Chapter 5
To be honest,
“I didn”t expect the Imperial Guard Knights to step up so actively.'
Entering the Round Table Conference Room with the knights wasn’t my idea.
In fact, I didn’t even know they would enter the Nobles' residences at dawn like that, delivering warnings.
“To think that the phrase about notifying them of severe punishment held such hidden power.”
The Emperor was missing, and the Empress was in a position where she didn’t actively participate in State Affairs Management.
In this state, the power of the Crown Prince was beyond what I had imagined.
Perhaps it was because I had lived in the 21st century before becoming the Crown Prince of an Empire in a Romance Fantasy.
The scale and actions of the people moving at my single word exceeded my expectations.
'It’s a position higher than that of a military Division Commander.'
A level where if I said I didn’t like that mountain, they could clear it away the very next day.
The existence of the Crown Prince was something even higher than that.
To put it more extremely, it is a decree of death.
It is a position where if I just walked down the street and said “You die,” an execution could happen right on the spot.
But even so, I didn’t think the situation unfolding right now was extreme at all.
Because the corruption was at its worst, and the very culprits who made that corruption the worst were right here in this room.
Trash was playing around with the nation’s coffers.
It was the perfect atmosphere to clean up that trash.
“Ah, but my first words being polite were a bit of a letdown.”
I had been using informal speech until this meeting, but I had to use polite speech in this situation.
“I wasn”t nervous at all, but what if they think I was nervous.'
It would be troublesome if they looked down on me.
Next time I speak, I should immediately switch back to informal speech.
+++++
He felt like he was going to die of fear.
“What kind of situation is this?”
The Foreign Affairs Officer stared blankly at the investment-related list he had stayed up all night making, now scattered across the round table.
“Did he tell me to prepare it so he could use it like this?”
He hadn’t even imagined it.
He thought it was simply for the purpose of double-checking the investment-related list.
He intended to find the person in charge and hand down a severe punishment.
The Foreign Affairs Officer was completely terrified by this move that was so different from his usual image.
His stiff shoulders, raised so high that he had to be careful even when swallowing saliva, spoke to the severity of the situation.
“…Did he bring all the Imperial Guard Knights with him? Even if it”s not all of them… Right, it’s not all of them… But even if it’s not, it’s a problem.'
The Imperial Guard Knights were literally those who played the role of protecting the Imperial Family at the closest proximity.
Their skills were by no means low.
No, to put it intuitively, everyone belonging to the Imperial Guard Knights was at the level of a Master.
Sword Master, Bow Master, Mage, and so on.
Each and every one of them was an absurdly powerful individual who could directly increase the nation’s military power.
And such people were standing quietly behind them in full armor, observing the situation?
What could possibly be more terrifying than this?
Even though the Foreign Affairs Officer hadn’t committed any corruption himself.
He felt as if his life was being directly threatened.
“No, if the knights behind us just pull out a little Aura and swing, they could slice through a castle wall as if it were butter, you know?”
Such people were stationed behind every Noble attending the Round Table Meeting one by one.
As if to turn this place into a beheading site.
The momentum was ridiculously terrifying.
There had never been a time like this while he was conducting the State Council.
The atmosphere was so unfamiliar that his voice wouldn’t even come out properly.
Furthermore.
“The investment in the Maselin Kingdom. Who managed it?”
Because it was the Crown Prince’s tone of voice that he had never heard in his life, his sense of fear doubled.
When he used informal speech with a gentle tone, the atmosphere was at least okay.
But now that he was keeping a straight face and using polite speech, it really felt like he was going to end everything from that day forward.
“And that end… would be the deaths of the nobles who committed corruption.”
The Foreign Affairs Officer barely managed to turn his neck, which felt as if it had rusted, to look to the side.
Normally, it would be right for the Foreign Affairs Officer to intervene in matters related to foreign investment.
But for some reason, the investment matters were entirely managed by the Second Prince and his aides.
The Foreign Affairs Officer himself didn’t even know how things were running, and hadn’t even received reports.
It had been conducted so privately, especially regarding the investment in the Maselin Kingdom.
He had only received the investment-related documents for the first time after the Crown Prince ordered him to bring them.
“Everyone is silent, so silent… I have already grasped all the corruption regarding the investments. Do you think keeping your mouths shut will hide your crimes?”
From polite speech back to informal speech.
The Nobles judged that the reason the Crown Prince’s tone had suddenly changed was because his mercy had ended.
“Just once… Did his mercy end right there.”
“The Crown Prince has never been like this. Just how furious is he?”
“What corruption on earth did they commit…”
Just as the sound of the Nobles racking their brains was about to fill the Round Table Conference Room.
“Grand General, I do not know since when the Round Table Conference Room became a place for darting one’s eyes about.”
The Crown Prince lightly tossed out the words.
“Do you not hear the words of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince?”
Naturally, the Grand General took over the conversation and unleashed his momentum.
No matter how much they had been pampered, inherited their Family’s secret Cultivation Method, and built up their strength.
Unlike the Nobles who had extremely little actual combat experience, the Grand General was the real deal among the real deals.
At that sharp momentum, the Nobles' eyes, which had been darting around, completely stopped.
“Th-That… I understand that the investment management… was done by the Second Prince and his aides.”
“Answers never come out when I speak nicely, and only come out when I press you… Please do not make me feel like I am conversing with beasts.”
The Crown Prince lightly spat out words like a final warning.
“So who are his aides?”
He lightly scanned the round table, trying to see the ones who had colluded with the love-crazed psychopath to line their own pockets.
“Y-His Royal Highness the Crown Prince the Crown Prince… I am terrified to speak, but I wish to tell you that there are no problems or corruption whatsoever regarding the investments themselves.”
“Th-That is correct. The private profits generated during the investment process have already been proven to be without issue, and because His Highness the Second Prince has guaranteed this… it is difficult to view this as corruption.”
“In fact, what His Royal Highness the Crown Prince the Crown Prince refers to as private profits was a lubricant to make the investment process smoother. Actually, through this, diplomacy with the Maselin Kingdom was achieved even better.”
“Although right now the investment in the Maselin Kingdom might look like a process of continuously pouring in money meaninglessly, when the Second Prince judged the future, he said that in the long run, it would lead to immense national interest.”
“A-And this… was ultimately approved by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince the Crown Prince, which is how it reached the current stage. But how could there be corruption of lining one’s pockets in that process? It is correct to view that there are no problems whatsoever.”
Even before his gaze could reach them, the terrified ones began to open their mouths, scrambling to speak first.
They were speaking fervently, but in the end, if you tied it all together, the conclusion was the same.
“We are innocent, we just did as the Second Prince ordered, and you ultimately agreed to it too, didn”t you? Why is this a problem?'
The Second Prince’s aides knew a day like this would come eventually, and they had prepared answers for it to some extent.
“Though we didn”t know it would take this form.'
“He pressed us so hard at first that I couldn”t think straight.'
“Still, with this much, it will be difficult for him to find fault.”
Bringing up a matter that was handled perfectly according to administrative procedures and making an issue out of it?
From the perspective of the nobles in charge of managing the Maselin Kingdom investments, that was a very difficult thing to do.
Taking issue with administrative procedures meant touching the already established laws.
Handling that here was something that made no sense.
Furthermore, if he took issue with this, it meant that the initial investment proposer, the Second Prince, was also responsible for the crime.
Would the Crown Prince, who was famous for cherishing the Second Prince terribly, hold the Second Prince responsible for a crime?
“Does that seem possible.”
'It’s absolutely impossible.'
“He must have thought he could scare us into spitting out our crimes, but we are not ones to roll over so easily.”
“Why wouldn”t he have called the Second Prince here in the first place? He must be trying to handle the matter while protecting the Second Prince as much as possible.'
“As long as we are under the Second Prince, he will never be able to punish us, and he has no right to punish us in the first place.”
Since there were no problems with the administrative procedures, it couldn’t even be called illegal.
Therefore, they had committed no crimes whatsoever, and this meeting would just pass by as if nothing happened.
The Second Prince’s aides and the nobles in charge of managing the Maselin Kingdom investments reached that conclusion among themselves.
In that process, they ended up forgetting one incredibly important thing.
That important thing was precisely this:
“I am saying I will make an issue of it, yet you are trying to teach me right now.”
The Crown Prince existed above the law.
+++++
Honestly, if they had given a sincere apology, I would have let them off.
Killing them would be too much, so I was going to confiscate the wealth they had amassed so far, reassign them to menial, unpaid positions, and make them pay back all the bribes they had pocketed.
'Hah.'
Seeing them turn red in the face and fiercely talk back like this, claiming they were innocent, I found it so insolent that I couldn’t forgive them.
Furthermore, bringing up the Second Prince and even attempting to defy my authority by leveraging the Crown Prince’s former personality was also insolent.
“You are arrogant beyond measure.”
Did they think the Second Prince could be a safe haven in this situation?
Whether they actually thought so or not, even while my words continued, the complexions of the Nobles in charge of investment management looked peaceful.
The eyes that looked like they were going to die of fear just a moment ago were nowhere to be found.
Now they were acting as if they were in the comfort of their own homes, as if everything was already over.
Therefore.
“Grand General, bring the Second Prince immediately, who created the pretext to line his own pockets under the guise of investing in the Maselin Kingdom.”
“Understood.”
“For reference, if he refuses or disobeys, I do not care if you knock him out.”
“Thank you.”
I felt the need to show them directly.
Just how thin and easily breakable the lifeline they were trusting in was!
“I showed mercy and made several efforts to give you a chance…”
Some of those leaving this place today will be gone.
“From the moment I leave this place, you all are…”
One will lose everything and disappear.
“They will no longer be Nobles of the Bellos Empire.”