Episode 64. Today, I Will Not See Anyone’s Blood
‘Am I going to die like this?’
When she fled from the goblin attack.
Ricke held her sister’s hand and jumped out of the bedroom window.
Hugging her screaming sister to her chest, she urgently chanted a defensive spell.
The moment of falling was dizzying. She raised her concentration to its limit to avoid making a mistake.
Fortunately, the pain of the fall wasn’t great.
The Regent raised her head from her embrace.
“Are you okay, Sister?”
Her sister nodded.
“Thank… goodness….”
That was the end of her consciousness.
She could feel the toxic fumes she had inhaled unconsciously spreading rapidly throughout her body.
Ricke realized that her life was in critical danger.
She could sense the mana within her body fighting with all its might against the poisonous energy.
But even that wouldn’t last much longer.
The fact that she could endure even this much was thanks to her resistance.
‘Still, I’m glad. That I could save my sister.’
If it hadn’t been for Ricke, her sister would have been utterly helpless.
Thinking about who was more necessary for the empire’s future between herself and her sister, Ricke could choose her sister without hesitation.
The years of training in Elfenbein, returning to Essen to stay by her sister’s side—all of it had been for this moment.
Yes, she could be satisfied.
‘Satisfied….’
Not long after leaving Elfenbein, Sylvia had once said this.
“Do not sacrifice yourself like you did in Violet ever again.”
What had she answered? She couldn’t remember well.
She thought she had simply nodded.
But she hadn’t truly understood Sylvia’s words.
Because Friederike was not the type of person who could sacrifice others for herself.
‘I’m sorry, Sylvia.’
She felt sorry to her sister, to Sylvia, to her teachers in Elfenbein and the Miao people she had met in Hohenberg, and to everyone else.
Friederike was a good person to the extent that she could only give people her apologies.
And one person.
To Binaeril Dalheim as well.
The feelings left for Binaeril were quite different from those left for the others.
Ricke only understood that as she was dying.
It wasn’t regret, and it wasn’t gratitude.
It was hard to pinpoint exactly what it was, but perhaps….
‘Longing?’
If forced to express it, it felt like that kind of emotion.
If she were to die, Friederike wanted to sit face to face with Binaeril and talk, even if only for a moment.
No matter what the conversation might be.
At some point, the mana driving out the toxins in her body began to change.
The toxins spreading throughout her body faltered.
A liquid someone had poured into Ricke’s mouth was revitalizing her whole body and driving out the poison.
She was coming back to life. Like a miracle.
Ricke, who had been trapped in a deep sleep for a long time, slowly opened her eyes.
She herself thought she was dreaming.
So when she saw the longing face in her vision for the first time, she embraced it tightly without realizing it.
At her fingertips, his rough and damp clothes could be felt.
Into her buried nose seemed to come a faint smell of rain, like his name.
Her dormant senses were gradually returning, one by one.
Only then did she realize. This wasn’t longing. This emotion was,
“Ricke!”
“Your Highness!”
Hearing returned last, later than the other senses.
Friederike looked around at the voices calling her and confirmed this wasn’t a dream.
In her upward gaze was Binaeril’s exhausted, bewildered expression.
“Hahaha….”
Friederike’s face flushed.
“I told you raising a younger sister is useless….”
“You saw too, right? The moment she wakes up, she throws herself into a man’s arms?”
“Yes, Your Highness. Of course I saw.”
“She doesn’t know this sister’s worried heart at all. Sigh. She’s grown, she’s grown. And after I squeezed out blood-like money to send her to study abroad in Elfenbein….”
Ricke’s face burned like a ripe persimmon.
Sylvia also smiled a triumphant smile, teaming up with Charlotte to tease Ricke with all her heart.
“Sister, please stop!”
Ricke, unable to endure it any longer, screamed loudly like an adolescent girl, expressing her frustration.
“Oh my, did I say something untrue? This girl is really funny.”
When Ricke glared at the two perpetrators with axe-like eyes, Sylvia changed the topic to soothe her mood.
“Your Highness, are you feeling alright?”
“Yeah. I think I’m better after eating and sleeping well.”
“You mustn’t overdo it just in case.”
“Don’t worry, Sylvia. What is there to worry about now?”
Just as she said.
The rebellion of the noble faction attempting to seize the royal castle had been suppressed. The ringleaders were all imprisoned, and Duke Thorben Dux, the empire’s greatest power, had supported the two princesses’ ascension to the throne, so virtually all problems were solved.
“It’s too early to be happy. Too much blood has flowed in the royal castle.”
But that was all. The soldiers and knights defending the royal castle had been nearly annihilated.
If Duke Dux returned to his territory like this, they would be in a position to worry about a second rebellion by the nobles near the capital.
Regent Charlotte held modest funerals for those who had died fighting alongside her younger sister.
“Couldn’t we ask the Duke? To leave troops stationed in the royal castle, I mean.”
“That’s one way. But ultimately it’s just a stopgap. The fact that we need to raise new troops doesn’t change.”
Besides that, there were piles of issues to resolve before them.
“The coronation ceremony must be held soon as well, and finally….”
“We must also pass judgment on the noble faction.”
That was the first thing to resolve.
How to dispose of the rebelling nobles.
Just then, a knocking sound on the office door was heard.
Count Thorben Dux politely greeted them and approached.
“I heard you called for me.”
“Yes, Duke Dux. I called you because there is something I wish to discuss.”
“The disposition of the remnants?”
As expected of the seasoned Duke Dux. He grasped their worries at a glance.
“That’s right.”
Duke Dux alternately looked at the two princesses’ faces.
To lead a great nation called the empire, they were still too young.
It wasn’t a matter of age; they still had innocent sides remaining.
If it had been him, he wouldn’t have hesitated.
“My opinion is firm. Summary execution, only that. You don’t intend to show mercy to those who plotted treason, do you?”
“I want to as well. But too many people participated in the rebellion. The underground prison is said to be full like a pigsty with piglets.
If we execute all of them as they are, the burden will fall entirely on the territory residents who have lost their lords.”
“A power vacuum will occur… that’s what you mean.”
“Yes. If the nobles are executed, we don’t know what people will rush in to fill those positions and wield what power. The royal castle doesn’t have the leisure to look after each one immediately right now….”
Duke Dux thought the Regent was being led by sentiment and hesitating with the punishment.
But that wasn’t it. She was grasping the situation extremely calmly.
Duke Dux reflected on his own thoughts. To think he couldn’t believe in her like this after declaring his support for her.
“I seem to have thought too simply. Your Majesty’s words are correct.”
“Is there no way?”
It was certainly a problem difficult to decide simply.
They couldn’t kill all the traitors immediately. But they couldn’t send them back to their territories alive either.
If sent back in one piece, there was no guarantee the nobles wouldn’t conspire again to attack the capital.
“I don’t know about the others, but you must execute the two marquises who were the ringleaders. You must never forgive them.”
“I know that. I had no intention of forgiving the two marquises either.”
Especially Marquis Viktor Siller. He must.
The Regent was no fool led by emotions. She had not the slightest intention of forgiving Marquis Siller, who had driven her sister to death.
“But the nobles under him, hmm….”
“How about doing it this way?”
Ricke offered an opinion among the troubled group.
“So, all the remaining people….”
Screech—.
A heavy iron door opened with a chilling sound.
The guards of Essen Royal Castle’s underground prison looked down at the prisoners wearing collars and spat out coldly.
“All criminals, come out.”
They were all nobles who had been captured attempting to seize the royal castle.
A fearful murmur spread among the prisoners.
“Is it our turn now?”
“Are they going to kill us all?”
“No, I can’t die like this. No!”
Some were resigned, some were terrified, and others caused a disturbance.
“Quiet, quiet!”
The guards subdued the violent criminals with whips and untied their collars.
“Shut up and follow quietly.”
“Follow quietly? I saw with these two eyes how Marquis Siller and Marquis Papen died. Are you telling us to die like beasts too!”
Just a few days ago, the two marquises’ executions had taken place.
The remaining nobles had clearly watched the two powerful people dragged like beasts to a slaughterhouse and hanged.
“Then what are you going to do, being traitors? If you don’t quietly follow orders, there will simply be one more beaten corpse.”
At the guard’s sharp words, the remaining people all abandoned hope.
Where they followed the guards was the great hall on the above-ground level of the royal castle, where the two princesses and people had gathered.
Among those gathered was Duke Thorben Dux, the main figure who had turned the nobles’ rebellion to failure.
The criminals couldn’t raise their heads.
It seemed they intended to execute the traitors before the people to set an example.
Once the escort finished, the Regent stood up and opened her mouth.
“At this gathering, I shall pronounce the criminals’ sentences. First, Count Manfred List.”
The guard pushed Count List’s back.
“All your fiefs and titles are confiscated.”
Count List shed silent tears, hoping a painless execution would be carried out.
The Regent’s sentence was not yet over.
“To the criminal Manfred List, I newly bestow the title of Viscount. Viscount List’s fief shall be the city of Baien in the east to Buvale.”
“…Huh?”
Count List—no, Viscount List—raised his head and let out a foolish moan.
“That is all. Next, Viscount Walter Hartmann.”
Leaving Viscount List, who couldn’t understand the situation, Viscount Hartmann stepped forward.
“Your fiefs and titles are confiscated, and I newly grant you the status of Baronet and the fief from Buvale to Jagan. That is all.”
Baronet Hartmann wore the same vacant expression.
Thus the criminals’ names were called in order.
Like the first two, they all had their titles and the territories they ruled confiscated.
And they were newly bestowed new titles and new fiefs.
“…Those who have objections to the sentences thus far may come forward.”
“Wait, just a moment!”
Viscount List stepped forward and asked.
All sorts of complicated thoughts passed through his head, but in the end there was only one thing he wanted to ask.
“Is that all?”
“Are you dissatisfied?”
“No, it’s not dissatisfaction….”
“Is there… no execution?”
Baronet Hartmann asked in turn.
Regent Charlotte let out a deep sigh and finally declared.
“Today, I will not see anyone’s blood.”
“Woo, hooray!”
Cheers of joy spread among the criminals who had been keeping their heads down.
“Quiet! Among those who have been sentenced, is there anyone who knows the locations of the fiefs just granted?”
Baien, Buvale, Jagan….
The quick-witted ones found the commonality of where these places were located.
“They are all cities to the east of Hohenberg.”
In fact, they were small villages at a level embarrassing to be called cities.
Monster-infested, abandoned lands of the empire where everyone had left.
“Correct. From now on, your task is to stabilize the devastated cities to the east of Hohenberg.”
“Th-that’s…!”
It meant the same as telling them to die. They were now empty-handed, having lost both soldiers and titles.
They had no confidence in surviving empty-handed in the lands east of the monster-infested mountain range.
“Don’t worry. I am not sending you to your deaths.”
“How is that place not a deathtrap!”
“We have requested cooperation from Elfenbein, the Magic Tower at the center of the continent.”
Emotions of surprise spread among the people once more.