Chapter 360: Chapter 355: The King of Gnolls Chapter 360: Chapter 355: The King of Gnolls It didn’t take long for Belradin to soothe the crying Remilia to sleep in his arms. As he prepared to speak, Muria subtly conjured a soundproof barrier around the little princess.

Then, the king, who now seemed to be in good spirits due to the lifting of the curse, began to describe the state of the Lockman Kingdom to Muria, casually letting her know what had led him to such a predicament.

…

From the onset of the Lockman Kingdom’s establishment, there were exactly ten legends, meeting the minimum requirement for founding a kingdom. The Scarlett family, which was the royal family, accounted for half of these legends, hence the king held absolute authority at the time.

At that time, all orders sent out by the king were faithfully executed, with even the surrounding foreign nations dutifully paying tribute, none daring to rebel. Even dark races, let alone followers of the Evil God, kept their distance from the Lockman Kingdom, never daring to approach this highly centralized nation.

However, as time passed, all powers developed and underwent changes. The number of legends in the Lockman Kingdom increased from ten to fourteen, significantly enhancing the kingdom’s overall strength.

Regrettably, the nobles of the Lockman Kingdom, much like the other foreign nations, grew alongside the passage of time. Despite the overall strength of the Kingdom growing, the Scarlett Family seemed to remain stagnant. The Founding Family still boasted five legends, and unfortunately, their quality had significantly declined.

Upon the kingdom’s establishment, among the five legends that the royal family possessed, one was a high-level seventh-rank legend, the founding king of the Lockman Kingdom, who single-handedly held the power to dominate the entire kingdom.

Regrettably, after abdicating the throne, this founding king vanished without a trace, not even leaving a mode of contact behind. With the loss of their pillar of support, the royal family started to fade.

The other four legends that were present during the kingdom’s inception had also left or disappeared for various reasons. Later, although the royal family did manage to groom several loyal powerhouses into legends, upholding their quantity of five, their power seemed to be on a decline.

The majesty of the royal family relied on its military strength. Without the absolute authority they once had, the orders issued by the royal family were now often hypocritically obeyed, no longer sincerely followed.

The surrounding foreign nations also reflected this treatment. Even though they still formally pledged allegiance to the Lockman Kingdom and paid their annual tributes, the resources they offered and their quality had decreased over time, ultimately becoming a mere formality.

The royal dignity of the Scarlett family had now fallen to an unprecedented low during Belradin’s reign.

Belradin had not made any wrong moves. In fact, his ability as a king was much stronger than his predecessors, but this only led to continuous assassination attempts after he ascended the throne, managing the kingdom for a while.

However, time was not on his side. For unknown reasons, the Lockman Kingdom during Belradin’s reign began to produce an unusual wave of prodigious talents. Regardless of the social strata, there was a steady emergence of various talents.

Among the nobles, there were often reports of someone’s offspring showcasing top-quality elemental affinity talents, or training talents so enormous that they achieved milestones similar to breaking through to Silver Rank at ten years old or Gold at twenty.

As for the commoners, due to the policies implemented by Belradin, an astonishing number of outstanding talents were also being detected. Given enough resources, they were as capable of achieving as much as the nobles.

The once precious talents were now emerging on a large scale. For the royal family, this was not necessarily a good thing, as there were too many uncontrollable factors.

It was as if a patient, already at death’s door, was given a strong medicine which seemed to be beneficial in the short term but was actually accelerating death. It was a lethal poison.

Of course, with an abundance of talents emerging among nobles and commoners, the royal family itself was no exception. Belradin’s offspring had all shown extraordinary training talents, each a once-in-a-century prodigy, which made Belradin immensely happy.

But after that, bad news kept pouring in. The eldest princess, who had top-tier alchemy talent, perished in an uncontrolled explosion during an experiment, destroying her laboratory as well. The second prince met with an accident during an outdoor training session; he encountered a spatial rift leading to the abyss and was killed by a demon hand protruding from the rift right under the watch of his guards.

…And so on. Various accidents led to the untimely death of Belradin’s offspring, leaving the unfortunate king drained, leading to an astonishing assassination attempt.

A seeming joint effort from the foreign nations around the Lockman Kingdom dissatisfied with Belradin’s governance tried to assassinate him. Outlaws of the Zor Elves and Dragon People were involved in this assassination attempt.

Belradin, although he didn’t die on the spot from the attempt, had suffered multiple incurable curses that even he, a king, was not able to lift. That was until he met Muria, the holder of the Book of Mourning.

“Hiss!” After Belradin described the basic situation in the Lockman Kingdom, Muria grimaced and took a deep breath. According to Belradin’s description, the current Lockman Kingdom was nothing short of a giant mess.

It was no surprise that Belradin wanted Muria’s grandfather to act as the regent. Given the current state of the Lockman Kingdom, there was indeed a need for a ruler with the strength to suppress all and possess considerable skills to turn the tide.

“What’s this about the Dragon People?” asked a puzzled Muria who had detected something amiss from Belradin’s description.

Belradin responded with a wry smile: “Not just the Lockman Kingdom, but even the monsters and foreign races are also producing numerous inexplicable beings.”

“In the Vast Wild Forest to the north of the kingdom, a Gnoll King with a highly awakened Dragon Vein appeared. In less than fifty years, he managed to rise to power with his tribe in the wilderness. They have now established a duchy of their own.”

“Establishing a nation?” Muria’s face wore an odd expression. “Did he break through to become a legend? What extent has this Gnoll King’s Dragon Vein awakened to? And, what kind of dragon is it?”

“He awakened the Red Dragon lineage. According to the latest intel, this Gnoll King’s form is no different from a true Red Dragon.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read