Became The Son Of The Final Boss [EN]: Chapter 128

128.

The Marquis Mike’s castle was bustling with activity today.

They had summoned Marquis Mike’s residents, the western lords, and their soldiers.

As the wyvern corpses were lined up, gasps and murmurs of awe rippled through the crowd.

The wyvern’s head was moved from the last cart.

Because the magic pouch couldn’t hold all the wyvern corpses, they had to borrow carts from Marquis Mike’s castle to transport the bodies. The time spent transporting the wyvern corpses was actually longer than the hunt itself.

“Your Highness!”

A mixture of cheers and sobs erupted, starting with a single voice.

An old man who had lost his son was shedding tears as he looked at the wyvern’s corpse. I moved toward him, who was staring blankly as if he had no regrets even if he died at that moment.

“Your Highness…”

“I’m glad I could keep my promise to you.”

Since everyone was watching, I didn’t use honorifics with the old man.

But the fact that the Crown Prince was personally comforting a resident was enough to surprise everyone.

My sincerity was conveyed to the old man.

“Thank you. Your Highness, thank you!”

The old man, who would have had to bury his son’s memory in his heart for the rest of his life, finally burst into tears at my encouragement.

How could the death of a wyvern truly resolve the grief of losing a child? It was a small consolation, a symbol of hope.

“The West has always suffered from the threat of monsters.”

My voice spread softly.

“We have succeeded in hunting the wyvern, which was called the ruler of the ruins. Monsters are no longer an insurmountable threat. This victory will also help solve the chronic famine problem in the West…”

The gentle breeze created by Sylph [a wind spirit] gradually grew stronger, and Silphelan appeared, amplifying my voice with a great gust of wind so everyone gathered in the castle could hear clearly.

“It will enrich the West. The era of losing parents, children, and property due to monsters is over.”

The residents all bowed their heads.

The lords and Marquis Mike also bent their backs.

* * *

“We need to hurry the restoration of the lord’s castle.”

Marquis Mike nodded.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Leaving aside the fact that Marquis Mike was still staying in the barracks, everyone needed a proper place to gather since he would be the center of the Western Alliance. They couldn’t use a large tent as a conference room forever.

“The rewards that Strategist Ken received from the negotiations with the Riverhill family are coming to the West. Has all the food arrived?”

“Yes, Your Highness. Since there is no warehouse here, we have sent it to Count Ben’s castle for now.”

Count Ben had a large build and a generous personality.

His voice was the loudest when he swore allegiance, and his movements were full of precision.

“We are storing it well, without missing a single grain. We have soldiers guarding it tightly.”

His voice was also full of energy. He didn’t hide his surprise at my skills, and I remembered his enthusiastic appearance when I took out Goran’s corpse.

He gave the impression of being a typical Westerner.

Westerners acknowledge and respect those with good skills, regardless of age or position!

“I heard that each territory’s food reserves have run out due to the war. Distribute it according to the circumstances of the territory.”

I strongly added.

“Please distribute it so that it can all go back to the residents. Winter is not over yet. Use the food thoroughly so that no one dies without getting through the little remaining winter. I want your pledges on this matter.”

“Of course, Your Highness! The residents have all suffered due to the war, so we must make sure they don’t go hungry.”

One by one, they agreed with Count Ben’s answer.

“I will not demand that the lords empty their private wealth and share it with the residents. That is each lord’s personal choice. But if you use the grace I bestow on the West to accumulate private wealth, I will be very disappointed.”

Although they are less so than the central nobles, the western lords were still nobles.

Even in a war that they had all overcome together, they would never compare the merits of a single soldier with their own.

That is the mindset of a noble.

Even if they fought the same, they think that they have made more noble sacrifices and achieved higher achievements because they are nobles.

I had no intention of changing the nobles’ way of thinking right away. The sense of privilege based on the centuries-old class system was still too deeply ingrained for my influence to break at once.

‘For strong centralization, the influence of the nobles must be reduced someday.’

One of the methods was to cultivate nobles who swore absolute allegiance to me.

Cultivating pro-Emperor nobles and placing talented people around me, regardless of their status, to give them influence.

That was the extent of my empire that I was currently envisioning.

“Have you decided on a merchant to distribute the wyvern corpse and the water of purification?”

“There are candidates, but we haven’t decided yet.”

I said somewhat quickly to Marquis Mike’s gentle answer.

“The rumors will spread soon. The wyvern corpse will be the seed money for the rise of western commerce, and the water of purification will become a western specialty. It is good to start preparing for monster hunting based on that.”

The lords may have felt that I was interfering too much in the West. In particular, they thought that the water of purification was a product of Baron Hamilton’s territory and could not become a specialty of the entire West.

How could the treasure of one’s territory become a specialty of the entire region?

To break the prejudices of the western nobles, I brought up the words I had been putting off.

“What did you feel when I first came here as commander?”

No one could answer.

I smiled.

“You must have thought, ‘A young commander means the central government is neglecting the dangers of the West.'”

“No, Your Highness!”

I shook my head at the lords’ urgent voices.

“You have sworn allegiance to me. That means you are all my people now. Honesty is important. It builds a stronger relationship with each other.”

I said to the lords who were swallowing groans.

“I put in a lot of effort to become a commander. Politically, it was a kind of gamble. I didn’t have a strong maternal family like my younger siblings, and even my skills were lacking, so what I needed was power.”

To draw out the other person’s honest feelings, I needed to lower my guard first.

The eyes of the western lords wavered.

“I think there is probably no one who doesn’t know why the young Crown Prince is bothering to come all the way to the West.”

When telling the truth, there was no need to add other words.

The feelings for the Westerners were not false, and the lords’ loyalty was appreciated, and so on, were just rhetoric.

I thought I had already shown those things enough.

If they felt bad about what I said now and harbored resentment, then that lord’s capacity was limited to that extent.

“The growth of the West is more important to me than anything else. That’s why I desperately need your cooperation. I hope you don’t think of it as excessive intervention.”

“We have already sworn allegiance to Your Highness. My territory is Your Highness’s territory, my property is Your Highness’s property, and my life is also Your Highness’s. That is what allegiance is! Please do not feel uncomfortable, Your Highness. Your Highness is already an excellent ruler just by considering our growth as Your Highness’s growth!”

Everyone nodded at Count Ben’s loud voice.

I smiled involuntarily and said.

“Thank you. Then let’s discuss the merchant a little more. It’s a very important matter.”

* * *

“Ugh, I’m tired!”

I stretched as I returned to my barracks. A cracking sound came out.

Was it thanks to my words?

The western lords put forward various opinions as if they had awakened.

I watched the meeting and organized a few things.

‘Count Ben was the most influential lord after Marquis Mike. Is it because of his title, or is it because having a loud voice is the best?’

The other lords tended to be drawn to Count Ben’s loud voice.

As much as he had a generous personality, he also had a strong self-assertion and the power to lead the atmosphere.

It was easy for me.

As long as Count Ben took the same position as me, he would take care of creating the atmosphere.

I was burdened with leaving the Imperial Palace for a long time, but I adjusted the timing of my return to some extent.

‘It would be good to have a picture of my father returning first, and then me returning after some time has passed.’

The distribution of rewards for the Eastern Expedition was meaningless. There was a high probability that no one would be interested.

It was no exaggeration to say that the war that my father went on himself was all my father’s merit.

Still, there would be a distribution of rewards for the Eastern Expedition, so I was thinking of returning after all that work was done.

So that all eyes could be focused on me.

I was thinking of taking some of the wyvern’s corpse to the Imperial Palace.

‘Goran’s corpse and the wyvern’s corpse are very great achievements.’

I had a satisfied smile on my face.

Since coming to the West, things had been going smoothly as I wanted.

The only thing that bothered me was.

“What about the Sword of Destruction…”

Since it was a sword that had come into my hands, I needed to make a decision.

Karen gave it to Gale, and Gale lost it along the way.

And the lost sword has returned.

It would be best for Gale to own it, but Gale strongly refused.

The next thing I could think of was to offer it to my father as a gift.

My heart was strongly drawn to that side.

‘He is a person who can be said to be selfless, but he only coveted the Sword of Destruction.’

I was confused.

Did my father covet the Sword of Destruction itself, or did he covet it because it was Karen’s symbol?

The whereabouts of the Sword of Destruction are determined by what my father’s heart is.

‘If I gave it as a gift and couldn’t get any effect, it would be like losing only the Sword of Destruction.’

It was not an ordinary treasure, but a 100% pure mithril sword.

The power of the mithril sword was that even if it went into the hands of an ordinary knight, they could exert more than one level above their skills, so caution was needed.

‘I’ll have a meeting about this when Ken comes.’

I lay down on the bed.

I checked the system window during the break until dinner, but there were no changes.

It seemed like it would be very difficult to level up in the future.

“Your Highness!”

I got up at the voice coming from outside.

“What’s going on?”

“It’s Riorden.”

“Let him in.”

Riorden bowed his head as soon as he came in and brought up the main point.

“There is someone who has come to see Your Highness.”

“Me?”

I was naturally curious.

If it was the western lords, Riorden would not have said that.

“Let’s meet him first.”

“Yes.”

Riorden went back outside and came in with a middle-aged man.

It was a man I had never seen before.

I offered both of them a seat first.

“Sit down.”

“Thank you, Your Highness. I am Bikan, who runs the Bikan Merchant Guild.”

Bikan introduced himself as he sat down. He seemed to have noticed the curiosity in my eyes.

If he was running a merchant guild, he was a merchant.

Riorden’s eyes widened as soon as he heard the words Bikan Merchant Guild.

I turned my gaze to Riorden.

“It seems like you’ve received a request before?”

“Yes. There was only one time. It wasn’t a difficult request, it was a simple escort request.”

Bikan smiled softly. His eyebrows drew a crescent moon. His slightly thick lips and sharp jawline were impressive.

“Oh, you had such a connection.”

Bikan wasn’t particularly surprised. Perhaps he had experience hiring numerous mercenaries, or perhaps Riorden’s mercenary group was not large enough at the time to make decisions on his own.

“How did you find me?”

“I heard that Your Highness is doing great things in the West.”

I had just finished hunting the wyvern.

It wasn’t yet the time for the rumors to spread to the central government. What did Bikan know and come all the way here?

“Merchants gather information faster than anyone else.”

I leaned back comfortably.

“Riorden.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Without saying much, Riorden understood perfectly and got up.

Bikan looked at me as if he was surprised. It was a look that seemed to say, ‘What do you believe in to have a private meeting with me?’

I was confident in my skills.

I could defeat most assassins, and more than anything, I wanted to make Bikan start talking in earnest.

Wasn’t he quite an interesting person?

‘Bikan Merchant Guild… I don’t remember it, but it seems like a not-so-small merchant guild.’

Bikan opened his mouth.

“There are at least a hundred successful merchant guilds on the continent, but all of them except us have decided on a route. So I came to see Your Highness because I thought it was time for me to decide on a route as well.”

It was a direct statement.

And it was shocking content.

Even if it was the Empire’s top 100 merchant guilds, it was a surprising scale, but Bikan mentioned the continent.

Didn’t that mean that his merchant guild was among the top 100 merchant guilds across the continent?

And the word ‘route’ felt very explicit.

“Does the fact that all 100 merchant guilds have decided on a route mean that they have reached out to the other princes?”

“Your Highness, merchants invest while looking at the future, but they also value the present. The place where the top 100 merchant guilds put the most effort is not the princes, but His Majesty the Emperor.”

I couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

“That’s right. That’s right. I can’t ignore Father. Aren’t you taking too big of a gamble?”

Bikan smiled softly.