Esther de Baronia - Chapter 6.3

Outside the castle, there’s indeed a meadow.

The lush green grass is swept by the gentle breeze, making the green carpet ripple.

When she first sees the situation with her own eyes, Rushka stands there in a daze, still unable to believe it.

There are no people around. All the refugees are gathered in front of the south gate, and the north gate, which is used by the military to enter and exit, is only guarded by guards.

Karon walks a dozen steps from the gate, looks back, and then looks forward again.

“It’s not Apocalypse.”

His first visit to the outside.

For the first time, he’s able to see the royal castle, which he always only sees from nearby.

The sight of the castle, gleaming in silver and white, gives him a sense of divinity, as if it is loved by heavens.

When he becomes aware that the emblem of the country fluttering on the tower is also engraved on the back of his coat, he feels a slight sense of superiority that the divine country is his.

Outside the castle, where he had been longing to go, the magnificent nature spread out like an adventure story, and the fresh air blowing through the castle made his cloak and royal robe flutter, and his eyes reflected a beautiful world that foreshadowed a great adventure full of dreams and hopes.

“…”

It feels like a loss not to enjoy this situation.

There is the outside world, the heart of demons, and the never ending content that he has always longed for.

It’s an unknown world, full of dangers, but it still excites his heart, just like the prologue of a common story, doesn’t it?

He envisioned such a future, but Karon quietly shakes his head and scoffs to himself.

If that was the role of an adventurer, it would be the most fun to do so.

But he’s not an adventurer full of dreams.

He’s a king.

He’s a king, and even if he’s just a hippie, he can’t travel around the world.

Living here in his garden is the best he can do for the king.

Perhaps it’s the fresh air, but he feels a little calmer. At least he doesn’t feel like throwing a tantrum.

He’s not sure if he’s able to make any calm decisions, but he doesn’t feel like acting haphazardly anymore, and he feels like he can say no to Rushka the next time she asks him to walk around town.

He feels like he can do this now.

He takes a deep breath in and a strong exhale, clasps his hands together, and surely Karon’s enthusiasm takes shape as he stares ahead.

“Okay, let’s do this.”

Nature is a great thing, and standing here in this vast meadow, he feels strangely energized.

Maybe it’s because there are no demons around at all, but it’s enough to make Karon’s mind move forward.

He opens a console window, selects his inventory, and pulls out a few cards at random.

Four cards appear out of the empty space, emitting a glowing bubble effect.

This is the [Monster Chart], which is necessary to summon monsters.

There are two ways to increase the number of monsters in a country: one is to persuade the monsters living in the territory you control, and the other is to win prizes in a lottery.

In the former, you can only get low-ranked demons, but there is a low probability that cross-breeding will produce higher-ranked demons.

The latter has two types of gacha: free gacha and charged gacha. The free gacha can be drawn with the points you receive for completing quests, and you can obtain medium-ranked monsters. As you can imagine, you can get high ranking demons for cash in the charged gacha.

The monsters you get in this way are registered in your inventory as this monster chart, and you can use it when summoning to get the monsters written on the chart.

In Karon’s hand, there are four cards: a rank 1 variant [Gunpowder Slime], a rank 4 demonic beast species [Garm], a rank 6 [Dragon Zombie], and a rank 8 demonic beast species [Cerberus].

The initial loyalty of a demon is determined by its rank in the chart for summoning.

Rank 1 is 90%, rank 2 is 80%, rank 9 is 10%, rank 10 is 0%, and so on.

Loyalty is increased by deploying and using units in various quests, and by rewarding them for participating in wars.

There are items that increase loyalty by 10% for a fee, but they are expensive for what they do, so he only used items that fixed loyalty.

The purpose of coming here was to see if he could use summoning.

But Rushka’s with him.

She has a special performance, but her level is at maximum, and there’s no way she can’t beat a freshly summoned demon.

She is the most trustworthy demon Karon has ever seen. She accepts his requests without any unpleasantness, and thinks about the internal affairs together with him.

He’s sure she’ll be fine if he asks.

“Rushka.”

Karon calls out to her, who is waiting behind him.

“Yes?”

She replies clearly.

“If something happens to me, will you help me?”

“Yes, of course. If there is anyone who threatens King Karon, I, Rushka of Anomalies, will protect you with all my heart.”

He didn’t tell her what he’s about to do, but it seems she got the message. She answered in a happy voice that it was powerful enough to make her cheeks break out.

That said, he thinks he can believe in Rushka’s “loyalty”.

He looks at the cards in his hands and thinks about what to summon.

If the demon’s loyalty is high, it won’t rebel against the king’s orders and will use more skills and magic. There is even a special skill for maximum loyalty.

That’s how it was explained in the game, but he wonders if this would become a reality and if demons with low loyalty would attack him. He wants to find out.

There’s only one person, but he has someone to believe in. It is very reassuring and supports him to take the first step.

Karon decides to summon a rank 4 Garm of his own volition.

A rank 8 Cerberus is too adventurous to be a quarry, and his loyalty is too high to be a rank 1 Gunpowder Slime. The dragon zombie is undead and will die in the sun without the blessing of the true ancestor.

He can be more selective with his cards, but conveniently, rank 4 is perfect for verification and just strong enough for Rushka to take out in one hit.

After paying the in-game currency required for the summoning and activating the summoning program, he’s instructed to place the chart of the demon to be summoned on the ground.

With a nervous look on his face, he slowly pulls out the card, which is opened in a fan shape with his left hand.

Until a few seconds ago, he thought that he would be fine because of Rushka, but when it comes down to it, he’s terrified.

If it attacks him, or if she’s too late to help him, his deep-seated weakness kicks in and his hands begin to tremble.

Garm’s chart is being pulled up little by little.

Just as he’s almost finished, he hears a noise coming from the castle.

When Karon and Rushka turn around to see what’s going on, they find Jeremiah of Fusnik, being chased by Gladora of Kurosel, who’s running fast and furious, heading for their direction.

“Ousama!”

With a big smile on her face, Jeremiah comes over, wagging her big, fluffy tail, apparently very happy to have found her master, whom she rarely sees since he is confined to the castle.

Karon wonders why she’s here, but it quickly dissipates.

It’s not like he’s fallen in love with a tall, mature woman with a debaucherous smile who wants him.

Karon’s eyes see Jeremiah for a few seconds, as his attention is drawn to the huge wolf that is following behind.

“Wait, you b*tch! I’m going to rip your tail off and wrap it around your neck, so hold still!”

“Whoo-hoo! You’re so vulgar in front of the king, you dog!”

“I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you! You’re a dead, b*tch!”

Karon’s nose wrinkles and suddenly remembers in a corner of his mind that when he was in elementary school, a friend of his had a Siberian husky in the yard that jumped at him, trying to bite him even though the chain was wrapped around its neck.

That’s it. If the owner doesn’t discipline it, the dog will judge the stranger’s pecking order as the lowest and attack him.

In other words, the demons are badly disciplined, and its owner is  Karon, himself.

They are disciplined enough not to bite their owner, aren’t they?

However, the horrifying scene that loomed over Karon does not end there.

“Lord! I’m home now!”

When he turns his head back to the front, he sees tens of thousands of huge shadows coming from the horizon.

The idea that it’s an army on an expedition never occurred to him.

The sight of thousands of black shadows coming at him with the earth shaking in unison is a welcome from hell, no matter how one looks at it.

His courage shatters in pieces as he feels as if the loud voices of the soldiers are inviting him to come to them.

The blood is drained from his face and Karon begins to tremble. He had said earlier that he could trust Rushka, but the idea that anyone other than Rushka could be trusted blew away.

Her fingers tremble so violently that he accidentally pulls out a card. It falls from his left hand to the ground. However, it’s not the card that he intended to draw in the first place.

–completion of attestation.