A Treacherous Courtier Manages the Empire Well

109 – I’ve Never Experienced Death

The Grand Elder Yurgisil and the High Elf Council were pale as ghosts. They had been bound in chains underground for an unknown period, rejected by the Mother Tree and their own kind.

Now, there was nothing to sustain them.

Staring blankly at the ground, fearing what fate awaited them, the elders eventually couldn’t bear the silence any longer. One High Elf elder, unable to contain the turmoil within, shouted.

“This is all because of you! Grand Elder Yurgisil!!!”

As if waiting, the elders joined in, shouting together.

“That’s right! It’s all because of you!! If you hadn’t stabbed and killed Dark Elves and Wood Elves, none of this would have happened.”

“It’s all because of you! You!!!”

Blaming others, even if they were of different races, seemed to be a longstanding tradition. The unheard-of Grand Elder shouted.

“So what if it is!! You should’ve just sat there quietly and watched our privileges disappear!!”

“It might have been better to pretend to submit and gradually dominate human society over the centuries!”

“Do you think Dark Elves and Wood Elves, who have become subjects of the same treaty, would have just let us High Elves, especially our council, oppress them! You foolish children!! I only did what needed to be done!!!!”

Shouting, blaming each other, eyes filled with anger, yet their reality remained unchanged. In the end, the Grand Elder and the Council bowed their heads, breathing heavily.

“Damn it! Damn!!! Where did it all go wrong! Where exactly!! Why did the dragons decide to join the battle? What made those cowards! Why did they decide to join!”

In hindsight, this was the starting point of all their problems. The High Elves had faith. They believed that dragons would never join the battle. If only humans gathered, there would be no way to stop the 50,000 highly trained spirit warriors fighting on home ground for centuries.

But that expectation was beautifully wrong.

The dragons joined the battle, and the human alliance overwhelmed the elves with an unprecedented number. It was like touching the testicles of a dead child, but the Grand Elder had nothing else to do but reminisce.

“Killing Wood Elves and Dark Elves and controlling the Mother Tree were matters we had no choice in from the start! We had to do that to continue inheriting the power of the treaty through the Lord’s lineage! But why on earth did the dragons join the battle! Where did it all go wrong!”

As he screamed and shouted, the door to the prison where they were trapped suddenly opened. And as if it were only natural, a man began to walk in.

The gaze of the High Elf Council focused on the man.

Chuckling, the man responded to the Grand Elder’s previous shout.

“If you ask so desperately, it’s only right to answer! It all went awry when you killed me. You’ve been off since then. Ear freaks.”

With a playful tone, the man stopped in front of the Grand Elder.

The Grand Elder raised his head to look at the man, and his eyes widened.

“You, you are……..you are! The one I killed back then!!!!!!! How are you still alive!!”

In the Grand Elder’s astonished voice, the man replied.

Randor bursts into laughter.

“I’m sorry, but…”

It was truly a bright smile.

“I’ve never experienced death.”

It was a smile full of insidious malice, you see.

So, where should I start explaining from? Ah.

It should be just right to start from here.

“Well, Randor…”

At the time when Karia had heard the whole plan from Adran. Just at the perfect timing, I burst into the room. I looked urgently at Karia and reached out both arms.

“Karia! I’m sorry! I can explain everything!…”

“Ah…”

As soon as she saw me, she fainted on the spot, and I quickly ran to catch her before she hit the floor. As I laid her on the bed, Selene, Karl Hanson, and Adran all looked at me simultaneously.

“…if you get up, you’ll die.”

“Please spare me.”

“It seems like no magic or power can save you from that fate.”

Five minutes later, Karia woke up, and thankfully, she didn’t kill me.

Instead, she slapped my cheek as if she was going to kill me.

“What!!……….What was my intention!!!!!!!!!!”

“I-I’m sorry, darling. Please forgive me.”

With one cheek swollen as if it would burst, I knelt on the floor and desperately begged.

“I couldn’t be by your side because I was manipulating things! Besides, you had to faint in despair so that others would believe it was real!”

“…Are you using me right now?”

“I-I was wrong!! I’ll do anything!! Even if you ask me to dance in the bedroom in the wind with lingerie, I’ll do it! Please!!!!!”

I begged desperately to not be killed, but Karia was still not appeased, and she made my other cheek swell up as well.

She glared at me as if to kill me, and Karl Hanson, Selene, and Adran cautiously left the room, wishing me luck. I had to beg and beg until my feet became hands.

It felt like the first time in my life that I had begged so miserably and helplessly.

“I was wrong. Please……… I-I can’t live without you, darling. So, please, forgive me just this once…”

She grabbed my chin and lifted me up. I thought I would burst my head on the floor and die at the hands of this goddess of wrath, so I tightly shut my eyes, but she didn’t kill me by smashing my head on the floor.

Instead, she pulled my chin closer and gave me a deep, passionate kiss.

As I opened my eyes slightly while kissing, I met Karia’s gaze, still filled with furnace-like anger.

“This f*cking bastard.”

She was the one swearing, but she was also the one crying. She cursed me while sobbing.

“You f*cking bastard………Ugh…….. Dog-like…… Dick-like bastard……..Ughhh!!”

She cried so bitterly that I couldn’t even protest or retaliate. I just held her tightly.

“Is this… Ugh, not fake, right?”

“It’s really me. Darling. I’m sorry. I had no choice but to deceive everyone. I’m truly sorry.”

“Don’t ever!! Don’t ever make me go through this again. If you pull something like this next time, I’ll tear you apart, no matter the reason.”

“Of course! Of course!”

“After everything is over, I’m going to f*ck you so hard in bed. I’ll f*ck you as much as I suffered! Remember that!!”

A chill ran down my spine.

Ah.

Maybe it would have been better just to hang and die.

The idea of being a scapegoat is a bit annoying.

Squeezing my son with tremendous core muscles feels like sucking not only pleasure but also his soul into heaven.

I did think I could die, but as a sinner, I had nothing to say.

“Oh, okay! I’ll do whatever play you want!! So, please, let go of your anger. Okay?”

“Really?”

She glanced at me and asked if she had let go of her anger.

“Uh… yeah, I’ll do it.”

I said that with the intention of selling my soul to the devil.

“Then it’s a no-condom deal. Until you get pregnant. Day and night, whenever you want?”

“I’ll do it! I’ll do anything!! So… I’m still dead. Is that okay?”

At my words, Karia finally wiped away her tears and composed herself.

“Okay. I forgive you. And I’m a widow who lost her husband. Right?”

“Right?”

“Because of the dragons’ incompetence, my husband died, so even if I go with the Holy Sword and give them a beating, the dragons won’t say a word. Right?”

“Right.”

“And gathering troops with Adran and Sutan is also a valid reason. Right?”

“Right. You’re correct.”

“Darling, really… you seem evil even though you’re my husband.”

Karia chuckled and smiled.

I gently touched her cheek.

“That’s my job, isn’t it?”

“Okay. It’s all good. But one thing is a must.”

Karia’s face was filled with unmistakable curiosity.

“If you’re here, who is the fake Randor that died on the Land of Illusion?”

“Oh, that?”

I burst into laughter suddenly.

“It’s nothing much, really.”

I explained to her about the identity of the fake Randor.

And she started laughing along with me.

“Alright. Say hello. You guys must have some business to discuss.”

I introduced the group of people being led into the room to the Grand Elder Yurgisil and the High Elf Council. The beings who entered staggering, seemingly half out of their minds, were the generals who had joined Prince Amir’s military rebellion.

“We disguised this guy as a fake Randor and sent him to the Land of Illusion. The envoy from the Merchant Guild that went along with him was actually these guys.”

“How?? Didn’t anyone notice they were different people?”

I explained, enjoying the Grand Elder Yurgisil’s widened eyes.

“There’s something called a puppet spell. It’s one of the spells of Karamba.”

It’s a well-known spell among humans. When Prince Amir leaped from the Crescent Triangle Palace. He used it when he left a slave standing in for him and made his escape.

But for the elves, it was a spell they had never heard of before.

“It’s quite something, isn’t it? This spell can be maintained regardless of distance. Sutan used it on the substitute actors for his escape, and it was just insanely powerful. Once Amir cast it on himself, he transformed into my exact appearance. I controlled him in that state. The same went for the others.”

“Th-then……..”

“Oh. Right.”

With the most sardonic smile I could muster, I gazed down at the Grandmaster.

“You lot stabbed a sword into an immortal being who couldn’t die. I made the most of that death as a pretext. Is my death remarkable? It’s a universal pretext and an excuse. Even those dragons bent their pride for me. Thanks to you, the Human Alliance was easily formed. Even including dragons! hahahahaha!!!!”

“Pr-profit!!!!!!”

Veins popped in Grandmaster Yurgisil’s eyes. The messenger slain with one arrogant judgment was the culprit behind all this chaos.

Knowing that clearly, there was nothing I could do.

What sort of feeling is this?

Well.

Truth be told, I don’t even want to know.

“Hey, as promised. So, keeping the promise of killing him a year early, right? Hmm???”

Prince Amir, dragged in, looked at me with a pitiful plea.

“P-please. Just one year……..kill him one year early. Please!! I want to die!!!!”

Disliking the brat’s desperate cries, I gestured, and the doctors brought in by Aylam restrained him and dragged him to a corner.

“N-no!!! No!!! I don’t want to be an experiment rat again!!! Kill me! Please kill me quickly!!!”

After Amir’s agonizing cries faded, I stood by the Grandmaster and asked him a question.

“Aren’t you curious why he’s begging to be killed?”

“……..”

“It’s good to be curious. You’ll soon be in that position too.”

“What do you mean?”

The Grandmaster, who had been silent, looked surprised and stared at me.

I gave them a sly smile.

“The item you were playing with. Was it called Lorumar’s soul? When I entrusted that to the dragons, they said it was a piece of the Black Dragon Cayat’s heart. I pondered how to use it. And I came up with one suggestion.”

“W-what, what is it?”

“The magic stored in the heart piece. They said it was quite corrupt and twisted magic. Hard to use for ordinary purposes. Instead, they said it could replicate the magic it originally intended. Have you heard of the Immortal Magic of the Ten Circles?”

The quick-witted expression on the Elder Council of the High Elven Elders soured at my words.

“W-wait. Just a moment.”

“There’s no time. Lord Gold Dragon? I implore you.”

Leaving the Council and Grandmaster behind, I began to walk outside. As I exited the room, opposite to me, the Gold Dragon entered the room holding Lorumar’s soul in his hand.

He was freely absorbing the dark magic contained in the gem, clumping it in his hand.

“You’ve managed this gem quite well. There’s more magic left than in the heart itself. Thanks to that, all of you can live as immortal beings for the next 20 years.”

The Gold Dragon’s laughter drained the color from the Council’s face.

“Stop!! Don’t! S-spare us!! Just kill us instead!!!”

At their plea, I shook my head.

“The World Tree told us to do as we pleased. Did the Aylam Empire look like a bunch of idiots to you? Damn fools?”

You will pay the price for meddling with humans.

Slowly and leisurely for the next 20 years.

“We express our gratitude in advance for your contributions to Imperial science, Lord Elder Council of the High Elves.”

“No!! No!!!!!!!!!!”

The door closed.

No more screams were heard.