Sir Elko lay face down on the floor for a long time, not saying a word. Then he struggled to raise his head.
Alfonso gestured to the knights with a blank expression. The knights who had been holding down Sir Elko released their hands in unison.
Elko, who had barely managed to get up from the space they had retreated to, glared at Alfonso with sharp eyes.
“That’s all! It was to make you the most noble person in the Central Continent!”
Prince Alfonso's expression was unmoving.
He just crossed his arms and stared at Elko fiercely. Sir Elko cried out desperately in front of such a prince.
“Because we are weak! Gallico is a superpower!!”
Tears welled up in his one eye. These were real tears of frustration, not the fake fluids he had been squeezing out earlier.
“Gunpowder, heavy cavalry, and a standing army of infantry! Tax collection should be done through central management, not through feudal lords or private businessmen!”
The Etruscan kingdom relied on the feudal lords to collect traditional taxes, such as land taxes and poll taxes.
For other relatively new taxes such as customs duties, tolls, and cotton taxes, local merchants and local leaders were hired to act as tax collectors for the King.
“If we don’t emulate Gallico, if we don’t absorb how Gallico transformed a third-rate country with nothing but farmland into a superpower in a short time, there’s no way we can do anything!”
Private tax collectors were particularly vicious because they could send taxes to the central government and embezzle the rest for themselves.
As time passed, being designated as the King's tax collector itself became a huge privilege, and those who wanted to participate in the struggle for that privilege and those who succeeded in entering the position vied to suck the blood of the people.
It was incomparably worse in efficiency than the Gallico system, in which officials dispatched from the central government would collect a set amount of taxes and return.
“If the weak Etruscan kingdom does not import advanced civilization and strategic weapons, there is no way it can survive the next generation of competition!”
As Sir Elko said, national defense was also a problem. The Kingdom of Gallico had a strategic weapon, gunpowder.
There was a self-deprecating tale that the Yesak War was the last cold-weapon war.
Gunpowder was a technology monopolized by the southern establishment within the Moorish Empire, so there was no need to send it to the Yesak region, which was the northernmost part of the Empire and part of a loose confederation.
But what if a war breaks out within the Central Continent? In a war on the mainland, no one would go into battle with supplies in reserve.
“I will make Prince Alfonso the Emperor of the Central Continent. An Emperor who unites the Central Continent!”
Elko's eyes glared like a madman's. It was nonsense.
The Etruscan kingdom did not have the force to do so, but Elko was no madman in his means.
“And to do that, you must marry Princess Lariesa!”
Unification of the Central Continent-style kingdom through marriage. This was quite possible.
However, the opponent was the problem. Sir Manfredi, who heard the name of the Grand Duchess of Lariesa for the first time in a long time, was dumbfounded and asked back.
“You want that crazy woman to marry our Prince? Now that you’ve come this far?”
Sir Manfredi vividly remembered the Grand Duchess Lariesa, who had been unpleasantly attached to him when he was in the Kingdom of Gallico.
If he was going to get married, he should have done it then. Now, Prince Alfonso had escaped from both Gallico and Yesak and had become the best groom in the Central Continent, returning to the Etruscan Kingdom in glory.
What kind of nonsense is this, to say Lariesa in this situation? However, Sir Elko had a different opinion from Sir Manfredi.
“Yes, I know. Princess Lariesa is a terrible person in her own right. She’s short-sighted, and after just ten minutes of talking to her, she makes me want to jump off the top of a tower. I’ve rarely met someone so annoying in my life.”
Sir Elko, who had been harshly criticizing Princess Lariesa, turned to Alfonso.
“But is marrying someone you love a luxury a monarch can enjoy?”
What he said was perfectly logical, but his one remaining eye was gleaming with madness.
“Is it the duty of the nation to pursue love when the national interest is right before our eyes?”
Love, love. Here, Sir Elko began to laugh hysterically.
He couldn't control himself and laughed for a while before suddenly starting to swear.
“That woman!”
At the tip of his fingers stood a charming, black-haired woman.
She was not put off by the sudden criticism and met his gaze with sharp eyes.
But that action seemed to drive Elko even crazier. He screamed with all his might.
“She is the Siren who will bring destruction to the Etruscan kingdom!”
That alluring body, that captivating aura, those frowning eyes looking at him - they are all materials of destruction brought by the devil himself from hell.
“Devil! Witch! Wicked woman!”
Sir Manfredi intervened again.
“Why on earth do you keep doing that!”
Sir Manfredi felt that it was inappropriate to be insulted and insulted here, let alone to be pointing arrows at Countess de Mare.
But he did not have the sharpness to point out to his opponent exactly what was wrong. Instead, Sir Manfredi appealed to patriotism.
“The Kingdom of Gallico tortured you and left you disabled! How can you praise the Kingdom of Gallico so unilaterally!”
Hearing that, Sir Elko slowly turned his gleaming eyes toward Sir Manfredi. Elko paused for a moment and then shouted.
“Yeah, torture!”
Once his mouth opened, he shouted as if he was going to eat Sir Manfredi.
“The torture changed my mind!”
Sir Elko clenched his jaw so hard that his molars were about to break. He spat out each word as if spitting out blood.
“I felt that the power was the best!”
He slammed his fist on the floor.
“You have to gain strength by any means necessary!”
Blood flowed from his remaining left hand. He swore violently.
“You have to have strength!”
Blood spurted from his waving hands in the air, staining the beautiful white marble of the Prince's palace.
But Elko didn't care.
“No one listens to the voice of the weak! The strong are the best!”
It was Prince Alfonso who interrupted Sir Elko's continued outburst.
“...The Etruscan kingdom is a powerful country.”
He spoke slowly and in a deep voice.
“We are the unit that achieved the highest level of achievement in Yesak, and we belong to the Etruscan Kingdom.”
The Prince spoke softly.
“Also, the Etruscan kingdom is a country that has maintained its dynasty for a long time with fertile territory that has been passed down since ancient times.”
There was a comforting power in his voice. He spoke with conviction.
“The Etruscan kingdom can become a powerful nation on its own.”
It was said in a whisper, but everyone heard it clearly.
It was a voice that dispersed the confusion that was pervading the office and the doubts, discouragement, and helplessness that were about to bloom.
Alfonso spoke softly as if encouraging the other person.
“We are not weak.”
Contrary to the others who took comfort in Prince Alfonso's words, Sir Elko twisted his only remaining arm and his unbalanced spine.
It was the same uneasy movement as when grilling live squid over a fire.
“Then why!”
He screamed as if spitting blood. The past flashed before his eyes.
Torture, dungeons, cold stone floors, clubs, whips, nail-pulling instruments, screams, tears, rage, imminent death, unbearable pain, fear, cold, hunger, resignation.
“You didn’t save me then!!!!”
A heavy curtain of silence, like darkness, descended upon the office.
No one said anything.
“...”
Because no one could deny Sir Elko's sacrifice.
In the end, it was Alfonso who broke this silence.
“It’s all... It’s my fault.”
His face was filled with regret. If he had been the Crown Prince, favored by the King, things might have been different.
“I was incompetent and weak, and I couldn’t even protect a single subordinate. It’s all my fault.”
Was it the right choice to throw Ariadne and her chastity into the social world and make the death of the Duke of Mireille the fault of the Kingdom of Gallico?
He blinked. Even if he could go back to that day, it was not the kind of thing he could do.
Or perhaps it would have been better for him to reveal that he had killed the Duke and go to the Kingdom of Gallico himself?
What could Alfonso have done differently at the time?
Alfonso's broad back looked tired. Elko read vulnerability in his hunched shoulders and forward-drooping neck.
Elko couldn't stand it anymore and screamed.
"No!"
Alfonso was supposed to be a perfect and holy King who would rule over the entire Central Continent.
That was the shining warrior of the Yesak battlefield, the successor to the Etruscan kingdom, Alfonso de Carlo, whom Elko served.
It was a shining image drawn by the old knight Elko, who had become disabled and twisted.
He could not bear the sight of his master, or rather, the man he had entrusted his ego to.
Elko, who was unable to change his lord due to his poor health, had no choice but to deny it.
“No!”
Elko was flailing around frantically, as if he believed that denial would change reality.
“Your Highness, you have done nothing wrong! You were born noble and perfect... There is no flaw, no blemish...”
His thin body trembled.
“It’s all because of that woman!”
The one remaining arm, as dry as a log, pointed at Ariadne de Mare.
“It’s all because of that witchy woman!”
He pointed his finger and continued to spit out incomprehensible words at Ariadne.
“It’s because of you that the wise Prince went blind! It’s because of you that he couldn’t tell the difference between public and private, and he rejected the future of the kingdom, Princess Lariesa, and it’s all because of you that I ended up going to Gallico...! It’s all because of you, you who are causing discord! I am the man who will assist the Prince and make the Etruscan Kingdom the greatest nation in the Central Continent! This loyalty of mine...!”
“Stop it, Elko.”
The one who stopped the runaway Elko was Sir Bernardino, who had not said a word until now.
“Go that far? It’s ugly.”
Elko was furious.
“Are you trying to belittle my loyalty right now?!”
“Isn’t that pure loyalty?”
Sir Bernardino looked at Elko with a frown. He tried to say something more but stopped himself. Instead, he simply said:
“You were never going to climb that tree.”
Alfonso gestured to the knights with a blank expression. The knights who had been holding down Sir Elko released their hands in unison.
Elko, who had barely managed to get up from the space they had retreated to, glared at Alfonso with sharp eyes.
“That’s all! It was to make you the most noble person in the Central Continent!”
Prince Alfonso's expression was unmoving.
He just crossed his arms and stared at Elko fiercely. Sir Elko cried out desperately in front of such a prince.
“Because we are weak! Gallico is a superpower!!”
Tears welled up in his one eye. These were real tears of frustration, not the fake fluids he had been squeezing out earlier.
“Gunpowder, heavy cavalry, and a standing army of infantry! Tax collection should be done through central management, not through feudal lords or private businessmen!”
The Etruscan kingdom relied on the feudal lords to collect traditional taxes, such as land taxes and poll taxes.
For other relatively new taxes such as customs duties, tolls, and cotton taxes, local merchants and local leaders were hired to act as tax collectors for the King.
“If we don’t emulate Gallico, if we don’t absorb how Gallico transformed a third-rate country with nothing but farmland into a superpower in a short time, there’s no way we can do anything!”
Private tax collectors were particularly vicious because they could send taxes to the central government and embezzle the rest for themselves.
As time passed, being designated as the King's tax collector itself became a huge privilege, and those who wanted to participate in the struggle for that privilege and those who succeeded in entering the position vied to suck the blood of the people.
It was incomparably worse in efficiency than the Gallico system, in which officials dispatched from the central government would collect a set amount of taxes and return.
“If the weak Etruscan kingdom does not import advanced civilization and strategic weapons, there is no way it can survive the next generation of competition!”
As Sir Elko said, national defense was also a problem. The Kingdom of Gallico had a strategic weapon, gunpowder.
There was a self-deprecating tale that the Yesak War was the last cold-weapon war.
Gunpowder was a technology monopolized by the southern establishment within the Moorish Empire, so there was no need to send it to the Yesak region, which was the northernmost part of the Empire and part of a loose confederation.
But what if a war breaks out within the Central Continent? In a war on the mainland, no one would go into battle with supplies in reserve.
“I will make Prince Alfonso the Emperor of the Central Continent. An Emperor who unites the Central Continent!”
Elko's eyes glared like a madman's. It was nonsense.
The Etruscan kingdom did not have the force to do so, but Elko was no madman in his means.
“And to do that, you must marry Princess Lariesa!”
Unification of the Central Continent-style kingdom through marriage. This was quite possible.
However, the opponent was the problem. Sir Manfredi, who heard the name of the Grand Duchess of Lariesa for the first time in a long time, was dumbfounded and asked back.
“You want that crazy woman to marry our Prince? Now that you’ve come this far?”
Sir Manfredi vividly remembered the Grand Duchess Lariesa, who had been unpleasantly attached to him when he was in the Kingdom of Gallico.
If he was going to get married, he should have done it then. Now, Prince Alfonso had escaped from both Gallico and Yesak and had become the best groom in the Central Continent, returning to the Etruscan Kingdom in glory.
What kind of nonsense is this, to say Lariesa in this situation? However, Sir Elko had a different opinion from Sir Manfredi.
“Yes, I know. Princess Lariesa is a terrible person in her own right. She’s short-sighted, and after just ten minutes of talking to her, she makes me want to jump off the top of a tower. I’ve rarely met someone so annoying in my life.”
Sir Elko, who had been harshly criticizing Princess Lariesa, turned to Alfonso.
“But is marrying someone you love a luxury a monarch can enjoy?”
What he said was perfectly logical, but his one remaining eye was gleaming with madness.
“Is it the duty of the nation to pursue love when the national interest is right before our eyes?”
Love, love. Here, Sir Elko began to laugh hysterically.
He couldn't control himself and laughed for a while before suddenly starting to swear.
“That woman!”
At the tip of his fingers stood a charming, black-haired woman.
She was not put off by the sudden criticism and met his gaze with sharp eyes.
But that action seemed to drive Elko even crazier. He screamed with all his might.
“She is the Siren who will bring destruction to the Etruscan kingdom!”
That alluring body, that captivating aura, those frowning eyes looking at him - they are all materials of destruction brought by the devil himself from hell.
“Devil! Witch! Wicked woman!”
Sir Manfredi intervened again.
“Why on earth do you keep doing that!”
Sir Manfredi felt that it was inappropriate to be insulted and insulted here, let alone to be pointing arrows at Countess de Mare.
But he did not have the sharpness to point out to his opponent exactly what was wrong. Instead, Sir Manfredi appealed to patriotism.
“The Kingdom of Gallico tortured you and left you disabled! How can you praise the Kingdom of Gallico so unilaterally!”
Hearing that, Sir Elko slowly turned his gleaming eyes toward Sir Manfredi. Elko paused for a moment and then shouted.
“Yeah, torture!”
Once his mouth opened, he shouted as if he was going to eat Sir Manfredi.
“The torture changed my mind!”
Sir Elko clenched his jaw so hard that his molars were about to break. He spat out each word as if spitting out blood.
“I felt that the power was the best!”
He slammed his fist on the floor.
“You have to gain strength by any means necessary!”
Blood flowed from his remaining left hand. He swore violently.
“You have to have strength!”
Blood spurted from his waving hands in the air, staining the beautiful white marble of the Prince's palace.
But Elko didn't care.
“No one listens to the voice of the weak! The strong are the best!”
It was Prince Alfonso who interrupted Sir Elko's continued outburst.
“...The Etruscan kingdom is a powerful country.”
He spoke slowly and in a deep voice.
“We are the unit that achieved the highest level of achievement in Yesak, and we belong to the Etruscan Kingdom.”
The Prince spoke softly.
“Also, the Etruscan kingdom is a country that has maintained its dynasty for a long time with fertile territory that has been passed down since ancient times.”
There was a comforting power in his voice. He spoke with conviction.
“The Etruscan kingdom can become a powerful nation on its own.”
It was said in a whisper, but everyone heard it clearly.
It was a voice that dispersed the confusion that was pervading the office and the doubts, discouragement, and helplessness that were about to bloom.
Alfonso spoke softly as if encouraging the other person.
“We are not weak.”
Contrary to the others who took comfort in Prince Alfonso's words, Sir Elko twisted his only remaining arm and his unbalanced spine.
It was the same uneasy movement as when grilling live squid over a fire.
“Then why!”
He screamed as if spitting blood. The past flashed before his eyes.
Torture, dungeons, cold stone floors, clubs, whips, nail-pulling instruments, screams, tears, rage, imminent death, unbearable pain, fear, cold, hunger, resignation.
“You didn’t save me then!!!!”
A heavy curtain of silence, like darkness, descended upon the office.
No one said anything.
“...”
Because no one could deny Sir Elko's sacrifice.
In the end, it was Alfonso who broke this silence.
“It’s all... It’s my fault.”
His face was filled with regret. If he had been the Crown Prince, favored by the King, things might have been different.
“I was incompetent and weak, and I couldn’t even protect a single subordinate. It’s all my fault.”
Was it the right choice to throw Ariadne and her chastity into the social world and make the death of the Duke of Mireille the fault of the Kingdom of Gallico?
He blinked. Even if he could go back to that day, it was not the kind of thing he could do.
Or perhaps it would have been better for him to reveal that he had killed the Duke and go to the Kingdom of Gallico himself?
What could Alfonso have done differently at the time?
Alfonso's broad back looked tired. Elko read vulnerability in his hunched shoulders and forward-drooping neck.
Elko couldn't stand it anymore and screamed.
"No!"
Alfonso was supposed to be a perfect and holy King who would rule over the entire Central Continent.
That was the shining warrior of the Yesak battlefield, the successor to the Etruscan kingdom, Alfonso de Carlo, whom Elko served.
It was a shining image drawn by the old knight Elko, who had become disabled and twisted.
He could not bear the sight of his master, or rather, the man he had entrusted his ego to.
Elko, who was unable to change his lord due to his poor health, had no choice but to deny it.
“No!”
Elko was flailing around frantically, as if he believed that denial would change reality.
“Your Highness, you have done nothing wrong! You were born noble and perfect... There is no flaw, no blemish...”
His thin body trembled.
“It’s all because of that woman!”
The one remaining arm, as dry as a log, pointed at Ariadne de Mare.
“It’s all because of that witchy woman!”
He pointed his finger and continued to spit out incomprehensible words at Ariadne.
“It’s because of you that the wise Prince went blind! It’s because of you that he couldn’t tell the difference between public and private, and he rejected the future of the kingdom, Princess Lariesa, and it’s all because of you that I ended up going to Gallico...! It’s all because of you, you who are causing discord! I am the man who will assist the Prince and make the Etruscan Kingdom the greatest nation in the Central Continent! This loyalty of mine...!”
“Stop it, Elko.”
The one who stopped the runaway Elko was Sir Bernardino, who had not said a word until now.
“Go that far? It’s ugly.”
Elko was furious.
“Are you trying to belittle my loyalty right now?!”
“Isn’t that pure loyalty?”
Sir Bernardino looked at Elko with a frown. He tried to say something more but stopped himself. Instead, he simply said:
“You were never going to climb that tree.”
Elko knew what the sentence meant before it was even finished. His face immediately turned red.
The kind of story where someone just blurts out something that's always been on your mind, and the rest of the story is automatically completed just by hearing the introduction.
But he couldn't admit it even if he died.
"No!!!!"
Elko screamed.
“No, no, no!!!!”
He banged his head on the floor.
He could not bear the prospect of a third party suggesting that what he had done might not have been done out of pure loyalty.
But, Sir Bernardino, who had always been gentle, was merciless now.
“You’d like to think it was loyalty. When you live long enough in this world, you can see it. It was... love.”
The reason he didn't say desire was because Sir Bernardino was a gentleman.
Just as Elko was about to shout something, Ariadne opened her mouth.
“...I see?”
The moment he heard her clear voice, Elko's face turned pale. He immediately shut his mouth. Everyone in the room stared at her.
The knights thought that the unmarried Countess would become angry or even burst into tears out of shame.
But she defied all their expectations. Ariadne's expression was one of relief, her curiosity having been satisfied.
“If it was an expression of loyalty, you would have advised him to marry Princess Lariesa and take me as his mistress instead of going to extremes like you are doing now and excluding me from the Prince’s circle.”
Ariadne was watching Elko for the second time in her life.
She is looking at Elco as himself, not as the man driving the carriage or as the man serving Alfonso.
Elko shivered. Her eyes, looking at him, sparkled with intelligence, but unfortunately, it wasn't the kind of gaze Elko had been looking for.
“That day you volunteered to be taken to Gallico, you did it of your own accord to catch my eye.”
Elko, hearing those words, looked at Ariadne with blank eyes. Was that really me?
He remembered that at the time, he volunteered for the Prince because he felt guilty about having feelings for the Prince's woman.
That was the most honest answer he could scrape from the surface of his consciousness. But was it really true?
“You wanted to be remembered.”
Was it true that I really went for the Prince?
As she said, wasn't that the only way to make her memory forever engraved in her mind?
Prince Alfonso, that woman's man, could never do that, but I can do it for her.
So, wasn't it because I thought I was better than Prince Alfonso, more devoted, a better man for her, that I went there with such pride?
It was a 20-year-old's risk of life. At the time, he didn't really know what price he would have to pay, and he really didn't know that the price would end up being a sacrifice.
He thought that even without saying anything, the other person would read his mind and respond back to him.
He never made a confession of love, but he knew that since he had taken a risk for her, she should not only notice his affection for her, but she should also love him back, and she should give him everything.
When the price didn't come, when he realized that it wasn't just delayed, that it wouldn't come back at all, that the sacrifice was just a sacrifice, Elko went berserk.
He didn't love the other person enough to make that much of a sacrifice. Lust and love are two different things.
“...!!”
Elko opened his mouth, but nothing came out. His vocal cords were stiff like rusted metal, and all that came out was a gasping sound.
Instead, Sir Manfredi's muttering was heard by everyone.
“So that’s why you were so angry that day when Countess de Mare didn’t remember you...?”
Elko sat on the floor and said nothing.
He looked like a dried-up, twisted tree root that had sucked up all the moisture, no, it looked like the tree root was rapidly rotting away.
He looked down with his head bowed. In fact, he was not seeing anything.
The one remaining holy eye was sunken and unfocused, like that of a dead person.
“...Elko.”
Prince Alfonso opened his mouth. His voice was eerily low. It was time for judgment.
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