Chapter 213 – Alexander (7)

It smelled of burning pork fat.

Alexander’s belly was open, and his gaze was empty, holding the sky.

A spark thrown by someone created a flame along his body, and the flame rose up using his body as an altar. It is said that the end of a harvest festival always ends with lighting a fire on rotten wood. Lumia surrendered to the warmth radiating from his body and sat down on the floor.

After accomplishing the great task, a sense of exhaustion and futility came over me.

The world was still busy without Alexander, but somehow she felt like it was all over. Beside her, soldiers were busy moving. They were soldiers who would transport the corpses of the fallen Holy Knights and swordsmen and clean up the wreckage of destroyed buildings.

Even as Rumia sat still, she listened to the information coming from her surroundings.

Five buildings were partially destroyed by the impact.

8 dead paladins.

14 dead swordsmen.

2 priests who died.

23 wounded.

Even in the operation that he thought was perfect, Alexander showed off more than that and killed people. Lumia felt her face contort every time she saw the bloodstains on her floor.

“We were complacent.”

It was a successful operation, but not a success. Couldn’t it have been possible to reduce the sacrifice by preparing more elaborately? Would there have been fewer casualties if we had started shooting arrows at the risk of getting hit by our allies and bystanders? Would it have been more comfortable if I had poisoned it and proceeded, as someone suggested?

“Still, the world is moving too fast to regret it. The death of Alexander is something that shakes the whole kingdom.”

Rumia said that while shaking her shoulder. True to her words, this was no time to honor the great sacrifice. Ithaca’s plan didn’t end with killing Alexander.

Rather, the whole plan was based on the premise that Alexander would die.

Rumia said as she brushed off the hem of her clothes.

“Is everything ready?”

The man nodded his head and said:

“I have already sent people.”

******

The two men who were waiting in front of the harvest festival altar jumped to their feet in surprise at the sudden roar of the street. Alice rose from her seat and gestured to Alexander’s quarters, and the soldiers rushed inside at her direction.

Women’s screams were heard from inside the dorm.

“Kyaaak! What are you guys! Let go of this!”

“Why are you doing this! Please let go of this!”

“What, what are you guys! I know who our master is!”

The two men, apprentice paladins, still did not fully understand the situation taking place here. Even when the women screamed, even when Lorena drew her sword from her scabbard, she just stared blankly at her eyes, laughing awkwardly, or swallowing.

As Lorena stretched the tip of her sword, one of her paladins laughed.

“Why, why are you like this…”

A light flashed before he could finish his words. There was no trace of the sword’s swing, but Lorena was putting it back in her scabbard. For some reason, the apprentice paladin felt a tingling pain around his neck.

Other apprentice paladins also believed that their bodies were not obeying them. A beat later, a solid red line ran down their necks, and the heads of the two paladins fell off. Alice’s hair rolled back and forth and touched her heel. Alice counted the number of attendants who were being dragged out tied to ropes, and she was horrified at the tragedy that unfolded behind her.

“Ah, what! It’s a surprise!”

Lorena kicked her head off with her foot, which had fallen in front of her Alice. She once dreamed of a brilliant future, but her head rolled around and got stuck in the sewer. Alice stared at her head as it rolled, then turned to Lorena’s voice.

“I’m done cleaning up here. What about Alice?”

“It’s over here too.”

Saying that, Alice looked in front of her. The women’s faces were pale and their legs were shaking. The women who had been arrested seemed to have misunderstood something when they saw the cruelty the two had just shown.

“Buy, buy, buy, save me! I beg you please! All! It’s all what that woman did!”

“Please don’t kill me! Please save me!”

“Sorry! Aaaaang! Aaaaagh!”

Alice scratched her head shyly, then she spoke in a low voice to the soldier.

“Because it seems like he’ll tell you everything he knows even if you put a little pressure on him. I’ll drag you along and tell you everything you know.”

“Yes. All right! These guys! Follow me!”

“Aaaaagh! I don’t want to die!”

“Please save me! Aaaaagh!”

Leaving behind the women’s songs, Alice turned her body around. This was the end of the two of them’s work here. Lorena said.

“What do I do now?”

She said as Alice twisted her hair. Since the documents necessary for the operation had already been delivered in advance, she had nothing to do right now. In addition to receiving the next instructions, Alice suggested that she go to Rumia.

“Should I go to the place where Mr. Rumia is and help me? She fought that Alexander. We will also help you organize the surroundings.”

Lorena is about to nod her head, but she taps Alice on the shoulder when she sees soldiers approaching in the distance. Alice bit her nails and looked behind her, then frowned at her. A lady holding her fan was walking leisurely, followed by soldiers dragging shabby-looking men.

Alice asked.

“Who are these people?”

“Alexander said he would not go to the slums, so he was suspicious that he was plotting something in the slums. So I released the soldiers to investigate the route of the event, and there are children doing suspicious things on the bridge in the slums?”

They kicked their tongues and spat on the floor. Could it be because he was working in a slum? He did not seem to know the slightest bit about the terrible revolution outside. They threatened the soldiers.

“Quick release this! Do you know who we are He is the servant of Saint Alexander! We were deliberately in disguise to investigate the bridge prior to the Harvest Festival! Uh! A terrorist? It’s okay to be framed!”

The lady, Alice, and Lorena all just listened to the man’s bold provocation. Her man shouted at the lady with her face contorted more strongly.

“Hey! What do you think will happen if Saint Alexander finds out about this? Uh? How dare you throw the saint’s servants into the gutter! Why don’t you tie it to a rope like a slave and drag it along! All of you are in big trouble now!”

Again, no response came back. Lorena rolled her eyes and tried to say something, but Alice held out her hand to stop her, and the lady only faced the man with an expressionless face. The soldiers were cheering for the man’s provocation by snorting or clicking their tongues.

“I-I can’t hear you! You guys are all fucked up now! Uh? Am I helping you now? Uh? Uh!”

Cold sweat ran down the man’s face. A little thought made it clear that something was going wrong. Why is the smoke rising from the direction where Saint Alexander is coming? Why is the atmosphere so down? Why are there decapitated corpses in front of the harvest festival altar?

Why are those corpses dressed as paladins?

The man noticed the current situation a beat later. He had lost all of his self-confidence a moment ago, and he raised his hand cautiously, crouching like an abandoned stray dog.

“Okay, I was wrong. I’ll tell you anything. Just let me live. Sorry for the rude comments. Ma’am.”

In the end, the tyrannical humans who leaned on the name of Alexander were nothing more than little bastards who were locked in a big fence and barked vigorously. The moment they realized that the giant who would support their filthy nature was gone, they rolled their tails between their legs and behaved more like sheep than anyone else.

The soldiers smiled and stroked the guy’s head lightly as they moved toward the prison, and the lady looked at the smoke and said,

“In the end, even that man with great authority disappears into ashes. Could he have known he would die like this?”

Alice threw her hair behind her and looked in the same direction as the lady. The smoke soaring high into the sky felt like a beacon signaling an emergency on the battlefield. The lady did not look like she was expecting an answer. She just looked at her performance with an expression as complex as the wrinkles on her face.

Alice said to Lorena.

“Let’s go, Lorena. I have to help Rumia-sister.”

“Ah? Uh. Okay. Let’s go right away.”

The lady saw Alice go ahead and asked.

“Miss Alice. What happened to the messenger?”

Alice turned her head and said.

“Because the Count said he would give a signal as soon as the operation to remove Alexander succeeds. He should have left now.”

As she said, far beyond the walls of Ithaca, messengers were galloping on their horses.

Carrying a letter that will completely overturn the power structure of the kingdom.