Volume 6 Chapter 60 They're Betraying Us, Right？
After Dario left, Chris was alone with the dark side agent in the private room. He looked at the agent with pleading eyes.
"This is okay, right?"
"Yeah. No problem."
The dark side agent said this without any emotion, then turned his back to Chris and placed a hand on the door.
"R-Really... you will erase this fear for me, right?"
Chris swallowed hard, and the dark side agent turned back to him.
"It's a promise. ...If the magician sent by Lord Ragnar uses his mind control on you, you can go back to living normally."
The dark side agent laughed and opened the door, leaving the room.
Chris wrapped his trembling shoulders and lay down on the bed, staring at the closed door.
"I'm sorry, Dario. I'm sorry, everyone... But I'm──"
Chris's shaking thoughts were still stuck on the fear of death from that day.
* * *
The day after Dario received the letter and Dill joined hands with the Duke.
Dill received a return order from the government.
Normally, he had about a week left of vacation, but this marked its end.
Dario rushed to prepare and asked Dill what was happening.
"I don't know. The order said it was in response to protests happening in the capital..."
"Protests...?"
Dario frowned, but Dill had a clue about what it might be.
That was because the government's recent move had been too forceful.
That bold move to take over the Church's estate.
Before, he might have arrogantly agreed with it, but now, having lost power and being able to see things more clearly, Dill thought it was just too much.
The government wanted to put Central Nobility on the lands they took. They wanted more land that the king controlled.
It's different from land that nobles can control. This land is fully under the government's control.
But then...
The king wanted to take more land and make the Church give up things like schools. But the people got angry and many moved away.
The government's plan didn't work.
They thought people wouldn't leave their homes. They were wrong.
But the government still didn't understand how bad things were.
Dill heard that the king said the people couldn't move to other countries. They were from the kingdom.
And now there's a protest.
Dill sighed. He thought that was the reason.
The fake Prime Minister has to come back! It's that serious.
Dario didn't ask his father many questions.
His father seemed confident again, but he's quiet now.
Dario knew it was too serious to talk about.
So, Dario could only watch and decide what to do with the information he had.
Should he betray the kingdom?
Or should he tell Crown Prince Edgar about the Duke's betrayal?
(I'll see His Highness when I get back.)
Dario decided to do that. Then a servant said the ship was ready.
Dario and the others came to Rothheim in a carriage. But this was an emergency.
They couldn't go back by carriage. The king let them use a teleportation gate.
The teleportation gate is on one of the Duke's resort islands.
The small gate can't be used without permission from the main gate in the castle.
They were told to go through the gate at a certain time.
The Rothheim Duke's family came to the hall to see Dario off.
"Alright, Prime Minister. I'm counting on you."
"Understood."
In their brief greeting, many meanings were shared.
Without saying everything out loud, they had talked about much in the past 2 weeks.
Perhaps everything was going according to Gustav's plan.
After a firm handshake with Gustav, Dill said goodbye and left with Dario, heading straight for the capital.
To bloom again as a key figure of the nation.
For now, to act the part of a fake prince.
* * *
Dario and the others went through the teleportation gate and were teleported to a space in the basement of the castle.
Normally, only the royal family is allowed in this closed-off area.
To be honest, Dario was not uninterested in this space.
It is said to be part of an ancient ruin, but it is not open to anyone outside the royal family.
As a lowly magician, Dario was interested in ancient magic books hidden in such ruins.
But now he had the dark side as his supervisors.
It would be bad to do something strange here and get into trouble.
As Dario sighed in resignation, his father Dill hurried to the office, running up the stairs alone.
Watching his father's back, Dario threw his luggage into his magic bag and started walking towards the stairs in front of him.
The steady, regular sound echoing in the basement... was broken by──
"Have you made up your mind?"
a voice called out from behind Dario.
Startled by the sudden voice, Dario turned around.
There were 3 dark sides.
Looking closely, the man standing in the middle was the one Dario had warned Chris to stay away from.
The other dark sides had already detached from Dill, and now only they remained.
"...What do you mean?"
The man in the middle sighed and said, "You're surprisingly dense... or maybe you're still just a kid," as Dario raised an eyebrow.
"What do you want to say?"
Dario's face twisted in anger at being called a kid.
The man easily provoke him, and with a shrug, he showed that even if he was a kid, pushing him wouldn't get the conversation anywhere.
"Apologize if I've upset you."
"No need to apologize. I just want to know what decision you made."
Dario turned to face the man directly, who murmured without changing his expression.
"You received a letter, right? From a certain lady."
At those words, Dario threw down his bag and braced himself.
The man in the middle showed a look of disbelief at Dario's completely defensive posture.
"That's what makes you a kid. You're too hasty."
As the man whispered, the two on either side disappeared, and Dario found himself pinned down.
"Think carefully. If we were on the kingdom's side and knew about your letter, we wouldn't be talking here like this."
The man's laughter made sense. If Dario had known they received some kind of letter, they could have interrogated him much earlier.
So, asking in this empty place meant something different.
"Are you betraying the kingdom?"
"No. We just gave up on the current king."
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