Chapter 171 - Fill the Goblets with Blood (4)

The nobles stood frozen, completely motionless.

In a way, it seemed they were so terrified they couldn't even think to move, and in another, it seemed they were claiming to have not a single speck of shame looking up to the heavens. From another perspective, they also appeared to believe that no matter if he was a prince, he wouldn't dare perform a sword dance in this place.

Silence descended upon the Great Hall.

Gulp.

The sound of someone swallowing dry saliva was heard.

"Seeing that no one is moving, it seems no one has committed a sin."

The First Prince opened his mouth.

"The future of the kingdom is truly bright."

The prince praised the bright future of the kingdom with an exaggerated tone and gestures.

It was a blatant mockery.

The nobles still maintained their silence. Even the great lords who would usually step forward in a fit of rage did not step up to protest or raise an objection.

"But it really is strange."

The prince tilted his head.

"When everyone is so innocent and clean like this, where is this nose-rotting stench coming from?"

The prince's gaze turned to the left.

"Just where is it."

The nobles who met his gaze flinched and trembled.

"I'm asking where this foul smell is coming from."

The prince's gaze swept to the right again.

The nobles hurriedly lowered their eyes.

Step.

The prince took a step forward.

SKREEEECH!

The tip of the sword scratched the floor of the Great Hall, letting out a loud screech.

SKREEEECH!

Every time the prince moved, the nobles trembled at the terrifying noise that followed.

One timid old noble could not withstand the pressure and spoke up.

"R-Right now, the Royal Family is persecuting innocent nobles. T-This is absolutely not right, so please explain the whole story so that we nobles do not misunderstand the Royal Family's intentions..."

As the old noble's voice echoed through the Great Hall, the noise of the sword tip scraping the floor suddenly stopped.

The prince was already standing in front of the old noble.

"So it's here."

The old noble turned pale white.

"To insult our generations of devotion and service..."

The old noble, who was desperately trying to flaunt his family's hard work to the prince, flinched and stopped speaking.

The old noble's gaze turned toward the prince's sword.

A single drop of blood rolled down the blade. The old noble absentmindedly stroked his own neck.

As he felt the wrinkles on his neck, which were as deep as his advanced age, an unfamiliar sensation touched his fingertips.

The old noble parted his lips. But what flowed out through his teeth was not a question, but bright red bloody foam.

Gurgle.

The old noble's eyes rolled back white.

Thump, roll.

The grotesque head with glaring eyes rolled across the floor.

SPURT!

A step too late, a fountain of blood erupted.

"U-Urrgh!"

"Gyaaah!"

The nobles who had been standing blankly, only to be drenched in hot liquid, let out dumbfounded noises and flopped down onto the floor.

"Aaaagh!"

"What is this!"

The pale-faced nobles screamed as if they had gone half-mad.

"No matter if you are Your Highness, you cannot do this! To harm a noble without a proper trial!"

"He was a loyal subject who devoted himself to the kingdom for generations! How could you without even stating his crimes!"

A few of the terrified nobles protested as if screaming.

"The Royal Family has decided to massacre us nobles!"

"The King and the prince are completely insane!"

Driven by terror, the nobles blabbered their mouths without even realizing what they were saying.

"We cannot just be killed like this! Let us all join forces and resist the Royal Family's tyranny!"

A few nobles drew awl-like swords disguised as canes and incited the others.

It was an utter pandemonium unlike any other.

"Did you ask for the crimes."

Piercing through that terrible commotion, a low voice rang out.

It was the First Prince's voice.

He was no longer smiling.

"The crime of failing to properly care for your people as a lord, leaving them to wander and beg."

At the bleak and cold voice that felt like a biting winter wind, the chaotic commotion stopped as if it were a lie.

"The crime of leaking the kingdom's secrets and colluding with the nobles of other nations for personal gain as a noble!"

A storm-like momentum flowed out from the prince's body.

"The crime of forgetting your sacred vows as vassals and serving two masters!"

Faced with such harsh majesty and fury, the nobles could only tremble.

"Born as nobles, you forgot your duties, and born as humans, you lived like beasts!"

Looking at those nobles, the prince spat out as if grinding his teeth.

"That is the reason you die here today."

At that chilling sentence, the nobles began to clamor once again.

"I did not betray the kingdom! What do you mean leaking secrets!"

Some denied their crimes,

"What can the nobles of a powerless nation possibly do! It was just a sin committed to survive!"

"If we are guilty, the Royal Family is not free from blame either!"

Some rationalized their actions and claimed they were justified.

"Do you think you will be safe after doing this without His Majesty the Emperor's permission! Please face the reality of the kingdom and wake up from your dreams!"

A few of them even scolded the prince and the King for being foolish.

"If Ambassador Montpellier knows of this situation, he will never sit idly by!"

The moment the Empire's name was brought up, the attitude of the terrified, screaming nobles suddenly changed.

"Although only through letters, I am a baron of the Empire who has sworn the vow of a vassal to His Majesty the Emperor! A mere prince of a small nation cannot harm me!"

"I too have sworn as a vassal for His Majesty the Emperor! I am a proud noble whose name is listed in the Empire's noble registry!"

Once someone started shouting, the nobles competed to flaunt that they were both nobles of the kingdom and vassals serving the emperor, making threats.

"If we have a sin, it is being born as nobles of a weak nation and serving an incompetent monarch! But the Empire gave us a new opportunity, and we simply made a choice for a better future!"

More than half of the nobles gathered in the Great Hall so proudly revealed their treason.

Their shameless behavior was to the point that even the other nobles looked dumbfounded.

But the prince did not bat an eyelid.

He simply turned his head and asked the King sitting on the platform.

"Do you still consider my methods to be extreme?"

The King did not answer the prince's question.

"Your change of heart is the result of my lack of virtue. Because the nation lacked strength and the Royal Family could not protect you, you struggled so much. Therefore, I ask you: if you admit your past mistakes even now and promise your utmost devotion, I will give you a chance at serving in the ranks as commoners."

Instead, with a heavy-hearted tone, he advised the nobles that it was not too late, telling them to bow down and beg for forgiveness.

It was a voice full of deep sorrow.

However, the nobles only mocked the King's sorrow and mercy.

"Rather than live as a slave of a weak nation, I will live proudly as a noble of a great empire."

The King asked again.

"Is there truly no one. Is there not even a single one of you."

At the King's grief-stricken voice, the nobles sneered.

"If the Royal Family officially apologizes for today's events and provides adequate compensation, we might consider it. But I doubt whether the Royal Family even has the ability to compensate us enough to appease us."

The nobles giggled and agreed with those words.

The King was about to speak again, but the prince stepped forward and cut him off.

"Your Majesty."

The blood-drenched prince quietly shook his head.

The King let out a long sigh and tightly closed his eyes.

And when he opened his eyes again, the King engulfed in grief was gone.

"The prince may do as the prince desires. I will involve myself no further."

With those final words, the old King closed his mouth.

And stepping forward in the King's place was the prince.

"Royal Knights."

At the prince's words, the Royal Knights stepped forward in unison.

"Secure them."

"If you lay even a single hair on... Huh?"

The startled nobles shouted and protested, only to frown when they saw the knights walk right past them.

Clank, clank.

The Royal Knights bypassed the traitors who were mocking the King and stood in front of the nobles huddled in the corner.

"We will escort you from now until this matter is finished."

"I leave it to you."

Marquis Bielefeld and Count Kirgayen moved toward the platform, following the Royal Knights' instructions. The lesser nobles watching this also moved under the guidance of the Royal Knights.

It wasn't difficult for the traitors to realize the difference between those nobles and themselves.

The royalist nobles led by Marquis Bielefeld and Count Kirgayen. And the provincial lords who had no particular ties to the central government.

Unlike themselves, they were the ones who had not been chosen by the Empire.

Up until then, the traitors actually mocked them for lacking tact and being slow to grasp the current trends. The sight of them screaming in terror at the first sight of blood was nowhere to be found.

"I had a bad feeling, so I already sent word to His Excellency Marquis Montpellier. The marquis will arrive shortly, so the Royal Family should worry about how they will avoid the punishment for beheading an innocent noble and persecuting us so severely."

They firmly believed that the moment Marquis Montpellier arrived, today's uproar would come to an end.

But no matter how much time passed, Marquis Montpellier did not appear.

Instead, only the messenger they had sent to the marquis was dragged in, covered in blood.

"You cannot cover the sky with your ten fingers! The marquis will soon find out! There is nowhere in the kingdom his eyes do not reach!"

When the prince gestured, a Royal Knight threw the bloodied messenger in front of the traitors.

"You idiot! To get caught without even being able to run a simple errand properly."

The messenger shook his head at those words.

He hadn't failed the mission. He had met the marquis and reported the whole story. The marquis had already known everything before he even told him.

"Did you hear that? There is already nowhere in the kingdom without the eyes and ears of the Empire. So stop dreaming such vain dreams and..."

"That's not it..."

The traitor, who was talking with arrogant confidence, frowned at the messenger's sudden interruption. The messenger, who would normally have shut his mouth immediately at his master's displeasure, shouted desperately.

"H-His Excellency the Marquis said that he would not dare interfere with the master of the Royal Family exercising his rightful authority, and told me not to look for him to avoid any unnecessary misunderstandings!"

The messenger explained the situation, saying that the wounds on his body were also from being beaten by the marquis's servants.

The haughty nobles froze instantly.

There was no one among them who didn't know what the marquis's words meant.

The anxiety and fear they had temporarily pushed aside by borrowing the prestige of the Empire reared their heads once more.

"I-If something happens to us, our families will not sit still! If you do not want to see the entire kingdom turn into a battlefield, stop everything here. If you do, we too will let today's matter slide!"

One great lord stepped forward and made a threat.

However, the threat of a great lord who had lost the shield known as the Empire could not reassure even himself, nor could it intimidate his opponent.

"I understand your loyal heart that hopes the kingdom doesn't turn into a battlefield. That's why I'm telling you, it's a useless worry."

The prince said with a bright smile.

"Because a war has already started."

But contrary to his expression, those words were nothing but heavy.

"By now, the elite troops of House Ballorhard and the Central Legion are probably reducing your family's castle to rubble."

At the prince's words, the traitors turned pale white.

Looking at those traitors, the prince laughed out loud.

As if it were so exhilarating he couldn't stand it.

The prince stopped laughing. He then raised his sword with an expressionless face.

"W-Wait! I've changed my mind! To eat away at the kingdom's vitality with a civil war is something I simply cannot..."

Before he could even finish speaking, a flash of the sword glinted.

"No matter what His Majesty said, I had no intention of letting you live anyway."

The prince said coldly.

The headless torso of the great lord collapsed with a thump. Seeing that trembling corpse, the nobles screamed.

"Aaaagh!"

"P-Please spare me!"

The prince leaped into their midst.

Slash, slash.

The nobles, who were once proud aristocrats of the kingdom but were now nothing more than death row inmates, ran wildly around the Great Hall trying to survive.

And in their midst, the prince performed a sword dance.

The Great Hall was dyed in blood.

* * *

Inside the reddened Great Hall, a hundred heads were piled up below the platform.

The King looked at the heads with a dry expression. Not a single one of them had died repenting for their sins. Every single one had a face twisted with a filthy desire for life and terror.

"I have fulfilled all commands."

At that moment, the prince stepped forward and returned the royal treasured sword he had received.

The King took the treasured sword and stared intently at its bloodstained blade. Then, he spoke in an exhausted voice.

"Hang their heads in the plaza of The Capital so that everyone can see them. You must write down their crimes alongside them so that the world will know of all their sins."

At the King's order, the Royal Knights approached and gathered the heads into sacks.

The King, who was watching the knights disappear as they dragged the blood-dripping sacks, turned his head to the nobles led by Marquis Bielefeld and Count Kirgayen.

"Now, only you are left."

At the voice that had aged significantly in a short time, Marquis Bielefeld prostrated himself flat.

"We, too, are sinners! When the kingdom was being trampled and groaning under the Empire, we saw it and turned a blind eye, and when traitorous wretches insulted the Royal Family, we closed our ears! Since we failed to faithfully fulfill our duties as nobles of the kingdom and caused something like today to happen, we also deserve to die!"

Uncaring that his body was getting stained with blood, the old marquis performed a full bow to the ground and shouted in a voice like he was coughing up blood.

"Since Your Majesty has so righted the spirit of the nation today, the sinner Siorin Kirgayen will gladly die! Please punish us!"

The surviving nobles prostrated themselves in unison and confessed their sins.

A sliver of light returned to the old King's face, which had been full of exhaustion.

"Those men are enough."

Then, the prince's voice was heard.

"Four hundred years ago in this land, there were many who were willing to give their lives for the nation, but there were no nobles. There was only a King and his knights who resolved to protect it."

The King turned his head. His eldest son, whom he had once hated and cast aside, but who had now become someone indispensable to the kingdom.

Even drenched in blood, the prince was shining like the sun.

That light was so very dazzling.

Drawn by the light, the King found himself rising from the throne without realizing it.

On the platform, standing up straight, the King raised his sword vertically.

"Listen, all of you!"

And then he shouted.

"As of today, the kingdom will sever all relations with the Empire!"

Though he had always carried them in his heart during his youth.

"The kingdom will use all its capabilities to reclaim everything that was taken!"

Those words he had never once been able to speak out of fear that the Empire's ears would hear.

"And so, we shall finally be reborn as a nation full of glory as in the past!"

He poured them all out for the first time in decades.

"If necessary, we will not hesitate to go to war!"

The King's proclamation echoed throughout the Great Hall.