Ch.19865. The Hour of Snakes and Vipers (2)

It was some time ago.

Elhermina once proudly shared with me the key points of giving a speech that she had learned from Abamama, that is, His Imperial Majesty.

“The power of a speaker! It comes from the posture and level of concentration of those listening!”

“Is that so?”

“Then! Have you ever thought about how to make the audience focus?!”

Back then, I was still young and naive.

And my attitude was quite terrible.

“Let me think about it now. So… if you speak about topics and content that people find interesting, wouldn’t everyone pay attention? They need to be interested to look at you and concentrate.”

“…Have you already heard this from Abamama?”

I responded indifferently to her suspicious gaze.

“Of course not. Just like how I’m listening to you now. And how you, El, select stories that would interest me and deliver them personally. If we change this structure slightly, isn’t this a miniature version of the speech you mentioned?”

“Mini…version?”

Is this conversation structure a bit strange for children under 10?

Even I, who was thinking this, felt disappointed realizing that my word choice somehow didn’t make sense.

The words in my head… weren’t coming together smoothly.

At that time, my understanding of language and rhetoric was still quite lacking.

So I was trying my best to imitate the speech patterns and expressions of those who, in my view, spoke the best.

“Then! So do you know how to make people who aren’t interested in your story become interested?!”

“Hmm…”

At Elhermina’s question, I pretended to ponder for a moment.

“That’s the difficult part.”

“Right?! Hmph!”

I could have immediately come up with a crushing response that would deflate her confidence.

But since she seemed eager to show off and boast about something, I pretended not to know here.

…In reality, I didn’t know anyway.

Why would I refuse when she was kindly offering to share such precious knowledge?

“Then I, your highness, will personally tell you! Listen well! After all, it’s me who’s telling you!”

That’s how she declared with her hands on her hips, full of confidence.

Her appearance then and the words she spoke suddenly came back to me.

Kariel! That method is very simple.

It’s just…

====

“I’ll die for you.”

When I first uttered those words, the audience’s reaction was quite a sight to behold.

Having decided to push forward, I continued boldly and consecutively.

You all just listen to me now. Don’t waste time thinking unnecessarily.

While embracing your bewilderment.

Focus only on me.

“Among those present here, there are people who desperately want me dead, aren’t there? So, well, I’ll die for you. It’s not a difficult thing to do.”

Young Elhermina had proudly told me back then.

The way a speaker captivates the audience, the listeners.

The first step.

Pour out the most shocking facts right in their faces.

To use a metaphor, it’s like a bolt from the blue, or like falling into water with a splash when a bridge you’re crossing suddenly collapses—that kind of shock, confusion, fear, and bewilderment.

She told me to bundle all that together and deliver it.

And she also used another metaphor: don’t leave the lake calm.

Like creating ripples in a still lake.

Throw the first stone with all your might.

Once you’ve thrown that stone, make it impossible for them not to listen to your words.

Thus, continuously deliver shock and fear to the listeners.

Make them like fish biting bait.

So carefully select your initial words and phrases, and throw them out at the right moment.

Even your speaking attitude should be tailored to match this.

Yes, this is the teaching of His Imperial Majesty.

If they have no choice but to listen to my words.

If they bite the bait I’ve thrown, then from that point on, it’s my world.

As long as I don’t foolishly break the flow myself.

As long as I don’t commit any absurd blunders.

“It wasn’t a secret anyway. Rather, since I heard it directly from the Divine Tree, let’s skip the unnecessary gossip.”

Even now, it’s the same.

The fairy among fairies.

The 14 councilors, the most noble among the High Elves.

And the Queen of Elves.

These 15 individuals, in the council chamber with its massive crescent-shaped table.

They have willingly allowed my mud-covered leather feet into this place, which is their sanctuary, their garden, their home.

“Child. I think there’s some misunderstanding…”

“Silence.”

Raising my index finger to my lips for emphasis, cutting off the words… once again, the audience’s gaze, which was about to scatter, converges on my lips and the index finger placed before them.

“Let me state clearly to avoid unnecessary noise. I have received most of the information from the Divine Tree. Therefore, pointless talk in front of me is useless.”

“……”

If I were to say something like “I know everything, so be honest and reveal your true intentions,” it would be a disaster.

Why ask for true intentions when I already know everything?

They might be swayed by the atmosphere somehow.

One could artificially create an urgent environment to agitate them, of course.

But they are not as naive as humans.

They prioritize reason over emotion, and are extremely… cold, to the point where they might be called inhuman by human standards.

For beings who have lived through long ages, having faint emotional lines and pursuing life according to reason is a very natural phenomenon, process, and result.

So even if I sway the audience, I must appropriately manage the situation by either cutting off their rational threads or pulling them taut.

…However, such attempts won’t be able to agitate them or defeat them.

Then, what should I do?

‘Force a swordsman’s duel on a mage.’

For that, I wanted to borrow his character and his temperament.

Another version of me that the World Tree showed.

That uniquely selfish belief system that was ruthless and merciless, unwavering even in the face of death, that distinctive selfishness.

“I didn’t ask you to gather for pointless conversation. I called you together to discuss how to kill me properly.”

“I don’t understand your intention.”

“If you truly intended that, you would have been dead long ago. What’s with this attitude?! What on earth did you learn from your father, the hero…?”

“What the Divine Tree wants is the purification of the world.”

No need to play along.

You talk. I’ll say what I need to say.

But you won’t be able to ignore each word I speak.

“Originally, I should have fulfilled that role. I am the one who burns the World Tree and sets the entire continent ablaze.”

“What nonsense are you spouting?!”

Keep talking earnestly.

“Because I pursued the exact opposite—peace and stability for the continent—it felt betrayed by me and told you to kill me. If you don’t believe me, ask the Divine Tree directly. I’ve already finished my conversation with it.”

“Im-impudent! And… m-most of all, blasphemous! How dare you recklessly spout such absurd—!”

“If I die, the Empire will mobilize and sweep across the continent. You know this well, and that’s why, despite your faith, you can’t do anything to me right now. Isn’t that right?”

“Wait! First, stop talking—!”

“So you’re looking for a scapegoat to take the blame for your sins. But that’s not enough. The Empire isn’t stupid enough to be fooled by that.”

“Listen for a moment! First…!”

“Why do you think the Empire sent me as a hostage to a foreign country instead of Princess Elhermina? To prevent war? With such power, are they merely afraid of war?”

“……”

“I volunteered, but there’s a clear reason. The Empress foresaw her daughter’s death. Not only that, another prophet conveyed a similar prophecy. But the problem is what comes next.”

After the princess dies.

“If she had died miserably as prophesied, I would! Personally bury you all in a pit of fire.”

The current me is not me.

Truly, a tyrant and mass murderer who buried the world in a pit of fire.

Not the current me, but if the past, present, and future had twisted just a little.

Clearly another version of me that might have been.

That future version of myself.

I project, act, and imitate that image.

Here I am, actually the ultimate villain who burned the world and plunged the continent into misery.

But if I had been a king, I would surely have been called a great king, or even a god of war and a military deity, and was actually called so—an unprecedented great general.

Ultimately, the arrangement of the world’s will.

And though I was destroyed by the total offensive of my younger sibling and the forces that followed him.

Even so, the fact that I burned the world remains unchanged.

And.

Let’s assume that such a person is here now.

And that’s not just an assumption; from now on, believe without doubt that it’s all real.

“All of this is the clear reality shown to me by the World Tree, the Divine Tree you worship. It’s a reality that could have been. It told me: if I won’t burn the world… then become the firewood that burns the world.”

Standing upright, I raise both arms to show.

If it were him, he would have displayed such exaggerated, confident gestures.

“The role has simply passed from me to someone else. Now I am the firewood, and I am prepared to fulfill that role. Since this world is askew and broken, if it is the will of the gods, and even the Divine Tree you worship desires the world’s destruction? I’ll gladly comply. As much as needed. I’ve burned the world with my own hands once. Can’t I do it twice?”

“Who are you?”

The Queen asks with a hardened face.

Who am I? Indeed, a good question.

“I am myself. No one else.”

I severely lacked knowledge and information to consider.

But what about now?

I have plenty.

At this point, manipulating and guessing information is not even an issue.

For example, the fact that I’m in this position instead of Elhermina… is clearly my own choice.

The claim that the Empress glimpsed the future, or that another prophet saw a tragic future and offered advice? Just words.

It might actually have been true.

But I don’t know.

However, at the point where I believe and say it, it doesn’t matter either way.

Whether it’s true or not is irrelevant.

Truth was never important to begin with.

What matters is my will and my opinion that I’m pushing forward.

At least what the World Tree said to me isn’t a lie.

So those who want to follow the World Tree’s call to kill me, how much do they know and how much have they heard before resolving to kill me?

They may be immersed in their faith, but they can’t possibly be ignorant of the reason and basis for why I was able to come here, to the heart of the elven country.

Or has faith truly paralyzed and destroyed reason?

It doesn’t matter.

None of it matters.

From the moment I showed my resolve to throw away my life, let alone protect it.

…At that point, any threats or intimidation became meaningless.

“So, let’s think together about how to deal with me. What justification will you provide and how will you kill me? Cleanly? Quietly? Secretly? Or dramatically? Spectacularly? If you had a half-hearted mindset like using remnants of the Demon King’s army or some disliked countries as scapegoats, change your thinking. Right now. Quickly discard that uncertain confidence that the Empire won’t cross the continent to annihilate you.”

I don’t know for certain.

But if I lay out various pieces of information to catch them… at that point, I can free myself from the dangerous guessing game of having to get one problem right.

Although it’s not difficult to pinpoint since the methods are limited.

…The key is to suppress reason and inject emotions that trample on it into them.

I neither underestimate nor overestimate myself.

Excellence is ultimately relative, and the weight of time is, in a sense, absolute from a relative perspective.

Moreover, they are many and I am not even a minority, but alone.

Confronting them on their terms here is, by any measure, irrational.

“Acting. In the end, you say we should kill you, but in reality, you’re just reminding us that we can’t kill you, aren’t you?”

See?

With one or two, I could push through somehow, but with many, it’s like this.

And it’s not like each of them is naive enough to be swayed by mob psychology.

So.

Let’s throw the bait again this time.

Shock, confusion, fear, bewilderment.

“Really? Then handle it yourselves as you see fit.”

With my right hand, I grab my throat.

Then, with nails raised and strength in every finger joint,

I stab them into my neck.

And scratch downward.

It’s terrible, but the pain is only momentary.

When you die, you don’t feel anything anyway.

I know well that pain can break me.

The reason I subjected myself to harsh training or pain wasn’t to become stronger, to handle a sword better, or even to gain power.

It was to gain the strength to endure the pain that would make me ugly.

At least until the moment of death, so that pain couldn’t dominate me.

That’s why I’ve been training my body, repeating self-abuse disguised as training.

The goal isn’t to become stronger.

It’s to create willpower that can withstand pain.

CRACK!

“Krrk!”

“He, he?!”

“Wh-what! Th-this?!”

“How could such a tragic—!”

This is not the futile resistance or childish tantrum of a young, naive boy.

At this moment, I truly tried to kill myself.

Infusing mana to sharpen my nails, and not satisfied with that, I scratched down my neck with the clear intention of tearing it apart, almost beheading myself.

The sensation of skin, flesh, muscles, blood vessels… and then bones catching on my fingers as I scratched… is quite extraordinary.

Consciousness plummets instantly.

But my legs stand firm.

If I collapse here, it would be utterly shameful.

If everything is a grand play and act.

At this moment, if this body were to pathetically collapse, the impression and sensation that they would feel and accept… how terribly crumpled it would be.

So I endure.

Even if my consciousness breaks, my body can still display that will and spirit for the living to see.

That is resolve.

Resolve expressed in words is light, flimsy, and primitive.

So to show sincerity.

…Only action and results matter.

‘If there’s a possibility that I might ruin the world… Yes. It might be better to die here.’

But I have confidence.

That they will save me.

If they don’t save someone like me?

Then well…

The world would truly burn more beautifully and tragically than ever before.