Salt
“…Why? Why has it come to this…”
Norris covers his face, stained with despair, as he slumps in his chair, muttering to himself.
At the magic demonstration, Norris angered that person. But that was an act of touching a forbidden reverse scale, stepping on a tiger’s tail. He never imagined that person would be such a powerful magic user.
To begin with, the one who had instructed him to anger that person, promising to help, ultimately did nothing. And now, on Elias’s orders, he was captured by soldiers and confined to a detention room in the castle.
Unlike the dungeons where commoners are thrown, this room is for criminals of noble rank or higher. It’s quite spacious, with sofas and a bed. However, this room has a notorious nickname among the nobility. It’s called “The Twilight Room.” Once you enter, it’s said that only assassination or conspiracy murder awaits. Either way, death is said to visit in the near future.
Norris knows that this nickname is close to the truth. When he was brought here, he was speechless with despair. Despite everything that had happened, he thought he could still survive. He believed that person would be there. But he was brought to “The Twilight Room.”
“I… I can’t die yet. I still have things I must do…!!”
Just as he muttered this, a soldier’s voice came from outside the door.
“His Majesty Elias is entering.”
The room’s door opened without a knock, and Elias entered. Behind him, a hooded figure also came into the room. Upon seeing Elias, Norris immediately prostrated himself before him, apologizing.
“Your Majesty Elias, I am terribly sorry for what happened!! But I did it for the sake of the country. Besides, I was merely following instructions from that person. Please, I beg you to spare my life at least!!”
As Norris prostrates himself, the part of his hair cut by Asuna is fully visible. His kappa-style haircut seems exaggerated, highlighting his ridiculousness. Then, the hooded man who entered the room quietly approached Norris. He crouched next to the prostrating Norris, grabbed his throat with one hand, and lifted him up while standing.
“Guh!! Wha…what…?”
A shudder ran through Norris as he saw the face of the hooded man while being choked.
“Za…ck…Riverton!?”
The moment Norris muttered this, Zack threw him against the wall.
“Guah!!”
A heavy, low sound echoed in the room as a body hit the wall.
“…Zack, don’t be so rough.”
“I’m sorry. He was in the way, prostrating himself in front of the entrance…”
As Elias soothed him, Zack removed his hood. He seems gentle in demeanor as usual, but his eyes give only a cold impression, creating an eerie atmosphere unlike his usual self. Norris, coughing, looked confused, as if he didn’t understand what was happening.
He understood why Elias would come here. But Zack Riverton is the highest authority in the underworld, known only to a select few. There’s no reason for such a person to come here. Seeing Norris’s confused expression, Elias shook his head and coldly declared.
“You’ve been a loyal servant to this country for a long time. We thought we’d at least give you an explanation before the end.”
“Ex…planation?”
Norris, still unable to get up from the impact of being thrown against the wall, looks at Elias with a puzzled expression. Elias, grinning at his reaction, said to Zack:
“Explain it to him, Zack.”
“Hah… Your Majesty Elias can be so cruel.”
Sighing and looking exasperated, Zack begins to explain something to Norris. The explanation goes back to the time when they formed an alliance with the Empire after the Barst Incident. At that time, they received a notification from the Empire that, while ostensibly an alliance, it was secretly a vassal state agreement. Some nobles, including Norris, strongly opposed this.
Elias pacified them while accepting the vassal state status for the country’s survival. However, after concluding the secret agreement with the Empire, domestic politics became unstable. This was due to some nobles who couldn’t accept the alliance with the Empire. So, Elias devised a plan.
He deliberately allowed those dissatisfied with the Empire alliance to form a faction, intending to dispose of them all when the time came. Norris was chosen as the leader of this faction. Because of this, claims that wouldn’t pass with others would easily pass with Norris. Furthermore, Elias and Zack were working behind the scenes to ensure Norris reigned at the top of the faction. That’s why Elias was in a dilemma, unable to ignore Norris’s opinions, resulting in him holding his head in frustration.
As Norris listened to Zack’s story, his face gradually turned pale, now completely ashen. He stood up and, with a trembling voice, shouted at Elias:
“Im-impossible!! Such an absurd thing can’t be true!!”
“Someone must have told you, ‘We are using you,’ Norris. Thanks to you, we’ve learned the details of all the troublesome individuals lurking in this country. I thank you.”
Norris was struck by Elias’s words, then bitterly asked:
“…Was that ‘shadow’ who approached me also on your side from the beginning…!!”
Hearing these words, Zack casually made a hand signal, and a figure clad in black emerged from Norris’s shadow. Norris was dumbfounded by this sight. Zack addressed the black-clad figure as if nothing was out of the ordinary:
“Capella, thank you for your long service. Thanks to you and Lord Norris, we’ve gathered all the necessary information on the opposing nobles. All that’s left is the purge.”
“…!? A purge?! That’s impossible!! That would mean losing the country’s most important figures!!”
Norris believed that the country couldn’t function without people like him, and he probably wanted to say that if a purge were to happen, the nation would fall apart. However, Elias responded to these words with apparent exasperation.
“That’s precisely what arrogance is. We Dark Elves, due to our longevity, tend to have slower generational changes among important national figures. Your faction is the epitome of that. You’re no longer cunning old foxes. You’ve become a detriment to this country.”
“W-What did you say?!”
As Norris’s face turned red with anger, Elias continued:
“Don’t you understand yet? Lord Reed must have told you too, that it’s not the elderly who shape the future.”
“…!? H-How do you know about that?!”
Norris was shocked that Elias knew about that conversation. At that moment, his eyes darted to the shadow called Capella.
A sudden question crossed his mind. How long had this person called Capella been hiding in his shadow? In that instant, he remembered Zack’s earlier words, “You’ve worked hard for many years,” and a chill ran down his spine. Seeing his reaction, Elias answered with satisfaction:
“That’s right. All your actions have been under surveillance, Norris.”
“…!!”
Norris bit his lower lip at Elias’s words. Had he been dancing to their tune all along? No, that couldn’t be. If so, what about the matter with Raycis? If everything had truly been under surveillance, they couldn’t have manipulated the prince. Thinking this, Norris raised his voice:
“…That’s a lie!! If you were monitoring me, how do you explain Prince Raycis?!”
“Raycis? Indeed, his level of devotion to you was unexpected, but for you, he served as a catalyst for action. A good distraction, wasn’t he?”
“W-What? Are you saying you used even the prince as bait?!”
Unable to hide his surprise at hearing that Raycis was used as bait, Norris listened as Elias continued:
“That’s what it means to be a king. Protecting the country and its people involves such measures. Someone like you who can be so easily manipulated and blindly devoted could never become king. Well, the current Raycis, who has been reformed by Lord Reed, might have some potential now.”
“Ugh… There’s one last thing I want to ask. Is that person, Lady Eltia, on your side too?”
If “that person” who had offered help, Eltia, was an ally, there might still be hope. Norris uttered these words with a desperate feeling. But Elias answered immediately:
“Of course. You were the only one who knew nothing, Norris.”
Norris, despairing at the king’s words, collapsed on the spot and muttered weakly:
“Was I… really just being toyed with, dancing in the palm of their hand…?!”
The other three people present, except for Norris, seemed to feel a sense of relief at this sight. Then, the king spoke coldly:
“What you’ve done amounts to treason against the state. There’s no way out for you. And you have two ways to die.”
Norris listened to Elias’s words with his head hanging low, devoid of strength.
“One is to be assassinated in this room tomorrow morning. The second is to take your own life with this poison. I recommend the second option. This poison apparently lets you pass on as if falling asleep. Isn’t that right, Zack?”
Zack, who was addressed, nodded quietly. Then, Elias placed the poison near Norris and said with contempt:
“You have very little time left. You’d do well to curse your own foolishness.”
With that, Elias turned his back on Norris and began walking towards the door of the room.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT GADGETIZEDPANDA.COM
Norris was confused with despair and anger.
(Don’t be ridiculous, Elias. You’re not a king. You can’t be a king!! That’s right, I should make Raycis the king, and I can guide the country as regent!! For that, Elias, you… are in the way!!)
At this point, all that remained in Norris was hatred for Elias. Just as Elias was about to leave the room, Norris shouted in a loud voice filled with anger:
“Eliaaaaaas!!”
Elias turned back with a puzzled look at these words. Then, he saw Norris with a furious expression, preparing to cast a spell. Zack and Capella tried to protect Elias, but he stopped them. Then, Norris shouted again in a rage:
“You should be killed by me!!”
“…!! You fool!!”
As Norris was about to cast his spell, Elias lightly gripped the sword at his waist. Simultaneously, he used body enhancement magic to instantly close the distance between them, and in that momentum, he drew his sword and slashed horizontally in one fluid motion.
“Im… poss…ible…”
Norris muttered softly and painfully. These would be his last words.
Elias shook the blood off his blade before sheathing his sword. At the same time, Norris’s body split into upper and lower halves and collapsed. A large pool of blood formed on the spot.
“Splendid, Your Majesty.”
Zack, who had been watching the sequence of events, praised Elias. Elias’s movement had been instantaneous. As a result, Norris hadn’t been able to cast his spell.
“Don’t jest… I never imagined he’d be this foolish.”
Elias answered Zack and then gave them instructions:
“Clean up this corpse. We’ll announce Norris’s death after the Baldia family’s visit is over. Until then… preserve the body in salt to prevent decay!!”
“…Understood, Your Majesty.”
Both Zack and Capella responded to Elias’s instructions with a bow. Then, Elias left the room.
The end of the man who had continued to act out of ego and malice, dissatisfied with becoming a vassal state of the empire, was ironically to be preserved in salt – the very thing that had caused their country to become a vassal state.
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