Chapter 100 The King

We entered the throneroom, and we’re hit with another wave of charisma. This one was much stronger, and it made me want to swear fealty to the man it came from. I now knew how a charisma-based class became the leader of a country, because I had only withstood the blast because of my high intellect. Most people, unless they were an intelligence-based class, would have failed and seen him as their leader, perhaps even willing to sacrifice their lives for him and the kingdom.

It just made me and my wives feel that way for a second, then it was gone. It didn’t affect the Prince at all, but I could see Randy’s eyes glaze over as his stupid smile fell off his face, and he looked far more resolute. He had fallen for the glamour and would even attack the leader of his faction if the king ordered him to. The sideways glances and slight beads of sweat forming on his face as he stared at the Prince made it obvious the two glamors were fighting against each other.

Now that the feeling had passed and we moved further into the chamber, I could see him. He sat on a throne a few steps above us, so even while sitting, he would be above us. I had heard of people doing similar psychological techniques before; this was the most well-known. It made him always look down on anyone who entered; they would subconsciously feel inferior to him…

Except, as I got a better look at him, I didn’t feel inferior. For someone with incredibly high charisma, he appeared… Fairly average. Sure, he was a little taller than the average man, but I was taller than him; he was balding from age, at least it appeared to be the case, as his crown wasn’t properly aligned, revealing more skin underneath than it should have. To counter that fact, he grew his remaining hair long, but it appeared to be slightly greasy from a lack of cleaning.

Now that I got a better look at him, that was his entire body. His clothing was heavily enchanted, and possibly a single piece was worth more than my entire net worth, but it was heavily used and stained. His endurance most likely capped at around ten, which meant he would only live eight hundred years… But he had already far surpassed that timeframe by wearing enchanted equipment with endurance.

It meant that he could never take the clothes off; if he did, he might die from the sudden decrease in his endurance. His regal shirt was clean, but heavily stained. He wore several rings on each finger and several beautiful necklaces of jewelry, once again heavily enchanted to boost his stats. I gulped as the weight of the king finally sank in.

If he really wished, he could order my death, and by the time Mara found out, it would already be too late. The dragon had plans for me, but would she really go against an entire kingdom if I was already dead, or just cut her losses? He gave us all a smile as he stood and began to approach us. “It’s so good to meet the heroes who save the king-.”

Before he could finish his obviously prepared speech, he tripped on a fold left on the rug leading down the steps. As he flew through the air, it was made obvious that his rings were sized for a much larger man, as they began to fly off. The way he landed had also removed most of the necklaces from around his neck. For a brief moment, we all sat in silence. The King, Luthor, and Randy sat mouths agape at what had happened.

But after all the lucky shit that’s happened to my wives and me, we barely flinched. Only after the king grabbed at his chest, his body rapidly aging as he died before anyone could do anything about it, did reality finally sink in… Our luck just fucking murdered the king. He was a desiccated corpse, practically mummified after losing so much endurance all at once.

If each ring and necklace gave a point of endurance… No wonder his death was so dramatic. I looked at the Prince now, wondering what was going to happen as he finally broke the tension with a sigh. “Everyone is going to think I murdered my father now. No one is going to believe this really happened.” Another brief bit of silence before he began laughing.

“What’s done is done, I guess. I knew beforehand that my father was only going to give you a thousand gold coins for stopping the corrupted dungeon. Randal here has told me about what happened, and while the tale was fantastical, now that I’ve seen your incredible luck myself, I can truly believe it…” He sat thinking seriously now as he spoke.

“That’s not nearly enough for what you’ve done for this country.” The Prince called for servants to drag the King out… Well, it was most likely that the Prince in front of me was now the King, as the negotiations for our reward began in earnest. He wanted me to take some of his sisters as my wives; it was possibly a trap, and from the gleam in his eye, I knew I couldn’t turn him down, but I got it lessened from six to one.

Six new wives would be too much, and Mara warned me about bedding too many women; otherwise, I’d explode. He spoke of turning the village on the border into a full-fledged town, but I didn’t see it as a reward for myself; the only positive is that the village would need to be moved, which meant I’d gain more space to put down more fields.

I didn’t want to be the mayor of the new village, but Cherry agreed that she’d rule in my stead with the Princess, who would be sent to marry me. I didn’t like it… I did like the thousand mithril coins and full mithril weapon upgrades we received as the true reward; we went from being broke, still making our way to the endgame, to skipping right past it and becoming extremely rich.

At the end of the day, we were the ones who stopped the assault from the corrupted dungeon. After looking at the capital, I knew the dungeon would have never destroyed it, but it would have dealt huge damage along the way there; only the Prince and his men would have been able to fight it at that point, so it was good we stopped it before it got any worse.

Things could have gone far, far worse, but they hadn’t, and now, with the King’s death from my sheer presence, it was clear why that amount of luck was beyond what should be possible. The real question was… Was the luck causing the problems to begin with, to make us all stronger, much faster than we should be capable of?

I shuddered at the thought, but no. Luck seemed to inherently know what I wanted, and I most certainly didn’t want to cause the deaths of villagers I grew close to and viewed as friends. As much as my luck pushed for me, even when it wasn’t something I wanted, I knew it couldn’t force a bandit attack or dungeon break, and had only allowed me to reap the rewards instead of being overwhelmed and killed.

We made our way back home after buying plenty of things for what was to come next. In just a few weeks, my Princess wife I have never met, would be sent to me… I was just hoping my luck would pull heavy duty and send me someone I’d like, who could get along with my entire family, and wouldn’t be pretentious from her being a Princess her entire life.