Ch.671You Don’t Have Right to Refuse

“Median… Marquis….”

Hrafn, uncharacteristically trailing off, took half a step back.

Despite priding himself on his composure that wouldn’t flinch at ordinary troubles, maintaining calm was no easy task when suddenly faced with the Empire’s—perhaps humanity’s strongest—monster standing before him.

‘Good heavens. Of all people, they infiltrated the Empire’s strategic weapon into Edriksa? Were they planning not just assassination but to bring down Edriksa itself?’

A bead of cold sweat trickled down his cheek.

According to the information he had gathered, the woman grinning before him was a strategic weapon capable of annihilating a nation’s capital overnight.

If she were to avoid only those strong enough to restrain her while turning the entire city upside down, no one would be able to respond.

“…Does the Empire intend to destroy Dane?”

“Hmm? No. Probably not. I can guess why you’d think that, but I’ve come with entirely peaceful intentions.”

Haschal removed the purification device covering her mouth and grinned. A smile like a predator baring its teeth. An impression that seemed far removed from peace no matter how you looked at it.

“Attacking the royal palace and killing royalty is not typically called peace.”

Haschal snickered. Thinking that her manner of speaking was similar to Frigg’s, as if to prove their master-disciple relationship.

“After quietly burying those madmen who are trying to sacrifice tens of thousands, peace will come as a result. Enough idle talk—sit down for now. This will be a long conversation.”

“If I were to say there’s nothing to discuss with a rebel who conspires with the enemy….”

“Then you’d never stand again. You know that much, right?”

An explicit threat. Hrafn unconsciously glanced at the longsword hanging on the wall, but soon sighed deeply and followed Haschal’s order.

He sensed that if he tried to wield the sword, his arms would surely be cut off after his legs.

—-

“So, what do you want from me?”

As Hrafn walked behind the desk and pulled up a chair to sit down, Haschal cleared away some documents on the desk and perched there, taking out a cigarette.

Seeing this, Hrafn also desperately wanted a Mana Herb, but unfortunately, his Mana Herb was in the coat hanging in the living room, currently out of reach.

“Don’t you already have a good guess? You seemed pretty sharp earlier.”

“…You want me to eliminate the noise surrounding the premature succession ceremony.”

“You catch on quick. Frigg said there’s no one better than you at handling various disturbances.”

Hrafn shot a glance at Frigg. A look that seemed to ask if she had nothing better to sell than her own master.

Of course, Frigg maintained an utterly shameless expression regardless.

“Didn’t you teach me, Director? That an informant must first sell their conscience. I’m glad I sold it at a fair price.”

“That’s not what I… sigh….”

Hrafn wanted to punch the top of her head if he could. He never taught her to sell out her country and master when he said to sell her conscience.

Of course, with the Empire’s First Sword glaring at him with gleaming eyes, that wish remained nothing more than his hope.

“So… you’re asking me to betray Dane? To become a traitor who sells out their country to the Empire like Frigg?”

“Isn’t that better than having madmen at the top who want to sacrifice tens of thousands of their own citizens? I guarantee, if you leave them be, they’ll try to repeat the same thing over and over. Anything is difficult only the first time; after that, it gets easier.”

“……”

Hrafn couldn’t deny those words.

In his opinion too, once it was proven that tens of thousands of innocent people could be sacrificed to create a superhuman, the royal family would clearly view the kingdom’s people not as humans but as resources for creating superhumans.

“Whether killing their own citizens or prisoners, if they keep killing tens of thousands like that… the country will collapse in no time. Don’t you agree?”

“…I suppose so.”

The end of such a country couldn’t be good.

If the fact that they were gaining power through human sacrifice could be kept strictly confidential, that would be one thing, but the moment it was discovered, Dane would become nothing less than humanity’s enemy.

“So, if you’re a loyal subject who cherishes and loves Dane, shouldn’t you actually be on my side? Even if partially subjugated by the Empire, it seems better than the country being destroyed or becoming a living hell.”

“But betraying His Majesty the King is….”

“Betrayal? If anything, the King of Dane betrayed Dane first. He’s driving all his citizens to death because of his own greed. If this isn’t betrayal, what is?”

“Everything in Dane, down to the mountains and rivers, belongs to His Majesty….”

“Stop talking nonsense.”

Haschal raised her left hand and gripped Hrafn’s shoulder.

The annoyance in her blue-burning eyes was directed at Hrafn. Though it was just a quiet glare, Hrafn trembled slightly, feeling as if he could hear hallucinations filled with killing intent.

-This bastard, why is his tongue so long?

It felt as if she might utter such abuse while crushing his shoulder and ripping out his tongue at any moment.

“He’s just trying to raise his price. He’s appealing to his loyalty to King Hestein to increase his own value. You can ignore it and move on to the main point.”

Frigg, who had been listening to their conversation, pointed out Hrafn’s ploy. An accurate assessment of his true intentions. Hrafn muttered to himself that he had raised a tiger cub while sweating profusely.

In fact, Hrafn had already thrown away his loyalty to the Dane royal family the moment the Empire’s First Sword appeared.

As the head of the intelligence department, he had a duty to be loyal to Dane, but that didn’t mean he had to devote his life to King Hestein and Ragnar who were destroying Dane.

Like most humans, Hrafn valued his own life more than his superior’s. Especially when that superior wasn’t even worthy of personal respect, there was nothing to hold him back.

“That’s right… wasting time unnecessarily.”

Haschal curled up the corners of her mouth and held the cigarette, burned almost to the end, up to Hrafn’s eye. Hrafn gritted his teeth at the heat transmitted through his eyeball.

– Sizzle…!

The burnt leaf released a stream of smoke and withered. There was no groan of pain.

Of course, the absence of a groan wasn’t because Hrafn’s patience could withstand even the pain of his eyeball being seared.

“……”

Hrafn swallowed dryly and glanced at his right shoulder. The spot where Haschal had burned him with the cigarette. A hole was burned in his cherished clothes, but compared to having his eyeball seared, losing one set of clothes was nothing.

Using Hrafn’s shoulder as an ashtray to extinguish her finished cigarette, Haschal looked down at him with ice-cold eyes and spoke.

“If your active display of loyalty was just useless bluffing, I’d like to get straight to the point without any more nonsense… is that alright?”

Hrafn nodded. It was a resolute gesture without even a hint of hesitation.

He had no luxury to hesitate. Haschal was already taking out a new cigarette and lighting it.

======[ Haschal ]======

I lit a new cigarette with the flame of a rune and explained to him the assassination plan that Ludwig had created with Frigg’s cooperation.

The entirety of the plan, the role he needed to play, and the aftermath.

The plan itself was simple. So simple that it didn’t even take twenty minutes to explain it all. Hrafn pointed out that the hastily assembled plan had too many loopholes, but Frigg and I ignored his objections.

After all, we had subdued Hrafn first to fill those very gaps.

“It will effectively result in usurping the throne by bringing in the Empire… I doubt the nobles will accept this.”

“That’s for you to persuade them. Spread rumors that the prince reluctantly drew his sword, unable to bear watching the villain who tried to sacrifice all the citizens of Dane. Something like that.”

The nobles might not buy it, but the common people who nearly became sacrifices without knowing why might actually praise the prince.

No matter how much they hate a traitor, could they hate him more than a murderer who tried to kill their entire families?

If information agents were deployed to spread rumors throughout Dane, public sentiment would likely favor Prince Haral.

“How do you plan to quell the knights’ resistance?”

“If they want to follow a massacrer who’s now a corpse, let them.”

That was my role. Loyalty is not a pardon. If one pledges loyalty to an obvious villain, they too are nothing but a villain.

“The Crusader of Seals…”

“With Knut there, it’s not a problem. He said he could command them all once Ragnar is gone.”

Though weaker in output compared to Ragnar’s, Knut also possesses the rune of dominance that can control those with engraved runes.

He said using the dominance rune was a last resort, and he would try to persuade them first.

So, once Ragnar dies, all the Crusaders will be assigned under Knut’s command.

Whether they want it or not.

If they say they’d rather die than follow Knut, well, we can respect their wishes and send them on their way.

It was a fairly clean plan.