Naur waited for the Palantír Hall to fall silent again before he continued the record. Although everyone was very curious about what was going to happen, they were all still internally complaining about the king’s incompetence and cowardice.
As royals themselves, however TBOAH!Zed and TCF!Zed kept their emotions in check. TBOAH!Alberu, once he calmed down as well, managed to mask his frustration and irritation well. Although, no one cared to point these things out because they were all dealing with subduing their own riotous feelings at this injustice.
Nobody was saying anything. However, the eyes of the soldiers and leaders who were standing at attention were quickly looking around. The chiefs who were gathered to one side had terrible expressions on their faces.
“Supreme Chief-nim!” One of the chiefs called out to Harol.
They all seemed to be in a state of panic. On the other hand, Harol had no expression on his face, but his eyes were sparkling in anger. The chief that called for him did not say anything else after seeing that angry gaze.
The Palantír panned to show the expressions on all the faces of the gathered people – it revealed exactly how deeply the absence of the king made them feel. TBOAH!Toonka and TCF!Toonka sat quietly as they stared at TCF!Toonka’s own expressions being shown on the Palantír alongside the rest of his people. TCF!Toonka quietly acknowledged that he had done the right thing.
“Ahem.” One knight entered the plaza. It was the Vice Captain of the king’s personal Knights Brigade. He headed toward the chiefs by the entrance as soon as he entered.
“What is going on?”
The Vice Captain flinched at Harol’s cold tone that was directed at him before opening up a parchment and starting to speak. His voice was quite loud.
“His highness is not feeling well, so he is unable to make the speech.”
“Ha.”
Cale heard Choi Han scoffing behind him. It was not just Choi Han. The gazes of the chiefs turned hostile.
“Wow, this bastard sure knows how to save his own skin.” TBOAH!Bud hissed with animosity and disgust. As someone who led the Mercenary Guild, TBOAH!Bud and TCF!Bud both knew and seriously adhered to the heavy responsibility that came with carrying the lives of so many people in their hands.
They’d met plenty people during their years taking on missions and traveling around the continents, but they’d never seen a person like the king of the Whipper Kingdom. It made them angry that such an incompetent person was in a position of power.
‘The person who was screaming in the strategy room just yesterday is suddenly ill? And ill to the point that he cannot give a speech? Total nonsense.’
The chiefs’ gazes started to turn into sharp glares. There was no way the king was ill. He was the type that considered his body to be the most precious thing on the continent. Forget being ill, he was probably extremely healthy but just choosing not to take part in this speech.
The Palantír courteously provided an explanation for the King’s logic – of course it was thanks to Cale’s unparalleled strategic mind that everyone was able to understand the true intentions of the absent king. The record explain that it was not TCF!Toonka’s actions from the day before that triggered the king, but rather that he was “afraid of the Empire”.
Giving a speech here would be accepting a direct confrontation with the Empire and declaring war. However, if he avoids giving a speech then there would be no official word from him, giving him an excuse to save himself from the Empire if the Empire won and charged into the Whipper Kingdom’s palace. The king was giving himself a way out while remaining neutral, just as he had done for the war between the mages and the non-mage faction.
“So he sent the Vice Captain instead.” TBOAH!Dodori’s voice was heavy with disapproval and disappointment.
“Did the concept of killing the messenger to send a message not occur to him?” Rok Soo asked Cale, his voice sounding stern and cold. Cale shrugged and resisted the urge to mentally call Kim Rok Soo’s tone “vicious” in his head.
That was why Harol was extremely angry.
“…Vice Captain, do you know how this comes off?”
The soldiers were in a state of chaos. They were going to war. They were going to war to protect their kingdom. They were going to war to protect this land. But the owner of the land claimed that he was ill and didn’t even come to see them off as they went and put their lives on the line for their homeland. He wasn’t even cheering them on.
No one felt that the citizens and the soldiers were exaggerating. They were all seeing what the Whipper Kingdom's people had to go through with fresh eyes. The fact that they preferred Toonka made even more sense now – the people preferred someone who acted rather than someone who did not.
Toonka was a man of action, a violent tyrant to the TBOAH!World, but he was still the one who brought the people of the Whipper Kingdom out from under the painful oppression of the mages and the Magic Tower, likewise he had done the same in the TCF!World. Whereas the Whipper Kingdom’s king had chosen to hide and claim neutrality on both these occasions.
The Vice Captain avoided Harol’s gaze as he continued to read what was written on the parchment.
“Ahem, although he cannot come to give a speech in person, he asked me to deliver the message that he is cheering for you.”
Harol could not believe it.
‘Damn bastard that deserves to be beaten to death!’
He thought that the king was even worse than the Tower Master of the Magic Tower.
“It’s a miracle you didn’t take his head right then and there…” TBOAH!Harol muttered, of course he was talking about TCF!Toonka, however TBOAH!Toonka nodded agreeably to his words when he heard them because he felt they were very true as well.
However, he could not do as he pleased right now. The soldiers started to whisper to each other. There were many voices that were full of concern.
‘The soldiers are getting agitated! Their morale was going down.’
Harol started to frown.
‘I should have moved them all to Maple Castle right away if I knew it would end up like this!’
It was at that moment. There was a loud noise that shook the ground. Harol then saw priest Cale pointing toward the top of the platform. Cale was smiling. Harol turned his head. The person who had made the ground shake was heading to the top of the platform.
Toonka.
“Hmmm?!” TBOAH!Toonka’s eyes went wide and he corked his head to one side in confusion. TBOAH!Harol was doing no better, his expression also mirrored his undeniable shock – did this mean that TCF!Toonka had stepped up?!
“Did-did he give a speech?!” TBOAH!Harol’s jaw hung open in his disbelief and shock.
He stood on top of the platform. He then started to shout.
“I am stupid.”
‘Aigoo.’
Cale chuckled and face-palmed.
TCF!Toonka chuckled, his face shining with a cheery smile of happiness – oddly enough he reminded Grigori of one of those chubby little bulldogs from the human worlds, that were as adorable as they were scary when angered.
No one else however had the courage to speak or comment on TCF!Toonka’s actions or words because they were in shocked disbelief as well – many of them hadn’t known that TCF!Toonka had done something like this either.
A voice that was loud enough to drown out the whispers of the soldiers could be heard.
“I do not know any fancy words and my head doesn’t work very well. However, I do know one thing…”
The soldiers and knights all looked toward Toonka.
“Why did you all choose to follow me?”
The warriors were all natives who were ignored and called barbarians. The soldiers were mainly regular citizens who were originally farmers. They had followed behind Toonka in anger when they were fighting the civil war against the mage faction.
“Why did you hold up your farming equipment, clench onto rocks, and follow behind me?” Toonka’s question filled the plaza.
It was obvious that this speech was unscripted and entirely off the top of his head, but for obvious reasons it suited him.
It was different than the charismatic speech most leaders gave before a war. The choice of words was bad and he looked terrible as he stood up there. Furthermore, his gaze seemed ready to pounce and kill anybody that bugged him. Toonka was indeed angry.
“Why did we fight?!”
Why had the Whipper Kingdom’s citizens attacked the strong mages in a frenzied state? The expressions on the faces of the soldiers who did not know what it meant to fight two years ago slowly started to change. The chiefs looked toward Toonka.
It suited TCF!Toonka surprisingly well because it reached into the chaotic minds of his soldiers and brought their attention back into focus. It effectively reminded them about why they were here and what exactly they were here to do – and that’s what mattered most.
Harol subconsciously walked toward Cale. Cale whispered to him in a quiet voice.
“This is a chance. Toonka doesn’t seem to realize it though.” Harol heard the warm voice that was quiet to the point that only he could hear. “This is your chance. It is the chance to get the citizens and soldiers to come together.”
TBOAH!Toonka was trembling, his eyes were prickling and his chest was sore. He felt like he was being overwhelmed by an emotion he had never felt before. Grigori teleported to his side, effortlessly taking a seat between him and the trembling TBOAH!Harol.
The angry mob was reminded of how they had sought out blood while being in a state of frenzy. A new gaze different than the angry crazed gaze from earlier appeared on Harol’s face. Toonka and Harol. They were the center of the non-mage faction and now the center of the Whipper Kingdom.
TBOAH!Harol was at a loss of words as well. The fact that TCF!Toonka stepped forward to do this entirely on his own and without anyone prompting him to do so, spoke volumes about how much the TCF!Toonka had grown in the TCF!World.
Harol could hear Toonka’s voice again at that moment.
“I will only charge forward this time as well!”
Toonka looked like the crazy tyrant that had drawn people to him in the first place.
The soldiers and warriors started to think. This was their leader who only fought while looking straight ahead.
“Your opinions are not important.”
Yes, they had all followed him because they were charmed by Toonka’s style.
“Follow behind me.”
The soldiers’ and warriors’ eyes instantly got larger. Their leader who always charged forward continued to speak.
“Chase after me.”
He was telling them to follow him.
Grigori wrapped her aura around TBOAH!Toonka and TBOAH!Harol, she wordlessly comforted them while allowing her divine power to permeate their bodies and surround the fractured and jagged edges of their broken souls. TCF!Toonka and TCF!Harol across the hall were watching their counterparts who seemed to be breaking down in silence. It wasn’t hard for them to guess how impactful TCF!Toonka's actions were in their eyes. TCF!Harol felt a deep sense of pride in TCF!Toonka and smiled supportively when TCF!Toonka looked down at him with a concerned expression on his face.
These were the words of their leader who had brought them victory over and over again. A state of heated frenzy started to surround the soldiers. Toonka was extremely angry right now. He was angry at the Empire and at the king of the Whipper Kingdom. That was why he wanted to destroy everything.
Unlike the angry TCF!Toonka on the screen the pair of them from the two timelines had very different expression on their faces right now. TBOAH!Toonka looked like he was about to scream and wail in angry grief and sorrow, meanwhile TCF!Toonka looked like he wanted to hug TCF!Harol and TBOAH!Harol who both looked like they were going to cry as well. Of course, TCF!Harol would be the one shedding happy tears while TBOAH!Harol would shed tears of yearning and loss. Regardless the records were showing an entirely different response to these heavy and emotional situations happening on either end of the Palantír Hall.
However, Toonka had indeed changed. His gaze headed toward one side. He could see Cale. He could see Cale smiling leisurely as he continued to speak.
“Do not worry about your back.”
Only look forward. Do not worry about your back. Toonka was the same yet different Toonka from before. His subordinates sent him their responses.
Their riotous responses of frenzied stomping and deafening shouting almost shook the records within the Palantír. While the jubilant noises of booming cheers faded and the Palantír turned dark, Grigori quietly teleported the four individuals to a private suite so she could heal them, leaving Naur to dismiss the guests in the hall and inform them that the next record would start after an hour recess.
He dismissed them casually and Mairon returned to the Palantír Hall to join them. She greeted them kindly, bowing respectfully and offering to show them around the Goddess' Palace, so that they could leisurely explore since it was still too early for them to go to lunch.
~~~
An hour later, everyone was teleported back to the Palantír Hall and found Grigori sitting picturesquely in a large armchair with a large book in her lap. Sunlight dappled into the Palantír Hall bathing the room in a warm and ethereal glow.
Toonka and Harol were not present as they all took their seats once again, but that seemed understandable now. Grigori smiled beautifully and welcomed them all back, her book and armchair disappeared and her lounger replaced them.