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Jan—that is, Jan, who had harbored a deep hatred for the Emperor and dreamed of the day of revenge as he was—thought that as long as he was alive, and as long as he could bring down the Emperor, he could do anything.
He…… really thought so.
Until he was placed in a situation where he had to reveal his wounds in full detail.
“If you strip him down, isn’t his face not so bad? Nobody knows that this fellow is a black magician anyway, so wouldn’t it be fine to send him out a bit?”
Just like that, Jan was suddenly placed in a crisis where he had to stand before the people. Just imagining it was painful for him.
“I…… do not want to reveal my wounds.”
It was truly something he squeezed out with great difficulty.
In fact, because he was a sinner and a villain to them to the point where dying right now would not be enough, refusing like this in itself required tremendous courage.
At the same time, he did not even expect that his opinion would be accepted. Therefore, blaming himself, he thought that since his wounds were going to be exposed anyway, he had needlessly said words that would invite hatred.
However.
“Then do not do it.”
Daphne replied far too nonchalantly.
“If you do not want to do it, you shouldn’t do it. Now, let us devise another method.”
With that, she attempted to leave the prison. Wait, she’s backing off this easily?
Jan was flustered. How should he put it? Although he didn’t want to do it, hearing that she was leaving so easily gave him a strange and contradictory feeling of slight regret. So, without realizing it, he opened his mouth and asked:
“W-Why, why do you not hold onto me further?”
“What?”
“A-Ah, no, i-it’s not that I’m saying I’ll do it if you hold onto me, but still, how should I put it? Asking someone to try it just once and then pulling back immediately, isn’t that a bit cold-hearted?”
At those words from Jan, Shio, who was standing at the back, whistled and said:
“It seems everyone goes a little crazy whenever they come to this Grand Ducal Residence. Very good. The best.”
Lightly ignoring Shio’s words, Daphne stared blankly at Jan and answered:
“I thought it was a past you did not wish to bring up, which is why you refused, so I believed that speaking of it twice to you would be a threat rather than a suggestion. That you do not have to do it if you do not want to was my sincere heart. So do not pay it any mind.”
“A-Ah, no……”
Jan rolled his eyes back and forth and asked carefully. Asking why on earth he had to show his wounds, then. Daphne gave an answer without much deliberation.
“To piss off that Emperor bastard.”
He asked what that meant. Then Daphne answered without hesitation:
“I thought that if you claim to be a victim of war and show your physical state to the people, it could shut the mouths of the war advocates that the Emperor bastard planted. But if you do not want to do it, you shouldn’t.”
Jan fell into deep thought. Deep thought! Up until the moment he first heard her tell him to show his wounds, without a moment of hesitation, even while knowing he was in no position to add his own words, he had refused immediately, but how should he put it? Hearing that it was to piss off the Emperor made him feel a desire in his own way to try it out.
The reason he didn’t want to reveal his wounds was that it felt like revealing his weakness, which was embarrassing, but the opportunity to give the Emperor a blow was more appetizing than that.
So he—
“W-Where do I have to reveal up to?”
—decided to reveal his wounds.
And now.
Standing in front of the people, Jan thought that it wasn’t as bad as he had expected. Now that he had untied his bandages and exposed his body before the people, it was not so tremendously embarrassing or tremendously painful as in his imagination. He feels that the one who insulted his wounds the most might have been himself.
At any rate, since Jan still had words left to say, he gathered his thoughts and opened his mouth toward the people once more.
“Does the world look easy to you?”
In fact, there were separate words that Daphne had instructed him to say. To evoke pity like that—that it hurts so much, that it is still difficult, that it is painful, that it is hard just imagining it.
However, Jan did not do so. No, he could not do so. Because the humans babbling before his eyes were tiresome and disgusting. Was it because of his own identity as a black magician? No. Rather than that, because those humans were viewing the world far too easily, because they were living in a world completely different from the world he had experienced! That was why he was angry. He could not bear it.
“Because you live in a peaceful era, because you live stuck in the capital, because you know nothing about how the outside world rolls or what the border region is like right now, the world is easy to you. Very easy. Right?”
Jan sneered, unraveling the bandages that were covering his other wounds with a Swish!
“War is not child’s play.”
Then he glared with wide eyes toward the people who were making shocked expressions.
“If war still looks easy after seeing these wounds, you shouldn’t enter the battlefield as a soldier, but should apply as a knight. Because if you have that much confidence and courage, you’ll be able to accomplish anything.”
“Pfft”
He spits out a hollow laugh.
“Fools.”
“……”
The crowd is quiet. They could not bring themselves to say anything, not because there was persuasiveness in the expression and voice of Jan as he delivered such a lecture, but because his body itself—that is, his wound-covered body itself—was bestowing a certain degree of trust.
The people who had been slightly influenced by the words of the pro-war advocates began to read the room and quietly step backward. In fact, they hadn’t sincerely supported the war either, and since it was something that happened because they were swept along by the atmosphere, stepping back was a natural thing in a way.
“A-Ah, no! Why are you throwing a fit at us just because you couldn’t fight properly and became a failure?”
“Exactly! Why do you blame us for becoming a dumbass just because you’re a dumbass!”
However, several individuals showed even more indignant faces, and Pauline, who was hidden within the crowd, engraved all of their faces into her memory—using Memorize magic. She thinks that those people are undoubtedly henchmen planted by the Emperor.
At the same time, she worries for Jan on one hand. The reason he lived wrapped tightly in bandages all this time must be that he did not want to show his wounds to others, yet the words he heard after exposing the wounds he had hidden were such insults. Pauline sent a signal to Jan that it was enough and he could stop now.
However.
“Puhahaha!”
Jan began to clutch his stomach and laugh. Then he walked with long strides toward the man who had insulted him first.
“I was going to use magic to remember your face.”
Jan tilted his head and said:
“There’s no need to use magic. You’re so ugly that you’ll stay in my memory.”
“W-What did you say?”
……Uh?
Pauline opened her mouth halfway as she watched Jan speak without hesitation, contrary to her worry.
“Isn’t it hard living in this world with that face? If it were me, it would be so hard that I would have looked into magic plastic surgery or something. Ah, do you lack the money for that?”
“Hey! You bastard!”
“That’s why.”
Jan stepped right up to the nose of the shouting man and glared with wide eyes.
“Let’s wait and see whether you become a bigger dumbass than me or not. Ah, of course, your current face is a bigger garbage dump than me, though.”
“T-This crazy guy……!”
“I’ll bet on the side that you become a bigger dumbass.”
The man screamed and could not properly manage his flushed face, but even so, he could not rush at Jan. It was because he felt it instinctively as well—that he must not mess around.
“Don’t worry, because if you don’t become worse than me, I’ll make sure you end up that way.”
Jan spoke with a bright smile, and Pauline thought as she watched him:
Ah.
He was brought here by Lady Daphne too.
***
“Who appeared?”
The Emperor asked with a shocked expression for the first time in a very long while.
“……The leader of the Specters?”
Having received the report and reconfirmed it once more, he burst into a hollow laugh and collapsed into his chair as if dropping his body down. Jan, that rat-like fellow was in the Grand Ducal Residence. They snatched away a child who is one of the specimens into which my greatest efforts were poured at the Grand Ducal Residence……!
“Still, nothing will change.”
Thump!
The Emperor slammed the table with his fist and gritted his teeth tightly.
“Because war will happen anyway.”
There was a reason why war had to break out. To speak precisely, the Emperor had a clear reason to start a war.
That reason was simple.
