The Silence of Truth
The news that X had been arrested on charges of demon worship and conspiracy to rebel against the Empire spread across the entire realm in an instant, as if it had been waiting for this very moment.
And with it, every deed X had ever accomplished was twisted into something meant to unmake him. The demon mansion incident the imperial family had buried was recast, overnight, as a plot of which X had been the mastermind. The incidents he had caused at the Academy were dressed up as filthy schemes to seize control of the school. His contact with the Crown Prince and the Princess became, in the public telling, a revolutionary's mission—the opening move of a rebellion against the Empire.
"Do you honestly think that makes any sense, Milia?!"
It was the start of the festival, a time when the Empire's entire administrative apparatus should have been fully mobilized—and it was in his office that Darius received the news from Milia, news he could scarcely believe. Anyone who encountered those rumors of unverifiable origin would have been stunned, but none more so than Darius himself.
"That's the same man who staked his life going into that deathtrap to break His Majesty's curse! The one who survived a demon's assault, lost his voice, and still kept his word...!"
"Please compose yourself, Your Highness. Every circumstance and every piece of evidence that has come to light points to X as the mastermind."
"It's the princess's scheme, plain as day!!"
Darius roared, his voice filling the room. Milia received his fury in silence, and he clenched his teeth as he sorted what had to be done.
"Enough. I'll deal with X later. Arrest the princess immediately! His Majesty's curse has grown worse—"
"Were you looking for me?"
The door to the office opened, and someone stepped through. Darius's eyes narrowed to slits.
"Princess. How dare you show your face here...!"
The one who appeared, as if she had been waiting for her cue, was Beatrice.
"I've come to clear up a few misunderstandings about myself."
Beneath that ever-bright smile, Beatrice uncoiled her schemes and her midnight work with a tongue like a snake's.
"I have always acted as a member of the imperial family, for the sake of the Empire, seeking only to root out those who would do this nation harm. And I am now prepared to pull those roots out entirely."
"Can't you just confess that those roots are you...!"
"Baseless suspicion wounds me, Brother. If you truly doubt my words, why not try using the magic tools in this room?"
"I already have been using them...!"
In that instant, Darius saw a result that sent a chill down his spine.
The truth-discerning magic tools showed no reaction at all.
It was not that they had determined she was telling the truth. They simply did not respond to Beatrice's words in any way.
What is this...
That silence—quiet, unmoving, absolute—struck Darius as something utterly alien, and ice-cold. And in that silence, the advice X had once given him rose unbidden to his mind.
You mustn't put too much faith in those magic tools. Your enemies will think of neutralizing them first.
Darius chewed his lip. Those artifacts, which exposed lies quickly and without effort, had been one of his greatest weapons. That weapon had just been unmade.
"Well? Was I lying?"
Watching his face, Beatrice sneered as if savoring the moment, and pressed him for an answer.
"...What did you do."
"I'm simply stating a very simple fact, Brother."
Beatrice's eyes gleamed with an uncanny light.
"I'm telling the truth. That's all."
Darius was not fool enough to miss that it was a lie painted scarlet. She was a gifted mage; of course she would have come prepared with a countermeasure against the truth-discerning tools. But without evidence, he could not seize her on a whim. Right now the Empire and the Academy had thrown open their gates for the festival, and the streets were packed with citizens. If word spread at a time like this that the princess had been taken without cause, the resulting chaos would be impossible to contain.
So this is what you were hiding for...!
But now that she had shown herself, she could no longer run. Darius forced himself to calm, slowly, and called up the secret X had told him about the princess.
"You know His Majesty's condition has grown grave."
"Has it? Oh my... I should pay him a visit soon."
"You always carry a necklace set with a red gem, I'm told."
At that, Beatrice's smile stiffened, just a fraction. Then she murmured, "I see..." and answered with a faint smile of her own.
"Is there some problem with my taste?"
"I have something to confirm. Hand it over."
If that red-gemmed necklace was the source of the curse eating away at the Emperor, it had to be dealt with here and now. This, of all things, had to be done—no matter what infamy it brought down upon him.
Beatrice guessed his meaning. She let out a thin sigh, reached into her bosom, and drew something out. It was the necklace set with the red gem.
"Being suspected is truly a sad thing. But if it will dispel your doubts, I suppose I must surrender even a treasure I hold dear."
She held it out without the slightest resistance.
"If I may."
Milia took it with careful, sharpened wariness, and the necklace was carried to Darius. The moment it reached him, he placed it inside a damaged holy relic he had kept close at hand.
If the necklace were the source of the curse, there would be a reaction. Even if the curse itself could not be broken, the princess of the Empire walking about with a cursed object in her possession was a thing that could not be allowed to stand. If it came to that, the incidents unfolding now could be resolved in one form or another.
The result was not what he had expected.
"And who told you that was a cursed object?"
Beatrice smiled, a chilling curve of the mouth, as if she had anticipated every step.
"Would I really go around carrying a cursed item?"
There was no curse upon the red gem necklace.
The place the guards dragged X to was the underground dungeon of the imperial palace—a hole reserved for only the most heinous of criminals. Bound so thoroughly he could not move an inch, unable to call on any power at all, he was thrown onto the cold stone floor.
Then someone entered the cell where he was held.
"It's a shame things turned out this way, X."
X lifted his head and looked at the person standing before him.
"Or should I call you Mephisto? You have so many names, I'm not quite sure which to use."
Beatrice, of course.
"Ah, I heard about the aphasia. No need to strain yourself trying to answer. I'll do all the talking."
She flicked her fingers, and a translucent barrier wrapped the space around them—magic to shut out sound and sight alike.
"Now then. I suppose you need an explanation of how we arrived here."
Only then did Andras let her true nature show.
"I'll be honest. I trusted you, a little. You were competent enough to earn it. You took over the Ring Circle without a hitch, you succeeded in getting close to the Crown Prince, and you even tossed me that excellent idea of summoning Him here in the Empire."
The smile she had been wearing fell away.
"But I don't need a 'competent subordinate.' What I need is a dog that does what it's told. That's enough. The ones who are good at their jobs climb all the way up—and then they betray you. And wouldn't you know it. You betrayed me."
The red gem necklace that held the curse of debility. Andras had not shown it to him thoughtlessly. It had been her own little test—the test of someone who had been betrayed once before.
"Even without that, this was always going to happen. Your disappearance in the Ancient Ruins threw my plans into serious disarray. Well, if you were my subordinate, using you wouldn't have bothered me in the least. But even that—being my subordinate—was a lie."
She leaned in, and the words she whispered into X's ear were thick with hatred.
X closed his eyes, weakly.
Andras had discovered it: X was the one who had called himself Berith at the mansion and made a fool of her.
"How long did you think you could keep deceiving me?"
Her voice, edged with killing intent, slid sharp into his ear.
"Fine. I'll admit it. I nearly fell for your lies. Watching you work that cunning tongue of yours was almost frightening. But did you take me for some idiot who'd swallow whatever you said without thinking?"
"..."
"I have absolutely no intention of taking a loss. In a sense, you might have just been thrashing around to stay alive. Well... even if you weren't Berith, I was going to do this from the start. If you'd been 'Mephisto,' you would have accepted being sacrificed gladly."
"..."
"That look on your face. Wondering how I found out?"
Andras drank in X's fierce glare with open pleasure, giggling for a long while. When she was done, her voice went cold as blood.
"Mute or not, I'm not so foolish as to tell you that. This is all I can say."
She released the magic wrapped around them, and with it she put on Princess Beatrice's diction and dignity once more.
"Every charge against you is backed by evidence and witnesses. The date of your execution will be decided quickly, I'm sure. Even if I have no real authority of my own, sending a worthless commoner who committed treason and worshipped demons to the executioner's block within a week is well within my power. So please, do spend your remaining time well..."
A voice from beyond the cold iron bars cut between Beatrice and X.
Beatrice knew that voice. She held her expression by a thread and turned.
"Brother Darius. If you dote on this traitor so dearly, won't your position become rather... inconvenient?"
The speaker was the most powerful man in the Empire as it now stood. Darius felt the fierce hostility radiating from Beatrice's smiling face. He had endured gazes like daggers from his political enemies more times than he could count.
"Inconvenient? I am merely taking the minimum measures to ensure an innocent subject is not executed in injustice. All the more so when the charges are conspiracy to rebel against the Empire and the worship of demons."
Darius knew that what he was doing was a gamble. He was a man who grasped proper information before he ever passed judgment—but there was no luxury of time for that now. In a situation where he could not tell what was real and what was false even an inch ahead, only two choices remained to him.
Leave X to die as everyone's enemy.
Or sacrifice his own power to secure him.
And Darius leaped onto the dangerous wager.
"Princess, why the hurry? If he's such a tremendous criminal as you claim, shouldn't we keep him alive and extract information? What you're doing looks like nothing more than trying to have him executed as quickly as possible, without a shred of logic."
"Is it strange to pass judgment on a criminal? Those who worship demons and eat away at the Empire from within cannot be punished too soon. The entire populace is already crying out for this sinner's condemnation—and if the Crown Prince himself steps forward to delay it..."
"You want to imply that I'm the mastermind behind all of this, I take it."
"I meant no such thing, of course. Heh..."
A silence filled the cold prison—quiet, and immense.
Beatrice wanted X dead as soon as possible. It was not merely a matter of feeling. She knew his abilities, and she knew what he was. And the judgment that had decided all of this had come, decisively, from a message sent by the Great Demon of the Holy Kingdom.
Gremory. A pity I didn't know you'd already infiltrated—but I'll certainly put the information you brought to good use.
Gremory had brought the intelligence that X was Berith, and the Great Demon Baal had given the order: kill Berith. Andras, who could not dare defy a command from Baal, King of Demons, had to kill Berith somehow and send him back to Hell.
There can be no holes in my plan.
She had not expected Darius to interfere here at all. This was a man who never suspected anyone—what wind had blown through him, to make him act like this? If he, the real power, moved, a trial would inevitably be held.
But it did not matter.
"You will come to regret that decision, Prince."
Even if a trial was convened, nothing would change. If anything, it was a fine opportunity to carve away at Darius's standing. She would drive that arrogant, foolish young prince into despair.
"Then I wish you well."
Beatrice left them with an uncanny smile. Only after her figure had vanished did Darius let out a sigh that was difficult to tell from lament or relief.
"I hope you don't give me cause to regret helping you."
There was no question who those words were meant for. X nodded, slowly.
This was enough for now.
Everything was proceeding as expected.