The Succession Ceremony
The Succession Ceremony
Leaving Elenoa behind.
I, Hildea, and Marquis Oltain exited the guest residence and leisurely circled the castle.
Naturally, the count's castle soldiers turned pale as death upon seeing the large and beautiful 105mm Magical Cannon Hildea bore upon her left shoulder.
"C-Count, Your Excellency! To bring out a grand golem magical device, whatever is the matter...."
"Get lost."
A cold expression and voice, as if she were an entirely different person from the one at the newlyweds' disguise.
Stealing glances from the side, the atmosphere was no joke.
The castle interior grew unsettled.
Because Hildea was putting on a show of force with her cannon for all to see.
By now, the timing was right for them to recognize Marquis Oltain beside me and for a report to have reached the Count.
I pulled out a loudspeaker and shouted at full blast.
"Sir Baron! Do not take your own life! Do not be made to take your own life! All knights and soldiers of the count's family, ensure that Sir Baron does not take his own life or is made to take his own life!"
The high-output field loudspeaker reverberated thunderously in all directions, and everyone was thrown into utter confusion.
My half-brothers tried to rush at me but faltered at the sight of Hildea beside me, unable to close the distance.
Because Hildea's presence right now was as fierce as a mother wolf protecting her young.
"Sir Baron! Reveal the existence of the Noble Council's secret frontline reorganization pact! Do not take your own life! Do not be made to take your own life!"
-Colonel-nim, the Count is meeting with Sir Baron.
Luna's radio transmission came through the linked earpiece.
I urgently ordered into the radio.
"Make absolutely sure he does not flee or take his own life."
-Understood.
A splendid succession ceremony requires a sufficiently large audience.
And to draw in an audience, aggressive promotion is necessary.
We leisurely patrolled the count's castle, continuing to blare about the pact.
"Sir Baron, come forth honorably and reveal the existence of the secret pact! If you embrace it alone and die, Sir Hildea's wrath will sweep across the entire county!
That is how enraged Sir Hildea is right now!"
Eventually, finding it bothersome, I walked around with a recorded message playing on auto-repeat.
"Luna, the Count and Sir Baron's positions?"
-Sir Baron fled through a secret passage. We are in pursuit now! We can catch him!
"Good. Join us as soon as you capture him."
-Understood. Ah, the Count is moving quickly toward you, Colonel-nim.
"That works out well."
Soon, Count Anbelrum appeared, his face flushed red and fuming.
"Piel, what is the meaning of this? Sir Valkenhart, why on earth are you doing this?"
Hildea spoke icily.
"You still haven't come to your senses."
Hildea immediately loaded a shell, then aimed the muzzle at the top of the castle.
And fired.
Ku-gwa-gwa-gwang!
The bell tower with its great bell collapsed in a heap from a single bombardment.
The soldiers hearing cannon fire for the first time clamped their ears shut in shock and trembled.
Bewilderment clouded the Count's face.
"Sir Valkenhart, why so suddenly...."
"Why, you ask. Count Anbelrum, are you not also a party to the pact?"
A Sword Master's spoken voice is mystical.
Not shouting, but gentle — yet it carries far and wide.
"I shall now begin the judgment. Count Anbelrum, kneel."
Hildea aimed the muzzle at the Count, and his vassals, turning ashen, cried out to me.
"Do-ryeon-nim! Please, stop Sir Valkenhart!"
"Why are you doing this?!"
"The Count is your father, Do-ryeon-nim!"
The Count, still refusing to kneel, glared at me and Hildea with bloodshot eyes.
"The castle is surrounded! Northern knights have encircled the castle like an iron wall!"
At the cry of a knight who came rushing in, the faces of the Count and his vassals grew even paler.
Since no one knew the full circumstances, such was their reaction.
I bellowed through the loudspeaker.
"Seventeen great nobles formed a secret pact. They deliberately reduced supplies to the North to intentionally induce the frontline's collapse. They planned to abandon that vast land and establish a new frontline south of the Dwein River."
The vassals' expressions hardened.
The Count shouted.
"Slander! No such pact even exists! Why would anyone commit the folly of handing over perfectly good territory!"
"And yet you stockpiled a full hundred years' worth of wine in a subspace necklace. Was that not in preparation for the collapse of the northern wine-producing regions?"
I took note of several vassals whose expressions abruptly changed.
Those who already knew of the pact, or who had just realized from my words that this was no slander.
"The Noble Council, led by Count Anbelrum! Wanted the nobles defending the North to become a pack of beggars, reduced to dogs guarding a river! So they could cut the rye allocated to the North!"
Agitation must be distilled to its intuitive essence.
"My father sent his bastard son to his death! And stabbed Sir Hildea in the back!"
In a regionalist feudal system, this works better than railing about traitors selling out the nation.
From this point on, Hildea had obtained just cause for retaliation without limit.
"We've captured him and brought him here!"
At that moment, Luna's voice rang loudly from the air.
I lifted my head and was startled.
'Wait, Luna? You could fly?'
You should have said so earlier! Such an important fact.
Then I could use Luna as an aerial observation unit and bomber....
"Sir Baron!"
"Piel Do-ryeon-nim! Why Sir Baron?"
A tightly bound old knight was flung down between us and the Count.
As soon as Luna removed his gag, Baron bit off his own tongue.
Unable to speak, he deliberately channeled mana to induce rapid blood loss.
"Priest-nim."
"I shall bestow the grace of Fentanyl."
A priest standing among the northern knights closing the encirclement stepped forward.
He placed a Fentanyl kit into the mouth to block the pain, then poured over the mint-choco-like hwa-an cooling grace of healing.
"Cough! Cough! M-My tongue, how...?"
"Sir Baron, what secret were you trying to conceal by taking your own life?"
They'd expected him to die of shock from the healing's pain, but he revived perfectly fine, and the old knight was flustered beyond words.
The Count quietly sighed.
He must be sensing that the game was up.
Young Marquis Oltain stepped forward.
"So it was Sir Baron. To me, you would never reveal even your name or origin."
The corners of the Marquis's faintly trembling lips were desperately suppressing laughter about to burst.
"Deliver Sir Hildea's answer to the great noble you serve.
Sir Hildea feels boundless loathing toward the great nobles who formed the pact, and will grant no forgiveness whatsoever. So wash your necks and wait — convey that to your liege."
Marquis Oltain raised his head and looked at the Count.
"Did you hear that, Count Anbelrum?"
"...."
The atmosphere froze solid.
The vassals now realized that my agitation was not fabrication — it was all fact.
"I, Marquis Oltain, swear upon my family's name! The Noble Council's secret pact that Second Lieutenant Piel spoke of is true!
Count Anbelrum sent Sir Baron to me, seeking Sir Valkenhart's letter of indulgence! A cowardly plea for forgiveness without revealing his name!"
The northern knights commanded by Dvil and Luna had completely surrounded the castle's outer perimeter.
The Count's vassals realized the situation was irreversible.
The just cause, the power — all of it lay with us.
Several vassals asked the Count, as if utterly unable to believe it.
"Count, Your Excellency, is the pact truly real?"
"...."
The Count said nothing, but his expression alone was answer enough for his vassals.
Hildea aimed the empty muzzle at the Count, and the vassals, turning ashen, pleaded.
"Sir Valkenhart, please, mercy!"
"Please, forgiveness!"
"Shut it."
Hmm, Hildea even makes low tones sound pleasant.
Though it was only pleasant to my ears — to the vassals, it must have sounded like a beast's low-frequency roar.
A single word froze them all stiff.
"Count Anbelrum, is there a reason I should not loathe you, a reason I should not judge you?"
"I am...."
A trembling voice.
I was curious what excuse the Count would make in this situation.
"I am...."
「I fear that offering only cowardly excuses will make you deem me even more contemptible. I shall compensate you while taking all of that into account.」
'That excuse last time was honestly somewhat plausible — even Hildea tilted her head at it.'
"...I am Piel's father."
Something inside me snapped — ttuk.
Not from anger, but because it was too ridiculous.
"Pu-hahahahaha!"
Without realizing it, I grabbed Hildea's shoulder and laughed.
I just laughed senselessly.
His final excuse was 'I am Piel's father.'
So that's how you express 'spare me, forgive me.'
This really is the noble way of speaking.
"Sir Hildea, that man is not my father. The moment he sent me north to die, all ties between me and the Anbelrum family were severed."
I put on a cold-eyed performance and looked around at the vassals.
"Every one of them incited the Count to cast me out. Not a single decent human being among them. If you care for me, execute the Count and have every vassal of knight rank or above subjected to castration punishment."
My acting must have been decent, because they all turned ashen.
Hildea, holding back laughter, played along.
"Castration punishment? Would that satisfy you?"
"Yes, Hildea-nim."
"You are an officer I hold dear — naturally, I can grant a private vengeance request of that magnitude. I had not a shred of intent to forgive them anyway."
It was about time for Elenoa to make her appearance.
"Piel! Sir Valkenhart! Please forgive my father's sins! Piel, for the sake of this noona's face, please forgive him!"
"Ah, Elenoa-nim!"
"You've come!"
Hope flickered across the faces of the vassals who knew how close Elenoa and I were.
'This is all staged, of course.'
"Piel! Please forgive him! Sir Valkenhart! I will bear all the sins myself! I will pay with my life! Please, at least spare my father!"
Elenoa clung to me and wailed, and I acted out an expression of great discomfort and fluster.
Hildea performed a sigh and coldly commanded.
"Imprison the Count and all those of knight rank and above."
"Yes! Commander-in-Chief-nim!"
***
Hildea stood absently in the Count's office, gazing down through the window.
The soldiers and servants of the count's castle were engrossed in their tasks, weighed down by terror.
The large and splendid castle was still under entry control, so the outside world did not know the Count was confined.
"A truly magnificent castle...."
Hildea murmured quietly, thinking of her own shabby count's castle.
"Someday, our territory too could become such a fine place...."
Knock knock.
"Come in, Sir Elenoa."
The door opened, and Elenoa entered with a faint smile.
"How did you know it was me?"
"I sensed your presence. Every person has subtle differences in their footsteps."
"As expected of a Sword Master, you are different."
"Sir Elenoa can become one too. It is only a matter of time."
The two women sat facing each other and discussed the matters ahead.
Several days had passed since the Revolt of the Bastard ended.
Piel was, 'ostensibly,' pestering Hildea that everyone must be killed.
The ones who weren't imprisoned were desperately looking only at Elenoa's face.
"It seems we should soon prepare an announcement that, thanks to Sir Elenoa's persuasion, the punishment has been reduced from execution to escort to the Northern Penal Unit."
Including the Count, all major vassals were to be taken to the North and used as a true penal unit.
Then Elenoa could completely seize control of the territory.
"I have a request for Sir Valkenhart. Please let my father remain here."
"Sir Elenoa?"
Hildea slightly furrowed her brow, but Elenoa spoke without a change in expression.
"There is an abandoned outer castle. I will have him confined there for life."
"But that is...."
"If my father were to pass away in the North, no matter the cause, the entire world would think of Piel as an unfilial wretch."
"...."
"Would it not be better for him to stay in the outer castle for a year or two, and then to take his own life from guilt?"
"...Take his own life?"
"Ah, should I phrase it as 'be made to take his own life'? Our Piel seems to have coined quite a useful phrase."
"...."
Hildea sensed that Elenoa was sincere about disposing of the Count.
'Colonel Piel also said he had no intention of dragging the Count north to kill him....'
***
"Luna, a reward for you. Mint Choco Cake."
"Kyaaaak!"