A few days later.
Those who had attempted to stage a rebellion, claiming to be Sidmid's rightful heirs, began to be arrested one by one. The soldiers discovered the location where the rebels had made contact, and in the process, countless plans, including the specifics of the uprising and an assassination plot against Serpina, were revealed.
How they had co upon this evidence was unclear, but for Serpina, it was nothing short of divine luck.
Divine luck!
It could only be explained with that word—it was so close to a sheer coincidence that it couldn't have been anything else.
Once the trail was found, the 'subversive elents' were easily captured, as if they were potatoes pulled up from the earth.
It wasn't just a few. Dozens were bound and dragged to Eingart Castle. All of them were ard n who had once enjoyed the favor of Serpina's army. From those who had barely stood out to those who had perford their duties well, they were all included.
Among them was the most significant figure, Rahelven Yenichika, a man once recomnded to take the position of Lord of Kelstein Castle. He was the one who had taught Serpina the basics of royal etiquette when she was still a young girl. Originally a follower of Sidmid von Eingart, he was known to have completely pledged his loyalty to Serpina.
His unwavering loyalty, revealed in the smallest actions, made it clear that he was now completely devoted to Serpina.
"..."
Serpina thought so too. So when she stood here, despite having witnessed countless unpleasant things, she couldn't help but feel surprised.
So it was. Her second brother's ghost still wandered the continent.
Although Serpina had beco widely known as a tyrant due to her past large-scale purges, she was surprisingly lenient in so respects. She showed rcy to those who followed her and allowed those with talent to rise based on their ability, without regard for their lineage or past.
However, there was one thing Serpina would never forgive—treason. During the conquest of the northern continent, there had been countless rebellions, and all the rebels had t their end at the gallows.
Even now, there was no difference. She could not show rcy to those who challenged her authority. That was the fate of those who inherited the bloodline of the great Eingart Empire.
*
A few days later, in the underground prison of Eingart Castle.
"You've arrived, my lady."
"...Lead the way."
The day before the execution.
Serpina walked to the solitary cell where Rahelven, waiting for his execution, was being held. Upon her arrival at the prison, Rahelven greeted her with the sa expression he had when he was her etiquette teacher.
"Oh, you've co, Princess Serpina."
Not "my lady" but "Princess." Before the rebellion was uncovered, he had called her "my lady" without fail, but now, even in his final monts, he insisted on addressing her by the title of princess.
—He still didn't recognize her.
"How foolish, Rahelven. I thought you had a sharp mind, yet I never imagined you'd chase after the faded ideals of a dead man."
"Princess, you know only one thing and not the other. It's fine. After all, I never expected anything sincere from you."
Rahelven smiled warmly, then his eyes lost their spark as he looked at her with a fixed, piercing stare.
"Who would truly follow a witch who slit the throats of her own brothers and drank their blood?"
"...!"
In his hollow eyes, Serpina saw the will of soone else—Sidmid von Eingart. The second brother, who had hated and cursed her, who had wept with hatred and sought vengeance.
"Princess, this is fate. Allow to impart sothing to you in my last monts. I... this old man, am just the first."
What Serpina saw in him was not fear, but rage. And beyond that rage... a form of pity.
"You didn't expect it when you drank the blood of the royal family with your own hands, did you? So many are hunting you, Princess. It will surely be a difficult battle, but I believe that whoever wins in the end is the one who must bear the weight of what they should never have taken."
Serpina had known this all along. From the mont she inherited the will of Eingart, she had expected everything.
"..."
"Princess, you look very beautiful. But no matter how stunning your beauty is, the ugly deeds you've committed will never be forgiven. I only wish you had learned not etiquette, but how to navigate the world. Well then, Princess, I will watch from the afterlife with a happy heart."
Rahelven finished speaking, let out a rattling laugh, and then lowered his head. That was his way of saying there was nothing more to be said.
Realizing there was no more to discuss, Serpina silently turned and left the prison. On her way back to the castle, she rembered that she had originally ant to ask why he had betrayed her.
But she couldn’t ask him that anymore. Perhaps she'd already heard the answer.
'Brother Algott.'
"Serpina."
'...Am I really doing well?'
"Only you, Serpina. Among the descendants of Eingart's bloodline, ■■■ ■■ ■■■ ■■... it's only you. So, this foolish brother entrusts everything to you."
'Can I really... reunite the empire with my own hands?'
"Therefore, I ask this of you. The empire... the fractured empire, reunite it... bring peace to this world once more."
'I... I...!!!!'
The sharp point of a needle, wrapped in the voice of her brother, tore through her mind.
I can't do it. I can't do it, brother. I can't... I just can’t!
—My Lady!
"...?!"
In the corridor leading back to the castle, just as she was about to fall into a panic again, a voice called out to her.
"…Swen?"
Serpina hurriedly looked around. There was no one in the hallway, not even Swen.
Was it just an illusion? Even so, it didn't feel unpleasant.
When she rembered how Swen had called out to her, she suddenly felt herself calm down, faster than she could comprehend.
'...That's right, Swen.'
He must have known everything.
After all, the capture of the rebels had been because Swen had insisted that soldiers be stationed at Amir Castle and that the recruitnt there was necessary. The reasoning was different, but in the end, it had been a divine stroke of luck from Serpina's perspective.
If she hadn’t noticed the rebellion, the blade could have easily co for her.
Though others might call it divine luck, Serpina knew it was all thanks to Swen.
And sohow, vaguely...
Even though things had turned out this way, she felt like she understood why he hadn't said a word.
'I need to have a talk with him.'
Serpina imdiately called for Swen. It wasn't so much a rational decision as it was a primal instinct.
***
"Swen, I greet you, my lord."
In the quiet reception room, the silver-haired man, Swen, knelt before Serpina. The mont she saw him, Serpina lost her composure and, with a voice slightly trembling, slowly whispered his na.
"...Swen."
"Yes. Please speak."
"Did you know... that this would happen? Did you know it all along?"
"...."
Swen raised his head and looked at Serpina. His gray eyes were far from empty. They were clear and strong, not the vacant eyes of soone haunted by past regrets.
"You must know, Swen. Among the captured rebels, there was that woman... Sika."
Sika.
The woman who had argued at the proposal eting Swen attended, insisting that additional troops be deployed imdiately along the borders. Had that been implented, the northern forces, planning to rebel, would have been deprived of reinforcents. Whether Sika had considered this, Serpina couldn't be sure, but one thing was clear—Swen could not have spoken up directly in that eting, given his position.
No!
Even if he had said, "We must reinforce the troops because a rebellion is coming," would Serpina have believed him? The answer was simple.
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
She would never have trusted him.
There was no evidence.
As long as her belief that decisions involving people's lives had to be based on sound evidence remained intact, she wouldn't have accepted such a claim, no matter how convincing the speaker.
So...
"That's why you gave a sowhat incomprehensible reason. You said, 'We must prepare for the Aishus army coming up the river.' Looking back, that seems to have been the only option that could have led to that conclusion... because there was no reason to deploy troops when local uprisings or rebellions were unlikely to occur! In such cases, there was no need to deploy soldiers."
As she spoke, things beca clearer.
What Swen had truly wanted to convey beca visible.
"But Swen, you couldn't tell everything! One of the traitors was part of that group, and if you didn't present a solid reason, I wouldn’t have listened! So... you used your position with the Aishus army to fabricate that hypothesis. A hypothesis so convincing that you could make believe it!"
It was certainly a possible but unlikely theory. A theory born of desperation, crafted to convince her.
And in the end—Serpina had listened to him, and because of that, she was able to uncover the traitor.
"There are monts when we must see what is invisible. Even what is plainly in front of us can escape our sight at certain tis."
"That was... what was invisible."
The mont when sothing visible is no longer within sight!
Now, it all made sense.
Every word he had spoken clicked into place. Now, she understood why he had spoken with such "conviction."
Then, how had he known everything?
It was a crucial question, but at this mont, it didn't matter to Serpina.
Ordinary people would have been crushed by this absurd situation.
Serpina didn't know it, but Lyn Brans had once been so overwheld by Swen's "always correct" advice that she feared him.
But Serpina was different.
For her, what mattered was that he had known everything. And that, instead of keeping it to himself, he had tried to pass it on to her. He had fitted everything into a plausible argunt to make her believe.
This ant that Swen had not passed everything onto her as a burden—he had taken her hand.
For the first ti, a man had done what no one else had done!
In her life, where she had always carried everything on her own, burdened by the weight of it all, Swen was the first clear and beautiful compass that had ever appeared in her life.
The more she thought about it, the more beautiful it seed. Serpina shuddered as she spoke with a voice trembling in awe.
She didn't even realize her face had turned red.
"You knew it all... you knew everything! And, in order to tell , you gave your desperate advice... right, Swen?"
As she repeated in her mind that he had known everything, she naturally recalled a phrase from her past.
"The third eye."
A legendary title of a great strategist who served the Eingart family over a century ago. Though his words sotis seed strange, it was said that in the end, everything he said was right.
And now, the mysterious man she had heard of was standing before her.
"..."
Swen looked at Serpina with an expression of utmost calm, then slowly bowed his head.
"It was dangerous in many ways, but it was your decision to listen to , my lady. I am simply grateful to have been of help."
"Ah...!!"
Truly, you are not an ordinary man.
The man who appeared in my dreams... he was the man who could see through everything!
"Swen, truly... truly, you are such an interesting man... I... for the first ti in my life, I feel a shiver. Do you feel it? My heart... do you feel it?"
Her voice caught, breathless, as her cheeks flushed with the intensity of the mont.
But there was nothing she could do.
For the first ti after taking the throne... she had t soone who shined so brightly, soone she desperately wanted.
And that soone was the man who had always appeared in her dreams.
When she thought about it, there was a sharp ache in her chest, a warm, comforting feeling from the silver-haired, unnad man.
For Serpina, this mont felt like a divine revelation.
A single ray of light shining down from the corner of a dark sky.
Serpina stood from her throne and slowly walked toward Swen, who was still kneeling.
Her golden hair shimred, flowing with every step she took.
When she reached him, she brought herself to his eye level, gently cupping his chin with her snowy white hand.
And in a dreamlike, eternal whisper, she spoke slowly.
"Be mine, Swen. Your body and your heart... serve . If you do not...!"
Her last words scattered like cherry blossoms in April.
If you do not, I will―――
***
After leaving Eingart Castle, I muttered to myself with a sowhat dazed expression.
"...Is this right?"
Sothing... sothing is happening...!
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