The woman who incited the assassins smiled seductively.
Her appearance and that smile, which did not match her age, left the assassins mesmerized.
“You must not know that in the imperial palace, the maids are stronger than the knights.”
That was the rule here.
At those words, the assassins realized that these women in black cloaks were maids.
‘Maids? Why were maids stopping them here?’
This was truly the worst.
‘Were they really being blocked by mere maids in a place like this?’
“This is absurd! Where in the world does something like this exist?”
“It’s right here. Where else would it be? Can’t you see? But since you’re all going to die anyway, I’ll tell you. The emperor is far more corrupt than you thought.”
Utterly, immensely corrupt.
And the proof of that was the woman herself.
“What?”
“The emperor even entrusted the palace’s security to the leader of an assassin guild.”
Katarina curled her lips into a wicked smile.
By now, the imperial palace had turned into a blood-soaked slaughterhouse.
She had known the emperor had eccentric tastes, but she hadn’t expected it to be this extreme.
“Aagh! Aaaaargh!”
The assassins were mercilessly slaughtered.
Their limbs were brutally mangled.
Their bodies melted, or their arms and legs were severed.
Not a single one of them remained intact.
“S-Save me, p-please…”
“Sorry, but you’re all fated to die here.”
“Damn it! I refuse to die in this place!”
How ridiculous.
They were the ones who attacked first, yet now they claimed they wouldn’t accept death.
Pathetic.
And to think that by the emperor’s decree, the palace had to be left in the hands of these assassins, even for a moment.
Katarina couldn’t understand the emperor at all.
She was feeling a little mischievous.
The emperor’s relationship with the assassin guild… Surely, a bit of playfulness was allowed.
So—
“Ugh! Then I’ll take the emperor’s head with me!”
Katarina decided to send the assassin who had vowed to kill the emperor straight to her.
Not that it would matter—there was no way the emperor would die from something like this.
She would just feign ignorance.
Pretend she had let him escape.
Act as if she hadn’t seen him.
Just enough to show the emperor that relying too much on the assassin guild could lead to truly vile criminals running rampant in the palace.
***
“Heh… Hahaha! You foolish women. You must think you’ve killed us all. But you’re wrong! Even if I die, as long as I kill the emperor, everything ends!”
At last, the assassin crossed the corridor.
The emperor was likely in the bedroom.
No one in their right mind would leave the emperor in the midst of this bloody massacre.
Those damn maids must have hidden her away.
“Oh? What’s this? The emperor is right here?”
A sneer curled the assassin’s lips.
The emperor was draped in a sheer, white robe, revealing the silhouette of her body.
If he had the time, he would have enjoyed that sight to the fullest.
“The emperor played a little prank, and now look at this mess.”
The emperor mumbled something under her breath.
“Did she go mad?”
“Had she lost her mind in the face of death?”
Well, she was crazy enough to let an assassin guild into the palace in the first place.
“Heh, heh, heh. What a pathetic woman. Do you really think you can defeat me? A mere figurehead, nothing more than a pretty piece of royal blood?”
Even as the assassin drew his blade, the emperor did not spare him a glance.
She simply sighed in a dull, uninterested voice.
“This is a bit much, isn’t it?”
“You—You dare ignore me?! In my master’s name, I will kill you and shatter this arrogant empire’s fifteen-hundred-year history!”
But the emperor still paid him no mind.
“Hmm… This is getting slightly annoying. I really didn’t want to dirty my hands.”
“…What?”
“If I had known this would happen, I should have at least assigned a librarian to guard the archives. Even they know how to handle a blade decently.”
She was just talking to herself.
And then—
A colossal darkness loomed behind her.
It wasn’t simply because the palace was dimly lit.
It was the sheer, overwhelming darkness that resided within Belia herself.
—Rumble.
“It’s nothing more than a passing cloud.”
“W-What is that?”
The assassin’s eyes widened.
But he couldn’t comprehend what he was looking at.
It went beyond the depths of an abyss, swirling like a vortex of something indescribable.
“Pitiable creature. Had you died by Katarina’s hands, you wouldn’t have to suffer this fate. What a shame. Truly, what a shame.”
She pitied him so much that she almost wanted to spare him.
But he had seen too much of her.
She couldn’t let him live.
“A… Ah… Aaaah…”
The assassin shook his head frantically.
Even as he looked directly at it, he could not believe what he was seeing.
A comrade had once told him, “Seeing it for yourself is better than hearing about it a hundred times.”
But right now, he couldn’t even comprehend what he was seeing with his own eyes.
‘Was he even seeing anything at all?’
Perhaps it was all just an illusion.
At that moment, Emperor Belia quietly picked up a sword.
It didn’t really matter.
She was simply irritated with Katarina’s little prank.
So she would take out that irritation on the rat in front of her.
“Dying by my hand…”
—Rumble.
The immense darkness, vast enough to twist space and time itself, crept toward the assassin.
He had never seen anything like it in his entire life.
“…Is by no means an honorable death.”
—Rumble.
He had no words to describe it.
It was something unfathomable.
Something incomprehensibly powerful was about to swallow him whole.
“Your body will vanish in death, your soul will not even reach the cycle of reincarnation—it will be erased completely.”
—Rumble.
“The fifteen-hundred-year history of this living empire will erase your insignificant few decades of existence.”
The great darkness of history crashed down upon the assassin.
—Shatter.
The assassin disappeared without a trace.
As if their very existence had been erased from history.
No one would ever know that the assassin had existed.
They simply vanished.
“Even a worthless fool gets a second chance, but they picked the wrong opponent. Tsk, tsk.”
Whether the vanished “Destroyer” had family, friends, or even a lover was unknown.
But now, their existence would no longer remain in anyone’s memory.
Perhaps only the Emperor and Katarina, who merely knew them as some masked rat, would remember.
By now, all of Katarina’s guild members had likely wiped out every last assassin.
Come to think of it…
“Hmm. That damn Grand Chancellor. I even granted him that title, yet he insisted on going to protect Aslan. The guy would have been fine even without his help.”
‘Was it just lingering attachment, born from familiarity? Or did he still have feelings for his former fiancée?’
It didn’t matter.
But oddly enough, a strange sense of disappointment lingered.
A complex emotion, difficult to describe.
Perhaps it was because Olivia reminded him too much of someone he knew.
“Well, I can always summon him later.”
In the end, he valued his child more than the Emperor.
That would be enough to tease him about.
***
Bang!
Amelia, who had seized control of the eastern gate, shot a remaining rebel in the head.
“Filthy scum. You’re dying anyway, so why waste my energy?”
At least this gave her a chance to properly test out the newly supplied gun.
The only issue was that its target happened to be fellow imperial citizens.
‘But what could she do?’
It was the rebels’ fault for rebelling, not hers for killing them.
“Your Highness, what should we do with the captured rebels?”
“They dared to start a rebellion. Kill them all. Leave only the minimum defense force and advance into the capital.”
At Amelia’s command, her adjutant responded, “Understood.”
“By now, the Imperial Army should be moving as well. Considering the command center’s location, we should take the outer route to Atlerina.”
Other than the rebels guarding the gates, the Imperial Army wouldn’t have fallen into rebel hands.
And in this vast capital, there was no way those who sought a swift resolution had seized the command center.
There were likely Astar’s people involved as well, and if that were the case, they would have started moving by now.
“Atlerina?”
“Even if my brother is incompetent, he’s still my brother. Atlerina is bound to be in serious trouble this time. Saving that area is the right choice.”
Amelia and her forces began their march into the capital.
But as they took a detour through the outskirts, a familiar flag caught their eyes.
It was the banner of their allied kingdom.
‘Why was it here, in the outer region?’
“Hm? What’s that? Isn’t that the kingdom’s flag?”
Looking closer, they saw kingdom soldiers engaged in battle with the rebels.
‘What on earth were they doing here?’
“Yes. The kingdom’s envoy was scheduled to arrive in the Empire. Looks like they arrived at the worst possible time.”
“Talk about bad luck. What are you all waiting for? We can’t let our allies suffer because of our mess. Go and save them.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
How absurd it must be.
They came as an envoy and ended up on the verge of death at the hands of rebels.
Amelia aimed her gun at the rebels attacking the kingdom’s forces.
Bang!
Guns were definitely more fun than swords.
***
The battle in Atlerina raged on.
For now, those shadowy figures—the ones suspected to be dark mages—had all been wiped out.
But there were still too many enemies left.
They must have used more than just equivalent exchange.
It seemed like they had set up summoning circles as well.
Those strange shadows intruding here were definitely summoned creatures.
“There are more shadows than I expected,” one woman remarked after stepping outside, having just taken down a dark mage.
“No kidding.”
Destroying the summoning circles would be enough, but they had to consider the worst-case scenario—what if Atlerina fell?
His usual approach would be to crush everything with brute force, but doing that here would mean destroying an entire district of the capital.
“Can’t you take care of them?”
“Those shadow beasts are weaker than my teddy bear or about the same. I have the advantage in battle since I’m a caster, but getting to the summoning circles is tricky. We could just keep fighting until my mana runs out. Besides, I’m a battle mage. If I handle it, you know what’ll happen to Atlerina.”
“So we need a specialist in sealing magic?”
At least there were no dark mages left.
That was a relief.
They just had to wait for the summoning circles to run out of mana.
The dark mages had definitely pulled some nasty tricks.
If he wanted, he could clean this all up with careful precision.
Sealing magic wasn’t just about blocking summoning circles; he could also dismantle them entirely.
He was, after all, someone who would one day stand among the Grand Mages.
He had every right to be proud.
But there was no need to go that far.
It was a hassle, and besides, he already held the title of Grand Chancellor.
He had done more than enough by personally defeating the dark mages with his magic.
That alone was enough to be recognized as a mage.
“But you look pretty relaxed. Not even fighting.”
“I’ve got a few reasons for that.”
Very solid reasons, in fact.
“And what might those be?”
“First, because of your teddy bear wave.”
With that wave of summoned bears, there was no need for him to lift a finger.
“Second, if I stand out too much here, the Emperor’s going to give me an earful.”
As Grand Chancellor, he could have gone straight to the palace.
But he chose Atlerina instead.
Honestly, he was certain the Emperor could handle himself.
Meanwhile, Aslan couldn’t possibly take down a demon on his own.
If Syria was holding out, then maybe he wasn’t needed.
But if he had to choose between the two, the more dangerous situation was definitely Aslan’s.
The Emperor, of course, wouldn’t care about any of that and would just drag him in to tease him later.
“And third, it’s about time.”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Gunfire from the Imperial Army finally rang through Atlerina.