Chapter 200

Cornel looked at the members of her faction with almond-shaped eyes that shone shrewdly.

Some of the representatives wanted to invest the money pouring into her district, some wished to deal with the construction guilds, some wanted to learn the tricks of redevelopment, and some admired the individual known as Cornel.

They were steadfast faction members, balancing between the greed of being representatives and the human respect they held, believing they could achieve their respective goals alongside the sixteen-year-old girl.

“I will now deliver my supporting speech. Of course, everyone will probably agree, but the important thing is unanimous consent. If there’s no unanimous vote on the first bill from His Holiness the Pope, there’s nothing more embarrassing than that.”

The eyes that evaluated her were like those of a rat towards her enemies and wolves towards her subordinates.

Cornel raised her hand from the semicircular seat and began her final supporting speech.

“We are currently under invasion.”

The voice of the sixteen-year-old girl resounded throughout the dome.

“The enemy is beyond counting in number and strength, and our side is torn apart.”

The representatives, regardless of whether they were commoners, clergy, governor provinces, or court nobles, understood what she was speaking about.

Cornel was talking about the fight against the Infiltrators.

“I have seen the enemy with my own eyes. They are crawling out from the filth you wouldn’t even want to glance at, gradually swelling until they eventually spill over.”

The one-legged orphan girl leaning on a cane bore the impression of a war veteran.

“Even if it is to drive off those enemies, you likely don’t want to get your feet dirty in this filthy, stinky mire.”

The assembly of deputies and journalists inhaled collectively.

The journalists scribbled furiously with their quills as they recorded her speech.

This was a time when citizens, regardless of wealth, were filled with rage.

‘Filthy, smelly mire.’

If it had been another representative saying such words, they might have been beaten in the streets.

“I understand. If people lived not just chasing the light but also glancing at the shadows, places like the slums would never have come into existence in the first place.”

However, she paused before continuing.

“There have been those who extended their hands there.”

She raised one hand, pointing to the hundred clerics and representatives.

“The Church has washed away our filth, filled our hungry bellies, and given us the courage to rise again.”

Of course, nobody was unaware that among the representatives present, those high-ranking clergy lived as luxuriously as court nobles and had never set foot in the slums in their lives, let alone walked the streets themselves.

Even Cornel, while delivering the speech, felt a sense of disgust inside.

But form was as important as essence.

“That courage comes from the Glorious Church, and it wants to spread it throughout the Empire and across the continent.”

Cornel shouted with wide eyes.

“If you cannot bring yourselves to enter this mire, at least help those noble souls who are willing to step into it!”

It was a cry imbued with the fervor and experience of a politician who had seen the ups and downs.

“… I will conclude my supporting speech on the bill proposed by His Highness Argos. I ask for your understanding regarding my emotional outbursts during the speech.”

Cornel sat down and briefly closed her eyes.

‘Your Highness. What on earth are you planning?’

In her view, this was entirely a self-defeating move.

She also received a message from Marcus’s envoy during the presentation of the slum redevelopment plans.

Since the initiator was the Church, the court nobles and governor province representatives could not easily reject it.

“The voting will now begin.”

Five hundred votes in favor. Zero against. Zero abstained.

Even the court nobles were in favor.

It was unanimous.

The votes from regional noble delegates, which were counted separately, also exceeded the majority.

Now, the Church could intervene in experiments involving corruption, and could judge the royal family and nobles under church law.

Perhaps the first on that list would be Valencianus.

However, despite the long-awaited fulfillment of desires, the faces of the clergy members were filled with confusion rather than joy.

“What is the meaning of this?”

“This is a law designed to check the royal family…”

A murmur spread among the commoner representatives who had been bought by the clergy representatives and the noble alliance, like a stone thrown into a pond.

“Hmph.”

Watching that smile, Cornel saw a prominent court noble, who had been itching to tear her apart, wink at her.

The noble wore a ring with yellow jewels set in platinum.

Cornel felt as though she had been struck on the back of her head.

‘That side has been bribed too… then why?’

She could not fathom what Valencianus was thinking.

* * *

“No. I don’t understand why everyone thinks His Grace the Duke would oppose this.”

In a separate palace, Rudi shrugged.

He tried to stop the laughter that was spilling out.

“The Glorious Church is willing to manage the experiments and research related to corruption, and if there are issues, they will even send holy knights, and from the start, have at least one priest stationed in the workshops to prevent any problems from arising. Of course, Princess Sererassie might not like it.”

She was sitting across from Tenitia, drinking tea.

The tea had been bought by Valencianus.

“So… is that how it works?”

A question blossomed on Tenitia’s face.

Her red eyes shifted uneasily in different directions.

For a moment, she finally accepted.

“Well, when you think about it, it would be impossible for the royal family to undertake this.”

“Exactly. Is the Empire that large? The Duke said so. The administrative power is lacking, and they can’t even expand direct territories, not to mention that they are tearing apart existing governor provinces to distribute them to the nobles. Let alone establish a continent-wide monitoring system, it’s beyond the royal family’s capabilities.”

Rudi continued as he counted on his fingers.

“It requires a lot of money, a lot of manpower, and infringements on self-governance, which would cause the great lords to rise against it. But the Church is offering to do this for free, even going so far as to create a law for it, so there’s no reason for them to oppose it. That’s what he said.”

Tenitia nodded.

“So they weren’t so eager to protect that boy after all. They had to use the existence of the Infiltrators as an excuse to push the bill through.”

For a moment, a look of anxiety and doubt crossed her face.

Three days earlier, Valencianus had entered the encampment of the noble alliance and had yet to come out.

‘Your Highness! I, Tenitia, will save you from those vipers.’

Tenitia thought of rushing out the back door immediately to rescue Valencianus, but Rudi stopped her.

“I hate to admit it, but the Church will inevitably act according to public sentiment. With the citizens of the capital wishing for your execution, do you think the Church would hesitate?”

It was a judgment as sharp as his swordsmanship.

Being a devout devotee, Tenitia had caught that point.

“Instead of execution, they could reach an agreement to confine him to a closure monastery for life. In doing so, the Church could claim a debt to His Majesty. They saved him, after all.”

Rudi shook his head lightly, just enough to be polite.

“Sir Knight, if Lord Valen moves the court nobles, and then adds the clergy’s votes and the governor province representatives’ votes, that’s 300 votes.”

“That’s right.”

“The clergy representatives will agree anyway. In other words, this is a showdown—though not really a showdown—between the commoner representatives bribed by Duke Marcus and Lord Valen’s court nobles.”

There was a reason Rudi insisted on calling it not really a showdown.

“Even if both sides are in favor, why would the Church heed Marcus’s words?”

“!”

“The approval of the commoner representatives holds meaning only when the court nobles oppose it. In a unanimous vote, it holds no significance who voted for what. The Church has received nothing from Marcus.”

Tenitia finally stood up.

“It’s a deadlock. Ultimately, public opinion…”

A solemn expression filled with the resolve of a man prepared for death appeared on the knight’s face.

Rudi shook his head while pouring more tea into Tenitia’s cup.

Seeing her hands trembling, Tenitia realized that Rudi was also afraid.

On that kind face and green eyes, the pride of a maid serving while alive shone through.

“As long as I don’t die, it will be fine. That’s what he said.”

Tenitia grimaced.

“!”

“Lord Valen is now eighteen years old. Even if he spends about five years in confinement, he would only be twenty-three. You know this well, Sir Knight. A wandering knight with many enemies deliberately commits minor offenses and after reflecting on them, hides in a monastery for about three years before coming out.”

“Then.”

“The people’s rage dissipates and volatilizes easily. Continuing to be angry is as difficult as being joyful. Of course, there will be many who hate Lord Valen to the point of madness. Some may even want to kill him.”

Tenitia bit her lip.

‘Kill him’, was something she, as a guard knight, absolutely could not disregard.

“And he said that none of it mattered.”

Tenitia exhaled a frustrated breath, and Rudi continued to speak.

“Let them rush into the streets, thinking that if they can just kill me, they’ll do anything, and while trying to leap over the palace walls, they end up getting their necks cut off… as long as such a situation doesn’t happen. Let them want to kill me as much as they want. No matter how much I’m considered a bandit, they can’t hold me accountable solely for their thoughts.”

A myriad of emotions flickered across Rudi’s face as he spoke.

Tenitia sank back into her seat and asked, “When did you hear that?”

“The morning I went out to catch the Infiltrators.”

* * *

I sat down with Marcus and drank tea.

I originally preferred wine over tea, but today the tea had a sweetness to it.

“Duke Marcus. Your strategy was built on my having to beg before Your Majesty, crying and wailing.”

From the moment I returned a year and a half ago, I had no thought of being loved.

I was Valencianus, the capital’s most notorious rogue, and the elder brother in the imperial family, who should be ahead in the line of succession compared to Jeilliris.

“I think it’s a good strategy. I have to pay attention to the Emperor above and the citizens below. If I cared even a little about the citizens, I wouldn’t be able to come out like this.”

Still, with Sererassie being present, the citizens’ discontent would not be directed entirely at the royal family.

Taking a few years to train in a monastery wouldn’t be a bad option.

“But I originally thought it would be a profitable deal as long as I could just save my life. That girl is a sword master who lives for hundreds of years and doesn’t forget those who sacrificed for her.”

This vow of loyalty would dictate the next several hundred years.

“If all it takes is to be scorned a bit, to win the heart of the world’s strongest swordsman and mage who is also the most powerful sovereign, then I could sacrifice this much.”

Thus, I took many reckless moves.

I drove people away, forced them out, and controlled them, all while hiding the true existence of the Infiltrators.

As a result, there were many casualties.

“Kill the rogue Valencianus!”

“Kill the Infiltrator Valencianus!”

I heard all the voices blaming me.

In those voices, I could vividly feel the glee they held imagining that I, an Infiltrator, would soon be executed.

Having stabbed a knife into someone else’s heart and set it ablaze for my own purposes, I deserved that level of hatred.

I smiled languidly and slammed my teacup down.

Crack.

The expensive porcelain teacup shattered, and shards flew onto Marcus’s face.

“Well then. The law has been created, and the assembly has been neutralized. The Ivory Tower has remained silent from the beginning, and the Church has achieved its goals as well. Now, only you noble alliance remains. No, calling you ‘you’ feels a bit awkward.”

When calming a situation, one must speak accurately, and when inciting rage, one must speak very precisely.

“Cariosa was watching for opportunities in the middle, and Seberik was the one politically binding you together. I doubt you’ll feel good being manipulated by such insignificant people. Congratulations. You’ve now become estranged with the northern duke. Now, you have two sword masters as your enemies.”

Marcus’s face hardened.

I laughed cheerfully.

I laughed as if I owned the world.

“I doubt you seriously intended to move an army. But you pressured us with the atmosphere that you could! It seems that card is no longer usable. So—”

At that moment, Marcus interrupted my words.

“While creating trouble, there are times when things sometimes slip out of my grasp. We united hand in hand due to shared interests, only to have one side achieve its goals first and pull away.”

It was a truly annoying situation.

“Originally, one would fear retribution from the opponent and would travel together once they had grasped each other’s hands, but… since that opponent had no intention of retaliating in the first place, to put it… plainly—”

I interrupted Marcus again.

“It’s a failure.”

Perhaps unable to deny it, Marcus let out a deep sigh.

“I believe I have about three methods left.”

I feigned amusement and asked, “Three?”

“First, I could escape to my territory. After all, I have a flying ship, right? It would be easy to gather a large-scale expeditionary force to come to my territory considering the empire is stabilizing after barely receiving the oath of loyalty.”

“Not bad. What’s the second?”

“The second would be to throw myself at His Majesty’s feet and plead for mercy.”

I subtly gathered my incantation energy as I asked, “Then what’s the third?”

It seemed Marcus caught on to that as his mechanical arm gleamed.

“Right now, it appears the citizens’ rage has reached a pitch where they are willing to tear you apart if it comes to extermination.”

“Ah.”

He smiled chillingly, placing a hand on the hilt of his estoc.

“I thought, how about asking the Emperor for the right to strike first on the condition that I don’t end up turning you into a half-dead man to throw among the citizens?”

I shifted my pupils vertically as I asked, “Do you think you can pull it off?”

Marcus responded, “Shall we find out?”