Vol 2 Chapter 7 (1/2)

Chapter 7: Empty Verdict

Part 1

Over thirty swords and guns took aim at the Mephian statesmen. The n.o.bles turned pale, and even the commanders were left momentarily speechless in the face of the silent, murderous intent directed towards them. The guards responsible for protecting the stadium tried to rush them.

“Don’t move!” A voice from amongst the soldiers brought them to a sudden halt. “Not a single one of you move! Take even one step, and we’ll start shooting one by one!”

With the target of the threat being Mephius' central figures, they were rendered impotent.

“Y-Your majesty...”

The Emporer brushed aside the arm of Empress Melissa, who had tried to restrain him, and stood.

“Identify yourselves!” Guhl Mephius declared, his white beard trembling in rage. “On whose order is this? Do you fools understand who you’re pointing your guns at?!”

However, these men who wore helmets over their eyes, did not even flinch at his thunderous roar. He was aware that their equipment came from Mephius, but they bore no crests nor carried any sort of war flag that may have disclosed their origins. It was impossible to tell whose subordinates they were, or if they possibly belonged to a completely separate power that had stolen the equipment from Mephius.

“Tch!”

Commander Rogue Saian's hand gripped the pommel of the sword at his waist, but there was nothing he could do in this situation. The young Romus clung to his leg. He hugged the boy’s shoulders, and muttered “I’ve blundered,” repeatedly to himself.

“I will not have you come any closer to the princess, you ruffians!”

“Theresia, stand back.”

Her mistress, Vileena, was of course also present in the midst of this insurgence. A cold sweat ran down Vileena’s whole body but she kept constant watch in all directions.

Her composure made the n.o.bles’ trembling stand out like a sore thumb. Having no means to protect themselves, some had left their seats while some had cowered at the sight of the guns. Others, their bodies frozen in fear, had absentmindedly called on the names of their retainers; hoping that this was nothing more than a bad dream.

So this is what the current Mephius amounts to.

Only a single person, Zaat Quark, found himself submerged in a torrent of satisfaction, and alternately, one of despondency.

Unaware that they have been cornered by Noue and Oubary’s artifice, I, who have brought them up to where they are now, can, with a single swing of my blade, have them surrender this easily. This is the current Mephius.

Zaat swallowed his laugh with difficulty. The Garrison flags.h.i.+p had been a hurriedly prepared subst.i.tute. He had stolen his own troops aboard the s.h.i.+p with the order to seize control of the s.h.i.+p immediately after receiving notice of the rebellion.

The next step would be for him to stand up and step out of the encirclement. At that time, the Emperor and his foolish retainers would finally realize who it was that dared to point his sword at them, and who it was that held their lives in his hands.

And he would declare himself to be the one to lead Mephius.

Of them all, the majority would no doubt choose to be his ally. He had been dissatisfied with the emperor from the beginning and only pretended to be a loyal retainer so that he could one day do this.

They never had the talent to flatter the emperor. They’re the same as wild beasts that obey the strong.

Dissenters were to be imprisoned. Of course, the emperor and his family were no exception.

What face would Guhl Mephius make? The mere thought sent Zaat trembling in excitement. This time, he would be the one to stand over that old man who disregarded the thoughts of others.

Zaat, at the peak of his pride, raised his back at long last. He tread that first step towards creating a new country.

But, before he could even finish that step, his hands were forcefully detained.

“What are you—” he began, but was interrupted by the pressing of a dagger's tip against his neck.

To those present, it appeared as though an insurgent had captured Zaat in his attempt to escape.

Ineli and some others near him fumbled out of their seats with cries. Only Vileena's face showed recognition: the one who had stopped Zaat’s movements was the beautiful slave girl she had seen before.

Is she also a part of this? Vileena thought.

Zaat also thought the same thing.

“What are you doing?!” He confusedly whispered in a small voice. “Aren’t you a slave who also knows about the plan?! The soldiers here, the whole lot of them, are my—”

“That’s exactly the thing.”

The slave's disrespectful tone caused Zaat to go wide-eyed. That voice did not belong to a woman. The force detaining his hands also did not belong to that of a frail woman. And as the slave continued to point his dagger at Zaat, of all persons, he spoke with a clear, resounding voice.

“Gathered ladies and gentlemen, I am sorry to say that there is something I must inform you of in the midst of this crisis; and for that I beg your forgiveness. However, I am convinced that this is something that would tickle the interest of all you ladies and gentlemen. For of the mastermind who staged this rebellion, and who would hold such misgivings—I shall try to provide those answers to you.”

“What?!” Zaat shouted, as dumbfounded as everyone else.

Finally, Vileena alone noticed the slave's true ident.i.ty: the clean cut, a charming gaze, a thin nose bridge and such good looks that it was no surprise that he would be mistaken for a woman-

“It can’t be...s.h.i.+que? Of the prince’s imperial guards...?”

The slave dressed as a girl winked at her.

“The imperial guards, you say?!” Rogue Saian spat out. “B-But your actions can be seen as nothing more than supporting the rebellion. Who’s the mastermind? Go ahead and say it!”

“Do you not understand? Just now, I was in the middle of presenting that to you fair ladies and fine gentlemen.”

Despite having been found out as a man, s.h.i.+que flashed a bewitching smile. “Ah,” Rogue and Simon both responded, dumbstruck.

With the dagger still pressed against Zaat’s neck, he used the n.o.ble as a s.h.i.+eld and turned to face the soldiers.

“It is as you see. Now, what will you do, Mr. Soldiers-who-just-landed-from-the-sky? Why haven’t you lot taken a single step for some time now? Do you worry for Zaat-dono’s life? Why is it that amongst His Imperial Majesty and the ma.s.s majority of the statesmen you’ve restrained within your sights, he alone is not among them?”

It was as s.h.i.+que had mentioned. As the soldiers faces were all covered, their expressions were unreadable, but it was clear from their behaviour that they were trembling.

And at this time, on the other side of the arena below, a riot was occurring.

At roughly the same time as the soldiers had landed from the air carrier, several men had tried to climb the watchtower there. They had, until then, posed as security guards and hidden their real ident.i.ties. However, as they tried to move according to plan, an obstacle had suddenly barred their path.

It seems a certain someone made the right choice.

s.h.i.+que muttered, and sent a fleeting glance towards Vileena.

They were likely planning to make use of the confusion, knock down the guards, and snipe down the princess.

But because a certain someone had antic.i.p.ated it, the ‘plan’ had been obstructed. This was in fact, done by the imperial guards who disguised themselves as slaves and were deployed into the surrounding area. The snipers, taken by surprise, offered no forms of resistance and were all apprehended.

Taking notice of the signal, s.h.i.+que broke into a deep smile.

“This makes it a stalemate now, doesn’t it?”

“I-I don’t know what you mean. Unhand me, slave! How long will the likes of you continue to touch me?! The likes of you are much more suspect to be the mastermind.”

“You’re contradicting yourself, Zaat-dono. There’s no way the likes of a slave could be the mastermind. Why do you think they haven’t moved for the longest time now? Come, feel free to shoot the both of us together.”

As s.h.i.+que made a step forward, they nervously took a step back. Everyone within the arena now watched him. The citizens who were previously in a panic came to a halt, and the grand n.o.bles who once lost their wits also s.h.i.+fted their attention towards him, unable to tear their eyes away.

Zaat’s mind was now beginning to wander, and just before he lost all hold of himself, he suddenly remembered there was one final hope left and formed a grin.

“d.a.m.ned fool. You said you were an Imperial Guard, I believe? All the more reason that there’s no way you can sit back and let him be killed, can you? That blundering idiot of a crown prince that was caught by the slaves, that is!”

With Prince Gil still captured by the slaves in the arena, it was only natural that this would prevent s.h.i.+que from moving recklessly.

Everyone’s attention turned to the arena, as Zaat chortled.

“If you understand, then unhand me, you filthy mongrel!”

s.h.i.+que, however, did not waver.

“So he says, my prince,” he called out.

At that point, Zaat’s eyes came across an unimaginable sight. The rope that should have tightly bound the prince’s hands easily slipped off and dropped to his feet. The prince walked forward towards him. None of the slaves tried to stop him.

“You b.a.s.t.a.r.d.”

The only reaction he saw was that of Pas.h.i.+r tightly clenching his teeth. No, the slaves were sending glares filled with animosity and hatred towards the prince, even if they had not moved a single step.

Gil—Orba, aware of this, felt bitter.

His being taken hostage by the sword slaves had been a ploy from the start. Naturally, the one to order this was...o...b.. himself. Orba had taken the young slave girl of the detention camp loved by all the slaves, Mira, hostage in order to confront them.

His blood had run cold when he had been discovered together with Kain, but even the strong-armed Pas.h.i.+r had been unable to fight back with Mira being used a s.h.i.+eld. He had Kain thrust his gun at the young girl, made mention that he had ‘heard the entire plan from Orba’, and contained the slaves’ movements. With their plan exposed by the imperials, their resolution to fight to the death crumbled. The slaves collapsed on their knees in despair.

Only Pas.h.i.+r continued to stare at the prince with a gaze so intense, that if a gaze could kill someone, it wouldn’t have been enough for Orba no matter how many lives he had. And how he shared this sentiment within. Orba pushed down his own feelings in spite of himself whilst seized by this gaze.

This alone would have been enough to put a stop to the slaves’ rebellion, but it was not enough to corner the enemy. The plan needed to be drawn out to its second phase at all costs, and thus, he wanted a situation where a rebellion would occur.

However, if the rebellion were to actually take place, the damage would be great. An uprising without a single death easily came to him—one where the vital point required for Gil Mephius to be captured by them.

“You’ve gone and said it, Zaat,” Orba boomed as the arena began to quieten. “How you tried to use them, and how you yourself partic.i.p.ated in the uprising. Now it’s clear as day that you’re the mastermind behind it.”

Zaat’s face flushed a deep red.

“Is that true, Zaat?”

Simon Rodloom stood up and shot in a pained voice.

“Is it really true that you planned this rebellion?”

Zaat turned his head away. He did not want to see the anger, despair, and pity in Simon’s eyes.

Emperor Guhl, Empress Melissa, the Mephian statesmen—everyone wordlessly watched Zaat and the imperial guard who held a sword against him. An uncanny silence befell them. Orba, without any indication of pride at his accomplishment, looked up indifferently. He did not notice the shadow slowly approaching his back.

“Prince!”

The first to perceive this was Vileena.

Orba quickly turned around, and caught sight of a single slave behind him delivering a slash. He quickly twisted his body and narrowly dodged it, but immediately fell on his knees. It was natural that his body did not catch up to his thoughts, considering the damage his body had acc.u.mulated in the previous battles.

With a twisted expression, the slave attacked again. From his side, an arm fell down on him like a gale and grabbed him. It was Pas.h.i.+r. Without giving the man any time to struggle, he threw the man down onto the ground with tremendous force and pinned him down.

“You b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Are you going to let Mira die?”

Pas.h.i.+r said, his body trembling with anger. And then he made a scowl.

“Of course. You were the one who told me about the plan. Then that also makes you the one who hid the fact you were conspiring with that n.o.ble from us. You planned to have us walk to our deaths and make use of that, didn’t you?!”

The man looked up at Orba, his eyes on fire, when suddenly he spurt out blood from his mouth. His body convulsed, twice, thrice, and shortly after, he died. He had swallowed poison. The snipers the imperial guards had captured also met the same fate at that moment.

In this instant, like a cornered beast, Zaat made his final act of resistance. As s.h.i.+que was distracted by the ongoings in the arena, Zaat suddenly pushed him off, pulled the hand of the nearby Ineli, and used her as a s.h.i.+eld.

Ineli didn’t even have time to scream. With suddenly swift movements as if he had broken out of a trance, he boarded an airs.h.i.+p under the directions of his soldiers.

“H-Help!”

Ineli stretched out her hands. But the nearby Baton did nothing but back away with his tail behind his legs. Zaat forced the struggling Ineli into the airs.h.i.+p, and continued to soar up into the skies before their eyes.

“Help me!”

Her cries grew distant. “Help me, mother!”

Zaat’s soldiers rose up into the sky one after the other. There was an air carrier ahead of them.

Part 2

Orba quickly stood up and immediately a.s.sembled his imperial guards. He hurled orders at them. He left a few to survey the slaves, and had the rest chase them by airs.h.i.+p. He had prepared an airs.h.i.+p unit in case Zaat resisted even with s.h.i.+que pointing his sword at him.

At this time, Pas.h.i.+r closely observed Orba—or to him, Prince Gil. In such an upset, he handed down orders rapidly in succession without any hesitation. The one who skilfully threw the sword at him in the previous gladiator game; the one who made Orba sneak in amongst them to gather information…

This brat...

He hated him enough that he wouldn’t be satisfied even if he killed him ten times, but on the other hand, he could feel himself hold Gil Mephius in a bit of awe.

The Imperial Guard’s airs.h.i.+ps took off one by one, but the bow of the airs.h.i.+ps piloted by Zaat’s subordinates turned around to intercept those on their tail. Orba’s airs.h.i.+p unit comprised of those experienced in flying, but their number of allotted s.h.i.+ps were few, nor could they be said to have gone through official training. They were blocked by a handful of s.h.i.+ps and were unable to chase the s.h.i.+p steered under Zaat’s poor handling.

“Aren’t there any other s.h.i.+ps?!”

Orba turned left and right, asking a soldier he grabbed, but there were no airs.h.i.+ps here at the arena, as they weren’t handy to have around. Of course, a new garrison of dragonstone s.h.i.+ps were being readied at this moment, but if Zaat reached the flags.h.i.+p before they rescued Ineli, they would not be able to lay a hand on Zaat

d.a.m.n you Zaat, for uselessly resisting.

Orba wanted to capture Zaat alive by all means possible. Then he could make Zaat spill out the names of all the people involved in the plan.

“d.a.m.nit!”

Then, an airs.h.i.+p landed to a stop beside Orba just as he cried out. Someone had managed to get one. “Good,” Orba said, a smile spreading across his face, and when he looked over, he went wide-eyed for an instant.

“Aren’t you going?”

It was Vileena.

She heard the prince’s cry, and personally strapped herself onto an airs.h.i.+p—used to move the envoys to safety—that had just come back to board the n.o.bles. Turning a deaf ear to any attempts to stop her, she turned on the ether engine and made haste to Orba.

She hovered the airs.h.i.+p just above the ground, and quickly bundled her hair.

Orba was about to be begin to say something, but was quickly urged on by her gaze and nodded back.

“Of course.”

This was no time to argue.

Orba strapped himself in the back, and Vileena took off without a second’s delay. The hum of the ether engine beat like the chattering of teeth and the s.h.i.+p, taking on the appearance of a wyvern, rose, gradually gaining speed.

“Did you make…”

“Huh?”

“Did you make Orba partic.i.p.ate in the tournament for this?”

For an instant, Orba was unable to hide his unease at having his own name brought up.

“Y-Yeah.”

“Why did you not tell me this earlier? You must have been laughing at me throw my childish tantrum in a fit.”

“O-Of course I wasn’t.”

“Then why?...Do you not believe you can confide in me as your future wife yet? Do you still suspect me to be a Garberan a.s.sa.s.sin?”

Women.

Why was it that even at times like these that they could take priority over their own circ.u.mstances? Even as the roar of the wind whooshed past them and the airs.h.i.+ps they pa.s.sed continued to open fire. Then, an enemy s.h.i.+p noticed them and began to descend.

“More importantly, they’re coming!”

“I know that. I’d prefer if you didn’t look down on me.”

Vileena huffed, and swerved the s.h.i.+p left with all her strength. Orba, who felt as if he was going to fall off, hurriedly grabbed the edge of the c.o.c.kpit. The sound of gunfire directly below the s.h.i.+p whizzed past them.

“I may have forgotten to mention it,” Vileena said calmly as her eyes were fixed to the front, “but as a word of caution, this will not be a smooth ride.”

This b.i.t.c.h.

Orba was instinctively about to shower her in insults from his childhood days, but held himself back. Instead, he seized the gun mounted on the rear of the s.h.i.+p and fired off a warning shot at the s.h.i.+p that just flew past them and was beginning to turn around. The orange trail of the bullet bent like a whip below him.

“Wait. Could you not shoot please? It gets in the way of flying.”

“But…”

“The air is my domain.”

Even as she said this, Vileena continued to splendidly dodged the return fire. While Orba was a.s.saulted countlessly by a chilling sensation, Vileena slipped past the enemy s.h.i.+ps trying to spread out into a defensive formation and caught up right behind the air s.h.i.+p Zaat piloted.

Impressive.

Orba was amazed at the princess’ manoeuvring skills. She would make a promising airs.h.i.+p instructor for the Imperial Guards.

The garrison flags.h.i.+p came closer, blocking the sunlight and darkening the view in front of him. And with little pause, it lined up with Zaat’s s.h.i.+p and opened its hatch, where Zaat jumped in.

Vileena pedalled the airs.h.i.+p to a crawl. Orba, not stopping, jumped down and tried to run over to Zaat.

“Don’t come any closer!”

Zaat had also jumped down and landed with a roll while holding Ineli by the shoulders, but he did not forget to point his gun at her forehead.

There were no signs of anyone in the hangar. The majority of the soldiers had been deployed outside and the rest were likely steering the flags.h.i.+p.

“B-Brother…”

Using the fiercely trembling young girl as a s.h.i.+eld, Zaat stood up once more.

“Who would’ve thought it would be the prince. I would never have expected to be caught red-handed by you.” Those eyes tore up in hatred.

“The life granted unto by His Majesty, is it? Or could it possibly be from Lord Simon? That man speaks his true mind too much. Be that as it may, I would never have imagined you would see even up to the slave’s rebellion—”

“Enough of this, Zaat. There’s no place left for you to run. If you’re also a n.o.ble, accept defeat like a man and hand over Ineli.”

“Ha!” Zaat snorted. “Well aren’t you the hero, prince. I bet you’d love to have this written down in history. But unfortunately for you, that won’t happen. As if I would let even a bit of your imperial history to remain. For the dawn celebrating me as Mephius’ ‘founding’ king, first, I will have to burn that tainted history to pieces.”

“That’s great.”

“Silence!”

Zaat further pressed the gun against Ineli, who was almost like an infant about to burst into tears.

A strong wind blew in from the opened hatch. In the midst of the clothes and hair flapping noisily,

“It will not end like this. The stagnation you self-proclaiming imperials created will ruin you from within. And at that time...I will return. To here, to these lands of Mephius!”

Saying this, Zaat fired a shot to Orba’s side. It was to restrain Vileena, who had begun to stealthily circle the afloat airs.h.i.+p to behind Zaat’s back. Even the princess dropped down and shrieked. Within that moment, Orba made a dash for Zaat.

Drawing out the sword from his back, he tried to lunge at Zaat’s arm. Zaat never expected the prince to come charging at him with a weapon in one hand, and hurriedly switched targets. But it was already too late. In that quick moment he was already within thrusting range.

A gunshot sounded. This time, luck was on Zaat’s side. Orba’s injuries from his battles with Gash and Pas.h.i.+r affected him more than he expected, and when he was a mere distance away, he toppled over from the wind.

“Guh!”

Orba fell over backwards with a groan. The bullet shot through his chest.

“Brother…!”

“Prince!”

The cries of these two girls overlapped. Zaat gave a low, maniacal laugh while his brows glistened with sweat.

“With this…with this, there’s no turning back.”

Orba lay collapsed and unmoving. “Prince!” the princess called out from the airs.h.i.+p once more. Zaat turned his gun to the princess who began to climb off her airs.h.i.+p. Her platinum hair swayed as she glared at the rebel.

“You…!”

“This is what he gets for acting heroic. He should have just stayed the usual prince and quietly trembled in the corner of the stands.”

“And you were the one driven to a corner by that prince’s hand, were you not? Surrender yourself, Zaat. Then you’ll only have been a man who strayed off his path.”

“It is because I want to return Mephius back to man’s hand that I have performed this deed. Do you not understand that, little girl?”

“Pitiful man,” Vileena murmured, “blinded by your own words. A country cannot be led by a single person. You are a pitiful man who does not pay heed to the times, and continues to chase after a delusion without knowing when to give up, just like that pitiable Ryucown.”

Vileena threw words of ridicule at him, thinking it might make him falter even a little. However, fortune still smiled on Zaat. Seeing the Imperial Guards were more or less held in check, a s.h.i.+p from one of Zaat’s subordinates surfaced her way. Even then, she did not give up.

“First and foremost, where will you escape to? There are no powers willing to hide you, who turned against your master.”

“Oh, then what do you think of Garbera?” Zaat sneered, suddenly enjoying this conversation in its entirety. “As righteous knights, won’t they gladly welcome me, who bore my fangs against the nefarious Mephius?”

“What foolishness. As long as I am here, Garbera and Mephius will be tied together. Do you think you can sever that bond so easily?”

“La.s.s, you speak as if you know everything. But you understand nothing. It was none other than Garbera that involved you, down to your very life, in this plan.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I wonder...I’ve already spoken too much. There will be plenty of time from now on. Why don’t I slowly explain it to you during our journey in the sky?”

The hatch opened and an airs.h.i.+p came in. Two soldiers jumped down and approached her way. Vileena ground her teeth. The prince was in the corner of her view. The prince, collapsed face-up, was still unmoving. It can’t be,she thought. The prince criticised and sneered at by many. Truthfully, Vileena was also annoyed at his weak att.i.tude. She had also gotten angry at him. But he was a prince who sometimes took bold incentives with ingenuity that riled his foes. Everyday, he showed a different face, where even if she tried to understand him, she would suddenly notice the day gone by and wonder if maybe today, she would be able to come to an understanding of him.

That that prince would meet his end here...