10 Masterstroke

"What are you doing, Rose? Even if we call it a match, this is still just a friendly spar!" Roland was extremely taken aback at her actions.

Even if everyone else did not know what Rose was about to do, how could he not know? He was the one who taught her the spell after all!

From the exchange of the first two moves, Roland already had a clear understanding of Berghis' level of strength.

If Rose were to truly release that spell onto Berghis, there was zero chance of him surviving even with immediate medical attention.

In other words, he would die instantly.

"I truly apologise, Your Majesty!" Rose fell to her knees facing Roland, an action that she had almost never done before.

However, hearing Roland's voice had brought back her enraged self to face reality. Just like Roland, she could now judge that Berghis would never be able to defend against that spell, and was thus feeling extremely ashamed for losing control of herself.

Seeing Rose kneel towards him with her head hung low, Roland let out a helpless sigh.

When he saw Berghis suddenly drink the vigour potion, he too was feeling slightly irritated. That was probably what led to Rose's lack of prudence in her next move as well.

How could he blame her for feeling angered in his stead?

"Rise, Rose. It is fine as long as this does not happen again," Roland then turned to face Berghis. "I apologise, Lord Berghis. It seems that my trusted aide might have offended you, so I apologise in her stead. Let us end this here for today. I am sure that there will be plenty of opportunities for you to exchange pointers in the future."

Who knew that upon hearing his words, Berghis' face only grew even paler!

Exchange pointers in the future? With this monster?

If you want to then you can take your time and slowly exchange pointers with her yourself!

But just as he thought that, Berghis suddenly remembered what Rose had said to him previously.

'This is just the beginning', 'He would be sure to make the event a true festival to go down in history'.

Those were roughly the words that Rose told him before the fight began.

Now that Berghis thought about it, when the king said exchange pointers, he was probably no longer referring to the two of them exchanging pointers as individuals.

He had probably meant facing each other on the battlefield! But with how strong the Royal Army was, facing them in battle was tantamount to suicide!

The colour on Berghis' face seemed to be rapidly drained. He had to do something about this!

There was no need at all for the bloodshed that was to come. He just had to inform the other nobles that there was nothing to gain and everything to lose if they went against the royal family!

But as he started thinking about the other nobles who fanned his thoughts of rebellion, Berghis' fear slowly turned into rage.

He had always been a loyal vassal to the throne, but these brainless schemers actually tried to turn him against the royal family without even having properly checked out the state of the Royal Army. If not for them, how would he have ended up in this state?

Even if he had to die, he would definitely bring them along with him!

Right when Berghis had made up his mind, Roland spoke up once more.

"Due to unforeseen circumstances, I believe that nobody is in the mood to continue the inspections anymore, so let us end that here." Roland sighed as he watched the warriors who stepped up.

All of them seemed shaken by the huge move made by Rose at the end, and most of them were no longer in the state to fight at their best.

"However, there is one more announcement that I wish to make," Roland cleared his throat before continuing. "After the past few hours spent touring around the facility, I have roughly understood what it was that the kingdom needed the most."

Those words drew the attention of everyone as the assembly hall fell silent, everyone watching him in anticipation.

"I now announce the establishment of the Royal Military Academy! It shall be a school that will be set up within the compounds of the Royal Army facility, and will be a place that facilitates the discussion and sharing of both combat and training knowledge." Roland announced with pride.

"Every noble family shall send a person, with at least a certain degree of status or experience within the army, to join the academy! After a year, the first person could be replaced by another person of equal status, so as to allow the former to return and share the knowledge gained. I believe this will be a platform to share good practices so as to strengthen the armies within our Great Manta Kingdom as a whole!"

Roland felt extremely proud of himself right now. He actually managed to come up with such a good idea after just touring around the facility for a bit. Was he actually a genius at this?

But contrary to his mood, Berghis almost fainted upon hearing this.

Was it not enough to possess such overwhelming military strength?

Now the king even wanted to use this as an excuse to hold hostage key military personnel from every noble family?

How terrifying! The king had wasted no time at all, and had decisively started making his move the day after his coronation!

"This is it for the visit today!" Roland finally announced. "Do continue to train well, soldiers of the Royal Army!"

"Yes, Your Majesty! All hail Your Majesty!" the soldiers shouted out in unison as they bowed in respect.

"Please wait, Your Majesty! You humble subject has something for which I must seek Your Majesty's audience!" Berghis rushed up to the front of the platform and knelt down reverently.

"What is it, Lord Berghis?" Roland frowned in displeasure. He had already reprimanded Rose in front of everyone just now, was this man still indignant about the matter?

"This…I would like to seek a private audience with Your Majesty!" Berghis knew the severity of what he was about to say, and would definitely not want to let it be known to all the nobles and soldiers present.

Roland turned to look at Rose who had just returned to his side, "I am busy later, aren't I?"

"Your Majesty's schedule is empty for the rest of the afternoon," Rose's voice was quivering slightly, apparently still affected by her earlier mistake.

Hearing that, Roland shook his head sadly. Though it was unknown if he was sad because of Rose's tone or because of her answer.

"I guess there is no helping it then, follow me back to the palace," Roland accidentally verbalised his thoughts there, but nobody dared to point it out. "The rest of the nobles, you are dismissed!"

It was less than an hour later when Roland found himself seated in the throne room, staring at Marquis Berghis who had immediately knelt down the moment he arrived, his gaze not leaving the floor.

The large throne room was relatively empty at the moment.

The other prince and princesses stood at both sides of the red carpet, their respective servants next to each of them. Other than them, Duke Ivan was the only one else who remained.

Marquis Berghis had requested to speak in confidence, but Roland did not see the need to exclude the people before him. Naturally, Rose was standing beside him like she always did.

Roland frowned after Berghis remained silent for a minute, and directed his gaze towards Princess Erin, who only shook her head helplessly. Even she did not comprehend the current actions of the Marquis.

Berghis seemed completely fine the night before when they met during the banquet, so what could have happened in such a short span of time?

"I believe this is enough posturing, Lord Berghis. Speak your piece," Roland had finally grown tired of waiting.

"Your humble subject selfishly begs Your Majesty for forgiveness!" Berghis shouted out. "Please have mercy!"

"Tell me what happened," Roland creased his eyebrows upon hearing that.

He had thought that maybe the other party wanted to complain about Rose threatening his life during the fight just now, but what was with this development?

Was the other party playing mind games with him?

In any case, he had to know more before he could respond.

"If Your Majesty is willing to spare the Tonquello family, your humble subject will definitely say everything that happened, not leaving out a single detail and not adding a single lie. No, if that is not enough, your humble subject is willing to pay with his life!"

It was not that Berghis felt daring enough to negotiate with the king, but he truly had no choice but to do so!

The planning of a coup was an act of treason, and his entire family could be executed for it. The least he could do was to get a guarantee for the lives of his family, or else there was no point to confessing at all.

If he could not save his family, he might as well just go ahead with the coup.

No, he would probably run away with his family instead if given the choice.

Roland's frown deepened upon hearing that, "The Tonquello family had accrued significant military contributions towards the Great Manta Kingdom, I naturally would not punish them unjustly. So do rest assured."

It was not a direct pardon, but hearing how the king once again sarcastically emphasised on the Tonquello family's 'military contributions', Berghis felt that this was the furthest he could get.

Thus he immediately confessed everything about the planned coup.

Hearing the words that escaped from his mouth one by one, everyone in the throne room was shocked!

However, among them, the one who was shocked the most was definitely Roland!

Berghis had truly not held back with his confession, describing every detail that was related to the matter. On top of that, he made sure to describe how Roland had subtly warned him again and again, emphasising on how the other party had given him multiple chances, so as to repeatedly compliment the king's magnanimity.

But since when had Roland intended to warn Berghis of anything?

Who was this shrewd and cunning King Roland that Berghis was talking about?

Surely it was not referring to himself!

Roland let out a deep sigh, "This matter is of grave consequences, so I cannot make a decision about it right now. On top of that, we would have to launch an investigation into the other nobles whom you mentioned. I will give you an answer as soon as possible, but for now I assure you that I will not take the lives of the Tonquello family."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Berghis shouted in genuine relief.

"Leave us then," Roland ordered, and Berghis promptly left the throne room.

There was silence after he left, as everyone simply looked at Roland with newfound respect and admiration.

"As expected, Your Majesty's intellect far surpass my own," Princess Erin was the first to break the silence.

The rest of them could only nod in agreement. None of them had suspected a thing about the nobles, yet this new king had already uncovered the schemes running below the surface, and even on the very day of his coronation to boot!

"T-That's not necessarily true, Erin. I merely got lucky this time," Roland shook his head helplessly. "Nevertheless, I will be returning to my chambers for now. There are a lot on my mind that I would have to sort out."

That was just an excuse to get out of there, but Roland could not think of anything better.

He could not possibly have said that he was already mentally worn out after just one matter, could he?

"Yes, Your Majesty," the others bowed slightly as Roland left with Rose following closely behind.

After which, they straightened their backs and looked at each other, not knowing what to say.

"If what Lord Berghis said was true, then we truly have to thoroughly investigate this matter!" Duke Ivan still felt that what he just heard was a little unreal. "But how was the king able to uncover everything? His means are truly beyond understanding!"

"His Majesty is actually such an intelligent person…" Helena's words trailed off in admiration.

"Ah! Then the establishment of the Royal Military Academy, does it have anything to do with this too?" Timothy exclaimed in realisation.

"Indeed, I believe that was His Majesty's method to keep the nobles in check, by holding a key personnel hostage!" with Berghis' side of the story in mind, Duke Ivan had come to the same conclusion as well.

"Ah! I see!" Timothy nodded. He had thought of something similar too, but it was still reassuring to know the Chancellor shared his thoughts.

"Did you not just hear about how His Majesty has always been one step ahead? How could that be all there is to his plans?" Erin smiled as she finally interjected. "I believe that the final plan is to actually convert the supposed hostages, bringing them to our side. This way when they returned to their families, we would have spies in the upper echelons of each family!"

"Ah! That sounds like it is possible!"

"Terrifying! Truly terrifying!" Duke Ivan's eyes widened in surprise as well. "Strengthening the Great Manta Kingdom while taking control over every single private army in the kingdom! This is a true masterstroke from His Majesty!"

"That is the right term indeed. Though perhaps every move that we think is a masterstroke was just nothing but a small part of the plan to His Majesty…" Erin sighed.

How she lamented her lack of intellect! If she were just slightly smarter, her brother would no longer have to do everything personally anymore!