Chapter 115: The King Has a Story ①
Translated by AmaLynne
「Welcome, Samuel.」
「My king, it has been a long time.」
Sam prepared himself and headed for the royal palace, where he was escorted by the Kingsguard not to the audience chamber but to a room in the palace.
The room was decorated with glittering ornaments, expensive-looking vases, and paintings, and the sofa on which he was sitting was of high quality.
It is probably a room used for meeting important people from various countries.
Such a room is not very comfortable.
In any case, he’s facing Clyde Isle Sky, the king of the Kingdom of Skye, one-on-one.
「I want to thank you for the duel with Albert and the incident with the Red Dragon-dono the other day.」
「No, I did what I had to do.」
Clyde, dressed in white clothes and with a crown on his head with bluish silver hair, looked somewhat tired.
His stern expression seemed less somber than when he had seen him the other day.
「I would have liked to see you sooner, but there was too much to do after the fact. Did Count Walker tell you what happened after that?」
「I’ve heard most of it.」
「Well, tell you again. There are some new matters that need to be dealt with.」
At Clyde’s words, Sam nodded,「Please.」
「First of all, thanks to you, our country is no longer in danger. The Red Dragon has accepted the mountain range that belonged to our country as an apology and as friendship for the future. I don’t think that he will be viewing us as enemies for the time being.」
「It is only because nothing bad has happened to the children. I am also relieved.」
「I agree with you. Samuel, it is because of your fight against the Red Dragon and your attempts to communicate with her. I am truly grateful to you.」
「It is a waste of words. It was for the sake of the country and the Red Dragon was also a victim.」
Sam was surprised that the king himself bowed to Sam and thanked him, but Sam accepted the offer with open arms.
He thought it would be disrespectful to waste the king’s sincerity.
When Clyde looked up, he had a bitter look on his face.
「Ummm. I feel really bad about what happened to Red Dragon-dono. I didn’t think that Albert and the Marquis of Gordon were illegally trading in demons and magical species.」
The king sighs, his neat face contorted.
Sam also laughed bitterly at this.
He had never imagined that the man he had defeated in a duel had been involved in illegal trade and was doing whatever he pleased.
After all, he was not worthy of being a court wizard or the most powerful man in the Kingdom of Skye.
「After that, when I had the mansions of the people involved investigated, I found a mountain of…evidence that could not be excused. He was also selling the people of the Kingdom of Skye to other countries. The damage was too great.」
「――What a mess.」
「Now, I am moving to organize a survey team to rescue the people and bring them back. We may not be able to save all of them, but we hope we can at least save those who we know were sold to whom.」
To think that even people were being bought and sold was unexpected.
However, there was no way that those who were trying to illegally sell dragons, let alone demons, would not use human beings as commodities.
In the Kingdom of Skye, there is slavery, but it is only possible with a legitimate contract.
Illegally buying and selling human beings is not allowed.
「The Marquis of Gordon and the other nobles involved in the case have all been sentenced to death. Half of them have already been executed. We have also decided to demolish the houses or replace the heads of the families with new ones, and the families of those involved have been banished from the country.」
「I think that’s fair. It is rather warm-hearted considering the fact that the country will be burned to the ground by Red Dragon.」
Reportedly, most of Marquis Gordon’s family was involved in illegal trafficking.
Some said they had no choice because they were ordered to do so, but when we investigated, we found that most of the servants had been paid to keep quiet and were living a rough life.
Mrs. Gordon also claimed that her husband had done it, but according to the testimonies of the servants, she was actively involved in the sale and introduced them to collectors of her acquaintance.
Mrs. Gordon, who had a coarse temperament, also routinely used violence against her captors, and was sentenced to prison without mercy.
Mrs. Gordon is no longer with us.
Albert Frege’s parents, siblings, and relatives were also punished in a way that they were held accountable.
His father was sentenced to death. His mother and the rest of his relatives were also mostly deported.
Many illegally captured people were found in Albert’s compound and testified that they had been abused.
Since Albert, who was already dead, could not be punished, his family paid for his crime.
Other nobles and merchants who had collaborated with the two were taken down, and those who were involved were severely punished.
「Some people said this is too much. However, I didn’t want to leave a person who had aroused the anger of the Red Dragon-dono in this country. There is no doubt that he might do something stupid again.」
「You are right.」
「Thanks to this, we were able to reduce the power of the aristocratic faction that had opposed me, if not destroy it. Now they will be quiet for a while.」
It seems that the aristocratic faction is on the verge of destruction by punishing those who have put the country in danger.
The king, who looked tired, was somewhat satisfied.
「Thanks to you. You have eliminated Albert, who was the greatest strength of the aristocrats, so that they could not even resist and lost their power. I am grateful to you, Samuel.」
Apparently, a full-scale power struggle could have resulted in a civil war in the worst-case scenario.
However, the aristocratic faction lost Albert, the kingdom’s most powerful wizard.
And Sam, who slaughtered Albert, belonged to the royalist faction, the Earls of Walker.
If they had started a civil war and fought, they probably did not need to think about what the outcome would be.
In the first place, even if Albert had lived, it seems unlikely that the aristocrats would have been prepared to fight a war that would split the country in two, but it seems that they were prepared for any eventuality.
After all, it seems that the aristocrats were nothing more than a group of people who did as they pleased using their power and strength as a shield.
「I have told you everything, but there is more. I will also inform you of the treatment of the other court wizards.」
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