Maren became a dukedom. However, a simple declaration did not turn it into an actual nation overnight. In particular, small countries such as dukedoms and countdoms needed the recognition of powerful nations. If they did not incorporate themselves into the order created by the powerful countries, they would come to face all sorts of obstacles and difficulties. It was especially true for commercial cities like Maren. The recognition of powerful countries was essential for them to continue maintaining good relations with the cities and territories they were trading with. As such, dozens of invitations bearing the seal of the parliament and the governor-general, as well as King Eugene, departed for various countries.

Since it would take nearly two months for the invitation to reach the Holy Empire, which was located the farthest from Maren, it was decided that the formal coronation of the king and the declaration of the dukedom would be held in six months.

“In the meantime, we must complete the construction of the royal castle! Gather all the workers you can and put them to work! What? Not enough people? Use the money! Hire more people with money!”

Maren was a hub for the materials and monster by-products gathered from as many as twelve evil lands. As such, the city was literally overflowing with money. Moreover, the production, processing, and sale of refined mana stones and monster by-products were all carried out in Maren. The city’s profit was overwhelmingly larger compared to other territories where only production was carried out in their territories.

The people of Maren knew better than anyone else that simply holding onto wealth was poisonous.

- Earn like a dog; spend like a great lord!

The people of Maren invested in all areas, and no one held back when it came to the required expenditures. With such a healthy circulation of blood, it was only natural for people to flock to the city. Tens of thousands of people came from Brantia, the Carls Baggins Peninsula, and even from the inland of the Caylor Kingdom. Foreign nobles, merchants, and mercenaries also rushed to the city after hearing rumors of the country’s founding and smelling money to be made. Naturally, there were quite a few different races among the newcomers.

Maren had literally become a melting pot of different races and nationalities. However, confusion and disorder were inevitable with the sudden gathering of wealth and people in large numbers. Of course, most problems were resolved by Maren’s defense forces, which consisted of some knights and mercenaries, but there were bound to be limitations.

In fact, there were so many more unreasonable people in the world than anyone could imagine.

***

Boom!

“I, Rottoler of Faradon, challenge Sir Eugene Batla to a duel!” A knight shouted boisterously while driving his Warhammer to the ground. His weapon appeared to be at least twenty kilograms in weight, and he stood in front of the royal castle, which was still under construction.

“What a crazy bastard.”

“What did he just say to His Majesty?”

The mercenaries temporarily guarding the castle were outraged, but no one ran out. It was only natural because there were about ten knights with brutal impressions armed with plate armor standing behind the challenger. If heavily armed knights were determined to make a mess, the mercenaries would never be able to stop them.

“Alert His Majesty right now!” One of the mercenaries shouted while rushing to the inner castle. Meanwhile, Rottoler Faradon continued to howl in front of the gate.

“If you are an honorable knight, accept my challenge! Don’t tell me you’re scared and avoiding the challenge?!”

Hahahaha!

The knights with him burst into laughter, and Faradon shouted with even more vigor.

“The King of Maren? How dare you call yourself a king?! Today, I will show you what a true king is! Maren will have to bow before its true king today!”

“…?!”

The mercenaries took on bizarre expressions. The knight Faradon was clearly just a land grabber. Land grabbers were a collection of free knights who traveled in groups to rob weaker territories. Of course, most territories were ruled by lords with relationships to neighboring and nearby nobles, so they couldn’t act recklessly against them. If they messed with the wrong person, they could easily make an enemy out of the entire noble society. As such, land grabbers normally traveled around the countryside and looked for easy territories to rob. Considering that, they were the type of people who shouldn’t even dream of taking a large city like Maren.

Even so, the knight named Faradon was commenting on the new king of Maren. There could only be one reason for his brazen actions.

‘Judging by his accent, he seems like a foreign knight. It’s clear that he doesn’t know His Majesty very well.’

It was just as the mercenaries had guessed. The knight Faradon and those with him were from another kingdom. They had come to Maren after hearing a rumor that the port city had suddenly become richer, as well as a rumor that a knight had become its king. Moreover, rumor had it that the knight had become the city’s king because of his outstanding ‘achievements.’

- Huh? Doesn’t that mean I could do that as well?

The pompous knights lived and died by the sword, so they couldn’t help but have such ridiculous thoughts.

“What? Killed a twin-headed ogre? Not one, but two?”

“And I heard he converted one of them? At least his bluffs are worthy of a king.”

Hahaha!

The mercenaries decided to no longer put up with the mockery of the knights. Even if they were weaker than the knights, they were confident when it came to fighting with words.

“Hey, you, little bastards! Sir Eugene isn’t someone who only knows how to fight with words like your worthless selves!”

“Where do you think you are, you foreign, hillbilly punks! Little bastards, crowding like a bunch of babies and babbling with your mouths! Even if I dunked all of you in Maren’s sea, I bet your mouths will still continue to spew sh*t!”

“Ogre? You lot would piss your pants and run with your tail between your legs if you ever came to face a goblin! All of you are just all bark and no bite!”

“Be careful not to leave your adorable little balls behind!”

“Do they even have balls to leave behind? Looking at their wee-faces, it looks like they’ve already lost both balls.”

“If they still have those, It’ll be delicious treats for the goblins!”

Uhahahahahahaha!

The mercenaries burst into laughter, and the faces of the knights flushed red.

“You lowly bastards dare!”

“LowLY bAsTaRdS dArE~?”

“Uagh! Shut your mouth!”

“sHuT YoUr MoUtH~!”

“Argggh!”

“Ar… Huh?” The mercenaries once again started to repeat the knight’s words mockingly, then stopped. Faradon had suddenly rushed forward before smashing the castle gate with his Warhammer.

Boooom! Boom!

“Come out! Come out, you little bastards!”

“You vulgar little pests! I will kill you all!”

The knights were completely infuriated. Knights were prideful individuals, regardless of their nationality and race, and these particular knights were filled with high expectations of getting ahead in a foreign country. They could not possibly take insults from mercenaries sitting down, especially when they looked down on mercenaries.

Boom! Booooom! Booom!

The knights all rushed up to the gate and started pounding the gate with their battleaxes and hammers.

“S-should we shoot them?” one of the mercenaries asked while pointing a crossbow at the knights.

One of his colleagues roared, “Are you crazy? How many precious guests do you think are in the city right now?”

“We must avoid armed conflict at all if possible!”

The city was in a precarious situation, which meant they had to make the best impression on other territories and countries. As such, they could not rush to retaliate against the knights.

“Unpleasant. What is this ruckus?”

A unique, resonant voice was heard from behind the mercenaries.

“Ah! Sir Lilisain!”

“Eland’s princess!”

“Sirs!”

The expressions of the mercenaries glowed at the appearance of Princess Lilisain and the elven knights. It was widely known that she was Eugene’s partner, although Eugene and Princess Lilisain had no idea that people had already regarded them as such.

“What are they doing right now?” Princess Lilisain asked as she stared down at the knights with cold eyes. The knights were still smashing their blunt weapons against the castle gate.

“Well, so…” the mercenaries quickly explained the situation.

“So, you’re saying they came to challenge His Majesty the King?” Princess Lilisain asked.

“Yes, yes. The knight who issued the challenge is the one holding the biggest Warhammer. Faradon Rot-…something,” one of the mercenaries quickly answered. The mercenaries were clearly bewitched by the ethereal beauty of their king’s partner.

“Ability to judge himself is inadequate. However, I highly value his courage,” Princess Lilisain muttered with a smile.

“…What?” The mercenaries were rather bewildered by her words.

Princess Lilisain continued, “A knight should always treasure their aspirations. In that sense, those people could truly be called knights.”

“Well, Princess. Even if that’s the case, I think the gate will be destroyed soon,” one of the mercenaries commented.

“It’s Sir…” the princess corrected him.

“Ah, s-sir. Anyway, the castle gate…”

Shing.

Princess Lilisain unsheathed her blade. Before she was a princess, she was a knight.

“I will protect His Majesty’s property,” Princess Lilisain announced. Her eyes glistened with fighting spirit at the thought of fighting properly after a long while.

However…

“Kieeeeeeehkkkkkk!!!” Something blue came flying over the wall while screaming desperately.

“How much do you think this is worth?! My castle… my castle gate! Kieeeeh!” The spirit collapsed on the spot like a soldier who had lost their country. However, the mercenaries cheered when they saw the spirit.

“The golden spirit!”

“His Majesty is here!”

No one referred to Mirian as the spirit of water anymore. No, rather, there were only a few people who knew that Mirian was actually a spirit of water. Anyway, Eugene, the contractor of the golden spirit, had finally arrived armed with plate armor engraved with beautiful spirals.

“Your Majesty!”

Everyone bowed their heads, and Eugene looked down at the entrance of the castle gate with apathetic eyes.

“Is it them?” He asked.

“Yes...”

“Your Majesty, please give me a chance,” Princess Lilisain was the first to come forward. The other elven knights also placed their hands on the handle of their swords as they prepared to jump off to face Faradon and the opposing knights at any time.

‘Kyah! How reassuring.’

The mercenaries had no doubt that Princess Lilisain and the elven knights would take care of the disturbance. It was a matter of course.

Eugene was the supreme leader of the Dukedom of Maren—its king. He had no reason to scuffle with such small fries. They were in entirely different realms.

“No, I’ll do it,” Eugene suddenly said.

“What?” The mercenaries became wide-eyed with shock.

Eugene proceeded to jump off the castle.

Boom!

“What?!”

Faradon and the other knights were greatly shocked when they saw Eugene jump from more than a height of ten meters. They were shocked that Eugene had jumped from such a height, but they were also surprised by the unusual aura coming from his armor.

‘An armor containing mysteries?’

‘It’s an artifact!’

However, that wasn’t the end of it. An obsidian spear was hanging from Eugene’s back, his left gauntlet was twice as thick as his right, and his sheathed sword emitted an incredible, mysterious energy. Faradon and his knights instinctively noticed that Eugene was completely different from any other knights they had seen until now.

“I am Jan Eugene Batla. You want to challenge me?” Eugene asked.

“T-that’s right. I, Rottoler of Faradon, am issuing an honorable challenge,” Faradon responded, feeling both an instinctive danger and greed for Eugene’s equipment.

Eugene glanced at Faradon before looking over the other knights, who had greedy expressions as well.

“And the rest? Are all of you here to challenge me, sirs?” Eugene asked.

“…!”

The knights flinched before sharing a gaze and nodding their heads.

“Just as I heard, you are a man who knows honor.”

“If you give me the chance, I will gladly try!” The knights raised their voices.

Faradon became startled by his colleagues’ response and raised his voice in turn, “No, sirs! What do you mean? I was the first to…”

“You just have to win, right?”

“If Sir Faradon loses, should we just return? That’s completely ridiculous.”

“That’s right!” the knights shouted in unison as if to prove that they were nothing more than a group of mediocre knights. Such was the reason why most land grabbers had never met happy ends. A mercenary group had a definite leader, but land robbers consisted of nothing but proud, individualistic knights. As such, most land robbers ended up killing each other due to internal strife.

‘Dammit…’

Faradon was flustered, but he quickly composed himself and stared at Eugene. Eugene’s armor was of the highest quality, and the air surrounding him was quite decent, but that didn’t mean he possessed equivalent skill as well. In addition, the rumored achievements and performances were absolutely ridiculous. Faradon might have believed it to some extent if it wasn’t so exaggerated, but Eugene's stories were practically myths or legends.

‘How could that possibly be true?!’

This was why Faradon was confident. There wouldn’t be much to the knight himself. In fact, he thought that was probably why the rumors were so exaggerated—they existed to hide Eugene’s inability.

“Well, let’s get started. The witnesses will be the sirs who came with me…” Faradon declared.

Eugene interrupted him, “Witnesses? No, they’re challengers.”

“…?”

Eugene continued, “And since I don’t have time, all of you can come at me at once.”

“What?!”

Shing!

Eugene drew both Wolfslaughter and Madarazika before speaking softly, “Naturally, I won’t demand ransom from you all. I don’t need it anymore.”

He had more than enough money. Moreover, he would continue to make more money in the future. However, an opportunity like this wasn’t common.

‘It’s because this damn armor needs so much blood.’

The armor absorbed only the blood produced in battle and war as if it was trying to prove its identity as a demonic armor. Eugene was forcibly suppressing the armor’s greed with his authority as an Origin, but he felt as if he would soon reach a limit. As such, he had been planning to depart for an evil land sooner or later.

However, a perfect opportunity had found him before that, and there was no reason for him to refuse.

Moreover…

‘I’m sure there are more people who will try and test the waters like this. I have to take care of them right about now.’

The governor of Maren and the parliament did not bother him, as promised. However, those from far lands were different. They were always trying their best to obtain ‘something’ from him by provocation. It was also possible that Faradon and his goons had received a request from such a person.

‘I should let them know then.’

And he planned to do it properly…

He was sure the parliament would freak out, but it was none of his business. Had he not become their king so they could take care of such issues?

This was a warning.

There were foreign nobles and knights who had come to probe the city and the parliament. The other Origin would arrive sooner or later as well with the Crown Prince of the Roman Empire. As such, this would serve as a bloody warning to them.