episode_0050

Over the fading evening glow, flocks of crows covered the sky in black.

I lowered my head.

On the ground, countless corpses of knights and the dead were grotesquely entangled, filling the horizon.

Even at the end of the battle, with both forces watching each other, neither side could rashly recover the casualties’ bodies.

After the Duchy of Germania stationed troops in the western border region, this was the first clash with the Holy Kingdom, which had adopted a hardline stance. It was the mark of the first battle heralding the world’s chaos.

“……”

I watched the scene from a distant ridge. Death filled the horizon.

Countless people died, and their deaths were a sacrifice to bring about the world I desired.

Yet, strangely, I felt no guilt as I gazed upon that scene.

“Wow, it’s a total bloodbath.”

Next to me, Silan, the man who called himself the Serpent’s Eye, laughed as if it were someone else’s business. Truly, as if it were nothing to do with him.

“Hmph, this is just the beginning!”

At Silan’s words, Sandalphon, the Wolf-Fang, shouted with an impatient expression. Like a beast starved for blood.

With him at the forefront, the other members also silently held their positions behind me. Excluding Ergo, who remained in the Duchy to carry out separate orders.

The subordinates of 《Black Serpent》, silently loyal behind their leader, awaited new orders.

Regardless of what stories or pasts they might have, I realized anew that their current selves were the irredeemable epitome of evil.

They were, without a doubt, the silhouette of a villainous group.

Nothing would change.

Before them, I no longer hesitated. Nor did I waver.

There was only one thing to do: remove ‘my blemish’ etched into this world to be reborn as the true Rain Grey.

This was a goal filled with my deeply personal ambition, prior to the organization’s grand cause.

Sandalphon was right. This was merely the beginning.

Therefore, leaving behind the scars of the battlefield I had observed for a moment, we continued our journey.

“……A long road lies ahead.”

“Yes, Leader-nim.”

“Yeah, Leader!”

Together with my subordinates there.

Leaving behind our work in the Duchy, a new destination lay before us.

It was the Holy Kingdom, a nation blessed by stars.

*

Holy Kingdom Capital,

“I don’t want to hear it! I said I don’t want to hear it!”

The King leading the Holy Kingdom, Holy King Charles. The man, often secretly called ‘Bald King Charles’ rather than by his actual name, shouted.

“B-but, Your Majesty! That is—”

And before the king, a vassal continued speaking in a trembling voice.

“Again, again, again, are you bringing me some terrible, unwelcome news?!”

Blocking his eyes and ears with a disgusted expression. Not figuratively, but literally blocking them. Even amidst that, the radiant glow of his bald head, befitting the name Holy King (Star King), emitted a subtle brilliance like a true star.

“If you utter any more nonsense I don’t want to hear, my knight will cut off your head!”

A choked gasp escaped him.

That man was an incompetent ruler. Even the term ‘incompetent ruler’ was insufficient; he was, in truth, a human unworthy of even bearing the title of king.

At that, the expression of the vassal, who had to report before the man, turned completely pale. After all, knights were those who considered obedience to orders a virtue.

Thus, while the fearful vassal’s face turned utterly pale, he ultimately couldn’t deliver any report. Following this, a man appeared there.

He was a man in a raincoat.

Behind him, he was accompanied by a werewolf in a sharp suit with a wolf’s face, and a man with chilling, snake-like eyes, the whites prominently showing on three sides.

“……An incompetent ruler.”

The man said, calmly.

“W-who are you!”

Along with him, the royal guards protecting the king pointed their swords, and as soon as they pointed them, they understood upon seeing their faces.

“—Ah.”

Their complexions turned corpse-pale. All the knights present simply froze on the spot.

“《Black Serpent》……”

“H-how dare you reach here?!”

How could they have entered so far? What on earth were Charlemagne’s Twelve Knights, now to be called Ten, doing? The royal guard protecting the king suddenly stopped thinking and let out a hollow laugh.

Of course, they must have walked in.

Whether anyone tried to stop them or not was irrelevant from the start.

Because there was no one in this world who dared to block their path.

“I-is it all over?! Have they retreated?! Can I open my eyes now?!”

In the silence that had fallen, Bald King Charles, who had been blocking his own eyes and ears, finally raised his head. As he lifted his head and opened his eyes and ears, he finally saw the man standing before him.

“……”

It was the man in the raincoat.

“Welcome!”

As soon as he saw him, Bald King Charles exclaimed. As if his previous hysterical demeanor had been a lie. He smiled broadly, appearing kinder than anyone, and spread his arms in a welcoming gesture as if greeting an old friend.

After that, he began to rub his hands together like a fly and obsequiously bow his head.

Nevertheless, the man did not reply. He merely gazed silently at Charles’s face, with eyes that betrayed not a hint of emotion.

A brief silence. At the same time, it was a silence that felt like the longest in the world to the king.

“Why did you hand over the Holy Maiden to the Empire?”

At the end of the silence, the man asked back.

“Y-yes……?”

Bald King Charles blinked his eyes and tilted his head, feigning ignorance in a tone that implied he didn’t understand what was being said.

“Is that your answer?”

The man in the raincoat asked again, calmly, in a voice neither high nor low.

“N-no, that’s not it…… T-that is.”

“Why did you hand over the Holy Maiden to the Empire?”

The man asked again. At that question, Bald King Charles sweat profusely and remained silent.

He was, after all, the ruler of one of the continent’s foremost three great powers. Although it had nothing to do with Bald King Charles’s skill or ability, as the leader of a nation of that stature, the intelligence he acquired was by no means small.

For instance, things like the Holy Maiden he had sold to the Empire with his own hands being reborn as a new member of 《Black Serpent》.

“W-well, about that, that is—”

Before the Bald King, who was rambling, equivocating, and stalling for time, the man spoke again. As if his patience had run out.

“You should choose your next answer carefully.”

“!”

Charles’s expression froze coldly. Even amidst that, time ticked by. Just as his frozen lips hesitated and began to move—

“—Father!”

From beyond the palace, a voice echoed. The audacious voice of a woman. At that voice, the already pale Bald King’s expression turned even whiter.

“C-Charlotte! Retreat at once! This is no place for you!”

Even an incompetent ruler, no matter how foolish, must love their child, perhaps? However, Charlotte disregarded Charles’s warning and strode boldly across the hall, standing before the ‘Serpent’ there. So audaciously.

Charlotte, the First Princess of the Holy Kingdom.

She was the wise, intelligent, and beautiful princess of this nation, to the extent that everyone in the Holy Kingdom whispered how such a daughter could have sprouted under such a foolish king.

A princess beloved by all the people of the Holy Kingdom, truly an ideal princess one might find only in fairy tales.

“—This is His Majesty Holy King Charles’s royal presence.”

So saying, Charlotte, the First Princess of the Holy Kingdom, spoke. Undeterred even before the man in the raincoat, who stood directly before her.

Knowing that the man was the leader of 《Black Serpent》, yet never backing down.

“And from what this humble maiden knows—I’ve heard that the Leader-nim of 《Black Serpent》 is an intellectual and cultured person who never disregards etiquette and tradition.”

“……I apologize for my rudeness.”

Before Charlotte’s sharp remark, which was more king-like than the king himself, the man in the raincoat replied. He bowed his head lightly in a silent greeting.

But that was precisely all.

“I merely came to hear an answer.”

The man asked again. Just as Charles was about to ramble on in response to that question, Charlotte once again interrupted him and answered.

“Holy Maiden Jeanne-nim challenged the traditions and authority that this nation ought to uphold.”

“She did?”

“I know it was not her fault.”

Charlotte replied.

“However, regardless of her intentions, her very existence has already undeniably posed a serious threat to the governance of the Holy Kingdom.”

“Regardless of her intentions, you say?”

“Politics, governing a nation, is just such a matter.”

Things that must happen, whether one wishes for them or not.

There was not a hint of doubt or wavering in Charlotte’s voice.

Utterly calm and composed. As if she were the true ruler of this nation.

“That is why Holy Maiden-nim was handed over to the Empire. For the stability and peace of this nation.”

“……I see.”

The man nodded calmly. After nodding, he turned his head towards the empty air and asked.

“Is this a sufficient answer?”

“!”

Then, the empty air, which should have been nothing, rippled, and a person finally appeared there. Someone who had been holding their position from the start using an invisibility spell that no magician in this kingdom could have discerned.

The woman, once called the Holy Maiden, and now having gained a new name as a member of 《Black Serpent》, was there.