「Why do you need to rush things!? It will take time, but there are surely other ways to bring the dishonest nobles to justice! The same with what happened to Castor! Isn’t his rebellion because of your fault pushing your plan rashly! Even though there are jobs I want you to do in the post war times, but that plan has already been thrown out of order now, right? …… Well, settling everything with just one action is too ambitious. If this country’s openness had become relatively better, my and Hakuya’s plan would proceed easily. Because of that, there is no meaning for losing you! Don’t you know that for a country, losing a talented person is a terrible blow! It is not an equal value to the dishonest nobles!」(Souma)
「……」(Georg)
I asked Georg who had silently closed his eyes. I once again struck the cell’s bars.
「Answer me! You. Are you really satisfied by this!?」(Souma)
「……Of course.」(Georg)
Georg made his reply with a calm expression.
「I believe that I am similar to a large tree, and after my death, new sprouts would grow from my roots. Then, my only wish is for that sprouts to grow healthily.」(Georg)
「……For that reason, must the great tree also need to be struck down?」(Souma)
「It is my cherished dream. I feel joy to sense that the next generation will have a robust growth. Your Majesty will also eventually understand.」(Georg)
「…… Will I?」(Souma)
「When the Princess gives birth to a child, then certainly you will.」(Georg)
I slammed myself into the chair. I was wrapped by an unusual ennui as I asked another thing that I had been concerned with.
「Hey….. Was everything “thought up by yourself”?」(Souma)
「…… What does that mean?」(Georg)
Georg opened his eyes and asked me back. Don’t suddenly play senile!
「This is our first meeting. Even so, you have a strangely high evaluation of me. You have entrusted the current plan to me, you have entrusted Liscia, who is like a precious daughter for you, to me, and you have entrusted the Kingdom’s future to me. No matter how much I thought about this, this is strange. Where does that faith come from?」(Souma)
「…… I knew of your extraordinary talent from the Princess’ letters, do you have any dissatisfaction with this answer?」(Georg)
「Yeah, I am dissatisfied. Could you harbor faith on letters? If we are talking about your self-sacrifice, then there is only “for Elfrieden’s Royalty’s” sake, isn’t this true?」(Souma)
Now that I thought about it, it had been strange “since the beginning.” Since the beginning, strangely the road that I needed to take had been prepared. Suddenly handing the crown to me, easily obtaining political power, pairing me with Liscia as her fiancée to grant me a just cause, and bringing the dishonest nobles to justice before I knew it. To think back upon it, I felt that the noob me had moved too easily. Perhaps, this was someone’s intentions…… If someone could do this, then there no one else but “that person.”
「Is the current plan that person’s order?」(Souma)
「……I will keep silent about this.」(Georg)
「Please answer it. That person, you, what in the world is it that the both of you know?」(Souma)
「……」(Georg)
I waited for Georg’s words, but he didn’t reply back. We were facing each other in silence for a short while. Only the soundless ringing inside the prison reached my ears.[3] …… This is enough, it would be futile, no matter how much I waited.
「So you… can’t give the answer.」(Souma)
「…… If the time for that eventually comes, that person will speak to you.」(Georg)
I stood up, took out a small bottle from my pocket, and placed it in front of Georg.
「Your Majesty, this is?」(Georg)
「……Poisoned wine. It will be done in this way, since I can’t bring myself to let a man that has sacrificed himself for his country to be executed in front of the public. Also…… I have recommended this method to the people who are trying to sacrifice themselves for you.」(Souma)
Perhaps it was because of Georg’s personality, that there was not a small amount of officers and soldiers from the Army who did this. Starting from the former second of command, Beowulf, to several high ranked army officers, all had requested to be punished with the same sentence as Georg. Also, among the Army and the Air Force soldiers who didn’t get pardoned with the services they had done in the war against Amidonia, there were people who were being imprisoned from trying to commit suicide in front of the Royal Castle to demand a life clemency for their general. Really…… These death-seeker fellows.