Volume 20 - Murder to Silence (2)
"N-Nia...."
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry...!"
This fucking bitch is crying while trying to kill me. Softening me up on purpose.
If you're going to kill someone, at least act like the piece of trash you are while you do it.
When it shows that she's forcing herself through it while genuinely sorry, it gets hard to even resent her.
Goddamn bitch. Seriously....
Everything she'd done for me until now—helping me like a devoted wife—flashed through my mind.
Why did she have to treat me so well? Look at me. Not a single bad thought about her will come up even now.
She was such a soft-hearted idiot that it only made it more obvious her current attempt to kill me wasn't her true heart.
"Cali didn't do anything wrong. It's all... all because of me. So... hate me as much as you want...."
"Don't... cry...."
"Eh...?"
Someone trying to kill you while bawling their eyes out is such a cheat code.
Honestly there were more than a few things I wanted to call out and curse her for, but of all things, the fact that Nia—the sole crown prince—was actually a woman.
I could roughly guess how tangled the situation had become and how warped her mindset had grown.
"Fuck. Is that... the face of someone killing a person?"
"I...."
"Kill me. Honestly I don't know what the hell is going on with the country. But if I'm dying because of that shitty country, then it can't be helped."
It wasn't the first time the nation had fucked me over with some bullshit.
My luck in life really was goddamn rotten.
I thought I was finally living a happy life, only for it to end like this.
Well, even if it was short, I figured there had been a lot of fun things.
Honestly, dying... I'd already experienced something like a past life or whatever.
It sucked, but it was a result I could handle.
What bothered me in this moment was the fans waiting for sequels.
And I felt really sorry for the club kids who had liked even a guy like me.
Especially Rosaria—she had my child in her belly. If I died like this, who was going to take responsibility for that kid...?
...Maybe I should leave a will.
I wanted to somehow get that part across to the family.
There were things I still hadn't told Father, so if possible I wanted to leave something behind.
Nia was kind, so she would probably try to grant a wish like that.
"Hey. Killing me is fine, but let's do one last will."
"...What?"
"Tell my father. That I am 'Siwoo' myself. That drawing pictures—not that fucking swordsmanship—was my true calling. Tell him not to regret that I died without continuing the swordsmanship lineage."
"...Huh?"
Honestly, with things like this there was no other choice. I had no option but to ask the child in Rosaria's belly to handle Grandpa somehow.
Only then would Rosaria be properly taken care of. So it was a little unfair to our kid, but it couldn't be helped.
Figure it out with your grandpa yourself.
"And to Rosaria.... What? What's wrong with you?"
Was she surprised hearing that I was the artist Siwoo?
I had thought the country had somewhat figured it out, but she really had believed I was just an ordinary disciple.
...Wait. Is this going to make her spare me because I'm Siwoo the artist?
A little hope bloomed.
"Nia?"
"H-but Cali is Siwoo the artist's disciple. But, that...."
"...I didn't want to work under my own name, so I used the pen name Siwoo. But since I have to work with my own body, I moved under the pretense of being the disciple and having been asked by the master."
At the truth I spoke without much thought, Nia seemed more flustered than expected and showed signs of deep contemplation.
Actually, rather than that—she'd been looking for a justification to spare me from earlier.
It also looked like she was stubbornly trying to rationalize it to herself now that she'd found one.
...This fucking bitch makes it impossible to hate her even though she was trying to kill me just now.
"Th-then the future that Siwoo the artist is trying to change is.... Cali's goal is...."
Nia kept muttering strange things to herself that I couldn't quite understand.
She weighed various conditions on her own.
Then, as if deciding something, she released the magic binding me so I could move.
"Phew...."
"I'm sorry. Cali."
"...The fact that you released me now—can I take it that you trust I won't talk?"
"Yeah. You had secrets you wanted to keep too, right, Cali? So let's share each other's secrets...."
Was that the feeling she did it with?
No—thinking about the monologue, it seemed a bit different from that.
What just happened seemed more like a device to make it as if the previous events never occurred.
It didn't show usually, but today I could see some of the political experience she'd built up.
"Since we've shared such powerful secrets with each other, I'll say this—can you help me, Cali?"
"Help you? With what?"
Saying something like this suddenly meant this proposal was meant for 'Siwoo' rather than 'Cali de Gladis'.
Considering everything that had happened so far, it seemed they thought the works I'd drawn would be effective and powerful from the nation's perspective.
And from how she was releasing me and speaking gently, it seemed they thought it aligned with the future they envisioned too.
...But fuck, most of that wasn't intentional on my part, so I have no sense of it.
"Support me."
"Support you? You're the sole heir to the throne. Is there anything to support or not?"
"Of course there is. But look."
Without even thinking to cover her naked body—wearing only panties—she spread her arms and showed herself to me.
Hey. Fuck. I get what you're intending, but from my view it's just porn.
Thanks for the eye candy.
"That being a woman will be a problem?"
"Yeah. No matter how much the era has become one where women aren't heavily discriminated against thanks to magic, this country still has the fixed idea stuck to it that the king must be a man."
Obviously that was why Nia had been living pretending to be a man.
But to hide being a woman for a lifetime and live as a man....
Nia must have had a hard time in her own way.
"I was just going to be satisfied with that. If I just give up on being a woman, everything goes back to normal. But Father told me to at least hold onto some hope."
"...Hope?"
"That hope was you, Cali."
I was about to ask why I suddenly became hope there—
At that moment I recalled how works like the Bra Story I'd drawn were being evaluated.
I was famous as an artist who shattered the common sense surrounding the existence of 'women'.
"...His Majesty the Emperor is asking for something pretty huge."
"Of course we know it's difficult. It's just that the path we want and the path Cali wants seem the same. So we're saying we want to join hands."
In short, they wanted me to turn public opinion so that 'women' could do anything, just like the works I'd done so far.
To the point that even if the fact that the crown prince was a woman was revealed, becoming empress would feel natural.
They wanted me to use manga to change this world's common sense that way.
Honestly, saying I had wanted that kind of future had a ton of misunderstandings mixed in....
But for that part, since it became the reason I lived, maybe I could consider it fortunate?
But fuck, this was the emperor proposing it, so I wondered if refusing was even right. And thinking about it, with my tastes, drawing female-centric works would probably have a similar effect anyway....
Come to think of it, yeah?
In the end I tended to minimize male characters and use mostly female ones.
Obviously because more pussy than dick looked better to me.
Because of that, the key positions and main characters appearing in the works often ended up being female characters.
But maybe this could be seen as similar context to what was just requested?
"...It's something that needs a careful approach, so I don't know if it'll succeed, and it'll take a long time."
"I know that much."
"And originally I have separate conditions I want."
"...Yeah. I'll try to accept them, so tell me."
Her voice answering that way held a subtle relief.
Probably the reason she had tried to kill me to silence me was because she thought I might use it as a weapon standing against Nia.
But if I formed a contract with my other position—'Siwoo'—having similar political goals?
Rather, because what she wanted came out so nakedly, she could feel relieved.
"This is something I mentioned to His Majesty last time while designing the academy uniforms. I want the state's censorship never to touch artistic works like drawings, no matter the situation."
Honestly, if even Nia—the next emperor—promised this, it could be seen as a promise that would be kept as long as I didn't die, right?
Of course if some fucking bullshit happened and Nia got fucked, the situation could change. But that was a risk that naturally followed from the decision to ride Nia's line here.
...Of course there's no choice.
If instead of setting this condition I had just refused here—
Even if they left me alone for now, I might get quietly snuffed by an assassin hired by the country while off guard.
Nia wasn't the type, but even if she wasn't the type, she had the stubbornness to do anything for the country.
"Yeah. Don't worry about that. I was planning that from the start."
"Then I can help enough."
Only after all the conversation was confirmed did Nia let out a long sigh of relief.
Then she ran over and hugged me while tears dripped down.
Hugging me tightly while sporting those huge milkers—and naked at that—what was I supposed to do.
Fucking thanks a lot.