The Heavenly Demon Can’t Live a Normal Life - Chapter 173
Chapter 173 – Purge (4)
Chak. Chak.
The soldiers surrounded Count Denver.
Seeing the royal guards follow Roman’s order, Count Denver couldn’t hide his shocked expression.
“… ‘It is the King’s order.’ What does that even supposed to mean?”
He looked at him with wide eyes. Looking at this situation, Roman Dmitry said in a cold voice,
“Count Denver. Evidence has been found against you about your liaising information with Valhalla about Cairo. To ascertain the truth of this, His Majesty has ordered your arrest, Count Denver. So accept the King’s order. If you try to do anything here, you will be judged for plotting rebellion and will be punished.”
“R-Rebellion!”
Count Denver was taken aback by those words.
Rebellion? It took his breath away. He knew things were unusual the moment he saw Roman Dmitry arrive, but he didn’t think he would speak of rebellion right from the start.
‘This is really dangerous. Everyone knows that I follow Valhalla. The royal family never even considered touching me, despite the fact that the evidence supporting it is abundant. But to arrest me right now after the clash with the nobles? The moment I comply with the King’s order, my limbs will be bound.’
His instincts were warning him not to follow him. He could respond to any situation without regard for the royal family, but if he, the head of the Valhalla faction, was taken away, he was likely to be held responsible for everything.
In an instant, his head began to work like a calculator. His skinny mouth couldn’t hide the nervousness he was feeling, but Count Denver reacted as calmly as he could.
“Y-You people! Do you realize what you are doing?”
He raised his voice to intentionally come out as angry to the royal guards.
“It is an open fact that I communicate with the Valhalla Empire. How dare you arrest me by calling this the King’s order! Go back and ask His Majesty if he can handle the aftereffects of this! If you attack me, Valhalla will not stand still.”
He was in the land of the enemy, so excuses would not work. So he needed to use any weapon he could. The reason why Count Denver was able to establish power in Cairo was all thanks to the name of Valhalla.
The soldiers were shocked.
But unlike them, who looked at each other, Roman didn’t waver.
“Count Denver. You need to be very careful of each word you speak from now on.”
“You!”
“Lower your voice. It seems like you haven’t grasped the situation yet. The Cairo royal family started a war against the nobles. Civil war is bound to happen. In a situation where our lives are at risk fighting against the nobles, you will surely be waiting for the right time to make a profit from it. Fighting is meaningless as we are simply going to overpower the nobles. The traitors who are following Valhalla and Kronos—all of you will also have to be uprooted.”
“… insane bastard.”
The threats didn’t work. Count Denver reacted as expected. It was too obvious. But he didn’t know that Valhalla would be mentioned the moment he was cornered.
“The fate of Cairo is at stake in this fight. Valhalla? What will they do for us? Unlike Kronos, Valhalla has separate borders, and even if they storm into Cairo with their troops, we cannot stop what we have initiated. It is a chance that will never come again. And if we lose the battle, we’ll lose everything, so we will have to pay the price. Instead of allowing more rifts to form, it would be wise to resolve everything at once for Cairo’s future.”
Glance.
The signal was given, and the royal guards approached Count Denver.
“Count Denver. From now on, we will have a very nice and fun time.”
At Roman’s words, Count Denver had no choice but to sit down on the chair.
The plans were carried out right away. At the time when Count Denver’s house was being raided, Simon, the lieutenant commander of the Royal Knights, led the force to attack Count Gregory.
“These bastards! Do you think you will be fine with this? Do you think it will be alright?”
On the order to arrest, Count Gregory rebelled. He shouted and shook the soldiers off and looked at Simon with bloodshot eyes.
“Simon. You know what it means to touch me. The Kronos Empire borders Cairo. If Cairo is found to have attacked me, the empire will send troops as a warning. So judge wisely. Even if you don’t do much either, I don’t know how the Kronos Empire, which is eager to conquer the continent, will react, but they will use this as a justification to move.”
At that moment, all the soldiers went stiff. It was a warning they couldn’t ignore. At least Valhalla was far, but Kronos was right next to the borders.
‘Count Gregory is right. The Kronos Empire is not just a verbal threat to us but one which can actually attack us.’
It was dangerous. After stimulating a reason for Kronos to move, Cairo might be caught in a war. So Simon went into deep thought. He wasn’t sure if this was the right thing to do, but he couldn’t clear his mind of what Roman Dmitry said to the King in the palace.
“Your Majesty, the King. You cannot look at the Kronos Empire in the same way anymore. The Kronos Empire crosses the borders of Cairo each year for no reason. Then what are you afraid of? If Kronos declares a war of conquest now, Cairo will never be able to escape it. Even if Cairo makes a decision and we get attacked by Kronos because of it, doesn’t it also happen to us each year? Then, it is much better to use this as a chance to clean up this land and their control over us. This is the only way for Cairo to survive in the future.”
Right. Because they always looked at Kronos, they never cared for Cairo. They occasionally crossed the borders, and Cairo’s soldiers were killed.
And during those times, what did Count Gregory do? He didn’t care. Even though the people of Kronos were slaughtering the people of Cairo, the land he was staying in, he continued to live like a noble.
His teeth clattered. Simon had colleagues who died among them, so he spent time with Count Nicholas and thought about what happened and the new reality of Cairo.
But a chance came. Roman Dmitry stated that he would be the one with blood on his hands in order for the others to be strong.
‘The Cairo Kingdom has crossed a river which we cannot go back from. If the beings that threaten the royal family are not completely cleaned out, they will come to destroy the kingdom from the inside, even before Kronos touches us. If so, sure. As Roman Dmiotry warned us, we cannot leave any variables behind.’
He gritted his teeth. Seeing Count Gregory with a triumphant look on his face, he approached the man and pulled him by the hair. And….
Puak!
“Ack!”
He hit his head on the ground, making Count Gregory scream. He tried to look up at Simon with a puzzled face, but Simon only pressed his head down once again.
“Shut up, you bastard! Anyway, you will be judged, and if Kronos crosses the border to save you, even if it is beyond my authority, I will cut off your head and hang it on a wall. So do not act out, because if you do, I will consider your actions as treason and kill you on the spot.”
Simon was finally letting go of his suppressed emotions.
The situation was quickly sorted out, and both Count Gregory and Count Denver were arrested. And by issuing an alert to the borders, the soldiers began to stay alert, and the guards around the capital were keeping their eyes out. In addition, they contacted the nobles who followed the royal faction.
“The arrest of Count Gregory and Count Denver is a temporary measure. When the facts are checked and everything is sorted out, we will release them again.”
It was a necessary measure to prevent any unexpected movements from other nations. Of course, the nobles wouldn’t believe the words ‘temporary measure,’ but in fact, it wasn’t that important unless they believed it.
The nobles who followed the empires wouldn’t do anything unless the empires moved. No matter how much they cried out about their empires, weren’t they all still living in Cairo? And they would choose to cover their eyes and ears in a bloody civil war. The contact from the Cairo royal family would later provide them with excuses for their stay.
At that time, Roman Dmitry sorted things out and met with Daniel Cairo.
“The chances of the empires moving right now are rather slim. Valhalla is far from the borders. They will have too many restrictions when sending their troops, and due to the recent dispute in the south, the Kronos Empire is a bit uneasy. Their priority isn’t Cairo. Even if we look at their troops in the south, it is more important for them to sort things out there than deal with Cairo.”
This plan wasn’t just about exploiting this opportunity. After assessing the situation on the continent, he decided that it was the best time to touch the nobles’ faction.
‘Amazing.’
Daniel Cairo was impressed. Roman Dmitry was such a great man. Despite the short amount of time, Roman Dmitry demonstrated bold action and incredible planning. But it was too early to be relieved by this.
“We are dealing with too many enemies in a short amount of time. Marquis Benedict from the nobles, Count Denver from the Valhalla faction, and Count Gregory from the Kronos faction—eliminating all of them will leave a huge vacuum in the kingdom. The Central Government was everything in Cairo. Getting rid of them is necessary for Cairo’s future, but not creating a vacuum is also essential.”
Cairo has been driven by the Central Government for too long. The vacancy those people would leave behind couldn’t be ignored, and it was possible that the nation would lose its function.
Roman said,
“We are aware of the dangers the civil war will bring us. But we only choose the best option. If the forces that divide Cairo are at their worst, then eliminating them is a risk we need to take. Because the lesser evil is what helps this nation. If we can end the civil war by eliminating the heads of each faction as quickly as possible, the confusion that Your Majesty has can be minimized to an extent.”
The worst scenario that he was thinking about wasn’t really the worst. And Daniel Cairo accepted that reality. Roman was right. From the moment the sword was drawn, there was no better opportunity than this for Cairo.
When the Cairo royal family was moving fast, Marquis Benedict wasn’t standing still either.
“They are moving.”
Immediately after attacking him, Roman Dmitry visited the royal palace, and he heard the report that he had joined hands with the King. He was sure that he had done something he could never correct.
Roman Dmitry showed his hostility by rejecting his proposal, and the King’s choice was to show support for Roman Dmitry’s move. Then, what was left was the war against the factions.
He knew that he would take the throne one day, but he didn’t think that the throne would be held this tight.
“Cheeky bastard.”
Roman Dmitry—he would never forgive that man. When he recalled the time he was about to attack him and his arrogance, Marquis Benedict gritted his teeth.
At that time, he was so pitiful. He struggled so that he could live, and he had to abandon his pride. But it was now a fight that would end with one of them dead.
As soon as Marquis Benedict arrived at his estate, he ordered the nobles to gather.
‘The nobles make up a vast majority of the power in Cairo. If we muster up enough forces from the nobles to push Cairo out of the way, even if Roman is holding hands with the King, there won’t be any problem. We need to show the consequences of trying to attack me. Right now, you might feel you are the strongest after defeating Count Nicholas but things in the world will never go your way.’
Within a week’s time or less, he would lead the troops and head for the capital. And the overwhelming numbers would bring him sure victory.
Things were going smoothly, and when the troops of the nobles were responding to his summons, he received an unexpected report.
“Tell me again, what was that?”
His voice boiled with anger. Just now, the report that the subordinate gave was very hard to comprehend.
And the subordinate felt scared. Frightened by Marquis Benedict’s angry tone, he spoke slowly about what he had heard.
“… Count Fabius. He sent an answer saying that he would not comply with the summons.”
It was a clear refusal. And hearing those words hurt Marquis Benedict’s heart.
