lord Karfal that Zagar had put in my care.

“These ladies are maids of Lord Karfal. Lady Shura is his chief maid, as well as the trusted aide of his first wife.”

The mercenaries seemed unaware of the difference between an aide and a lover, but you needed to be quite talented to serve as the head maid of a noble house. Shura was a lot more capable than Zagar seemed to realize. The head maid for the Aindorf family and her primary assistant were both quite skilled as well. I felt a pang of homesickness, but I quickly shook it off and continued my explanation.

“In order to corner Zagar, I think it would be best to bring Lord Karfal over to our side. For now, I’ll prioritize protecting the city’s residents. Eventually, I plan to help him return to the city and win him over to our cause.”

“We have already sent a missive to our lord. He will no doubt be pleased to learn he has allies in the city,” Shura said with a smile. I couldn’t smell a lie on her like when she’d been deceiving Kumluk, so I knew I could trust her. According to Shura, Lord Karfal was a lecherous womanizer, but he was at least passably competent as a ruler. I thought back to the conversation we’d had last night...

“Is it really okay to badmouth your master like that?” I asked Shura.

“Of course. His wife complains about his lustful nature all the time,” she replied.

I shook my head and brought my thoughts back to the present. Karfal’s womanizing ways weren’t important right now.

“Lord Karfal is distantly related to the royal family, so he’ll be helpful to have around when we start negotiating with them.”

Naturally, Karfal was unaware that the king was already dead. That was something I’d need to tell him in person.

I gave everyone a pointed look which told them not to say anything unnecessary, then continued outlining my plan, “We also need to forge alliances with all of the river nobles who’ve surrendered to the coastal nobles. I plan to ask Lord Bahza to take care of that.”

Our top priorities were to create an anti-Zagar alliance, and make sure neither I nor Birakoya was suspected for the king’s murder. Once both of those were accomplished, we could work on rounding up Zagar and his troops. I wanted to get this done as quickly as possible, but if I made even a single mistake, it was entirely possible Zagar would end up being this nation’s new king. He was the last person I wanted to establish diplomatic relations with, so I would much prefer to keep Kuwol in its current state. Preventing Zagar from seizing power was both in the best interests of Meraldia and the Kuwolese people.

Though I tried to proceed with caution, the situation started deteriorating before I could implement even the first phase of my plan. Two days after the king was assassinated, a rumor that he’d fled the country started spreading throughout Karfal.

“Mister General, is it really true that the king ran away?” Miss Paga, the woman whose house I was staying in, asked.

“Where’d you hear that?”

“Our neighbor heard about it in the marketplace. I asked my husband if he knew as well, and he said he’d heard the news from our son, who was told by one of our guests.”

I’d seen propaganda campaigns back in my old world, so I knew exactly what was going on. Chances were, it was Zagar’s underlings who were spreading rumors that the king had fled. I could easily see them visiting the local bars and brothels and telling the prostitutes and barkeepers “in confidence” that the king had run away. From there, the rumors spread like wildfire, and now the citizens were hearing the same lie from multiple sources. Since everyone was corroborating the rumor, it felt more authentic.

America had used similar tactics when the Three Mile Island nuclear plant had a partial meltdown. Or at least, that’s what I’d read online. Incorrect statistics were spread by the government, then everyone started parroting them. So long as you had decent reach, it was surprisingly easy to spread misinformation. Zagar wasn’t just a skilled commander, but also a master at manipulating intel. Beating him wasn’t going to be easy.

Dispelling this rumor would be hard, too, since it was an undeniable fact that the king was missing—except he hadn’t run away, he was dead. Regardless, since he couldn’t appear publicly to quash the rumors, they’d continue to spread. Before long, they’d reach Encaraga and the other nearby cities. Even in death, the king was causing no end of trouble for everyone. Meanwhile, we were forced to lie low, lest we became enemies of the state, and the mastermind behind it all, Zagar, got to continue training his mercenaries without a care in the world. He came to talk with me from time to time too, and I was getting sick of his cheery attitude.

Monza’s squad was still keeping an eye on him, but according to them, Zagar hadn’t made any suspicious moves as of late. Granted, he had no reason to act, since his rumors were doing the job for him. Pajam the Second was already known throughout the country as an idiotic womanizer who appreciated fine art and had absolutely no interest in politics, economics, or military affairs. It was hardly surprising people believed he’d run away, considering the coastal nobles were almost at his front door.

Honestly, allowing the rumors to propagate helped me as well, since it meant I wouldn’t be suspected of killing the king.