Dealing with Traitors

"Now that the matter of our cooperation has been settled... what should we do with our food? Lia's probably the only one who can eat it without a problem."

"No, more like you're the only one who can't eat, Cordelia. I also have poison immunity, and for good measure, I have corrosion immunity too. You should have noticed that already, considering how close I got to you this morning," Aurelia says as she begins to eat.

Looking at Lia who is also eating, I say, "I refuse to be the only one not eating. I have a resistance to poison, I'll just have to force it towards immunity," I say, with a spoon in hand.

Quickly shovelling down the food from the plate into my mouth, I come to quickly regret my decision as I keel over in pain. But after a few minutes, the pain lessens as I find my Medium Resist went up to High Poison Resist.

Slowly getting up, I raise my fist into the air, "I did it, my Medium Resist upgraded to High. But this still hurts, Lia can you help me?"

As I am gradually recovering enough to hold a decent conversation, Aurelia says, "Let's discuss our immediate plans. Specifically, those regarding our poisoned meal. Even if it didn't affect us... most of us. This was probably the work of my Uncles spies. From the forty members of my personal guard ten of them are traitors. They have broken the pledge they once made and must receive their punishment."

"So... just what... do you plan to... do with them?" I ask.

"For starters, you should focus on recovering. Once we return to the inn, I want you to gather up the four traitors and tie them up. Then in the morning, we hold a show of force, with a public execution. This should suppress any problems we may have run into during the inspections of the nobles on the second day and government facilities and the third day."

"Your Majesty, you've known about these traitors among your guard for a while, so why wait until now to do something about them?" Lia asks.

Heaving a heavy sigh, Aurelia says, "I have two reasons. The first was I never found a good time to dispose of them especially since they had never done anything too extreme against me. But most importantly, deep down, I hoped that they would return to my side. A few of them had served by my side since I was young, but after my parents died, my uncle seemed to have given a few of my guards an offer to serve him and those that refused were found dead not long after. No one around me was aware of this and believe they died on duty or in accidents, but I was able to trace the truth with my eyes. But after the matter of their deaths were settled, they were of course replaced with people whose true allegiance lay with my Uncle. As a matter of fact, during my personal investigation of the matter, I found out that it was my Uncle who had orchestrated the death of my Father and he did a real good job of removing the evidence, if it wasn't for my eyes then I probably would have thought my Father's death was simply unlucky."

Before Aurelia can continue we hear someone knocking on the door. Aurelia looks towards us, putting a finger up to her mouth and lays her upper body against the table. Realising what she means, both me and Lia copy her, proceeding to play dead as the sound of someone knocking on the door is heard once more. After one more round of knocking, a voice calls out "your Majesty, are you alright?" but their tone shows no hint of worry or anxiety, rather, he shows signs of joy after he calls out again but hears no response from us.

Soon after three people enter the room, although I can't get a good view of them, I do recognise the trio as a part of Aurelia's guards.

"Good, looks like the poison did its work. Too bad for the adventurers to have gotten involved in imperial affairs, but we've got a job to do. Go and inspect them, we can't have any loose ends."

As the three go to inspect us, the door is suddenly seal shut as Aurelia suddenly jumps up, yelling, "now!"

Move quickly at her call, we catch the three traitors with ease having been caught off guard, expecting us to have at least been weakened if not killed by the poison. Although the other two are perfectly fine, even with sluggish movements, my higher stats still allow me to move just as fast as Lia and Aurelia.

"How can you all still move so well!? You should have at the very least been put into a weakened state from the poison!" one of them ask after being tied up in iron chains by me.

"Easy we all, er, two of us have Poison Immunity, Cordelia's only got resistance but her stats are high enough that even under its effects they don't cause too much trouble after a few minutes. And even if you had succeeded in killing us, these two aren't any mere adventurers. They are technically diplomats and representatives of the Central Alliance of Talonia. Had we died here, not to mention the civil unrest my Uncle would have to deal with, he would also need to deal with a potential war at the same time. With you three in my hands there are only seven of you traitors left in my personal guard."

"Wait, you knew this whole time we worked for your Uncle? And exactly how many of us there are?"

"Of course, I'm not as naive as everyone thinks and as you just saw for yourself, I am not as weak as everyone thinks as well. You have taken a word of advice from you compatriots that tried to assassinate me earlier today. Even if you couldn't see exactly what happened, you should have at least noticed that neither Cordelia nor Lia made any moves even when sitting next to me. I was hoping to do the clean up after we returned to the inn, but it seems like we'll have to make our move here instead. Cordelia, can you bind them to the walls, we can't have them running off while we find the rest of them."

"Got it," I say using my Metal and Wood manipulation to bind their chains to the walls of the private dining room.

"Now that this has been taken care of, let's go catch the rest."

Following Aurelia out of the room, we go searching for the remaining seven traitors. I say search, but since Aurelia knows the location of where all her guards are, it doesn't take much time to find them as we head outside to find the seven traitors along with a few other of the guards hanging around the carriage.

Seeing us, a few of them are briefly surprised but quickly change their expression as they greet Aurelia with the rest of the guards. Aurelia begins to list off the names of the traitors, and while the traitors have grim and dark expressions hearing their names called out, the other guards have looks of envy. But their envious gave quickly turns as they hear what Aurelia says next.

"You seven are under arrest for the leak of information and assistance in plotting my attempted assassinations. Your three compatriots have already been captured after their failed attempt at poisoning our food."

Perhaps because there are only a small handful of people loyal to Aurelia here right now and they think Aurelia didn't actually make a move herself, the seven traitors rush towards Aurelia, seemingly trying to take her hostage or kill her themselves.

We try to intercept them but Aurelia motions for us to remain still. The other guards keep their professionalism as they don't remain surprised over the situation and move to protect Aurelia, but since there is only a couple of them they are easily pushed away. As they draw near Aurelia, she begins to levitate in the air as lightning and Fire starts running along her body.

Although they look surprised over what's happening, they've already reached the point of no return and continue the attempt at striking Aurelia down. Swords swing down and spears are thrust forward, but all of the traitor's attacks are blocked as a barrier of light blocks them. Sending out bolts of lightning from her hand she immobilises the seven and they're quickly put into chains by me and the other guards.

Returning to the restaurant, Aurelia pays our bill and gives the owner a little extra for any trouble that was caused and to cover any damages that were made. Fetching the other three we left in the dining room, I bind the chains of all the ten traitors to the carriage as we make our way back to the shabby inn.

Upon our return, Aurelia asks me to make a temporary prison for the ten of them. When doing so, I make sure there is a single room and make it just barely large enough to fit them all in and with no toilet.

Walking up to the small slit that allows are to flow in the makeshift room, Aurelia says to them, "Your execution will take place tomorrow morning. I hope whatever my Uncle gave you was worth this betrayal."