Chapter 131
“Colonel!”
Kalt practically rolled across the ground as he rushed to Lionel’s side.
Fresh blood spread from the back of Lionel’s head as he lay collapsed on the ground, flowing along the grooves in the stone pavement before pooling beneath his shoulder.
The assailant who had sniped Lionel had already vanished without a trace during those brief moments.
Kalt instinctively leaned toward the direction the attacker had fled, but immediately froze.
Lionel’s condition looked so critical that it would become life-threatening if he was not treated immediately.
After hesitating for a moment over whether he should pursue the attacker, Kalt clenched his fist in frustration before turning his body completely toward Lionel.
What mattered now was not the culprit, but whether Lionel lived or died.
“Pull yourself together, Colonel. Can you hear me?!”
As he lifted Lionel’s head into his arms, a slick sensation spread across Kalt’s palm.
It was blood flowing from the back of Lionel’s head.
Kalt’s face turned deathly pale in an instant.
No…
To check whether Lionel was still alive, Kalt reached toward Lionel’s neck with trembling fingers.
Beneath his fingertips, he felt an irregular yet distinct pulse.
Fortunately, he was still breathing.
“Over here—!”
Kalt was about to shout for someone to bring a stretcher immediately when realization struck him.
He remembered that he had sent the knights away moments ago to stop the ship.
“Damn it, of all times!”
Kalt immediately pulled out his radio.
He repeatedly pressed the transmit button and reported the attack to anyone who would answer, and soon afterward, hurried footsteps began rushing in from every direction.
“W-What in the…?”
One of the knights arrived first and froze with a stiff expression.
Seeing the man’s dumbfounded look, Kalt, who had Lionel slung over his back, roared at him.
“What are you standing there for?! Watching the show?! Bring a stretcher, now!”
The moment Kalt’s furious shout echoed out, everyone around him sprang into action.
In the blink of an eye, the harbor descended into complete chaos.
***
From beneath the shade a short distance away from the commotion, Jerome hid himself while watching everything unfold.
Lionel’s blood-soaked hair and limp limbs as he was carried away on a stretcher.
It was the appearance of someone who could no longer possibly be alive.
Without blinking even once, Jerome engraved the entire scene into his eyes.
“Ha… haha.”
A laugh slipped from between Jerome’s lips as though air were leaking from his lungs.
Still holding the rifle, he clutched his own head and let out a senseless giggle.
The fact that the mighty Lionel had fallen so easily before the muzzle of his gun filled him with a strange exhilaration.
“So it was more hollow than I expected.”
Something this simple…
Just what had the Emperor been so afraid of that he had hesitated for so long?
The inferiority he had carried for so long beneath Lionel’s overwhelming reputation seemed to peel away as though it had all been a lie.
In the end, this was all it amounted to.
No matter how proudly someone boasted about themselves, it only mattered while they were alive.
Once dead, what use was any of it?
After basking in his exhilaration for quite some time, Jerome finally regained his senses and remembered why he had come here.
“This isn’t the time for this. I need to find the secret letter.”
Jerome muttered as he tucked the gun into his inner pocket.
“Once the Emperor is brought down, everything will finally be over.”
The day this world fell into his hands was no longer far away.
His body trembled from the thrill running down his spine as Jerome turned to chase after Sercadia’s delegation.
Just as he stepped onto the breakwater leading toward the ticket office, he collided head-on with someone.
The impact caused Jerome’s improperly secured gun to fall onto the ground.
“Damn it!”
Jerome glared viciously at the man he had bumped into before bending down to pick up the fallen gun.
It was at that moment.
Something sharp brushed past the back of his neck.
For a brief moment, Jerome merely blinked, unable even to understand what had happened to him.
Then, a surge of scorching warmth suddenly burst from the back of his neck.
He instinctively clutched the back of his neck with his hand, but bright red blood gushed through the gaps between his fingers.
Confusion and terror rose simultaneously in the eyes that, only moments earlier, had been certain the world would soon lie beneath his feet.
Jerome widened his eyes and glared at the man he had collided with.
Then, after noticing the insignia attached to the man’s chest, Jerome’s pupils expanded dramatically.
It was the Imperial Royal Guard.
The force the Emperor commanded like his own hands and feet.
“Y-You… why are you—”
The knight of the Imperial Royal Guard picked up the gun Jerome had been reaching for.
Then, as though nothing had happened, he calmly slipped it back into Jerome’s inner pocket.
“His Majesty ordered that dogs who bite their masters should be dealt with in advance.”
It was the very same words the Emperor had once spoken to Lionel, now returning to Jerome himself.
Jerome’s golden eyes trembled uncontrollably.
The knight lightly patted Jerome’s inner pocket before straightening his clothes.
“You should have remained a loyal dog. Why did you try to climb higher?”
With those words, the knight shoved Jerome backward.
Unable even to resist, Jerome clutched the back of his neck as he choked helplessly.
Splash.
With a heavy splash, the sea beneath the breakwater surged violently.
At the center of the widening ripples, several bubbles rose to the surface.
But even that did not last long.
Soon, the sea settled once again into a calm mirror, as though it had never been disturbed.
The knight who had pushed Jerome into the deep sea quietly gazed at the now tranquil surface before slowly turning his head.
At the end of his gaze was the crowd finally rushing toward the place where Lionel had collapsed.
Knights hurried back and forth across the bloodstained stone pavement while people covered their mouths in horror and whispered among themselves.
The knight silently watched the scene for a moment before turning away.
As though his task was now complete.
***
At the same time.
Agnes, who had been heading toward the cabin, turned around for no apparent reason.
She felt as though someone had called out to her.
Although she had heard nothing at all, her chest inexplicably tightened.
After hesitating for a moment, Agnes turned her wheelchair around and headed back toward the deck instead of the cabin.
Then she noticed crowds of people rushing toward a road some distance away from the pier.
Occasionally, indistinct shouts drifted over, too blurred to make out.
Agnes stared at the scene with a puzzled expression.
However, the ship had already moved quite far away from the pier, making it impossible to understand exactly what had happened.
Even so, an unexplainable sense of anxiety overcame Agnes, prompting her to push her wheelchair a little farther forward.
Closer to the deck.
Agnes pressed down her fluttering hood with one hand while tightly gripping the cold railing with the other.
An ominous atmosphere rippled from the gathering crowd.
Perhaps because that unease had spread to her as well, every breath she took felt as though something inside her chest was being lightly scraped away.
‘…Why do I feel like this?’
Without realizing it, Agnes looked once more toward the gathering crowd.
Just as her body leaned a little farther forward—
“Madam.”
Kain approached Agnes’s side.
“What’s wrong? Is there something over there?”
Following Agnes’s gaze, Kain looked toward the shore.
However, all he could see was the harbor growing farther away and the endless sea.
After releasing the railing she had been gripping, Agnes pressed a hand against her chest.
Perhaps because the distance had grown too great for the murmuring voices to reach her any longer.
The strange sensation from earlier also seemed to be gradually fading away.
After taking two slow, deep breaths, Agnes shook her head.
“…No. I just thought I heard something.”
At those words, Kain gave a light shrug.
Then he gently pulled Agnes’s hood back into place as the sea breeze kept trying to blow it off.
“The sea wind is quite harsh. Why don’t you go inside? Grandmother has already gone in.”
Following Kain’s suggestion, Agnes turned her wheelchair once more and headed toward the cabin.
Then, just before crossing the doorway, Agnes looked back one last time.
But there was nothing left to see.
The land had already shrunk to nothing more than a tiny dot, and all that remained within her sight was the endless sea.
