Chapter 723 - Framed
Chapter 723: Framed
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
“The assassin is Roland! The Undying Roland murdered Empress Maria!”
“People saw him! It was definitely Roland!
Just a moment ago, I had felt that Maria’s death would have nothing to do with me even if she died. But now, I was truly astonished.
“Me? What joke is this?”
Before I could respond, hurried footsteps sounded from outside the temporary residence I was in. Dark magic power was also gathering outside as powerful mages made their preparations against me.
“Damn it all!”
Now wasn’t the time for me to think. If I really allowed myself to be surrounded, Maria’s incredibly angry loyal retainers would never give me any time to explain.
“F*ck! I really fell into such a major pitfall this time!”
Even someone like me couldn’t help but curse at the situation.
Maria was assassinated soon after I arrived. Who would be able to so easily assassinate the strongest demon warlock in the world, as well as make everyone believe that I had done it?
“Karwenz, you bratty brother, you’re making people mistake me for you yet again!?”
My first reaction was that I must have once again fallen for my identical twin’s scheme.
Perhaps he had already started targeting me while I was searching for him. Perhaps everything around Maria had been personally arranged by him.
But right now wasn’t the time for me to explain things to Maria’s retainers. It would be impossible for me to explain regardless.
I unhesitatingly jumped out of the window, opened up my wings, and started flying high into the sky.
While I was still ascending, sword energy and magic attacked me right away, together with flying demons and stone gargoyles under the demon warlocks’ control.
I looked down below. Even though it was now nighttime, countless torches were lit up. I could see a tremendous crowd down below me.
The fortress city was now burning. Many districts were in utter chaos. The soldiers underneath me all had looks of utter hatred for me in their eyes.
Mages and aerial knights kept rushing over in the distance in the cloudy sky.
Was I supposed to wait and reveal the truth since I was innocent and logic was on my side? In this world, there were concepts such as “torturing a confession out of you” and “declaring you to be guilty after you were dead”.
Explain that I was innocent? If I slowed down by even half a second, I would be killed instantly.
Everyone’s eyes were filled with blood-red hatred for me. It would be impossible for them to listen to any explanation. It seemed that Maria must have been assassinated right in public, and that they were certain that “I” had been the assassin.
I shook my head as I soared even higher into the sky. At the very least, I was quite confident that I would be able to escape before they could surround me.
“Damn it all. This is probably only the beginning…”
—
I was now in a windy desert.
My vision was obscured by a sandstorm. The powerful winds brought along fatal sand that covered everything.
This place was beyond the Saffey Mountains. This place was a desolate, lifeless land. I saw nothing but sand and more sand all around me.
But as I kept digging through the sand and calculating map coordinates, I found that I was getting ever closer to the potential ruin I was looking for.
Two weeks had now passed since Maria’s assassination.
I had unhesitatingly traveled along the mountainous district after escaping from that chaotic fortress city.
My ability of flight helped me to avoid all of San Antonio’s cities. I knew that in such a human mega empire, the only possible way to avoid their spies would be to avoid people altogether.
I had a fairly easy time traveling like this. I was already used to hunting food for myself and camping outside.
As for explaining myself? I had already contacted the Mist Alliance and used their diplomatic channels to give an explanation.
My explanation was that I wasn’t the assassin, and that someone had disguised themselves as me. As for whether San Antonio believed me or not… that would depend on their next step.
Actually, I was afraid that they would believe my explanation and admit that I wasn’t the assassin.
If San Antonio didn’t want a civil war, then Maria’s faction would be able to accept Prince Winston’s rule. That would mean that I would be the perfect scapegoat to blame Maria’s death on. The Mist Alliance was thousands of kilometers away, so declaring war on the Mist Alliance would be infeasible for San Antonio.
This way, Maria’s retainers could cede power without losing face, as well as give the commoners an acceptable explanation. At most, they would viciously curse at me, which wouldn’t matter at all for the Mist Alliance far away in the north.
At most, San Antonio might also send some assassins after me and put a bounty on my head. But with my countless years of experience of being an assassination target, this didn’t matter at all.
I had already been public enemy #1 of the land as Emperor Yongye before. Even if I was now judged guilty of the crime of having assassinated one of the two leaders of San Antonio, it wouldn’t really matter at all as long as I didn’t visit San Antonio again in the future. At most, there would be a few more people after my life and one more group that hated me.
As for the Gods? Karwenz’s performance probably wouldn’t fool them. Nor did I need to worry that Ayer would misunderstand and think that I had killed his adopted daughter.
But if Maria’s retainers believed my explanation, or at least said that they did on the surface, then that would be really troublesome…
If the Mist Alliance and Roland weren’t responsible, then Prince Winston would become the most likely culprit behind the assassination as he would benefit the most from her death. This would mean that Maria’s retainers would start a civil war against Prince Winston.
Not only that, it was no secret that I had recently been meeting with Prince Winston right before I came to meet Maria. This would also be endlessly troublesome.
Roland was the assassin? But, he didn’t have any conflicts with Maria! Someone must have been behind this assassination! The person who asked Roland to assassinate Maria must have been Prince Winston! Time for civil war!
“No matter how I look at it, the situation doesn’t seem good for San Antonio…”
I was nearing the end of my search for the ruin in this desert. Today was also the appointed day for me to receive information from the Mist Alliance.
However, I didn’t see anyone present at the agreed upon location. I only saw a bag that was lightly buried in the sand.
I opened up the bag. As I expected, I found a document box sealed with self-destructing magic. The key to open the magic lock was my personal magic wavelength.
I injected my mana and opened up the box, only to discover a stack of the fairies’ latest news reports and articles.
“Duke Barrot has declared war against Prince Winston! He and 12 earls under him have organized into the Avengers Knight Order. They swear to take revenge for Empress Maria’s sake!”
The article on the very top had such an attention-grabbing headline.
As I flipped through the fairies’ information, I found that the situation was actually even worse than I thought.
On the day of Maria’s assassination, she had been assassinated during a party out in the open. Many higher-ups of her government had also been present, along with plenty of merchants and elites among the commoners.
The assassin was “Roland”, who had returned not long after he just left. “Roland” had arrived together with a Cardinal and two Holy Knights.
It seemed that “Roland” had brought along these uninvited “venerated guests”. Maria would of course be polite enough to meet them directly.
Yet, the assassination then occurred.
“Roland” and his group all attacked Maria together. Although the two Holy Knights were killed by Maria’s final counterattack before her death, and the Cardinal was torn to pieces by the angry mob, “Roland” managed to escape. Not only that, “Roland” ran right in the direction of my temporary residence…
I had been framed quite successfully. After the assassination, it was determined that the Holy Church group had indeed been diplomatic envoys sent by Prince Winston and Pope Caloma. Cardinal Rost had actually been a very famous diplomat. Yet, he met his end, torn to pieces by a mob of angry commoners.
All of the assassins were now completely dead, apart from “Roland”, the only remaining assassin who managed to escape alive.
But actually, I had an alibi for the time of the murder.
After I returned to my temporary residence that Maria had provided for me, I ate some dinner in the cafeteria, and then played some cards. I even cheated while playing cards and won a little bit of money. Only then did I leisurely retire to my room while bringing some late-night snacks with me. I even ordered room service, asking for two fried chickens to feed my pet cat. All of this had happened at the exact same time while Maria was meeting with the other “Roland” and her assassination.
I highly doubted that nobody would discover such obvious clues after everyone calmed down.
Not only that, Cardinal Rost was someone who was powerful enough to reach the rank of Cardinal in the Holy Church, no matter what he was really like. The fact that he had so easily been killed by a mob of angry commoners with no special powers was also an obvious clue that he probably wasn’t the real Cardinal.
Of course, this Duke Barrot was probably the one who held power now in Maria’s faction after her death. If such developments weren’t what he wanted to see, he would naturally ignore these clues.
“The knights who swore vengeance finally managed to defeat the evil schemer Prince Winston in the end. That means that they’ll also be fully in charge of San Antonio. In the end, due to the death of all members of the old royal bloodline, and also due to their subordinates’ endless pleas, whoever the new ruler is will helplessly crown themselves to be king… Such an old cliché scenario, yet its allure is still quite real. As expected, the chaos is only beginning.”