Chapter 96 - The Missing Princess 1 (2/2)
“What are those circumstances you speak of? What are you secretly scheming in my kingdom?”
“I have already mentioned this earlier, but I was looking for a certain ancient book.”
Woohyuk spoke of the events at Count Oswald’s mansion and appropriately explained his situation.
King Henry was surprised after listening to the end of the story.
“You were the one who saved Count Oswald from the shadow killer? I was not aware of that information.”
“The Witch Cult is probably also the culprit behind Princess Lizbeth’s disappearance.”
The Witch Cult was trying to intervene in the Izuna Kingdom.
But with the presence of a variable they had not predicted, their plans had changed.
King Henry nodded at Woohyuk’s explanation.
“No wonder you took the Rhine Kingdom’s throne with your own abilities. I understand, Chun Woohyuk. I shall trust your words. I will also forget about the fact that you were inside the secret section.”
“A wise choice. Now, would it be possible for your subjects to leave this hall other than your most trusted subordinates?”
“That is preposterous! Your Majesty, you must not believe this man’s words! We must immediately torture…”
“I understand. Everyone, leave this room.”
King Henry waved his hand at his vassals. Soon, they left the hall in an orderly manner, and Ronald’s eyes went wide at this sight.
“Your, Your Majesty…”
“Please stay silent, Sir Ronald.”
King Henry was currently only interested in the safety of his daughter.
If he could learn of her whereabouts, making his vassals leave was but a small request to him.
“It’s become a lot quieter.”
Woohyuk was now satisfied.
“I’ve done as you have requested me. Now, what is this offer of yours?”
“Allow me to help the search for Princess Lizbeth. Instead, please promise that you will come to my kingdom’s aid with sufficient military reinforcements in times of crisis.”
“Military reinforcements… Indeed, that would be acceptable if you were to bring my daughter back safely.”
“Are you accepting the offer?”
“Indeed. However, I will come to your aid through military support only once. If we keep dispatching the army to the Rhine Kingdom, our own nation will be in jeopardy.”
“Alright. Let us do as such.”
“Ronald, return the weapon to its owner.”
“Yes? Yes…”
At King Henry’s order, Ronald handed Grandia to Woohyuk with a dumbfounded face.
He was confused as the person he had been treating as a criminal was in fact the king of a neighboring country.
“Could you assign this man to me as well?”
“Take him if you need him. He is called Ronald, the chief court magician.”
Other than him, there were also the royal knights and the city guards who were at his disposition.
After receiving the rights to command them in cases of emergencies from the king, Woohyuk left the throne room.
“Ronald, where was Princess Lizbeth when she disappeared?”
“At the fountain garden in front of the palace.”
As the fountain garden was quite large in scale, it was the perfect location to kidnap the unarmed princess.
Woohyuk went to the crime scene with Ronald and the other members of the Spiritual Society.
‘I sense demonic energy here.’
Although the incident had happened a while ago, the turbid energy was still hanging in the air.
Woohyuk spoke as he scanned the surrounding area with the Archeologist’s Golden Magnifying Glass.
“It appears that they used a flying monster.”
“Why do you think so?”
“I’ve found the footsteps of a gargoyle.”
In reality, there was only a small hole in the ground, but the magnifying glass drew the outline of a footprint.
Following the gargoyle’s traces, Woohyuk discovered that the location it most likely flew off towards was…
‘The wasteland.’
A place the notorious and infamous alchemist called Lucas had secluded himself in his past life.
Hidden there, he used the forbidden human transmutation technique to mass produce chimeras.
But then, he caught the attention of Necromancer Logan and left for the northern Norton Kingdom...
‘Using the results and information from his countless experiments, he created the undead guards.’
Woohyuk wasn’t sure if Lucas was currently living in the wasteland.
But the possibility of the Witch Cult using it as their base was extremely high.
‘If both of them are located there, it’ll be advantageous for me.’
Lucas was needed to strengthen Woohyuk’s army of undeads in the future, while he had to find the Witch Cult to rescue Princess Lizbeth.
Woohyuk turned around to face Ronald.
“We must gather people for the Witch Cult Subjugation Forces. How many can you gather before the sun sets?”
“If we mobilize the kingdom’s army, I can get ten to twenty thousand troops.”
“Gather as many cavalrymen as you can. Time is greatly limited.”
This was no ordinary war. Their mission was to rescue Princess Lizbeth.
Even if they had an overwhelming number of soldiers, if they were unable to give chase and catch up to the kidnappers, they would be useless.
However, since the Witch Cult had gotten involved with the monsters as well, it was dangerous to take cavalrymen only.
“Should we inform the clans about this? They are not regular soldiers, but when gathered, they make quite a powerful group.”
“Of course. But we’ll have to give them another mission.”
If Woohyuk mobilized the national army, the capital city of Neferti would be left defenseless.
It was best to prepare themselves for the worst and make the clans protect the city while searching around its vicinity.
“Then will you let the other mercenaries move autonomously?”
“I cannot afford to command over everyone individually.”
Clans and their members could use their unity rings to exchange information in real time, but mercenaries took longer to send information between one another.
In either case, mercenaries were a minority amongst his forces, so there was no need for Woohyuk to worry too much about them.
“We shall go prepare ourselves immediately. The wasteland is quite the far destination.”
“Return before the sun sets.”
The sun had already begun its descent as the sky turned orange.
Woohyuk wanted to depart immediately on his own, but he needed a lot of people with him to find the princess.
He had to operate with the people of the Izuna Kingdom for a while.
‘Finally, another chance to eliminate Amy.’
He was a bit bothered by the fact that the head of the Witch Cult was monitoring him and his companions.
As the members of the Spiritual Society ran off in a hurry, Woohyuk stared into the warm horizon.