Chapter 682: Scapegoat
The king of the realm then turned to the crown prince. "What are your thoughts on what happened during the royal hunt?"
The crown prince replied earnestly, "Your majesty, after long consideration, I feel that the Jinghun have to have some other supporters we don't know about."
The king of the realm propped himself up on his armrest. "Indeed? Elaborate on your thoughts."
"Your majesty, don't you think that there were too many third- and fourth-level beasts around? Surely the Jinghun couldn't have managed to capture and transport them all unnoticed."
The king of the realm nodded. "I feel similarly. The royal hunt is conducted annually, and although I've manipulated the hunting grounds to produce more third- and fourth-level beasts, they would not naturally appear in such large numbers. The only possibility is that the beasts were not originally within the hunting grounds."
The crown prince nodded, adding, "Because the royal hunt occurs annually, there should be a limit on how many such beasts would be present at any one time. However, we faced what felt like a whole ocean of them."
The king of the realm opined gravely, "My belief is that someone deliberately brought a large group of second- and third-, and perhaps even fourth-level beasts, into the hunting grounds."
The gathered princes couldn't help but think back to their second brother's ploys before his death.
The king of the realm shouted, "Clan Head Qian!"
The Qian clan head emerged from among the gathered officials. "Yes, your majesty!"
This was the first time Zhang Lie saw the Qian clan head, which was an unforgettable sight. He was as corpulent as a meatball, and although he dressed in court attire, his robes were embroidered with gold and shot through with golden threads. His swollen, sausage-like fingers were full of rings, and he gave off the impression of being a mobile treasury.
Did he really value showing off his wealth so much that he would sacrifice his personal comfort for it?
The Qian clan head bowed toward the king of the realm, folds of fat jiggling beneath his clothes.
The king of the realm asked, "Know you your crimes?"
The Qian clan head scratched his head. "Your majesty, I don't understand what you mean."
"Wasn't it your clan who sent these beasts into the hunting grounds?"
Everyone present was shocked by the king of the realm's accusations. They had thought that the Jinghun were the masterminds behind this entire affair—but there was actually another party who was responsible!
The person in attendance who was most shocked by the king of the realm's accusation was undoubtedly the fifth prince, whose backer was the Qian clan. However, he didn't dare say anything, afraid that he would be embroiled in the fiasco as a result.
The Qian clan head jumped up in shock. His legs turned to jelly as he flung himself toward the ground. "Your majesty, I would never do anything of the sort! We of the Qian clan are merchants and businessmen. I would never dare participate in a rebellion!"
The king of the realm narrowed his eyes. "I don't think I've ever specified what the Jinghun were trying to accomplish, have I?"
The Qian clan head kowtowed again and again. "Your majesty, I can explain! Wanting to know more about what had happened within the hunting grounds, I bribed the guards that had been present and learned about what had happened from them."
The king of the realm chuckled coldly. "Who but the richest clan in the kingdom would have the ability to catch so many beasts and the network with which to transport them to the royal hunting grounds?"
The Qian clan head shook his head again and again. "Your majesty, I really don't know anything!"
"In that case, how do you explain this evidence?" the king of the realm retorted. "Guards! Set the evidence in front of the Qian clan head so that he might have a closer look."
Following the king's commands, the guards placed a pile of documents on a tray, which they proffered to the Qian clan head.
As the Qian clan head perused these documents, his face turned dark. He had expected that the king of the realm would need some time to look through the evidence, but the king had done so remarkably quickly.
The king of the realm continued, "There's evidence that you caught beasts from all over the kingdom, then sent them into the hunting grounds. Do you deny these allegations?"
The Qian clan head bowed deeply like a quivering slug. "Your majesty, I plead ignorance to these claims! Could someone in the clan have done so without my knowledge?"
The king of the realm's resulting laugh was harsh and cold. "Indeed? Do you think they could have managed operations on this scale without you hearing about it? Three whole years of sending beasts into the hunting grounds—without your knowledge? Do you think me a fool?!"
The fifth prince's face was a rictus of shock. "Clan Head Qian, how could you do this to me?! How could you sponsor a rebellion behind my back?"
The fifth prince's face had turned dark. His backer had betrayed him and the rest of the realm!
The king of the realm snorted. "Very good, Clan Head Qian, very good! I received reports that you even told the guards patrolling the hunting grounds that it was the second prince who wanted to send these beasts within in order to increase the difficulty of the hunt."
The Qian clan head bowed again, so deeply his entire face was plastered against the floor. "I've made a mistake, your majesty, fifth prince! I shouldn't have listened to the second prince and sent the beasts into the hunting grounds!
"I had no idea what the second prince was up to; I only heard that he wanted to increase the difficulty of the hunt, because otherwise he wouldn't have the opportunity to become the victor—I never thought the second prince would be trying to rebel against the kingdom with the support of an alien race!"
The king of the realm asked, "Clan Head Qian, who's the current emperor?"
"Your majesty, of course!"
The king of the realm continued, "Whose kingdom is this?"
"Yours, your majesty!"
The king of the realm slowly stood up. "In that case, whom should your loyalty be to?"
"You, your majesty!"
The king of the realm exclaimed, "In that case, why did you not report this affair to me? Why did you go along with the second prince's wishes?"
The Qian clan head was sweating profusely. The officials watching him winced; they understood his reasoning very well. That was how they had felt themselves not too long ago, though none of them took it to such an extreme.
The king of the realm had spent a long time pretending to be ill and sickly, but no one realized that it was all an act.
The officials of court had all already decided on which princes they would support to succeed the throne, but the Qian clan had taken it too far and would now suffer the consequences.
The king of the realm would use him as a scapegoat to maintain his own strength, to inform the members of his court by his own actions that he, the king of the realm, was not yet dead.
The king of the realm continued, "I gave the Qian clan money and land to develop, to establish a storefront in every city of this kingdom. I gave the Qian clan all that—and you use it to betray me?!"
The Qian clan head continued kowtowing, smashing his head so hard against the floor that his forehead was bruised and bleeding.
"This kingdom has no need for traitors. Guards! Drag Clan Head Qian outside and behead him. Seize his clan's assets and properties. Expel his direct relatives from the kingdom; demote the members of his clan's branch families to commoners. Never will they be merchants or officials of the court."
The king of the realm's pronouncement almost made the Qian clan head faint.
"Your majesty, your majesty, I recognize my mistake! Please, forgive me!"
He crawled over to the fifth prince and tugged on the hem of his robes. "Your highness, please save me! Please—for the sake of my daughter!"
The fifth prince's eyes were icy-cold. "You were in cahoots with the second prince; you might as well join him in death."
The fifth prince could hardly speak up for the Qian clan head.
This was no small misdemeanor; it was treason against the king. Assaulting the capital and breaking into the royal treasury, conspiring with an alien race—each of these crimes would have been enough to sentence the Qian clan head to death...
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