I Became The Extra King With Seven Wives-Chapter 47: The Helios-Radhamantian Conflict

"Did you know, Regina, that my grandfather and grandmother were assassinated?" I asked as I leaned back in the quiet of the castle library, my boots crossed and propped up upon the reading desk while I read an ancient tome detailing the Helios lineage.

Standing just behind me, Regina furrowed her brow slightly. "I may have heard vague whispers of it, but the details were always a bit confusing, Your Majesty."

"Well, it happened during a diplomatic journey to forge a major treaty with the Radhamantian Empire. They traveled to the imperial capital together, and they were murdered within its walls. Radhamantia hastily placed the blame on their own political extremists, or perhaps the Thirteen Moons. A bloody war was on the verge of breaking out between Helios and Radhamantia once again, but my father prevented it by demanding peace. The very next day, he rode out to recover his parents’ bodies," I explained, turning a crisp page.

"I... Is that so?" Regina asked, clearly taken aback by the grim revelation.

I smiled thinly. "Back then, my father was only sixteen years old, yet he possessed the audacity to march directly into the very capital where his parents had just been slaughtered. He was accompanied by Arges, by the way. Together, the two of them faced the entire imperial court and the Emperor himself."

"Was a true truce made?" Regina asked, though the doubt in her own words was obvious.

"Not really. The Emperor offered a string of hollow, empty apologies. My father simply collected the bodies, and they parted ways on those freezing terms. Ever since that day, a strange tension has lingered between our two countries," I said. "Though, the bitter enmity between Helios and Radhamantia hardly started recently. You know that, of course."

"Yes," Regina nodded obediently, exactly as I expected.

She had been the daughter of a Helios Baron, after all, so she ought to know at least a fraction of our kingdom’s history and the bloody origins of the unending feud between Helios and Radhamantia.

The Radhamantian Empire was over fifteen hundred years old, but when Apollina first founded Helios, they were the very first foreign power to officially acknowledge our burgeoning Kingdom. They had actually been close allies for centuries, extending well into the reign of King Solaran. It was then that Apollina’s son married his beloved daughter off to the Second Prince of Radhamantia. That union founded the illustrious Solaris House with Asthenia, the historical Princess who bore the exact same name as my second wife.

Not that I blamed the current Duke of House Solaris for reusing the name. The original Asthenia, Solaran’s daughter, was beloved by everyone, after all.

Everything had been perfectly peaceful until Narelia, Solaran’s granddaughter, gave birth to twin boys: Radeus and Haneus. One was destined to become the King of Helios, while the other, due to a highly complex string of political circumstances, immense luck, and Narelia’s tireless scheming, managed to become the Emperor of Radhamantia. He achieved this unparalleled feat by marrying the Radhamantian Princess, Thanara, who was actually the main reason Haneus managed to seize the imperial throne in the first place. She had her brother, the Crown Prince assassinated, talk about a great sister....

Regardless, nine hundred years ago, a war finally erupted between the two brothers.

Tensions were already there actually, a small happening even before but things had worked when Radeus killed Thanara after she dared to publicly insult his daughter during a grand banquet to settle peace between the two brothers. Years later, after drowning both Kingdoms in blood, Radeus finally won the war. He personally executed his own twin brother right on the borders of Radhamantia, specifically forcing Haneus’s young son to witness the brutal beheading.

And a generational hatred was born from that single moment...

It had never once been quenched. Despite countless Kings and Emperors from both of our Kingdoms occasionally attempting to mend the fractured alliance over the centuries, the deep, festering wound between Helios and Radhamantia simply never healed.

"Do you perhaps believe Radhamantia secretly assassinated your grandparents, Your Majesty?" Regina asked me hesitantly.

"Well, who truly knows? I highly doubt that Emperor was entirely composed of garbage, but he clearly did not care about the assassinations. I sincerely doubt he ever took any serious, meaningful actions to track down the true murderers either," I replied.

I fell entirely silent for a long moment thinking about my grandparents.

"Father always told me that my grandparents were kind people," I muttered softly. "I wish I could have met them."

My mother’s parents had also passed away not long ago, leaving me with only my mother as parent.

What a bitter, sweeping tragedy it all was.

No matter how politically wise and impartial I was supposed to be, I despised the Radhamantian Empire for that single fact. They had failed to protect their royal guests, envoys who had traveled in good faith to seek peace.

Some even feasted on their deaths.

And from my knowledge of the Game, I already knew they were eventually planning to invade Helios anyway. True, they would likely use the chaotic rise of the Black Sun within Helios as their official justification, but to them, it would merely serve as the perfect, convenient excuse to finally conquer Helios and steal our divine Flame.

Radhamantia, Lunaria, and Luminar. All three massive Empires hated our guts, though I always preferred to think they were simply, bitterly jealous of our Flame. Regardless, out of all three, Radhamantia was definitively the most dangerous threat we had to deal with and they bordered us on the east.

Now that I thought about it...on this damned continent, we really had no reliable allies left, did we?

Even the Kingdom of Gardenia was actively conspiring against us to get back their Princesses, after all.

Damn it all.

Exactly how was I realistically supposed to deal with all four of these idiot nations simultaneously?

My dear, brilliant father...

No wonder he had hurried to bind me to seven wives, desperately trying to secure as much political support for me as he possibly could right before his death.

But it was simply not going to be enough, Father.

We needed more external allies.

And that was exactly also why I needed to attend that prestigious Academy, the one place that gathered all the greatest elites from across the continent but also outside.

"Your Majesty."

At that moment, a flustered knight hurried into the quiet library.

"Lady Queen Morgana has requested your presence for the scheduled duel..." He stuttered nervously.

I calmly closed the heavy tome and swung my boots down from the desk.

"She is not a Lady Queen," I said, letting out a long exhausted sigh. "I removed her from her status as my Queen, remember?"

Well, not official but I will made it official right after winning this duel to add salt into injury.

"I—I deeply apologize, Your Majesty!"

"Whatever," I muttered, brushing past him and walking off down the corridor, Regina silently hurrying along close behind me.

Leilah was still securely hidden in the shadows as well, entirely masked by whatever invisible affinity she was currently using.

Anyway, it was finally time to brutally show Morgana the difference between a true King and someone playing Knight.

Or rather, more simply...

I smirked slightly to myself.

The difference between her and I.