Chapter 114: Queen Maker (14)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 114: Queen Maker (14)
“What a load of crap, you traitorous bastard.”
Cloud tightened his grip on Louis’s neck. His breath caught in his throat, but the only word that echoed in Louis’s mind was ‘treason.’
The Sentry Count Family, along with the Kalita Kingdom, had mobilized their army under the pretext of supporting the Alitia Kingdom.
But a pretext was just a pretext, and it was an undeniable fact that their true intentions were close to treason.
“Treason… choke, Sir Hero… Can you take responsibility for that statement…?”
Even if his actions bordered on treason, there was a vast difference between admitting it himself and not.
That was why Louis desperately denied it, even as his consciousness faded from lack of oxygen.
Of course, the only reason he could deny it was his certainty that the Hero wouldn't kill him.
He was the legitimate son of a great noble family.
Even if Cloud was the Hero, Louis wasn't someone he could kill so easily.
As if proving him right, Cloud stared at him for a moment before releasing his grip.
Freed, Louis gasped and coughed, catching his breath. As his breathing stabilized, his mind cleared. He scowled, about to protest, when Cloud grabbed the back of his hair and slammed his head onto the table.
CRASH—
A dull thud echoed through the room.
“Young Master!”
“Sir Hero, what is the meaning of this!”
The sound of their master’s head hitting the table snapped the escort knights to their senses.
They reached for their swords to save Louis, but—
“I said it once. The first bastard to draw dies.”
Cloud’s murderous glare made them release the hilts of their swords. The knights, who had sworn to lay down their lives, couldn't bring themselves to draw their weapons. The aura radiating from Cloud was that menacing.
It was so intense it was hard to believe it came from a human being.
“Ghhk… Are you really trying to frame me as a traitor…?”
Instead of answering, Cloud lifted Louis’s head.
SMASH!
And slammed it back down on the table.
“I-I’m not a traitor… Please believe—”
“That’s not the answer I want.”
SMASH!
Louis’s face hit the table harder than before. When Cloud lifted his head, what appeared to be his teeth were rolling on its surface.
Cloud swept them off the table with his arm.
He slammed the ruined face onto the now-clean surface of the table once more.
CRASH!!
Feeling the escalating force, Louis realized: This bastard is serious. If I just stay here, I’m really going to die.
Deciding he had to do something, he chose to apologize first.
“I-I’m thorry. Forgive…”
“I told you, that’s not the answer I want to hear.”
CRASH!!
.
.
.
.
.
“I am a twaitor. I have committed a gweat thin.”
His face was a wreck as he spoke on his knees. His skin was torn and his flesh so swollen that the injuries Neria had given him looked like child’s play in comparison.
Hearing Louis’s confession, Cloud nodded.
“Now you’re finally making sense. If you’d just been like this from the start, you wouldn’t have gotten hurt. Wouldn’t that have been nice?”
He took out a potion he had prepared before coming here and tossed it to Louis.
“It’s a high-grade potion. Heal yourself with it.”
“Yeth… Fank you…”
Louis clutched the potion to his chest. Then he looked up at Cloud, who was still sitting on the bed, looking down on him.
His expression seemed to ask, What are you doing?
“I told you to heal yourself.”
…He gave it to me to use right now?
“Yeth…”
Louis hesitantly began to pick up his own teeth from the floor.
The knights, who had been standing by uncomfortably, quickly squatted down to help their master, but—
“You lot, stay put.”
At Cloud’s command, they had no choice but to stand up awkwardly. In the end, Louis had to put all his fallen teeth back in by himself before drinking the potion.
Still, being a high-grade potion, it worked wonders.
His teeth settled back into place, and the swelling on his face completely subsided.
As the pain vanished, a hint of composure returned to Louis’s face. But that relief was short-lived. Cloud drew his sword and pointed it at Louis’s neck.
Louis’s face turned pale.
“Why are you doing this to me…”
The flat of the blade lifted Louis’s chin.
The sharp point of the sword pressing against his throat forced Louis’s mouth shut.
Cloud spoke.
“Should I guess what you were just thinking? It’s obvious. I’ll never forget what happened today. Someday, I’ll pay you back tenfold. Something like that, right?”
“N-No, that’s not it. How could I…”
The tip of the sword poked his Adam’s apple.
A signal to shut up.
Louis closed his mouth.
Cloud smirked and continued.
“If you don’t want to forget, then don’t. I won’t forget either. I’ll remember your name, your face, and your family.”
“…”
“So watch yourself. Next time won’t end as lightly as it did today.”
Cloud sheathed his sword.
As the blade supporting his head disappeared, Louis’s face drooped forward limply.
Leaving him behind, Cloud stood up and walked toward the door.
Before leaving the room, he frowned at the knights standing frozen by the door.
“What are you looking at? Not gonna bow your heads?”
“…”
“…”
The two knights silently bowed their heads.
*
She moved her pen, her face bent so low it was almost touching the parchment. With every stroke, letters, unique formulas, or magic circles appeared.
She was writing at a furious pace when it happened.
“Ugh…!”
A throbbing pain in her wrist forced Eri to drop her pen.
It’s happening again.
Eri was literally grinding herself down for her research, and her wrist was no exception. Perhaps the strain was greatest on her wrist, which had to fill dozens of parchments with ink.
In any case, the important thing was that the intervals at which her wrist started to hurt had become significantly shorter recently.
Inversely, the time it took to recover had grown longer.
She let out a deep sigh.
With her wrist like this, she would be forced to rest for at least an hour.
Sleeping feels like a waste. I’ll just go for a walk.
It was daytime, after all.
Eri threw on a coat, grabbed her staff, and left the inn. The warm sunlight greeted her. As she savored the sun she hadn’t felt in a long time, she overheard a conversation.
—Is it true? They’re just giving out food?
—Yeah! The line in front of the East Gate is insane right now. We shouldn’t be standing around here; we need to get in line, quick!
East Gate? Food? A line?
What was all this about?
Come to think of it, I don’t see any vagrants around.
After the city was ruined by the descent of the Four Heavenly Kings, the streets had filled with vagrants. There had been quite a few around her inn, which was a nuisance, but now she could hardly see any.
It seemed they had all gone to the East Gate, just as the people she’d overheard had said.
I’m curious. Should I go take a look?
It wouldn’t hurt to see what was going on while she was out for a walk. She regretted that thought the moment she arrived at the East Gate.
“Callion? What are you doing here…?”
The person she least wanted to see was standing right there. Callion, too, looked surprised to see her.
“I didn’t see you in the city, so I thought you’d been kicked out of the party. I guess not.”
“What? Who got kicked out! I was just staying at the inn for… for certain reasons!”
“I didn’t ask.”
You son of a…
A surge of resentment welled up from deep within her chest, but she forced it down.
“…Anyway, what are you doing here? And what’s with that line?” she asked, pointing toward the East Gate.
A long line of people had formed at the gate, and the scene was chaotic with people trying to cut in or steal spots.
If soldiers hadn’t been stationed nearby, it would have erupted into a full-blown riot.
“I question why I should have to explain this to you, but since I have something to say to you as well, I suppose I have no choice.”
“How very gracious of you.”
Though her tone was sarcastic, Eri listened carefully to Callion’s explanation.
The more she heard, the deeper her frown became.
“Are you saying you’re planning a rebellion?”
“Rebellion? What a dangerous thing to say. We are merely going to provide humanitarian aid to the Alitia Kingdom. Look around you. Does this look like a sacrilegious act of rebellion?”
“No matter how you phrase it, it’s just a flimsy excuse. I know everything. So cut the crap and answer me straight. Is this really Father’s will? Is this the will of the Oller family?”
As Eri spoke accusingly, Callion’s expression turned cold.
“Why are you so curious whether this is the family’s will or not?”
“What? Because, obviously, I’m also…”
“Ah, my apologies. I forgot I had something to tell you. I just mentioned I had something to say, didn’t I? I’ll say it now.”
Ahem. Callion cleared his throat, clasped his hands behind his back, and spoke in a solemn voice.
“Eri Oller. I, Callion Oller, as the acting head of the family, convey the will of the family head. As of today, I hereby revoke the Oller surname granted to you.”
“…What? W-What does that mean?”
“What do you think it means?”
Callion smirked, watching Eri’s eye twitch.
“It means you are no longer a member of the Oller family. To put it simply, you’ve been disowned.”