20demayo Chapter 144: Accomplice, or Actor
Chapter 144: Accomplice, or Actor
After some time, Arendt returned with Prince Matthias, who looked ready to burst into tears at any moment.As soon as he entered the room, the prince discovered the Crown Prince and fell to his knees and began to sob without anyone being able to stop him.
“Euaaaah-! Your Highness the Crown Prince! Please forgive my foolish brother’s sins! No, please don’t forgive him! But the kingdom, the kingdom at least…”
“Wait, wait a minute, Prince Matthais, calm down for now. Let’s talk first. If we talk it out first, won’t we be able to talk about forgiveness after?”
“I’m sorry! Oh my, I should have stopped him, I didn’t even know he was planning something like that!”
As the tears and sniffles showed no sign of stopping, Cantares looked at Arendt with a look of bewilderment.
“Hey, what did you say to get the prince in this state?”
“I didn’t say anything. I just asked if he dared to trouble the empire and if he was prepared to ruin the kingdom.”
“…”
The way he responded shamelessly was like a snobby adult who was proud of making a child cry.
Even though Prince Matthias was much older than that guy. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ novelhall.com
“You’re the worst one, you punk.”
“Thank you for the compliment.”
“Did that sound like a compliment?”
Cantares, who was irritated and scolded him, eventually gave up and helped Prince Matthias up.
It was quite funny to see his face flushed red and tears stream down his face… but he just couldn’t laugh.
“I don’t know what you were talking about, but I’ll ignore it for now. I don’t intend to blame the entire kingdom for the Crown Prince’s personal misconduct. And besides…”
No one was attacked.
But looking at the prince, he couldn’t bring himself to say those words.
Cantares looked at the knights, asking for help, but they simply looked away.
These fucking bastards…
“Nothing will be solved by crying. It seems that you already knew that His Highness Alois had some kind of plan…”
Instead, a grumpy, spiteful voice sounded.
Arendt, who was strolling towards Prince Matthias and the Crown Prince, spoke obstinately.
“It will be beneficial to both of us if you speak nicely.”
“…This guy may be talking too harshly, but he won’t do anything that would harm the Nephele Kingdom.”
After gently pushing Arendt away, Cantares spoke to the prince as if to appease him.
“Not yet.”
“Eek…!”
But the prince’s face turned even paler at the words added later.
The Crown Prince placed a hand on Matthias’ shoulder and continued speaking in a soft tone.
“Nothing can be solved by crying, Prince Matthais. If you have inherited royal blood and have been treated well up until now, you should take responsibility for it. Isn’t that right?”
“…”
“I think the prince also has an idea of what Crown Prince Alois has done…”
Cantares was clearly smiling, but it seemed like he was revealing the poison inside.
“Then, rather than crying and apologizing, I think it would be better to calmly think about how to resolve this situation as a member of the royal bloodline. What do you think?”
“…Hiccup.”
Matthias, frozen stiff in front of the smiling Crown Prince, could not even cry and just kept hiccuping.
At some point, he didn’t even notice that the Crown Prince was talking down on him.
Looking at the sight, the knights thought.
“… His Majesty and my brother have often had conflicting opinions.”
As the commotion died down, Matthias finally began to tell his story.
“His Majesty has always been concerned about my brother’s aggressive nature, and my brother has always resisted, saying that if he remains complacent, the kingdom would never progress any further.”
The subjects had no choice but to always live on a tightrope, keeping an eye on the two men.
“And, the reason the fights have gotten worse recently… I think it’s because of the outsider he suddenly brought along.”
Arendt’s eyebrows furrowed slightly as a third figure appeared.
“He didn’t even reveal his identity properly, and just said he was his friend. It seemed like he was spurring my brother on, but I couldn’t find out the details. He didn’t let us talk to him.”
And after a while, the king fell.
“His Majesty was in relatively good health for his age, but he couldn’t open his eyes… The doctor couldn’t figure out the cause…”
Matthias’ voice, which had barely regained its composure, began to tremble again.
“Everyone thought that my brother had done something, but even his subjects kept silent because they thought that if they said the wrong thing, they could die.”
In that situation, he suddenly decided to attend the meeting.
“My older sister earnestly urged me to stop my older brother if he tried to cross the line.”
Although he didn’t really like accompanying his brother, he had no choice but to agree.
“But you couldn’t stop it.”
“…”
And then, at the hateful words that came out from one side, Matthias’ mouth shut.
“You can say more, but in the end, the kingdom is on the verge of becoming a mess because they couldn’t stop their Crown Prince. What are they doing as a group?”
“Coolook, gulp! Gulp!”
Finally, Arendt mercilessly questioned the prince, who began to cough and hack.
“Do you know the name of the person he brought there? What does he look like? Was he not wearing a mask or anything?”
“Ah, that, well… he wasn’t wearing a mask. He was a man, and I think his name was Lexion. I’m not sure if that’s his real name though.”
Lexion.
It was a name he had never heard before.
Arendt crossed his arms and sat in thought.
“…Doesn’t it seem strange?”
After a while, everyone’s eyes turned to the apprentice knight as he let out a voice that sounded displeased.
“Is there anything that catches your eye?”
“It’s so obvious that it’s a fabrication. It’s like it was put together in a way that fits perfectly.”
When Laius asked, Arendt answered as if he had been waiting for the question.
“They should avoid situations that are obviously unnatural, but it was very unexpected for this country to attend this meeting.”
“That’s certainly true.”
Cantares, who had been listening quietly, nodded slowly.
“Prince, when did that outsider named Lexion first appear?”
“Yes? That was… I think it was around the time when the talk of having a meeting started. It was pretty recent.”
Arendt frowned at Matthias’s grumbling reply.
“The timing is ambiguous, and it’s even worse to call in assassins now. If they thought that would work, they’d be so stupid.”
How many people have died to Arendt and the Knights? They probably already knew well enough that they couldn’t deal with them with assassins.
“Yeah, it might have been better to poison the food than to rush in with a knife.”
“You’re right. That guy eats anything.”
Arendt, who was looking at Cantares who added that and Arthur who was responding with a disapproving look, brought the conversation back to the original topic.
“But when there were as many as eighteen people, I could sense that they were determined to kill. I don’t think the assassination attempt itself was a trick.”
Alois, who did not know the Imperial Knights of the Caerleon Empire and Arendt’s power well, could have made such a mistake, but the Chernion Church would not have.
“I think if they were really determined to eliminate someone, they wouldn’t do something as petty as this. If they were going to mobilize people, I’d say they would bring at least three digits.”
Even if they did have to hide, it was not like they could only spare to move Crown Prince Alois and send a few assassins.
In that case, there was only one answer.
The invisibility scrolls may have been supported by the cult, but it was Alois himself who prepared the assassins. At the very least, he attended this meeting with the real purpose of killing Arendt.
But, would the guys who instigated it from behind do the same?
Arendt, who had gathered his thoughts, slowly began to speak.
“What if we assume that Crown Prince Alois is merely a puppet used for attention and they have other ulterior motives?”
“…”
“Let’s think about it again from the beginning. First of all, why did they choose the Nephele Kingdom?”
An unusually clear voice penetrated everyone’s ears.
After thinking for a moment, Richt came up with an answer.
“I think Alois’s personality may have played a part.”
He was easy to manipulate, greedy, and on top of that, he was on bad terms with the king, so it wouldn’t have been difficult to instigate discord and make him dream of treason.
If their goal was really to kill Arendt by manipulating Crown Prince Alois, that reasoning alone would have been sufficient.
But in the idea that was established, there was still something a little lacking.
At that moment, Laius, who had been silent for a long time, opened his mouth.
“Your Highness, there is one thing that is bothering me. King Nephele is unconscious, and Crown Prince Alois and Prince Matthias are currently staying here.”
“…”
“Isn’t the princess the only one left in the Nephele Kingdom? Arendt, isn’t that what you wanted to say?”
When the captain’s gaze fell on him, Arendt remained silent.
That meant yes.
After a while, Matthias’ face turned pale as he understood the meaning of those words.
“Seriously, are you saying that they are aiming for the kingdom?”
“It’s a valid assumption. If the purpose was to temporarily separate the Crown Prince, then most of it can be explained.”
When Arendt added that, Matthias looked like he might faint at any moment.
Even though she was a princess, she did not have the same authority and control as a Crown Prince, so the Nephele Palace was no different from an uninhabited mountain.
By the way, if the Crown Prince could take care of Arendt as well, it would be a great thing.
Besides, if it was revealed that the Crown Prince had ordered the assassination and was caught, it would be a huge advantage for Lexion.
Then Arthur asked back.
“But what would he gain by getting rid of the royal family in front of his eyes?”
“Well, the first thing that comes to mind is burglary…”
Arendt, who trailed off, turned his gaze toward Prince Matthias.
“Did you think of something?”
“That, that… I don’t understand it, but since you said a burglary, something comes to mind.”
Matthias, who had been staring blankly into space, opened his mouth.
“But it’s not something you can get your hands on right away… In the first place, we don’t even know if it exists. They say it’s somewhere in the palace…”
“I’m annoyed, so stop rambling and speak clearly. There’s no time.”
The prince nodded hastily at Arendt’s urging and spoke quickly, though he stammered.
“There is a treasure that has been passed down in the royal family… It is not a widely known story, but we royal family members hear it by word of mouth. Few people take it seriously, though.”
Matthias, whose words trailed off as if he had lost confidence, glanced at Cantares.
“It’s said to be a relic from the war era… I don’t know the name, but it’s said to be a book decorated with very expensive jewels. It’s said to have magical powers.”
Unlike the prince who was hesitating, everyone there was convinced that the hypothesis they had just established was correct.
Richt groaned.
“So, it’s an artifact.”