I am the King of Glendale, the kingdom of humans.

I turned 20 just recently.

My Father, the previous King, succumbed to illness, and I was appointed as king in his stead.

Afterward, my Father managed to recover, but he is rendered immobile without a wheelchair.

I know that I’m still half the person that he is; however, I am being supported by talented ministers.

Given that reason, I want him to entrust the monarchy to me, so he can spend the rest of his life leisurely.

My father was a great king. He did not war against other countries. Instead, he made the country prosper by advancing policies dedicated to hydraulic engineering projects and agriculture.

In addition, one of the former king’s great accomplishments included obtaining the blessing of Undine, the Water Spirit King.

His thoughts were always with his citizens, and he gave daily supplications to the gods and spirits without fail.

All his prayers were not in vain, for Water Spirit King Undine-sama manifested before him.

He beseeched Undine-sama for the stability of his people.

He pledged his piety in return.

He erected shrines dedicated to Undine all throughout the country, and he caused all his people to pray.

Even until the present day, the whole kingdom prays to Undine-sama during the agricultural festival held quarterly.

Due to Undine-sama’s protection, flood disasters are mostly averted, and we no longer suffer from water shortages.

Because we did not encounter water-related disasters, our beloved country’s agriculture developed steadily.

Owing to that development, the present Glendale is now an agricultural powerhouse that is unrivaled by any other kingdom.

My role is to ensure that we continue to obtain security from Undine-sama , the protector of our kingdom’s agriculture.

And now, let me change the topic. I have a friend close to my age, and his name is Cain.

To the public, he is the Captain of the Imperial Guards, but I think of him as my bosom friend.

And I am glad that he also considers me as such.

During the period when the former king is still in good health, I spearheaded the kingdom’s Order of Chivalry in an expedition to stop a stampede that began within the country.

A stampede is a phenomenon that occurs when demons form herds and collectively begin to rampage, threatening to annihilate numerous cities if ignored.

It transpires once in every two to three years.

In general, adventurer guilds are commissioned by the kingdom to deal with them, but the stampede scale was beyond normal at that time.

The adventurers were unable to restrain those demons, and they came within the vicinity of the royal capital.

And so I led the Order of Chivalry for the purpose of quelling it.

At that time, Cain also exhibited potential for leadership within the Order of Chivalry, so he was appointed and deployed as my escort.

The battle against the stampede was extremely fierce.

Several different species of demons attacked at the same time, and hence it correspondingly took more time than expected.

When dealt with individually, I personally experienced how demons that were ordinarily inconsequential turned into nuisances when congregated.

Despite that situation, Cain was able to mete out the most appropriate attacks for all of the demons, and in a blink of an eye, he was able to exterminate them all.

I only came to know about it later on, but apparently, Cain used a skill called [Extreme intuition] in order to gauge the demons’ weaknesses and make split-second decisions while fighting.

The stampede was eradicated smoothly.

It was mostly due to Cain.

Despite that, that guy refused to take any credit for his meritorious deed; he insisted that it was because of my excellent orders as the commanding officer.

What’s up with saying it’s my order? I was just running behind Cain and killing the demons that he occasionally left out.

To be honest, I hated the Cain of that time.

That’s because he was such a straight-laced, rigid guy.

But I recognize his competency.

And since he did not want to receive merit, I commanded him to become my instructor and teach me swordsmanship.

He declined several times, but I refused to back down, so Cain taught me swordsmanship.

Under Cain’s swordsmanship tutelage, my strength and technique improved steadily.

I was able to triumph against the commanding officers of the Order of Chivalry that I previously could not defeat.

However, against Cain alone, no matter what I do, I cannot win.

I continuously trained with Cain, and before I knew it, the two of us subjugated small-scale stampede together.

I am assured that Cain has my back.

Of course, I will be the one to have Cain’s back.

After annihilating the stampeding demons, Cain said that we should equally divide the credit between us.

Cain overwhelmingly defeated more monsters than me, but I was delighted that he did not push all the merit on to me.

It felt like he finally recognized me.

From then on, we became good friends.

The first thing that I did as king was to establish the Imperial Guards and appoint Cain as their captain.

My bosom friend accepted it with no hesitation.

And now, the brother of that friend got married.

What are you doing? Hurry up and give them your congratulations.

…

What? You’re my escort?

That’s not important right now.

No matter how you look at it, we are a peaceful country.

I am not so weak that I’ll be assassinated easily.

That’s why, hurry up and go.

…

But for some reason, Cain had no desire to leave.

…

Alright, I understand.

I will congratulate your brother.

It is not as if we’re strangers, so there is no issue.

And since you’re my escort, you have to come with me, alright?

By the way, who is the marriage partner of your brother?

W, what? It is Tina?

Eh, he’s also getting married to the princess of Alheim?

…

I received a shock upon hearing that Heroine Tina, the girl I liked in the past, is already married.

However, it is with the younger brother of my best friend, Cain.

I am sure he can grant happiness to Tina.

Oh, speaking of, I heard that a few days ago, Cain’s younger brother, Halt, stood as Alheim’s ally when the human kingdom of Apristos threatened the Elf Kingdom, and he drove off Apristos’ army.

We did not have any diplomatic relations with Apristos, and besides, in the past, the Hero who defeated the Demon King came from our beloved Kingdom and made the connection with Heroine Tina.

That is why our beloved country is considering establishing friendship with Alheim.

The feeling became stronger when I received the Leaf of Yggdrasil, an extremely valuable item, from the king of Alheim.

The whole kingdom should welcome the wedding of Cain’s younger brother with Heroine Tina and Alheim’s princess.

I had that thought in mind, but when I attended Halt, and the other’s reception party, a Marquis of my own kingdom was holding the hand of the princess of Alheim.

According to the report I heard, the Marquis’ son fell in love with the princess and wished to snatch her from Halt.

Preposterous!

You’re telling me that you’re stealing the bride of my best friend’s brother?

I won’t forgive you; I swear I won’t forgive you!

I had the imperial guards take that Marquis outside the venue.

Let’s give him a heavy punishment later on.

How about charging him with treason?

With that thought in mind, Tina’s figure in her dress caught my eye.

She was as gorgeous as she was in the past.

Unwittingly, I proposed.

Ugh, what am I doing?

With this, aren’t I the same as that Marquis?

“No, no! That’s because Tina is Halt’s bride.”

A little girl rebuked me.

Is she some aristocrat’s child?

She’s this young, but she already possesses the knowledge that other people’s loved ones should not be stolen.

I have to reflect.

So that girl is Sylph-sama , the Spirit King of the Wind.

Undine-sama was also present at the venue.

Apparently, they formed summoning contracts with Halt. Therefore, they came to congratulate him.

…

What am I doing, hitting on Undine-sama’s contractor’s bride right before her eyes!?

“If this country betrays Halt, then you will have all the spirits of this world as your enemies.”

The words uttered by Undine-sama weighed heavily on me.

Our protection of Halt’s household is correlated to the protection of this county.

With this, I vowed to protect the Halt and the Elnor House with the power of Glendale, my beloved kingdom.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep