April 24th, 8760 of the Faustian 4th generation calendar.
This day would forever be marked in the history books of Andrato Kingdom, as the worst day in the history of the kingdom, the day that marked its changed fate.
What was meant to be a slowly rising kingdom with a promising future was thrust onto the path of certain destruction without any possibility of a change in circumstances.
On this day, a party of over 500 powerhouses consisting of many Adepts and Journeymen had set out to kill an Adept undead of unknown power called Stonekeeper Marasmus.
The reward for his head would have been something that would have allowed the next generation of Andrato Kingdom to grow into real powerhouses...
Alas, the result of this had not been the victory for the living.
Calling it a failure alone, wouldn't do it justice, either.
No, it had ended up as a total rout!
Not a single person in that group had survived to return to the kingdom. This was a horrifying truth with many implications.
Firstly, that the undead in the Plains of Death were truly as fearsome as the history books described them to be.
Secondly, that there was now a gaping power vacuum in the kingdom that needed to be filled. Such a thing usually wouldn't be a problem for stronger kingdoms with deeper foundations and stronger connections.
All those would need to do would be to guard against external foes with their power while trying to contain the inevitable internal skirmishes that would happen as a result.
Even if it would weaken the kingdom a bit, the power gaps would eventually be filled with new faces and the kingdom could re-cultivate its powerhouses with sufficient resources.
However, Andrato Kingdom did not have that luxury. Just the internal strife alone would be enough to collapse the kingdom, much less the inevitable attacks and external pressure they would be facing from other parties soon enough.
Chief among them would be the Fraterina Kingdom, who had long since wanted to assimilate Andrato Kingdom. Now that such an opening had come about, Fraterina would never let it go, no matter the price they had to pay.
This was why Darius had been certain that Andrato was done for. Even if it was considered a kingdom, one had to remember that it was the lowliest of them all and hardly warranted the attention of the bigger empires.
They did have had Kubrick as a deterrence, so it wasn't worthwhile for others to waste their own powers to acquire this little kingdom with only 25 dungeons, 20 of the lowest-tier and 5 low-tier ones.
However, to Fraterina, all of that did not matter. What they wanted more than just the kingdom and its land was the Royal Family.
As if the spirit of Faust had wanted to reimburse Julietta for the grievance she had suffered in her life, her direct line had produced queens with the purest Valkyrie bloodline, even purer than the current Queen of Fraterina!
With the birth of Jeanne, Fraterina had upped their ante in recent years, for she had been rumored to be half-Valkyrie!
This was where Darius had been wrong previously, for he had thought that the bloodline of the Andrato Kingdom's royalty had been basic humans.
However, the truth was that the founder of Fraterina had been a powerful Valkyrie freed from Odin's service after rendering many merits!
A Valkyrie was considered its own thing usually, but the naked truth of the matter was that Valkyries were basically just warrior angels in Norse Mythology.
Hence Jeanne having a half-angel bloodline.
Elijah, the Royal Seneschal, had long since left for the capital, so he and the Royal Faction had perfectly preserved their powers, but when the news struck, even they had been chilled.
After all, the majority of the factions had been the very noble houses of Andrato. Their patriarchs and various elders had been the Adept fellows on the battlefield, now reduced to nothing.
The entire Noble Faction of Andrato was ruined!
Apart from a select few who had been unable to leave their posts no matter what like Bistro, Nicolas Spencley, and Jonathan Silverwater, the rest had expired, leaving grieving spouses and descendants who were still coming of age.
Apart from them were various mage academies who had lost their headmasters and teachers, like Sothe who had been in charge of the biggest mage academy in Ando City.
There were also other guilds like the Adventurer's Guild that lost many powerhouses and not to mention the Mercenary Guild which was cleaned out of most of its high-tier mercs.
However, the Thieves Guild and the Assassins Guild seemed to have sustained far fewer losses than the other, making many parties suspicious but unable to act on it.
As for Darla and Kiran, they had both been greatly chilled when hearing the news. They had narrowly avoided a serious calamity, leading Kiran to thank her profusely for sharing her intuition with him.
Darla hadn't even been in the mood to say 'I told you so' and strut about, for the upcoming storm was going to be brutal.
Right now, the various weaker factions were beginning to stir. Many didn't outright believe the news and feared a trap, so they began probing the factions they didn't even dare breathe too loudly in front of previously.
Some were also watching the Royal Faction to see what they would do. Since they were now the indisputably strongest power in the entire kingdom, the truly smart ones were starting to consider what they would do before making their own moves.
Observers were not disappointed. Within a week after the massacre had been revealed, the Royal Faction made a Royal Edict that in order to strengthen the kingdom from the influence of outside forces, they would be reacquiring all assets belonging to certain powers based on their level of weakness.
This brought a quick uproar in the kingdom, and many were utterly shocked!
This Royal Edict was basically saying that they were going to take over all the assets of the weakened factions by any means!
This… this… how could the Royal Faction do this? They would not only be stepping on the toes of the noble houses and factions tied to the Superiority Faction, but the Equality Faction that was technically their ally!
Many naturally tried and hoped to resist, but when they saw how the Royal Faction mercilessly mobilized all of its available forces, they were left in despair.
Of course, smarter fellows were able to see that this was the right choice. The kingdom needed stability and unity now more than ever, even if force and unscrupulous means were required!
What surprised them was the fact that it wasn't the Queen, but the Crown Princess herself who had suggested everything and executed all of this mercilessly!
