Chapter 298
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 298
Chapter Title: Sublime
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One major misconception the nobles held was this.
They believed that simply staking a claim on Merdain would guarantee their success.
It was a delusion born of utter lack of self-awareness.
Merdain.
Though it was now a land of the dead, this place had once been a major artery of the Empire, riddled with veins of gold whose full extent no one knew.
The value of this land couldn't even be measured in billions.
Beyond that, it held immense historical significance for humanity, something the Emperor would never overlook.
He was currently preoccupied with the urgent war against the Heavenly Sky Church and couldn't attend to it, but if he returned, would he let the nobles who dared salivate over that land get away with it?
'Absolutely not.'
The nobles were unaware of this fact.
Not because they were simply stupid.
If they had been born fools, they wouldn't have been able to manage their families in the first place.
Someone else had blinded them and made them fools.
Marquis Owen.
He was the mastermind behind it all.
"Marquis Owen is a man of great ambition, unlike the other nobles."
"Even so, that's still far from rebellion."
"True. His ambitions are vast, but rebellion is an entirely different matter."
This wasn't Earth.
It wasn't an environment where you could start a rebellion, chop off the king's head, and found a new nation like on Earth.
No one welcomed the establishment of a new country.
The Empire's history proved it.
Every noble who rebelled had lost their lives to their own vassals.
They feared raising arms against the Empire—feared striking down their own liege with their own hands.
It was only natural. The process by which the Empire unified all of humanity was already widely known.
"But that's the nature of the situation."
"The situation...? In what way?"
"The Heavenly Sky Church. You know? I've been tracking their tails for quite some time."
"Yeah."
"Not chimeras or anything—tails popping up by the dozens, hundreds, thousands. And they all point to one place."
"That place being Marquis Owen, right?"
"Exactly."
The Heavenly Sky Church and Marquis Owen were exchanging dealings in all sorts of ways.
Cloi, having caught wind of these circumstances, uncovered one chilling fact.
The connection between Marquis Owen and the Heavenly Sky Church.
Yet, not a single direct link between Marquis Owen and the Heavenly Sky Church had been found.
As if he alone existed in a sacred, untouchable realm. Pure and innocent.
"Do you know exactly what that means?"
"It means he's the only one holding the weaknesses of all those connections."
"Right. And those are the numerous noble factions."
The noble factions were currently gripped by weaknesses they didn't even know they had, held by Marquis Owen.
"For the Emperor to draw his sword from the sheath of justification, many conditions are needed. And Marquis Owen is the only one free from the Emperor's justification."
There had been the Merdain incident, but merely objecting to Merdain wasn't enough justification to take the Marquis's head.
On the other hand, the numerous noble factions that sided with the Marquis had plenty of weaknesses.
"If the Marquis makes his move, all the noble factions will have no choice but to obey his orders."
Then, words from Haley, the investigation team's mage, flashed through Jun's memory.
-Most of us mages have noble blood or were raised in the hands of rejection. And I was much the same.
"The noble factions have limits on their private armies, but they've still found ways to exert their power."
"Yeah, you figured it out too. The mages. Specifically, mages affiliated with the Mage Association."
Marquis Owen.
If he set his mind to it, he could mobilize those affiliated with the Mage Association.
"We need to cut off Marquis Owen's limbs. We'll have to move quickly."
"Got it."
"Then we'll move on this side too. You do your best from where you are."
"It's what I've always done."
"......Yeah, it is."
With that, the communication with Cloi ended.
Jun rose from his seat and went to see the Saintess again.
"Ah, Jun. You've come."
"Yes. You seem deep in thought."
"Yes......"
Bishop Meliar. After being subdued by Jun, he had followed the holy knights without any resistance.
And the Saintess had spent the day with Bishop Meliar. It seemed a lot had been discussed.
"To sum it up simply...... it was because of Bishop Meliar's grandson."
"Something involving his family, then."
"Yes. It happened quite a while ago. Bishop Meliar's son made a noble sacrifice during a mission, leaving only his grandson behind with the bishop."
But even that grandson had contracted an incurable disease, and now he was barely clinging to life through the Sun Church's holy magic.
"His entire body's cells are already dying, and over half his brain is damaged."
Irrecoverable.
No matter what supreme elixir was brought, there was no way to save Bishop Meliar's grandson.
"The only option left would be to turn him into an undead. At least then he could see his face."
"That's why he researched the lich's finger bone so obsessively."
"Yes. Then, in the midst of that, he got a contact from a suspicious group."
"The Heavenly Sky Church."
"Yes, exactly. They approached him saying they had a way to save his terminally ill grandson."
Jun could easily guess what that method was.
'The Evil Spirit Orb.'
If a corrupted spirit was implanted, Bishop Meliar's grandson could rise to his feet in no time.
Though it would just be a shell.
Of course, the Heavenly Sky Church wouldn't have explained it that way to Bishop Meliar.
"A foolish choice."
But he had failed, and apparently uttered these words.
"He said he had sullied even his dead son's honor."
"The mission his son was on."
"Yes. It was the reclamation of Merdain."
"Hm."
"Anyway, the important part starts now."
The investigation team. How to handle them.
"In the end, we succeeded in protecting them, but we need to see how they'll act going forward."
And the one in charge of that was Jun.
"Is the persuasion going well?"
"I've convinced most of them."
Haley, the deputy of the investigation leader, had been the first to come over to their side.
He had started persuading the other members, and most of them were agreeing.
"The problem is the leader, right? I heard there's still no word."
"Yes. He hasn't eaten, just holed up in his spot without saying a thing."
"His persuasion is the most crucial. We need the leader's announcement to center our counterattack around it."
"Don't worry. That part...... time will take care of it itself."
"Time...? Do you think the convictions he holds will crumble in just a few days?"
He was a man who had devoted his entire life to loyalty toward the Marquis's house.
Would someone like that really break?
"Haha...... Saintess. He didn't devote himself to the Marquis."
"Pardon? What do you......"
"He loved the self that was loyal."
"......?"
What did that mean? Jun, not fully grasping it, simply smiled.
The Saintess, who had forsaken even her own name for her god.
She might see Romanel as similar to herself.
But the two were nothing alike.
Jun was certain of it.
The moment Romanel regained his senses, he went through what was commonly known as the five stages of grief.
Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance.
'If the assassination attempt had succeeded and we died, the one who would gain the most would be none other than the Marquis.'
Such thoughts would arise.
'Foolish! There's no way the Marquis would do that to me!'
His sharp mind quickly found answers, and his emotions followed to deny them.
But the human thought process doesn't turn that conveniently.
His experience as investigation leader told him he had ultimately been discarded.
'How, how could he do this to me......!'
Anger came and paralyzed his reason.
No one tortured him, but his nails and forearms became streaked with blood.
Of course, his cool intellect quickly devised another way to stop it.
Bargaining.
'Perhaps, perhaps this is all the Sun Church's doing. Yes, it must be! If I can just inform the Marquis......!'
He reached the stages of depression and acceptance in that manner.
Then he felt his thoughts calm.
"In the end, we've been abandoned."
It was ridiculous.
Until now, he had screamed inwardly that 'I' couldn't possibly be abandoned.
Yet when admitting it, he referred to 'we'.
He thought of the comrades who would share the pain.
'Yes, if the Marquis decided to discard us......'
Them, who had executed his 'evil'—if he called them 'evil'.
Then they truly had to become 'evil'.
That was the way he had lived.
But.
"I don't want to."
Two full days passed, and Haley's response halted Romanel's thoughts.
"Wh-what......?"
"I said no, Romanel."
"Right now, the Marquis's will is......"
"Yes, we refuse. What did we do wrong? We've lived as the Marquis's dogs all this time. Bark when he said bark, bite when he said bite. Even if it was rotting undead, we tore into them without caring about the foul blood staining our bodies."
"......"
"Now that we're no longer useful, he discards us. Should we happily comply and bite our own necks?"
"We devoted our loyalty to Marquis Excellency! That's why we existed! If we refuse that, then what have we even lived for?!"
Anger surged. It felt like his noble intent was being defiled.
He didn't even consider how he had defiled others' nobility, only reflecting on his own life.
Haley felt disgust looking at Romanel like that. And it applied to himself too.
When he first met Jun at the Magic Academy, he had been the same.
But time had passed, and now he knew.
"Hey."
"What excuse are you going to make? Seeing you like this now, you think you can......!"
Haley cut off Romanel's ongoing words.
"Do you even know what expression you're making right now?"
"What......?"
He instinctively turned to look behind him.
On the small washbasin in the dungeon cell. His face reflected in the mirror.
A twisted expression, flushed with ecstasy.
It felt like his heart had been slammed into cold mud.
No thoughts came, and his head cooled coldly.
Soon denial arose.
He grabbed his face, trying to force a different expression.
The one in his imagination.
The noble one.
The loyal one.
In this wretched dungeon, that was the only image of himself he could maintain.
It should have been.
"Why, why is it like this......"
The twisted smile wouldn't fade.
Didn't this look like admitting he was wrong?
"I, I......"
He wasn't wrong.
He wanted to say that.
But this damned expression refused to change into the noble image he envisioned.
"......Romanel."
"Sh-shut up. Shut up! Don't talk to me right now!"
"Admit it."
"Shut up!"
"You have no loyalty."
"......!!"
"And a death without loyalty...... what's the difference from a dog's death?"
Ah......
Something snapped inside him.
Romanel's arms, which had been clutching his face, fell limply.
His legs gave out, and the cold dungeon chilled him once more.
"I......"
Am 'evil'. No, 'evil' for the sake of 'evil'.
He didn't want that.
So......
'The one who called me evil is.'
He had to be evil.
Once again, an image formed in his mind where he could be noble.
Living as the Mage of the Hero Party 299