Chapter 11: Aragorn, King of Men, Turns for You (Patreon)

The next morning, as the sky brightened and the sun rose, the great upheaval of the slums began.

Beep, beep-beep-beep-beep.

"Eight hundred warriors of the slums, assemble!"

Felt's small frame darted and bounded through the slum's districts, using the promise of free eggs to rally everyone toward the designated gathering point.

For the people of the slums, a single egg was already a rare taste of meat, and this time Felt was being unbelievably generous — two eggs per person, and even apples!

This was truly spending blood money. If she actually handed all this out, the savings she and Old Man Rom had scraped together over the years would be cut nearly in half. But for the sake of a brighter future, Felt was going all in.

Most people had been lazing about in their ragged tents to conserve energy, but the moment word of free eggs spread, every eye lit up green like a starving wolf's, and they scrambled to their feet, racing to be first.

Subaru Natsuki stood atop a makeshift platform cobbled together from stacked crates and boxes, and seeing so many ravenous wolves closing in, he half-wondered if some kind of zombie outbreak had broken out.

He raised the crude megaphone Old Man Rom had cobbled together and bellowed, "No need to rush, there's enough for everyone! Line up, line up, get in line! There'll be bread, there'll be eggs, there'll be apples, there'll be everything for everyone!"

It did absolutely nothing. Nobody listened to him — who was this pale, soft-skinned stranger kid to tell them what to do? Nobody cared.

Old Man Rom shook his head helplessly, gripping his heavy club, and shot Subaru Natsuki a look that said [Let me handle this]. He was ready to step in and defuse things — his words still carried weight around here.

But Subaru Natsuki waved a hand and flatly refused.

He supposed he counted as a king-in-training now. If not for Book of the Living, faced with a situation like this, he probably would have chosen to throw himself bodily in front of that basket of eggs and apples, taking punches and kicks from the poor without ever giving ground, moving them with sheer unbreakable persistence until they agreed to stop and listen.

But things were different now.

Ever since binding himself to Book of the Living, a few little tales of kingship surfaced on its pages every day. He'd read them, and naturally he'd picked things up — learned that sometimes, an emperor's methods were the right tool for the job.

And right now, the best method was—

"Kingly Dropkick!"

Thud!

"Gwaaah — you bastard, what are you doing!"

"What am I doing? Isn't it obvious just from looking? I'm protecting my assets and punishing a thief who tried to rob me without permission. Is there a problem?"

He threw up.

Of the poor surging forward in a chaotic wave, the ones who'd run fastest and were about to reach the apples got sent flying by a single dropkick from Subaru Natsuki, delivered from above. Two of them took it right in the gut and vomited on the spot, glaring at Subaru Natsuki with pure loathing.

"Are you kidding me... your stuff? You bastard, isn't this all that Felt kid's?"

They shouted, ready to surge forward again, when Felt made her grand, lightning-fast return, bounding and hopping back to the scene — at one point even stepping right over a few fallen bodies on her way, drawing a chorus of pained yelps — before landing beside Subaru Natsuki and planting her hands on her hips.

"What's mine is his, and what's his is mine. I gave him all of this myself. Got a problem with that?"

The whole slum was here now — somewhere between eight hundred and a thousand people in all. They exchanged glances, men and women alike frowning in suspicion. "'Got a problem with that'... what exactly are you two after?"

At this point they had to ask first. If eating those apples and eggs meant doing something for Felt and Subaru Natsuki, and the price was too steep, they weren't interested.

"Well—"

Shh.

Felt planted her hands on her hips and knit her brows, about to speak, but Subaru Natsuki raised a finger and shushed her, signaling that he'd handle it himself.

After all, Felt and Old Man Rom had already done more than enough. Now it was his turn.

"I've heard the people of the slums are a bunch of unruly troublemakers, and now I see the rumors don't lie. Never mind what I'm about to ask of you, never mind what price I'll demand."

"Looking the way I do, there's nothing about me that should earn your trust, an outsider like me. Whatever I say, you'll instinctively push back against it, won't you? So why bother with words at all? You've survived on your own strength up till now — fine, then I'll speak to you the same way."

"Come, then. I, Subaru Natsuki, the man who's going to become your king — right here, right now, I'll take on all thousand of you myself. Tag-team, gang up, however you want to do it — let's talk with our fists!"

The declaration of war landed with a weighty thud, and the whole scene froze for a moment.

Had they... heard that right?

An outsider — pale, soft-skinned, not particularly heavy or muscular, hands without a single callus — had gathered them all together, and with a straight face declared himself their future king, then publicly announced he'd fight a thousand of them alone?

Did he think he was Reinhard van Astrea? Or that infamous Mad Prince? Or the Blue Lightning, or the Admirer?

"Well, this is just..."

He'd been utterly, completely, thoroughly written off!

"Crack!"

Fists clenched tight, knuckles popping. Malnourished as they were, they were still grown adults — not so starved as to have gone two days without food. A thousand-odd people who all knew perfectly well their standing in the capital was that of rats in a gutter.

And yet, even so, they still had the bottom-line pride of being human beings.

Murderous intent surged, an unstoppable, roiling impulse. Without any signal, they didn't all rush forward at once — instead they came in waves, five or ten at a time, orderly and escalating, sneering as they came. "Regret your arrogance, kid! Kneeling now won't save you!"

Felt went pale with shock. "Idiot, there's no way you can—"

"I can do it."

Subaru Natsuki stepped in front of her, pushing forward. "If it's me, as I am right now — I can do it!"

[Host's self-taught kingly resolve has been detected. In honor of this ambition, this awakening, this ferocity, this courage, this step upon the ladder to kingship — let us celebrate! Please allow me to present you with a royal gift befitting your new status!]

[Human Emperor Aragorn, Lord of Gondor, leader of the Fellowship of the Ring, the one who stood against the Dark Lord Sauron and never yielded — a man who lived to the age of two hundred and ten, possessed a body of robust health and vigor, and endurance sufficient to fight through a full day and night of battle without rest.]

[Host, you are now worthy of the physical constitution and stamina befitting a companion to a Human Emperor — please, accept it! This lifespan, this strength, this endurance!]

Subaru Natsuki — full evolution!