Chapter 95
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Translator: Prime Works
Chapter: 95
Chapter Title: The Stained Crown (1)
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“Hoo. Too much liquor, perhaps.”
Clack, clack.
The sound of heels echoed through the corridor.
Amid it all, King Alicia wore a wry smile.
‘Just the usual amount I always drink.’
For some reason, her stomach felt a bit queasy.
Her heart was beating a little faster, too.
‘Maybe because I’ve been pushing myself too hard lately.’
As she walked the corridor, she reflected on her recent schedule.
It had been days of clear and undeniable grueling work.
‘The flood damage from the spring rainy season was worse than expected. And the situation across the Eastern Mountains in the eastern wasteland isn’t looking good either.’
The kingdom’s enemies were everywhere.
Even now, many forces hoped to see them crumble.
Among them, the Sultanate of Ispahan beyond the wasteland past the eastern mountains was a traditional arch-enemy, having clashed in two major wars in the past.
‘Something feels off.’
The spies planted in Ispahan.
Their reports came to mind.
They were actively expanding their military lately.
Especially concentrating troops in their western regions facing this side.
It wasn’t on the scale of mere military drills.
‘An invasion? But no, that can’t be. There’s a vast wasteland between us. If they were really planning an invasion, they’d be massing troops to the north where our borders actually touch. So what exactly are they preparing for?’
It was the question that had plagued her for the past few months.
But the answer remained elusive.
The rising alcohol buzz made it even worse now.
‘Tch. Put it aside for now.’
Her wry smile deepened.
Worrying wouldn’t solve it.
It would only add needless fatigue.
For now, focus on the present.
Sober up the alcohol haze and return to the banquet hall.
With that thought, the king entered her private lounge.
She leaned back on the plush sofa.
Drank some cool water and caught her breath.
But somehow, the alcohol didn’t settle.
Her stomach still felt queasy.
The heart palpitations didn’t subside.
Her breathing grew a bit shallower and quicker than usual.
‘This is odd.’
King Alicia furrowed her brow.
No one knew her body better than she did.
Moreover, she was a swordmaster who had reached that realm.
A bit of alcohol buzz could be easily quelled by regulating her mana.
Yet now, it wasn’t working.
No, her vision was starting to blur instead.
‘Something’s wrong.’
Thump, thump.
Her heart beat faster and faster.
Cold sweat began to bead.
Sensing ill omens, the king slid off the sofa.
Kicked off her shoes and sat on the floor.
Crossed her legs and straightened her back.
Began proper breathing exercises.
Awakened her heart.
Her mighty Mana Heart stirred at her call.
‘First, check every corner of the body.’
She pushed the mana stored in her Mana Heart through all her meridians. Soon, a torrent of mana raced like a gale through her entire body’s channels.
At that moment, she involuntarily clutched her chest.
Boom!
“……!”
A shock that nearly bent her waist.
Pain as if her heart would burst.
“Guh!”
King Alicia felt her vision go white.
She barely kept from blacking out.
Hastily braced both hands on the floor.
Gritted her teeth and pulled herself up.
‘Poison? No, it can’t be.’
She hoped not.
But the pain starting from her heart spread rapidly through her body.
Riding her mana flow, it struck every nook of her organs.
The implication was clear.
‘Poison. How in the world?’
Alicia ground her teeth.
Every bit of food and drink she consumed was inspected by her attendants.
The attendants tasted each item.
Then they waited four days.
Not until four full days passed without any attendant dying or showing symptoms.
Only after that process did the food, kept chilled for four days, reach her table.
‘Today was the same.’
The food and wine she’d had at the banquet.
All had gone through the usual inspection procedures.
Of course, no attendant had collapsed or died in four days.
‘Then why?’
Was she poisoned?
She couldn’t be sure.
But she had a guess.
There must have been foul play in the inspection process.
‘For now…… I need to call someone……’
She needed help.
The poison was spreading in real time even now.
The more she tried to suppress it with mana, the more it spread like wildfire.
King Alicia squeezed out her strength and shouted.
“Someone…… outside! Anyone!”
But no reply came.
That was highly suspicious too.
‘Damn it.’
She had dismissed the attendants before entering the lounge to rest comfortably.
Still, she’d told them to wait outside the door.
So why was there no response?
“Urgh, ugh……!”
Staggering, she braced against the wall and headed for the door.
With every step, her mind grew hazy.
She bit her lip hard to barely stay conscious.
Even in those few steps, her consciousness flickered on and off.
‘Too far.’
A distance she could normally cross in one leap.
Now it felt impossibly distant.
The lounge was too vast.
She pushed with all her might, but the remaining distance was still much farther than what she’d covered.
A bitter chuckle escaped her unwittingly.
How had she ended up in this situation?
It was just as she began to sink into despair.
Click.
Like a miracle, the door opened.
The most familiar person entered the lounge.
“Sir Cherni?”
The man she trusted most.
The captain of her guard who always stood by her side.
Also her swordsmanship teacher, a swordmaster.
Alicia’s expression brightened at the sight of Sir Cherni.
Struggling to maintain her dignity, she said.
“Sir Cherni, perfect tim…… you’re here. It’s fortunate you’re by my side in this dire moment. Come, take my hand.”
She extended her hand toward her guard captain.
Hoping he’d support her, she smiled.
Of course, Sir Cherni smiled back toward his liege.
“Yes, it’s fortunate I’m by Your Majesty’s side in this dire moment.”
But he didn’t take the king’s outstretched hand.
Instead, he gripped his sword hilt.
“Once my liege, now rest in peace.”
Murderous intent gathered in Sir Cherni’s eyes.
♣
“It seems Her Majesty the King is in danger.”
“……Pardon?”
Lloyd’s sudden whisper.
Haviel tilted his head.
“What do you mean by that, my lord?”
At first, he thought Lloyd was making some crude joke.
But the moment their eyes met, he realized.
Lloyd was dead serious.
“It’s real. Quietly. Lower your voice.”
“…….”
“The reasons and details later. For now, follow me.”
“Understood.”
Haviel nodded.
If the king truly was in danger, now wasn’t the time to dawdle.
Reasons and details later.
Move now.
Not too close together.
A few steps apart, naturally.
Lloyd signaled Haviel with his eyes.
The quick-witted Haviel naturally fell back from him.
Then asked with his gaze.
‘Where to?’
‘That way.’
Lloyd’s eyes pointed to one side of the banquet hall.
Where the king’s lounge was located.
‘Obvious. The king’s not visible. If she left the banquet midway, that’s the only place she’d be.’
The king was human too.
At banquets, she could get tipsy or tired.
The lounge was a rest space prepared solely for the king—to shake off the alcohol, catch her breath, and avoid showing disheveled moments to others.
‘Plus, in Iron-Blooded Knight, it’s where the regicide attempt happens.’
A passage from the novel suddenly came to mind.
Two and a half years from now.
The day of the first snow.
During the year-end banquet, King Alicia visits the lounge and faces a poisoning crisis.
She pushes her swordmaster-level mana control to the limit. Cuts off her own left arm. Barely survives.
The pivotal event that changes the kingdom’s fate entirely.
The regicide attempt.
‘And it’s today of all days. Why?’
It didn’t make sense right away.
Why was that event advanced by over two years?
He tried to guess, but nothing fit.
No, there was one thing he could surmise.
‘Something’s changed.’
The novel’s original course and story had been altered.
If so, Lloyd thought the cause might be himself.
‘First, let’s confirm.’
Without looking rushed.
Blending into the crowd’s flow naturally.
Sometimes picking up a glass and sipping elegantly.
Smiling as he passed attendants.
Like that, he slipped out of the banquet hall.
Entered the long corridor.
From then, he walked shoulder-to-shoulder with Haviel.
Their pace quickened a bit.
His mind raced even faster with calculations.
Truth be told, he felt a little uneasy.
‘Of all people, Sir Cherni.’
He recalled the words he’d overheard earlier.
The banquet would continue until the moon set.
That seemingly ordinary line was a fairly famous quote from the novel Iron-Blooded Knight.
The code phrase the assassins used during the regicide attempt.
In other words, a line that changed the kingdom’s history.
That’s why Lloyd remembered it too.
But the one who’d said it earlier was none other than Sir Cherni.
‘If Sir Cherni really is the assassin, can I stop him?’
Sir Cherni of Bergamo.
Captain of the royal guard.
A swordmaster surpassing even the king.
The shock of him possibly being the assassin was one thing.
More than that, worry if he could even stand against him.
That’s why he’d agonized deeply over whether to act to save the king.
‘He could turn the tables on me instead.’
He hesitated.
Pondered for minutes.
Saving the king versus letting the event unfold.
Weighed the pros and cons of both choices thoroughly.
And reached a conclusion.
‘Even taking some risk, saving the king is far more beneficial.’
Truth be told, no deep thought was needed.
The current King Alicia trusted him immensely. Even showed excessive favor.
If such a queen faced the exact same crisis as in the novel today?
And lost an arm at the end?
Then finally became a tyrant?
‘I’d be the big loser.’
A king who trusted and cherished him utterly.
Who’d grant him fief and title anytime he wished.
Who pampered him like a precious pillar.
The nation’s supreme authority as his patron.
If that patron got poisoned, lost an arm?
Degenerated into a tyrant who massacres?
‘No thanks, I’d rather not imagine it.’
Losing his top patron was bad enough.
He could even become a target for her wrath.
Falsely accused, his family ruined, assets and title confiscated, maybe even his head rolling.
‘So I have to save her.’
Even against Sir Cherni, no question.
Trusting Haviel beside him, hurry before it’s too late.
Tap-tap-tap-tap!
Before he knew it, Lloyd and Haviel’s steps had turned to a near-run.
Yet it was strange.
Racing down the long corridor, not a soul in sight.
Not even a glimpse of an attendant or maid.
Even after three turns and up and down stairs.
“Something’s definitely suspicious.”
Haviel’s voice cooled sharply.
Lloyd suppressed his unease and asked.
“But you’ll be okay like that?”
“Pardon?”
“Without a sword.”
“It’ll be fine.”
Clang!
With his reply, Haviel swung his right hand.
His hand blade snapped a candelabra off the corridor wall.
The broken candelabra spun in the air, reflecting light.
Haviel’s hand snatched its lower end.
Thwack!
“This will suffice.”
The issue of being unarmed for the banquet was solved.
The next moment, the two rounded the final corner before the lounge.
And witnessed the gruesome scene.
The floor before the lounge door was a sea of blood.
In the pool lay six attendants.
All dead.
The meaning was clear.
Boom!
Without a word on who first, both kicked the lounge door simultaneously.
Leaped through the shattering fragments.
Inside were two people.
Sir Cherni pressing with his sword.
The king struggling to block it.
Seeing it, Haviel reacted first.
Slash!
The candelabra in Haviel’s hand gleamed with cold sword energy. It sliced space. A barrage of strikes poured out invisibly fast.
Sir Cherni’s sword moved to meet it.
Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang-clang-clang!
Candelabra and sword clashed repeatedly.
Sparks of deadly menace embroidered the air.
Tendons bulged on Haviel’s wrist.
Sir Cherni’s brow twisted.
The fierce gazes of two beasts locked.
Meanwhile, Lloyd swiftly passed the battlefield.
Rushed straight to the king.
“……Lloyd Frontera?”
“My apologies. Please keep quiet for now.”
“What…… Mmph?”
Lloyd’s large hand covered the king’s mouth.
Without giving her a chance to resist, he gently laid her on the floor.
Something unimaginable, impossible in normal times.
But the king was overcome by deadly poison.
Knowing that, Lloyd tossed aside petty etiquette.
Focused solely on the needed emergency treatment.
“I’ll extract the poison first. Relax your strength. Loosen up.”
Kiiiiing!
Lloyd’s palm pressed the king’s solar plexus.
Three circles spun at max speed.
Began absorbing the king’s mana.
“……!”
King Alicia’s eyes flew wide in shock.