Vur retracted his aura and smiled at the crowd before walking back towards Tafel. The crowd broke out into whispers as they regained strength in their bodies.
“King? Him?”
“Is this real?”
“The spirits accepted him. It’s my first time seeing them in person.”
One man, wearing a white suit with an eagle crest on his shirt pocket, shoved aside the man standing next to him. “I can’t accept this!” he shouted towards Vur who was making his way past him in the crowd. “Someone like you can’t become king!”
Vur tilted his head and turned towards the man. “Oh?” he asked. “Then why didn’t you say anything earlier when I asked if there were any objections?”
The man gritted his teeth. “That’s because…” the man said as his voice trailed off. “It doesn’t matter. What’s important is that at this very moment, I refuse to accept you as king.”
“As king, I deny your refusal,” Vur said and continued walking towards Tafel.
“What’s wrong with all of you?” the man shouted as he whirled around and gestured at the people in the crowd. “How can you just accept this?”
A few nobles murmured in assent and nodded. The commoners looked at each other and avoided the man’s gaze. “This doesn’t change anything for us,” one man with a straw-hat said. His pants were ragged and torn at the ankles. “The crown could change hands to a pig and our quality of living would be the same.”
“How can you say that?” the man with the eagle crest asked and slapped the commoner. “The king cares about all his people! Letting someone like him,” he said and pointed at Vur’s back, “become king will ruin the nation. I bet he doesn’t know the first thing about running a country! Do you know who I am!?” He shouted at Vur.
Vur turned his head and furrowed his eyebrows. “Are you important?” he asked.
“Yes! I’m Raffgier, head of the Ruhr household! The amount of wealth and power I hold is second only to the royal family. There’s no one who hasn’t heard of me,” the man said and puffed his chest out.
Vur nodded. “In that case, I declare Raffgier a traitor and strip him of his noble title and land. You,” he said and pointed at the man with the straw-hat. “You’re now the head of the Ruhr household.”
“Eh?” both the noble and the commoner asked.
“You can’t do that, Vur,” Tafel said after she teleported next to him.
“Why not?” Vur asked and tilted his head, ignoring the flustered Raffgier.
“You just can’t! It doesn’t make sense,” Tafel said as she sighed. “You’re breaking the order of things. Apologize to the king and give that poor bishop his clothes back.”
“Don’t want to,” Vur said and crossed his arms, hugging the bishop’s clothes tighter. “I’m king.” The crowd fell silent as Tafel and Vur stared at each other.
“You can’t just declare yourself as king,” Tafel said.
“I just did. I performed a coup d’état.”
“A coup can’t be done by a single person!”
“Why not?”
“Because a single person can’t fight against a whole nation,” Tafel said. Her voice trailed off and she hung her head.
“But I can,” Vur said and tilted his head.
Tafel opened her mouth to speak, but shut it a second later. She sighed. “You’re right,” she said after a pause. “But it still feels so wrong.”
Vur smiled and wrapped his arms around Tafel. The people in the crowd exchanged looks with each other, but no one said a word as they ruminated over everything that just transpired.
“Can… can I keep my land?” Raffgier asked.
“No. You’re a traitor,” Vur said without looking up. “Anyone else wish to express their displeasure about their new king? No? Good.”
“Vurrrr,” Lillian cupped her hands over her mouth and shouted from behind the crowd. “Can I be a duchess?”
“Hm? Sure, why not?” he replied back with his voice amplified by wind magic.
“I’m so glad we became friends with him,” Lillian said as she beamed at her cousin and grandfather.
Vur cleared his throat. “Since a lot of people are gathered here today,” he said as he let go of Tafel, “I’d like to declare today the day of my coronation. I’m also renaming the nation to Konigreich the Second.” He adjusted the crown on his head. “There. I just coronated myself.” He turned to Gale. “You can carry on with the memorial and what not now.”
Gale’s body twitched as he was broken out of his stupor. “Y-yes. Of course.”
Vur grabbed Tafel’s hand and led her towards the open cushioned seat that was reserved for the king.
“You’re just going to go with it?” Michelle whispered to Gale.
Gale nodded. “Of course; he gained the approval of our god,” he whispered back. “If I don’t listen to them, then who else would I listen to?”
“Hey,” Vur said out loud. “Are you around, golden thingy?”
“Um, Your Majesty,” Gale said as he dipped his head towards Vur, “the spirits don’t just appear when called for.”
Vur snorted. “If you don’t come out, then I’m going to eat you the next time I see you,” he said towards the sky.
Five seconds passed before a golden outline materialized in the sky. Smoke gradually filled the interior and a feminine sigh rang through the air as a frowning face appeared in the smoke. “Yes?”
“Nothing,” Vur said and waved his hand. “I just wanted to see if you were there.”
A vein appeared on the woman’s forehead as she smiled at Vur.
###################################################################
“Vur did what?” Lindyss asked as she dropped her knitting needles.
Mr. Skelly cleared his throat. “He performed a coup and became the king of the humans.”
“Why would he do something like that?” Lindyss asked and picked up her fallen woolen article. “It’s not really an issue, but it would’ve been nice to know he was planning something like that.”
“Perhaps he was bored?” Mr. Skelly said and cackled.
“Well, this works out pretty well,” Lindyss said and rubbed her chin. “If Tafel’s the demon lord and Vur’s the humans’ king, then the continent is pretty much united. I just hope he doesn’t break anything important. Our spies did mention something about a weakening spell formation, correct?”
“Yes,” Mr. Skelly said. “Unfortunately, the humans don’t know what it does either. I don’t get why they don’t just ask their god.”
“They wouldn’t exhaust their energy just to answer a few measly questions,” Lindyss said and snorted. “They have their pride, you know?”
AHahahahaa. If only.