The Founding Monarch Became the Mastermind

Chapter 106

The world is unfair.

Si-on realized this back in Korea.

Individuals are unfair, and nations and peoples are no exception.

Even neighboring countries, so close that you could stumble and fall into one, can be divided into those who advance and those who fall behind due to a single small cause.

This world, where the speed of information transmission was sluggish, was even more so.

In the same country, there could be a difference of 10 or 20 years in technological or cultural development.

After passing the title of Duke to his eldest son, Jang Theo, and traveling with his wife, Si-on saw firsthand the rampant unfairness in this world.

Some countries had extraordinarily advanced cultures and technologies, while in a country just a few kilometers away, proper irrigation and water control hadn’t been established, and the farmers lived no better than beggars.

In one country, people acted with common sense, upholding morality and dignity in society, while in another, they believed that expressing selfish desires and instincts was the right of the nobility.

They behaved like beasts, indulging themselves whenever they pleased.

The Kingdom of Guslander, especially the Garen Count’s family, was clearly primitive and undeveloped.

The only area where the Garen County excelled compared to other territories or countries was in shipbuilding technology.

The reason they designated the Souden port territory as the successor’s jurisdiction was to let the heir gain a comprehensive understanding of shipbuilding.

However, over time, the ancestor’s legacy had faded, and it had become nothing more than an ATM for the heirs to make quick money during their tenure.

As a result, even the once-proud shipbuilding technology of the Garen County was now on the verge of being overtaken by competitors.

But neither the former Count, the current Count, nor the successor cared about this.

They were merely the “typical” high-ranking nobles of this world, greedily amassing wealth and indulging in luxury.

Their vassals and administrators were no different.

They had no interest in developing the territory or improving the lives of its people.

For three or four generations, they did nothing to improve, barely even maintaining the status quo.

The only thing passed down was the “family name,” and that was the state of Garen County and Souden.

Indeed.

Garen County and Souden were ‘trash.’

But the truth was, most other territories in this world were also ‘trash.’

Compared to Si-on’s duchy, which had an immortal being from another world as its founding patriarch, other territories seemed so pitifully primitive and underdeveloped.

What was even more problematic was that they had no idea.

It wasn’t quite the gap between Hernán Cortés, with his horses and gunpowder, and the Bronze Age Aztec Empire.

But, equipped with the most advanced metalworking techniques of the Cheolsan Dwarves, Si-on’s Peregrine Division made sure that the knights and mercenaries of Souden quickly realized just how ‘trash’ they were.

* * *

“Ah, ah…”

“Hic! Hiccup!”

None of the Souden nobles who had left the annex looked intact.

All of them had collapsed or clung to pillars, groaning or hiccupping in shock and fear, their faces painted with terror.

Five minutes? At most ten minutes?

That’s all it took for about 160 knights and mercenaries to be sprawled on the ground.

“Heuuh… Heuhng!”

“Please, spare me. Please…”

“Krk, krk…”

As cries of pain and agony escaped from the dying, the phrase ‘blood flowed like a river’ became a reality.

Not a single exception.

They were either already corpses or severely injured, waiting to become corpses soon.

On the other hand, not a single one of Si-on’s men had fallen.

The overwhelming gap in skill aside, the difference in the quality of their weapons was enormous.

The Souden knights and mercenaries’ spears and swords couldn’t even pierce the shields, let alone the brigandines of Si-on’s forces.

They couldn’t even scratch the leather covering the brigandine.

But the enemy’s arrows and spears pierced their armor with ease.

– Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

The Souden nobles didn’t know this saying, but they believed their opponents were using magic.

That’s how vast the technological gap was between Si-on’s duchy and other territories.

Add overwhelming skill to those seemingly magical weapons, and the result was inevitable.

A massacre.

It was a true massacre.

Amidst the carnage, the only one not riding a Gau, but instead on horseback, slowly advanced.

No one said anything, but the Souden nobles all had the same thought.

– He’s a Demon King!

This man was truly a Demon King.

He led the demons, beheading and crushing the heads of the most people at the forefront.

And now, that Demon King was approaching them.

“Hii! Hiiik…”

The nobles of Souden, who had already wet themselves, completely lost control of their bowels.

Though their yellow urine mixed with muddy brown water, the smell didn’t change much, as the stench of blood filled the air.

“Someone once told me,”

“……!”

The voice was so chilling and devoid of emotion, so fitting for a Demon King, that the bodies of the Souden nobles froze.

“If there are no witnesses, it’s not a crime.”

“Gasp!”

The noble who had said those exact words less than thirty minutes ago widened his eyes.

“I agree with that statement. Especially in this barbaric world, it might as well be a golden rule.”

“Pl-please spare me…”

Shuak!

With a sharp sound, the head of the noble who had spoken fell.

Puhak!

Perhaps due to high blood pressure, blood spurted almost a meter high from his severed neck as he collapsed forward.

“If it were up to you, would you spare a witness who begged for mercy? I doubt it.”

Si-on lightly flicked his sword to rid it of the blood and surveyed the remaining nobles.

One of them, who still had a shred of sanity, trembled violently but knelt and shouted.

“Please forgive us! If you let us live, we will expose Zaitz Garen’s and the other three’s sins to the whole world and make sure they pay the price!”

“Haa… I must admit, your courage is commendable, but how can you be so stupid even now?”

“P-pardon?”

“If I were you, I would’ve said this: ‘Bury this incident. In return, I will do whatever you ask.’”

“……!”

“Zaitz Garen has neglected his duties and responsibilities as the Lord’s representative and tarnished the honor of Souden and the Garen family with his reckless and selfish actions. Therefore, we leave his punishment entirely in your hands.”

“Ah…!”

“Understand? That’s how you negotiate, you ignorant fool. Are you even a noble?”

“……”

As his face turned ashen, Si-on’s voice continued to drill into his ears.

“And you know what? If you’d said that from the beginning, those men over there wouldn’t have died today. You understand? The deaths of those hundred or so people are all your fault, you stupid bastards.”

“Grrrr!”

“You’re weak in battle, and your thinking is just as pathetic. You worthless scum dared to covet this land? What? No witnesses, no crime? Ha!”

Si-on snorted coldly and turned around.

Then, he addressed the members of the Peregrine Division, who stood covered in blood, awaiting orders.

“Gather the corpses and clean up. Even if they’re scum, give them a proper burial. Go to the mayor and summon all the embalmers in Flandre.”

“Yes, sir!”

Today, the embalmers and undertakers of Flandre would be incredibly busy.

* * *

Pedro Piel was born into an old noble family of Souden.

His family, the Piel family, was one of the stagnant old nobles who actually ran Souden.

The other nobles who had come to Flandre with Pedro were also members of similar stagnant noble families.

The reason Pedro and these nobles had come to Flandre?

They had come to both support and monitor Zaitz, whom they referred to as a “puppet brat.”

Zaitz’s plan, based on a letter of request for help sent by the mayor’s wife, wasn’t bad.

If it succeeded, their standing within their families would rise.

Failure? Then they could simply cut the strings of the puppet.

Either way, Pedro and the nobles thought they had nothing to lose.

That was, until Zaitz Garen, that wretched puppet brat, caused a massive disaster.

“No. That’s not it…”

“Huh?”

Pedro, who had changed into clean clothes and was trembling as he brooded, suddenly spoke, drawing the attention of the other nobles.

“The one who caused the disaster wasn’t that wretched puppet brat. We… we made an even bigger mess.”

“S-Sir Pedro…?”

“Listen up, all of you.”

“Huh?”

Pedro looked around at the puzzled nobles.

They were still terrified, but having survived the ordeal, their expressions had improved compared to before.

‘Ah… so that’s why the Demon King called us ignorant and uneducated.’

There were blind fools who couldn’t see an inch ahead of themselves.

Of course, until a moment ago, he was one of these idiots too.

“If we go back like this, we’re all dead.”

“Wh-what!?”

“Do you really think the elders of our families will leave us alone?”

“……!”

“They’ll deal with us and keep their mouths shut. Or, they’ll deal with us and offer compensation to the Si-on Duchy to settle things.”

Yes. Either way, ‘we’ would be disposed of.

The nobles’ faces turned pale as they finally realized this.

“Th-then what do we do, Sir Pedro?”

It disgusted Pedro to see these grown men looking at him like baby birds waiting to be fed.

But thanks to the ‘Demon King of Si-on,’ he had awakened to a new level of understanding, so he held back his urge to curse and spoke.

“What else can we do? We have to pin everything on that wretched puppet brat.”

“Ah!”

“And that’s not all. If we want to survive, we must prove our usefulness.”

“P-prove our usefulness?”

“I just told you, didn’t I? The elders of our families will either stay silent or offer compensation to the Si-on Duchy.”

“……?”

Frustrated with the clueless baby birds, Pedro raised his voice.

“Whether it’s the former or the latter, do you think the Demon King will just let it go? Do you think he’ll just say, ‘Ah, is that so?’ and move on? No! That Demon King will surely invade! And he’ll bring far more troops from the Si-on Duchy than he did today!”

“Eek!?”

In the nobles’ minds, the image of the Demon King and his 50 demons appeared.

And naturally, their thoughts replayed the atrocities committed by those demons.

The blood that flowed like a river.

The severed limbs scattered everywhere.

The guts and brains that spilled out and were trampled underfoot.

“Ugh! Blagh!”

The nobles retched as the horrific massacre replayed in their heads.

“That Demon King will come to Souden with ten times, no, twenty times more troops than before. Do you think Souden, or the Count’s family, can stop him?”

The nobles, their faces drained of color, shook their heads vehemently.

“So, we need to go back and tell the truth. We need to show the elders our worth.

We are the only ones who have seen and experienced the Demon King firsthand. We must make them understand that whatever the Demon King demands, they must comply.

And we must show the Demon King that only we can persuade Souden and the Garen family. That we are useful.”

Thus, Pedro Piel became the only noble of Souden to escape being ‘trash.’