Chapter 90
Then, before the guards could catch me, I fled the scene, and the dwarves sheltered me and treated my wounds.
But the dwarves were a sturdy race, and their idea of treatment was extremely rough. When they suddenly scrubbed my wound with high-proof distilled liquor, I let out a pathetic scream before I could stop myself.
Honestly, I think the treatment hurt far, far more than the wound Reihon had inflicted on me.
According to the dwarves, the wound had apparently begun to rot after coming into contact with something particularly nasty.
Apparently, they had no choice but to handle it roughly in order to scrape away the rotten parts.
Well, it hurt, and it surprised me, but if that was the reason, it couldn't be helped.
Once the initial treatment was over, I could use magic myself to speed the wound's healing.
Looking back, I felt that I had relied on magic surprisingly often this time.
As for the search for Reihon's killer, it was conducted on a remarkably small scale considering that a powerful figure in the Empire had been murdered.
That was partly because Reihon had been hated by the military and the nobility, but an incident so much more serious had occurred that it took precedence.
Officially, it was announced only that the Emperor had fallen gravely ill, abdicated the throne to recuperate, and been succeeded by the Crown Prince. But the reality behind the succession was horrific.
If I listened to the castle's whispers, carried to me by the wind spirit, ...that illness was, in essence, the Emperor's transformation into a ghoul.
Apparently, after losing Reihon, the source that had sustained his life, the Emperor lost his sanity on the throne, became a ghoul, and killed and devoured more than a dozen nobles, officials, and maids working in the castle.
No matter how violent a monster he had become, he had once been the Emperor, so they could not simply exterminate him. More victims were claimed before they finally subdued him.
In the end, they somehow managed to confine the Emperor-turned-ghoul to a room in a tower, but naturally, they could not make such an incident public.
It was a scandal severe enough not merely to damage the Empire's prestige, but potentially to tear the country apart.
So, on the surface, it was announced that the Emperor had abdicated the throne to recuperate from his illness. But the damage had been far too great to silence everyone completely.
I couldn't help thinking that the Crown Prince, now the new Emperor, was going to have a difficult time.
Of course, that had absolutely nothing to do with me.
That said, it did concern the dwarves. Apparently, the new Emperor had formally apologized, acknowledging that the dwarves had been victimized while officially attributing everything to Reihon.
One of the reasons this country could maintain its superiority over the surrounding nations was undoubtedly the excellent weapons imported from the dwarven nation or forged by dwarven smiths who had come here.
Thus, it was clear that the new Emperor was desperately trying to preserve his relationship with the dwarves.
However, the dwarves' anger over the harm done to their kin ran deep, so a deterioration in relations between the Fodor Empire and the dwarven nation would probably be unavoidable.
Still, the dwarven nation needed the Empire as a source of supplies, so their relationship should not collapse completely.
Well, that was something for the important people in both countries to think about.
Someone like Azvardo, after he became king, for example.
In any event, I had only one task left to complete in this Empire.
After the dwarves responsible for trade left the imperial capital, I would carry it out, catch up with them by the time they reached Coltoria, and then return with them to the dwarven nation.
By then, the season of the thaw would already be close at hand.
If I ever visited the Fodor Empire again, ...next time, I wanted to come openly, straight through the front door, instead of sneaking around like this.
I really hadn't enjoyed the time I spent in the Empire this time.
The novelty of playing spy had only been fun at the very beginning.
Two days after the dwarves left the imperial capital, I floated up into the sky with levitation magic in the middle of the night.
Higher and higher—yes, higher than the tower where the former Emperor had been confined.
The sky over the imperial capital was, as expected, bitterly cold.
Viewed from the night sky, the city of the imperial capital looked like a black stone monster that had swallowed countless people, and it sent a chill through me.
I would probably have a completely different impression of it from the daytime sky, but I likely wouldn't have another opportunity to see it that way.
The red lights moving here and there were probably torches held by the guards.
I should finish my task quickly, before they looked up at the sky.
I took out my bow and nocked an arrow.
The wind stopped so it would not interfere with me.
My target was a window in a distant tower, one fitted with iron bars.
In this cold country, a window that could not be closed would be madness. But considering the purpose of that room, it had probably been left that way deliberately.
The room where the former Emperor was confined was an execution chamber, meant to kill nobles whom they could not execute directly by leaving them to die in harsh conditions.
If a noble were locked in there and abandoned, they would eventually die of hunger or cold.
But that was only true of an ordinary human. The Emperor, who had become a ghoul, would suffer and go mad from hunger and thirst, yet survive for a very, very long time.
That would continue until someone came to check on him, thinking he must have died long ago.
The ghoul would kill and devour whoever opened the door, escape, and claim many more victims.
Leaving him there when I knew what would happen wasn't to my taste.
Even my eyes could not see into the window of that distant tower through the darkness.
But my senses as a High Elf detected a slight stagnation there—a distortion.
I drew my bow, paused for a breath, and released the arrow.
The arrow flew through the gaps between the iron bars and into the window, striking true and cutting short the former Emperor's life—and his desire to live on while remaining young, for as long as possible.