Adaptation 6
"Nonsense! Why are you wavering, Sir Selen? We received orders from Lady Irene to deal with the traitor—"
Wilson did not seem ready to give up just yet. Even so, there was no need to be afraid.
"Is that so? Then did you bring a written order? One bearing Irene's signature."
"That... the situation was too urgent, so we could not receive it in time..."
"How insolent, and utterly lacking in effort. You could have at least gone to the trouble of forging a plausible imitation."
"Ugh..."
They had rushed here in a hurry. The moment they realized they couldn't win, they had pursued me to kill me without a second thought.
"Well, fine. Let us say I believe you."
However, the tension on Wilson's face did not ease.
He wasn't wasting his breath trying to convince me. He was only trying to win over Selen, who stood by my side.
"But surely you don't intend to execute a member of the Silverline family without a trial, especially when we didn't meet on a battlefield?"
"Urgh..."
"Arrest me and escort me back. You can bind me if you have spare rope, and if possible, I wouldn't mind riding in a carriage. Selen alone should be more than enough to keep watch over me, wouldn't you agree?"
If they were truly doing this to apprehend the 'criminal Edrin,' my compromise was more than fair. They could simply take me away.
"Or is that not an option? Are you afraid of what might happen if I receive a formal trial?"
Deciding that speaking with me was pointless, Wilson turned his gaze to Selen.
"Sir Selen, do not hesitate! Bring me the head of that traitor!"
"That is..."
"And Edrin, your proposal is not even worth listening to. Why should we take risks when we have no idea when you might try to escape?"
I let out a faint smile.
"With Selen right here?"
"..."
"With an armed knight standing right beside me, at such close range? You think I could escape?"
Even without my Charm stat, Wilson's plan was far from clean or logical.
Since they had no intention of acting lawfully from the start, things were bound to get tangled the moment they had to fabricate excuses for Selen's benefit.
"I cannot trust you!"
"What? Are you saying you cannot trust Sir Selen? How surprising. I thought Selen was one of Irene's most trusted knights."
"But... if you have deceived and seduced her—"
Honestly, his suspicion wasn't entirely baseless. The way Selen was looking at me right now was indeed a bit dangerous.
She was gazing at me with eyes full of desperate yearning, looking for all the world like the tragic heroine of a sad romance novel.
Her expression betrayed a complex web of emotions: she couldn't fully trust me, yet she couldn't bring herself to kill me either. She couldn't betray her comrades, but she couldn't agree with their actions either.
I only understood this because I knew the power of my Charm stat. Strip that away, and Wilson's accusation was nothing more than a petty, baseless insult that no one would sympathize with.
"How ridiculous. How could I have seduced her when I only woke up a few days ago? Is Sir Selen's loyalty to Irene so fragile that it could be swayed in a matter of days?"
"That is...!"
However, the core issue had still not been resolved.
I could sway Selen to my side one way or another. I had already built a decent rapport with her while walking around the village, and she knew better than anyone that I couldn't possibly be involved in the Count's death.
But Wilson would never be convinced, no matter what I said. Unlike the others, he was absolutely convinced that he had to kill Edrin for Irene's sake.
In that case, I had to win over the others.
"No matter how I look at it, I doubt Irene would cast Selen aside so ruthlessly... Could this be an internal power struggle?"
The moment the words left my mouth, Wilson let out a harsh roar.
"Do not listen to his words! He is trying to drive a wedge between us with his lies!"
It was a rational choice.
The best way to deal with an enemy with overwhelming stats is to refuse to engage them.
Just as it was foolish to lead an army into a head-on clash against an enemy with high physical power, trying to fight me—someone with maxed-out Charm—in a battle of words was the height of stupidity.
However, the other knights and soldiers following Wilson were already hanging on my every word.
"If you were to kill me here... it wouldn't be very difficult to turn Selen, who is with me, into an 'unfortunate casualty' in the process."
"I had no such intention!"
"Even if that isn't the case, to claim that I assassinated my father as you say... it would be much easier to argue that I had an accomplice."
"..."
"Or do you intend to claim that I, who have barely just woken up, killed Count Wilhelm all by myself?"
"Why would I frame Sir Selen as that accomplice!"
"Because there is profit in framing her. If you can kill me here, Irene will ascend to the position of the new lord. And if you eliminate Selen, your own standing will rise."
"But why would—"
"You said it yourself."
I calmly pointed out Wilson's mistake.
"That because I might have seduced Selen, she cannot be trusted."
My hypothesis was flawed from start to finish. It made no logical sense.
Even if they successfully assassinated me, Irene wouldn't be able to shield them. They would be discarded, and those knights had likely joined this assassination plot knowing they might be sacrificed.
However, with my level of Charm, I could make this flawed hypothesis sound incredibly plausible.
I could make them believe that the future awaiting them was not that of criminals who murdered the lord's son, but of honorable knights who had dealt with a traitor.
"The order to kill me. It didn't come from Irene, did it?"
Though I was speaking to Wilson, my words were directed at the soldiers standing behind him.
Those who would gladly offer their swords to serve Irene in an 'honorable deed' like killing Edrin, but would hesitate to throw their lives away for a petty power struggle.
"I-is that so?"
"We all know Sir Wilson isn't that kind of person!"
"B-but if we look at it that way... if we kill that man now, it feels like we'd be framing Sir Selen as an accomplice..."
The idea that killing me would drag Selen down was merely a hypothetical scenario. Yet, they were accepting my fabricated premise as absolute truth without a second thought.
This was why characters with high Charm were so dangerous. If given just one chance to speak, they could steer a conversation in the most absurd directions.
"B-but... if we don't kill you now! Right now!"
Wilson bit his lip hard.
Hmm, is this working?
If the soldiers refused to back him up, he looked ready to charge at me alone and slit my throat himself.
Selen is by my side, but...
I hadn't realized it at first, but Selen was actually a named character. She wasn't particularly famous on her own, possessing only enough presence to be known as 'Irene's lieutenant.'
She had no outstanding traits, but her combat stats weren't so abysmal that she couldn't be deployed on the battlefield. She was a decent enough officer to use in the early to mid-game.
Whether she will protect me is another story.
She didn't seem to want to kill me right now, but it was highly unlikely she would draw her sword against Wilson to save my life.
This might not be easy, but...
Now, I had to reel Wilson in.
"Irene must have a hard time."
"...What is that supposed to mean!"
"My sister... is quite clever. She might not compare to the legendary sages renowned for their wisdom, but she is still smart. She has patience, and her judgment isn't bad."
It was a genuine compliment in its own way, but Wilson couldn't accept it and ground his teeth.
"But when I see fools who are dumber than Irene acting on their own, claiming to be on her side... honestly, I can't help but feel a bit sorry for her."
"What on earth are you talking about!"
There was no reason to play along with the 'traitor' narrative anymore. That had only been a premise to persuade Selen, not to pacify Wilson.
"The proposal to kill me. You suggested it to Irene once, didn't you? And she rejected it, right?"
While I couldn't know exactly how things had played out with absolute certainty, I was sure that such a plan had existed. And if it did, I was confident it had been presented to Irene at least once.
Had Irene approved of the plan—even if she didn't order its immediate execution but merely agreed to the premise that 'Edrin might need to be assassinated in an emergency'—she would have prepared far more meticulously.
She would have fabricated evidence or created a plausible pretext. No matter how clumsy, she would have at least come up with something to convince Selen.
"Urgh..."
"Irene is smarter than you. The fact that she didn't accept your plan means she had a good reason."
"Don't lie! Do you think we would ever hand over Count Wilhelm's succession to an unqualified wretch like you?"
"Even if I don't die here today, do you really think you can take that position?"
"What?"
Of course I could. The only difference lay in how much effort it would take, but in the end, the one who would become the new lord was me.
And I was confident that I could deceive Wilson.