Episode 25: The Torn Edict, and the Beast's Declaration of War
A low, ferocious, beastly voice, as if scraped from the deepest bottom of the abyss. It was of a different nature from a mage's mana. It was an absolute 'fighting spirit' that could only be unleashed by the most overwhelming and primal predator, one who had survived decades rolling in the harsh snowfields of the North and the blood-stained battlefields of monstrous beasts.
"H-h-h-h...! Ka-Grand Duke Caelon!"
The jaw of the envoy, who had just moments ago held his head high and threatened Eleanor and Liliana with talk of a punitive expedition, began to tremble like a broken doll.
In just three steps, Caelon had come right up to the nose of the envoy, who was gasping for breath and barely able to catch his own air. His massive frame, well over 190 centimeters tall, and shoulders as broad as the Pacific Ocean completely swallowed the envoy's vision. Caelon's menacingly glowing golden eyes treated the envoy lying at his feet as nothing more than a mere insect, not even worth trampling to death.
"Did that old man called the Emperor just say he was sending a punitive expedition here?"
Caelon stretched out his large, rough hand, grabbed the envoy by the collar of his splendid silk robes, and lifted him high into the air in a single stroke.
"Cough, cough!"
The envoy, his feet suspended in the air, thrashed about, his face flushed bright red. Veins bulged in Caelon's thick forearm as he gripped his throat.
"You hothouse flower-like bastards who grew up eating scraps of food thrown at you dare call yourselves a punitive expedition? You intend to attack this place, leading a troop of Imperial Guards, who used to wet their pants and run away at the sight of a single low-level monster in the North?"
"D-Duke! Th-This is a clear-cut provocation against the Imperial Family! Cough!"
"Your stupid and arrogant liege started the provocation first."
Caelon tightened his grip on the collar and growled in a low snarl.
"This is a family that the woman, who is as precious as my own life, protected with her own bones. And Lady Liliana is the noble heir to Castillo, chosen by her personally. Yet you dare to insult us by demanding that we offer up that bloody fling as a concubine to that incompetent Crown Prince bastard, and now you threaten to turn this mansion into a sea of fire?"
As Caelon's rage reached its peak, even the clear sky of the capital gathered with dark clouds, and signs of a fierce blizzard characteristic of the North loomed outside the window. Exuding a ferocious aura as if he were about to snap the envoy's neck at any moment, Caelon spat out the most horrific 'declaration of war' that would shake the constitutional history of the Empire.
"Roll to the Imperial Palace right now and tell your old, greedy liege clearly."
Caelon slammed the envoy to the ground like trash. The envoy, tumbled to the ground with a dull thud like breaking bones, lay prostrate on the floor, trembling and coughing.
"I swear in the name of Grand Duke Caelon of the North that the moment the Imperial army sets even a single step into Castillo's territory, the 'ten thousand' elite troops of the Northern Knights stationed at the border will immediately march south toward the capital."
"H-Hiiiiiik..! Ten thousand!"
"Not the Duke of Castillo's mansion, but I will smash the spires of that arrogant Imperial Palace where you bastards reside to ashes. If the Emperor has the guts to risk his life for an all-out war, let him send a punitive expedition!"
The Northern Knights, the continent's strongest killing machine accounting for more than half of the Empire's military power. For those ten thousand knights to rebel and march toward the capital was tantamount to the destruction of the Imperial Family. Caelon's words were not a shallow threat; it was the sincere resolve of the continent's greatest swordsman, who vowed to draw his sword and behead the Emperor at any moment.
"H-How insolent! H-How absurd! The law dictates that the Northern army cannot move without the Emperor's permission!"
"Law? The Emperor committed an act worse than a beast first by trying to steal another man's daughter-in-law as his son's concubine without any justification. Why should I obey such a wretched law?"
Caelon smirked as he stroked the hilt of the massive greatsword at his waist. Feeling his crotch grow damp, the envoy recoiled, his face turning pale.
"Caelon."
Just then, Eleanor, who had been silently watching this overwhelming scene, called out to him in a gentle voice. Eleanor looked down at the bloodied Royal Guards lying prone and the pale, trembling envoy as if they were trash.
"I refuse to let the repulsive stench of blood permeate the precious carpets of my drawing room. Please clear away this trash now."
"If it is your command, Madam."
Only then did Caelon withdraw his murderous intent and lick his lips like a beast. Watching the scene from behind, the blue eyes of Kian, Liliana's bodyguard, sparkled with respect. As a knight wielding a sword, Caelon's ruthless charisma and continent-scale martial prowess were truly nothing short of a living legend.
"Sir Kian."
Liliana snapped her fan shut and gestured with her chin.
"You heard Mother's words, didn't you? Drive those uninvited guests, who are polluting the fresh morning air of our Castillo, out onto the dirt ground outside the gate immediately."
"I understand, Miss!!"
Kian answered loudly as if he had been waiting for this moment, striding forward like a ferocious dog. With his massive hands, Kian grabbed the backs of the necks of the frozen Imperial Guardsmen two or three at a time and began tossing them out the front door like sacks of cargo.
"L-let go! How dare you, the Imperial Guards? Argh!"
Finally, Kian grabbed the envoy by the ornate waist and effortlessly lifted him up. Then, he mercilessly slammed him out of the Duke's mansion's massive iron gate into the middle of the cold, slushy mud puddle left by the previous day's rain.
Splat!
"Disappear immediately. If you dare cross the threshold of Castillo one more time, my greatsword will strike your necks before His Highness the Grand Duke steps forward."
As Kian stood defiantly in the entrance and growled ferociously, the mud-covered envoy and guards climbed into their carriages and fled without even having time to gather the torn fragments of the imperial decree.
As Castillo's iron gates slammed shut, the imperial family's shallow oppression was completely shattered.
***
The uninvited guests departed, and peace returned to the drawing room. Liliana carelessly stepped on and smashed the red wax fragment of the imperial edict remaining on the floor, then slowly raised her head to look at Eleanor and Caelon.
"Aren't you pushing yourself too hard, Grand Duke?"
Eleanor leaned back on the sofa and smirked at Caelon.
"Your skill in intimidating the Imperial Guards was excellent, though. Even so, claiming you would pull out ten thousand knights and march south in a single strike was an excessive bluff intended to knock out the aging Emperor."
"Bluff, Madam?"
Caelon shrugged his shoulders and replied leisurely and languidly.
"The 2,000 elite vanguards of the Northern Knights have already begun their secret southward advance over the mountain ranges on the outskirts of the capital, following a secret letter I sent out last night. This is to tightly surround the capital's perimeter in time for the Madam's perfect trial schedule, which will be held in a few days. What did you say?"
Eleanor's red eyes widened uncharacteristically. Liliana also gasped in surprise. To think that the mobilization of the Northern Army, which she had thought was merely a bluff to drive out the Imperial Envoy, was a reality already in full swing
"Didn't I tell you last night? That there is not a single lie in my oath to you, Madam. If the Emperor persists to the end, I will truly burn down that arrogant palace to protect you."
The continent's greatest swordsman's insane scale and relentless straight-line charge. Faced with such overwhelming devotion and brute drive, Eleanor could not bring herself to speak and let out a languid, hollow laugh. The hunt for the Imperial Family was already hurtling toward an irreversible, massive all-out war.
***
Meanwhile, at that very moment, inside the Imperial carriage, speeding madly down the capital's main thoroughfare.
"F-faster! Whip it faster, even if the horse's hindquarters are torn! Aaaargh!"
Covered in filth and mud from head to toe, the Chief Imperial Envoy was screaming, trembling uncontrollably like an aspen tree.
In his mind, only the terrifying golden eyes of Grand Duke Caelon, who had grabbed him by the throat and lifted him up, and the horrific declaration of war that ten thousand Northern troops would march south, were swirling.
"Those bitches are insane! Castillo and the North have joined hands! To His Majesty the Emperor. I must inform His Majesty of this terrible truth immediately! If a punitive expedition is sent, the heads of the Imperial Family will be severed!!"
Inside the rattling carriage, the Envoy thrashed about in terror. The arrogant Emperor's command had become the worst possible boomerang, aimed at the heart of the empire.
Over the magnificent spires of the imperial palace visible in the distance, the ominous signs of the terrible bloodshed that was soon to come were slowly gathering.
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