Chapter 172
Chapter 172
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 172
Chapter Title: 53. Fill the Goblet with Blood (4)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The nobles froze in place, not moving a muscle.
In one sense, they seemed too terrified to even think of stirring. In another, they appeared to proclaim that they could look to the heavens without a shred of shame. Or perhaps they simply believed that no prince, no matter who, would dare dance with a blade in this hall.
Silence blanketed the throne room.
Gulp.
The sound of someone swallowing dryly echoed through the air.
"Since no one is moving, it seems none of you have sinned."
The 1st Prince spoke up.
"The kingdom's future is truly bright."
The prince praised the kingdom's radiant prospects with exaggerated tone and gestures.
It was blatant mockery.
The nobles clung to their silence. Even the great lords who would normally explode in outrage stayed silent, none daring to protest or raise an objection.
"But it's awfully strange."
The prince tilted his head.
"When everyone here is so pure and upright, where is that rotting stench coming from?"
The prince's gaze shifted left.
"Where on earth."
The nobles his eyes landed on flinched.
"I'm asking where the stink is."
His gaze swept right.
The nobles hurriedly averted their eyes.
Thud.
The prince took a step forward.
Screeeeech.
The tip of his sword scraped across the throne room floor, unleashing a deafening screech.
Screeeeech.
With every step the prince took, that chilling noise made the nobles tremble uncontrollably.
One frail old noble couldn't bear the pressure any longer and spoke up.
"R-Right now, the royal family is persecuting innocent nobles. Th-This is utterly unjust. Please explain the full story so we nobles won't misunderstand the royal will..."
As the old noble's voice rang through the hall, the scraping of the sword against the floor abruptly stopped.
The prince was already standing before him.
"So it's here."
The old noble went pale.
"Our house has served with devotion across generations..."
Desperately trying to tout his family's merits, the old noble flinched and cut himself off.
His eyes fixed on the prince's sword.
A single drop of blood trickled down the blade. Unthinkingly, the old noble touched his own neck.
As his fingers traced the wrinkled skin befitting his advanced age, he felt an alien sensation at their tips.
The old noble's lips twitched. But what seeped through his teeth wasn't a question—it was bright red froth.
Gurgle.
His eyes rolled back white.
Thud, roll.
The grotesque, wide-eyed head hit the floor and tumbled.
Whoosh!
A fountain of blood erupted a beat late.
"U-Ughhh!"
"K-Kaaa!"
The nobles, stunned until hot liquid splashed over them, let out dazed cries as they collapsed to the floor.
"Aaaagh!"
"What is this!"
Pale-faced nobles screamed as if half-mad.
"Even if it's Your Highness, you can't do this! Executing a noble without a proper trial!"
"He was a loyal servant who devoted generations to the kingdom! How can you without even stating the charges!"
A few terrified nobles shouted in protest.
"The royals are set on massacring us nobles!"
"The king and prince have gone completely mad!"
Overcome by fear, the nobles babbled without knowing what they said.
"We can't just take this lying down! Let's unite against the royals' tyranny!"
Some nobles drew hidden daggers disguised as canes and incited the others.
It was pandemonium like no other.
"You asked for the charges."
A low voice cut through the horrific clamor.
It was the 1st Prince's.
He was no longer smiling.
"As a lord, for failing to properly care for your domain's people and letting them starve."
The chaos died as if a lie under the chilling, icy voice like a biting gale.
"As a noble, for leaking kingdom secrets to foreign nobles for personal gain and colluding with them!"
A storm-like aura poured from the prince's body.
"As a vassal, for forgetting that sacred oath and serving two masters!"
The nobles could only tremble before that abstract majesty and fury.
"Born nobles yet forgetting your duties, born human yet living like beasts!"
The prince ground out the words as he eyed them.
"That's why you die here today."
At that cold verdict, the nobles erupted again.
"I never betrayed the kingdom! Leaking secrets? Ridiculous!"
Some denied their crimes.
"What can powerless nobles in a weak kingdom do? It was just to survive!"
"If we're guilty, the royals aren't innocent either!"
Others justified and defended their actions.
"You think you'll get away with this without the Emperor's permission? Wake up from your dreams and face the kingdom's reality!"
Some even berated the prince and king as fools.
"If Marquis Montpellier hears of this, he won't stand idly by!"
The moment the empire was invoked, the nobles' fearful clamor shifted tones.
"I'm a baron of the empire who swore fealty by letter to His Imperial Majesty! A mere minor kingdom's prince can't touch me!"
"I'm the same—swore to the Emperor and listed in the imperial nobility rolls! A proud noble!"
Once one shouted it, the nobles vied to proclaim themselves both kingdom nobles and imperial vassals, issuing threats.
"Our only crime is being born nobles in a weak kingdom serving an incompetent lord! The empire gave us a new chance, and we chose a better future!"
Over half the nobles in the hall boldly confessed their treason.
Even fellow nobles stared in stunned disbelief at such shamelessness.
But the prince didn't twitch an eyebrow.
He simply turned to the king on the dais.
"Even now, do you find my methods too extreme?"
The king didn't answer.
"Your betrayal stems from my failings. The kingdom lacked strength, and the royals failed to protect you, making things so hard. So I ask: if you now admit your past wrongs and pledge unswerving loyalty, I'll grant you a chance at redemption through service."
Instead, in a somber tone, he urged the nobles that it wasn't too late to prostrate and beg forgiveness.
His voice brimmed with sorrow.
But the nobles only mocked the king's grief and mercy.
"Better to be a great empire's noble than a weak kingdom's dog."
The king asked again.
"Is there truly none? Not a single one?"
The nobles sneered at his lament-filled voice.
"If the royals officially apologize for today and offer fitting compensation, we might consider it. But I doubt you have the means to satisfy us."
The nobles chuckled in agreement.
As the king opened his mouth again, the prince stepped forward and cut him off.
"Your Majesty."
Bathed in blood, the prince calmly shook his head.
The king let out a long sigh and squeezed his eyes shut.
When he opened them again, the sorrowful king was gone.
"Do as you wish, Prince. I won't interfere further."
The old king fell silent after those words.
And in his stead, the prince stepped forth.
"Royal Knight Order."
At the prince's command, the Royal Knights moved as one.
"Secure them."
"If you lay a finger on us... Huh?"
Shocked nobles bellowed protests, then frowned as the knights brushed past them.
Clack, clack.
The Royal Knights ignored the traitors mocking the king and took positions before the clustered nobles in the corner.
"We'll escort you until this is over."
"Much obliged."
Marquis Bilefeld and Count Kirguyen followed the Royal Knights' lead toward the dais. The lesser nobles watching also moved under their guidance.
It wasn't hard for the traitors to see the difference between them and those nobles.
The pro-king nobles led by Marquis Bilefeld and Count Kirguyen. And provincial lords with no ties to the center.
They were the ones who, unlike the traitors, hadn't been chosen by the empire.
Until then, the traitors had mocked them for lacking cunning and foresight. Their earlier panic at the sight of blood was gone.
"My instincts told me something was off, so I already contacted Marquis Montpellier. He'll arrive soon—worry about how to atone for beheading innocent nobles and persecuting us."
They firmly believed the marquis's arrival would end today's chaos.
But no matter how much time passed, Marquis Montpellier didn't appear.
Instead, only the bloodied errand boy sent to him was dragged in.
"You can't cover the sky with ten fingers! The marquis will know soon enough! His eyes reach everywhere in the kingdom!"
At the prince's gesture, a Royal Knight hurled the bloodied errand boy before the traitors.
"Useless fool! Can't even run a simple errand without getting caught."
The errand boy shook his head.
The mission hadn't failed. He'd met the marquis and confessed everything. The marquis knew it all before he even spoke.
"Hear that? The empire's eyes and ears are everywhere in the kingdom. So stop dreaming impossibilities and..."
"That's not it..."
The arrogant traitor scowled at the errand boy's interruption. Normally, he'd have shut up at his master's displeasure, but the boy desperately shouted.
"The m-marquis said he won't interfere with the royals exercising their rightful authority, and to avoid misunderstandings, don't seek him out!"
He explained the wounds were from the marquis's servants beating him.
The smug nobles froze.
None misunderstood the marquis's words.
The anxiety and fear they'd briefly suppressed with the empire's prestige reared up again.
"I-If something happens to us, our houses won't stand by! If you don't want the whole kingdom to become a battlefield, stop this now. We'll let today's events slide!"
One great lord stepped up with threats.
But without the empire's shield, his intimidation neither reassured himself nor cowed the foe.
"I appreciate your loyalty in hoping the kingdom avoids war. That's why I'm telling you—it's unnecessary worry."
The prince said with a radiant smile.
"The war's already begun."
Unlike his expression, the words carried heavy weight.
"Ballerhard forces and the central legions' elites are probably turning your castles to rubble by now."
At the prince's words, the traitors paled.
Watching them, the prince burst into laughter.
As if he couldn't contain his exhilaration.
The prince stopped laughing. With a blank face, he raised his sword.
"W-Wait! I've changed my mind! Civil war would sap the kingdom's vitality, and I can't abide..."
Before the words finished, a flash of sword light gleamed.
"Even if His Majesty said otherwise, I never planned to let you live."
The prince said coldly.
The headless great lord's body thudded down. Nobles staring at the quivering corpse screamed.
"Aaaagh!"
"Sp-Spare us!"
The prince leaped into their midst.
Slash, slash.
Once proud kingdom nobles, now mere condemned prisoners, they scrambled wildly to survive, darting across the hall.
And amid them, the prince danced his blade.
The throne room drowned in blood.
The blood-soaked throne room. A hundred heads piled before the dais.
The king gazed at them with a dry expression. Not one showed remorse in death. Every face was twisted with base desires for life and raw terror.
"Mission fully accomplished, Your Majesty."
The prince stepped forward, returning the royal sword he'd been handed.
The king took it and stared at the bloodied blade. Then, in a weary voice, he said.
"Hang their heads in the capital square for all to see. Write their charges alongside so the world knows their crimes."
At the king's command, Royal Knights approached and bagged the heads.
Watching the knights drag away the dripping sacks, the king turned to Marquis Bilefeld, Count Kirguyen, and the surviving nobles.
"Now only you remain."
His voice, aged decades in moments, prompted Marquis Bilefeld to prostrate flat.
"We are sinners too! The kingdom groaned under the empire, yet we turned blind eyes. We shut our ears to traitors insulting the royals! As kingdom nobles, we failed our duties, causing today's tragedy—we deserve death!"
Ignoring the blood staining his robes, the old marquis threw himself down and cried out as if vomiting blood.
"Now that Your Majesty has restored the kingdom's spirit, this sinner Shiorin Kirguyen gladly faces punishment! Please, judge us!"
The surviving nobles prostrated en masse, confessing their faults.
A faint light returned to the old king's bloodied face.
"These are enough."
The prince's voice rang out.
"Four hundred years ago, many on this land were willing to die for the nation—but no nobles. Only the king and knights resolved to defend it."
The king turned. His once-hated eldest son, now indispensable to the kingdom.
Bathed in blood, the prince shone like the sun.
So dazzlingly.
Drawn by that light, the king unwittingly rose from the throne.
Atop the dais, back straight, the king raised his sword.
"Hear me, all!"
And he bellowed.
"From this day, the kingdom severs all ties with the empire!"
Words he'd always harbored in youth.
"The kingdom will exert every effort to reclaim all that's been taken!"
Words he'd never uttered, fearing imperial ears.
"And thus, we shall be reborn as a land brimming with glory once more!"
He spat them out after decades.
"Even if it means war!"
The king's proclamation echoed through the throne room.