Chapter 81 – Richard (2)
Cartel.
Richard and Aaron stood facing each other, holding swords.
The four people who stood as observers were Scarlett and Iris, plus Edwin and Arnold.
The reason was that it was impossible to show many people a duel between members of the imperial family.
Said Richard.
“You mean you can do something like that and be calm?”
“I don’t know what you mean, brother.”
Richard, who glared at Aaron fiercely while suppressing his burning anger, and Aaron, who just kept repeating that he didn’t know.
Richard took a deep breath.
Right away, he wanted to explode this anger and punish the beast in front of his eyes, a fellow he couldn’t even call his younger brother, but he knew.
If you fight with such a loss of reason, you will lose the fight you won.
So cool his head. He takes a deep breath, tempers his anger.
Richard, who had been wielding a sword all his life, had to be serious about dealing with Aaron, who had lived only by holding on to books.
Richard believed so.
There is no one in this world that he can take for granted.
Regardless of whether or not this is actually the case.
No matter who the opponent is, you have to fight seriously.
Otherwise, he can’t beat anyone.
Richard believed so.
Even so, Richard could speak.
“I’m glad I didn’t let go of the sword until now.”
“… What are you talking about, is that?”
Heh
Raising the corner of his mouth, Richard laughed.
“If I had let go of the sword, wouldn’t I have been unable to punish you directly right here and now?”
If he had let go of his sword long ago in lamentation and frustration because he didn’t even have the slightest talent, then he probably wouldn’t have been able to win against Aaron, and he wouldn’t have even been able to condemn Aaron’s crimes.
So, how fortunate it must have been that he did not give up and grabbed the sword, even if he had only one talent.
Richard said confidently.
“… Uh, I don’t know What is your older brother talking about?”
In an instant, annoyance crossed Aaron’s face.
He looked like he didn’t know why he was here.
As if he couldn’t understand why he had to fight his older brother with a sword like this, after realizing he had no talent for martial arts early on and walking the path of a scholar.
“I don’t know what makes a person who has wielded a sword his whole life enjoy a duel with someone like me.”
Richard’s intention to punish his own crimes is downgraded to an older brother who persecutes his weaker brother.
In reality, if the two of them were to duel, it would most likely be Richard’s victory.
No matter how much it is, there is no way that a person who has devoted his whole life to self-cultivation will ever get tired of a person who only holds books.
The rest of the cases must have been Aaron selling traps or cheating.
From Aaron’s point of view, it is a duel in which the winner is decided in the end.
But you can’t run away either. He pretended not to know anything, but in reality he understood the whole series of situations as soon as the word duel came to Richard.
If he runs away like this, all his sins will really be exposed.
If you win.
If you win the duel, you might be able to hide it.
‘If it’s Richard-nii…’
In the duel he won, so he might listen if told to return the ledger to him and keep quiet about it from now on.
The loser of the duel obeys the winner.
That principle, Richard would probably stick to it.
Of course, this is Aaron’s best case.
In fact, even if Richard were to lose the duel, he intended to tell the emperor about Aaron’s crimes.
With only the result of his own duel, he couldn’t turn away from the victims his brother had suffered so far.
Richard straightened his sword.
Aaron, too, while making a difficult face, was rolling his head in order to somehow beat Richard.
They stare at each other with different goals.
And, clash.
Seeing Richard rapidly approaching, Aaron was taken aback. There seemed to be a distance between them, but after blinking, I realized that Richard was approaching in front of me.
“Profit… !”
Then Aaron thought. If he was a good older brother, he would rather pull his sword back when he pushed himself in, he thought.
While imagining her delusions like that, Aaron held her body closer and thrust out his sword.
Caang!
The clashing swordsman, Richard, gently let Aaron’s aiming sword flow gently, cutting through Aaron’s chest as he lost his balance under the heavy weight of the sword.
Chew!
“Kuaaaaa!”
Such a futile match.
Naturally, the winner was Richard.
Aaron gave her chest with absurdly easy cuts and cut her deeply. It happened 30 seconds after the duel started.
It was the result that everyone who watched the duel expected from the beginning. Aaron seemed to have hoped that Richard would not hesitate to wield her sword, showing a hint of her mercy.
Aaron collapsed with blood on him, and Richard looked down at him.
As if he was going to suffocate Aaron, he raised his sword high, but failed to strike it and it froze.
Richard pressed his lips together as if all sorts of emotions were raging, then immediately lowered the sword.
Then, after dropping the sword in his hand to the floor, he let out a deep sigh with a distraught face.
“First of all, Aaron’s treatment… I beg you.”
If you want to pay for your sins, you shouldn’t have already died.
After adding such an afterword, Richard left, saying he needed time to think.
“Then.”
In the middle of darkness.
Scarlett opened her mouth.
“Let’s start by tidying up.”
Arnold brought in a therapist and healed Aaron. Bondi deserves recuperation, but at Scarlett’s order, he dragged the fainting Aaron to the Emperor’s Great War.
A place where the ministers of the palace gather.
Upon hearing the news of the duel between Richard and Aaron, everyone including the emperor seemed to gather.
To be precise, everyone quickly gathered at the enraged emperor’s summons.
Claudius II sat down on the throne, and Richard stepped forward.
Leading the way was Richard, who had a duel with Aaron.
Scarlett and Iris stood behind them.
Claudius II’s eyes trembled slightly.
The shoulders of the palace ministers trembled at the old Aura Master’s angry spirit.
“Richard. Did you say you fought a duel to punish Aaron for his sins?”
“Yes. Father.”
“What was that crime, why did you punish Aaron yourself without telling Jim? And if you’ve already punished it, it’s over, so why do you want to tell Jim again?”
“That is wrong, Father.”
“What?”
Richard’s bold refutation. The emperor opened his eyes wide and moved his chin as if to say more.
“What I punished is to punish my brother for the crime of slandering his family.”
“Mmm.”
That meant that the reason Richard challenged Aaron to a duel was because he spread slander about Iris.
Richard’s remarks made the court ministers tremble for a moment.
“Does that mean Aaron has other sins?”
“That’s right.”
“Tell me.”
After Claudius II’s permission was granted, Richard took out the notebook he had received from me in advance.
“What is it?”
“This is a ledger with detailed records of Aaron’s sins.”
“… Bring it here.”
Richard handed out the ledger to Claudius II.
Even though all the security magic on the ledger had already been dismantled, the traces of magic that had remained for a long time made it possible to guess that it was an unusual item.
The Emperor is also an Aura Master. There’s no way he wouldn’t recognize it, so he frowned at the point of accepting the ledger.
Then he opened the ledger and began to read.
At first, the hand turned the page slowly, but as it moved backward, it became faster with a fluttering sound.
Claudius II’s complexion turned red, and the sound of grinding his teeth could be heard terrifyingly.
Before long, the emperor, who had read the last page of the notebook before covering it, quietly opened his mouth.
“I will ask the Duke of Chepes.”
“What?”
“Is all this true?”
Hmm.
At the Emperor’s growl, Scarlett laughed as if in trouble.
“I wish I was manipulated too.”
“Right. It means that he has been doing things that I’m afraid to even say, without my knowledge.”
Hooked
The emperor sighed and remained silent. Daejeon fell silent, waiting for the emperor’s words.
“Judgment. … Aaron is no longer a member of the royal family.”
Aaron cannot be punished because he is from the royal family.
He can’t even be tortured, let alone executed. This is because they are legally free from all harsh punishments.
“From now on, we will take away all the rights we have received as members of the imperial family. From now on, I will declare that Aaron Arcadia will become a commoner Aaron.”
In other words.
Being deprived of the position of the imperial family also meant that he had to take on all the responsibilities and obligations that could have been ignored because he was a member of the imperial family.
“And judge again. The guilty Aaron.”
The Emperor solemnly declared.
“For the next 10 years, I will receive the ‘purification’ work of the Holy Kingdom in the dungeon, and then I will execute the death penalty when the ‘purification’ work is finished.”
When it comes to cleaning, it doesn’t sound like much.
In reality, the most brutal punishment among the punishments of the empire was ‘purification’.
It is a punishment made in the name of ‘cleansing’ the body stained with bad karma before executing the criminal, and the purification process is very cruel.
It is a body that has already been stained with sin and evil, so in the name of being born anew, the flesh is cut little by little.
And regenerate with the priest’s healing technique.
If you replace parts one by one to repair a ship, is the ship after all parts replaced is the same as the ship before sailing? Like a question.
By cutting out the body bit by bit, it slowly replaces the body.
The process is carried out throughout the body.
First, the skin is cut out from the extremities of the body, then the muscles, bones, and organs. All organs except the heart and brain are replaced with new ones.
If mishandled, it will die before it can regenerate, so this process takes a very long time.
If Aaron is sentenced to 10 years, it probably means that he will be executed as soon as the ‘cleansing’ is over.
Scarlett thought.
What will Edwin do now?
No way, I never thought that the target of Aaron’s sale of her corpse was the clan of Nosferatu.
Edwin had only one way left.
After driving out Chepes and putting Nosferatu in his place, solidifying his position as crown prince with his support.
