Greek Gift Sacrifice
I stared at Perlin.
“……Your Highness.”
Perlin called the Crown Prince again. Her voice was beginning to crack.
“Are you truly claiming you knew nothing about it?”
Perlin waited for his answer. When none came, she spoke once more.
“Who compiled the list of administrative officials you approved? Who recorded and delivered your intentions whenever you expressed them regarding diplomatic matters?”
Her voice grew louder.
“It was me! All of it was done according to your will! How can you claim you knew nothing while I handled the Crown Prince’s affairs as I saw fit?”
The Crown Prince paused before replying.
“I will take responsibility for the matters I personally approved.”
His gaze remained fixed on the front of the conference room.
“However, I cannot be held accountable for issues that never reached me in the first place. That is simply a matter of my own shortcomings.”
He acknowledged his responsibility. Yet he framed it as a failure of capability, not as complicity in Perlin’s political interference.
Of course, everyone present knew his words were false. But no one would point it out. There was no benefit to be gained by doing so.
Realizing this, Perlin abandoned any further attempt to persuade the Crown Prince. Instead, she turned her eyes to me.
“Marshal Berhardt.”
Perlin addressed me directly.
“This entire affair began when you personally intervened in imperial administration. The representative of the border lords formally protested that very act at the start of this meeting, and that protest was accepted here.”
Her tone was sharp.
“Do you truly believe it is procedurally legitimate to punish me using evidence gathered through that unlawful intervention?”
This was her final card—challenging the legitimacy of the evidence itself. If my administrative interference was deemed illegal, then any evidence obtained through it would lose its validity.
But that card had already been played and resolved at the beginning of the meeting.
I spoke calmly.
“Representative of the border lords.”
My gaze shifted to him.
“At the start of this meeting, an objection was raised regarding my administrative intervention. The Princess and I acknowledged the procedural concerns within that objection. However, we agreed to treat this matter as a one-time emergency measure and to formally prohibit its use as precedent in the future. The validity of the matter itself was never nullified.”
“That is correct,” the representative answered without hesitation.
“Then has any objection regarding the legitimacy of the evidence gathered through this matter been raised in this meeting?”
“It has not.”
“Then that settles it.”
The representative nodded and returned to his seat. Perlin tried to speak but could not find the words. He would never have sided with her. He belonged to the Crown Prince, not to Perlin.
Now her final card had been played. I wondered what she would do next.
“……”
Her expression slowly changed—from confusion to sorrow, then from sorrow to rage.
“Everyone……”
At last, Perlin spoke. Her face twisted with fury.
“Today, you all witnessed the Crown Prince’s true face. You saw how lightly he values those closest to him. He discards people so easily? With a single word—‘I knew nothing’—he cast me aside without even offering a defense.”
“……”
“If he can abandon me so readily, what makes any of you think he won’t do the same to you? Becoming the Crown Prince’s confidant means nothing more than living at the mercy of his whims. Remember that clearly!”
Having spat out every word, Perlin gasped for breath. Several administrative officials under the Crown Prince lowered their gazes. Some of the border lords straightened in their seats. Yet no one spoke.
Her plea had reached them. Their perception of the Crown Prince would slowly shift. He had cast aside his closest aide—his own lover. But no one voiced the thought aloud. Perlin, abandoned even by the Crown Prince, no longer held any power or justification. There was nothing to gain by siding with her.
“So…… this is how it ends……?”
Perlin muttered hollowly. She said nothing more, merely staring into empty space.
This was political ruin.
Perlin had failed to secure the Crown Prince’s trust. She had failed to win the assembly’s support. She had failed to undermine the evidence. She had played every card she possessed, yet not a single one had been returned to her hand.
“Lady Perlin Claire.”
The Princess rose from her seat and called Perlin’s name. Her voice was clearer than usual.
“Yes…… Your Highness……”
Perlin stared blankly into the air, her pupils unfocused. Her eyes had already surrendered everything.
“Combining the Crown Prince’s testimony with Steward Kayan’s records, Lady Perlin’s political interference was not carried out under the Crown Prince’s orders, but by her own judgment.”
“……”
“No further defense will be heard in this chamber.”
Perlin’s gaze drifted once more toward the Crown Prince. He never looked back at her.
The entire conference room fell silent.
Perlin slowly sank back into her seat and turned her eyes away. Her gaze, stripped of the Crown Prince, settled on the figure beside her—the Tower Master.
He met her eyes and spoke her name.
“Perlin.”
Something felt wrong. A sense of unease rose within me as I fixed my stare on the Tower Master.
“Ronin……”
Perlin called his name with a trembling voice. The Tower Master grasped her hand.
“Finally……!”
He suddenly shouted.
“……Ronin?”
“Finally, there’s no one left around you, Perlin.”
His eyes widened slowly, a smile spreading across his lips as though the situation brought him immense joy.
“I always knew you were never meant to remain merely a crown princess!”
Perlin froze for a moment.
“Ronin? What are you……”
Everyone in the room remained rigid in their seats, uncertain how to respond to the Tower Master’s sudden outburst.
Ignoring their stares, the Tower Master grinned so widely it seemed his mouth might tear at the corners. Then he pulled Perlin into a tight embrace.
“I told you there was a way. This is that path!”
At that moment, the Tower Master’s pupils turned pitch black. An ominous sensation crawled up my spine.
It was unfamiliar to me, yet Arsens’s memories recognized it instantly. I instinctively drew up my aura.
I had to strike him down immediately.
But the magic was already complete.
Damn it.
Mind Explosion
A foreign incantation echoed through the room as black energy erupted from the Tower Master’s hands, threatening to engulf the entire chamber.
Left with no choice, I released the aura I had gathered outward.
A massive barrier rose in the center of the conference room, layered with an additional magical shield.
The black energy collided with the double barrier and dispersed. Yet only half the room—centered around the Princess—remained protected inside. Fortunately, the guards had pulled the others to safety. The Crown Prince was unharmed.
Even so, screams rang out. Several unfortunate officials were caught in the black energy and collapsed.
“Hahaha!”
The Tower Master laughed loudly. Perlin looked up at him and shouted.
“You—what is this……”
When the Tower Master met her gaze, she fell silent. His eyes were now completely black, without a trace of white.
“It’s all right, Perlin.”
His voice trembled with ecstasy and madness.
“I’ll protect you now.”
As he cast another spell, a black light appeared in the air. It slowly expanded, distorting the space within.
Space magic—far beyond the Tower Master’s original level.
“Wait……!”
Despite Perlin’s desperate plea, he did not stop.
I stabilized the barrier as much as possible and compressed my magic before firing it. An arrow of pure mana streaked across the room toward the Tower Master.
Just before it struck, the black light swallowed both of them whole. The mana arrow passed through empty space and embedded itself in the opposite wall.
I had failed to stop their escape.
“……”
Black remnants lingered where they had vanished. Those remnants were vividly etched in Arsens’s memories.
Demons.
Among the demon race, an extremely rare existence. The accursed beings we had wiped out during the Great War had returned.