Szczecin Count's Manor (5)
Calix spoke as he watched the countess flap her mouth open and shut like a goldfish.
"Countess. You should step down from the jade throne first. It's not a seat for a mere woman to covet."
Twisted lips and eyes full of contempt.
He was no longer the frail, timid boy from just a few days ago.
Only then did she snap to her senses, desperately suppressing the anxiety gnawing at her mind.
"Countess? How hurtful. How's your body feeling?"
Calix let out a shallow laugh at her words.
"Kuk! Thanks to someone, I swallowed poison, but I got lucky and survived. It tasted so bad I puked it right up. Maybe it was thanks to that top-grade potion I took before. They say it's worth an entire castle, don't they?"
After relentlessly mocking her, Calix dropped a meaningful final line.
"You were too hasty."
At his subjectless words, the Stera Countess raised her voice in preemptive fear.
"H-Hasty? Anyone hearing that might think I fed it to you. Even if you never treated me like a mother, this is going too far. This is the Grand Hall. A public space where you must take responsibility for your words."
Calix sneered at her frantic excuses.
"Heh heh, I never said who was hasty... but yeah, saying that now just sounds pathetic."
Calix glared straight at the countess on the jade throne.
"Let me be direct. Even after the truth comes out, are you confident you'll stay that brazen?"
She bit her lip hard at his provocative words.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"I see. Then let's hear from the witness first."
Clap!
Calix clapped his hands to signal.
At the same instant, a knight dragged in a woman bound with ropes.
Her face was deathly pale, her cheeks hollowed out pitifully.
Like someone with dysentery who'd lost every drop of moisture in their body.
The moment Laila appeared and was forced to kneel in the center of the ㄷ-shaped table arrangement, the Stera Countess felt her heart sink with a thud.
She desperately denied the ominous thoughts rising in her mind, telling herself it couldn't be.
But.
"Name."
"Laila."
The countess nervously bit her nails.
W-What's going on here?
Meanwhile, the interrogation continued.
"State your affiliation and status."
"I'm a Grade 1 agent of the Kosalin family's Shadow Unit Special Operations Team."
"Explain the Shadow Unit."
"They select orphans with combat talent and subject them to brutal training at a camp near the Golda Plateau. Those who survive to the end are assigned to the Shadow Unit. The top performers among them are dispatched to various places under false identities for VIP protection or covert operations. 'Special Operations Team' refers to those agents."
"So, secret soldiers raised by the Kosalin family."
"Yes."
"What was your cover identity in Szczecin County?"
"Maid to the Stera Countess."
"Did the Stera Countess know your true identity?"
"Yes."
The Stera Countess shot to her feet, screaming in a voice that seemed to tear her throat.
"Lies!"
But despite her vehement denial, the murmurs among the vassals grew louder.
Sensing the unease, Chief Treasurer Gidrus protested to Russell Naigel.
"Viscount Russell! Are you just going to sit there? How much can we trust the words of some lowly maid? And such absurd claims at that!"
"Not some lowly maid, but a criminal caught red-handed. She's confessed to being a spy sent by the neighboring territory. Whether it's a frame-up or not, you can judge for yourself after hearing the testimony."
Russell paid no mind to Gidrus's ravings.
Fuming, Gidrus tried to speak again but sensed the odd atmosphere and looked around.
Fewer people agreed with him than expected.
Even those ambiguously aligned with the countess's faction subtly distanced themselves from him.
The neutrals were busy calculating the gains and losses this intriguing incident might bring them.
And some even scolded Gidrus.
"Enough from the chief treasurer. Let's hear the criminal's full statement first before deciding."
No one said it outright, but the tacit agreement was clear.
The countess's faction was already completely isolated.
As Gidrus faltered in shock, Calix's interrogation continued.
"Describe the operations you conducted in Szczecin County so far."
"For the past three years, I've compiled and reported information collected monthly on a regular basis."
"What kind of information?"
"Mainly the territory's financial ledgers provided by Chief Treasurer Gidrus, Count Collin's schedule and movements, and internal political dynamics among the vassals."
"Your most recent operation?"
"I tricked Young Master Calix into drinking poison extracted from barot roots, disguised as medicine. Then I infiltrated his bedroom and planted a forged suicide note."
"Did it succeed?"
"Administering the poison succeeded, but the next step failed. I was caught by Regent Russell while infiltrating the bedroom."
"I hear the barot root decoction has a special nickname."
"It's commonly known as Slowly Creeping Death for ordinary people."
"Shut your mouth!"
The Stera Countess's face flushed red as she leapt up and shouted.
"Evidence? Where's your evidence! This is a frame-up! A conspiracy!"
Calix savored her desperate outburst fully.
She had no way out now.
Her gradual despair brought exquisite pleasure.
And now it was time to drive the final nail into that despair.
"Evidence... Viscount Russell?"
At Calix's call, Russell pulled a single sheet of paper from his bosom.
"This is a forged suicide note from Young Master Calix, supposedly planted by Laila last night when she infiltrated his room. She was caught in the act."
There was another paper.
This time, a scroll etched with complex patterns.
"This is a 'Memory of the Earth' scroll I bought from the Magic Tower today. It contains magic to read the lingering thoughts imprinted on objects. Everyone knows it—it's commonly used in criminal investigations."
A heavy silence fell, so thick even the drop of a needle could be heard.
Using the scroll would replay the thoughts of everyone who'd touched the note as vivid images.
Not just surface thoughts, but their deepest, basest desires laid bare.
Countless criminals had denied their guilt vehemently only to take their own lives from shame once the images played.
It was tragedy for them, but prime entertainment for onlookers—like some trashy drama.
It wouldn't be surprising if it showed the countess rolling in bed lewdly with her lover right now.
Everyone swallowed hard, anticipating what was to come.
Meanwhile, her faction braced for the worst.
If the evidence was ironclad, leaving her no choice but total ruin.
They had to prevent it from leaking outside this hall.
Seal every mouth here, if necessary.
But unfortunately, one person could read their minds perfectly.
Heh heh, you aren't the only ones who can think that way.
At Calix's gesture, Russell's shout echoed through the Grand Hall.
"Enter!"
Clank! Clank!
With metallic sounds, knights of the Blue Lion Knights marched into the Grand Hall.
Full plate mail, helmets, blue insignia, and cloaks—they were the territory's official armed force.
The fully armored knights entered with precise movements and lined up along the edges of the Grand Hall.
The clashes of their armor plates harmonized perfectly, without chaos.
A sign of highly trained troops.
"Viscount Russell, this...!"
Someone tried to protest the knights' deployment, but Russell cut them off sharply without listening.
"I've already checked it once, and the contents are quite shocking. To prevent any disturbances, I've had no choice but to station the knights. I hope for your understanding."
No one truly believed Russell's excuse.
Deploying troops into the sacred Grand Hall was a coup, no matter what anyone said.
But it also meant the knights had chosen Calix as Count Collin's successor.
The countess and her faction plunged into despair.
If even the neutral knights moved this decisively, the evidence must be airtight.
If they backed Calix with righteous cause, there was no counter.
Once the knights were in position, Calix asked Russell in a polite tone, as if confirming the kill.
"Regent. What is the punishment for a noble who attempts to assassinate blood kin?"
"According to kingdom noble law, the instigator of assassination faces hanging."
This wasn't asking out of ignorance.
It was theater for the others—a declaration that the power struggle had ended in his victory, a ritual.
Realizing her hopeless situation, the Stera Countess wailed in fury.
"G-Gramvine didn't know! I did it alone, in secret! Calix! I'm your mother! Please believe me!"
Unfortunately, her final struggle was meaningless. Calix wasn't foolish enough to leave loose ends.
At his slight chin tilt, Laila, who had been prostrated, responded as if waiting.
"Young Master Gramvine was present when the countess gave me the mission."
"Lies!"
Yes. It was a lie.
This testimony was just Calix and Laila coordinating their stories.
But so what? This was noble infighting.
If she wanted a fair fight, she shouldn't have tried assassination in the first place.
Now the flames of greed spread even to her child.
The climax of the fox hunt.
Gramvine realized the arrows had turned to him. Until now suppressed by the countess's momentum, he staggered to his feet awkwardly.
"C-Calix!"
He knelt before Calix and pleaded.
"P-Please, I beg you. Do whatever to me, just spare my mother."
Gramvine was 16, a year older than him.
In modern terms, a minor.
And the fact that Calix had framed him stabbed mercilessly at his conscience.
But the real problem was the vassals starting to look at him with pity.
It made harsh punishment difficult now.
He knelt to his half-brother to protect his mother.
The stuff of some knightly novel.
And somehow, Calix had shifted from victim to perpetrator.
A thick smile crept across Calix's lips.