“I know,” I said. “But I’m not sure where to begin…”
“Maybe you want to start with why you killed the nobles.”
“Well, yeah, that would be your first question…” I said.
I began to slowly explain my reasons for this murder.
“Now, as for the reason those twelve had to die, they were also connected to Amidonia,” I said. “That’s something that both Hakuya and Georg had confirmed through their independent investigations.”
“They were spies for Amidonia, you mean?” Liscia asked.
I shook my head. “That’s not quite accurate. I said ‘also,’ didn’t I? They were connected to Amidonia, to the corrupted nobles, and also to our side.”
“Huh? What do you mean by…”
“They were opportunists,” I said. “They side with whoever’s winning.”
Those nobles had always cooperated with whoever was on the winning side, in order to avoid trouble themselves.
When the kingdom had been in decline, they’d had underground connections to the Principality of Amidonia. When the civil war had broken out, they’d supported the corrupt nobles from the shadows, while remaining uninvolved themselves. They had always fomented discontent while securing their own safety like that. Only thinking of their own profit and self-preservation.
“They profited by providing supplies and personnel with resistance groups, and if the winning side shifted, they’d crush their current allies to win acclaim for themselves,” I said. “If suspicion turned on them, they would foment rebellion elsewhere, so as to keep the investigation from catching up with them. It seems they did it again and again under your father’s reign.”
Having learned what was going on behind the scenes during her father’s reign, Liscia was at a loss for words. “No…”
“Now, what made them dangerous was that they never directly rebelled themselves,” I said. “When the advantage was on our side, they acted almost like loyal vassals, so it was hard to bring them to justice. That’s because when things were going our way, they actually did their jobs.
“The more confident a ruler is in his ability to maintain power, the more forbearance he has, the more he wants to trust his vassals, the more he will fall into a trap like that. ‘If I can build a stable administration, it should be fine. There’s no need to reduce the number of allies I have,’ he’d think.”
“But… you had them killed, right?” Liscia asked.
“That’s because I don’t see my rule ever being stable,” I said. “In fact, I think someday I may be forced to stand at the crossroads of fate. When that time comes, I guarantee you that those opportunists would have hurt me. I don’t want you, or Aisha, or Juna, or any of the people I care about to get hurt, and then think, ‘If only I had disposed of them back then.’ If that ever happened, I’d probably go crazy. That’s why, here and now, I decided to nip it in the bud.”
In Machiavelli’s The Prince, he said this: “I hold it to be true that Fortune is the arbiter of one-half of our actions, but that she still leaves us to direct the other half, or perhaps a little less.”
In this world, a person’s rise or fall will be decided by whether their actions are suited to the era in which they live. However, that can only be judged by those who come later. Nobunaga Oda, Napoleon… Even if they are geniuses in their time, once the times no longer suit them, they will be destroyed.
Machiavelli had likened fortune to a raging river.
He said that, though the sudden change of fortune cannot be stopped, if one prepares for that change in advance, its flow can be made less unrestrained and dangerous.
The important thing was to not be optimistic about one’s situation, but to be resolute and do what needs to be done when it needs to be done.
In regards to this, Machiavelli said, “Fortune is a woman, and if you wish to keep her under it is necessary to beat and ill-use her,” a way of putting it that would upset any feminist who heard it. Setting aside his choice of words, in order to ensure that the roots of calamity didn’t remain, I had given the order to strike down twelve nobles here.
When she heard my explanation, Liscia slowly nodded. “I understand your reasoning, Souma. What will you do with the Houses of Saracen and Jabana, the ones you had leave?”
“Allow me to explain that,” Hakuya said, stepping forward. “The Houses of Saracen and Jabana had worked alongside the other twelve under their former heads, but that connection between them was broken with their deaths. The present head of the House of Saracen, Sir Piltory, is a fine young man who excels with both the pen and sword, while the head of House Jabana, Sir Owen, is a sober and honest hotblooded man. They can be counted on to serve His Majesty without duplicity. I believe you could see that from the way they acted while being led out of the great hall.”
“…So you showed some discretion about who was to be executed, then,” Liscia said.
“That is correct.” Hakuya nodded. “The ones executed were all up to something-or-another. Now we are investigating their mansions in the capital, collecting evidence of what that was for each of them. The punishment for the crime and the finding of evidence are in the wrong order, which is hardly praiseworthy, but I ask you to understand.”
With that said, Hakuya bowed his head.
He was probably trying to back me up. By telling her I hadn’t murdered twelve people on my suspicion alone, he was trying to keep it from doing anything strange to my relationship with Liscia.
Liscia seemed to understand that, too, so she didn’t press the issue any further. “Okay, I understand the twelve, but what if the other two had agreed with you, Souma? Would you have killed them, too?”
Hakuya shook his head. “In that event, the plan was for me to provoke them. Though, if they had attempted to curry favor with His Majesty like the other twelve houses, we would have had little use for them after this.”
“You’d thought it through that far…” Liscia looked at me, scandalized.
No, this sort of plan that involved reading the vagaries of people’s hearts is Hakuya’s department, I thought. I don’t have that nasty a personality… I think.
Seeing me avert my eyes, Liscia let out a sigh of resignation. “So, what happens to Carla and her father now?”
“…I’m getting to that.” I walked over to stand in front of the bound Castor. Having seen everything that had just unfolded, he looked dumbfounded. The blade he’d expected to fall on his own neck had fallen on another’s. It was little wonder he was so bewildered.
“Castor Vargas,” I said. “Because you refused to heed my ultimatum, you are guilty of treason.”
Castor bowed his head. “…I understand.”
Then he bowed his head even lower than before, grinding his forehead against the floor this time. “That’s why, I beg you. The crime is mine alone. So, please, spare just Carla.”
“You are not the one who decides that,” I said coldly. “This is your judgment. Your crime of treason is plain to see…However, as both Piltory and Owen said earlier, I will recognize your contribution to this country in the more than one hundred years you have protected it. I have already taken your post, your lands, your assets, and even your family name from you. Therefore, I will spare you your life, and that alone.”
I turned to Excel, who was silently watching to see how things developed.
“Castor will be left in your custody. However, he is forbidden from entering the former Duchy of Vargas, and also forbidden from contacting his son Carl, or the boy’s mother, Accela. Excel, your son-in-law is the one who did all this, so you must keep a proper watch on him.”