Chapter 24

Episode 24 - A Liar and a Liar

Rasia Abiran entered the First Prince’s Palace in a rather refreshed mood.

He did not particularly like boring meetings themselves, but he thought looking down at the frightened expressions of the nobles was not bad.

Especially today, he felt even more satisfied by the fact that he had screwed over that arrogant bastard from the Feedus ducal family.

He remembered the arrogant Agony Feedus, who had blocked his path at the last hunting tournament while bringing up tradition.

Because of that damned ancient tradition, his plan to perfectly establish his position at the hunting tournament had only half succeeded.

It had been an empty wish made with the judgment that there was nothing better for catching the emperor’s eye than protecting the temple of the first emperor and raising his name.

But because that senile Duke Feedus had suddenly stepped forward, everything had gone to waste.

Duke Feedus had paid for it with his life, and the one who ended that life had also been the First Prince himself, but he was never someone who cared about sacrifices offered by others in the first place.

Now that time had passed, all that remained in his mind was the anger that came from the fact that an insect-like bastard had interfered with him.

The one who taught Rasia a way to screw over the remaining bastards of the ducal family was his clever younger brother.

“The thing Duke Feedus risked his life for was probably to save the vagrants of that area. I hear the remaining acting duke is now building a hospital nearby. That too is highly likely to be a project for the vagrants.”

The First Prince, who realized that he had been interfered with because of those mere insect bastards, grew even angrier.

To him, the Second Prince whispered.

“Interfere in their work, Brother. There will be nothing more humiliating than the very person who killed the duke toying with what the duke protected with his life.”

The First Prince nodded at that.

Most of all, he liked the words the Second Prince added at the end.

“And if things go wrong, the person who will take responsibility has already been decided.”

Rasia Abiran entered his office while already holding back the laughter about to burst out.

And there,

“Ah, you have arrived? It seems the meeting ended later than expected.”

“Aaaaaaagh!!!!”

The hateful black insect bastard who had been tormenting him most lately was waiting.

* * *

“Hey!! What are you! Weren’t you only in the bedroom? Why did you come here?”

Even while jumping in surprise, it seemed he had properly learned only that he must not make a loud noise, because he was showing the personal talent of shouting in a lowered voice.

“I never said that, did I?”

When I shrugged and answered, he seemed to have nothing to say, so he tightly closed his mouth and glared at me.

“Seeing you come in smiling, I suppose the meeting ended satisfactorily?”

“Did you come for treatment today too?”

Perhaps embarrassed that he had shown me his foolish, broad smile, he pretended not to hear my words and asked.

“No, today I came to receive payment.”

“What is it this time?”

The First Prince looked at me with dissatisfaction.

Well, it was nothing special.

“You probably said you would help with the construction of the Feedus ducal family’s facilities.”

The question of how I knew that was written plainly on his face, but I ignored it and continued speaking.

“It is a small request related to that.”

His expression immediately distorted.

“No matter what you say, I cannot cancel that......”

“No, the First Prince must definitely take charge of it. Do you not know that you should listen to people until the end?”

At my advice, an extremely wronged look flashed across his face for a moment.

“First, proceed as slowly as possible. Long enough that everyone in the empire can hear the news that the imperial family is helping the Feedus ducal family build a large-scale hospital.”

That should not be difficult.

Perhaps finding my request, which even he thought was not very difficult, strange, the First Prince tilted his head and asked.

“What on earth is your objective?”

The reason I could not answer immediately was because his question was a more fundamental one than I had expected.

It was also an issue I had not deeply thought about since being possessed into the book.

An objective, huh.

In truth, I had lived such a purposeless life that I could not even remember when I had last had something like that.

When I lived in the world outside the book, there had been nothing grand enough to call the purpose of life.

Just paying off my loans, or spending a day without dying, something like that?

After being possessed into the book, I ended up living a life even closer to death than before, so I had been too busy spending each day quite literally trying not to die.

So......well, if I had to say it,

“Survival, perhaps?”

A look of incomprehension crossed the First Prince’s face once again, but I wordlessly sent him out of the office.

When I flew outside, I saw the Feedus family’s carriage leaving the imperial palace far in the distance.

The carriage carrying Tollin looked urgent and sharp, resembling him.

I continued flapping my wings while recalling his face, which had looked rather gaunt.

According to Tollin’s speech, which I had confirmed in the square, it seemed the business he was starting this time was a hospital project.

Unlike the original work, where he trained an army and offered it up.

* * *

The news that the First Prince had extended a helping hand to the Feedus ducal family caused ripples inside and outside the imperial palace.

Some said that the abandoned Feedus ducal family had begun receiving the protection of the imperial family again, while others said that the very fact that the First Prince had stepped forward was intended to insult Feedus, and that the imperial family was preparing to completely trample the ducal family as it tried to rise again.

In the end, a faction that wanted to watch how things developed and a faction that wanted to attach themselves to the Feedus ducal family again in advance were divided, establishing their own subtle competition.

As noisy as the movements of the nobles were, Tollin’s heart was also noisy.

Tollin, who was sitting in the office and organizing documents, clutched his head as he recalled the distant feeling he had felt when the emperor mentioned the First Prince.

After returning to the ducal residence, he was still spending busy days.

No, because of the war of nerves the nobles were waging over the Feedus ducal family, he had become even busier than before, without a moment to breathe.

Everyone else in the ducal residence thought that Tollin would protect the ducal family like steel, just as he had after Agony Feedus died.

Just as he had shaken himself off and stood up in a single day after the duke’s death.

Perhaps Tollin himself had thought so too.

No one knew that whenever he sat alone in the office, he stopped working and suffered from the guilt that crept up and tightened around him.

He was also managing the young duke’s successor education, which he had always personally checked face-to-face, through reports under the excuse that he was busy.

He simply could not look at the face of the child.

He was the one who had killed the duke.

The face that had suffered because he could not breathe, the duke who had vanished in an instant.

Everything that had never disappeared from his memory for even a single moment.

And the First Prince, who had been smiling cruelly even in that moment.

Since that day, Tollin had felt that the faith within him had changed from before.

But he was a weak human, and the place he lived in was the world of gods, so he could not defy them.

Having resolved to protect what remained, he prostrated himself and tried not to irritate their eyes.

In the conference hall, Tollin had been in a position where he had to be careful even with his gaze before the First Prince.

As if he were an ant before humans, he bowed his head to them and obediently accepted their demands.

In order to survive, and because that was the proper thing to do.

Thanks to that, the Feedus ducal family and his father were safe, but an unexpected sense of humiliation and guilt covered him.

He convinced himself that it could not be helped, that he had made the wisest choice, but he could not control his emotions.

What would happen from now on?

Would the young duke see him facing the First Prince?

Tollin feared showing the young duke the sight of himself bowing his head to his father’s enemy.

Tollin, who had been running while only looking ahead like a racehorse with its vision blocked, freely recalled the face of his old superior, which he had tried so hard to erase until now, for the first time in a long while.

If the duke had reached Teritum, the resting place of the dead, and was looking down at them, what would he say upon seeing Tollin’s appearance?

Tollin suppressed his guilt and closed his eyes.

And, as always, he began his work again as if nothing had happened.

* * *

Fortunately or unfortunately, Agony Feedus was perfectly alive in the earthly world, so he could not look down on Tollin.

“Please let me go! I am just an ordinary old man!”

Though he was doing his best to return to the embrace of his family.

Agony Feedus was currently still imprisoned in a dungeon with his limbs bound.

It had been about two weeks since he was caught and brought here.

These people had taken all of Agony Feedus’ belongings and locked him in this old, musty-smelling place.

Those who imprisoned Agony provided him with the minimum amount of food needed to keep him from dying and gave him no explanation.

No matter how much Agony asked the ones who came to bring food to let him speak with the person who had imprisoned him, they only pushed the bowl in and left, as if they could not hear his words.

On this day, when Agony had reached the point of madness and thought he should attempt an escape even with his still-unhealed leg, a group that did not seem to be underlings finally visited the prison.

Agony struggled to stand with his unfree arms and legs and shouted at them.

“Please let me go! I am just an ordinary old man!”

Most of those looking at him from outside the prison wore long robes whose hems dragged along the floor, and they watched Agony from a little distance away from the prison as if dealing with an extremely dangerous barbarian.

Agony Feedus desperately shouted at those questioning him while his limbs were tied, saying that he was only a kind and somewhat unlucky ordinary old man over sixty, and that there was nothing they could gain from him.

Though, perhaps because of his healthy build and height that did not look like someone in his sixties, it did not work at all.

“Ratel, is it true that this man opened the entrance to the cave and came inside?”

The old man with the longest beard asked the black-haired young man who had been leaning against the wall and quietly watching the situation since earlier.

It was the young man with golden eyes who had dragged Agony from the cave.

Agony looked at him with the meaning of begging him to reveal his innocence, but he did not even glance at Agony.

“Yes. I sensed a strange energy and opened the entrance, and he was lying unconscious in the middle of the cave.”

“Hmm.”

At the words of the young man called Ratel, those who muttered that there was no way he would lie all looked at Agony once again.

For an imperial dog, it was suspicious that he had come in here recklessly while not armed, merely carrying a pile of stones. For an ordinary person, his spirit was extraordinary. And for a coincidence, this place was a fortress of God that had thoroughly blocked outsiders for over fifty years.

“No, I do not even know what kind of place that cave is. I lost my footing and fell from a cliff, and when I opened my eyes, I was there. You searched my body earlier, so you know. I have nothing on me!”

While praising his past self for having participated in the hunting tournament in simple attire, Agony mixed truth and lies as he insisted on his innocence.

His clothes were rather high quality, but compared to his status as a duke, they were simple, so if he kept insisting, he thought he might be able to deceive them into thinking he was merely a wealthy merchant.

Fortunately, perhaps because of the impact from falling off the cliff, his outer garment had also become tattered.

“That is an absurd lie. The cave is a place touched by Lord Amica’s breath. The claim that you simply ended up entering it must be a blatant lie.”

Among those wearing robes, a man with a somewhat younger-sounding voice pointed at Agony and spoke.

“If it is a lie, that means a descendant of Abiran has found us. That also means the final bastion protecting us has collapsed.”

When the long-bearded man who had spoken to the young man named Ratel answered, tension seemed to flow among them.

Agony Feedus was so wronged that he was on the verge of jumping in place.

He himself did not know how he had ended up entering a place like the hideout of these heretics, but they did not seem to have any intention of listening to him.

Agony moved his steps closer to the bars of the prison and appealed to them.

“Please send me back. A young child is waiting for me at home. I even left a heavy burden to my colleague.”

This much was sincere.

When he thought of the young duke and Tollin paying the price for the things he had done, worry and guilt came flooding over him so strongly that he could not stay still.

At his sincere plea, those who had been suspicious of Agony quietly looked at him.

At their lack of answer, Agony hoped that perhaps they too might show a little kindness, like the young man who had brought him from the cave.

“I am sorry, outsider, but you cannot leave this place alive.”

The long-bearded old man who stepped forward thoroughly shattered Agony’s hope.

Agony asked calmly.

“Do you take people’s lives based on uncertain suspicion?”

“If a small sacrifice can save the whole, then as many times as necessary.”