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“Did you say treason?”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Anya answered joyfully.
The reason why Anya was happy rather than angry after witnessing a plot for treason was that such an absurd attempt gave her the opportunity to exterminate the people that had been bothering her for a while.
However, Juan and Hela were listening to Anya in the conference room with a frown unlike her. Hela was already aware of the fact that Anya had gone to falsely accuse the Deed family of treason. But Hela grew frustrated, since she didn’t expect the Deed family to be plotting so openly.
Yet Anya gave information that was different from Hela’s thoughts.
“The Deed family was conspiring with the people of the Ilde family to plot treason within Torra using a transport carriage from one of their merchants. Most of the nobles from the religious faction seem to be involved in this conspiracy, and several nobles from the founding faction also seemed to have participated.”
“It seems like they were conscious of the Golems, considering that they plotted for treason within Torra; after all, the Golems won’t be able to attack the interior of Torra. They must have been quite scared of them,” Hela said.
“They were scared of Golems, but not me?” Juan muttered with a dumbfounded laugh. “Hela will find out who is involved and how much they are involved. But a treason, huh? That’s quite unfamiliar to me. Did they really think they had a chance against me?”
To be honest, it was Juan’s first time facing a treason attempt against himself. During his days as the emperor, the minor disturbances on the outskirts of the empire used to be taken care of by the local knights, and those who were closer to the emperor didn’t even dare to dream of treason.
The assassination of the emperor by Gerard could be considered treason, but such treason not only failed, but also had no results—therefore it wouldn’t be wrong to say that it was Juan’s first time dealing with treason.
This was only natural, since Juan himself was a deterrent to war, as well as the legitimacy of the imperial throne. To face treason in the end, it meant that people couldn’t believe in either of them.
“I guess people have been looking down on me much more than I thought.”
Juan had thought that he took over the Imperial Palace from the Church and Barth Baltic with an overwhelming show of power in his own way.
‘But they are already plotting treason against me when it hasn’t even been a month since I returned.’
Hela carefully opened her mouth.
“Rather, they might have had no choice but to plot treason, since Your Majesty didn't give them a chance to stand on your side. There are many ways to kill them slowly.”
“Or just cut the buds to begin with,” Anya interrupted.
Hela glared at Anya upon hearing her, but eventually nodded.
“Quick resolution eventually becomes a problem later on. But now that the situation has turned out like this, Anya’s suggestion might be the better one. Anya took care of everything quietly without letting anyone know, so they probably don’t know that their plot for treason has been caught yet. Let’s take advantage of this opportunity and wipe out all the people involved, including those who might get in our way in the future.”
“Those who might get in our way in the future?” Juan asked.
“I’m talking about those who have not clearly expressed their loyalty to Your Majesty—such as the local Churches,” Hela answered.
Although Juan took control of Torra, many of the Churches that spread out and dug into the outskirts of the empire still showed no clear change in their stance. The fact that the Pope abandoned Torra and fled was shocking, but they did not know what to do at a time like this.
Juan considered it for a brief moment before opening his mouth.
“It’s a purge then.”
“Organization is a necessary procedure, Your Majesty. The power of the empire will only increase when everyone is united.”
“I thought you hated bloodshed, Hela.”
“Of course not, Your Majesty. I am the commander of an army after all. But my point is that we need to make sure to let the subordinates know that the commander moves with discipline, not madness. The intelligence that Anya has brought back to us is a good opportunity for us.”
Juan was silent for a moment, but soon shook his head.
“We’ll talk about that later. I want to focus on the traitors for now. Anya, did you find out what supplies they were bringing in through the merchants?”
“Delane Deed didn’t know anything other than his task, which was to make it easier for the merchant carriage to get in. It seemed like he was gathering troops in his own way, but it’s not serious enough to pay much attention to,” Anya answered.
“But we should still check it out. How many of them are there?” Hela asked.
“I would say about a hundred or so?”
“That’s not much. Oh, by the way. You said that there was another outsider at the mansion other than Delane Deed, right? He’s a member of the Ilde family?” Hela clicked her tongue as she asked.
“Yes. It’s a face I often saw back in Hiveden. He’s a dreary guy who’s usually in charge of the rough and dirty work… I captured him for interrogation later, but he swallowed poison. His tongue was completely melted and gone when I checked. But I did hear a little bit about what he said earlier… he was talking about a master or something?”
“Master? Is he talking about the Pope?”
“It’s a little too ambiguous to assume so. Those involved in the Church usually always refer to the Pope as ‘His Holiness.’ Perhaps he was talking about Doctrinal General Dismas?”
“It wouldn’t be so strange if the Ilde family served more than one master, since they are dreary people. So I guess those two are the most likely to be the ‘master’ they were talking about. Even if not, we will be able to select a few candidates with ease.”
“I see,” Juan briefly answered.
Juan couldn’t believe that Dismas was plotting such an insidious thing in the background. As far as Juan remembered, Dismas had a loyal and pleasant personality which made people wonder if he was more influenced by Barth Baltic than by Juan. But it seemed like the way he fought the war and the way he treated his enemy were all different now than from the past—although it seemed like there were more than just those two things that changed about Dismas.
But Juan couldn’t understand what it was that changed him so much. Juan placed his hand on his forehead as he felt exhausted just by thinking about Dismas.
“What happened to Delane Deed?” Juan asked.
“Um, I did kill him. But…”
“Did you just say you killed him?” Hela frowned.
If an internal collaborator was killed, there was a high chance that they would change their plans.
“You’ve made a hasty decision, Anya,” Hela said.
“It’s okay. No one will know that he’s dead. Well… maybe for a month at least?” Anya said as she winked at Hela. “I figured that I should make him loyal at least in the afterlife if he can’t be loyal when he is alive.”
“Wait. Did you turn him into an undead?”
“It’s slightly different from the ordinary undead. I turned him into an undead before his heart completely stopped. His heart is still beating and maintaining his body at a normal body temperature, but it won’t last long. His blood will eventually clot and his body temperature will drop, causing his body to rot. But he will continue to move and stay loyal due to the spell that I engraved on his soul.”
Anya took out the medium she used to cast the spell. Wrapped around her wrist was a necklace with the names of the twin children engraved on them.
After remaining silent for a long time, Juan finally opened his mouth.
“Then it’s all settled. Anya, find out everything about the attempted treason, but try your best to not use any means. In particular, make sure to find out what the supplies that they are trying to bring in are. Look into its source and current location.”
This novel is available on bit.ly/3iBfjkV.
“Yes, Your Majesty. But what do you mean ‘not use any means?’ Do you mean ‘by any means?’”
“No, you heard me right. There’s a need for you to restrain yourself a little bit. I won’t give you a strict limit, but make sure to have a bottom line you don’t cross.”
“Yes, Your Majesty…” Anya answered with a disappointed look.
Then Juan turned back to face Hela.
“Hela, You investigate the people involved in the treason, make a list, and send it to me.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Juan then turned to look at Hela and Anya and finished speaking with a dark expression.
“The war is still not over because I was weak. I’ll have to make a definite impression this time.”
***
The Citadel of the Sun that was built on the outskirts of Torra was home to the Order of the Capital. Considering that the knights basically served as military officers, it was also the headquarters in charge of the Imperial Army. Therefore, more than half of the administrators that were dressed up in robes—which did not match their title— consisted of the members of the citadel. All of them were those who tried to keep the Imperial Army flowing smoothly.
“To be precise, they can be said to be the ones who try to prevent the Imperial Army from turning into bandits,” Pavan said to Juan with an exhausted look while sitting at Barth Baltic’s office desk inside the Citadel of the Sun.
“The Imperial Army defends the empire from the enemies, and the administrators here defend the empire from the Imperial Army. It’s just an instant that a hungry army turns into a band of thieves when they aren’t paid properly.”
“It seems like it has been maintained pretty well. I thought you were going to ask them to ‘arm yourselves with the loyalty to His Majesty,’ because of the Church’s long reign,” Juan said.
“Well, the army is… Hmm. Barth Baltic, the former General, had a huge influence on them. Not even the Church could act against them recklessly. But things have been difficult because the tax collection rate has fallen, not to mention that there was frequent movement of the troops recently. I may have to force loyalty to His Majesty sooner or later.”
“The soldiers?”
“No, the local nobles. I’ll have to tell them to keep their salaries straight even if that means they have to tighten their belts, especially to those from the areas with low tax collection rates. That will help them to keep it together.”
Juan and Pavan laughed facing each other. Juan still didn’t like Pavan very much. However, he had no choice but to acknowledge that there was no one better than Pavan who had a broad understanding of the current Imperial Army.
Pavan had been serving and representing Barth Baltic in numerous fields and had inherited a lot of Barth’s skills and knowledge. Because the Imperial Army had been under the rule of Barth Baltic for a long time, they were following the Hornsluine military system and supply structure in many ways. Considering that, there was no person more suitable than Pavan who had learned everything while standing next to Barth Baltic.
“Pavan.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“I’m planning to get rid of the position of the Regent. It might be a shame for you.”
Pavan nodded, but he showed no signs of disappointment.
“I didn’t deserve that position anyway.”
“You admired Barth Baltic a lot as far as I know.”
“It’s all the more so, don’t you think? I would hide my face and run away out of embarrassment if someone told me that I was on the same level as Barth Baltic. I am fully satisfied and content with my current position. In fact, it could have been much worse.”
“I’m glad you think so.”
Whether Juan liked Pavan or not was a different matter, but there seemed to be no problem in trusting him with important Imperial positions.
“Oh, by the way. Recently there was a plot to attempt treason inside Torra.”
Pavan sprang up and straightened his back upon hearing Juan’s words.
“Did you say treason, Your Majesty? Who would attempt such a reckless…”
“We suspect that Dismas was trying to manipulate the Deed family to cause chaos. Anya and Hela are investigating it right now.”
Pavan got lost in thought for a while, then suddenly raised his head. Then he shook his head with a pale expression.
“I don’t know anything about that, Your Majesty.”
“I know. I’ve already checked what kind of business this citadel deals with.”
‘If the rebels instigated the internal religious faction to plot treason, there’s no way they could have not contacted the Imperial Army.’
Juan looked through the work done in the Citadel of the Sun with such a thought, but he found nothing suspicious. This meant that there were no internal collaborators from the military, including Pavan.
‘Then it seems like what they’re bringing through a transport carriage is not just a simple weapon.’
Juan thought that they might be bringing in professional combat personnel if they had a large scale, since there would be a lot of damage if the Order of Surtr decided to infiltrate Torra themselves. However, the Deed family hadn’t brought in that many supplies.
“What I want to know is about Dismas, Pavan. You probably met Dismas in person, since you’ve been in a key position for a long time. Tell me everything you know about Dismas. I need to know how different he is from the Dismas that I know.”
Pavan looked perplexed and hesitated to answer, with unease written all over his face. The heavy silence seemed to throw a hundred words at Juan.
“He must be terrible.”
“Please forgive me, Your Majesty.”
“It’s okay, so just tell me. He’s not a kid anymore. If he has committed a crime, he should take responsibility for his actions.”
Pavan slowly opened his mouth at Juan’s urging.
“Do you know about the god called Iolin, Your Majesty?”