Chapter 85

***

Jaxor let out a couple of empty laughs. His eyes, which had let go of everything, were empty.

“Faith? The founding principles of the empire? How long will it last? 

People like me will pop up again. In the end, the world won’t change much.”

I heard Kwanach grinding his teeth. I glanced sideways at his face. Kwanach’s gaze, which had been worn out for a long time, once again stood firm.

I liked that face. Kwanach used to lower himself in front of me, but I believed in his uprightness and greatness.

Kwanach said in a hardened voice, 

“If someone messes up and breaks it, someone else can rebuild it.”

“…….”

“It doesn’t have to be a big change. As long as you make gradual progress that way. I thought you believed in such change. I thought you were someone who was dedicated to the possibility of change.”

Kwanach’s voice echoed. I felt my chest tighten.

His unwavering faith was imprinted in my heart. I had decided to love this man and to support him. I knew that my decision was not wrong.

“If it was my sin, I must have misjudged the man. Is this all you want to talk about, Jaxor?”

“…….”

“Is this really the end? I know Roman and Diaquit are friends. Tell me more about what you know.”

Jaxor gave a small fright.

“This is your last chance. Prove to me that the best friend I trusted wasn’t completely false.”

Kwanach continued speaking in an earnest but determined voice.

“I ask this not as an order, but as a friend, Jaxor. Don’t tarnish your end like this.”

For a long moment there was only silence in the jail.

Jaxor bowed his head again. Only his shoulders shook occasionally in the desolation.

Jaxor must have been shocked and betrayed, because he had sympathized with Roman without knowing about the ugly experiment he was conducting behind his back.

His end was already in sight. It was difficult to avoid death because he tried to revolt. Jaxor must have known this. He would also now keenly realize that he had chosen the wrong path.

We gave Jaxor the opportunity to choose: to die here in vain, or to keep his piece of honor, even if it was the last. We would not torture him or scare him. Jaxor would know that we were showing him mercy.

After a few moments of contemplation, Jaxor slowly lifted his head. A dim glimmer of color flashed in his blank eyes.

“Regent Diaquit…..”

Jaxor uttered my brother’s name. He stared at me and said,

“Do you know that your brother wanted to kill you?”

“I know.”

“No. He tried to poison you the other day.”

”I’m not surprised. Because Diaquit always wanted to kill me.”

Kwanach was taken aback by my nonchalant answer. His dark eyebrows furrowed.

“What are you talking about?”

I put aside the answer to Kwanach’s question and looked only at Jaxor. Jaxor smiled with only one corner of his mouth raised.

“Then it’s simple. You know he’s not the one to forgive his sister who betrayed him easily, right?”

I had never given faith to Diaquit in the first place, but Diaquit would have felt betrayed. He was such a fool.

“Yes. He’s probably half mad with rage right now.”

“……one of the border guards was bought off.”

Jaxor took out one fact right to the end.

This one sentence alone predicted what Diaquit would do.

I had a feeling that he would not just throw everything away and go into hiding. For though he was a despicable person, he was not a coward.

His life was ruined. He would attempt one last tyranny.

Here is what I predicted Diaquit’s next move would be. A surprise preemptive strike. He might advance on the bribed border.

‘Even then, they should not be able to reach the capital.’

However much they break through the acquired border areas, they will return to imperial lands. In any case, volunteer armies will arrive from elsewhere within a few days. Diaquit’s army would not be able to hold out for a few days and would soon be overrun.

‘That would not be the whole plan.’

I felt uncomfortable. I was sure Diaquit was hiding one last trick. But for now, the best thing to do was to look closely at the border that had been bought.

Jaxor gave other pieces of information about Roman’s spies who had been paid off and had entered the royal palace.

Kwanach called in the soldiers who were waiting outside and wrote down the names of the spies. They would soon lose their positions and be detained for some time.

The spies were from the aristocracy, whose power had been reduced after the Revolution. Among them was the name of Baron Edwin, who had contacted Marianne. There was another noble, who was a pure convert to the new era, but inwardly he was a dissatisfied conservative.

Only such persons were selected for contact by Roman, and he brought them one by one to his side. It was the kind of political treachery and ambition that could be seen in any era.

However, with the exception of Jaxor, not many of their positions were seen as being in league with Roman. It seemed that Kwanach deliberately did not give such men high positions.

“I know nothing more. Really.”

Jaxor looked relieved after he finished his words. Kwanach, who had been listening silently, said in a quiet voice.

“What should I do with you?”

Jaxor chuckled.

‘Look at this. You’re too soft, Kwanach.”

“…….”

“Deal with it our way. Don’t you know what to do?”

“No, I will kill you. That was decided from the moment you drew your sword at me.”

“Then what troubles you?”

“How will I kill you?”

Jaxor whistled a little with his broken lips.

“You’re killing me.”

“I’m back to you at least for the last time. I thought you’d have some manners before you die.”

“……do you think this is who I am?”

“You have always been a good boy, Jaxor, since you were a child. You had far more cruelty than I did. That’s why you were used by Roman. Fooled by that affection.”

“…….”

“You fool. How many times have I told you to watch out for people?”

Jaxor’s gaze wavered. Kwanach closed his lips and turned around. His big hand pulled my arm.

 I looked over my shoulder at Jaxor for a moment, then walked out of the prison with Kwanach. The last time I saw Jaxor, his face was covered with contrition. The same was true of Kwanach’s face as he stood firm beside me.

A twisted relationship. It was too late for the two of them to repair it.

* * *

After getting a confession and information from Jaxor, we stopped by Roman for a while.

Roman was locked up in a dark cell much deeper than Jaxor. The surveillance was much tighter and the air was very heavy. Every time I exhaled, my lungs tightened.

The gruesome atmosphere that Roman’s existence spewed out was close by. My heightened senses instinctively caught on to the fact that Roman had a magical power that was out of nature.

“Arghhhhhh! Ahhhh…..!”

A rough voice came from inside the cell where Roman was locked up. A cracked, resentful voice. It was a scream filled with fear, emitted from someone who felt completely out of his mind. Even the screams were low because his tongue had been cut out.

Even though there was nothing particularly threatening to Roman in the cell, he screamed day and night. Then he suddenly stopped screaming and stared at the void in a blur.

Through the small window in the door, I could see Roman. Kwanach gave a small click of his tongue.

“The interrogation itself seemed impossible.”

By all accounts, Roman looked like a madman. Around his eyes were blackened and his capillaries were torn. Perhaps he had scratched his neck and shoulders with his fingernails without rest, and the skin in those areas was chafed and full of blood.

It was a completely different appearance from the Roman I had met in the border region. Having listened to Jaxor’s story, I vaguely understood why Roman was broken.

Since he was a child he was locked up in an underground prison where they experimented on him in various ways. …. rolling hard and learning magic.

This was a different place from that underground prison, but perhaps entering the dark, cramped space brought back nightmares of that time.

Roman shuddered, wincing, and let out a low, low cry and cowered in a small ball against a corner. He acted like a child being punished.

I couldn’t watch any longer, so I slumped down and retreated to the side. Kwanach hugged my stiff shoulders.

“Let’s go up and rest. It doesn’t look like we’re going to find out anything from him right now.”

“Yes……”

Come to think of it, so much has happened between yesterday and today. It was no wonder that my mental faculties were depleted. I had been trying my best to maintain a sense of urgency, but it was time to go.

I walked leaning on Kwanach, my body drained of strength. Kwanach’s complexion was also dark. The conversation between him and Jaxor reverberated in my head.

How sad he must be.

They were like brothers. I was so immersed in sorrow that I couldn’t help but open my mouth.

“Kwanach, are you really going to kill Jaxor?”

“Why?”

“You don’t necessarily have to kill him……. There are other ways, like sending him into exile to a distant place.”

The words came out involuntarily, knowing that it was right in the eyes of the law to pronounce the death penalty.

Kwanach spoke plainly in a calm tone.

“He’s not the kind of man who’d like to be saved. He’d rather feel humiliated. Giving him a clean, honourable death would be the best I could do.”

“That’s why you said you were thinking about how to kill him.”

“Yes. There is no need to worry about me. More than that, Diaquit….”

Diaquit Catatel. I remembered my blood.

Yes. It wasn’t just Kwanach who had to kill his brother.