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.