Chapter 191 – Treason (2)

Chapter 191 – Treason (2)

“Did you say treason?”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Anya answered joyfully.

The reason why Anya was happy rather than angry after witnessing a plot for treason was that such an absurd attempt gave her the opportunity to exterminate the people that had been bothering her for a while.

However, Juan and Hela were listening to Anya in the conference room with a frown unlike her. Hela was already aware of the fact that Anya had gone to falsely accuse the Deed family of treason. But Hela grew frustrated, since she didn’t expect the Deed family to be plotting so openly.

Yet Anya gave information that was different from Hela’s thoughts.

“The Deed family was conspiring with the people of the Ilde family to plot treason within Torra using a transport carriage from one of their merchants. Most of the nobles from the religious faction seem to be involved in this conspiracy, and several nobles from the founding faction also seemed to have participated.”

“It seems like they were conscious of the Golems, considering that they plotted for treason within Torra; after all, the Golems won’t be able to attack the interior of Torra. They must have been quite scared of them,” Hela said.

“They were scared of Golems, but not me?” Juan muttered with a dumbfounded laugh. “Hela will find out who is involved and how much they are involved. But a treason, huh? That’s quite unfamiliar to me. Did they really think they had a chance against me?”

To be honest, it was Juan’s first time facing a treason attempt against himself. During his days as the emperor, the minor disturbances on the outskirts of the empire used to be taken care of by the local knights, and those who were closer to the emperor didn’t even dare to dream of treason.

The assassination of the emperor by Gerard could be considered treason, but such treason not only failed, but also had no results—therefore it wouldn’t be wrong to say that it was Juan’s first time dealing with treason.

This was only natural, since Juan himself was a deterrent to war, as well as the legitimacy of the imperial throne. To face treason in the end, it meant that people couldn’t believe in either of them.

“I guess people have been looking down on me much more than I thought.”

Juan had thought that he took over the Imperial Palace from the Church and Barth Baltic with an overwhelming show of power in his own way.

‘But they are already plotting treason against me when it hasn’t even been a month since I returned.’

Hela carefully opened her mouth.

“Rather, they might have had no choice but to plot treason, since Your Majesty didn't give them a chance to stand on your side. There are many ways to kill them slowly.”

“Or just cut the buds to begin with,” Anya interrupted.

Hela glared at Anya upon hearing her, but eventually nodded.

“Quick resolution eventually becomes a problem later on. But now that the situation has turned out like this, Anya’s suggestion might be the better one. Anya took care of everything quietly without letting anyone know, so they probably don’t know that their plot for treason has been caught yet. Let’s take advantage of this opportunity and wipe out all the people involved, including those who might get in our way in the future.”

“Those who might get in our way in the future?” Juan asked.

“I’m talking about those who have not clearly expressed their loyalty to Your Majesty—such as the local Churches,” Hela answered.

Although Juan took control of Torra, many of the Churches that spread out and dug into the outskirts of the empire still showed no clear change in their stance. The fact that the Pope abandoned Torra and fled was shocking, but they did not know what to do at a time like this.

Juan considered it for a brief moment before opening his mouth.

“It’s a purge then.”

“Organization is a necessary procedure, Your Majesty. The power of the empire will only increase when everyone is united.”

“I thought you hated bloodshed, Hela.”

“Of course not, Your Majesty. I am the commander of an army after all. But my point is that we need to make sure to let the subordinates know that the commander moves with discipline, not madness. The intelligence that Anya has brought back to us is a good opportunity for us.”

Juan was silent for a moment, but soon shook his head.

“We’ll talk about that later. I want to focus on the traitors for now. Anya, did you find out what supplies they were bringing in through the merchants?”

“Delane Deed didn’t know anything other than his task, which was to make it easier for the merchant carriage to get in. It seemed like he was gathering troops in his own way, but it’s not serious enough to pay much attention to,” Anya answered.

“But we should still check it out. How many of them are there?” Hela asked.

“It seems like it has been maintained pretty well. I thought you were going to ask them to ‘arm yourselves with the loyalty to His Majesty,’ because of the Church’s long reign,” Juan said.

“Well, the army is... Hmm. Barth Baltic, the former General, had a huge influence on them. Not even the Church could act against them recklessly. But things have been difficult because the tax collection rate has fallen, not to mention that there was frequent movement of the troops recently. I may have to force loyalty to His Majesty sooner or later.”

“The soldiers?”

“No, the local nobles. I’ll have to tell them to keep their salaries straight even if that means they have to tighten their belts, especially to those from the areas with low tax collection rates. That will help them to keep it together.”

Juan and Pavan laughed facing each other. Juan still didn’t like Pavan very much. However, he had no choice but to acknowledge that there was no one better than Pavan who had a broad understanding of the current Imperial Army.

Pavan had been serving and representing Barth Baltic in numerous fields and had inherited a lot of Barth’s skills and knowledge. Because the Imperial Army had been under the rule of Barth Baltic for a long time, they were following the Hornsluine military system and supply structure in many ways. Considering that, there was no person more suitable than Pavan who had learned everything while standing next to Barth Baltic.

“Pavan.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“I’m planning to get rid of the position of the Regent. It might be a shame for you.”

Pavan nodded, but he showed no signs of disappointment.

“I didn’t deserve that position anyway.”

“You admired Barth Baltic a lot as far as I know.”

“It’s all the more so, don’t you think? I would hide my face and run away out of embarrassment if someone told me that I was on the same level as Barth Baltic. I am fully satisfied and content with my current position. In fact, it could have been much worse.”

“I’m glad you think so.”

Whether Juan liked Pavan or not was a different matter, but there seemed to be no problem in trusting him with important Imperial positions.

“Oh, by the way. Recently there was a plot to attempt treason inside Torra.”

Pavan sprang up and straightened his back upon hearing Juan’s words.

“Did you say treason, Your Majesty? Who would attempt such a reckless...”

“We suspect that Dismas was trying to manipulate the Deed family to cause chaos. Anya and Hela are investigating it right now.”

Pavan got lost in thought for a while, then suddenly raised his head. Then he shook his head with a pale expression.

“I don’t know anything about that, Your Majesty.”

“I know. I’ve already checked what kind of business this citadel deals with.”

‘If the rebels instigated the internal religious faction to plot treason, there’s no way they could have not contacted the Imperial Army.’

Juan looked through the work done in the Citadel of the Sun with such a thought, but he found nothing suspicious. This meant that there were no internal collaborators from the military, including Pavan.

‘Then it seems like what they’re bringing through a transport carriage is not just a simple weapon.’

Juan thought that they might be bringing in professional combat personnel if they had a large scale, since there would be a lot of damage if the Order of Surtr decided to infiltrate Torra themselves. However, the Deed family hadn’t brought in that many supplies.

“What I want to know is about Dismas, Pavan. You probably met Dismas in person, since you’ve been in a key position for a long time. Tell me everything you know about Dismas. I need to know how different he is from the Dismas that I know.”

Pavan looked perplexed and hesitated to answer, with unease written all over his face. The heavy silence seemed to throw a hundred words at Juan.

“He must be terrible.”

“Please forgive me, Your Majesty.”

“It’s okay, so just tell me. He’s not a kid anymore. If he has committed a crime, he should take responsibility for his actions.”

Pavan slowly opened his mouth at Juan’s urging.

“Do you know about the god called Iolin, Your Majesty?”