Chapter 133: Walking a Tightrope (7)
Chapter 133: Walking a Tightrope (7)
......Yeah, I really should head back. I knew that in the current state of affairs, defying either of the two sovereigns was a dangerous act that could cost me my life, but surely it was right to avoid the death staring me in the face first. The death that would come after could be left to future me — he'd figure something out.
'My life has never once escaped the status of a candle before the wind.'
It had been that way since the day I stepped onto the battlefield, so there was nothing new about it.
'I' felt a surge of acute stress welling up and squeezed my eyes shut, then opened them. My tangled mind cleared out entirely, and the mental fatigue eased just a little.
'Ah, I'm craving the meds. Booze too....'
Booze had always been like that, so fine, but the meds — I'd quit those long ago. So why had I been craving them so badly lately?
Anyway, first, I'm going back. I made that judgment and turned my steps. It was then that a vibration transmitted from the communication stone I had tucked inside my coat.
'What? Did I take a wrong turn?'
I thought I'd gotten the direction right....
With a brief question in mind, I took out the communication stone. The moment I connected the call, what I heard was a short groan, as if someone were in pain.
"Is something... Did I take a wrong turn?"
- No. Deon, you'd better prepare yourself. This might wrap up sooner than expected. A demonic beast is heading your way right now.
"......Excuse me!?"
I was just about to run.
As if announcing that it was already too late to flee, the ground trembled faintly. ......Right, he said it was a level I could handle perfectly well on my own. Let's see your faces, then.
I turned my head, searching for the source of the vibrations. My eyes caught sight of trees on one side snapping and breaking as five or six massive demonic beasts revealed themselves.
......Hah.
'That's what he calls a level I can handle on my own? Is he serious?'
Just how highly did he estimate my capabilities?
He did say the numbers weren't large, and indeed, the count was low compared to the other demonic beast packs I'd encountered so far.
It was low, but....
'The sizes are fucking insane!'
The trees broke! They weren't even trying to break them — they just moved!
After a long silence, I barely managed to open my mouth. Miraculously, my voice didn't tremble and called out calmly.
"Your Majesty?"
- Oh, yeah. Leaving the communication stone open would just be a hindrance, right? I'll hang up first. Contact me once you've finished cleaning up.
Click.
.......
"Shi...it...."
My hand clenched the communication stone with involuntary force. If I had my way, I'd hurl it to the ground and vent every bit of my rage, but....
I quietly dropped my gaze. The communication stone was perfectly fine, while the hand I'd put strength into was a pathetic sight — drained white and trembling uncontrollably.
I stared blankly at that miserable display for a moment, then released the tension in my hand and tucked the communication stone back into my coat.
Right, first things first, surviving comes first. This body's already weak — I can't afford to waste energy on pointless things.
"Alright, let's see who dies first, you bastards."
I drew the familiar dagger and glared at the charging beasts.
And I remember, as the distance closed, my head tilting further and further back....
'Did I lose my mind after realizing just how absurdly enormous they were?'
I can't remember anything after that.
* * *
They had failed to kill Deon Hart again. Worse, some of them had been eliminated by an unknown figure before even reaching Deon Hart.
The Duke quietly crumpled the note he had been reading in his hand and lifted both corners of his mouth. His gaze rose and met the eyes of the other nobles standing before him.
......It was tiresome, but dealing with them had to be the priority for now.
"So... what business brings so many of you to my doorstep without any prior notice?"
And so many of you, at that.
He slowly swept his gaze from left to right, examining the faces before him. Familiar faces. If they weren't members of the Noble Faction, he would have driven them out on the spot.
As he swallowed his subtle disappointment along with his tea, one of those seated in a row on the sofa, gauging the mood, squeezed out some courage and boldly opened his mouth.
"The Emperor seems to have gone mad."
"Oh."
How exceedingly bold.
It wasn't entirely wrong, but it wasn't the sort of thing to be declared so brazenly either. He supposed he should be grateful he'd dismissed the servants beforehand.
He slowly set down the cup he was holding. Once he adopted a posture indicating he was willing to listen, the others, seemingly emboldened, began raising their voices to press their arguments.
"It was a disadvantageous war for the Empire from the start. Win or lose, it's a loss, is it not?"
"We must stop it, even now."
"It's still the early stages of war, so it's not too late."
It was true that the war was disadvantageous for the Empire, and true that win or lose, it was a loss. Stopping it if possible was also true, but....
The Duke raised a delicate hand to his chin and tilted his head. His violet hair slid softly to the side with the movement.
"Why, precisely, have you come to me to argue this? You could simply offer your counsel to His Majesty."
"The Emperor... you know how it is."
Well, that was true enough.
Offer counsel and you'd be lucky if only your head flew off. The Emperor was particularly merciless toward the Noble Faction.
"......Very well. You've argued that it must be stopped. Do you have some method in mind?"
"That is—"
"Bear in mind, this is a war that has already begun. Even if we wished to stop on our side, there's a possibility the Demon King won't accept it. The plan must account for all of this."
He was already on edge from receiving thoroughly unsatisfactory news. If the plan they put forward was even half-baked, they had best prepare themselves.
The Duke dropped the crumpled note from his clenched hand into the little remaining tea and smiled brightly. As if they weren't entirely without sense, the nobles felt a sense of foreboding and trembled faintly.
Even so, confident in the plan they had brought, they insisted on speaking.
"We... strike off the Emperor's head."
Regrettably, it was not a very good plan at all.
At the sudden proposal of treason, the Duke paused, doubting his ears.
"......Pardon me?"
"The Demon King said he would withdraw if the Empire showed no further movements. But the Emperor is a war fiend. He welcomed the war against the Demon Realm, if anything — he hasn't the slightest intention of stopping it. Therefore...."
"—Strike off the Emperor's head to stop the war?"
"Wouldn't the Demon King recognize the gesture and withdraw if we handed over the Emperor's head to the Demon Realm?"
"Ha......."
How utterly stupid.
Looking at them made his head throb for no reason, and the Duke quietly closed his eyes. Negative emotions — anger, irritation — surged up like a roiling boil, then were pressed down and stilled by cold reason.
Perhaps due to the aftershock of the violent emotions that had flared to the point of bursting, a voice close to lament leaked out powerlessly.
"Why don't you understand that this is exactly what the Demon King wants."
"......Pardon?"
"Did you consider why the Demon King said such things in his declaration of war?"
"Pardon? Well, that's...."
They trailed off. He even waited briefly on the off chance, but no answer came.
To think these were really nobles of the Empire.
"Was it not obviously to induce internal strife? Aiming for division within the human world, and division within the Empire! The Demon King attempted to drive a wedge between humanity!"
Ah. Uncharacteristically, his voice had risen.
The Duke swept a hand down his face, then picked up the teacup before him — spotted the note he'd dropped in earlier, and calmly set it back down. He couldn't summon a servant due to the topic of conversation, so he had no choice but to endure it.
The short silence that had settled was broken by a voice that had grown calm once more.
"As part of the basic cultivation expected of nobility, you have learned history, of course."
"Y-yes, of course, that goes without saying......."
"Then you'll know. What the cause was for the vast majority of ruined nations."
"......."
Again, no answer.
This country was done for. Even if not because of the sovereign, the vassals were doomed from the start. Even the Emperor understood the importance of history, so where had such idiotic nobles sprung from?
Seeing the flaws of the hereditary system before his eyes all over again, he even felt the urge to genuinely support those who cried out for revolution. Though, of course, it was only a fleeting impulse.
The Duke swallowed a sigh and offered the answer calmly.
"Internal strife."
"Ah......."
What 'Ah.......'
Of course, these days the rate of nations collapsing due to foreign powers had increased because of the current Emperor, but looking throughout history overall, the cause of nearly every nation's destruction was internal strife.
"Even when they appeared to collapse due to foreign power externally, if you actually look inside, more often than not they were already in a precarious state from internal strife."
The pattern whereby a nation was reeling from internal strife when another nation gave it a light shove — and it crumbled entirely.
"B-but... dividing into various factions and opposing one another among the nobility is something this nation has done since before it was even an empire. If what you say is true, Your Grace, this nation would have long since...."
"Good heavens."
They couldn't even distinguish the difference between that and political opposition.
A lament escaped him automatically. The Duke, not even thinking to brush aside the hair that had fallen like a curtain, stared at them in sheer bewilderment.
"......Who said opposition is bad? Political opposition is a natural phenomenon that inevitably arises to produce better outcomes, and is only to be expected."
"Then what you said just now...."
"I am saying that both opposition and a change of rulership must be done with an eye on the situation. Even doing such things while the nation is perfectly sound would put it in a precarious position — and you would oppose one another while a foreign threat looms? That is madness."
How many times had his blood pressure risen today? There was a limit to how much cold reason could suppress it.
The Duke raised a hand and pressed firmly between his brows, continuing in a measured tone.
"All nobles, whether politically or militarily, fundamentally have a duty to protect their nation. No matter how much they divide into factions and fight, if a foreign power attempts invasion, they must unite and drive them out. The fighting is a story for afterward."
Just who do you think is responsible for the fact that you eat well and live well right now?
Protecting the citizens of the Empire was the foremost duty of the nobility and the sovereign. The frustration pushed sharp-edged words up to his throat.
He forced them down, swallowed them, then placed his clasped hands on his crossed knee and smiled brightly at those staring blankly at him.
"The topic wandered slightly, but you understand now, don't you? What you were thinking was something the Demon King induced. How could you ever trust the Demon King's words to begin with? Rumors that demons habitually lie are rampant across the entire continent. Even if you handed over the Emperor's head and were promised peace, would they ever keep it?"
"......."
"Therefore, to strike off the Emperor's head in the current situation is in line with toppling this nation and handing the human world over to the Demon King. Do you wish to sit alone in a ruined nation, wearing a crown with no one to play along, playing at being lord and master?"
Though they'd be dead with their corpses rolling about long before they could even begin such a farcical game of make-believe.
In any case, they seemed to have properly understood, as intended. The nobles, faces gone sheet-white, hastily waved their hands.
"N-no, that is not our intent."
"We were foolish."
"......His Majesty has said it time and again, hasn't he? For those standing above, foolishness is a sin. It seems you gentlemen need to learn why history is part of the basic cultivation expected of nobility."
He had thought he wouldn't let them off easily if they brought a half-baked plan, but... they'd presented a method so unimaginably stupid as a 'plan' that it sapped his energy instead.
Suddenly thoroughly exhausted, the Duke raised a hand and issued a dismissal.
"Ah, and as for verifying the truth of the rumors regarding Honorary Count Deon Hart's alleged vampirism...."
"......Get. Out."
"Y-yes, Your Grace!"
Those who had been gauging his mood retreated hastily, and in the space left alone, he recalled the note he had been reading before those idiotic nobles arrived.
'Every single ambush failed, and the poisoning failed because he knocked over the poisoned food as if by mistake or noticed it before eating....'
And on top of that, the protection of some unnamed someone.
Formidable skill plus absurd luck. Honestly, it was a little deflating, but....
'......Whether it's luck or skill, if we just keep pushing until we succeed, it'll work eventually.'
His thinking had not yet changed, so the Duke did not rescind the initial assassination commission — offering unlimited funds and instructing them to keep trying until they succeeded.