Act 7: Viscount Ark
ACT 7 Viscount Ark
“The meeting will start in 5 minutes!”
The chief director of the King’s Hall shouted. The soldiers blew through the trumpet and announced that the meeting time was imminent. This meeting was to decide the aristocrats that would be dispatched to the 10 territories in the Sinius Principality. Once the trumpets starting sounding, the aristocrats began to gather in the King’s Hall.
‘Now, it is time to start……’
Ark who was standing at the entrance of the King’s Hall and looked at the nobles with bright eyes. After a moment, he saw a grey-haired old man surrounded by other nobles. The old man that looked like a raccoon was Duke Sarkin.
Ark quickly ran over and lowered his head.
“Duke Sarkin-nim, hello?”
“Huh? You are?”
“I’m Baron Ark.”
“Ah, you are the upstart foreigner who managed to become an aristocrat?”
Duke Sarkin muttered with a mocking smile. The nobles trailing Sarkin muttered among themselves. But Ark just pasted a casual smile on his face and nodded.
“Yes, I am that upstart foreigner.”
“Bah. Yes, then what business does a foreigner like you have with me?”
“I came to tell you this despite your disrespect.”
“I don’t know what you’re saying but I have nothing to say to you.”
Duke Sarkin looked Ark up and down with an unpleasant look and turned his back.
“Aren’t you going to regret it?”
“What?”
“I picked something like this up.”
Ark laughed as he took out a scroll from his bag and shook it. Anger flared in Sarkin’s eyes at Ark’s provocation. But his face stiffened after he looked at the contents of the scroll. He suddenly ran forward like an angry wild boar and stretched his arm towards the scroll. However, a sixty year old man was no match for Ark. Ark just turned his body like he was dancing and Sarkin fell to the ground. When Sarkin fell, the nobles flinched and grabbed their sword hilts.
“You bastard! What are you doing?”
“Oh? Why don’t you wait and see?”
Ark muttered and laughed. Duke Sarkin got up and yelled.
“Stop!”
“Huh? But……”
“Didn’t you hear me? I want to talk with him so you guys enter the hall first.”
Sarkin stared at the nobles and gave them an order. The nobles looked puzzled by Sarkin’s changed attitude but obediently entered the King’s Hall. Ark whistled and clapped like he admired Sarkin’s behaviour.
“As expected of Duke Sarkin-nim, your judgement is really fast.”
“You bastard……what? How did you get that?”
“This letter? Didn’t I tell you? I picked it up. This letter has Duke-nim’s seal on it. So this upstart foreigner came to talk to you.”
“Then it’s not necessary to speak for a long time. Give it to me.”
“So you admit that this letter is yours?”
Sarkin’s face stiffened at Ark’s question. His forehead wrinkled and he started at Ark for a while with narrowed eyes before saying in a cold voice.
“And if it’s not?”
“Then I have no reason to give this letter to Duke-nim.”
“…….What will you do if it’s mine?”
“I don’t know. The contents of the letter are quite suspicious.”
Ark smiled and lifted the letter. Duke Sarkin read the contents of the letter with a perplexity.
To. Nadin
Secretly transport the that has been salvaged to my mansion on the night of the full moon.
From Sarkin
The Laurels of Purity was one of the 22 tokens of the Sinius Principality that Daltin spoke about. It was a token which granted the right to own the territory to Schudenberg Kingdom! The problem was that the Laurels of Purity haven’t been reported to the King yet. In other words, this letter was proof that Duke Sarkin had commanded his subordinates to sneakily obtain the tokens. However, Sarkin shook his head and stubbornly denied it.
“I never wrote that letter!”
“But isn’t this Duke-nim’s handwriting and even your seal?”
“It’s a plot! Someone clearly faked that letter in order to trap me in some plot!”
“That might be true.”
Ark grinned and nodded. When Ark nodded, Sarkin flinched and asked in a low voice.
“Perhaps…..it is you?”
“That might be true.”
Ark jokingly replied. Then Sarkin looked at him with outraged eyes.
“You must be crazy. Do you think you will be safe if you do something like this?”
“Shouldn’t you be more worried about yourself than me?”
“Why should I be worried when you are the one who counterfeited a letter? If I call for an investigation then it will instantly be revealed that this is a counterfeit.”
“Yet the content of the letter is between Duke-nim and your subordinate. Shouldn’t you be worried?”
“What?”
“Because it doesn’t matter if this letter is a counterfeit or not.”
Ark narrowed his eyes. And Sarkin twitched like he was worried.
“W-what are you saying?”
“Obviously this letter might be a counterfeit. If examined then it will be revealed whether it is a counterfeit or not. But even if the latter is fake, it will still raise suspicions. Especially if the letter is present during a meeting related to the territories of the Sinius Principality. Since this letter contains potential problems, Marquis Daltin and Halben will no doubt raise objections and the King might even order Duke-nim’s mansion to be searched. Isn’t Duke-nim worried about that?”
That’s right. This was the plan Ark came up with. The letter Ark was holding was one that Jjak-tung created. Ark had asked Daltin for any letters from Sarkin so Jjak-tung could fake his handwriting and seal. Jjak-tung was currently level 350 and his Counterfeit skill had reached ‘High class.’ It was to the extent that Jjak-tung could produce SA counterfeits. However, that wasn’t the reason why Ark faked the letter. There were various specialists that dealt with official documents. Even if it was made with a High Class Counterfeit skill, it would still be revealed as fake.
‘However, that doesn’t matter!’
There was currently a subtle psychological war between Daltin, Halben and Sarkin over the Sinius Principality. In such a situation, the letter would raise suspicions even if it was discovered to be fake. The King and aristocrats wouldn’t be able to leave it alone. And if such problems arose then Ark had already instructed Daltin to raise a huge fuss.
‘In order to dispel the suspicions, the King would have to order Sarkin’s mansion to be searched. And Sarkin has no justification to refuse a house search. That would be like admitting the allegations were true.’
This was one of the reasons Ark made the Counterfeit letter. Ark was convinced that Sarkin had the missing tokens. However, it was impossible for Ark to sneak into Sarkin’s house to secure the evidence. Then the only way was to rally the government authorities to search Sarkin’s mansion. If the tokens were found in Sarkin’s house then he would quickly be ruined.
‘But if the token isn’t found at Sarkin’s house……’
Then it would be Ark in a difficult situation. He would be charged with forgery and blackmail and would rot in a jail cell.
That’s why Ark met with Sarkin before submitting the letter to the King. And Sarkin had removed his subordinates as soon as he saw the letter. Sarkin made some instinctive judgements the moment he saw the letter. And Ark’s conviction became even stronger after seeing that judgement.
‘Obviously Sarkin left the tokens in his house!’
“Y-you…..!”
Duke Sarkin grinded his teeth together and trembled at Ark’s words. Ark just smirked and laughed.
“Shut up you old man.”
“What, what the?”
“Weren’t you the one who started it first? Do you think I don’t know about your scheme with Nagaran’s funding? But you misjudged me. Even if I have to die, I won’t let go of my dirty nature. If I have to die then let’s die together.”
Ark growled and approached Sarkin. Sarkin winced and murmured.
“….What do you want?”
“Now you’re ready for a proper conversation?”
“You seem to be misunderstanding something. The nerves of the nobles are sharp over the problem of dividing the territories. I have no wish to strain His Majesty’s mind with such an ugly accusation.”
As expected from a noble, Sarkin still tried to avoid showing any weaknesses. He thought for a short moment before suggesting.
“Do you want the funding for Nagaran’s military supplies? Will that settle it?”