LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 39: He Was a Useless King
===Secret of a Certain King of a Certain Small Kingdom===
「W-W-W-W-WHAT SHOULD I DOOOOOOO?!」
A fat, middle-aged man was screaming helplessly while pacing around his throne.
He was the king of Tana Kingdom, Leonhardt the Second.
「Calm down, Your Majesty. Remember, you're the top dog of this kingdom. What do you think will happen to the citizens if they know that you're panicking like this.」
And the one who warned him was the young prime minister who wielded his wit to assist Leonhardt.
He was a genius who managed to win over the position of the king's right-hand man despite only being in his thirties.
「Like hell can I calm down in this situation!」
And yet, Leonhardt was still screaming anxiously despite that advice.
「To think that the great disaster-class monster… the No Life King is coming to this kingdom! There are bigger countries, right?! Why the hell is that guy coming to this small country that'll disappear with just a single flick from him?!」
Leonhardt was currently racking his brain to make a plan to deal with a certain world-threat-class existence, whose appearance was confirmed in a small frontier village in his kingdom. It was the No Life King.
Unlike the Romana Kingdom which had a long history, he was wondering why that monster came to a small, insignificant kingdom like Tana.
Leonhardt was at his wit's end; he couldn't help but curse at this unfortunate event.
「No, wait a minute… that's right! This small kingdom barely has any charm for that undead! Now that I think about it, the origin of this news was the two adventurers who just returned from that small village! That information might be inaccurate since there's only two eyewitnesses! Yes, it must be their imagination! They're just imagining things!」
Leondhardt persuaded himself, trying to run away from reality, but the young prime minister mercilessly jolted (kicked) him back to reality.
「Your Majesty. Although that village is located deep in that vast forest and almost impossible to traverse by foot, geographically speaking, that village is close to Romana Kingdom. The No Life King was last seen in Romana Kingdom, but it's plausible that he suddenly appeared in our kingdom's territory.」
「HNGHHHHH!」
Leonhardt groaned when his delusion was quickly dismissed by the prime minister.
「In addition, we need to make preparations for the worst-case situation. Since the No Life King appeared, the first thing we need to do is confirm his route.」
「A~H, A~H, I CAN'T HEA~R YOU~!」
Leonhardt covered his own ears, still trying to escape from reality.
The young prime minister heaved a sigh and then muttered in small voice.
「…This useless king.」
「Hey, WHAT DID YOU SAY JUST NOW!」
「No, I didn't say anything. Just asking myself, even though the two of you are kings, why are you so different from the hero king of Romana?」
「LET ME TO MAKE IT CLEAR TO YOU! ANYONE WILL BE TROUBLED IF THEY'RE COMPARED TO THAT MONSTER OF A KING! THERE'S EVEN A RUMOR THAT HE SINGLE-HANDEDLY CHALLENGED THE NO LIFE KING!」
「Naturally, no one is going to compare Your Majesty with the hero king. In the first place, this kingdom is already very lucky if you have a tenth… no, a hundredth… or even a thousandth of the abilities of that king.」
「EEEK! WEREN'T YOU JUST LOWERING THE SCORE OF YOUR OWN KING JUST NOW! I MEAN, EVEN SOMEONE LIKE ME… WANTED TO BECOME A GREAT KING LIKE THAT HERO KING TOOOOOOOOOOOOO!」
Leonhardt was wailing in tears.
The young prime minister heaved a sigh.
「Haa… anyhow, it's not like our problems are going to disappear, no matter how much you shake that flabby fat of yours.」
「Wait a minute… didn't that remark toward your king go a bit too far just now?」
「What do you think? Shall we gather everyone to find a solution to this situation?」
「Y-Yeah… you're right.」
Despite blatantly being ignored by the prime minister, Leonhardt had no choice but to agree since he was completely relying on the prime minister's wisdom.
At that moment…
「Your Excellency Prime Minister, a holy knight from the Saint Melt religion wants to have an audience with you. What should I do?」
The soldier reported to the prime minister.
After pondering for a while,
「…I understand. Allow her to come in.」
「Eh? What about my permission?」
Holy Knight Limule, who reached an agreement with the hero king of Romana, had arrived in this small kingdom called Tana.
The reason for her arrival was because she heard directly from the hero king that the white-haired undead was flying in the direction of the Tana kingdom, accompanied by the Thunder Dragon Emperor.
「There is a great forest between Romana and Tana Kingdoms, which is impossible to cross by foot, even by skilled adventurers. But that undead might be able to do so.」
That was right; she entered the Tana Kingdom from the Romana Kingdom along with her special team.
Naturally, they took a detour around the great forest.
By the way, the goal of her special team was subjugating the necromancer Jean Diego, but after Jean's death was confirmed by them, their duty changed to finding the whereabouts of the No Life King.
In short, even without the request from the hero king, she would still be chasing after the white-haired undead.
Thus, as soon as she arrived at Tana Kingdom's royal capital, she went straight to the royal castle.
After all, she knew that the best source of the information was the center of the kingdom.
「My name is Limule, part of Albert's Holy Knight Order. Thank you very much for granting me a chance for the audience right away with the king despite my sudden notice.」
As soon as she arrived in front of Leonhardt, Limule kneeled, introducing herself and expressed her gratitude for the king who allowed the audience.
The one who sat on the throne was, of course, the burly, middle-aged man.
Despite having a fairly handsome face, his eyes were swimming for some reason, completely bereft of a calm and majestic air which was indispensable for any king.
Maybe because she had met the hero king before, she felt that the king who currently sat in front of her right now was… unreliable.
「Oh, welcome. I'm the king of this kingdom, Leonhardt… Well, what is the reason for your visit to a small kingdom like ours?」
「For the reason that I think Your Majesty is already aware of―the No Life King.」
「Hiiii…」
「…Your Majesty?」
The king screamed for some reason just by hearing her say No Life King.
The young man who stood beside the throne coughed lightly as if to remind the king.
「U-Uhm… Of course, I know about that. The great disaster-class undead who suddenly appeared in Romana…」
「Yes. You might know about this, but that undead is suspected to have crossed the border. He might be wandering in your kingdom at this very moment.」
「NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!」
「??!!」
Limule was greatly perplexed upon seeing Leonhardt suddenly scream as if he was at his wit's end.
Just when she was wondering what happened to the king, the young man from before knocked Leohardt's head with a bulky stack of documents.
「BUH?!!」
Leonhardt fainted immediately upon receiving that critical hit.
「…Eh?」
That young man then spoke with a smile toward the bewildered Limule.
「My apologies. His Majesty seems to be overexerting himself with his duties as the king. If it's okay with you, do allow me to hear your story.」
「I-Is His Majesty… really okay?」
「Don't worry about him. A short nap is all he needs. Rather than that, please continue with your story about the No Life King. Actually, His Majesty and I were in the middle of making a countermeasure plan against that undead a while ago. To be honest, a certain adventurer duo said that they saw that man in a certain village in our kingdom.」
「…As expected.」
According to the detailed report, that village's location was really close to the border of Romana Kingdom in the great forest.
「As you already know, our kingdom is so insignificant that it'll be blown away with just a single sneeze from that undead. On top of that, we don't have a charismatic and strong king like the hero king. All he can do is wail in panic without having any sort of plan like a pi―」
「…」
‘You were about to say pig, huh….' was what Limule thought, but she decided to hold back from retorting.
The politics and governing of the kingdom weren't her problem.
「Fortunately, the transmission of information in our kingdom is fairly slow. Though many of our citizens still have no idea about this matter, I'm afraid that it's only a matter of time before a great panic happens due to the spread of the rumor. Naturally, we have no war potential to subjugate the No Life King either. As you might expect, we're completely at a loss…」
The man was probably really worried about the kingdom.
Thus, Limule said to him.
「Allow us, the Holy Knights of Saint Melt Religion to deal with that No Life King. We're also equipped with the secret weapon to purify the undead. We'll make sure to not leave even a speck of dust of that undead behind.」
Naturally, she was bluffing.