SSS-Class Revival Hunter

Chapter 95: The Villain (2)

“... My dear daughter... Don’t expect anything... Don’t rely on anything. That’s the secret of life... Every time you tell yourself, ‘Maybe it’ll be different this time,’ the world will whisper to you, ‘It’s no different this time either.’ Being fooled once is an experience. While it’s a tragedy to be deceived twice, being fooled three times is comedy.

“...You are a noble. Be careful not to let your life become someone else’s comedy. Don’t give yourself three chances...Two. Two wounds are enough to be remembered forever. Those old kings commemorated their deaths before they died. Don’t repeat their foolishness by building monuments in the desert, my dear daughter.

“...If you still want to entrust yourself to the world, remember: you aren’t lending your life to people. Don’t try to be someone’s debtor. Give without expecting to get it back. Give it all. Forgive people for holding a carnival on your corpse. Give them your hair, fingers, and everything else. From your purest sacrifice to your most innocent joy and purest hope, they will glut themselves on everything you have.

“...Leave nothing behind in this world. Nothing.”

With those words, her mother died. Her body was cremated afterward.

* * *

The basement was quiet.

“What is wrong, Your Highness?” Lady Silver Lily’s soft voice asked.

The air was cold. The interrogated servants were bleeding, but the pools of their fresh blood couldn’t warm the basement at all.

“As crown prince of this empire, please punish me.”

“Ha, ha.” The crown prince laughed faintly.

No, was that really laughing? The corners of his lips were barely raised. They quivered in a miserable farce of levity. As if he were running away, he quickly turned to look at the Inquisitor and me, silently asking us what we thought of this outrageous situation.

“Your Highness,” Lady Silver Lily sharply said, blocking his attempt at escape. “Shall I report their crimes to His Majesty’s special forces?”

The crown prince froze.

“Are you trying to follow in the disposed crown prince’s footsteps? Are you testing how far His Majesty will forgive you?”

Lady Silver Lily’s tone was quiet and polite, but the duke’s daughter was clearly cornering the crown prince. And it was effective.

The emperor’s heir moaned, his hands trembling. He grabbed the sword that Lady Silver Lily offered him. But the crown prince’s determination was only sufficient to make him hold the sword. It didn’t motivate him to take the next step.

“Sylvia...” The crown prince let the tip of the sword hang limply.

He stared blankly at the Inquisitor and me. Was he hoping that someone would come forward and stop Lady Silver Lily?

The Inquisitor smiled widely. “That was some neat work! I like how you involved not only His Highness but also me and my butler. Haha, everyone is an accomplice, so we have to keep our mouths shut. His Highness is glad that his mistake will be covered up, and I’m glad that you’re punished, Lady Silver Lily!”

“S-Sylvia?”

“The problem is, it seems that you’re the only one who isn’t benefiting from this.” The Inquisitor’s eyes curled into twinkling crescent moons. “How do you benefit from handling the matter like this? Three loyal servants of your family are going to die, and you’re going to accept corporal punishment in place of His Highness. I’m very curious about what you think about all this.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about. As I said, these are servants of my family, and I am their young lady. Taking responsibility for their mistakes is only na—”

“Haha, that sounds beautiful, but it’s inefficient for discussion! Let’s be honest for more efficiency. Why are you willing to get punished in place of His Highness? Lady Silver Lily, is it perhaps your way of love?”

The golden lady and the silver lady eyed each other for a moment. The only sound in the basement was the sound of breathing.

“I’m doing what I must do as a subject of the empire, Lady Goldencup,” Lady Silver Lily calmly answered. She didn’t even blink. “Calculating profit and reward is disloyal. You may find that difficult to understand since you grew up in a family from the outskirts.”

“Are you saying that you don’t expect anything in return?”

“If you intend to extract an answer, you may as well give up now. Whether you understand me or not doesn’t matter to me.”

“Interesting...” The Inquisitor let out a long breath.

It was hard for me to guess what that meant, but one thing was certain: the Inquisitor’s reaction was definitely not what the crown prince had been hoping for. The Inquisitor wasn’t planning on stopping Lady Silver Lily. The crown prince, who had been clinging to his love, now had a look of despair on his face.

So I had no choice but to interrupt.

“...Please wait a moment, my lady.”

“Yes, butler? What is it?”The Inquisitor tilted his head and looked at me.

“If those servants are really the ones who instigated your assassination, we also have a right to punish them. It isn’t right to leave the execution of the punishment solely to His Highness.” I turned my head.

My mouth felt dry. To solve this political imbroglio, I concentrated on coming up with the best solution—I didn’t hesitate to use the butler’s knowledge too.

[Your character immersion has deepened.]

[Your immersion level is 7%.]

Despite my papery tongue, I told myself that that was okay for now.

“... The same goes for Lady Silver Lily. She was betrayed by her loyal servants, so I believe she deserves to punish the servants more than anyone.”

“Oh... In other words?” the Inquisitor asked.

“Three servants have committed the crime, and coincidentally, there are also three people qualified to punish them.”

I looked at the servants tied to the chairs.

“How about you punish one of them each? After all, the reason why Lady Silver Lily brought us here in the first place is that she wished to make us her accomplices... And it also seems like His Highness can’t handle the execution of the punishment alone, so it would be reasonable for the three of you to share the duty equally.”

Silence hung in the air.

“Hmm.” The Inquisitor closed one eye.

Lady Silver Lily’s brow silently furrowed. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

“That’...” The crown prince’s eyes lit up. “That’s right! What Sylvia’s butler said is right. Lady Silver Lily was betrayed by her servants, Sylvia was attacked, and I need to enforce the laws of the empire! Everyone has their own reasons, so it’s best that each of us takes charge of executing one criminal!”

“Your Highness, a ruler shouldn’t share his duty with others—”

“Be quiet!” The crown prince threw his sword at Lady Silver Lily hysterically.

The scabbard hit her leg and dropped to the floor. The throw was hard enough to leave a bruise on her legs, but she remained expressionless.

“When anything happens, all you say is kill them, punish them, execute them! It’s like that’s all you know how to say! How many people do you think I’ve had to kill already!?”

“It’s your duty as this empire’s next ruler.”

“I am not a murderer or a butcher! You venomous woman, if you want to see blood that badly, you should kill them!”

The crown prince huffed and puffed.

Lady Silver Lily quietly looked at the crown prince with a gaze that seemed to make time freeze. The thin coat of ice shattered as she slowly bent down and picked up the sword. Her left hand gripped the scabbard and her right hand wrapped around the hilt. She skillfully drew the sword, revealing the blade. It gleamed the same cold hue as her hair. “Then please give me the order at least, Your Highness.”

“O-order?”

“Yes, Your Highness. Order me to execute them. Why are you hesitating? Have you forgotten how to command? Are you giving up your right as a crown prince too?”

The crown prince took a deep breath. “Kill... Kill them....”

His voice was barely audible, as if it wasn’t meant to be heard, but Lady Silver Lily never acted without meaning. The blade sliced through the air. Blood was spilled, and something thicker was sliced as well—flesh.

After taking a life, Lady Silver Lily’s shoulders shook slightly as if she were sighing. But that was it. She looked at us now.

I realized why I felt a premonition in my heart as I watched her.

[Your character immersion has deepened.]

[Your immersion level is 8%.]

The premonition was my intuition telling me that she would stand in Lady Goldencup’s way one day. My compulsive desire to eliminate Lady Goldencup’s potential problems was pouring oil on it. That was why my immersion level was rising like crazy.

“Hahaha. I’m becoming more and more interested in you! How nice!” The Inquisitor laughed loudly. “It’s certainly problematic to leave the people who ordered the assassination alive. Please hand me the sword. I’ll take care of the second one and become your accomplice!”

How many people had the Inquisitor killed so far? I wasn’t sure, but it was clear that he was no amateur in this area. As soon as he received the sword, he inhaled sharply and delivered the execution with one swift blow.

Now only one servant was left, and one person to punish him.

“Ah...” The crown prince gaped at the Inquisitor; he’d never expected that “Lady Goldencup” would execute the servant so easily. “Ugh, urgh...!”

And then something surprising—downright unbelievable—happened. Before Lady Silver Lily could say anything, the crown prince stumbled back several steps, and then turned and ran.

The Inquisitor gasped.

No one had expected this, so the crown prince almost succeeded in escaping. Yes, he would have succeeded if I, who had been standing behind the group, hadn’t blocked the way to the stairs.

“H-how rude! Are you not aware whose path you dare to block, butler?”

“You.” I grabbed the crown prince’s wrist and squeezed.

The crown prince tried to shake off my hand but, quietly screaming, failed. He was no match for me in terms of strength to begin with.

“What? You...?” His voice grew louder with panic. “Let go of my hand right now!”

“It all happened because of you.”

My voice sounded cold even in my ears. It wasn’t like my usual voice.

“If only you hadn’t instigated this ‘assassination’ in the first place, none of this would have happened. Yeah, you’re madly in love and staged a kidnapping. Sure, you could do that, but are you really going to evade your responsibility just because you’re crazy?” I glared at the crown prince. “Take it.”

“T-take... what...?”

“Take. The sword.”

The crown prince shivered.

[Your character immersion has deepened.]

[Your immersion level is 9%.]

The immersion level increased, but it didn’t matter. Right now, I felt the same as the butler did. I was angry that the crown prince had tried to escape like a coward. I dragged him in front of the sword, ignoring his fierce resistance.

“Pick up the sword.”

“Ugh, how dare you...!”

He refused to grab it, so I forced him.

“Raise the sword.”

“Let go of me! I order you to let go! I-is there no one out there!?”

He continued to resist, so again, I forced him to raise the sword.

“I can see how often you’ve laid blame on others until now. If there was any dirty work or anything you didn’t want to do, you passed it onto Lady Silver Lily despite calling yourself the crown prince of this land.”

“S-Sylvia! Stop your butler! Please! Sylvia!”

“Cut him down with your sword.”

The crown prince’s resistance was feeble to me, so it was easy to shake off his resistance. And that was exactly what I did.

“Ah.” The crown prince gasped.

The smell of blood in the basement grew stronger. The servant’s body slipped off of the chair. The crown prince, petrified, looked down at him with blank eyes. Lady Silver Lily slowly went down on her knees at his feet. The hem of her skirt landed in a puddle of blood and slowly turned red.

“The crown prince’s justice is a blessing for all people of the empire, Your Highness.”

The crown prince turned his back on her without saying a word. I didn’t stop him this time.

“Please be strong and continue to reward good deeds and punish evil deeds.”

The crown prince powerlessly staggered up the basement stairs.

Meanwhile, Lady Silver Lily quietly continued to offer her advice to the crown prince. Her voice echoed softly in the basement.

“The fate of this country and its people depend solely upon you, Your Highness. Even though you may seem like your own person, you are not. Your every action greatly affects the empire, so please...”

The sound of his footsteps grew distant. Until they disappeared entirely, the Inquisitor and I looked at Lady Silver Lily, who was still bowing.

“...be strong.”

I want to understand this person.

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