Prison (1)

As someone who’s smashed countless skulls with a hammer, I’d say every such moment shared one thing in common: an expression.

‘Huh?’

Did I just get hit?

‘Huh?’

Why can’t I put any strength into my body?

‘…Huh?’

Am I… going to die like this?

Just like that?

Such a pointless death…?

Crunch!!!

Most people who have their skulls smashed with a hammer have this look of confusion in their eyes, as if wondering whether the moment is real.

Crunch!!

Despite seeing and feeling their own head being crushed in real time, they can’t quite process it.

Well, this guy probably felt it even more. It wasn’t as if he was hit in the head during a fight.

[What if I am? Are you going to harm me? Someone like you, who has so much to lose?]

On top of that, he’d been oddly confident. If I’d told him then that his head would be crushed, he never would have believed it.

“S Stop! What do you think you’re doing?!”

This was Rapdonia. A cold-blooded world where a single mistake leads to death.

“Baron Jandel is running amok!!”

Right, so….

CRACK—!

You have to pay for your misjudgment, right?

“S Stop him!!”

I kept swinging the hammer down on his head, regardless of the knights trying to restrain me.

Crunch! Crunch!

The eyes of the Orcules members went wide and the faces of my search squad turned deathly pale. Even so, I continued.

Just in case, I struck a few more times.

“……”

When the faint screams finally stopped and only the wet sound of something being mashed like mud remained.

SQUELCH!

Feeling that unique sensation through my fingertips, I finally backed away, pretending to yield to the soldiers restraining me.

“Baron… what in the world have you done.”

Knight Gramps rushed towards me with a complicated expression, not even checking the Vice-Commander’s condition.

His years of experience had told him instantly.

With a skull wrecked like that, the guy was a goner even if a High Priest were standing right in front of him.

“To execute the most valuable prisoner without any formal procedure… depending on how it’s viewed, this could even be interpreted as treason.”

“Ah, my apologies. He insulted me to my face, and I couldn’t control my anger.”

“Insulted you…?”

“That bastard looked at me, sneered, and called me a coward.”

“Is that true?”

After hearing my excuse, Knight Gramps turned to a nearby knight to confirm it.

The knight hesitated, looking conflicted, then answered honestly.

“He didn’t directly call him a coward. He just said that despite how he looked, he was actually very logical.—”

Okay. That’s enough.

“Isn’t that the same thing?!”

When I cut off the knight’s testimony and shouted in a fury, Knight Gramps clutched his forehead.

“……Fine. The reason doesn’t matter.”

“Oh, so you’re going to let it slide?”

“It’s not for me to let slide or not. However, as I said before, you must take responsibility. The Marquis is already furious, and he will undoubtedly drag you for this ‘mistake’ of yours.”

Knight Gramps looked more concerned that the Marquis might harm me than interested in condemning what I had done.

In fact, he seemed to view me even more favourably.

“Still, I’ve learned one thing.”

“…?”

“Honestly, I was worried because you are from a different race, but your patriotism is beyond doubt.”

Ah. So he thought I did it for the sake of the country?

I wasn’t sure, but I realised one thing.

“While it’s true that the marquiss holds the nation firmly in his grasp, I will try to use my influence somehow. Don’t worry too much. Isn’t it loyal subjects like you who keep the country standing straight?”

Royal Gramps clearly wasn’t fond of the Marquis, who was serving as the King’s proxy.

‘…I’ve gained a surprisingly reliable ally from an unexpected place.’

Perhaps today’s incident will end without too much trouble after all.

Just as I was thinking that and flicking the blood and flesh off my hammer onto the ground.

“C Commander!”

A knight who had been handling the vice-captain’s corpse ran over urgently and delivered a shocking news.

“H-he’s alive!!”

“……Huh?”

“Demon Eye, Roland Banozant is still alive!”

No way, you’ve got to be kidding.

“Are you certain?!”

……He survived that?
***

Sometimes in the movies, you see scenes like that. Just when you think, ‘Did I get him?’, the enemy you thought was dead gets back up and enters a second phase.

Of course, this situation was different.

“……Keuh, keuheuhk.”

Far from coming back stronger, he was barely alive, vomiting blood and rolling around on the ground.

Naturally, there was no second phase. The only difference was that Knight Gramps was standing in front of me, just in case I caused another scene.

Huh… What do I do now?

While I was thinking that, the knights who had received Knight Gramps’ signal swiftly loaded the vice commander onto the carriage and departed.

By the time I realized what had happened, it was already too late for my sluggish body to give chase.

In the end, I decided to let it go.

Yeah. I did enough.

The reason he survived in that condition wasn’t because I was weak, but because he was strong. That’s probably the right way to think about it.

But one thing still puzzled me.

“……How on earth did he survive?”

“If we find out through the investigation later, I’ll let you know. So you stay here, calm down a bit, and then return to the military headquarters. I’ll speak to the Marquis.”

So even Knight Gramps didn’t know how the vice-captain had survived. Well… it was probably an item or some kind of essence.

‘He said he’d let me know later, so I’ll hear about it then.’

“I’d prefer it if you were calmer by the time we meet again.”

With that, Knight Gramps also left. I spent some time in the Marquis’s garden organizing my thoughts before inspecting the mansion once more.

I wanted to properly check that hideout where the Noark bastards were hiding…

“So this is what it looks like.”

If the Marquis’s secret study was a workspace, then this place was practically a shelter. You know, like those ‘panic rooms’ they build in foreign houses in case of burglaries

“Nothing special here…”

After a quick look around, I told the soldiers to continue the investigation and headed back out with my team towards the royal palace.

And then…

“The Commander in Chief has summoned you.”

As expected, I was called to the Marquis the moment I arrived.

“Everyone, leave.”

“But…”

“It’s fine. Don’t make me say it twice.”

“All right.”

The marquiss dismissed all the guard knights, turning our discussion into a private meeting.

Once we were seated, the Marquis glared at me for a moment before speaking.

“So… you really discovered them while searching my estate?”

“I was lucky.”

It was the absolute truth, but the Marquis didn’t seem to believe it.

“Where did you get your information? Was the Corpse Collector really your informant?”

“That was just something I said to buy time.”

Once again, it was nothing but the truth, but the Marquis didn’t even listen properly. He just stared at me, trying to discern which parts of my words were true.

Why ask if you have no intention of believing me?

What a waste of breath.

“Enough of that. Keep your promise.”

Not wanting to waste time on a meaningless Q&A session, I got straight to the point.

“As you said, I rooted out all the Noarkans hiding in the city. The vice commander of Orcules was even among them. Wouldn’t you say that’s more than fulfilling the mission?”

“You mean that Demon Eye whom you tried to kill so abruptly?”

“…It was an impulsive action.”

“Hm. Even if that’s what you say, there are still motives that can be logically inferred from your actions. For example, the need to silence him.”

If he was going to play like this, I couldn’t stay still.

It’s not something a tank should say, but the best defense is a good offense.

“Well, from that perspective, aren’t you the most suspicious one?”

“……?”

“…?”

“Compared to me, who smashed the vice commander’s head, you look far more suspicious for hiding Noark’s special forces within your estate.”

This wasn’t something I made up just to attack him. I genuinely found it suspicious.

At first, I had thought the Noarkans had infiltrated the Marquis’s estate without his knowledge.

But…

[Very well. We surrender.]

No matter how I looked at it, the vice-commander could only have made that choice with the backing of someone within the palace.

By process of elimination, the most likely candidate was him.

“…I did not hide them.”

“Then what happened to those who were captured?”

“They are currently imprisoned in the underground prisons. Interrogators from the Intelligence Bureau will begin intense questioning soon.”

“I see… is that so…”

I let the topic drop there and returned to what we had been discussing earlier.

“In any case, I kept my end of the deal. Now send me back to District Seven.”

“…That won’t be possible.”

“Why not?”

“Don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying I won’t send you at all.”

“Then explain it properly. In a way I can accept.”

“You searching my estate on your own authority? That produced results, so it can be overlooked. But trying to kill an important prisoner in front of everyone is another matter.”

In short, merit is merit, and a blunder is a blunder.

“Then stop dancing around it and be clear. What do you want to do?”

“Considering Lord Caritumore’s words, I won’t ask for much. Think of it as maintaining military discipline. You’ll serve punishment for two days—exactly two days.”

When I asked what kind of punishment, the Marquis said it would be imprisonment.

However, he tried to persuade me by saying I’d be locked in the noble prison on the first basement floor of the royal palace, which had better facilities than most inns, so I should just think of it as resting.

The environment didn’t matter.

What mattered was time.

And even more than that, the Marquis’s intention.

“Two days…”

Damn it. What should I do?

If this man didn’t allow it, I would never make it back to District Seven.

“This is my final offer. There will be no compromise. Even if you desert.”

The only legal path back to District Seven.

After a moment of deliberation, I made my decision.

If I deserted here or refused the punishment, things could easily turn out even worse.

He even said I wouldn’t need to be shackled while I stayed. If things went south, I could just break the iron bars and escape.

Yeah, so…

“Two days. Exactly two days.”

“…You’ve made a wise decision.”

Let’s observe the situation for a bit.

‘The Marquis bastard is seriously, seriously suspicious.’

I have absolutely no intention of letting things go the way the Marquis wants.

 

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