Just like Jason promised, he had brought King Vanix and the queen back to L’horm later that day, and just like Jason expected, Vanix had almost gone mad when he saw the amount of damage that had been done to his kingdom! The destroyed castle and demolished houses were the last thing that Vanix expected, and there were long hours of ranting from the loud man.
But what had really thrown Vanix’s anger off the charts was when Vanix learned about the punishments that Jason had given to Makin! Two million gold coins and a glorified house arrest!? What sort of punishment was that! Vanix was absolutely livid! Makin had practically levelled the entire kingdom to the ground with his war, and that was all Jason was going to do to him!?
Vanix demanded to see Jason many times, but Jason was far too busy, and he just told all the messengers to tell Vanix that his decision was final. Jason was spending time in the Northern Alliance Academy and working on the [Mortal Severance Pill] with the other researchers to try and make the effects even stronger. Azrael was also helping the researchers with the knowledge he had, and Jason was surprised when he learned that Diana was also a very good researcher. Apparently, the Bengari had all mastered the art of runecrafting and mana stones analysis from a young age since it was such a big part of their fighting style, and as the Queen of the Bengari, Diana had a higher mastery than any other Bengari!
Jason stayed in the Northern Alliance Academy for three days after his fight against the Lightning Dragon, and it was on the third day that the news arrived to Jason. King Vanix had been killed by poisoning.
Jason wasn’t surprised by the news at all because he had watched everything play out himself using his subordinates all around the palace. The three main people who worked on the murder were Prince Makin, Queen Phina, and a young servant girl that King Vanix had been sleeping with called Selphat.
Since Queen Phina could no longer bear children, Vanix had been sleeping with the servant girl to try and make her bear him a child, and the servant girl didn’t have any choice since she was just a servant. Makin had passed a message to Phina telling her about his plan, and after Phina agreed, the two of them spoke to the young servant girl and brought her in as well! It had all been very simple after that. King Vanix always called Selphat to his chambers in the morning for his tea and sex, and that morning, Selphat had taken the poisoned tea to the king. Usually, a servant girl would never think about poisoning the king! Doing something like that was one way to guarantee your own death!
But the fact that Jason had given Makin his support boosted Makin’s confidence, and Makin had sworn he would protect Selphat if she helped them! Selphat also hated King Vanix, and she wasn’t interested in carrying his child, so she eventually did as Makin told her to, and that morning, just as the king finished drinking his tea and he was about to get on top of her, he slowly fell asleep.
The poison they used was a slow-acting one, so even though they poisoned the king on the second day, everyone believed the king was only sleeping from being so tired, and it wasn’t until the third day that Vanix finally died.
There had been an immediate uproar amongst the elders of the kingdom! Everyone immediately started pointing fingers to try and find who was responsible for the king’s death, and the one person who faced the most accusations was obviously Selphat! Selphat was the King’s personal maid as well as the only woman that had access to the King at all times! If there was anyone in the kingdom that would have the opportunity to poison the king, then it was her! But just like Makin had promised, Makin stood up for Selphat when it mattered most, and Makin began to argue that Selphat was only a servant girl! What benefit would killing the king have for her!?
Makin’s arguments were honestly good, and as a matter of fact, they were so good that people turned their accusations away from Selphat and began to point fingers at him instead! It was true that Selphat wouldn’t have anything to gain from killing the King, but Makin would definitely have something to gain! And it was here that Jason finally made his appearance.
"What good will pointing fingers do for any of you?"
This was the first thing Jason said during a meeting between him and all the nobles in the kingdom. At that point, the kingdom was already close to being fully rebuilt, and it was obvious that they would need a new king to continue ruling them.
"But, my lord. We must find who was responsible for the death of our king."
One of the nobles spoke up with a tense expression on his face, but the noble didn’t dare to look Jason in the eye due to fear, and the noble stared at the ground instead. Jason leaned forward and spoke to the nobles like they were children.
"I left my world and my busy schedule to come and aid you in your war. And now that I am finished, I do not intend to leave this world without seeing a proper King on the throne. Your world is no stranger to mysterious and unexplainable deaths, and from what I’ve heard, the dead king was responsible for some of these mysterious deaths himself. Is it not best we simply move on from this and start anew? Find for yourselves a new king and present him to me. I do not care who it is. So long as he is capable of carrying out his duties properly, there should be no problems."
Jason’s speech that day had been a subtle warning as well as an order to every noble there to behave themselves. The fact that Jason never even brought up Vanix once meant that Jason didn’t care at all about Vanix’s death, and by saying that there needed to be a King before he left, Jason was telling them that they had no choice but to inaugurate the next best candidate for the job! And that person just so happened to be Makin!
There was obviously still some backlash from a few nobles who had been strong Vanix supporters, but at the end of the day, the law of the land mandated that a son of the King must become the new King. And as the only living son of the King, Makin eventually rose to authority as the new King of L’horm, and Jason simply smiled as he watched the massive inauguration party through a window in the royal castle. Stragga was standing beside Jason respectfully, and they were talking about how to handle some of the new duties Jason wanted to give to the Earth Defence Forces.
"When we’re finished here, I’m going to leave you in charge of the EDF for a while. I’ll need you to prepare them for interworld missions and give them a basic rundown of the Primordial Treaty, so they know what they can and can’t involve themselves in."
Stragga smiled and nodded to Jason.
"Of course, Lord Jason. I understand."
"I won’t tolerate any sort of mistakes from them, Stragga, so make sure you train them properly. I’ll be holding you responsible if they do anything stupid during their missions."
Jason glanced back at Stragga when he said this, and Stragga swallowed discreetly before he nodded in understanding.
"My lord."
Jason turned to the side as someone spoke up, and he saw the widowed Queen, Phina, standing there.
....
A/N: Please Vote with GT!