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Captain's POV
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In the Palace, there is a single room that is rarely used. It is called the Royal Hall.

It is the room where the King does royal deeds, such as knighting someone and bestowing titles. It is also the place where punishments are carried out.

At the far end of the hall, a luxurious throne stands, with His Majesty sitting on top of it.

It was built from pure gold, with silver and other metals used to decorate it.

Leading up to it were several small stairs that only those close to the King can set foot on.

To set foot on them with no relation to the King can only mean one thing.

You declare war on him.

In the entire history of the Kingdom, this act had only been done once.

A few hundred years before now, the then King was issuing a punishment on a Viscount who had made a contract with a demon. In retaliation, the Viscount stood up, and started climbing the steps.

This caused only one response. Every single knight that was stationed in the hall at that time unsheathed their sword and rushed towards him.

No fewer than 10 swords were skewered through that noble.

That was the first and only time a noble had set foot on those stairs without the King's permission.

And now, I am stationed in this hall, alongside one hundred other knights.

Since I'm the highest ranking, I stand right next to the stairs, opposite to the Captain of the Royal Knights.

In between us both was a red carpet that started at the doors and led all the way up to the throne.

The entire room emitted an intimidating aura.

Of course, this was only due to the set of circumstances today.

This was the layout for a punishment of the highest degree. Treason.

Had this been for a knighting or a title being bestowed, instead of knights, nobles would be lining the room, with the person of honour's family being the closest to the stairs.

That was not today.

Right now, we were simply standing. Waiting for the person who had committed such a terrible deed.

With a quick knock on the monstrous doors at one end, they opened.

Being quickly led in with a Royal Knight in each arm, Count Poin resisted fruitlessly, thrashing to no avail.

Before long, he had reach the foot of the stairs and pushed down to his knees.

"Your Majesty! What is the meaning of this?!" (Count Poin)

"You tell me, Alerte Poin. What is the meaning of your secret letters to a representative of Jaird?" (King)

"...! W-what do you mean, Your Majesty? Yes, I did have letters to a representative, but they were only to discuss business." (Count Poin)

"Business, you say? Then, allow me to read a line from one of your letters." (King)

"W-wait, Your Majest--" (Count Poin)

"With the King's power diminished, you can take control of the aristocratic division on rule the Kingdom." (King)

The hall stayed deadly quiet, despite the shocking news. If this had been a room of nobles, the amount of whispers would make your ears bleed.

"Y-you must be mistaken, Your Majest--" (Count Poin)

"COUNT POIN!" (King)

The King's sudden shout made everyone in the hall stiffen.

"DO YOU THINK YOU ARE IN A POSITION TO SAY THAT WHAT I JUST READ WAS A MISTAKE?!" (King)

"..." (Count Poin)

He couldn't respond. Instead, he simply sat there, shaking in front of His Majesty.

"In correspondence with my power as the King of the Kingdom of Reichtum, I hereby condemn you to a public execution on the grounds of treason." (King)

"Your Majesty!" (Count Poin)

"Anything you say from now until your death shall not be taken into account. Your final words shall be recorded on your final day a week from now. Goodbye, Count Alerte Poin." (King)

With those final words, Count Poin was dragged out of the hall and taken to the dungeon, waiting for his death.

Now that Count Poin had been dragged out of the hall, it, once again, fell silent, before the King dismissed the knights.

No words were uttered as we made our way out, only the sounds of metal clinking with the armour that we wore.

I took a single glance back to see His Majesty sitting on the throne, hands on his head.

It was a quick end for Count Poin. Maybe not a fitting one, but an end all the same.

The only thing that changes is that now, I have little to do.

So, I simply return to the room I was given.

I hadn't slept in a day, but it wasn't like I was exhausted. I could fight for two days straight and I'd be fine to go another.

The only thing that was wearing me down now was my mind.

And when I thought I'd be able to give it a rest, I turn the corner to see Ryu leaning against the door to my room.

"What is it?" (Captain)

"It's loud. What's going on?" (Ryu)

"Count Poin just got sentenced to a public execution a week from now. Treason." (Captain)

"He finally got it..." (Ryu)

"Hm? You knew what he did?" (Captain)

"Ah, well... I... Had something to do with it..." (Ryu)

"What? You did something with Jaird?" (Captain)

"Jaird? No?" (Ryu)

"Then what are you talking about?" (Captain)

"What was he accused of?" (Ryu)

"Treason. Associating with Jaird." (Captain)

"Ah... I see... I was wrong." (Ryu)

Saying that, Ryu turns to leave.

"What do you mean you were wrong?" (Captain)

"If you don't know, then it doesn't matter." (Ryu)

Ryu snaps back at me and leaves, leaving me dumbfounded.

I try to make sense of what he said in my head to no avail.

Instead, I simply dumb it down to mental exhaustion, so I enter the room and try to get some rest.

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Author Notes
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Another chapter in a single night.

To be honest, I was expecting the accusation part of the chapter to last a lot longer than it did. I was hoping that it'd take about 800 - 900 words, but it only took about 600, nearing 700.

That made it a lot harder to reach the word count that I wanted for this chapter, and I never did reach it. I was just a few words short of 1000.

And hey! Chapter 80! We're only 20 chapters off 100! Putting that into the amount of words, that'll be about 80,000 ish words. Of course it's be a little more since not all chapters were 1000 words but close enough!

But anyway, thank you for reading, please continue doing so, and consider following!