Chapter 164: Game of Thrones
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 164: Game of Thrones
I had expected Erik to make a move himself. Aron had warned me, after all.
But the timing was different from what I'd anticipated. I had judged that, at the earliest, he would act after our battle with his formidable rival, the Pope, was over.
‘Because he'd have a hard time defeating the Pope without me.’
I also figured that even if he did make a move, he wouldn't attempt such a direct attack. This was because I had told him about the existence of the Holy Water when I persuaded him that we needed to deal with the Pope first.
The Holy Water, a powerful healing agent, makes the probability of such an attack succeeding close to zero.
Of course, the Holy Water doesn't work on me, but Erik didn't know that.
As if mocking my judgment, Erik launched a bold surprise attack.
Feeling the chilling, ghastly sensation of the blade piercing my body, I had no choice but to admit it.
‘I let my guard down.’
It seemed I'd grown careless, thinking that once the Pope was dealt with, everything in the Northern Continent would be over.
If it weren't for my ‘Eyes that see the world slowly,’ my heart might have actually been pierced.
Even so, it was a surprise attack at such close range that I had only barely avoided instant death.
I could feel the shadow of death drawing near. The screams of the people and the Dresden soldiers who had begun to attack our surroundings felt increasingly distant.
Even in that situation, I couldn't abandon my curiosity.
I summoned every last ounce of my strength to grab Erik's hand, the one that had driven the dagger into my body. With my other hand, I seized him by the collar and pulled him close.
“…What are you thinking? Do you really believe you can defeat the Pope and claim the throne of the Northern Continent without me?”
Even with death at my doorstep, I still had enough strength to restrain Erik.
After struggling desperately to break free from my grasp, Erik finally gave up and clicked his tongue.
“Foolish. If you spent this time treating your body with Holy Water instead of asking such questions, your chances of survival might actually increase, however slightly.”
“That's not an answer to my question. If you don't want to die with me, just answer what I asked.”
Erik may have gained the upper hand with his surprise attack, but it was only temporary. If he wasted time, my garrisoned troops would soon counterattack.
Erik clicked his tongue again.
“Why try to face the Pope with military force?”
“What…?”
“The Pope is a greedy man with no popular support. He doesn't have a shred of a king's quality, no matter how you look at it. If it weren't for that foreign substance called Holy Water, he wouldn't even be worth our attention.”
In a world where faith was a part of life, the Pope had more than enough power to eliminate his political rivals. The problem was, he himself didn't know it.
If the Pope had been just a little wiser, we would have had to pack our bags and go home long ago.
Erik brought up that very point.
“A man who sits in the position of Pope, the pinnacle of world religion, yet doesn't know how to properly wield that power—even if he were to establish a kingdom, how long would it last?”
“Playing the long game? The Count, who wants to fulfill his family's long-cherished wish with his own hands before he dies, would never allow that…”
Erik gave a bitter smile.
“Did you not hear what I said earlier? My father is dead. By my own hand.”
“So it wasn't just a story you fabricated for the ambush.”
“I eliminated a traitor to the family who, blinded by the throne, tried to hand over our territory to an outsider. Then, I used his death to make you let your guard down. In the East, they call this killing two birds with one stone, don't they?”
“…The Count seemed to care for you a great deal. This is how you repay kindness with betrayal.”
“Everything is for the sake of the family. In the afterlife, the Count will realize his mistake and praise me.”
Erik seemed to genuinely believe his actions were for the good of his family. It was just like a Dresden to do anything for the family's sake.
“You're good at making excuses.”
Even though I knew about the Dresden family's peculiar educational philosophy through Adeleade, I declared it an excuse.
The arrogant Erik's brow twitched. He forced a smile.
“A mere outsider like you wouldn't understand. The destiny borne by the name Dresden.”
“I know the Count wasn't naive enough to simply hand over his ancestral lands. He must have put some measures in place to reclaim them, didn't he?”
I was the one who suggested that method through Aron. In other words, Erik's claim was nothing more than a flimsy excuse.
“…”
A crack appeared in Erik's composure. I mocked him openly as I continued.
“You've forsaken your own blood, yet you don't want to be the bad guy? How pathetic. Utterly pathetic.”
“You…!”
I didn't give him a chance to retort.
“One more thing. There's a major flaw in your plan. As long as the Holy Water exists, the Pope won't fall easily. The faith of those who have experienced a miracle cannot be broken, no matter what you do. That is the Pope's true power.”
Despite having the flaw in his plan pointed out, Erik actually smiled.
“Hmph. The Pope who rose by a miracle will fall by a miracle. As time passes, people will come to rely on and expect miracles, but the Pope's miracles won't last forever. How will people react when they find out the miracles have run out on their turn?”
“What.”
A sense of unease washed over me. When I thought about it, there were more than a few strange things.
Even though he could have called his men to strike me from behind and finish the job for good, Erik didn't.
It was as if his attitude was, ‘It's fine if you die, but it's not so bad if you don't.’
And what about the way he was calmly answering my questions with his dagger still stuck in my body?
“Have you finally noticed?”
Seeing my gaze shift past him, Erik gave a bitter smile. I had no time to worry about that.
“Cynthia?”
Cynthia was lying on the cold ground. A sword was embedded in her chest.
The moment I let go of Erik, the sensations I had been suppressing began to run wild.
A wave of dizziness hit me, and I lost feeling in my extremities. I felt cold, as if I were naked in the dead of winter. I thought I was walking, but my lowered line of sight told me I was crawling on the ground.
This was truly the limit. Death was right in front of me. And yet, I forced myself to approach Cynthia.
“She didn't even know how to use a sword, yet she stepped forward to save you. I didn't even need to lure her out.”
Erik's voice came from behind me. Just as he said, a sword lay on the ground next to Cynthia. It was a small sword, the kind one might use for self-defense.
“My lord…!”
Next to Cynthia, a collapsed Isabel was clutching her arm, not knowing what to do.
Isabel said something else, but her voice was quieter than an ant's whisper. Even that soon faded away. I took Cynthia's free hand and turned my head.
“Was Cynthia the target?”
“Didn't I tell you? The miracle the Pope boasts of will soon run dry, and it will bring about his downfall.”
I had never told anyone how the Holy Water was made. Even the Templar Knights who fought in the Holy Land didn't know until I told them.
In other words, the only person who knew Cynthia could create Holy Water was the Pope.
But Erik knew something the Pope hadn't even told his closest aides. That fact meant only one thing.
“So it wasn't a long game… it was an alliance?”
That Erik and the Pope had joined hands. And that the bastard had betrayed the Pope from the very beginning.
“If that bitch is gone, the Pope will fall on his own. Why would I need to waste my own forces?”
“What's your excuse for the Pope?”
Cynthia was the Pope's strongest card. He would never tolerate her death.
“Do I need an excuse? In the chaos of a battle like this, it's common to be struck by a stray blade.”
“You think an excuse like that will work?”
“And if it doesn't? Will a man in such a desperate situation start a war? Even if he did, it would be after he used his limited Holy Water to expand his forces. But the more he wastes the Holy Water like that, the faster his downfall will come.”
“You…”
Erik slowly approached. In his hand was a longsword instead of a dagger.
“I don't know why you're not using the Holy Water, but killing you like this isn't a bad option either. While it's true you no longer have a reason to participate in the Northern Continent's war, you're more than capable of becoming a future threat.”
The purpose of this war was to decide the master of the Northern Continent's throne. In other words, if Dresden declared a break with me, I would have no justification to participate in the war.
I could use Erik's betrayal as a pretext for revenge, but I wouldn't be able to gain the Northern Continent.
That was Erik's judgment.
“No justification, you say.”
I picked up Cynthia's sword and stood. It was a cheap thing I wouldn't even want to call a sword. Still, it was more fitting for revenge than Trollsverd.
“H-how… Did you use the Holy Water!?”
The confident Erik faltered. He knew better than anyone that if I were in my normal condition, he would be no match for me.
“Is that what's important right now?”
I suppressed the surging, excruciating pain and managed a smile. Then, I opened my status window and invested my only two bonus points into Stamina.
When the bonus points I'd gained from facing Alex were added to the Stamina stat, which had shown an effect comparable to Holy Water, the result was immediate.
The bleeding, which had seemed endless, stopped, and all my senses returned to normal. The same went for my sense of pain, so the agony I felt grew even more intense.
It meant the wound hadn't healed completely. Then again, it was a fatal injury that had immediately brought death to mind, so that was to be expected.
‘If I hadn't gotten those bonus points from Alex, or if my Stamina stat hadn't increased by one from my relationship with Cynthia, I would have really died.’
They were bonus points I'd obtained after a long time, and I couldn't guarantee I'd ever get more.
I had hesitated until the very end, wondering if it was truly right to invest such points into a Stamina stat that could be raised through intercourse, but in the end, it was the right choice.
However, it was an issue I wouldn't have even needed to consider if Erik hadn't backstabbed me, and I ground my teeth.
“Ha. Were you just stalling for time until you recovered?”
Erik misunderstood, thinking I had secretly used the Holy Water. It was a misunderstanding I had no need to correct.
“I also managed to figure out your little scheme.”
The surprise attack was so sudden that I needed to grasp the overall structure of Erik's plot, if only to decide how to deal with it in the future.
Realizing he'd been had, a deep furrow formed between Erik's brows. But a moment later, he smiled.
“But it seems you haven't recovered completely, have you? If you had, you'd be trying to kill me right now instead of chatting like this.”
He was right. The shadow of death had completely receded, but I wasn't in any condition to punish Erik. The problem was that I had lost too much blood.
I hid my true condition and grinned.
“I won't deny it. But… I still have enough strength to take you to the afterlife with me.”
“Bluffing until the very end.”
“If you believe that, then come and try me.”
“Kill him!”
Instead of stepping forward himself, Erik ordered one of his knights—one who had been facing off against my own troops, who had been garrisoned in the Holy Land and rushed over after hearing the news.
“I'll make you just like that bitch—!”
The man pointed at Cynthia and charged at me. The scabbard hanging at his waist was empty.
“Was it you? The one who killed Cynthia?”
I immediately swung the sword. The pain intensified, and my whole body creaked, but I poured every last ounce of my strength into the slash.
Thanks to that, even my last reserves of strength were depleted, but I was able to cut the knight in two with the same overwhelming power I had when I was uninjured.
“…!”
The bisected body flew past me on both sides due to inertia, staining the earth red.
I stabbed Cynthia's sword—which was screaming in the man's stead—into the ground to support myself. Then, with an unfazed expression, I faced Erik.
“Instead of killing your innocent subordinate, why don't you step forward yourself, Erik?”
“Do you think I'll fall for such a pathetic provocation? Seeing how your sword is trembling, it looks like you'll die just from a standoff.”
“This isn't the time for you to be so relaxed, is it? Don't you see my forces growing in number?”
Erik's original purpose for visiting the Holy Land was to attend the coronation. As such, his forces consisted of only about thirty guards.
They were only holding on because many of them were knights. It meant they would inevitably be pushed back by my troops.
If he died trying to kill me, what would be the point? That was what I was asking.
“The problem is, if I don't kill you at this opportunity, I feel like I'll never get another chance.”
“You have a more important target than me.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Duke Signir has greater strategic value. Yet you haven't mentioned him once.”
Erik scoffed.
“I was wondering what you were getting at… Don't worry. Duke Signir will be holding hands with my father in heaven.”
“Can you be so sure?”
When I gave a meaningful smile, the smile vanished from Erik's lips.
“What are you trying to say now…”
“Have you forgotten that the Duke used his superior intelligence network to successfully plot the mutual destruction of Dresden and the Alliance? He was wary of Dresden until the very end. And is that all? He was born and raised in the Northern Continent and has far more experience visiting the royal capital, Aran, than we do.”
I paused for a moment before continuing.
“Aren't you underestimating the Duke?”
Like Erik, Duke Signir was a major named character in the story. He was by no means a man who would be taken down so easily.
Sure enough.
“We've lost Duke Signir.”
A messenger who arrived just in time confirmed that my prediction was true.
“…How could you lose him?”
“It seems there was a secret passage in the inner castle.”
I grinned at Erik, who was grinding his teeth, his face contorted.
“Do you still have the will to continue?”
Erik was a wise and cold-headed man. He knew Duke Signir's strategic value was far greater than mine, so he would ultimately choose to pursue him.
The growing number of my troops helped him end his internal conflict more quickly.
“We're leaving.”
Having made his decision, Erik turned his back coldly without a word of farewell.
Only after he disappeared from sight and my troops had taken up positions around me did the tension finally leave me. At the same time, a wave of dizziness washed over me, and I felt like I was about to pass out.
I bit my tongue lightly to stay conscious. Even if I was going to collapse, there was something I had to do first.
I returned to Cynthia's side and pulled the sword from her chest. I threw it to the ground, and as the sound echoed…
“Gasp—!”
Cynthia, whom everyone thought was dead, clutched her chest and shot upright.
“Oh, Lord—!”
The people who witnessed the resurrection with their own two eyes immediately fell to their knees and made the sign of the cross.