Chapter 368

At the same time, Sarkegar, in disguise, was meeting with Owen de Getmora. When he arrived at the location where the meeting of leaders was supposed to be held, Sarkegar found only one person.

No one else was present but Owen de Getmora.

“... What is this trickery?” Sarkegar, cloaked in a black robe, asked, and Owen de Getmora slowly closed his eyes.

“In truth, I have come to deliver a rather impolite message.”

“Impolite?”

“Yes, quite impolite indeed,” Owen said as he regarded the enigmatic black-robed figure in front of him. “The imperial family wishes to borrow your name without your permission.”

“... What are you talking about?”

The fact that a member of the Revolutionary Forces had mentioned the imperial family made Sarkegar realize that something was amiss.

“Thanks to previous events, the imperial family has discovered that borrowing your name can simplify quite a few complicated matters.”

Those words made it clear to Sarkegar that Owen de Getmora was a traitor to the cause.

“Therefore,” the guildmaster continued, “I confess this directly to let you know that this is being done to resolve an internal situation within the empire, and not to stir up an antagonistic relationship with you.”

“...”

“His Highness, the First Prince, wishes to maintain a good relationship with you. He acknowledges that you are necessary for the empire.”

The First Prince, Vertus de Gradias.

Sarkegar had believed he was contacting the Revolutionary Forces, but in reality, he had been in contact with Vertus’s spy.

“So, no matter what happens this time, we hope you will be broad-minded about it and understand.”

They intended to do something, and pin it on the forces of the Dark Land.

“Even if the First Prince is involved in this, do you think you can remain unharmed?”

Owen de Getmora showed no signs of panic, loss of composure, or fear, even in front of the mysterious demon.

“Whether the strings I am attached to lead to the Revolutionary Forces or the imperial family, you can obtain whatever you desire through me. In fact, wouldn’t it be better for you to deal with the imperial family rather than the Revolutionary Forces? Isn’t that enough?”

The guildmaster of the Merchants’ Guild was right. However, the fact that they had been used left a bitter taste in Sarkegar’s mouth.

They were not the stronger party in this negotiation.

Using someone to achieve your own ends was not always straightforward. Likewise, there were bound to be cases where one could end up being used by an entirely unexpected party in return.

***

Sabioleen Tana stood silently in the meeting room filled with corpses, alongside the other Shanapell knights dressed in black camouflage.

It was a filthy business. Though they were executing traitors to the empire, they had to disguise it as the work of demons.

Sabioleen Tana agreed with Vertus’s assertion that this was the best course of action. However, as she watched the team of fabricators disguise the causes of death as demonic in nature, even she, who had become numb to slaughter, felt nauseated.

Was this truly necessary?

Among the leaders of the revolution were faces she recognized. A few were faces she’d been surprised to see, and one of them lay before Sabioleen Tana’s eyes.

She looked down at the corpse of Duke Arthur de Granz, who lay dead with his eyes wide open.

Though they hardly knew each other, she had occasionally encountered him while serving as a dormitory supervisor.

—“Hey! I told you to follow me, didn’t I?”

—“Ah, okay...”

—“Am I going to eat you? Why are you always so scared of me?

—“Oh hello. Should I call you teacher? Or should it be Dame Tana?”

—“Teacher is fine.”

—“Oh, yes, hello, teacher.”

The image of a slightly rough but always cheerful girl came to mind as well.

Sabioleen Tana could almost see how that girl’s expression would change in the future, and how she would end up living the rest of her life. Even though she hadn’t seen it yet, she felt like she knew. Sabioleen Tana gritted her teeth.

She closed the open eyes of Duke Granz. She knew it wouldn’t change anything, but it felt like something she had to do.

“What about diverting the city guards’ attention?” she asked.

“We expect the guards to arrive here in about fifteen minutes.”

“Good. We’ll withdraw.”

Sabioleen Tana had completed her secret mission.

She sensed that another upheaval was about to occur within the empire.

***

In the Winter Palace within the Imperial City Emperatos, Vertus was having tea. It wasn’t the black tea or milk tea he usually drank, but a tea with a yellow-green hue. Vertus was not alone.

“It’s called green tea. Have you ever tried it? The tea leaves are the same as those used to make black tea, but the taste is entirely different,” Vertus explained.

Opposite Vertus, Oscar de Gradias, another member of the royal family, sat stiffly in his chair.

“No... I’ve heard of it, but I’ve never tasted it...” Oscar replied.

“Is that so? Then you probably don’t know what it tastes like either, do you?”

“That’s... right.”

Oscar had felt an unusual fear when Vertus had summoned him. Although they often met or conversed as fellow royals, it was rare for Vertus to call for him directly like this.

“Try it.”

“Oh, uh... yes.”

At Vertus’s suggestion, Oscar took a sip of the green tea, but he didn’t have time to savor the unfamiliar taste and aroma that lingered at the tip of his nose.

The same thought kept swirling about in the back of his mind.

‘Why me?’

Vertus watched Oscar intently as he took a sip of the green tea.

“How is it?”

“The... aroma. It’s nice...”

“Now that you know the taste and aroma of green tea, you might dream of drinking it.”

Oscar felt a chill run down his spine before he could even comprehend the strange statement Vertus had uttered.

Vertus looked at Oscar with a faint smile. “Do you think someone who has never tasted green tea can dream of drinking it? While they might dream of it, could they truly experience the same taste and aroma?”

“Huh? Well... no, I suppose not...”

“Exactly. People cannot feel the sensations in dreams that they haven’t experienced in reality.”

What is unknown cannot be known.

Thus, it cannot even be dreamed of. Only by experiencing it can the sensation be recreated in a dream.

“A person who has never tasted meat might dream of eating it, but in that dream, the meat would have no taste, texture, or aroma, or it would be something entirely different from reality. The same goes for other things. I could go on and on, but that’s the gist of it.”

Vertus took another sip of green tea and looked out the window at the winter scenery outside the Winter Palace.

“You can’t dream about what you don’t know. Even if you do, it will be vastly different from the real thing.”

“...”

His eyes returned to Oscar. “Still, I don’t understand why people dream of things they’ve never known or experienced. Without knowing what it is, without knowing what kind of world it is.”

Oscar’s fingertips were trembling. He tried to hide the tremor, but it was impossible to conceal. Vertus’s words and gaze, though neither violent nor aggressive, pierced deeply into Oscar’s heart.

“I don’t understand why everyone dreams with open eyes about a world they neither see nor know.”

Oscar couldn’t meet Vertus’s gaze. “Are you... planning to kill me?”

At Oscar’s pitiful words, Vertus chuckled.

“I will only kill someone when they pose a significant threat to me or when their death benefits me.”

“...”

“Your life holds little value or threat to me or the empire.”

A worthless life... Oscar stared wide-eyed at the tea in front of him.

He was a member of the Revolutionary Forces, but not part of the leadership, so he wasn’t particularly important. Therefore, even now when Vertus had decided to act, he wasn’t a significant target.

“Should I kill a member of the royal family just because an ant dreams? I might pity you, but there’s no need to crush you.”

Oscar found himself unable to respond to Vertus’s blatant disdain and sarcasm.

“So, from now on, remain quiet. As a royal with no claim to succession, know your place and conduct yourself properly.”

“...”

“I’m waiting for an answer,” Vertus demanded coldly.

“I will remember...” Oscar replied, his voice trembling.

Oscar de Gradias was an ant. An ant can do nothing when its dreams are shattered before its eyes.

After Oscar de Gradias left, Vertus drained the cold green tea from his cup in one gulp. Soon, rain began to fall steadily from the overcast sky.

“I would have preferred to express my gratitude in person.”

Swoosh...

With a sinister smile, Vertus quietly gazed out the window at the winter rain, remembering the time he had summoned Sabioleen Tana to the Winter Palace, not to long ago.

.

.

“What is it that I must do?”

“You’re going to excise the cancerous cells of the empire.”

“Cancerous cells...?”

“Have you heard of the Republican Revolution?”

He had already received the emperor’s approval.

Vertus explained to Sabioleen Tana the series of events that had occurred since the closure of the Orbis Class.

Vertus had been aware of the Revolutionary Forces for quite some time, much like Charlotte, who understood that such a movement was inevitable. He had identified some of the minor players and even a few key figures. However, it was a volatile situation, and any wrong move could lead to the whole situation blowing up, so he had been taking his time to fully understand the entire picture.

The breakthrough had come when Owen de Getmora, guildmaster of the Merchants’ Guild, approached him. Through Reinhart’s Magic Research Club project and the Rotary Club’s project, a direct connection between Vertus’s faction and the Merchants’ Guild was established.

They had previously shared an indirect connection, but after that sequence of events, the Merchants’ Guild became closely linked with Vertus’s faction before they even realized it.

Owen requested a private audience with Vertus and confessed what he knew about the Revolutionary Forces, claiming it was crucial information for the fate of the empire.

Even with that information, there was no way to easily address the situation. The leaders of the Revolutionary Forces consisted of individuals who could exert significant influence over the empire. If the imperial family moved against them directly, it could trigger a massive uprising among the remaining forces.

Therefore, they monitored the situation through Owen de Getmora, who had volunteered to become a double agent, while contemplating the best course of action to take when an opportunity arrived.

And then, the demons reappeared.

“We will gather the leaders in one place, and after eliminating them all, we will disguise it as a demon attack.”

The demons provided a useful cover to conceal the truth of all events. While some might eventually deduce the truth, the idea of the remnants of the demon forces carried significant weight across the continent.

The mere mention of a demon attack could cover any minor inconsistencies.

𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

After massacring the entire leadership, they would disguise it as the work of demons. The remnants of the Revolutionary Forces might see it as an imperial conspiracy, but public sentiment would be focused on the mention of demons and unable to see the truth.

In reality, the demon remnants had succeeded in their attempt to contact the Revolutionary Forces. Therefore, the fact that the leadership had been massacred in a demon attack would be convincing even to the remnants of the revolution.

The notion that something had gone wrong at the negotiation table, leading to the demons becoming enraged and slaying all the leaders of the revolution, was not without credibility.

Whatever factions remained of the revolution could debate among themselves whether or not such a situation was real. Their internal squabbling would not affect the empire.

Owen de Getmora would then take charge of what remained of the Revolutionary Forces as an interim leader and publicly announce a false story around the deaths of the other leaders. Ironically, the Revolutionary Forces would fall into the hands of a double agent, and by extension, the imperial family.

Sabioleen Tana listened to Vertus’s plan and nodded, her face hardened with resolve. She was dedicated to the empire, and thus agreed with the need to eliminate forces seeking to overthrow it.

“But how do you plan to disguise it as the work of demons?” she asked.

“There are demon prisoners being held and used for research purposes. We can release them at the scene and kill them to make it appear as if a battle with demons took place.”

“I see...”

“Therefore, Shanapell’s involvement at the scene must remain a secret. There will be a separate support unit responsible for manipulating the evidence left behind at the scene. Shanapell should focus on eliminating the guards cleanly. Can you manage that?”

“... Yes, we can do that.”

The emperor’s approval had already been secured, and a barrier to block spatial magic had been set up in advance around the meeting location arranged by Owen.

Shanapell would kill every single member of the revolutionaries’ leadership. The bodies would be manipulated to make it seem as though they had died at the hands of demons, and demon corpses would be scattered about to make it seem as though a battle with demons had taken place.

The location of the meeting and the conditions surrounding it were all set up to facilitate this ploy. The Revolutionary Forces were like thorns in the mouth, difficult to remove, but now, they had found a way.

The timely appearance of the remnants of the Demon Realm provided an excuse that would shield the empire from all controversy.

Even if the truth were revealed, it wouldn’t matter. It was a fact that the Revolutionary Forces had dared to betray humanity and attempted to ally with the demons.

.

.

Swoosh...

Vertus looked out the window at the winter rain and clicked his tongue.

In the end, the fact that he had orchestrated the death of a classmate’s parent weighed heavily on him.