“Ah!…Yes. It will be as you command.” There were tears forming in Excel’s eyes as she gave me a proper bow.
When she raised her face, I saw her mouth the words “Thank you,” to me. I showed no reaction, moving on to Carla.
Even though her father had been spared, Carla still wore a quiet expression.
“Carla,” I said, “you are guilty of the same crime. What’s more, you don’t have Castor’s distinguished record of having protected the country for one hundred years. I’m sad to say it, but I don’t see any way I could lessen your punishment.”
“…I understand,” she said quietly.
“W-Wait! Then kill me!” Castor exclaimed, grinding his face against the floor in desperation. “Carla turned her blade on you at my orders! So let my record be used for Carla…”
“Take him away.”
My attendants dragged him from the room. He kept screaming “I’ll take her place!” until he was out of the room, but I was under no obligation to listen to him.
Once things had quieted down, I continued. “You have clearly committed the crime of treason. However, if I let the mastermind, Castor, live, it would reflect poorly on me to kill his daughter. Therefore, I will spare your life, but you will live as a slave. Your owners will be the royal family — that is to say, Liscia and myself.”
The second most heavy punishment in this world was forced labor as a convict slave. There was no such thing as life imprisonment. Those who became convict slaves, unless they were granted an amnesty, would be forced to do endless hard labor in the coal mines. Though, in Carla’s case, because I had chosen to give ownership of her to the royal family, she would be spared the coal mines and kept in the royal house as a servant who had to be absolutely submissive.
“…Okay.” Carla accepted my order, nodding weakly.
Excel was about to say something, but she held it in. She must have decided it was better than her being killed, at least. Hakuya closed his eyes in silence, while Aisha was flustered by the atmosphere in the room. And finally, Liscia watched what I would do in silence, her expression unchanging.
“I will give you further directions later, but, for now, I have an order to give you,” I said.
“…As you wish.”
I walked over to Carla, who was hanging her head, crouched down and whispered a certain order, quietly, so that only she could hear. Carla’s eyes went wide.
When Souma quietly whispered the order, I doubted my own ears.
“If it comes to it, kill me.”
When he saw my eyes widen in surprise, Souma needed to me with a serious look on his face. “Not now, of course. If I become a tyrant, I want you to be the one to stop me. With your martial ability, you could kill me easily, right?”
Kill him if he becomes a tyrant…?! Why would he suddenly say that to me?!
I kept my voice low, asking him, “Why would you say that? And why to me, of all people?!”
“Because Liscia and the others might not be able to,” Souma whispered, a troubled smile on his face. “At some point, I found myself surrounded by many people I care about. Just recently, I got engaged to another person on top of Liscia. It’s Aisha, over there.”
He got engaged to that dark elf without me hearing about it? I thought, stunned. Has Liscia accepted it? Well, knowing her personality, she’s probably being pragmatic about it…
“Well… Congratulations?” I whispered.
“Thanks,” he whispered back. “So you see, I have more and more people I care about. In itself, that’s a good thing, but when I think of what would happen if, someday, I grew drunk on power and become a tyrant… it starts to scare me. If that came to pass, I worry whether Liscia and the others could stop me like they should, you know?”
“Liscia would stop you,” I whispered. “You know her straight-laced personality.”
“Would she?” he retorted, still whispering. “Sure, if I started indulging in too much debauchery, or started massacring the townspeople, she’d admonish me for it, but what about if I had a good justification, like I did this time? Individual purges aren’t that much of a problem on their own. But when they happen repeatedly, eventually you reach a point of no return. When it comes to that, will Liscia and the others be able to abandon me?”
That’s… No, probably not, I realized.
“It’s not my place to say it, but… Liscia is head over heels in love with you,” I whispered. “If you fall into hell, I’m sure she’ll be right there beside you.”
Liscia was too serious and too devoted a girl. Probably, no matter what happened, she would follow Souma loyally to the bitter end.
Souma nodded. “I know, right? Aisha’s sort of the same way. Do you think Juna would do it, maybe? Anyway, there are a lot of people who would try to suffer alongside me. I don’t want that. If there were a revolution in response to my tyrannical rule, it wouldn’t just be me who got executed, it would be Liscia and the rest, too. I don’t want Liscia and the others to turn out like Marie Antoinette.”
Marie… who?
While I still had a question mark hovering over my head, Souma whispered with a serious look, “That’s why, Carla, before those I care about can suffer with me, I want you to take on the role of putting an end to me.”
“…I’m a slave now,” I whispered. “If I kill my master, the collar will kill me, you know?”
“Yeah,” he whispered back. “So, please, only do it if you’re prepared to die, too. And, if I manage to hand the crown on to the next generation, I will set you free.”
This man… he says the most incredible things as if they were nothing. I was stunned.
Souma had told me, if he became a tyrant, to become the blade that struck him down. Then, having killed him, to die myself. By keeping me at his side as his slave, he was hoping to use me as a personal deterrent against his becoming a tyrant.
“You really… don’t show any mercy,” I whispered.
“I only hold back for those I care about,” he whispered back.
“I meant towards yourself,” I whispered. “Though I suppose the meaning still got through.”
I had thought the same thing in the battle with Amidonia, but this man treated himself far too poorly. If he didn’t take better care of himself, he was going to cause no end of worry for those around him.
Liscia, you’ve fallen for a real troublesome guy… I thought to myself.
That was right. In order to keep my best friend’s love life from a sad future, I decided to act as his deterrent.
Sitting up straight, I bowed deeply. “I have received your order. Until the day comes that I must act on it, I will work my hardest for you, praying that that day never comes.”
Souma nodded in satisfaction at my response. “At this moment, we have no work meant exclusively for a slave. For now, you will join the maid force… But… Well… Uh, get the details from the head maid yourself.”
When he gave me that order, he sounded a bit hesitant towards the end. I wondered what was up, so I followed Souma’s gaze to see a beautiful maid who seemed to be around twenty years old smiling happily.
When I wondered what it was about her, I realized Liscia was looking in my direction, an expression of utter pity on her face.
…Huh?
With the trial of Castor and my friend Carla over, Souma, Aisha, and I were returning to the governmental affairs office when suddenly, Souma stumbled in front of us.
“Souma!” I cried.
“Sire!” Aisha shouted.