Ch.295295. Queen Alicia (1)

Thus, France had no choice but to focus on its internal affairs due to concerns about civil war, and couldn’t challenge the currency hegemony that Bahamut had established using the Phoenix currency.

No matter how much wealth currency money could accumulate—comparable to oil money—it would all become meaningless the moment civil war broke out.

They chose stability over amassing enormous wealth, which was actually the correct approach for a country just beginning reconstruction: prioritize safety first, then pursue wealth.

After all, isn’t internal stability necessary before any reform or transformation can proceed?

“France has backed down.”

“Then England is now Europe’s powder keg.”

“The Lord Protector is certainly the likely winner of the English civil war.”

With France’s silence in Europe, all eyes naturally turned toward the Lord Protector and Queen Alicia.

When the Cult of Immortality and Seorabeol clashed, the Lord Protector supported the Cult and launched a coup to seize the throne. Alicia, unwilling to surrender her crown, fought back against the coup, plunging England into civil war.

As the battle between the Cult of Immortality and Seorabeol continued, London, England’s proud capital, once again experienced the horrors of apocalypse.

“Alicia’s weakness is her severe shortage of supplies to support her Awakened! Unlike me, who controls London and the military, her means of supplying resources are severely limited!”

The Lord Protector deliberately targeted Alicia’s weakness by blockading London, placing the city under strict surveillance and restricting the flow of goods.

As a result, Alicia had increasingly fewer supplies for the Awakened who followed her, and initially, this strategy seemed to be working as she approached her limit with no option to surrender.

However, there was one factor the Lord Protector hadn’t considered… or more accurately, had ignored: someone else was also looking after Alicia.

“I can’t participate directly in the war. But I can at least supply resources.”

The Dragon God Bahamut had been providing Alicia with necessary supplies.

Of course, since Bahamut was at war with the Cult of Immortality at the time, the supplies he could provide to Alicia were limited. However, among those supplies were Bahamut coins included as pocket money.

For Bahamut, it was simply giving Alicia some spending money out of guilt since he couldn’t focus on her situation due to the war with the Cult. Yet perhaps these Bahamut coins, supplied thoughtlessly as extras, may have thrown off the Lord Protector’s calculations.

“Can’t we use those to purchase supplies from London’s underground economy?”

“Oh? That’s right.”

This allowed Alicia to intervene in London’s underground economy using Bahamut coins.

No matter how much the Lord Protector controlled London, it was impossible to completely control the underground economy. The Royal Guard was able to contact this underground network and purchase necessary war supplies using Bahamut coins.

Of course, they had to pay exorbitant prices, and considering the value of Bahamut coins in Europe, they were essentially being scammed, but it didn’t matter.

“Just give us Bahamut coins instead of supplies?”

“Huh? Would that be enough?”

“Yes. We’ll buy what we need with the coins.”

They simply had to ask Bahamut for coins instead of supplies, and that was that.

Bahamut expressed concern when Alicia requested coins instead, but when she said she would use them to buy what she needed:

“I suppose that’s fine.”

It was actually more convenient for Bahamut to supply lightweight coins rather than bulky physical supplies. Since Alicia insisted, he began providing her with Bahamut coins instead of supplies.

Thus, massive amounts of coins were directed toward Alicia, and the supply of coins to Europe was essentially in her hands. If Alicia had flooded Europe with the coins she received from Bahamut, France would have had no reason to back down due to crisis concerns, and the whole world wouldn’t have been struggling to meet the demand for coins.

However, there was a simple reason why the whole world was struggling with coin demand to the point of creating a currency money hegemony.

“Do we really need to release Bahamut coins into the market? Let’s hoard them as much as possible.”

“Huh? Then what about the supplies we need?”

“If we preserve the value of the coins, we can still afford the supplies we need. Rather than spending them all, wouldn’t it be better to use them to craft equipment for our forces?”

Alicia had been hoarding the Bahamut coins and releasing only a minimal amount into circulation.

Naturally, after the war, when the supply of Bahamut coins to Europe was cut off, demand skyrocketed. Despite the underground economy’s price gouging, the value of Bahamut coins continued to rise. Eventually, the underground economy began begging Alicia to release more coins.

But despite these desperate pleas, Alicia:

“Let’s stick to our plan. We can’t risk Bahamut Bullets falling into the Lord Protector’s hands.”

She absolutely refused to satisfy their demand.

Using the coins supplied by Bahamut, she strengthened the forces of the Royal Guard loyal to her, and this powerful equipment became a turning point in gaining an advantage against the Lord Protector.

“Damn it. We have Death Knights provided by the Cult of Immortality!”

As the fighting continued and his opponent grew stronger rather than weaker, the Lord Protector assumed Bahamut was involved and requested support from the Cult of Immortality. The Cult showed their loyalty by dispatching their proud Death Knight Order to the Lord Protector.

Unfortunately, however:

“Yes, and we have Bahamut Bullets. We’ve prepared them with holy attributes specifically to snipe Death Knights, so come on.”

As demonstrated in the Incheon Landing Operation, even the Death Knight Order could be finished with one wrong hit from a Bahamut Bullet.

When the Death Knight Order appeared in the civil war, Alicia immediately received strategies to counter them through Bahamut, and prepared Bahamut Bullets specifically designed to counter Death Knights, gradually breaking down the Lord Protector’s carefully laid plans.

Thus, the tide of victory began turning toward Alicia, and the perception of the Queen in British political circles started to change.

“Could the Queen actually win this?”

“The Lord Protector might lose, and the Queen’s rule could be firmly established again?”

Particularly encouraging was how those who had claimed neutrality gradually shifted to become Alicia’s supporters.

When the civil war first broke out, many thought the weak Queen would quickly surrender, but reality showed otherwise. The Lord Protector was achieving poor results despite his forces, while the Queen continued to hold her ground against him and even secure victories.

Though Alicia’s forces might seem small now, if the Seoul Allied Forces were to defeat the Cult of Immortality, wouldn’t the Queen’s position change dramatically?

“That’s right! If the Lord Protector wins, his dictatorship begins! It’s better for us to maintain a constitutional monarchy!”

Conversely, if the Cult of Immortality won in Seoul, the Queen would be finished and the Lord Protector would ascend to the throne. Nevertheless, neutral factions desperate to prevent the Lord Protector’s dictatorship began secretly supporting the Queen.

“Follow me, and I’ll give you this.”

“T-this is!? A Bahamut coin.”

“Yes. Tempting, isn’t it? The coin that all of Europe desires. I can obtain as many as I want.”

Alicia also began actively courting these neutral factions.

While she couldn’t sway those who fully supported the Lord Protector, by definitively bringing the neutral factions to her side, she could gain more advantage. Alicia showed off the Bahamut coins she received as pocket money, emphasizing that she could obtain as many as she wanted.

“B-but Seorabeol is at war… it can’t be easy to obtain Bahamut coins, Your Majesty.”

At first, they thought Alicia was bluffing.

After all, everyone in Europe knew that Seorabeol was at war with the Cult of Immortality, and all coins produced in Seorabeol were being used for the war effort.

Therefore, they assumed the coins Alicia possessed were purchased before the apocalypse.

“Ladies and gentlemen. Who am I?”

“Who? You’re the Queen of England, Your Majesty… Good heavens!?”

When Alicia asked who she was, the neutral faction initially stated she was England’s monarch, but they quickly fell silent.

They had forgotten another title she held—a title that no one in this post-apocalyptic world could take lightly, hidden beneath her designation as Queen of England.

“I am not only the Queen of England but also the Dragon Priestess who has contracted with the Dragon God Bahamut. If I ask the Dragon God I serve, I can receive as many coins as I want.”

“Oh…”

With that single declaration of being the Dragon Priestess, England’s neutral faction and gilded nobility remembered this fact and knelt before Dragon Priestess Alicia.

Yes, by utilizing her position as Dragon Priestess, Alicia could always receive help from the Dragon God, and that help wasn’t always military in nature.

The Dragon God’s wisdom and wealth were also forms of assistance, and Alicia had simply reminded them of this fact.

But for them, that was enough.

“The Lord Protector must not win! For England’s finance to recover, the Dragon Priestess who can supply Bahamut coins must prevail!”

Thus, she was able to absorb the neutral faction, and as promised, Alicia began supplying them with coins.

This caused the balance of power to gradually collapse, and the decisive blow came when news spread that the Seoul Allied Forces had defeated the Cult of Immortality.

Specifically, from the moment the Dark Lord whom the Cult of Immortality served was defeated by the Dragon God, and the Cult abandoned Seoul and fled to North Korea, the Lord Protector’s downfall began to accelerate.

“I am England… I am the king of this country…”

Yes, the throne the Lord Protector dreamed of had now become an illusion.

Alicia began her triumphant return as the victor, while the Lord Protector continued to lose power with each defeat, and the throne he dreamed of now:

“It seems I’ve won, Lord Protector.”

Belonged to Alicia, who became the victor alongside the Seoul Allied Forces’ triumph over the Cult of Immortality.

The Lord Protector felt utterly wronged.

If his allies had performed better, he could have defeated Alicia, but they couldn’t even last a year before being defeated by the Seoul Allied Forces. How could this be?

Even the Dark Lord they had praised so highly was defeated by the Dragon God. The Cult of Immortality’s resistance took time, and during that time, Alicia wouldn’t leave the Lord Protector alone.

Realizing this fact, the Lord Protector screamed in disbelief:

“Queen? What can a mere puppet change! England needs a strong hand! Me! Only I can resolve this chaos!!!”

His desperate cries were utterly disgraceful.

Alicia sighed at the sight of her nemesis flailing in such an ugly manner, but nevertheless said what needed to be said:

“How pathetic. Where is that composure you showed before? And by the way, you are the chaos now.”

The fact that the Lord Protector himself had become the threat to England.

“It’s not over yet! Those who follow me don’t want my defeat!”

Following Alicia’s declaration of victory, the Lord Protector rallied all his forces and declared an uprising, but civilian Awakened who realized the tide had turned no longer supported him.

Moreover, the Lord Protector’s faction, his powerful political allies, began betraying him one by one and surrendering to the Queen. Only a small number of his forces remained by his side.

It was a pitiful force for someone who had once commanded all of England, and it seemed to herald the Lord Protector’s end.

“If I kneel, England is finished! If you take me away, England will perish!!”

Unwilling to accept defeat, he began howling like a beast, and this ugly spectacle was broadcast live throughout England.

And to this Lord Protector, Alicia said only one thing:

“We have simply eliminated a usurper. Citizens, you may rest easy now. Today, the usurper who tried to seize England will be punished by my hand.”

She declared that the Lord Protector was merely a usurper who had coveted the throne, and with those words, even his last loyal followers abandoned him.

At this sight, the Lord Protector collapsed, foaming at the mouth—a pathetic end for a tyrant who had once ruled over all of England.

“Had you remained a loyal subject, you could have been the hero who saved this country.”

Alicia offered only unheard consolation to his miserable end, saying that had he remained loyal, he could have been remembered as a hero.

Thus, the tyrant was arrested by Alicia, crushed by the karma of his own making.