The Legend of The Nameless King

Act II: The Nameless King

Ten years had passed since the raid on Amberdew village, since I had adopted Lilith.

I had assumed my human form and was in my study, brooding over a map. My study was a rather recent addition to my dungeon, placed directly below the centre of the throne room, its only entrance situated at the base of my stone throne. If I needed to think something through in peace, it was perfect and within easy reach, with a desk, a table, chairs, and shelves containing lots of books, maps, and other such items.

My goal in this world had long since been decided: To dominate it, to rule it with absolute authority. But for that, I would first need to conquer it, nation by nation, no matter whether they were light, dark, or neutral.

Towards that end, I had begun to build an army of Children and creations of mine almost immediately after my arrival. But as I soon discovered, just siring as many children as possible wasn't quite the way to go... Even monsters needed to be trained and equipped with gear in order to function as an effective army. Not to mention that they needed food and drink, as well as accommodation...

Even using all tricks in the book, my breeding capacity stills vastly outstripped all my other resources, be it food, (magical) equipment, or the room to house my children in the dungeon. To alleviate said problems, I had created the magi corps, a group of different kinds of children geared towards the research and practice of magic. Amongst other things, they created magic items for me, most notably the Gates. These masterworks of the arcane arts channelled the residual mana of their surroundings into something of a wormhole, theoretically making instantaneous travel to almost every place possible.

In practice, they had several downsides and limitations: First of all, before a connection could even be established, the location had to be very precisely known. This meant that a scout had to be sent to an area to obtain the necessary coordinates and environmental data. Furthermore, the amount of mana a Gate consumed was enormous and increased dramatically with its size. Without my pure land, I doubt holding the Gates open for extended periods of time would have been possible.

But the worst part was the procedure required to actually make a connection! Even a dozen of powerful and experienced mages took hours to complete it, and they were utterly spent afterwards! And a warded location couldn’t even be targeted (or aimed at) in this manner! With how rare powerful mages were in these lands, and how easily wards seemed to be available, I could understand why Gates or other forms of magical travel were not the norm…

But back to what I was doing. The map before me was my favourite. Compared to other maps, it was quite large, showing the entire continent with great detail and accuracy. Yet, it was not overladen with unnecessary information and due to its great size, I could easily make out everything important.

There were eight countries, one large unclaimed area, and a couple of minor ones. Although, calling them ‘countries’ was rather misleading in some cases. Currently, I was only interested in the Kingdom of Arcadia, which was the country my dungeon was located in, as well as the states bordering it.

Arcadia was an almost purely human kingdom. The underlying racism Larell had told me about stretched far an wide, preventing any other races from gaining significant influence, although they did exist in some capacity, be it as slaves. Arcadia was governed by a hereditary monarch called the Steward, who stood atop a feudal system known as the Steward System. It once was one of the most powerful nations of the continent, but had lost this position over time. Nowadays, it was mostly a nation of farmers and other simple people, with a weak military.

The biggest border shared Arcadia with the Principality of Elvengard, which was almost exclusively inhabited by different kinds of elves. Each of these 'casts', as they were known in Elvengard had a traditional domain, with ruling being that of the high elves. The government was made up of two parts, the worldly and the spiritual one, with both holding equal influence and therefore an equal amount of seats in the senate, which was the most important governmental institution. But the real power lay with the two 'principals' (hence the name), the elven queen and the pope.

The youngest of the neighbouring countries was the Amazon Kingdom of Lemuria. Not even 20 years ago, there was no Kingdom of Lemuria, only a peninsula by the same name. On it, there lived many warring tribes, so busy fighting each other that they never even attacked Arcadia. That was when Alkadabulki appeared. Being an Amazon of incredible power, she managed to unite all the tribes, found the Amazon Kingdom of Lemuria, and become its queen.

Then there was the Demon Kingdom of Vyan'far. Until not so long ago, it had been the most powerful country on the continent by far. But then, the other countries allied and beat it in a great war, forcing the secession of great amounts of territory and many other, crippling conditions upon the Demon Kingdom. It was almost exclusively inhabited by devils, which was more or less the term the different Fallen races used for themselves. The totality of their races (and therefore their society) was split into three ranks, with fiends being the lowest, demons the middle one, and greater demons being the ruling class (hence ‘Demon Kingdom’).

Lastly, there was the domain of the Hornet Empress, aptly named ‘Hornets’. She was neither especially strong nor cunning, but her fertility was the stuff of legend. They say that she was theoretically able to give birth to 1000 hornet queens a day, which in turn can birth 1000 killer hornets per day. However, she is still limited by the supplies she can procure, mostly food. Still, it took the forces of 2 great realms and two minor ones to keep her in check and none had been able to beat her yet.

Since there had been a peace treaty with Vyan’far and the other nations bordering Arcadia were all Chosen, there was currently no embattled border, safe for the one with the hornets. But if I decided to launch an invasion of Arcadia and take the Kingdom over by ****, exactly this would become a problem. Vyan’far might not attack immediately if they thought me an ally (the Children were Fallen, after all), but I was sure that they would try to invade eventually. Elvengard and Lemuria on the other hand would immediately use the excuse to ‘come to the aid’ of Arcadia and turn it into a puppet state. And the hornets, well, they would just continue to gnaw at the Arcadian border like before.

Truly, an inescapable situation…

As I was deep in my thoughts, I almost didn’t notice when Larell entered.

“Lilith told me that you were planning an invasion!” she accused me breathlessly.

I sighed.

“…and?” I asked her, annoyed.

Her eyes widened. “You don’t even try to deny it?!” she said exasperated.

“Why would I?” I asked rhetorically. “I have no need to justify my actions before you. And you would obviously notice once the war has started for real… I am honestly surprised you didn’t notice my preparations until know."

"Well, I *did* notice that you expanded your influence and created more and more strongholds. But you did that ever since I came to know you!” Larell defended herself.

She was right. Running out of both space and other resources like food and drink, I had long since begun to send scouts across the land to find natural caves or other hidden locations where I could plant new dungeon plants and thereby begin creating a new secret strongholds to harbour and sustain more Children. By now, they dotted the entirety of Arcadia, almost as well hidden as my dungeon, even if not as well defended… They weren’t ‘real’ dungeons, after all, just ‘ordinary’ hidden structures full of monsters. I kept all organized by routinely establishing a connection with the Gates and exchanging information, resources and personnel with my dungeon.

“And you never questioned for what I could possibly need hundreds of thousands of monsters?” I asked in a bemused voice, turning to face the girl.

“I… I thought that you wanted to remain hidden… be an eminence in shadow, of sorts…” Larell answered insecurely.

“And I will. But my troops shall soon conquer all of Arcadia, led by a puppet king in my stead. After that… we will see.” I told her.

“But… all the people that will die… all the innocents… and your own children!” she almost cried, her eyes filling with tears.

“It matters little to me, how many of the Chosen or of my Children will die, as long as I reign supreme in the end. And as for the Chosen children, I assure you that they shall not be harmed. Neither will Lilith.”

Larell led out a single sob as tears rolled down her cheeks. It was utterly incomprehensible to her how I could be so cruel and callous towards my own children, especially since I cared so much about my adoptive daughter, Lilith. Truth be told, I didn’t really understand it myself. Maybe it had something to do with me being born a human and my children being monsters beyond any doubt…

One way or the other, I had enough of this interruption and decided that our talk was pretty much over. I raised a hand and was just about to throw her out of my study, when…

Larell suddenly took a step back, wiped the tears from her face and tried her best to regain her composure.

"What if… what if I told you there is a better way?” she asked me.

A better way? What did she mean by that? “Better how?” I replied to her.

“More efficient. You will lose less troops and also have to kill less Arcadians, which means that the country you will be a more powerful sovereign in the end.” Larell said, regaining more and more control over herself.

That… was a definition of better I could agree with, much to my surprise. Did she adopt my way of thinking or just gain a better understanding of me?

“I am listening.” I told her.

She took a deep breath. “I propose a coup d’etat.”

I was stunned for a moment. Of all the things I taught her, *this* was one that she remembered?

“…continue.” I ordered.

Larell sighed. “Let me tell you a story. An old legend. The legend of The Nameless King.”

“Once upon a time, before the great nations of today were formed, there was a warrior. But he was no ordinary warrior, for he was destined to greatness, destined to be king. Over the centuries, his face and name have been forgotten, but not his deeds. It is said that a single swing of his sword could breach a castle’s gates, and even monsters bowed to him, fearing his power. His strength and courage brought many to his banner, but even more flocked to him for his kindness. Over time, he proved his military genius and united all the tribes of man that lived on the eastern part of the continent and founded what later became the Kingdom of Arcadia. But even he could not beat the greatest enemy of all: time itself. When he felt old age creeping up on him, he gave the kingdom into the care of his firstborn son, naming him steward. Then, he went away, to a distant isle, where he sleeps to this day. But it is said that when the need is great and the situation dire, in Arcadia’s darkest hour, he will return to reign over his people once more and lead them to salvation.”

Larell took a deep breath. “Even back when I lived in Amberdew village, the people were already unhappy with the Stewards, or the Steward System in general. That is to say, they were unhappy with the government of this Country. From what I hear, their resentment only grew… What I mean to say is… If someone truly powerful were to assume the identity of The Nameless King and dismantle the Steward System… I think the people and even the military would follow willingly.”

I narrowed my eyes. This might actually be a pretty damn good idea! And I *did* quite like the title ‘The Nameless King’… Not least because I factually still didn’t have a name in this world.

“What would it take for someone to assume the identity of this king of legend?” I asked Larell.

“Well… I guess that depends on how convincing one would like it to be. First of all, The Nameless King is known to have been human, or at least human in appearance. Beyond that, being able to bring down a castle’s gate with a single sword swing, being a smart and capable ruler and general as well as being a powerful warrior are quite important. But the central requirement is really the White Throne.” Answered the girl.

I sighed. “And assuming I don’t know what that is…?”

Larell cringed. “Oh, yeah, right. The White Throne is the legendary throne of Arcadia. It is carved from a single piece of alabaster, hardened with an arcane procedure to strengthen in greatly. In its backrest, a large, magic gemstone is inlaid. They say that only the worthy may sit the throne, and only for the true bloodline of The Nameless King, the jewel will shine its light. Most people think that the ‘worthy’ part is bullshit, especially considering who has been ruling lately… But the blood…”

“… could be a problem.” I finished her sentence. “So, the idea is, if someone of great power, intelligence, and kindness, with amazing sword skills claims to be The Nameless King and makes the jewel glow, he will be recognized as such? And granted rule over Arcadia?”

“Making monsters obey would also be beneficial, although *that* certainly won’t be the problem… But yes, that’s the idea” She answered. “The Stewards won’t go down easily, they probably wouldn’t even if the real Nameless King returned, but the rest should fall in line pretty quick. At least, if the new King proves to be a good ruler.”

Larell shot me a meaningful glance.

“I intend to rule the territory I conquer in a way that makes them flourish, alongside their population, be they Chosen or Fallen.” I said dryly.

She looked like she didn’t quite believe me, but said nothing.

I sighed. “Well then. Let’s get started. We have a coup d’etat to plan.”