A Highest Rank in Another World!

When I entered the throne room, it was a lot like the first time I came to this place. In front of the door, I found a red carpet that led to the altar where the king was sitting.

That old man hadn't changed a thing. This man before me now is called Thoan Southlein, the famous king who rules this entire country.

Long gray beard and long, equally gray hair that reached to his waist. Doesn't he look more like a wizard than a king? I always told him that.

He continued to look as if he was sizing me up, the guards around the room were also looking at me equally. Farther along, that young man wearing a black cloak was there.

As soon as I approached, I lowered my head. Even knowing him, he is still the king of this country.

"You can stand up. You don't need to act so formally, Emma." The king said as he had a smug smile on his face and looked at me.

"Okay, so I'll get straight to the point, what caused this war?"

"You…" With my words, the man in the black robe tried to advance towards me but was stopped by the king.

"Okay, I'll tell you everything."

"Majesty, is everything really alright?" The man in the black robe looked worried. He was young, maybe under 30 years old. He had straight black hair, but his face wasn't very pretty.

We can say his jaw was bigger than it should be and his eyes were too big, he's ugly. I don't like to call people ugly, but I have to tell the truth at times.

"It's okay, this woman is our ally, isn't she?" The king looked at me waiting for me to say something.

"Yes, I am an ally of yours." I smiled at the king.

"You asked me why this war started, and I will answer you. The war started because of Beastled."

"Hm? Did they do anything? I thought they liked us as we were so supportive of them." This was a bit surprising, I've met many beastmen and they all treated our country's people very well.

Some humans visited Beastled and always said they were treated very well.

"We had a friendship with the ancient king, but now that incompetent one has allowed his throne to be stolen by a child." The king clenched his fists and wrinkled his forehead, he was angry and thoughtful.

"So the throne of the King of Beastled has been usurped? That's sucks…" I couldn't believe it: "But you said the throne was stolen by a child? Does that make any sense?"

"Exactly, a fox child. Whoever saw her said he looked to be at most 15 or 16 years old."

"But he can be a lot older since he's a man-beast. Even if they live as long as us, they all look younger."

"Yes, you are right. But whoever had contact with him said that he acted exactly like a child. He just wants to destroy everything, he jokes, he has a childish taste, so I can only assume he is a child."

"Hmm…But I still think that probably whoever stole the throne isn't a child. But still, it doesn't matter now, what happened after the throne was stolen?"

"As soon as the throne was usurped, the new king sent troops to the border of our country, right near where you live."

"You don't mean..."

"Exactly, those monsters that attacked that village were being controlled by them."

"Majesty! You shouldn't talk about this to an outsider, that's enough." The man in the black robe said looking annoyed. Was he going against the king? This guy is brave, normally this king wouldn't forgive something like that.

"Don't worry, you can trust her."

'Hm?' I looked at that scene a little suspiciously, since when does this king treat a subordinate with such respect? Mainly a subordinate who defied him.

"But how exactly did they control the monsters to attack that village? I've never heard of any kind of magic or artifact that allows something like that."

"We have no idea either, but we know they have an army of monsters under their control."

"An army? That's scary."

"Exactly. From the information I received, it is an army so large that it could rival our war power."

"Is this serious?"

"Yes, even though I am confident that we can fight the beastmen army, I still have the monster army to deal with. But I'm doing something about it."

"Majesty!"

"But I'm sorry, I can't talk about it."

"No problem, I understand everything."

"What?"

"So this war is useless. The throne of Beastled was usurped and the new king, simply because he was a child, decided to attack the neighboring countries as if it were something fun... What a drag."

"You summed it up very well."

"But there wasn't any reason for them to have decided to attack, was there? You didn't do anything to piss them off, did you?" I looked seriously at the king.

"I swear to the goddess I didn't do something like that. They decided to attack for no reason."

"I see, because if you had been involved in Beastled's internal affairs over the usurpation of the throne, maybe that new king would have maintained some kind of grudge."

"We don't get involved in his business, don't worry about it."

"I understand. Did you try to negotiate with them? Since there isn't a very important motive behind the war, you can try to negotiate for them to stop it."

"I even tried to get the king to accept a messenger from us to try to negotiate, but we were turned down, and all our soldiers on the border were massacred."

"So the attack that day..."

"Exactly, it was the attack Beastled used to decimate thousands of soldiers."

"Oh, I didn't think Beastled had that much firepower, it looks like you're in trouble."

"Not talk like that..."

"But then, now I'm going to need to leave because I need to visit my daughter, I'll see you later."

"Hm?"

"What, did you think I would work for you? I will not fight this war."

"You came here to find out the reason behind the war, but you don't intend to fight? I'm not understanding you."

"Exactly, now I have to go. But be aware of one thing, lord King." I turned to the king and threw all my murderous intent on him: "If anyone in my family is harmed because of this stupid war, you already know what will happen, don't you?"

The soldiers around us who looked younger began to shiver. The king was sitting on his throne with his hands shaking and his body sweating. As for the man in the black robe, he was very calm even though he received all my intention to kill.

This guy is really weird.

####

I leave the castle accompanied by the same old soldier who had brought me here. He didn't say anything the entire way, but he seemed a little irritated with me.

Perhaps I shouldn't have said that to the king? No, it was necessary, that guy can be treacherous.

'I'll never trust him too much, if I trust him too much he could end up harming me in the future, I'm sure of that.' Thinking that I left the castle and headed towards Sara's inn.

The guard insisted on staying by my side for some reason, but I dismissed him and told him to take good care of my horse that I would pick him up later today. The man looked dissatisfied but nodded.

Was it asked for him to observe me? What a boring situation.

But I didn't care about that, what I wanted now was to see Lisandra make sure she was okay. I walked through the even quieter alleys of the capital, the only people I found were homeless.

They were hidden inside the wooden boxes they use as their homes, it's a sad sight.

But ignoring their presence, I made it to the inn.

As soon as I got to the door, everything was closed. All the windows, the front door, everything was closed.

'It's like everyone's gone from here.' That didn't happen, did it?

I approached the door and tried to open it, but it was locked.

"Is anyone there? It's me, Emma." I don't know if I should have screamed, but just knocking on the door wouldn't do, I needed to identify myself.

I continued to wait there for a few minutes until I heard some steps inside the building.

"You came back faster than I thought." The door was opened by Sara with a huge smile on her face. A gentle and welcoming smile, I should treat her better, last time I treated her like we didn't even know each other.

"I can enter?"

"Of course."

"Thanks."

Then I entered the inn. Everything was empty and the tables were unoccupied, there was no one around.

"Is it just you here?" I asked curiously.

"Yes, I stay here most of the time. Already Rose is at our house, it seems that whoever is taking care of the guild is just the master at the moment."

"So the guild is also empty?"

"Yes, they preferred to suspend the guild's activities, so I asked Rose to stay in our house in hiding."

"I see, did you give your employees a leave of absence as well?"

"It wouldn't make sense to keep them working during the war, most of them have families and they need to stay safe. But it doesn't matter much, the inn is practically empty at the moment."

"Empty?"

"Yes, most people have canceled their stays, there are only a few people left."

"Is Lisandra there?"

"Of course, she's in the same bedroom, do you want me to take you there?"

"Don't worry, I'll go there alone."