You Must Not Kill Them All
The moment I possessed this body, the Imperial Princess announced she would kill a hundred and eight people.
"Behead them all."
Her low, indifferent voice cut across the council chamber.
Beneath the golden candelabras, a woman with long red hair propped her chin on her hand.
Adelia von Ermain.
First Imperial Princess of the Empire.
Regent who oversaw the realm in place of the bedridden Emperor, and the woman granted full authority over the investigation and punishment of this treason case.
And the tyrant who would fall most wretchedly in this novel.
A thick ledger lay open before her.
Beside the names of nobles and officials, charges of treason were packed densely across the pages.
Embezzlement of imperial funds. Misappropriation of military grain. Secret correspondence with an enemy nation.
By the charges alone, they deserved to die.
The problem was that more than half of them were innocent.
More precisely, the Princess's political enemies had slipped their names in among the real traitors.
The so-called Blood Register incident.
This was the scene where Princess Adelia's downfall began in the original story.
And I—
"Cassian."
The Princess called my name.
Cassian Berdel.
The young count who enjoyed the Princess's favor.
A notorious sycophant infamous for luxury, bribes, and flattery.
In the original, when the Princess declared she would execute them, he was the first to clap and voice his agreement.
As a result, a hundred and eight people died.
The surviving houses became the Princess's enemies, and with the nobles who controlled the empire's grain and finance vanishing all at once, prices soared.
The Princess became a tyrant.
And Cassian Berdel became the corrupt vassal who fattened himself at that tyrant's side.
Eleven months later, both of them climbed the gallows.
"Why no answer?"
Adelia narrowed her eyes.
Every minister seated in the chamber turned to look at me.
The sycophant who had always insisted that whatever the Princess said was right.
That was this body's role now.
If I followed the script, I ought to smile and bow my head.
Your Highness's judgment is as wise as ever. Wash the palace gates with the blood of traitors.
Say something like that, and hang eleven months from now.
I looked down at the register again.
And opened my mouth.
"You must not kill them all."
Someone dropped a pen.
The small metallic clatter rang unnaturally loud.
The Princess's eyebrows rose, slow and deliberate.
"Cassian."
"Yes, Your Highness."
"Did you just oppose my order?"
She was smiling, but her eyes were not.
Princess Adelia was a woman who treated the moment someone crossed her will as treason itself.
One wrong word and it wouldn't be eleven months—my head would roll today. Slice.
I rose from my seat.
"I do not oppose the killing itself."
The ministers' expressions turned strange.
The Princess lowered the hand that had been propping her chin.
"Then?"
"I oppose killing them now."
I opened the first page of the register.
"Viscount Herman, a cadet of the Marquis of Rotman's house, holds four granaries in the eastern breadbasket. Execute him at once and his eldest son inherits the title; the lands remain with the viscountcy."
Next page.
"Viscount Kerton owes the imperial household thirty thousand gold coins. Kill him and the debt becomes an inheritance dispute. Their attorneys will drag it out for years."
Next.
"Vice Minister of Finance Orban funneled the embezzled funds through three trading houses. Sever his head now and the people who know where the money went vanish with him."
I closed the register.
"All Your Highness gains is a hundred and eight corpses."
The Princess's gaze turned cold.
"Is more required to kill traitors?"
"It is required."
"What?"
"Everything they own."
Silence settled over the room.
I rested my hand on the register.
"Their lands."
I folded the first finger.
"Their wealth."
The second.
"Their trading houses and mines."
The third.
"The money they lent to the imperial house and the nobility."
The fourth.
"And the accomplices they have hidden."
I folded the last finger.
"Killing them is the cheapest disposal of all."
Several ministers swallowed hard.
The Princess fixed me with a piercing stare.
"Continue."
I was alive.
For now, at least.
I opened the register once more.
"Effective today, succession of titles and transfer of property for everyone on the list must be frozen. Bar the family and servants from coming or going, and seize every ledger."
"And if they flee?"
"The moment they flee, they admit the charge of treason. Send the list to the borders and ports first."
"And if they burn the evidence?"
"Occupy the ledger vaults before the mansions."
The corner of the Princess's mouth lifted, just slightly.
"You speak as though you prepared for this."
Hardly.
Until I walked into this room, I had not even known who I was.
But I could not show that.
"Would it do for Your Highness's loyal servant to arrive unprepared?"
Open disgust surfaced on several ministers' faces.
Hmm.
A thoroughly familiar reaction.
This body had always been that sort of man.
The Princess did not smile.
Instead she tapped the register with a fingertip.
"And after that?"
"We sort the criminals."
"How?"
"True traitors and those used by the treason. Those who only provided money and those who raised a blade. And those who were framed."
Someone coughed pointedly from the back of the chamber.
Probably had a relative on the list.
I did not look that way.
"Execute the true traitors. But before they die, extract the names of their accomplices, the locations of their nominee assets, and where the secret ledgers are hidden."
"And the rest?"
"Those who were framed—Your Highness may free them yourself."
The ministers' gazes wavered.
"A record will remain that Her Imperial Highness personally rescued the wrongfully accused."
"I made this list."
"It is not a list Your Highness made."
I lifted the register.
"It is a list that was submitted to Your Highness."
Adelia's eyes changed.
Only a little.
But unmistakably.
She had not compiled this register herself.
Someone had prepared it and she had merely been about to approve it.
Everyone in the room knew that fact.
"Who submitted it?"
the Princess asked.
The chamber grew quieter still.
I opened the final page of the register.
The author's signature was there.
The Minister of Finance.
The face of the elderly noble seated across from me went rigid.
"Your Imperial Highness, that is merely a compilation of reports submitted by each ministry."
"A compilation?"
Adelia echoed.
"Yes, Your Highness."
"Then you bear no responsibility."
The Minister of Finance's complexion eased a fraction.
The Princess spoke.
"Hand every one of your ledgers over to Cassian."
"What?"
"If you compiled the ministries' reports, that process will have been recorded as well."
"Those are Ministry of Finance secrets."
"Did you just speak of secrets in my presence?"
The Minister of Finance's mouth shut.
Adelia turned her gaze to me.
"Do it your way."
She had given in far too easily.
No. That was not it. It was not easy at all.
That woman hated anyone questioning her orders—but she hated having anything taken from her even more.
I had not stopped the executions.
I had proposed making everything the traitors possessed into the Princess's own.
Adelia had no reason to refuse.
"How long?"
the Princess asked.
"Fifteen days will suffice."
"Five."
Was she insane?
"Your Highness, there are a hundred and eight of them."
"And?"
"Ten days."
"Six."
She was haggling.
"Eight."
"Very well."
Adelia rose from her chair.
Her red hair spilled over her shoulders.
"Within eight days, find the true traitors and bring their assets before me."
"I receive your command."
"If you fail."
The Princess stopped in front of me.
Crimson eyes looked down upon me.
"The hundred-and-ninth name will be yours."
Of course it would.
"I require one thing more."
Everyone in the chamber looked at me at once.
The Princess tilted her head.
"Is your life not enough?"
"I lack authority."
I bowed my head.
"Authority, in Your Highness's name, to seal mansions and government offices."
"……."
"Authority to seize ledgers and property."
The Princess's gaze turned icy.
"And authority to interrogate those on the list myself. Grant me these."
The ministers began to murmur.
The Minister of Finance shot to his feet.
"Your Highness! If you grant that man such authority—"
"Silence."
At the Princess's single word, the murmuring stopped.
She drew a ring from her finger.
A seal ring with the Princess's crest engraved above a red jewel.
Adelia tossed it before me.
I caught it in both hands.
"Eight days, Cassian."
It was heavy.
Far too heavy for a mere ring.
"Do not make me feel I have made a loss."
The Princess left the council chamber.
Even after the door closed, not a soul opened their mouth.
I looked at the seal ring in my palm.
In the original, Cassian Berdel flattered the Princess and lined his pockets.
Then he died with her.
I could not abandon the Princess and run either.
This body already knew too many of her secrets, and the other factions were not so naïve as to trust a sycophant's defection.
There was only one choice.
If the Princess fell and I died with her—
then I simply had to keep her from falling.
I slowly slid the ring onto my finger.
Before that woman swings her sword, I put a ledger in her hand.
Before she kills someone, I propose a more valuable disposal.
Before she ruins the empire, I show her a path that profits her more.
I may not be able to break a tyrant's will—but I can turn its direction.
Perhaps that is how I become a troublesome, loyal vassal.