Chapter 134

In that regard, ‘Kiatek the Dwarf’ was similar. Kiatek the Dwarf was a character from a folktale in which a clever maiden used the name of a wicked dwarf as leverage to compel him to grant her three wishes, and the tale was so well-known that it had even been turned into a song sang to children before bedtime.

“I, too, enjoyed entertaining tales when I was young. Even amidst the tightly scheduled lessons, I would secretly hide storybooks and read them. Yet, even for me, Thierry Kiatek is excessive. If one intended to conceal one’s identity, one ought to have chosen a more plausible name. A name that immediately betrays itself as an alias is excessively frivolous, is it not?”

“So, so I-.”

“However, it was some time ago. At the most unexpected moment, a fragment of an old memory came to mind. It seemed that I had heard a similar name somewhere before.”

He rolled the ornamental pin in his hand, gazing down at the crown of Thierry’s head with eyes lost in thought. Thierry flinched at the cold scrutiny, his shoulders trembling as he anxiously lowered his head.

“Perhaps it was during my childhood. A long-ago tale from when I was so young that, despite sitting at the same table, I was treated like a mere ornamental doll, neither heard nor spoken to. I have a dear aunt, and one day she told me this. She said that she had a figure in her service, one who seemed like a combination of Thierry the Shoemaker and Kiatek the Dwarf. Not quite as capable as they were, but in loyalty, truly extraordinary. She jested when I was a child that henceforth, that person’s name would be Thierry Kiatek. Ever since, that person would actually give that name if anyone asked thereafter.”

That single remark chilled the atmosphere in the room beyond control. Everyone present knew the true identity of Ebroin V. Therefore, there was no way they could be unaware of the ‘aunt’ he was referring to. Among those openly unsettled, the only one who maintained composure was Ebroin V himself. Rising from the desk on which he had been perched, he spoke casually.

“I was young, yet from the moment I first heard that story, an unresolved question lingered in my mind. A question long forgotten, but now that I have encountered the source, I wish to ask it. That act of changing your name at the whim of a young woman’s jest, was it truly loyalty? Or was it mere petty flattery, intended only to please your master?”

The Emperor bent his knees to meet Thierry’s gaze, asking as though genuinely curious. Eugène could not understand why he would pose such a question. It was not a matter urgent enough to require immediate discovery, and far more pressing information demanded their attention.

But neither he nor anyone else in the room dared intervene in the Emperor’s proceedings. They trusted that he acted with purpose and would reveal his intentions in due course. It was a faith that bordered on blind, yet Ebroin V was a sovereign worthy of such trust.

Thierry stared at Ebroin V, who had come unnervingly close, his pupils trembling. Even after hearing the question directed squarely at him, he could not answer, only parting his lips slightly with a flustered, wavering look. The Emperor leaned forward as if to listen more closely. At that, Thierry’s lips parted a little wider, as if to speak.

It happened in that very moment.

Everything occurred in an instant.

The previously timid Thierry suddenly broke free from the guards’ hold and lunged to seize the pin the Emperor held. But the Emperor, as if he had been waiting for this, dodged the strike and, with his other hand, snatched the back of his head in a lightning-fast motion.

With a heavythwack, the Emperor’s knee drove into the pit of Thierry’s abdomen. Struck directly in a vital spot, he convulsed, his face turning pale as he struggled to breathe. However, the Emperor showed no mercy. He yanked his hair and slammed his forehead against the floor.

Smack!

With a heavy, splintering sound, blood spattered across the carpet. His already swollen eyes, bruised from being scraped against the cobblestones earlier, finally split open, and the blood that flowed from them stained his face a deep crimson. But the Emperor slammed his head against the floor once more, then again, finally breaking his nose.

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Ebroin V, unfazed by the frozen expressions of those around him, gazed down at Thierry with a cold, merciless stare. Then he brought the needle close to Thierry’s bloodshot eye and sneered with icy mockery.

“You must underestimate people around quite often. Did you truly think that‘We’could not even recognize Karadena?”

“U… ugh…”

Slowly, a liquid began to bead at the tip of the sleek needle. The thick, deep blue fluid, tinged with gold, formed a droplet like dew on the tip of a leaf, trembling on the edge as if about to fall. Even through his blood-blurred vision, Thierry could clearly see it. His face had turned a deathly shade of blue, his eyelids twitching as he strained upward, but he could no longer endure it and squeezed his eyes shut. However, with his hands pressed against the floor being mercilessly trampled, he was forced to open them again.

“Gah… Your Majesty… Y-Your Majesty…”

“‘Blue-gold Karadena’ is difficult both to produce and to preserve. Though it is now in practical use, it is, after all, the imperial poison. During the rebellion in Lan, the sole remaining vial was stolen, and the Empress Mother was deeply troubled. The Empress Mother also had an inkling of who had stolen it from the imperial vault.”

Ebroin V now openly referred to himself as ‘We.’ Revealing his identity without hesitation, as if there were no reason to hide it, he echoed his previous question, pressing Thierry for an answer.

“Weshall ask you one last time. Was your devotion to your master loyalty so absolute that you would risk even death? Or was it merely a matter of worldly expediency, adaptable to circumstance?”

It was now clear to not only Eugène but everyone in the room what the true meaning of the question was. Thierry’s eyes, trembling violently, fixed on the poison suspended above his own eye.

As the droplet began to sway dangerously, threatening to fall, he squeezed his eyes shut and shouted. Though he had served Grand Duchess Alienor almost his entire life, her existence was certainly not more precious to him than his own life.

“It was expediency! It was expediency, nothing else!!”

Thierry shouted desperately with broken teeth and a mangled voice. At that very moment, the poison at the tip of the needle fell. Startled, he screamed and recoiled in haste. Ebroin V released his hair as if granting an escape route to a cornered rat. As a result, the poison fell, narrowly missing his eye and landing on his cheek instead.

Thierry recoiled as if a blazing log had been thrown onto his bare face, and hastily wiped his cheek. The Emperor, who had driven his opponent to the brink and forced him to betray his lord with his own mouth, already wore an expression of bored disinterest. Rising from his seat, he tossed the decorative pin, its needle retracted, back to Victor and spoke in a flat tone.

“There is no need for a fuss. You know as well as I do that Karadena is useless unless it contacts the mucous membranes or is injected beneath the skin.”

Moreover, a lethal dose required a considerable quantity, so it was of little use for assassination. Unless one were a lady whose sensations had been dulled by an overly tight corset, a healthy person pierced by a needle would not fail to notice it.

Though he brandished the pin as if it were some talisman, in truth, the poison was used more often for suicide than for murder.

He ordered that Thierry, who was trembling and crawling on the floor, be sent out. The two guards, still tense from their earlier mistake, hauled Thierry away with disciplined severity. Once they had left and the door closed, the Emperor took out a handkerchief, wiped his hands, and ordered Victor.

“He is broken for the moment, but extracting reliable information will not be easy. He has served a single master for so long and yet harbored schemes behind their back…. Do not kill him, as that is not necessary. Use whatever means are required to force cooperation. Make certain they do not notice anything amiss here. Do you understand?”

“I understand.”

“Any report from the Public Safety Bureau?”

“Not yet. There is no word. Still, gunfire on a street this secure will require some cleanup.”

“See that it is handled without a trace. It will be troublesome if idle talk leaks out.”

“Yes.”

Victor answered dutifully, but in truth, he had been considerably shaken by the fact that His Majesty himself had fired the shot. He showed no expression of his feelings to the Emperor or to anyone else.

Originally, today’s raid had not been planned to unfold so chaotically. To infiltrate secretly, shooting had been strictly prohibited in advance, and the personnel involved in the operation had even returned all the pistols they had brought the day before, arming themselves only with cold weapons.

However, when His Majesty, who had personally participated in the operation and walked all the way through the sewers, arrived at the mansion’s kitchen, or, more precisely, when he witnessed the horrors there and instinctively realized who had caused such a scene, everything went awry.

“There was no need for Your Majesty to intervene personally.”

Eugène, who had managed to remain silent until now, finally spoke. Despite the dramatic moment of a chance encounter with an unexpected person in an unexpected place, the only words to come from that boring man were nothing more than that.

“Do you thinkWetouched him merely out of necessity?”

The Emperor asked back in a low voice, leaning on the desk. He then sighed deeply and rubbed his forehead with one hand. The atmosphere in the room stiffened in response to his unusual demeanor. For a long moment, he remained silent, as if restraining himself, before suddenly raising his head to look at Hunter, whom he had been ignoring as if he were a sack of barley.

“Chasseur, was it?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Even now, the Emperor was absurdly handsome. He drew attention simply by standing there with a weary frown, his expressionless face devoid of any real emotion. However, the impression left by his ruthless actions, a level of ruthlessness beyond anything one could dare imagine directly from the Emperor, was far more striking. Therefore, Hunter responded to him with an uncharacteristic formality.

“You possess a remarkably bold nature.”

Oh!Only after the Emperor’s remark did Hunter realize his mistake and hurriedly knelt. He might have been excused for a perfunctory gesture if the Emperor’s identity had remained hidden, but now that it had been revealed, failing to show the proper respect was clearly his own fault.

“I beg Your Majesty’s forgiveness. I was so startled that my greeting was delayed. -I greet Your Majesty the Emperor, the Lord of Ardi, Klemann and Nervoge, Ruler of the Neutel and Salpine Rivers, and the Protector of Lex Ardica.”