Chapter 90 (1/2)

Vur retracted his aura and smiled at the crowd before walking back towards Tafel. The crowd broke out into whispers as they regained strength in their bodies.

“King? Him?”

“Is this real?”

“The spirits accepted him. It’s my first time seeing them in person.”

One man, wearing a white suit with an eagle crest on his shirt pocket, shoved aside the man standing next to him. “I can’t accept this!” he shouted towards Vur who was making his way past him in the crowd. “Someone like you can’t become king!”

Vur tilted his head and turned towards the man. “Oh?” he asked. “Then why didn’t you say anything earlier when I asked if there were any objections?”

The man gritted his teeth. “That’s because…” the man said as his voice trailed off. “It doesn’t matter. What’s important is that at this very moment, I refuse to accept you as king.”

“As king, I deny your refusal,” Vur said and continued walking towards Tafel.

“What’s wrong with all of you?” the man shouted as he whirled around and gestured at the people in the crowd. “How can you just accept this?”

A few nobles murmured in assent and nodded. The commoners looked at each other and avoided the man’s gaze. “This doesn’t change anything for us,” one man with a straw-hat said. His pants were ragged and torn at the ankles. “The crown could change hands to a pig and our quality of living would be the same.”

“How can you say that?” the man with the eagle crest asked and slapped the commoner. “The king cares about all his people! Letting someone like him,” he said and pointed at Vur’s back, “become king will ruin the nation. I bet he doesn’t know the first thing about running a country! Do you know who I am!?” He shouted at Vur.

Vur turned his head and furrowed his eyebrows. “Are you important?” he asked.

“Yes! I’m Raffgier, head of the Ruhr household! The amount of wealth and power I hold is second only to the royal family. There’s no one who hasn’t heard of me,” the man said and puffed his chest out.

Vur nodded. “In that case, I declare Raffgier a traitor and strip him of his noble title and land. You,” he said and pointed at the man with the straw-hat. “You’re now the head of the Ruhr household.”

“Eh?” both the noble and the commoner asked.

“You can’t do that, Vur,” Tafel said after she teleported next to him.

“Why not?” Vur asked and tilted his head, ignoring the flustered Raffgier.

“You just can’t! It doesn’t make sense,” Tafel said as she sighed. “You’re breaking the order of things. Apologize to the king and give that poor bishop his clothes back.”

“Don’t want to,” Vur said and crossed his arms, hugging the bishop’s clothes tighter. “I’m king.” The crowd fell silent as Tafel and Vur stared at each other.

“You can’t just declare yourself as king,” Tafel said.

“I just did. I performed a coup d’état.”

“A coup can’t be done by a single person!”

“Why not?”

“Because a single person can’t fight against a whole nation,” Tafel said. Her voice trailed off and she hung her head.

“But I can,” Vur said and tilted his head.

Tafel opened her mouth to speak, but shut it a second later. She sighed. “You’re right,” she said after a pause. “But it still feels so wrong.”