Building A Human Empire By Creating A Clan [EN]: Chapter 76

Edar spoke quietly, flinching slightly. “Aren’t you curious about the reason, Father?”

###

“Thank you.”

I looked at Yulia.

“Thank you for healing Father and protecting the territory.”

Yulia greeted me just before I left for Seudret.

Marquis Loegene did not come out to see me off.

His energy was depleted, and he needed to focus on recovery.

Shouting in the plaza had taken quite a toll.

“Don’t forget what you promised me.”

Forbidding tributes and not buying or selling humans.

She hardened her expression and nodded firmly.

“I know.”

Not buying or selling humans was merely annoying, but stopping the tributes was a life-threatening challenge.

If my guarantee to take responsibility was a lie, the tributes that Marquis Loegene had been making for generations would collapse.

The responsibility for that would fall entirely on the Loegene family.

“Don’t worry. By the time they say anything to you, many things will have already ended.”

“What are you going to do now?”

“Take Seudret, unite Germania, and eradicate the parasites.”

“Is that possible?”

Possible, you ask?

“I have to make it possible.”

The Duke of Seudret withdrew the banishment and disownment.

I regained the Seudret name and the right to inherit the family.

However, this does not mean that Seudret has come to me.

‘The Duke intends to use me. Just for a little while.’

The reason the Duke took me back.

On the surface, there are two reasons.

‘One is that he judged he couldn’t kill me, who has an army that crushed the Knights, in this place, and he’ll look for an opportunity later.’

If I enter Seudret, the escort will naturally be minimized.

‘The other is that I am the only one who can solve the Emperor’s Curse circulating in the duchy.’

The curse circulating in the duchy targets vassals.

Since I learned that the Emperor’s Curse is not a disease but a parasite, he wouldn’t have budged if the curse was circulating among freemen or slaves.

However, it was circulating among the vassals in charge of the Duke’s direct territory.

It is a situation that cannot be ignored.

‘These two are the biggest reasons for outsiders to see, but if you know the Duke well, you can see the third reason. The force spreading the Emperor’s Curse is the Wolf Cult.’

Why is the Wolf Cult being the leading force a reason?

Because the Duke is questioning it.

Why can’t Seudret become the King of Germania?

‘A branch of the royal family. As if Germania only has one or two branches. Moreover, the royal family has been exchanging among these branches, but Seudret has never become the royal family.’

As Marquis Loegene said, not just anyone can become a king.

Only the excellent breed chosen by the representative assembly can become the royal family.

That means not being the royal family means not being an excellent breed.

‘No, an excellent breed, but not enough to be raised as king.’

The top breed right below the highest breed.

That is the current Seudret, and the Duke should know this.

The Duke must be spending anxious times obsessed.

Even though I show such loyalty, does the master think of me differently? He must be thinking.

‘At this time, the Wolf Cult and its followers joined hands and spread the curse. Secretly to the Duke, even in the duchy.’

Are Horbid or the followers planning only one or two schemes?

Even if they were carrying out smaller tasks than this, they would have received a notification.

They are carrying out such a huge task without even a word?

He must be thinking that Seudret is being excluded.

‘Seudret being excluded must be because of me.’

Because I humiliated Raeragon and the representative assembly.

Seudret must have been implicated for the sole reason that I am related by blood.

‘The Duke must also have a suspicion close to certainty. But for now, the value of use is higher. He will have me solve the curse, reveal the truth, and then try to abandon or kill me again.’

Unfortunately for him, that day will not come.

‘It’s futile. The result is already decided.’

I was sure.

Because I know him well.

Because I know secrets he doesn’t know.

Because he is already finished even if I don’t do anything.

‘You are already in the sights of the Wolf Cult.’

I recalled a letter I didn’t hand over to the Duke.

The Wolf Cult’s plan to capture and seize influential families.

The Duchy of Seudret was also included in the target.

‘Attempt to capture, and if it doesn’t work, exterminate. But from my point of view, it seems that extermination has already been decided.’

I raised the corners of my lips, recalling the contents of the letter.

“Yulia.”

I called her name and tapped the letter I had put in my arms.

She, who knew the contents, nodded with a firm expression.

“Don’t disband the troops, wait.”

“You’re thinking of doing it right away.”

“Because there’s no time.”

Yulia tilted her head.

“Weren’t you staying here too long, saying there’s no time?”

“Rather, because there was no time, I gave Seudret the time to gather troops.”

“Induced, you say?”

She blinked.

I snorted.

How many nobles are there in Germania?

Should I go and persuade them one by one?

“Doesn’t this thought occur to you? Why would I bother giving Duke Seudret time to gather troops? To wage a big battle? If so, why didn’t I wage a battle?”

I clapped my hands.

“I am numerically inferior, but I have troops that overwhelm the Knights even in numerical inferiority. But why would I do such a simple thing?”

She, still tilting her head, couldn’t come up with an answer.

“Because what I wanted from the beginning was for the Duke to gather his vassals. Not to crush the Duke’s vassals.”

“What’s the reason?”

“To subjugate them to me all at once.”

I patted her on the shoulder.

“Keep the border open. The rearguard will come.”

Her eyes widened.

“They aren’t the rearguard?”

“They’re the vanguard. Because the situation has changed.”

If I was just aiming for the throne of Germania, it would have been enough.

Because I could get the Duchy of Seudret and make a few threats.

But the situation has changed greatly.

The time has come to bet everything I have built up so far.

‘When this journey ends, the name Germania will disappear from the human world. Along with the name Wallachia. Because an era of upheaval is coming that can’t be helped.’