A Famous Traitor and Treacherous Genius

309 – The End of Dragons, the Beginning of Humans (2)

[4:49 a.M., January 1, 100 Year Imperial Calendar, County of Sirene.]

Phu-uuk.

Deeply, the blade enters the thigh.

“Father!!”

In an instant, red blood flowed out, and a scream escaped the woman’s voice as she looked at the middle-aged man stabbed in her thigh, but no one could help them.

“Eup, eup, eup…!!”

The man who had been stabbed in the thigh gritted his teeth and held on.

He didn’t even put a gag on his mouth, but he used it as if he could achieve something only if he persevered.

“Oh my. If I hold on like that, I will die in the end.”

Franz, a young man with his hair dyed in ultramarine blue, let out a yawn as he played with the square magic stone in his hand.

“Count Sirene. Are you not going to tell me until the end? What did His Majesty King St. Geo Nostrum order you to do and what did he ask you to do?”

“Haaak, haaak, kaaak…”

Count Se Irene, a middle-aged man who had been stabbed, twisted the corner of his mouth in a dark tone.

As soon as he opened his mouth, blood flowed out of his mouth, and the blood did not flow out in drops, but rather in excessive amounts, as if something that had accumulated in his mouth his was bursting out.

“Heh, heh. There is nothing like that!”

“There is no such thing? Okay, then let’s ask another question.”

Franz held out a piece of paper in front of the Count of Sirene.

“Sign, Count of Sirene.”

“…”

“I am declaring my intention to no longer follow Nostrum and to follow the Thersian Empire.”

“Kuh, khuh…”

Count Sirene laughed.

This was clearly his office, and there were many quite strong knights in the White House, but they were all lying on the floor, blood spattered.

“Count!”

“You can’t do that!”

The only ones alive are the Gasols who were dragged in.

All but one, Gasol, were dressed in pajamas because they had been dragged out of their sleep, and each of them had the shadows of the Empire pointing a sword at their necks.

At dawn, the empire’s intelligence unit quickly took over the castle in a night raid.

Before the knights could even step out, the Countess Castle was occupied in less than 30 minutes by some master-level Shadows of the Empire.

30 minutes.

Despite the barrier, it was too short a time to say that a castle was occupied.

Unless there is a traitor inside, a secret passage is revealed to the raiders, and the movement is not carried out according to plan on the appointed day, it is impossible to move this fast.

“Well, well, Count. You’d better sign quietly.”

“You guy… “

“I have been indebted to you a lot during this time, Count.”

The Count’s butler, the only man wearing a suit, chuckled and bowed lightly to the Count.

“If the land of Sirene becomes the empire, then someone will be needed to manage this port.”

“You guys are aiming for that…!”

There was a traitor within the count family.

“The people of the empire will come to that place. Instead, I will receive compensation from the empire and try to live happily on the land of the empire.”

“You dirty traitor…! Ugh…!”

Count Se Irene screamed, but the more he screamed, the deeper the knife in his thigh his dug into the count’s flesh.

“Why are you doing that? The Count in the dream also betrayed the country and opened the door to the Empire.”

“That’s not me!”

“That’s right, you’re not the Count. But if the world that the gold shows is ‘a world that could be’, then someone will eventually be on the side of the empire and open the door.”

“Deacon. Let’s get started, shall we?”

The head deacon fell silent at the warning of Franz, who checked his watch.

“I’ll give you one more minute.”

“Oh, yes. Sorry. I had so much fun.”

“Why, why did you betray me!!”

“Why?”

The head deacon made a blunt expression upon Count Sirene’s words.

“I worked hard under the Count for over 30 years, but my salary has never been raised even once in 5 years.”

“You, you… !”

“You even stored up so much money in your warehouse through gold mine development. Do you know how much I cried every time I did the accounting? The empire decided to give me thalers equivalent to that gold.”

“You believe in the empire, you fool…!”

“The results and history will prove who was foolish.”

“Deacon.”

“Yes.”

The head deacon lifted the sword himself.

“Goodbye, Count.”

“You-“

Phu-uuk.

“Father!!”

“Count!!”

A knife was stuck in my heart.

No ordinary human being can survive if a knife is inserted into his heart.

I don’t know if he had any special abilities, but Count Sirene was not that special person.

“Run…Run…”

Slurp.

To whom were the last words spoken?

That is how the Count of Sirene met his end at the hands of the chief consul.

“Hehe. Prince Franz. Then does the count of Sirene belong to me?”

“That’s how the property will be.”

“Then… The young lady?”

“Either way. However.”

Franz answered the deacon’s question indifferently.

“Not to insurance like you, but to the insider who really took over the Counts of Sirene.”

“Yes?”

“As promised, kill them all.”

Puhuaak.

As soon as Franz finished speaking, the shadows of the empire suddenly killed all of the count’s family members.

“How did this happen…”

“You too.”

Suddenly.

Franz himself swung his sword and decapitated the head deacon.

When the world turned upside down and he realized he had been decapitated.

Very slowly, the deacon saw Countess Seinere standing up.

“This-“

Just seeing that, he met his death

* * *

The emperor said.

They said they had taken over the Counts of Sirene.

They are trying to start a war with that.

“Are you sincere?”

“Of course. When will I tell a lie?”

“It may be a stupid question, but I’ll ask it again. Do you really think war is the answer?”

“It may be an obvious answer, but war is the only answer.”

The emperor did not deny it.

“You and I, the miracle of the Golden Dragon, its power, its return. Let’s get rid of all of that and look at it only from a human perspective and talk about the cause of the war.”

The emperor stretched out one hand in front of me.

“One. The political system of the kingdom is so barbaric. It has the form of a kingdom, but its reality is no different from that of an ancient primitive tribe. Does it make sense for the queen to handle the royal seal and rule in his place when the king is away? ?”

“…”

From the empire’s perspective, the kingdom is just a political club.

“Two. Even the judicial system is foolish. I recognize the law of the fittest, but is it right for a country where strength is limited only to swords and magic? An engineer who can develop technology superior to an airship is treated by a low-ranking knight just because he is weak. A country where you get caught in a duel and get beaten to death.”

From the perspective of the empire’s lawyers, the kingdom’s laws were created only for the privileged class.

“Three. Actually, this is the most serious problem. The kingdom’s economy has been distorted for 500 years. Just because gold is rotting, do you think it is right to make 1 gold coin the minimum unit? Has anyone reformed the currency so far Do you really think it is right that we have not done this, but rather have continued to increase the number by 100,000,000?”

After the kingdom and the empire began to interact in earnest, the imperial economists were the first to fall on their heels.

“This country is simply an extension of the tribal kingdom created by an imbecile and imitating the appearance of a nation. It has been protected for 500 years in the name of the sword master, magic, and the blessing of the golden dragon. No human being is allowed in this country. Development through intellectual thinking cannot be expected, because all those who speak out against the existing system are beaten with white gloves and killed in the arena.”

“…”

“Nostrum has no answer. You know that, so you accepted the empire’s culture from a young age.”

The emperor smiles again.

“That’s why I can’t give up on you. If I were a loyal soldier buried only in Nostrum, I would have gathered the heroes of Nostrum and tried to start a revolution myself. To prepare for war with the Empire, and internally to face all kinds of letter storms, I would have reformed the system politically. You would have taken the lead and removed the cancerous mass inside, but you didn’t.”

“Your Majesty.”

“That’s why we declared war against Nostrum, not Gibraltar. You understand the difference in meaning, right?”

“…In the end, aren’t they threatening with knives and guns?”

The emperor nods his head loudly at my question.

“I won’t deny it.”

“It is true even for the Counts of Sirene. I don’t know the details, but in the end, even killing or saving them will be decided by His Majesty. Just like killing General Hayreddin and anchoring the ship at the Counts of Sirene.”

“Did he do that himself, even in the time period you experienced?”

“You can tell that much just by looking at the Imperial Newspaper.”

Selling corpses was the Habsburg emperor’s specialty.

Hehe. It’s you, after all. Then, how should I use the Count Seinere family to spread the story? For reference, if I give you a hint, the Lady Count Seinere is already on the Empire’s side.”

“It’s one of two things. Either match the dream memories shown by the false gold, or twist it and tell the people of Nostrum that the dream is truly false.”

Electronics.

“A betrayal for the country.”

“Keep trying.”

“Count Seirene betrayed Nostrum, as in a dream. He opened the straits to allow the Imperial airships to land, and intended to become the Imperial Seirene. However, he was killed by his daughter, who discovered that he had betrayed Nostrum. “＜ Br＞

“Was it like that?”

“That could happen.”

“Then what about the other side?”

The latter.

“Getting rid of all the complicated stuff and just throwing out any justification right now to erase the nostrum itself.”

The emperor’s smile deepens.

“Why?”

“Because the foolish people just listen to the words of the ruler who fills the storehouses of their houses.”

The emperor said.

Not the current emperor, but the Habsburg emperor who unified the continent.

“First, let it be destroyed, and then you can declare it with other reasons as appropriate. There are good reasons, too.”

There is no clearer reason for declaring war than this.

“Saint Geo Nostrum is dead, but the countless gold in Nostrum’s land has not disappeared.”

“Hehe.”

“Whether we destroy the gold or keep it all, it is the Empire that controls the gold, not Nostrum.”

Historically, all disputes are ultimately based on taking something from others.

“Miracle of the Golden Dragon? The beginning of the human era? Elimination of variables for the miracle of regression? The people have no time to care about such things. The simplest reason alone is enough to start a war.”

“What is it?”

“To protect the empire’s economy, destroy Nostrum.”

Although the Counts of Sirene had a strait, it was also the place where the most false gold flowed into the empire.

“Now that we know the answer, what do we do?”

“…”

“Are you going to become the guardian of idiots as history has disappeared, or-“

“Your Majesty. You said we would leave all the complexities aside and talk about it, right?”

I stood up.

“Okay. Return, golden dragon, time, miracle, power, system, law, politics, culture, ideology, race. Let’s separate all of that and discuss it based on the clearest cause and reason. About the war. It’s the simplest. And with simple, clear logic that is easy for all people to understand at once.”

I aimed the Auror Blade at the Emperor.

“I’m sorry, but I’m Gibraltar. I’m not Gray von Habsberg.”

“…”

The emperor closed his eyes for a moment.

“I see. I see.”

The corners of his eyes twitched, but then he sighed deeply and started glaring at me.

“Are you choosing to fight?”

“Let’s fight.”

I took out a gold coin from my inner pocket.

“Because I own the largest gold mine in Nostrum.”