Chapter 6: Standing in Front of the Lion’s Cage (part 2)

"You mean when she cut her hair?" I asked.

"I saw her determination and resolve in that act," he said. "As a person, as a

woman, the princess has grown into an individual who can stand on her own two

feet. I don't want her to dull that resolve by clinging to a dying man."

He's rejecting Liscia for her own sake, huh, I thought. Honestly... What a stubborn

old man.

"I, too, have something to ask," Georg said.

"What?"

"What has become of the soldiers in the Army and Air Force who rebelled against

you alongside us?" he asked. "And what of the nobles who engaged in corruption and

then rebelled?"

"In recognition of their valor in the Amidonian war, I have pardoned the soldiers

of the Army and Air Force for their crimes," I said. "The House of Vargas rebelled

against me, but I must consider their accomplishments up until the time of the

former king. I have decided that only Castor and Carla will be judged for their

crimes. I abolished the Duchy of Vargas, but I allowed the disowned eldest son to

inherit the family name, and granted him just Red Dragon City as his fief. Though,

that child still being young, his mother Accela and their steward Tolman will assist

him in his duties. As for Castor and Carla themselves, to repay Excel's

accomplishments in the war effort, I have heard her plea and, at a later date, I will

judge the two of them personally."

Georg closed his eyes and remained silent. How must he have felt listening to me?

"Now, as for the corrupt nobles... I abolished their houses, confiscated their

domains and assets... and had them executed," I said. "For those who acted directly, I

did so publicly. For those who were merely implicated, I did so privately."

Under current law, treason was a crime that carried a death sentence for

relatives of up to three degrees of consanguinity. If, like Georg, they had cut ties with

their families properly, their uninvolved relatives wouldn't have had to get involved,

but the vast majority of the corrupt nobles had neglected to do that. They must have

thought they couldn't lose.

Worse yet, in addition to treason, they bore charges of corruption, bribery,

collaborating with Amidonia, misdeeds within their own fiefs (under the protection

of their own status, they'd engaged in murder, rape, theft, etc.), and so on. Anyway,

they had broken the laws like crazy.

For those whose only crime was treason, like Georg and Castor, I still received

petitions to spare their lives, but for these people, I actually received petitions

calling for me to murder them more brutally than I did.

"The system of collective responsibility is supposed to hold their families

responsible for not stopping them, right? Isn't three degrees of consanguinity a little

much?" I asked.

"There is nothing else to be done for it," said Georg. "If humans or beastmen live

to see their great-grandchildren, they've lived a very long life, but there are races

that live to see their great-great-grandchildren and greater's faces while still being

active. Because of that, the punishment had to reach farther."

"Still, too many innocent people died!" I cried. "Hakuya and I worked like

madmen, and we were just barely able to reform the law to only cover two degrees

of consanguinity in time. We also stayed the execution of everyone under the age of

thirteen, and had them placed in the care of orphanages or the church, but that was

the best we could do..."

Those under ten had been placed in an orphanage run by the state, while those

who were between the ages of eleven and thirteen had been left with the church.

The difference between the two was whether they would be able to marry and

have families of their own in the future. For those in the orphanage, it was possible,

but those given to the church would be cut off from secular life and be unable to

marry. Furthermore, among the people implicated by association, there had been a

woman who had given birth less than a month ago, so she had also been left with the

church along with someone to watch her. If she tried plotting anything untoward in

future, she would be dealt with then. That was about all I could do right now.

"I'm... opposed to the system of collective responsibility," I said. "The only ones

who should be judged for a crime are those who commit it. Even if they are related,

it's wrong to execute an innocent person. And publicly, at that. In order to judge

heinous crimes, and as a deterrent against them, I can't let go of the death penalty.

That's why I don't want that penalty to be a public spectacle, and I want to reform

the minds of people who see it as one."

"The country is already yours," said Georg. "I believe you should do as you see

fit."

"...I will," I said.

"Sire, is it hard on you, taking the lives of others?" asked Georg.

I must have looked pretty anguished, because Georg said that as if trying to

comfort me.

"How could it not be?!" I burst out. "On my orders, countless lives vanish. The

weight of that responsibility feels like it's going to crush me. Up until half a year ago,

I was just an ordinary guy, damn it!"

"I've read about it in the princess's letters," said Georg. "She praised you as a king

among kings. She wants to support you, with all her body and soul."

"Liscia is... doing a good job of supporting me," I said. "But I have to make a

decision that will sadden her. I... have to kill you." I placed my hand on my forehead,

speaking in a low groan. "Your plan was brilliant. Hal's old man... Glaive told us

everything. By gathering all the corrupt nobles in one place, we were able to round

up all of them and their assets in one fell swoop. It was a splendid plan that filled in a

number of gaps Hakuya and I had overlooked. But... because it can't be made public,

I have to treat you the same as I did the corrupt nobles."

There were two reasons it couldn't be made public.

The first was that there had been death caused by the fighting between the

Forbidden Army and the Army. Unlike the Forbidden Army's losses in the battle at

Red Dragon City, which were limited to one warship, the battle outside Randel had

seen losses on both sides. If we publicized Georg's true intent, the bereaved wouldn't

accept it.

The second was that relations with Zem, who had been forced to pay a ransom

for their mercenaries, would worsen even further. The way things stood now, Zem

were regretting that they had sent mercenaries to the losing side in order to take

revenge for my canceling of our contract.

If they learned that Georg and I had been secretly working together, Zem would

think the kingdom had set them up. It was actually Georg who had done that on his

own, but I could hardly blame them for feeling that way. Their feelings towards us

were bad enough as it was. They didn't need to be made any worse. That was to be

avoided.

That was why, as things stood now, Georg's plan could not be made public.

All of that said, Georg himself must have been aware of that fact. He had been

fully aware of it, and was literally trying to take the secret to his grave. How

stubborn. He really was... an idiot.

"Hey, was this really the only way? This was what you wanted? To sully your own

name, and commit a double suicide with the corrupt nobles, are you satisfied with

that?" I rose from my chair, slamming my fist into the iron bars. "Where was the

hurry? We could have taken our time to purge the corrupt nobles! The same goes

with Castor! He believed that you had some idea, followed you to the end out of

friendship and became a traitor for it! I had jobs I wanted you to handle after the

war, and now my plans are all thrown off! Sure, handling it all in one go was a big

deal, I'll give you that. The country's been cleaned up a good deal, and Hakuya's and

my stock has risen, making it easier to implement my policies. But, still, it's

meaningless if you lose you for it! Do you have any idea how much it hurts a state to

lose talented people?! It sure as hell isn't equal in value to getting rid of some

corrupt nobles!"

"..." Georg's eyes remained closed as he listened to me in silence.

I pounded on the iron bars once more. "Answer me, Georg! Are you really

satisfied with this?!"

"That goes without saying," Georg calmly replied. "From the roots of a great tree

that I thought, like my own body, would only wither away and die, I now see new

growth sprouting. All I can do is pray for it to grow up well."

"Even if it knocks down that great tree as it does?!" I yelled.

"That is the joy of seeing the next generation grow up strong," said Georg. "In

time, you will come to understand it, too, sire."

"...Will I really?" I asked.

"When a child is born to you and the princess, I guarantee it."

I slumped back heavily onto my chair. Feeling strangely enervated, I asked him

the last thing that had bothered me. "Please, tell me this... Is this something you came

up with entirely on your own?"

"What do you mean by that?" Georg opened his eyes and asked.

Don't play dumb with me!

"This is the first time we've met," I said. "Yet you have a strangely high opinion of

me. You're trying to leave this plan in my hands, as well as Liscia, who you love like a

daughter, in my hands, and the future of this country in my hands, too. It's just

wrong, no matter how I think about it. Where did that loyalty come from?"

"Is learning of your unusual talents from the princess's letters insufficient as an

explanation?" Georg asked.

"Yeah, it's insufficient," I said. "I can't see you embracing this loyalty to a bunch of

words on paper. If you were going to martyr yourself for something, it could only be

for the House of Elfrieden."

Now that I thought of it, something had been off from the very beginning.

From the moment I'd taken the throne, the path I had needed to travel down had

seemed to have been prepared for me strangely well.

I was suddenly given the throne, I was entrusted with all of the power to control

national policy, even given an engagement to Liscia to bolster my legitimacy, and

then at some point, the corrupt nobles had been smoked out for me. When I looked

back, I could see everything had been moving to make things easier for me. If that

was the will of someone... there was only one person who could have done it.

"Was this plan done on that person's orders?" I asked.

"...I will remain silent."

"Answer me," I ordered. "What does that person know, and what do you know?"

I waited for Georg to speak, but he had nothing to say to me.