He froze, gripping the lifeless Ost, unable even to voice his rage.
Medeia watched the death of the final target she had missed on the battlefield with indifferent eyes.
*‘I intended to eliminate him without fail before he left Baldina.’*
She was slightly surprised, as she hadn't expected Peleus to be the one to finish the job.
At that moment, Dianzel winked toward Medeia.
“Tom? Who are you looking for that you still have an arrow notched?”
“Yes, Captain. Princess Her Highness ordered me to eliminate the Castulo Grand Duke’s secret guards.”
When Giliphos led the Agema to strike the village where Iason’s secret unit was hiding, Dianzel happened to be with Tom.
“Oho, if it’s Her Highness’s command… Hmm, shall I lend a hand?”
“I’d be grateful. She said they are those who never leave the Grand Duke’s side and have laurel wreaths engraved on their helmets. It won't be hard for you to find them, Captain.”
It was thanks to the assistance of Dianzel, the leader of the Agema, that Tom was able to dispose of the three hidden guards without missing any.
And before Peleus revealed himself, Dianzel had informed his lord of the Castulo Grand Duke’s interference and the elimination of his hidden guards.
“Escort the Grand Duke. This time, my knights will see you back to your home country ‘safely.’”
Peleus’s speech did not falter in the etiquette required for royalty of another nation.
However, just because his words were elegant did not mean his actions were.
The Agema went to Iason’s side and grabbed his arms. Their hostility and rage could be felt through their rough grips, which were tight enough to cut off circulation.
Iason bit his lip, swallowing the surging humiliation.
A handful of resentment toward Medeia accompanied it.
“Princess Medeia. Are you truly going to turn your back on me like this?”
The words flew out before he could stop them. Peleus furrowed his handsome brow and stood in front of his sister.
As if even Iason’s gaze touching her was unpleasant. A sense of shame, as if being treated like an insect, bloomed in Iason’s chest.
“I truly tried to protect you. It was you who rejected and insulted my goodwill, Princess, not I!”
Did she even know what she had lost?
The more he spoke, the more his anger boiled over. He lost his reason and lashed out.
“I have never wronged you even once, so what malice do you have against me that you would…!”
Iason truly could not understand.
If she couldn't return his favor, she could have at least been civil, but hadn't she pushed him away and glared at him with hatred every time? He trembled with indignation.
“Who knows?”
Medeia shrugged her shoulders.
“Perhaps there was an ill-fated connection in a past life.”
Her light response contrasted with his heavy emotions, delivering an even deeper sense of insult.
Iason clenched his fists. The anger of being rejected crawled up within him. Never in his life had he faced so many refusals.
The sense of loss from having nothing in his hands seeped into his bones, and the fact that he could not retaliate while surrounded by the murderous King and the Agema made his heart ache.
*‘If only I had the Varangians and the hidden guards…’*
He wouldn't have retreated so disgracefully. He had lost every card in his hand and gained absolutely nothing.
Before he could swallow his surging resentment, the Agema on both sides gripped him roughly again.
“Let go! I will walk on my own!”
Iason shook them off and turned around. Unlike when he arrived in Baldina, his exit was pathetic.
“Then, Castulo Grand Duke, I wish you a safe journey. I trust you have no intention of setting foot on Baldina’s soil again.”
Peleus, having issued a clear and humiliating decree of expulsion, turned toward the Regent Duke’s group.
“Imprison them all. Execute them without a single exception.”
“K-King His Majesty.”
The officials gasped.
The Regent Duke’s face turned pale.
“Peleus! I am your uncle!”
The implication was that an exception should be made for him.
However, the person those words actually affected wasn't Peleus, but the nobles of the Regent Duke’s faction.
*‘He’s going to try to escape alone just because he’s royalty?’*
They too were incarnations of greed and a thirst for power who would be second to none in this country.
Since their lives were on the line, there was no more loyalty or honor.
“Your Majesty! The Regent Duke threatened us first by holding our corruption over our heads! He said he would report us if we didn't participate in the rebellion!”
Someone shouted. One person was enough to break the dam.
“Your Majesty, that man conspired with Head Maid Cuisine and Minister Etienne to raise a rebel army with money embezzled from the Royal Palace!”
“He replaced all officials who wouldn't cooperate with him using Princess Her Highness’s seal!”
“I handled the money laundering for the Claudio Duke Family. The Duke’s house is filled with gold and jewels, and there are more than ten places where slush funds are hidden across the country and even in the Empire!”
One after another, they began to expose everything as if they had been waiting.
The Regent Duke, who had been trying to sell out Iason without hesitation just moments ago, was now being hit with the exact same behavior from his subordinates.
They laid bare the corruption, irregularities, and crimes the Regent Duke had committed until now.
In truth, from the moment the Regent Duke had eliminated Minister Etienne—his right hand—without hesitation, they might have expected a moment like this.
Thus, they felt no guilt in trying to save their own lives by selling him out.
“Your Majesty, the Regent Duke even ordered that the Princess’s face be scarred when she was kidnapped! Even if the Grand Duke rescued Her Highness, he wanted to ensure she could never become the Grand Duchess!”
“I am a subordinate serving the Young Duke. On his orders, I massacred everyone at Count Etienne’s estate. During the hunting competition, I also attached a sachet that attracts beasts to Princess Her Highness’s horse.”
It wasn't just the nobles and vassals of the Regent Duke’s faction who were looking for a way to survive.
The Regent Duke’s face turned ashen.
“You wretches! You ungrateful things! How dare you, after taking my money and power!”
He raved with a deep sense of betrayal. The veins in his one remaining eye turned bloodshot as if they might burst.
The commoners gathered below the Castle Walls, surrounding the criminals, also heard the revelations.
“Good heavens, they really made off with a lot. It wasn't Princess Her Highness who made this country poor, it was the Regent Duke, that treacherous man!”
“And a man like that wanted to be King! Bah! Keep dreaming, Claudio! Even a swarm of ants would reject a man like you!”
“Not only did he kidnap his own niece whom he supposedly cherished, but he also ordered her face to be ruined. He’s a monster in human skin!”
The people shook their heads at the unprecedented villainy.
“Wise King, please, distinguish the gravity of our crimes! We had no other choice due to that man’s threats.”
The nobles of the Regent Duke’s faction prostrated themselves and pleaded.
“...”
“Y-Your Majesty…?”
When there was no reaction, they lifted their heads.
Then, they trembled as they met the eyes of the King, who was looking down at them with an indifferent face.
Peleus was not fooled by their excuses.
*‘Dea revealed the letter of abdication to the world to root out the corrupt ones like the Regent Duke once and for all.’*
“These are people who filled their bellies with the blood and flesh of the people. Is there an exception for treason? Every single person involved in the rebellion shall be executed.”
His authoritative voice was as firm as a brand being stamped.
“Y-Your… Majesty…!”
Mouths that had been gaping like fish out of water were shut tight by Peleus’s chilling killing intent.
The Regent Duke’s henchmen finally realized.
The King before them was no longer young or weak.
He was a warrior who had survived ten years on the battlefield and a conqueror who had brought the tribes of the plains to their knees.
Their pathetic attempts to deceive him had long since been seen through to the bone.
“Take them away. After the triumphal ceremony, we will hold their executions in the square.”
“By your command!”
Under the unified shouts of the knights, the cries of those who sensed their impending deaths leaked out.
*‘I too will end my life at the guillotine.’*
Theo, who was kneeling among the criminals, thought absently.
*‘It would be nice if I could see Saya one last time.’*
But he knew it was excessive greed.
He couldn't leave Saya with the burden of being the family of a traitor.
*‘If I had known it would end like this, if I had known the end of the revolution was merely this, I wouldn't have left like that.’*
“Wait a moment.”
A clear voice echoed, but it did not reach the ears of the despondent Theo.
A shadow fell over his head as he sat with his head bowed in hollow defeat. At the presence, Theo instinctively looked up.
When his eyes adjusted to the painfully bright sunlight, he finally discovered the strikingly beautiful girl standing before him.
“Princess Her Highness, this man is—”
The Princess, who raised her hand to stop the approaching knight, looked down at Theo.
*‘The Princess…?’*
It was the first time he had faced the person he only knew through letters so closely.
Theo gasped.
The shock was greater than when he had seen the silhouette standing faintly atop the Castle Walls.
“It is you. The one who struck down the rebel leader and reported the Regent Duke’s crimes to me.”
The Princess’s voice was soft.
Her white cheeks were as tender as an angel’s, and her expression was solemn yet pure.
