Chapter 98: Historic Quest Complete

'Historic Quest Complete!: Rise To Become A King'

'Rewards: 3x 10,000-Man Infantry Unit Summon, 1x Legendary-Level Commander Summon, 4x 1000-Man Cavalry Unit Summon, 1x 100-Gun Artillery Unit Summon, 1x 1000-Man Bodyguard Unit Summon, 50,000 Store Points.'

Victor almost had a stroke seeing the ridiculous amount of rewards he had gotten from completing a historic quest. He had no clue what the requirements for that type of quest were, but he assumed he would have to become an emperor to complete another historic quest.

His rewards were enough to form a new corps as well as give him more men for his royal guard. The 50,000 Store Points were the cherry on top of all that he got, his new balance was 100,000 Store Points. It felt like cheating to receive such tremendous rewards. Victor regretted not becoming king earlier, if he did these rewards would have helped him against the Maldenbergs.

Despite his tiny regret, Victor readily used all his rewards. Victor first used the bodyguard summon and got more French Imperial Guard soldiers for his personal guard. Next, he used the 100-Gun Artillery Summon and selected the standard 12-pounder cannons.

For the infantry summons, Victor chose 10,000 Kings German Legion Foot soldiers, 10,000 Brunswick Line Infantry and 10,000 Dutch Grenadiers. In terms of the cavalry summons, Victor selected, 2,000 French Hussards, 1,000 Russian Cossacks and 1,000 Austrian Dragoons.

Finally, Victor redeemed his Legendary-Level Commander Summon. For this new corps, Victor hoped for commanders like Marshal Davout, Marshal Kutusov or Arthur Wellesley. The only commanders he did not want were any admirals, Victor did not need a second commander for his fleet, nor did he want to have 2 fleets at the moment.

The screen was enveloped with a red smoke as the animation began. A man in a French Marshal's uniform was slowly becoming visible. He was a youthful looking man with luscious short curly brown hair, muttonchops and brown eyes. Victor grew a smile when he recognised the man. 

The animation finished and the screen read, "Marshal Jean-Pierre Lannes," with 5 stars next to his name. For Victor, he was a great acquisition. He was arguably the second best French Marshal during Napoleon's reign, ranking below Davout.

Lannes was a daring and talented commander who had been one of Napoleon's best generals, participating in battles such as Marengo, Austerlitz, Friedland and Jena. He sadly died in service during the battle of Aspern-Essling. He died with Napoleon by his side, weeping for him as he took his last breaths.

Victor was excited to have such a talented commander at his disposal. With him in charge of a newly formed 9th Corps, Victor's army now totalled 270 infantrymen, 36,000 cavalrymen and 990 cannons. Lannes's 9th Corps would be a huge help in tipping the scales of a future war against the Grand Duchy of Fontaine and their allies.

The next day, the new corps under Marshal Lannes arrived at Hannover, the citizens were stunned to see this new corps that they had never heard about, but due to their trust in Victor, they dared not question it. 

At the palace, Marshal Lannes greeted his king, "Greetings, my king. I am Marshal Jean-Pierre Lannes. I pledge my eternal loyalty and service to the Kingdom of Luxenberg." Victor smiled and warmly welcomed the new Marshal. Victor planned to have his corps stationed at Hannover in the meantime to bolster the capital's security. With the addition of a new corps, Victor felt ready for a war against the Fontaines. 

2 weeks had gone by since the coronation and all of Victor's generals had begun to return to their corps, in preparation for the potential conflict with the Fontaines. While at the same time, news of Victor's coronation had finally reached the ears of the Grand Duke and his allies.

In the Fontaine Palace, Grand Duke Fontaine, his family and his advisor had all gathered to discuss what had happened down south. "The young bastard from the south has declared himself a king. You all understand how this makes us look right?" Grand Duke Fontaine said in a cold and dark tone.

Everyone nodded nervously, even Stetson, his eldest son had never seen his father that mad before. "Father, what do you plan to do about this, not only has he declared himself king, but we have recently received reports about him moving troops to his borders, he may have done this in case we found out earlier about him becoming a king," Stetson said informatively.

"You should have attacked him when you had the chance. He refused to give you any territory he conquered during our war, his men were battle-weary and the city's wall was destroyed, if you were not such a coward, we could have been the rulers of the continent," Grand Duchess Fontaine complained.

Suppressing his anger towards his wife, Grand Duke Fontaine, began to mull over his options. "Stetson, have we received any intelligence on how large the Luxenberg military is?" Simeon asked, sternly.

"From our limited reports from spies in the Kingdom of Luxenberg, They have around 250,000 infantrymen, 30,000 cavalrymen and 800 guns. Those numbers are not totally reliable though. King Victor may have troops hidden in reserve, plus we have not taken his navy into account," Stetson reported dutifully.

Grand Duke Fontaine let out a soft but deep, 'hmmmm,' he could not afford to underestimate, King Victor and his army. At least half of the Luxenberg soldiers were veterans of the previous war, some had also survived the war with the Maximillian family. 

From his informants in the Luxenberg domain, he came to know that Victor had many capable commanders who led small detachments of the Luxenberg army. He also found out that Victor had a strong navy of at least 10 ships. This was deeply concerning, the Fontaine fleet and the Verdant fleet could only total half that number. 

As everyone was silently pondering, Harrison spoke up, "If we are worried about being outnumbered, how about contacting our friends in Simbar?"