"Your Majesty!" Jes clutched the doorframe, shouting in terror, "Are you planning to swallow the entire treasury?"
"Mwahahaha! Of course!"
Wapol, eating voraciously, roared indistinctly, "My Munch-Munch Fruit can even digest a castle, so what's a little treasure! Once at sea, I'll spit it all out without a single coin missing!"
Soon, the entire treasury was devoured clean by him.
"Your Majesty!"
Captain Dalton of the guard finally couldn't bear it anymore, his sturdy figure blocking the castle gate:
"You can't just abandon the citizens and escape! As King, even if we can't defeat the invading pirates, you should at least help your people first—"
"Get out!"
Wapol, full of impatience, delivered a slap:
"You already defied me once a few months ago when that incompetent doctor died. Didn't I throw you into prison for long enough then? Now you dare to stop me again?"
Dalton staggered back a few steps, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth, yet he still stubbornly spread his arms:
"Please at least leave behind half of the doctors! All the country's doctors have been expelled by you. If you take the last 20 doctors..."
"Not my problem!"
Wapol sneered and lifted his boot, kicking fiercely into Dalton's abdomen.
"The lives of commoners can't be compared to my health, can they? Hey, Jes, Kromalimon! Teach this insubordinate fool a good lesson for me!"
[Jes, the Minister of Strategy, on the left; Kromalimon, the Kingdom's Secretary, on the right]
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
Jes and Kromalimon immediately assaulted Dalton, even when he transformed into his bison form, he was no match.
He groaned and fell to his knees, vision darkening, only able to watch as Wapol's figure strode out of the castle gate.
In a daze, he could even hear the flattering voice of the one-armed squad leader:
"Your Majesty is wise! Those who can't distinguish between the vagabonds and you are ungrateful traitors that should be severely..."
"You shut up too!"
Wapol suddenly turned around, grabbed the squad leader by the throat, and lifted him up, "Useless! With so many men, you can't even capture that blue-nosed monster, making it impossible for me to catch that old witch Kureha!"
"Your Maj... Majesty..." the squad leader gasped in terror, kicking his legs.
"Go die with your severed hand!"
Wapol tossed him towards the cliff as if discarding trash, "What good is a waste who can't even hold a gun? I don't entertain useless things on my ship!"
"Ah—!!!"
The scream pierced through the wind and snow, gradually vanishing into the abyss.
The soldiers, silent as cicadas in winter, quickened their pace, loading masses of food and weapons and followed Wapol onto the cable car down the mountain.
Stop, you all...
Please stop...
Dalton struggled with all his might, but couldn't stand up. In his blurred vision, the shadows gradually faded away, and tears of grief and anger streamed down his face.
To abandon the country and lead the way in escaping was one thing, but not leaving a single doctor, not a single weapon, for the people...
This incorrigible scoundrel king!
————
"Mwahahaha!!!"
At the port, Wapol stood on the deck, patting his ballooning belly, laughing heartily.
Inside here is the wealth of the entire kingdom, enough for him to squander for a long time even drifting at sea!
"Hurry, faster!"
Jes and Kromalimon constantly urged the soldiers to load the cargo.
Suddenly, a doctor in uniform stopped, looking around in confusion: "Did you all hear some sound?"
Sound?
The deck fell silent.
Everyone listened intently. Amid the howling wind and snow, there was indeed a peculiar sound, getting closer and rapidly approaching this direction—
Bang—snap!
"It's coming from the sky, look up there!" someone exclaimed.
This time, everyone, including Wapol and the two ministers, looked up.
A massive shadow descended from the sky at an incredible speed, each bounce accompanied by the sonic boom of compressed and released air, as if space itself was being manipulated by some force.
"What in the world is that?!" Wapol shouted in horror.
The shadow eventually slowed down, landing lightly on the opposite bank, the snow swept up by the fierce wind gradually revealing its form.
—It was an exceptionally tall man.
Dressed in black, wearing a furry Bear Ear Hat, holding a thick Bible in his hands, he stood six or seven meters tall, towering like a mountain, yet exuding a warm and gentle calmness.
"Truly befitting of a Medical Power, isn't it?"
Looking at the deck full of uniformed doctors, the towering man seemed quite pleased. He lowered his head and gave Wapol a friendly smile:
"Just arrived at the port, and to find this many doctors, it's wonderful."