Chapter 27
Chapter 27
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 27
Chapter Title: Vitero Chezen (2)
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A brief silence followed again.
Corern, who had leaned toward us in shock, straightened his posture and wiped the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief.
“This is embarrassing on my part. I didn’t think for a second it was sincere. So, when do you plan to carry out the assassination?”
“There’s a banquet tomorrow.”
At my words, Corern bristled and opened his mouth.
“It’s a banquet to celebrate the fifth anniversary of his appointment. For the people of the territory, it’s enough to make them jump out of their skins in rage. A bastard who deserves to be fried alive is commemorating his appointment. …But why?”
After venting his anger, the man gave an awkward smile and shot us an uneasy glance.
“You’re not saying you’ll do the assassination tomorrow, are you?”
“Exactly.”
When his guess hit the mark, Corern clutched his forehead and shook his head.
“To suddenly assassinate Vitero like this—it’s impossible! He’s not some neighbor you bump into on the street. Chezen Castle, where he resides, is constantly guarded by elite guards and security magic, maintaining a tight state of alert. And Vitero himself possesses considerable martial prowess! Attempting an assassination rashly would just end in a meaningless death.”
Corern was quite skeptical about the assassination.
And understandably so.
He would think there wasn’t enough time to plan it.
Up until now, he had been tasked with monitoring Vitero’s movements and grasping the situation around Chezen.
As such, he knew all too well about Vitero’s atrocities, and his grudge against him ran just as deep.
Among us, Corern likely desired Vitero’s death the most fervently.
Conversely, that was precisely why he knew better than anyone how difficult assassinating Vitero would be.
I spoke.
“I’ll handle cutting him down myself, so don’t worry about it.”
“W-what…?”
He stared at me with a bewildered look.
“I’ve been through that feeling myself, so I understand. But you don’t need to worry. Sir Jenes is a Sword Master.”
Allen, who was beside me, tried to reassure Corern. But as always, his words fell on deaf ears. Pointing at me, Corern asked,
“This guy is a Sword Master?”
“Yes.”
Corern let out a hollow laugh at Allen’s confident reply, now looking at us like we were lunatics.
A young man who appeared to be in his mid-twenties claiming to be a Sword Master in Francia, where none existed.
I wouldn’t believe it either if I were him.
“You really from headquarters?”
Unlike my usual self, I responded kindly to his suspicious gaze.
I needed his help, after all.
“If you can’t believe it, I’ll show you.”
The worst way to convince someone is with a hundred words. The best is with a single fist.
When that’s not quite right, there’s the middle path of showing it directly.
This time, I chose the somewhat troublesome middle path of demonstrating it firsthand.
Vmmm!
I extended my index and middle fingers, and a brilliant blue glow ignited atop them.
Vibrant aura blade rose like a knife edge above my fingers.
“It’s an aura blade.”
“T-this is the thing I’ve only heard about…”
“Yeah.”
He stared at me blankly for a moment, then stroked his thick beard and spoke.
“Where’s the trick? You think I’d fall for some sleight of hand? What’s your real goal here?”
Even after showing clear proof, he didn’t drop his suspicious gaze toward me.
Probably because he’d only heard about it in words.
It seemed I needed to demonstrate more tangible power.
“What a hassle.”
I picked up the owl figurine on the table. It was intricately carved, down to individual feathers.
I didn’t know what stone it was made from, but it looked solid at a glance.
“Do you think it’s possible to turn this to powder in an instant?”
At my question, he tilted his head.
Wondering what nonsense I was spouting, no doubt.
But this was the simplest way to prove my power in such a confined space.
Turning the owl figurine to powder in one go was impossible without immense mana.
He looked at me with uneasy eyes.
“You’re going to turn this figurine to powder…?”
Swish.
Before he could finish, the owl figurine in my grip crumbled into fine sand and poured onto the table.
Corern’s eyes bulged in disbelief, bloodshot, his mouth gaping like a goldfish.
He gently touched the powder that had been the owl figurine moments ago, as if unable to believe it.
He finally managed to speak.
“T-this was something I really treasured…”
Dissatisfied with his reaction, I shifted my gaze to the painting on the wall.
“Shall I turn that to powder too?”
“N-no! That’s my most prized piece!”
Corern shot to his feet, blocking the way.
“Then I’ll take that as you believing me.”
With a half-weepy face, he nodded and slumped back onto the sofa.
After a moment, having composed himself, he spoke.
“…I get it now. You’re strong. So if you can kill him yourself, why come to us?”
There was bite in Corern’s words.
He still seemed upset about the figurine. I stared pointedly at the painting on the wall.
“Haha, don’t misunderstand. How can I help if I don’t know what you can do?”
He wiped his sweat with a handkerchief and forced a hearty laugh.
Now he was ready to talk.
I said,
“By tomorrow’s banquet, prepare a gibbet to hang Vitero’s head and posters listing his crimes in detail.”
Allen and Iriel, grasping my intent, nodded slightly.
I planned to give back exactly what he had done to the mountain settlers.
Iriel asked with concern.
“But is it okay to make this such a big deal?”
I nodded.
I knew what she was worried about.
The road ahead was still long.
It would take over a month to reach the capital with the Governor-General’s office.
Making too much noise could make the journey perilous.
But that was exactly what I wanted.
Naturally, my mind drifted to the conversation I’d had with Lake the day before leaving headquarters.
He had told me this:
-There’s no need to hold back your sword. If you judge you can handle it, then do whatever it takes. So that word of you, Sir Jenes, spreads across all of Francia.
I easily understood the meaning behind his words from the context of our talk.
Independence couldn’t be achieved by the Independence Army alone.
For true independence, the desire had to rise from the people themselves.
And what did that have to do with the current situation?
The footprints I left on my way to the capital would spread all the wider the deeper they sank.
When those steps led to severing the Governor-General’s head, the people would see the possibility of independence in us.
And that possibility would eventually turn into the people’s burning desire for independence.
That was why I intended to reveal my presence boldly, without hiding.
So that the flame of independence could spread like wildfire across Francia.
* * *
In the training grounds of Chezen Castle’s inner courtyard, rough breaths and faint heat wafted from early dawn.
At the center was a man doing push-ups while balancing upside down on his thumb alone.
As he rose and fell in perfect inversion, his solid back muscles writhed like snakes, sweat beading along the contours.
“Hoo.”
Straightening his posture as he regulated his breath, the maids beside him quickly brought towels.
The man’s frame was so massive that the maids looked like children in comparison.
Snatching a towel, he wiped his face.
He had the rugged features of a boulder.
This was Vitero Chezen, lord of Chezen Castle.
As he left the training grounds, his steward followed.
Vitero spoke.
“The banquet preparations are going smoothly, right?”
“Yes, of course.”
Vitero smiled in satisfaction at the steward’s reply.
Chezen was a backwater, but it was his first territory, a reward for slaughtering the Francia scum.
‘I need to commemorate the fifth anniversary of my appointment in style.’
He had invited all the notable figures nearby. As it was his first banquet since taking office, he planned to make it grand.
That way, the guests would come bearing generous gifts.
“How’s the territory’s mood lately?”
“The desertion rate is definitely dropping.”
For the past few months, he had been rooting out the mountain settlers and wiping them out.
The effect was undeniable.
They must have decided living here was better than fleeing to their deaths.
“Filthy pests.”
Vitero said as he opened the door.
The revealed room was lavishly decorated with expensive furnishings.
He picked up a glass of water from the tray a maid held and curled his lip.
“We can raise taxes more.”
“By how much?”
“Thirty percent on top of the current rate.”
“Understood.”
He gulped down the water.
Whether the people starved or not was none of his concern.
Vitero planned to squeeze every last drop of blood from them, amass wealth, and return to the empire.
His ambitions were grand.
Even without that, who would want to rot away in this stinking Francia frontier?
“Gotta hand it to the Francia rats’ survival instincts. Kekeke.”
Thinking of his granaries filling up, Vitero burst into laughter.
Wielding unchecked power was quite the thrill.
Even that was starting to bore him, but as fleeting entertainment, it was satisfying enough.
“I’m quite looking forward to how they’ll react to the tax hike.”
He could already picture their deathly pale faces.
Protests would probably rain down.
Deep down, Vitero anticipated it.
Crushing their desperate struggles was one of the few things making life in this rural dump bearable.
“We’ll show you the prepared formal attire after your bath.”
At the maid’s words, Vitero curled his lip.
Today was the day of the long-awaited banquet.
* * *
The sun was setting.
Twilight slowly draped over their heads.
Soon, the banquet commemorating Vitero’s fifth anniversary would begin.
Perched side by side like sparrows on a house roof, they gazed at Chezen Castle, dyed red in the dusk.
Their shadows stretched long behind them.
“It’ll be fine, right?”
Corern, lost in thought, tossed out his habitual skepticism.
Ever since joining the Vitero assassination plan, he had been in that state. Iriel, sitting beside him, said,
“Probably.”
Truth be told, she wasn’t entirely convinced about Jenes either.
It wasn’t a matter of trust.
She didn’t doubt his strength or that he was a Sword Master.
Lucian and Lake had said so, and hadn’t he resolved the Midcray incident in one go?
But she still couldn’t fathom if something like this was truly possible. Her head understood, but her heart refused to believe.
“I get how you feel. I felt the same way.”
Among them, only Allen maintained a relaxed demeanor.
“It’s hard to believe sneaking alone into heavily guarded Chezen Castle to kill Vitero.”
It was only natural not to believe it on common sense.
If killing him were that easy, why hadn’t it been done already?
Corern too had killed Vitero hundreds of times in his imagination.
Yet Vitero stood alive and well because there was no way to do it in reality.
That made it even harder to believe.
He acknowledged Jenes’s strength, but he knew all too well how hard killing Vitero was.
In contrast, Allen was as carefree as if Jenes were out for a stroll.
“If you’d seen Sir Jenes tear through those bandits at Midcray, you wouldn’t worry.”
Allen shook his head regretfully.
Corern said,
“…Bandits are one thing, but these are knights. And Vitero’s no pushover either.”
“Sir Jenes dispatched hundreds of bandits like a light meal. Vitero’s just a snack. Don’t worry.”
Allen boasted confidently.
Corern suppressed his creeping anxiety and nodded.
“Right. Worrying now won’t change anything. As you say, let’s trust Jenes this once.”
Corern slowly rose to his feet.
“Then let’s get moving too.”
He brushed the dust from his rear and stared at the solidly fortified Chezen Castle.
Praying earnestly that this seemingly reckless endeavor would go well.