The Conclusion
In the prison where all sense of time had vanished, Ciel Midford stared blankly at the faint light filtering through the iron bars that pushed back the darkness.
With his sense of time gone, he couldn't say for sure if it had been a few days ago. But he vaguely recalled a fleeting encounter with a man whose face he couldn't make out—a stranger who had stood before him and offered some kind of help.
──Ciel Midford, your mere claims and death alone won't prove Prince Inas's innocence.
No, the Ernes Empire won't even give them the chance.
Not a sound had escaped his lips, yet that voice—distorted with static, echoing deeply in his mind—had forced even him, drowned in despair and frustration, to lift his head.
──So if you don't want to drag Inas den Proissen Robelium with you as your companion to the Netherworld, commit perjury.
Bring in the Alfred family, make it so they have no choice but to verify through your corpse.
The meeting had been brief, no more than five seconds. Yet thanks to that advice, Ciel Midford berated himself for having surrendered to despair, meekly going with the flow.
As the man said, upon deeper reflection, it seemed unlikely the Ernes Empire would grant Prince Inas any favors in this situation.
His survival would make him a pawn for the Elmark Empire, while his death would allow the Ernes Empire free rein in the Robelium Kingdom...
To untie the knot unfairly binding innocents to his own thread, he had no choice but to mix lies with the truth.
And so, during the additional investigation, Ciel Midford dragged the Alfred family into it, linking them to the Brutein family.
The best desperate struggle a mere captured knight from a kingdom could muster.
After that, Ciel Midford never left the prison again, but he could at least lighten the burden on his mind regarding the Robelium Kingdom that had sheltered him.
And so, today—or rather, now...
Seeing the imperial knights of the Ernes Empire lined up outside his cell, exuding an unusually chilling aura, Ciel Midford sensed it instinctively.
'Ah...'
The end had come.
Clank!
The prison door opened, and they forcibly hauled him to his feet, bound in restraints at his limbs, dragging him somewhere.
Screeech...!
The moment he stepped out from the prison's stale air into the outside, fresh air and warm sunlight poured down.
Ciel Midford instinctively squinted, and when he opened his eyes again, the execution ground came into sharp focus—a place closest to the afterlife in this world, thick with the scent of death.
"Move. You don't have time to stop. If you did, it'd only be after you've entered death."
"……"
Pulled along by the knights' hands, Ciel Midford took slow steps forward, etching into his eyes each person gathered at the execution ground one by one.
The Emperor of the Ernes Empire.
The King of the Robelium Kingdom.
The elder of the Alfred family.
The head of the Brutein family.
Ferzen von Schweig Brutein.
And...
Euphemia el Lerenne Ruerg.
Gazing at her, Ciel Midford lay down on his final resting place—a black iron contraption like a coffin.
Then, sturdy restraints clamped around his neck, waist, wrists, and ankles, binding his entire body once more.
At the same time, a physician stepped forward slowly and began probing for Ciel Midford's veins.
With his body covered in burns, finding the veins was difficult, but the physician skillfully located them and cautiously looked up at the Emperor of the Ernes Empire.
"Then... we shall begin the execution of Ciel Midford, who sought to assassinate Count Ruerg."
No one mourned the passing of a life.
Or rather, there was one who did.
A faint cry carried on the wind... it faded quickly, but Ciel Midford knew who it belonged to.
Even with the restraint around his neck hindering him, enduring the pain of flesh tearing, he directed his gaze toward Euphemia el Lerenne Ruerg.
'Was it... greed...'
If not...'
'A pipe dream beyond my station...'
Someone once said that misfortune is life's greatest teacher.
If that were true...
Why did that teacher, even until the moment of graduation from life...
Teach only despair and frustration, never happiness?
Soon, the drug was injected into his vein.
It started mild, but as it spread through his body, Ciel Midford felt intense pain surging from within and began convulsing violently.
"Cough—!"
Not bright red, but black, dead blood burst from his mouth.
Even amid it all, Ciel Midford never took his eyes off Euphemia.
Watching him, Euphemia covered her mouth with both hands.
'My lady...'
Your encounter with me, stained always in misfortune...'
Gave me the most beautiful winter of my life.
'Perhaps...'
That's why.
The footsteps we walked together, the bonds we built...'
Like traces etched in snow.
And like snow itself.
As spring comes and summer approaches...'
They slowly melt away without a trace.
Thump.
Thump...
His heart was stopping.
Ciel Midford felt death was near.
'My lady...'
Someday... after countless cycles of reincarnation, if we meet again...'
Plant the seed of our bond in spring.
Sprout it in summer.
Let it bloom in autumn.
And in winter, one that won't wilt.
Let us love... with such a meeting...'
At last, Ciel Midford's eyes closed.
Yes, the novel's protagonist—the villain—had died.
Under a clear, cloudless sky, warm sunlight poured unchanging onto the earth.
* * * * *
"May 23rd. 11:45 AM... The death of the criminal, Ciel Midford, has been confirmed."
At the physician's calm, resonant words...
Euphemia turned away.
Tears without sobs.
She wanted to wail, but she knew this wasn't the place for it.
Of course, even with her efforts...
When Ciel Midford had committed perjury by dragging in the Alfred family, for the motive of accepting a murder commission to hold water, he had confessed all his past grudges with Ferzen.
So everyone present knew why Ferzen's wife was acting this way.
But as per Euphemia's efforts, they pretended not to know.
The weight of the name Brutein...
Covered their eyes.
And sealed their ears and mouths.
"Then... we shall proceed with the cross-verification to discern the veracity of criminal Ciel Midford's testimony."
The Ernes Empire's black mage.
The Robelium Kingdom's black mage.
The Alfred family's black mage.
And...
Ferzen von Schweig Brutein stepped forward.
In turn, each black mage animated Ciel Midford's corpse and verified the feedback based on his testimony...
"Perjury."
"It's perjury."
"Perjury."
When all declared it perjury.
Finally, Ferzen radiated mana to animate Ciel Midford and raised the body.
Naturally, since the testimony was perjury, no feedback came.
But Ferzen didn't stop there; he slowly extended his hand toward Ciel Midford's head.
'If he intended to give that testimony from the start...'
Wouldn't he have done so initially?
Why add flesh to it later?
It could be the result of long deliberation.
If he had grasped the situation to some extent, he could easily see that the Ernes Empire would benefit more from killing Prince Inas here than handing him over as a pawn to the Elmark Empire.
But Ferzen felt an inexplicable unease and discomfort, judging he couldn't let it pass like this.
'The method to induce a comatose state is unknown...'
But if it's in the form of a drug...'
With the blessing of the god of protection.
Having blossomed her stagnant mana in just a few months.
Wasn't this the perfect chance to obtain the sharpest dagger—one demanding no price—to stab the heart of the villain who stole Heroin?
Tap.
Finally, Ferzen's hand touched Ciel Midford's head.
And Psychometry—which, once per corpse, allowed reading the core memory from life that most influenced the ego—unfolded.
"……"
But nothing was read.
There, Ferzen was certain.
Ciel Midford...
Wasn't dead.
"Count."
The Emperor called to Ferzen, who had been silent for a long time.
Only then did Ferzen snap out of it, withdraw his hand, and speak.
"Perjury... it is."
The testimony.
And.
Even the death.