Chapter 196

Chapter 196: Chapter 196

"...Your Highness, claiming your birthright as the King is..."

Caedos tuned out the old Hellhound, General Urien repeated himself frequently, so he was missing nothing important.

He had begun to run out of patience but his handsome face showed nothing of it. He had managed to put off taking the throne for a few weeks but he was no closer to extricating himself from Avalan.

He could still tolerate it for now because things were still delicate, and retaliation wasn’t completely out of the question. Even after they had regained their freedom, the Fiends could still choose to attack.

The only progress he had managed was strengthening the army. A large number of Hellhounds had been forced to be a part of the army for the sake of freedom, so it was easy to nudge them to keep training and growing their strength.

Coddling the masses was a plight of royalty, from the very night of the celebration of liberation, he had wanted to abolish the crown. But he couldn’t bring himself to do so while they basked in their hard-won victory, and every night after that, it had only gotten harder to.

By mid-afternoon, he had hit his limit, leaving the palace to go on a run.

It had been much easier to run a city while war raged, he merely had to focus on his soldiers and the enemy. But with the onset of peace, less savory responsibilities had begun to creep up on him.

What treasure that had been recovered was generously shared with the city so they could rebuild, yet the castle treasury was still teeming with gold and precious gems, and now the citizens of Avalan were offering to pay taxes.

First, it would be taxes, next they would bring matters to him to resolve and in no time, the shackles of the throne would be embedded in his skin.

Without meaning to, he ended up at the final battleground. He shifted out of his hound form mid-step, his eyes troubled as he stared at the destruction that the Deep Woods had yet to recover from.

More than anything else, the endlessly burning ground worried him. It had rained, yet the fire refused to go out, and the vines refused to reclaim the charred ground.

Worried that he had somehow acquired the ever-burning flame from myth, he had tested his fire on a different patch of land. Its strange golden hue and dangerous strength were difficult to explain, but it went out when it was quenched.

Not to mention the burning battleground didn’t have his strange fire, its strength was no different from any other flame, and the reddish orange color was expected, yet, it refused to go out.

He didn’t dwell on it too much, it wasn’t spreading and was doing no more damage to the forest. It drew him like a moth to a flame however, whenever he left the city to escape the constricting sensation that threatened to suffocate him, he always ended up there.

Caedos turned away from the burning battleground, he needed to put his foot down and announce his decision to abolish the throne. Otherwise, he would only be forced to spend even longer in Avalan.

Without royalty, there were a lot of changes that needed to be implemented. For a race that had been led by royalty for countless millennia, it would be difficult to adapt to such a change.

His first and final decree was first revealed to his captains, their sheer disbelief was expected. But this was a decision Caedos had made long before he was birthed from the trees, even if he didn’t promise to return to Dulce’s side, the throne would have remained empty.

"His... His Highness is wise," Ardan stumbled over his title. The Hellhound was the youngest of the captains, barely two centuries old, and hung on his every word. "There is certainly a good reason for this decision."

Caedos was surprised to see how well he had taken it; now, if only the others were as open-minded. "I want Avalan to be without such an obvious weakness. If the defeat of royalty is all that is needed to subjugate the race then there is still a lot of work to be done."

Ayred had an expression of grudging acceptance, it was difficult not to see the Crown Prince’s points. However, a lot of the soldiers’ determination came from their loyalty to the crown and their utmost belief in the strength of their leader.

"And who will lead the city?" He asked.

"No one. Everyone." Caedos said vaguely, inciting more discontent. "Everyone can have a turn, if everyone is more or less equal in strength, it would matter little who led the charge."

"But no one but royalty can breathe flames," Telos was quick to point out.

It was a staple of Hellhound Royalty, the special ability to produce fire, it set them apart.

"Neither can our enemies," Caedos countered. "My flames do not give me true immortality."

There was more silent grumbling at his words, despite the topic being on abolishing the crown, the captains still struggled with freely expressing themselves.

Caedos pretended not to see their evident disapproval, the captains were the least of his problems. General Urien and Lady Dilya would prove to be the most difficult to convince.

"A traditional army is equally unnecessary, my hope is to have each Hellhound strong enough to defend themselves." He went on, his demeanor serious. "Waiting for a savior is a futile sentiment."

With every word he spoke, the captains were more and more convinced, albeit grudgingly. They had lived in the period of captivity and they had been at the forefront of the liberation war, they especially knew that survival had no care for ancient traditions.

After the lengthy conversation with his captains, he bid them to announce his decree to the city and then waited for the inevitable arrival of the opposition.

Lady Dilya arrived first; the matronly Hellhound lived in the castle, overseeing the infirmary while running the castle at the same time. She was pale and stricken, barging into his study without remembering to knock like she usually would.