Ch.556556. The Viscount’s Conclusion (3)

“The Viscount Akion doesn’t need to be treated as a prisoner.”

“There were interesting things hiding in Viscount Akion’s territory. Not even near the border. Starting with those who have been colluding with the Empire in these western lands.”

“Ha! Don’t slander me with such flimsy fabricated evidence. Don’t you know that I publicly executed all the Empire’s spies in the past?”

She gasped for breath before showing a cunning sneer.

“Well, back then, the Baron was busy being educated to become a male prostitute, born to lowly parents. I’ll overlook this rudeness out of pity.”

Perhaps she too sensed that she was already finished.

When an unfiltered mouth spews words so recklessly like this, it means it’s fine to make her want to take back every word she’s spilled.

Slap!

A sound far too dull and violent to be just a slap on the cheek.

“Grrgh…!”

Viscount Akion’s molar broke off and rolled across the floor.

“Colluding with cultists and even unleashing Magia in our territory. If this doesn’t warrant immediate execution, what would?”

“Hnngh… Me using Magia…! That only happened because you were too busy basking in your title of hero to properly manage your territory!”

Her eyes were filled with madness. Anyone soft-hearted would have felt not just disgust but fear from that gaze alone.

But seen alongside her swollen cheek, she just looked pitiful, like a goblin who’d been punched by a passing mercenary.

“Yes, those eyes…! Those eyes that clearly show you only intend to kill me!”

After being kicked in the abdomen, losing a molar, and even with overwhelming justification to kill her, she clung to a thread of hope. She drew a short sword from her breast and swung it.

Perhaps it was her noble blood. Her skill wasn’t bad, and she carried a rather fierce energy.

But if I could be stabbed by something of this level, I wouldn’t be in this world anymore.

“Really…”

I grabbed the troublesome Viscount’s wrist, twisted it to drop the sword, and delivered a clean kick to her shin.

“Guhack…!”

With broken bones, the Viscount lost balance and collapsed onto the cold floor.

I had kicked her with mana, intending to thoroughly damage her hand, so it must have been quite painful.

“Where did that so-called elixir you distributed to your soldiers come from?”

“Ptui…!”

Where else could it have come from if not Amelie? Still, I asked the question to check how cooperative she might be.

Even with one leg completely shattered, she still couldn’t let go of her spite, even spitting on my armor.

In response, I stomped on her mangled leg before throwing her across the room.

Crash!

The impact was strong enough to shake the carriage.

“Ugh…!”

Dark red blood flowed from the back of her head where it had hit the edge of a chair.

She looked dazed from the impact.

Being quite a tough person, she wouldn’t become docile from just this much. So I continued to strike her in various places, just short of killing her, until she gradually stopped running her mouth.

“I’d also like to hear how you managed to unleash Magia in our territory.”

“……”

Eventually, she hung her head low, at a loss for words.

From the beginning, this bastard was a traitor who openly used demonic power in territorial disputes in a country founded after defeating demons.

I did ask once, but she was essentially a spy who distributed dangerous items clearly from the Empire, not found in the kingdom, to her soldiers.

Whether she was a Viscount representing a family or not, it was legal to beat her to near death for answers.

‘Is this all she amounts to?’

What about Amelie had bewitched her so? How did she escalate things so much when she lacked the ability to clean up afterward?

Furthermore, judging by her screams before boarding the carriage, she had been abandoned by Amelie, who had agreed to help with the cleanup.

Afterward, I asked Elvis to prevent sound from escaping the carriage and posed my question:

“Akion. What deal did you make with Princess Amelie?”

The Viscount Akion, who had been sprawled with her head to the ground, finally raised her head at the mention of Amelie.

“…Amelie.”

“What?”

“I received favors from the Princess. I only experienced good things from her. I trusted that bitch, and I thought she trusted me too…! I really did…!”

Viscount Akion began to cough up blood.

At the moment I had kicked her abdomen, I had used my mana to pulverize her heart’s mana. That mana suddenly became unstable, and her overwhelming presence began to diminish.

‘The backlash of breaking an oath.’

As her once-stable mana cracked from the rebound of breaking her oath, her complexion rapidly deteriorated.

Her excessive pallor and the dead blood flowing out resembled someone who had swallowed deadly poison.

‘The reason she was trying to retch.’

It seems one of those who betrayed her had poisoned her before fleeing.

Even focusing all her energy on blocking the poison with mana wouldn’t be enough, and after taking a beating from me and suffering the backlash of breaking her oath, her body could no longer endure.

‘Trying to die so easily?’

Looking down at Akion without emotion, I called for Tania.

“Ugh…! Even more vicious than those clan heads outside…!”

“Tania, can you burn it all away with your flame?”

“I can, but… her insides are already mostly dissolved. Even if I drive out the poison, it won’t mean much.”

“I still have things I need to hear.”

“In that case… understood!”

Tania’s flames enveloped Akion’s body.

A convenient ability that could selectively burn away only what was necessary.

“…!”

However, what resided in her body was even more malicious than what she had ingested.

An enormous amount of mana was required for Tania’s flames to burn away the corruption dwelling in Akion’s body.

‘A walking corpse.’

No, it would be more accurate to call her Amelie’s puppet.

Even though my mana was somewhat depleted from multiple battles and spirit magic use, I still had plenty left. I didn’t expect it to drain so quickly.

I’ve always been confident in my abundant mana. Unless facing a specialist in destruction magic of equal skill or a special case like me, a spirit mage with particularly abundant mana, it would have been impossible to release the constraints attached to the Viscount.

‘They seem to have put considerable effort into making Viscount Akion their puppet.’

But unfortunately for them, I’ve released her now. Only good for me.

With Viscount Akion now looking more comfortable, I whispered a sort of consideration to this person who had been betrayed by Amelie:

“You’ve suffered quite a bit. I’ve cleared it all away to make your journey easier—”

Having already broken her oath, her mana was no longer the same.

With her insides dissolved by poison, she could have fainted at any moment. The only thing keeping her sitting upright was her sheer spite.

Indeed, what loyalty could exist between those who were only connected by mutual need?

“…I definitely made a mana oath. She said if I caused chaos in the Baron’s territory, she would build a magic tower in my territory and help with reconstruction.”

A magic tower, as I understand, is like a training ground for Imperial mages.

‘So she incited her power-hungry ambitions.’

In the end, having been betrayed and with death approaching, it seems she needed a companion.

‘A magic tower is an independent organization of Imperial mages.’

The fact that an organization that doesn’t exist in the kingdom would enter Akion’s territory indicates only one thing: Amelie and the Empire are more deeply intertwined than expected.

And the fact that they dared to target me, who is practically a blessing to the kingdom…

‘We have an ambitious princess.’

Using her relationship with the Empire, Amelie clearly has ambitions to diminish Adelheid’s power and claim her own portion.

“The Princess is colluding with the Empire. However, I didn’t know Magia was involved. I never heard anything about that…! To think she would interfere with our contract using that accursed thing!”

After coughing up another mouthful of thick blood, Akion, now without the strength to speak further, could only let out a hollow laugh.

“…I should have kept more distance from that bitch.”

I dragged the fading Viscount Akion out of the carriage.

The surrounding situation had been neatly resolved.

My soldiers lined up in front of the carriage, the firstborn daughters of the two families restrained by knights and swallowing their resentment, and the defeated soldiers who had surrendered by laying down their weapons.

I threw Viscount Akion before them. Her limp body rolled across the rough ground. Our knights displayed hostility, looking as if they would trample her at any moment.

“Keep her breathing until we return to the wall.”

I still have use for her.

Then, watching the mages take away Viscount Akion to keep her barely alive, I thought:

‘Princess Amelia.’

The 3rd Princess, Amelie.

It seems I’ll need to deal with her personally.

* * *

Thanks to the presence of the wavering Viscount Akion and the captured heirs, there was no need for a pointless standoff with the enemy forces positioned at the back of the territory.

With their leader already captured, there was no point in risking their lives to fight. Besides, no one would want to face me and my still-intact elite units.

Victory had already decisively tilted in our favor. Those who valued their lives wisely laid down their weapons. Those who resisted were all swept away by Hanelrn, who had joined midway, and Teia, whose fighting spirit had been ignited.

I took the captured nobles through the territory to the battlement, where fighting was still fierce, and made Viscount Akion kneel at the tower where everyone below the wall could see.

‘How tiresome.’

Those soldiers didn’t even know that Akion had abandoned them and tried to flee, yet they were risking their lives fighting like this.

To end this meaningless territorial dispute, I filled my voice with mana and shouted:

“Hear me, allied forces!”

My voice thundered beyond the walls.

I raised the flag of House Akion and lifted the head of the Viscount, who had been hanging it low, to show her face to the enemy.

“The elixir distributed by the Viscount was an illegal substance obtained through collusion with the Empire! She is a spy who has been in close communication with the Empire in this kingdom!”

I slowly recited Viscount Akion’s crimes.

“Not only did she dare to use the Queen’s decision to station troops in Baron Karpel’s territory as an excuse to damage the honor of Her Majesty and the Baron’s house, but she even released cultists’ Magia inside the Baron’s territory to overthrow it!”

The soldiers, finally sensing something was wrong, began to cease their attacks.

“She has fallen from being of noble blood bearing the duties of a vassal to a mere monster who has abandoned law and benevolence!”

I drew my sword and raised it.

Though we had arrived in the morning, it was already noon.

The blade gleamed white as it caught the midday sun.

“Under the kingdom’s stern law, I hereby execute her on the spot!”

Slash—!

The moment the Viscount’s head was severed, silence fell over the battlefield.

“From now on, those who raise their swords against us according to her will must face not only the Baron’s forces but also the kingdom’s purge!”

Finally, this vile territorial dispute came to an end.