The Person Behind the Assassination

"Who sent you to kill me?" I asked with a bitter smile. "Was it my father?"

Alver stared at me fixedly before shaking his head.

"It was not your father. He wants to kill you as well, but I work for someone else."

Putting on a respectful and feverish look, Alver smiled.

"I work for her highness."

I narrowed my eyes. Her highness?

There are not many people in the empire that can be called like that. I'm sure it's neither Dina nor Lena. In other words, it's someone else.

A name came to my mind immediately.

"Christine…"

Alan's ex-fiancée, and a member of the already destroyed Hera family.

"How do you dare to call her by her name!?" Alver's expression immediately turned ice-cold. "You should show more respect when you talk about the future empress of the empire!"

I sneered coldly.

"Future empress? She is just the daughter of a family of traitors. She doesn't even deserve to be a concubine."

"Shut up!" Alver snarled. "All of that is your fault! Due to you, her highness's family was imprisoned! But it doesn't matter! That is not enough to stop her! She will become the empress, the ruler of this nation! And when that happens, she will avenge the destruction of her family with the blood of the imperial family!"

"Really?"

"Yes! Soon, the emperor will die, and nobody will be able to object to her highness becoming the empress! And you, Prince Claus, you will be the first step towards that."

I looked at Alver's fanatical expression and chuckled, "That is a great story." Then, I stood up.

Alver was immediately stunned.

"W-Wait, y-you…"

"So Christine is the one behind you, huh. That is unexpected. Well, I can understand why someone of the Hera Family wants to kill me."

"H-How are you moving?"

"Hm? Have you not realized yet? Obviously, I was never affected by your poison since the start."

Alver froze.

"T-That, that is…"

"Impossible?" I snickered and snapped my fingers.

Immediately, the illusion in the living room disappeared.

Aunt Dayana, Aunt Sera, Andrea, Lina, Katherine, Rose, and Ysnay vanished, revealing the empty living room behind the illusion.

Even the tea that Andrea had 'prepared' reappeared on the table, still inside the bag Alver brought.

"H-How?"

I looked at him as though he was a fool.

"Do you think a plot as obvious as yours could have succeeded? I could smell your cheap trick from kilometers away."

Alver swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

At the same time, his expression turned ashen white.

He had screwed up.

Not only had he failed to kill me, but he had also revealed the identity of the person behind him and even the plan to kill the emperor.

No matter how he looked at the situation, he was in deep shit.

I let out a soft chuckle and put on an expression of interest.

"By the way, Alver, when you said there was a girl you liked, was it Christine?"

Alver's eyes widened slightly. Involuntarily, he staggered two steps back.

Mm, his expression is enough of an answer.

It looks like I hit the head of the nail, huh.

"You truly are pitiful. Damn man, even I feel pity for you."

"… W-What do you mean?"

"Is it not obvious?" I asked with a grin. "You love her so much that you even agreed to kill me, but she is only using you as a chess piece. Furthermore, you are even helping her to marry someone else. Man, I don't want to be in your shoes."

"Shut up!" Alver growled. "I do it because I love her!"

"Oh really?" I looked at him with a playful smile. "Man, I feel pity for you. I mean, Alan is not even your friend. Why don't you man up and go for her yourself instead of giving her to someone else."

Alver shut up immediately and gritted his teeth.

Sigh, poor man. I even want to let him go after learning of how pitiful he is.

I'm not going to do it, of course.

Smiling, I walked towards Alver slowly.

Alver's expression turned grave. Without hesitating, he kicked the ground and launched himself towards a nearby window!

He wanted to escape!

However, to his surprise, I appeared in front of him, blocking his way!

Alver's expression changed. In a panic, he gathered mana in his arm to punch me, but I just leaned my head aside and lifted my right leg.

Then–

*Bam!*

"Gah!"

I hit his abdomen and sent him flying away.

"How weak," I said indifferently, ignoring Alver's groans. "Don't worry, I don't plan to kill you. You will be more useful if you die in another way."

"C-Cough, w-what do you mean?"

"A public execution, of course. That way, everybody will know you tried to kill a member of the imperial family and I'll be able to use it to threaten your beloved Christine." I then took out a stone from a pocket.

It was a magic tool with the ability to record conversations.

When Alver recognized the stone, a bad presentment hit him.

"You… Bastard! What are you planning!?"

I chuckled with an amused look.

"Well... I was wondering what I could do to make my brother feel pain. What do you think about stealing his fiancée?"

Alver shivered.

He immediately understood my plan.

"Damn you! I won't let you touch her highness!"

Roaring, Alver stood up furiously and rushed towards me once more!

He put his entire strength in this attack!

Even though he knew he was weaker than me, he decided he must kill me!

I smiled and lowered my stance. Then, I took a step forward, releasing a straight punch that hit his chest and stole all the air in his lungs.

"Gah!"

Alver groaned and spat out a mouthful of saliva.

But at that moment, he took something out of a pocked.

It was a small bottle!

Then, he threw it to the ground.

Immediately, a powerful and calming fragrance spread through the entire living room.

Dolong tea.

"Hehe, it looks like it's your end, Prince Claus."

I was speechless. Seriously?

"Was it your last trump card?" I could not help but ask.

"Hehe, now that you smelled the poison, you will soon be unable to move. In fact, with the amount of fragrance in that bottle, you should be unable to move right now. I wonder how are you going to stop me now, Prince?"

"Is it so?" I nodded and grabbed Alver's neck. Then, I lifted his body effortlessly. "Right, I forgot to tell you that your poison doesn't work on me."

Alver stiffened. Then, his eyes widened in fear.

"Impo... Sible..."

I glanced at him indifferently shook my head. Then, I waved my hand, gathering all the fragrance in an orb over my hand before incinerating it.

Once I was done with that, I walked outside and let out a loud shout.

"Assassins!"

My voice spread through the entire fort, alerting even General Liko and General Anson.

"Protect the Prince!"

"Hurry up!"

"Assassins!"

Immediately, more than half of the soldiers in the fort rushed towards my place.