I Became the First Prince: Legend of Sword's Song

Chapter 172

Filling the Wineglass with Blood (4)

The nobles stiffened, and none of them moved.

Some of them didn’t think of moving because they were terrified, while others looked at the ceiling to prove that they had nothing to be ashamed about. The hall was silent.

‘Ump~’ came the sound of someone’s dry throat gulping.

“I see no one is moving, so it looks like no one here has sinned,” said the first prince. “The future of the kingdom is so very bright.”

It was with an exaggerated tone and gestures that the prince praised the kingdom’s bright future.

It was an obvious mockery.

The nobles still stood in silence. Even the high lords of the realm did not protest or raise any objections.

“But it’s all so weird,” the prince tilted his head, “If everyone is so pure, where does this rotten stench that fills my nose come from?”

The prince’s gaze shifted to the left.

“Where the hell does it come from?”

The nobles blinked and trembled.

“I’m saying it’s real nasty, this smell.”

The prince now glanced to the right, and the nobles there hurriedly closed their eyes.

‘Chik,’ the prince started walking.

‘Kscchhh~’ the tip of his sword scratched over the hall’s floor, and it keened with a loud sound.

‘Kchaa aah~’

Every time that the prince moved, the nobles trembled as they heard that horrifying noise.

One of the weaker nobles could no longer bear to withstand the pressure.

“Huh, now the royal family is persecuting innocent nobles? This- This is by no means a court, so let us speak, lest the will of us nobles is misrepresented toward the royal family.”

As the noble’s voice echoed through the hall, the noise of the sword scratching over the floor stopped.

The prince now stood before the noble.

“The rot is right here.”

The noble’s face was ashen pale.

“This is a disgrace to my family’s generations of dedication and service…” the nobleman, who had desperately been trying to bring his family’s hard work to the prince’s notice, stopped talking.

His gaze shifted to the prince’s sword, and a small rivulet of blood was flowing down the blade. The noble stroked his neck, and as his fingertips stroked over his old, wrinkled skin, they encountered a foreign texture.

The noble’s fingers touched his lips, and now there was no question that the liquid flowing onto his teeth was bright red blood that had bubbled from his neck.

The whites of his eyes showed, and then- ‘Schik! Dugudud~’ his eyes stretched wide as his bloody, severed head rolled over the floor.

‘Passsususu!’ the blood fountained from his gaping neck one instant later.

“Oah! Haoh!”

“Get it off me!”

Nobles who were spattered by the warm liquid cried out as they slumped to the floor.

“Ahh!”

“What is this!”

Some of the pale-faced nobles manage to voice protests.

“No matter what you say, you cannot do this! None may harm a nobleman without a legal trial!”

“His family has been loyal and devoted to the kingdom for generations! How can you kill him without naming a crime!”

Some of the terrified nobles now more vehemently denounced the act.

“The royal family has decided to annihilate the nobility!”

“The king and prince are utterly mad!”

So terrified were some of them that they spoke before realizing what they were saying.

“You can’t treat us like this! Let’s all join forces and resist this royal violence!”

Some nobles agitated the others with sharp words of outright treason.

“Did you ask me to name a crime?” a soft voice pierced through that great turmoil, and it was the voice of the prince. He was no longer smiling.

“As lords, you did not take proper care of your people. Your sin is that you made them bend over as you robbed and abused them.”

The tumult of the aristocrats ended as that soft and cold voice struck like a storm.

“And you have committed the sin of leaking the secrets of the kingdom and dealing with foreign nobles for your personal gain!”

Energy flowed from the prince’s body, and it raged like a storm.

“You have sold your souls through the sin of forgetting your secret oaths! Through the sin of serving two masters!”

The nobles were rattled and shaken as they faced the dignity and anger of the prince’s energy.

“You were born as nobles, but you have forgotten your duty! You were born as humans, but you lived like beasts!”

As the prince saw those nobles, he rounded on them all and declared, “That’s why you die here today!”

The nobles began to shout again as they heard the prince sentencing them so.

“I have not betrayed the kingdom! One of my confidentials leaked the secrets!”

There were those who denied their sins.

“What can a noble in a powerless country do? If I have committed sin, I have done so to live!”

Some argued that their actions were rational and justifiable.

“You dare do this, even with his Majesty’s permission!? Please! Face the reality of the kingdom and wake from your dreams!”

Others screamed that both the king and the prince were delusional and over-ambitious.

“If Ambassador Montpellier knows what is happening now, he will not rest before justice is done!”

The moment the name of the empire was uttered, the attitude of the nobles who had been clamoring in fear suddenly changed.

“I am an imperial baron! I have made an oath to his Majesty the Emperor, even if by letter! Little princes of small countries cannot harm me!”

“I too am a sworn vassal of his Imperial Majesty! I am a proud nobleman, listed on the Imperial Nobel Charter itself!”

And once one of them has shouted this, the nobles began to fight back, proclaiming that they were both nobles of the kingdom and vassals serving the emperor.

“Our only sin is to be born as nobles of a small country, forced to serve an incompetent monarch! The empire gives us new opportunities, and our choices were made for a better future!”

More than half of the aristocrats gathered in the hall declared their apostasy with great confidence. Their faces showed no shame.

The prince did not raise a single eyebrow. He merely turned his head to the king who sat upon his throne and asked, “Do you still think my method is radical?”

The king spoke but did not answer the prince’s question.

“Your treason is a failing of my virtues. You became hard because Leonberg was weak, and the royal family could not protect you. So I implore you: If you admit your past mistakes and declare your allegiance, even now, I will give you a chance to remain part of this realm.”

Instead, in a somber tone, the king urged the nobles to fall upon their knees and confess their sins. His voice had an edge of hope as he told them it was not too late for their absolution.

However, the nobles merely ridiculed the king’s mercy.

“Rather than living as a servant of a small country, I will live with pride as a nobleman of a great country!”

“Is there truly no loyalty? Is there nothing in your hearts?” the king asked.

The nobles grumbled as they heard the king’s grief-filled voice.

“If the royal family officially apologizes for today’s affront, and if a reasonable payment is given, I will consider it. But I wonder: Does the royal family have the ability to adequately reward us, to buy our hearts?”

The nobles sympathized with these words.

The king was about to speak when the first prince stepped forward and spoke first.

“Sire,” the prince whispered and shook his head.

The king gave a long sigh and shut his eyes tightly. And when he opened those eyes, there no longer sat an aggrieved king upon the throne.

“The prince can do whatever the prince wants to do. I wash my hands in the matter, my involvement ends,” came the quiet voice of the old king.

And so it was, for the prince stepped away from the king and ordered, “Knights of the Palace!”

The palace knights stepped up at once.

“Secure them,” commanded the prince.

“If you so much as touch a tip of my hair- Uh!?”

The startled nobles shouted and protested, but when they saw the knights pass them by, they frowned.

‘Shuck~ Shuck~’

The palace knights went to stand before the nobles who had all gathered in a corner, away from the renegades and traitors who had mocked the king.

“We will serve Leonberg until the end of our days,” one of these nobles said.

“Please follow,” a palace knight said to them. Under the guidance of the knights, the Marquis of Bielefeld and Count Kirgayen as well the lesser nobles who had watched the tumult unfold headed to the dais.

It wasn’t difficult for the renegades to recognize the difference between themselves and the nobles being led to the king, for they were the royalist nobles, Bielefeld and Siorin included, as well as the lords of provinces who had no ties with forces outside of Leonberg.

Unlike the renegades, none of them have been chosen by the empire.

Up till this moment, the dissenters had laughed at these nobles, saying that they were not resourceful and were slow to see which way the current flowed. They were the nobles who, despite seeing blood spilled on this day, had not clamored in terror.

“I despise the actions taken today. I’ve already sent out a messenger to the Marquis of Montpellier, and he will soon arrive. When he does, you Leonbergers will have to worry about how to pay for the sin of persecuting us innocent nobles,” said one lord. The renegades firmly believed that once Montpellier arrived, the day’s turmoil would draw to an end.

However, no matter how much time passed, the Marquis of Montpellier did not appear.

Instead, the messenger sent by the lord was dragged in, bloodied.

“You cannot cover the sun with ten fingers! The marquis will soon know of this! There is no place in Leonberg that is beyond his gaze!” the lord shouted as he saw this.

The prince beckoned, and the palace knights threw the bloody messenger in front of the dissenters.

“You idiot!” shouted the lord, “You couldn’t do one simple errand properly! You got caught!”

The messenger shook his head at his master’s words.

“The mission didn’t fail, m’lord. I met the marquis and told him everything. He said that he knew it all before I came to tell him.”

“Has he heard? See! There is no place in this kingdom without the eyes and ears of the empire. So, stop dreaming your vain dreams and-“

“No…”

The renegade lord frowned at the sudden interruption of his messenger. The servant would’ve normally stayed quiet at a time like this, yet he now started talking in a desperate, despite his master’s displeasure.

“After saying that, his Excellency the Marquis said he does not dare interfere with a monarch exercising his rightful authority. And then… then he said, just so that there were no useless misunderstandings, that you have to deal with your own problems! After that, his servant beat me, m’lord!”

As the messenger explained the situation, the nobles stiffened where they stood. None of them understood what Montpellier’s reply meant, and the anxiety and fear that had been driven away by the reliance on imperial prestige now returned.

“Well, if something happens to us today, my family will take action! If you don’t wish to see the whole kingdom become a battlefield, then cease what you have done up to now!” one of the high lords said as he stepped forward.

However, the high lord’s threats could not even reassure himself, for he had lost the shield of the empire behind which he had hidden. And his threat did not make his opponents wither.

“I appreciate your loyalty in hoping the kingdom does not become a battlefield,” said the prince with a crooked smile, “But I’ll tell you now: Your worries are useless. The war you speak of has already begun.”

Unlike the prince’s smile, his words were grave.

“The forces of the Balahards and the elite soldiers of the Central Legion should be busy making your family’s castle an empty ruin by now.”

The renegades grew pale as they heard the prince’s words, and he laughed out loud as he saw their shock.

He laughed as if he could no longer contain his excitement.

‘Scha~’ the prince stopped laughing and raised his sword, his face without expression.

“Now, wait! I changed my mind! It’s impossible to heal the spirit of the kingdom through civil wa-“

The Aura Blade flashed before the high lord could finish speaking.

“Regardless of what his Majesty would’ve said, I never had any intention of keeping you alive,” the prince said coldly. The headless body of the high lord slumped to the floor. The nobles screamed as they watched the twitching corpse.

“Ahhh!”

“Save me! Spare me!”

And as those screams rang out, the prince jumped into the group of nobles.

“I’m sorry! I am!”

Those who were once proud nobles of Leonberg were now mere traitors on death row, and throughout the hall did their pleas for life echo.

And as they screamed, prince and sword both danced a bloody dance through them.

Blood stained the palace hall.

* * *

In the crimson hall, a hundred heads were piled beneath the dais.

The king looked at the severed head with a dry expression, for none of those who had died had repented their sins. All their faces were distorted by fear and the desire to continue their filthy lives.

“All of them are accounted for,” said the prince. He then stepped forward and returned the royal sword which had been handed to him.

The king took the sword and stared at its bloody blade, and then said in a weary voice, “Hang their heads in the city’s plaza so that all can see. Write down their deeds and nail up the papers so that the world will know of all their sins.”

Upon the king’s order, the palace knights stepped forward and started to put the heads in sacks.

The king watched as the knights dragged out the bloody sacks, and once they were gone, he turned to the surviving nobles.

“Now, only you are left.”

In an instant, the Marquis of Bielefeld threw himself flat to the floor as he heard the king’s voice, a voice that had grown old and weary.

“We are also sinners! The kingdom groaned under the empire’s boot, but when we saw this, we averted our eyes and shut our ears from the blasphemy that was being done toward the royal family! As nobles of Leonberg, our failure to fulfill our duties has caused the same peril as those who have committed treason! We deserve death as well!”

Bielefeld did not care about getting blood on his body as he knelt there and cried out with a pained voice.

“To this day, your Majesty has struggled to govern a kingdom full of traitors and weaklings! I, Siorin Kirgayen, the sinner, will die with joy! Please, punish me!”

The surviving nobles all fell on their faces and condemned themselves.

A small ray of light returned to the old king’s weary face.

“Their deaths are enough,” came the prince’s voice. “There were many willing to sacrifice their lives for this land four hundred years ago, but there were no nobles. There were kings and knights who were determined to protect their people.”

The king turned his head, looking at the eldest son who he had once hated and discarded, who had since become indispensable to the kingdom: The prince shined like the sun, even though he was drenched in blood.

And so dazzling was that light that the king was inspired by it, and he could not stop himself from getting up from his throne. Standing on the dais, the king raised his sword up high.

“Everyone, hear me!” he shouted. “From this day on, the Kingdom of Leonberg severs all ties with the empire!”

When the king had been young, he had always carried this desire in his heart.

“Leonberg will do its best to reclaim all that has been stolen from it!”

He now said the words he could not say before, always being afraid that the empire’s ears might hear.

“And we shall finally be reborn as a country with the full glory of our past shining into the future!”

For decades, the king had desired to shout these words.

“If necessary, this war will be eternal!”

The proclamation of King Lionel Leonberger echoed through the hall.