Chapter 127
Iason reflexively turned around.
Her pink hair fluttering, Birna Claudio was running toward him.
“Grand Duke! It’s Birna! Hoakin Claudio’s daughter, Birna! Please, help me!”
However, to Iason, saving Ost—his last remaining guard—was far more important than the daughter of the Regent Duke.
He did not hesitate to spur his horse.
“Hyah!”
“Grand Duke! Grand... Duke! No! Noooooo!”
Birna ran with all her might, but it was impossible to catch up to the horse.
She could not accept the fact that the benevolent and kind Castulo Grand Duke had seen her and simply turned away.
“He—he didn't see me. That must be it. There's no way the Grand Duke would ignore me on purpose... Argh!”
She shrieked, tearing at her hair.
The surroundings were still a brutal battlefield of chaotic melee; above the abandoned Birna, a stray blade flew toward her.
“Aaaagh!”
A terrible pain was felt in her back.
In the midst of the searing white pain, Birna fainted once again.
* * *
Even from the distant Castle Walls, Medeia could spot Iason.
She saw him wailing as he held his dead guard.
She watched his cowardly figure fleeing, turning his back on Birna in haste before he could even process his rage.
Medeia watched the scene with an indifferent face.
‘Iason, I told you I would completely destroy the stepping stone you intended to use to exploit Baldina.’
She would hand nothing over to him, and everything he held, Medeia would seize and break.
In this fake rebellion, those she targeted were not just her uncle’s family.
‘One, two, three... there were four in total, but Tom missed one. Was the one who fled Ost?’
Her final goal was to annihilate the secret force Iason had hidden and, furthermore, eliminate the imperial shadow guards who protected him.
Medeia was also well aware of the existence of the recluses who protected the lineage of Alketas II.
In fact, she knew them more than well.
‘There is a grudge to be settled between you and me as well.’
They were also the guards who protected her son, Lian.
According to the principle that the eldest son inherits the lineage, that blood had been passed down intact to Lian, Iason’s first son.
It was they who first discovered General Jared harassing Lian by placing him in a basket of venomous snakes and informed Medeia.
From then on, Nord and Ost had taken full charge of Lian’s security.
“My son is still too young. He isn't fighting demonic beasts, so he doesn't need elite guards like you.”
Iason had opposed it, but he could not break the stubbornness of those who prioritized the preservation of the imperial bloodline above all else.
‘So, I trusted them and sent Lian into the Imperial Palace.’
But what returned was her son’s cold corpse.
While investigating her son’s death, Medeia learned that they had stood by while Empress Rachel fed Lian poison.
Breaking their ironclad rule of not interfering in politics, the recluses had joined hands with Rachel and betrayed Medeia and her son.
“My Lady, we no longer wish to live as mere shadows of the Imperial Family. The Empress has promised us power and freedom to reveal our existence proudly in the light.
But Baldina is ruined, and you, who are not even of the imperial family, what can you give us?”
Iason was also part of their scheme.
He was the one who had tried to remove Medeia and her son since the end of the expedition.
Far from investigating his son’s death, Iason had covered it up to prevent criticism toward the Empress.
Her teeth chattered and she wept tears of blood, but she could not pay them back.
Because the recluses, who had become Rachel’s puppets, had even targeted Rhea.
‘You shall end by dying in this foreign land, without a name or honor. I shall also strip away the yoke of the shadows that you so desperately wished to cast off.’
Medeia watched clearly as they fell from their horses after being struck by arrows, rolling on the dust-filled ground, and were trampled by the hooves of their fleeing comrades.
She stepped forward. Then, she shouted toward the bottom of the Castle Walls.
“Surrender! If you throw down your weapons and submit, I shall spare your lives!”
The Rebels looked up. Their eyes were a mix of disbelief and bewilderment.
“Is it true? That they’ll save us? Is treason not something that gets your head chopped off?”
“Theo said it’s a fake rebellion. We were deceived by the leader from the start!”
Just then, the soldiers atop the walls repeated the command once more.
“There is no second chance! Throw down your weapons and surrender!”
The captain of the guard could understand the Princess’s intention.
‘In the end, each and every one of them is a citizen of Baldina.’
Fear only silences for a moment; eventually, it is bound to erupt again.
Rather than creating another spark by executing them all, it would be more deeply engraved in their minds—and the minds of other citizens—to handle only the leadership that incited the rebellion and show the generosity of the Royal Family.
*Thud. Thud.* The citizens dropped their weapons and bowed their waists.
“We didn't know! We truly didn't know!”
They prostrated themselves toward the Castle Walls, a far cry from when they were attacking with sharp blades just moments ago.
They didn't want to die in vain. If they could live, they wanted to beg for their lives by any means necessary.
“D-Dammit...! If it turns out like this...!”
Standing hesitantly were the mercenaries, who were caught in the middle. The leader was dead, and Theo had betrayed them.
Far from the promised gold coins, it was uncertain if they could even keep their lives.
Their front was blocked by the high Royal Capital, and their rear by Giliphos’s soldiers.
What hope was left for them?
They, too, dropped their weapons one by one.
As the Rebels gave up further attacks, the thick dust and commotion slowly subsided.
Across the vast land, there were only those with bowed waists.
It was the moment the civil war disguised as a revolution, which the Regent Duke had dreamed of, came to a hollow end.
In the meantime, Theo walked out from among them.
Everyone watched with bated breath as he took step after step toward the castle gates.
He held the leader’s severed head in one hand.
“Princess of Baldina, behold!”
The boy, having reached the front of the Castle Walls, knelt toward Medeia.
Then, taking off his helmet, he pulled a letter from his chest and waved it.
“This is the letter Regent Duke Claudio sent to the leader of the Rebels. Not only did he incite treason, but there is also a command to kidnap Princess Her Highness!”
“*Gasp!*”
Saya, seeing the face of the young rebel revealed after he removed his helmet, almost screamed.
The rebel who had struck the leader’s neck was Theo, her brother. She hurriedly covered her mouth.
Fortunately, everyone seemed too distracted by Theo to notice Saya’s reaction.
“The leader, who received aid from the Regent Duke, bought mercenaries and deceived the citizens to swell the Rebels’ ranks. Their plan was to allow the Regent Duke to seize the throne while the country was in chaos from the rebellion—that was the price of our citizens’ lives!”
The blood-boiling cry of the boy seemed to pierce through people’s hearts.
Every word was steeped in the rage of the people who had been used as mere chess pieces.
Therefore, it sounded incredibly truthful.
“I, too, am not free from the crime of treason, but I could no longer stand by and watch this country be toyed with by that loathsome hypocrite.”
Theo glared at the Regent Duke. Tears of bitter resentment flowed from his reddened eyes.
“Princess of Baldina! Even if you strike my neck, I hope you will reveal every single evil the Regent Duke has inflicted upon this country.”
The shadows on his handsome, eye-catching face and the remaining bloodstains evoked the arduous moments the boy must have endured.
“W-What does this all mean? Did I hear correctly?”
People were aghast at the young rebel’s revelation.
“Are you saying the Regent Duke, who acted so passionately as a savior to rescue the Royal Palace until now, is actually the party who incited this matter?”
Dozens of eyes turned toward the Regent Duke as if seeking an answer.
The Regent Duke stopped his retreating feet and gripped the wall of the Castle Walls firmly.
“You rasc—al! What kind of reckless talk is that! A vulgar traitor now seeks to overturn the Royal Capital with his measly tongue!”
Thick veins stood out on his neck and the backs of his hands.
The Regent Duke, pale with shock, denied it.
“It is spec—ulation! It’s all a frame-up! It’s fake evidence, a scheme created to drag me down! Everyone! Surely you don't believe that nonsense? I, Hoakin Claudio, swear by the Goddess that I have never seen nor met that man!”
The voice he vomited out sounded utterly desperate.
It was when people were becoming confused by the resentful and earnest tone.
“Uncle, will you say this is also a lie?”
Medeia, who had been watching them silently, turned toward the Regent Duke.
Then, she extended her arm toward him.
Beneath her steady hand, a scroll unfurled with a rustle. In an instant, everyone gasped.
“...!”
The Regent Duke’s heart sank as he recognized the document.
“It is the signed pledge to plot the rebellion. At the very top are Hoakin Claudio—you, Uncle—and Samon.”
Medeia walked forward and displayed the signed pledge to everyone.
So that all the people in this place protecting the Royal Capital could see it.
