284: Level 300

Thursday's chapter.

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Chapter 284

As expected, Elara didn’t come here without a plan. Sure, Galliard’s move to assassinate a duke capable of affecting the economy of this kingdom did hinder her, but just for a teeny tiny bit.

Elara had many contingency plans for that. Some she improvised, and some went according to her plans. In other words, she didn’t come here believing blindly in luck. She had a whole map ready and followed the exact steps of that map, which led to this very moment.

“I recommend Teresa von Newmark as the queen of the Newmark kingdom.” Elizabeth raised her hand and gave her vote.

There were a total of six votes before. Four from the ducal lords, one from the honorary count from the church, and one from Elizabeth. No, the princes didn’t get a vote, and neither did Elara. Elara didn’t get one because, currently, the Carlson house was considered a traitor, with the story made like that.

One prince only had one ducal lord on his side, so even if he got a vote, it’d be only one.

The second prince still had two ducal lords on his side, so he was the only one with a happy expression on his face.

If only he knew.

As for Galliard, he had a cold expression on his face. Not only because he didn’t become the king, but most probably also because he had already received communion from the church.

JaVale was nowhere to be seen, so he most probably had run back to the holy land with all the evidence in his hand leading to Galliard, literally saying he was the reason the church failed to get the Newmark kingdom.

Now Galliard was as good as scrap. Of course, not literal scrap. He was still strong enough, and it wasn’t like he had zero influence on this kingdom. But as far as his ambition to sit on the throne goes, that was as good as dead.

If someone other than Teresa became the king, he would still have a chance, because he could move his own forces.

But he was wise enough to know that none other than Teresa would be becoming the ruler. Behind that ruler now stood Elara. Any and all chances of him usurping the throne would end with that.

As for Teresa, for now, only Elizabeth had voted for her.

So the second prince, the third prince, and the princess had one vote each. Anyone in the hall could see where this was going.

If everything went according to plan, the second prince would become the king since he would have two votes on his side.

“Lord Septal?” The second prince called the lord, who still hadn’t cast his vote.

Septal stood up, grace following his movement as he began his speech like those who had before.

“I have pondered hard and long, and after thinking about it extensively, I have come to only one conclusion.”

“What this kingdom needs right now is stability.”

“With barbarian at the gates, waiting to tear this noble kingdom apart at the slightest moment of weakness, what we need in these times is not a ruler who rules with might but a ruler who rules with wisdom and honor.”

The second prince’s nose rose higher and higher with each word.

Poor fella.

“And that is why, after much thought, I vote for Her Highness the princess, Teresa von Newmark, to become the next queen and rightful ruler of this land.”

The poor fellow stood up even though his name wasn’t said.

Embarrassing.

His expression was one thing to note when he realized the name that was said.

“Lord Septal?” The other duke, who had the most mines in the kingdom, called Septal out, but Septal remained firm.

“Lord Michael,” Septal turned to him, “I have made this decision after carefully considering everything. War is at hand, and we must do everything to prevent it. A wise ruler is not the one who wins wars, but the one who prevents them from even happening.”

Such wise words from a hypocrite.

Well, as a soldier, his words made sense. War brought death, famine, instability, and population decrease. This kingdom couldn’t bear none of those at the moment.

If a war were to break out because of Elara’s backing out, who would be protecting this kingdom? It would have been different before when Teresa and I weren’t married. But now that we were, Elara had every reason to hold the grudge.

Politics.

Anyway, we’ll be moving on to the coronation of the queen soon, with three princes gritting their teeth and fists so hard they were bleeding from their lips and palms.

Poor fellas.

Of course, the coronation of a queen couldn’t take place in this room with only this much audience, so that would come at a later time.

Until then…

“To your estate, grandmaster?” Teresa asked, sweat dripping from her forehead, and her breathing hard.

“Yes.” Elara simply replied and offered no explanation.

Well, the explanation itself was quite easy.

Protection.

There was still one surefire method to stop all this. An assassination. Kill Teresa, and everything would be fine. The princes would then duke it out among themselves to decide the king.

It wasn’t anything new.

Teresa nodded and didn’t question it, even though she didn’t get a lot of explanation. She left with Valeria to prepare, and a few of Elara’s knights.

As for us…

“Can I trust you to clean it up nicely?” Elara asked.

I looked at the three knights behind me, ready to charge at us, or more like defend their lives.

To me, they looked like nothing but sweet EXP bags.

“You can leave it to me, my lady.”

~~

[Level up]

Ahh…

The sweet voice.

Killing George didn’t get me a level up back then, so I was quite annoyed, but thankfully, these three each giving me a million EXP, I jumped up in levels quite a bit.

Of course, it was a difficult battle, and I had to use a lot of tricks up my sleeve to kill them.

Still, it was nowhere near a battle to the death. For them maybe, but for me. Not a chance. Even still, a victory without any fancy armor was still noteworthy.

Skill I did use, but no fancy armor. I needed to make sure I wasn’t rusty. It had been a long time since my last battle.

Anyway…

[Name: Jack]

[Race: Lapsari]

[Gender: Male\Lapsarus]

[Level: 303]

[EXP: 34,440\303,000]

Haa…

The EXP requirement jumped by another zero. I remember needing EXP in thousands before; now I need it in hundreds of thousands. Still, finally above level 300.

I was now a full-fledged level S rank.

And that wasn’t even the best part…

[Bonus stats: 410]

How could I not salivate at that?

[Strength: 300]

[Agility: 300]

[Stamina: 300]

[Intelligence: 300]

[Charm: 100]

Various achievements were in play, and my stats were higher than my level. But still, they were low. I was at the peak of A rank territory by those stats, so it made sense why killing three S rank knights was so difficult. Wouldn’t have been so if I had equipped the shadow armor that I repaired after waking up.

As for how to put up those stats…

[Strength: 350]

[Stamina: 350]

[Agility: 350]

[Intelligence: 500]

[Charm: 100]

[Bonus stats: 60]

I saved some for the rainy days and pushed my intelligence all the way to the maximum. I didn’t know if the system rules were the same in this world as they were for the previous ones, but I put off putting any more stats into intelligence for now. ℴ

In the previous world, five hundred level was the maximum I could go to, and five hundred in each stat was also the maximum. If some achievements or titles could already fill that level, I could exchange stats for some coins or skills in the shop.

But five hundred was the maximum. In this world, however, the rules weren’t the same. I was still gaining EXP even though I had long passed that point of strength, and by far I had gotten a lot of achievements for sexual tasks in this world.

At level 300, my stats should have been at 1500 granted by the system, and around 1520-1540 if I were to be generous with achievements and titles in any of my previous worlds.

But my stats were at 1610 at the moment. And to be noticed, I had zero titles at the moment.

That was one thing this world was stingy with.

Anyway, my strength was sufficient at the moment. At the peak of S rank by the standards of this world. And I would have been the strongest person in this world had the higher realms not been concealed.

In Hector Town, it was common knowledge that S rank was the limit in this world. But in the capital, S ranks were a dime a dozen, and not to mention, there were SSS rank and beyond monsters in this world.

I would be SS at 400, SSS at 450, and divine at 500. By my estimate, Elara was around 480-490 in terms of stats.

Even if I were to kill all the S ranks in this kingdom, reaching level 450 would be difficult, since the EXP requirement would then shift to a million.

Haa…

Nothing was easy, huh?

Still, this far in a year was amazing.

And…

[A certain level has been achieved]

[A reward would be granted]

Another new thing happened.