episode_0065

“Even if this incident didn’t happen, you would have listened to anything we asked, right? Since this incident was in the mind of Barche, not the hero, didn’t he have an excuse to be a little more extreme?”

“You could see it that way. I won’t necessarily deny it. Anyway, just like before, the important thing is that we need strong measures or measures that are different from before, right? Or, Elise, are you saying we should do nothing more and leave the hero like this?”

In response to the question Élise asked with a wary look, Barce slightly twitched his eyebrows, loosened his clasped hands that were supporting his chin, leaned back on the back of the chair, and questioned Élyse’s words. In contrast to her relaxed posture, her narrowed eyes were directed at Elise, as if expressing her discomfort.

“Both calm down. It’s only just the beginning. Should we start fighting among ourselves already?”

Elise and Barce, who were glaring at each other, turned to Anise, who spoke. Anis accepted their gaze without even raising an eyebrow and continued speaking.

“I understand that you are wary of one of us crossing the line with this incident. But as Barche said, weren’t we all of the opinion that something needed to be done? I haven’t decided specifically what to do yet, but I think it’s too hasty to be suspicious already.”

At the words of Anise, who took Barce’s side, Elise’s eyes tightened, but soon relaxed. As I thought deeply about Anis saying something like that, I felt like I had gone a little too far.

“Anis is right. I went too far ahead. sorry. Mr. Barche.”

Barce waved his hand to stop Elise, who was about to bow her head and apologize.

“Okay, it’s okay. Because I know that you think so much about the warrior that you step forward like that. Last time, you were the only one who hugged the hero and even cried.”

“No, that’s….”

Elise’s face instantly turned bright red at Barce’s words, which revealed something embarrassing.

“I was a bit surprised at that time too. As expected, because she is a saint, she is very sensitive…”

“Right? But wouldn’t the hero have been very surprised? He made people into porridge with his bare fists, and even though the blood on his clothes wasn’t even dry, he ran up to me and hugged me so hard that he cried like that…. Now that I think about the fact that the hero didn’t faint and instead comforted me, it’s amazing.”

“Ack! evil! stop! stop it! I did something wrong so please stop!!”

Barce laughed as he looked at Elise, who was holding her head and putting her head down on the table. Anise, who had been watching with a wry smile, noticed that Elise calmed down after some time and the atmosphere seemed to have eased, so she deliberately adjusted her posture and made a sound to attract the attention of the two before opening her mouth.

“There is one thing that came to mind about what to do with the hero.”

With Barce and Elise’s eyes urging her to speak quickly, Anise held up her index finger and then turned it over to face down and spoke.

“Rather than a countermeasure or action, it was just a good place that came to mind. Do you know what is in the basement of this royal castle?”

“Royal Castle Underground? It’s a prison.”

“That’s right. Fortunately, it is located in a royal castle and is not a place to imprison general criminals, but rather a place to hand out light punishments to servants and maids or to detain people appropriately when there are political problems like this one, so the environment is not bad, unlike an ordinary prison. But still, a prison is a prison. No matter how much it is for safety reasons, it is a bit strange to place a hero in such a place…”

“I understand that you think so. But the place I’m talking about, even if it’s only nominally a prison, is pretty special.”

Anis stood up and spoke to Barce and Elise, who still had expressions on their faces.

“It would be better to see it with your own eyes than to say it in words. Come follow me. After you see it, you will understand why I said this.”

After saying that and receiving Anise’s gaze looking at them intently, Elise and Barce agreed with Anise’s words that they could only proceed with the story if they had to see it in person, nodded, and stood up to follow Anis.

75.

Several generations before the current queen, there was a tyrant in the kingdom.

The royal castle was filled with treacherous men who flattered the tyrant and treacherous officials who flattered him with sweet words, and banquets were held every day to entertain the tyrant.

The queen, who was at the top of the kingdom, indulged in luxury and pleasure, and the government was not running properly, so there was no way for the people’s livelihood to be maintained properly.

Moreover, the tyrant squeezed the kingdom into ruin to satisfy his own greed. They imposed heavy taxes, took bribes out of their own hands, and turned a blind eye to the tyranny of those they cared about. It often happened that if there was a boy that caught his eye, he would be called in and harassed to his heart’s content.

The people groaned under the tyrant’s tyranny, and the streets filled with screaming silence filled with fear.

The situation was not much different for ordinary nobles. In order to avoid being noticed by the tyrant, the culture of not allowing men to engage in outside activities and hiding them well, even in noble families, was a culture that has survived to this day in the aftermath of that time.

Even though she was a queen chosen by the goddess and recognized as legitimate for ruling the kingdom with divine blood, there was no way that such a miserable reign could last forever.

In the end, even the tyrant’s own daughter, who could not stand her mother’s terrible cruelty, helped to drive out the tyrant, and the tyrant had no choice but to give up her position as queen.

Originally, the tyrant’s head should have been blown off the moment she stepped down from the queen’s position, but the tyrant’s biological daughter, who succeeded the tyrant as queen, was very affectionate, and told those who wanted the tyrant’s head that the tyrant would never be royal for the rest of her life. He spared the tyrant’s life by making a strong promise that he would never go outside and see sunlight.

And there was a very special prison in the deepest part of the castle’s basement that the queen at that time had carefully created for her mother, who was supposed to have died and would have to live trapped in the castle’s basement for the rest of her life.

We cannot dare to release a tyrant who has committed such a great crime into the world, but we cannot bear to look at it anymore, so the daughter who only inherited the queen’s position and did not hate her mother created a kingdom where no one can escape and no one can invade. The kindest prison.

“That’s right here?”

“That’s right. Warrior.”

The story told by Anis on the way to the lowest level of the castle’s basement, which cannot be entered through normal means, was quite interesting. It was like hearing a story about a historic building at a tourist destination overseas.

Actually, there wouldn’t be much of a difference if you just changed the word to ‘different world’ instead of ‘overseas’. It’s quite interesting to find out the story behind the construction of the Taj Mahal. It felt exactly like that.

“It’s okay for a prison, but isn’t it a bit too much to move here when a prison is still a prison?”

“No shame. Other than moving the hero’s residence here, I haven’t been able to think of a good way… If the hero doesn’t like it, there’s nothing we can do. I will give up and quickly find another way.”

I meant this as a joke, but when Anis answered seriously and started to get out on the road, I waved my hand in embarrassment and stopped her.

“No, no, I just tried it. I don’t have any major complaints. Since something like that happened last time, I understand that I need to pay more attention to security, and honestly, at this level, it’s a prison and doesn’t feel like a prison at all.”

“Is that so? I’m glad the warrior thinks so, but… if you’re saying that because you’re thinking of us, you don’t have to be so considerate. Even if it’s not here, if you look for it, there’s sure to be another way to safely take the hero.”

“If I really don’t like it, I won’t say it like this. It’s really okay, don’t worry. Don’t get me wrong, I think this is a pretty decent way to live.”

“Understood, warrior.”

What I said to Anis was truly sincere.

If you look at the story, the main character of the story, who was said to have stayed in this prison until his death, was a truly terrible tyrant. What kind of punishment can he be said to have paid by staying in a place like this? Is it okay if he was born with good royal blood? Is there no such thing as good and evil in this world? I felt skeptical.

As soon as I entered the lowest level of the royal castle, which was nominally a prison, what surprised me was that there was Taeyang inside.

The sun couldn’t exist underground, so it was fake, but if you looked up, there was a fake sky so clear that it was visually indistinguishable from the real sky outside.

The bright yellow sun rising high in the blue sky, the drifting white clouds, the warm sunlight shining down, and even the shadows cast by the clouds were embodied.

It was a sight that really made me realize that the level of civilization in this world where magic exists is so jagged that it cannot be judged by the common sense of the original world I lived in, and that the differences between classes are enormous.