Chapter 360 - Episode 352: The Exile ①
Cadne Lancel. That was the name he was born with.
The third son of the second King of the Lancel Kingdom, and the first child born to the second Queen. That was his position.
Born six years after his eldest brother and three years after his second brother—both of whom had different mothers—Cadne was described in his childhood as a mischievous and curious child. He grew up freely within the royal palace, maintaining reasonably good relationships with his brothers.
However, Cadne's life changed completely due to circumstances beyond his control.
The two princes born to the King and the first Queen were growing steadily and developing ideologies that seemed to align with the moderate faction, inheriting the will of the King and the previous generation. Therefore, the third prince, who was essentially a spare, was politically unnecessary. Rather, his position as the child of the second Queen risked bringing about an unstable situation.
Judged as such by the King's loyal subjects, Cadne was separated from his family and sent to live in a city under direct royal control in the frontier, serving as a governor in name only. It was, in effect, an exile from the center of the country.
Though it was a frontier city, he was given his own mansion and lived a life of comfort. It was a life of simply playing to kill an infinite amount of free time, as he was permitted to exist without performing any particular government duties. Even so, this situation cast a dark shadow over the heart of Cadne, who was still in his mid-teens at the time.
Why only me, when I've done nothing wrong?
Now that I've been discarded, what purpose should I live for from now on? What meaning should I find in life? Will I simply grow old and die in vain as a mere ornament to show the royal family's presence in the frontier?
Such confusion held during a sensitive period eventually became resentment, and eventually, hatred.
And so, using his excess of time, Cadne learned much and trained himself. To one day take revenge. Without even being certain if the target was his family, the loyal subjects surrounding the King, or the Lancel Kingdom itself, Cadne grew up alongside his hatred.
It was then that the military cliques of the nobility, who had grown dissatisfied with the royal family's long-standing moderate regime, approached Cadne.
They wanted to seize power from the moderates and change the direction of the kingdom. And Cadne wanted to achieve his revenge and gain a reason for his own existence. Their interests aligned, and Cadne agreed to become the figurehead for the military nobles.
What the military nobles miscalculated was that Cadne did not remain a mere ornament, but became a figurehead who thought for himself. Joining the secret talks to seize the kingdom's power and occasionally presenting ideas that the conservative military nobles did not possess, Cadne came to be accepted by them as a youth who held the potential to become the next king in both name and reality.
While advancing the plan to seize power beneath the surface, Cadne also began gathering his own forces.
He ventured into the streets of the frontier city where he lived, interacting casually with the people and behaving as a "friendly prince." In the process, he identified promising individuals, particularly among the commoners of the middle class and below, and kept them close.
In this way, Cadne gathered those who swore loyalty to him personally, operating outside the logic of the Lancel Kingdom's aristocratic society. His only criterion for selection was talent. Since he intended to build a new order and society in the kingdom, he did not question social status or origin.
Rewards for the capable. Generous treatment for the loyal. Those gathered under this philosophy were slated to gain positions as private soldiers or favored vassals once Cadne became king.
Afterward, on the surface, Cadne diligently applied himself to his duties as governor. He exerted effort in suppressing bandits and resolving disputes between local nobles, gaining a certain amount of actual combat experience. Simultaneously, by continuing to speak of his loyalty to his father the King and his older brothers, he was viewed favorably by the kingdom's center, as it was seen as a good thing if he would support the provinces as a loyal vassal.
And then, several years later. The opportunity for Cadne to seize the throne from his brothers finally arrived.
The sudden news arrived that his father, the second King, was in critical condition. Permitted to enter the royal palace for this occasion alone, Cadne visited his father and spoke with his two brothers while wearing a favorable expression as a younger brother supporting the national administration from the provinces—and murdered them with poison.
Almost at the same time, the King also passed away. The royal palace, having lost the King, the first prince who was scheduled to succeed him, and the second prince who was supposed to obtain the throne should anything happen to the first, naturally fell into utter chaos.
Amidst this, Cadne declared his succession to the throne as a natural right of bloodline.
Even a fool could tell that this was Cadne's conspiracy. Naturally, strong opposition arose. However, this had been anticipated. Simultaneously with Cadne's declaration, the military nobles also began to act, literally "eliminating" the previous king's aides and seizing control of the royal palace. Consequently, the remaining court nobles stopped their overt resistance.
Compared to the neighboring Lordberg Kingdom, the Lancel Kingdom was still a state with strong feudal colors. By completely colluding with the military nobles—the mainstream of the martial houses—and using them as backing, and further reinforcing his military strength by gathering mercenaries, there was no major power capable of openly opposing Cadne. Thus, Cadne became the third King, Cadne Lancel.
From the confidence that he was a being destined to be recorded in history as a wise ruler, and that descendants would surely appear to inherit his name, he prematurely began calling himself "the First."
And Cadne showed affection only to his much younger sister, Anrietta. He believed that if he eliminated his innocent sister based on bloodline, he would fall to the level of the same scum as the fathers he hated. Thinking this, after exiling his sister to a small town in the furthest frontier—Cadne proceeded with a radical reign.
He stopped the previous moderate policies, increased military armament while demonstrating territorial ambition, and satisfied the greed of the military nobles. He relied on them for tactics, while executing bold plans based on knowledge learned from many books for strategy, eventually achieving the feat of opening a path through the Bezel Great Forest to invade the Lordberg Kingdom.
Cadne's actions were successful only up to this point. The one who crushed that ambition was a lower-ranking noble of the Lordberg Kingdom who ruled a small territory within the forest.
Noein Arqvist. The name of the enemy Cadne swore in his heart he would never forget for the rest of his life.
Defeated by Baronet Arqvist—whom he was forced to admit was a hateful yet capable strategist—and suffering deep wounds that left paralysis in both legs, Cadne's personal expedition failed. Having his utmost plan shattered, exposing the pathetic sight of allowing a counter-invasion even if on a small scale, and becoming physically disabled, his centripetal force dropped rapidly.
In parallel, the momentum of the military nobles slowed, and their unity began to fray. The country, which had been leaning toward collapse due to repeated wars and the forced opening of invasion routes, finally saw the dissatisfaction of non-military nobles and the people explode, plunging into civil war.
To make matters worse, the one the non-military nobles chose as a figurehead for their unity was, of all people, Cadne's sister, Anrietta.
Some even defected from the military nobles, and Cadne lost, fled, lost again, and fled again, until he was finally driven as far as the northern Lestio Mountains.
By this time, having long since lost any organized resistance capability, the only ones following Cadne were the subordinates of his forces who had once been discovered by Cadne from low status.
Seen off by Viscount Chloe Tajinette, who had guarded Cadne's side until the end as a military noble, he began the harsh mountain crossing. Using up the slaves he brought and using the literally self-sacrificing deaths of the vassals who still adored Cadne as stepping stones, Cadne crossed the mountains.
Fifty people entered the mountains, and when they emerged from the mountain paths, the survivors were fewer than thirty.
"...What should I do from now on? After piling up so many sacrifices of those who believed in me, what should I do from here... right, Yvette?"
The first night of camping after entering the northern part of the Adleon continent. The one Cadne clung to while spilling his weakness was a cat-person pet slave.
A slightly older female slave whom Cadne had bought on a whim and pampered on a whim while living in the frontier city, and who had eventually become the only existence he could speak his true feelings to and depend on. She held Cadne's head to her breast and spoke gently.
"It is alright, Your Majesty. For Your Majesty is still alive. There are so many vassals who adore Your Majesty. Those who can throw away their lives for Your Majesty are reliable existences, each worth a thousand men. And... I am here. I alone will never leave Your Majesty's side, no matter what happens until the end."
Those were words that provided no solution, words that were merely sweet. However, that sweetness soaked into Cadne's scarred heart, giving him the vitality to survive until tomorrow.
"That's true. If you are here, I can endure. And there are still over twenty others. That many vassals surround me. All of them are people who gathered to me from the lower classes. I promised them I would give them status, that I would let them leave their names in history with me. I... I cannot die yet. I cannot die."
Clinging to Yvette's breast, while she rubbed his motionless legs, Cadne muttered.