While we cleaned up the battlefield and returned, the Duke of the East deliberately fell away from the front and rode alongside the Northern knights.
After receiving their salutes from horseback, he casually rode beside them and spoke.
“I think I understand why you were so at ease. The Grand Duke of the North as well.”
“Why would we fear when victory like this has been promised to us?”
“You have never lost.”
“There have been battles with an even greater difference in troop numbers.”
It had been a victory with an absurd exchange rate, with only around fifteen combat casualties.
Moreover, among the Northern Cavalry under the Grand Duke of the North, only several horses had been injured. Not a single rider had suffered a combat casualty.
Among the five hundred cavalry brought along to make up the numbers, only several mounted soldiers of the Royal Castle Guard had died, and even those deaths had all been from falls.
We had not taken many enemy heads, but the ruler of the Duchy and the entire order of knights had died. The nomad cavalry’s leader, called the Khan, had died as well.
“I do not understand that maneuvering which comes crashing in at an instant. Did you plan tactics like that beforehand?”
“Simply...... every judgment His Grace issues at every moment is correct.”
It was maddening.
It was almost certain that the Grand Duke of the North could see the future.
Yet, from what the Duke of the East had just seen, the Grand Duke possessed something beyond that perception.
Mobility that leaped across space.
“It was not like this when we operated together in the past.”
“I believe it began after he slew the dragon.”
“I must ask him directly. I see.”
There was certainly something about the Grand Duke of the North that transcended ordinary perception.
If that were true, the Duke of the East had to learn what it was to plan for the future.
At this rate, even if he raised the Eastern Army, they would be trampled just like that.
***
The first rebellion denying the Queen’s rule had been successfully suppressed.
We had nearly annihilated the nomad cavalry mercenary force from the steppes and gained tens of thousands of reserve horses they had brought with them.
At the same time, we had annihilated the Knights of Feltkirch and beheaded the ruler of the Duchy, Grand Duke of Feltkirch.
I had his head impaled on a lance for our triumphal return......
“Guh, ugh?! Agh!”
“Walk properly!”
The Deposed Queen was tied behind a horse and made to walk.
Princess Aisia, whom we had captured, sat on that horse’s saddle.
“Lord Protector.”
“Why are you only arriving now? Were you stealing valuables from corpses?”
“Is that not too insulting?”
As we made our triumphal return at the vanguard, the Duke of the East finally rode to the front.
I planned to share the credit with him, so I had intended for us to enter the Royal Castle side by side. It seemed that he had ordered someone to give battle boots to the Deposed Queen, who had been walking barefoot.
I decided to overlook that much compassion.
Because of it, the Deposed Queen was wearing ill-fitting battle boots.
‘You dare make me wear this sort of thing!?”
The Deposed Queen, who had initially put on a show of bravado, was now merely following us while screaming.
“We will share the credit, so enter with me.”
“I went and asked your subordinates a few questions. You truly are......”
“I see the future. Is that enough?”
“No, can you not even tell me that much? We are comrades who have just fought together, covered in blood.”
He had gone wild at the chance to fight after a long time, then the enemy routed and the battle became boring.
I had seen him staring blankly into space.
I had also seen him look at the Northern Cavalry and my command, then shape the words, ‘Does he really see the future?’
Naturally, the Duke of the East was under surveillance as well.
His individual martial prowess was outstanding, so I had brought him into battle to break the enemy lines quickly. Still, there was not an absolute zero chance that he would turn his sword against us.
“I merely used a trick. I gave the impression that we had too few troops. In keeping with that, I did not block their entry through the Octagonal Crossroads. I calculated that they would misjudge us, and when and where an enemy force centered on cavalry would arrive.”
“You calculated it......? No matter how I look at it, that is not a tactic one could master through geography and such calculations.”
“If you work hard.”
There was no point in speaking like the owner of a popular restaurant revealing a secret recipe, because no one could copy that secret.
So this was why he had been going around asking my staff...... no, my knights.
Perhaps he judged that he could get nothing more out of me, because he changed the topic.
“So how do you intend to deal with them?”
“The Deposed Queen crossed the line. She must be executed. That is what you want as well.”
I intended to execute the Deposed Queen.
Her previous crimes had been enough to warrant execution, but there had been room for dispute due to insufficient evidence. Now, however, she had committed a clear act of invasion.
At last, even if I took her head, her natal family would limit itself to protest.
I planned to entrust the execution to a clumsy lout who would make her beg and plead for death by suicide.
I intended to watch her die with sword wounds in her back and the back of her head, biting through her tongue in an attempt to end her suffering sooner.
But the Duke of the East shook his head.
“No. I mean the child.”
“The Princess? Adults may have used her name, but what can we do? They sought to shake the country in her own name.”
The Duke of the East lowered his voice and whispered.
“Then would it not be better to clearly cut off future trouble......?”
“Hmm.”
That was true.
That young child had been the justification for mobilizing twelve thousand troops.
If she remained alive, she would not merely provide the Empire with grounds to intervene.
She would threaten the royal authority itself.
Moreover, Princess Aisia’s crimes as the leader of a rebellion left no path to forgiveness.
After receiving a death sentence, she would grow older in prison. Then, according to the minimum human-rights recommendations derived from canon law, she would have to be hanged upon turning thirteen.
“A child like that cannot be executed under the law. Of course, she can be executed after she is over thirteen.”
“Is the law not something you can handle?”
“Should I create a law that never existed merely to kill a child?”
I refuted him like that, but in truth, it would be simpler for her to disappear.
I could kill her while using the Duke of the East as an excuse. I was almost grateful that he had behaved as expected.
This was why I had placed him at the vanguard and intended to share the credit.
Because the Duke of the East had rendered merit, I could not reject his petition.
I could use an excuse like this.
“She will surely become a future calamity.”
“She is the person standing directly in your way when you stake a claim to the royal authority.”
Her disappearance would benefit Her Majesty, and as one who had sworn loyalty, it was my duty to remove her so that Her Majesty could properly rule as Queen.
Still, from my personal perspective alone, it would not matter if she lived.
If Aisia lived, invasions by those claiming the succession rights of the Empire’s Aisia would continue. But if I repelled them all?
The authority of Her Majesty, who had made me Regent, and my own authority would continue to rise.
“So you will not kill a traitor?”
Either course was acceptable to me, so I judged that it would be better to bear less infamy.
“Then I will give her to you, Duke of the East. Kill or spare her as you wish.”
“Me!?”
“You are an elder member of the royal family, so you have the authority to punish one who strays from the family.”
“You have the authority to represent royal authority itself, do you not?”
“I serve a young Queen, and you wish for me to kill a younger sister of the Queen? What would the world say if a child were entrusted to a child killer?”
“Hmm.”
“You began as a traitor, so people may say that you are striving to gain recognition. I will create that assessment for you, so act as you wish.”
“Then how about allowing the Queen to make the decision?”
“Her Majesty? Hmm......”
Her Majesty had sworn to enforce the law justly, and as the head of the royal family, it was correct in principle for her to decide.
However, making her decide whether to kill a close blood relative......
“I will speak to Her Majesty.”
That would become an education in the responsibilities of a ruler as well.
Later, Her Majesty would have to decide all such matters herself.
After our triumphal return, when we entered the palace, Her Majesty came out as though she were running toward us, then grasped her crown again.
It had nearly slipped off while she ran.
“Lord Protector!”
“Your Majesty, I have slain the traitors who infringed upon Your Majesty’s royal authority and annihilated their heretical forces.”
“I-I believed that you would win. I had already received word of victory and wondered whether I should have a flower crown made.”
Though she disliked cruelty, she looked excited.
As befitted the bloodline of the Conqueror King.
“One word of encouragement from Your Majesty is enough.”
“I will give you one hundred words. I will summon a poet and have this victory written into song. I will summon a stonemason and have that song carved into stone. I am truly, truly proud of you!”
Her Majesty was overdoing it somewhat, but she seemed that happy.
She bore both the heavy responsibility of protecting royal authority and the literal weight of the heavy crown.
Yet we had crushed a force that had sent a declaration of war saying, ‘You do not seem capable of ruling, so hand everything over to your Imperial half-sister.’
She could not help but be grateful.
‘If I were her, I would be wary of a powerful minister building even greater authority through victory.’
That would be the right way for a ruler to think. Yet Her Majesty’s pure smile and joy at not thinking that way made me prouder.
I would have been proud even if she had shown proper restraint, because it would mean she was ready to handle power.
Still, receiving trust and expectations made me happy.
“Your Majesty, I beheaded Grand Duke of Feltkirch, who had protected the Deposed Queen and her daughter, and Khan, the commander of the heretical cavalry who had joined him.”
“You do not need to offer me their heads!”
She avoided that well.
It was not as though I had intended to do so.
Raising that bastard’s head before her would only show that she was still frightened of it.
“However, Your Majesty.”
“Yes?”
“There are those who remain. First, I will behead the Deposed Queen, who fed poison to the Late King, murdered His Majesty’s son, and set fire to the Royal Castle.”
“U-um, I think it would be acceptable to proceed according to Your Grace’s wishes.”
“I understand. Then I shall carry out the sentence immediately.”
“Must I...... watch?”
Though I had decided the punishment, I gave Her Majesty the final choice.
Even if the condemned person deserved to die, she needed to understand that the execution order of one in power could send a person’s head flying.
“You may view it as accepting the responsibility of taking a life, but you do not have to watch.”
Her Majesty placed a hand on her chest, drew a deep breath, tangled her fingers together, and clenched her teeth.
Her molars were going to break. I could see her jaw joints trembling.
“I will observe.”
“Then...... bring her.”
“Let go, let go! What are you doing? My father is the Emperor of the Empire! How dare you lay hands on me! Agh!?”
I had intended to beat her myself, but she was filthy, so I simply had the guards do it.
Should her teeth and tongue be pulled out first? Then she might stop this madness.
When I faced her again, I sneered.
“You have not died yet? You will regret not killing yourself. Today, I shall cut off your head and sprinkle your blood over the child and former husband who died unhappily because of you.”
“What sort of law is this? I am an Imperial Princess. I was the Queen of your country. To sever the noble bloodline of the Imperial family is......”
“The Kingdom’s national law kills slaves and emperors alike if they break the law.”
“What law is that!? A family that guards the Holy Land is granted special status under canon law!?”
The bitch’s rebuttal was correct.
A slave and an Imperial royal would not receive the same punishment for breaking the same law.
But
“I, the Acting Minister of Justice and representative of royal authority, created that law as of today. Therefore, be slaughtered like a dog that bit its master.”
“Ah, ahahahahahaha, ahahahahaha. There will be war. My father, the Emperor, will not leave this country alone. You will regret this.”
“If that were so, he would not have left it to a mere duchy and sent troops through a bypass route.”
If the Emperor had truly cherished his daughter and granddaughter, he would have deployed a great army himself and attacked from the Kingdom’s northwest.
Whether the attempt succeeded or not, she was merely a card he could discard. That was the full extent of the Emperor’s affection for her.
We brought the Deposed Queen near the offices of the Minister of Military Affairs and the Minister of Justice in the Royal Castle.
Inside the square-shaped offices stood a gallows and a fountain-like structure that allowed blood to flow into the drains.
“Guh!?”
They forced her roughly to her knees and pressed her head down.
Then I proclaimed.
“I sentence you to death by beheading for the Attempted Assassination of the Late King, the Royal Castle Arson Incident, the Prince Murder Incident, and war crimes committed against the Kingdom.”