Kailen reached out and drew a single sheet of paper from the pile. It was a document prepared without a seal or a gold cord. Yet that very casualness of preparation only revealed how long this moment had been planned for.

“The abdication edict is already prepared.”

William’s chest heaved once, deeply, like a man whose throat had gone dry.

“And if I refuse?”

The king’s voice trembled, wanting to sound like a threat. What if you refuse me, what will you do? It was the same as asking whether this was truly the only choice left to him.

“You are welcome to refuse.”

In that moment, a very faint flicker of hope crossed William’s eyes. But Kailen cut it off cleanly before it could take root.

“Only, in that case, the record will read as follows. His Majesty schemed to start a war in order to conceal his failures in governance, and plunged the country into chaos as a result.”

William’s lips parted.

“Quite disgraceful. Quite dishonorable.”

Kailen’s eyes narrowed as he spoke, his tone almost like humming.

“The sight of all of Krauben rising up would be quite a spectacle. What the plaza in front of Belmor Palace would look like… does that not interest you?”

“…”

“You might think it could not possibly be worse than the last protest, but one never knows.”

William, breathing in labored, ragged pulls, glared at Kailen. But the harder he glared, the higher the corner of Kailen’s mouth rose.

“Think of your young son.”

He had not directly said anything about the prince, yet the king’s eyes snapped wide open in an instant.

“You…”

William’s voice cracked.

“It is not the crown you are after. It is my head.”

Kailen’s head tilted to one side, the way it might at a strange joke.

“What use would I have for the head of an old man that not even a dog would bother biting?”

The color drained visibly from William’s face. His lips trembled faintly. It almost seemed like the sound of something cracking somewhere inside the king’s pride was audible.

Kailen set the document down on the desk in a neat, even motion. Without any particular intent, he straightened the edge with his fingertip, the way one might correct a tilted picture frame. Then he left his final ultimatum.

“I will give you three days.”

He turned around and walked away. The manner of it said he had never intended to wait for an answer.

Watching his retreating figure move toward the door, William let out the breath he had been suppressing in a rough, ragged exhale. Ah, Kailen, without slowing his steps, tossed words back over his shoulder.

“Still, thanks to me, you managed to secure a son in your later years.”

“…Hgh.”

“Well… whether the blood is actually yours, I cannot say.”

The moment those words landed, blood rushed to the top of William’s head and his eyes flooded red. William’s gasping hand groped across the desk. He seemed to be searching for something to hurl, or perhaps for a gun to shoot Kailen dead where he stood. The king’s furious roar carried beyond the office and out into the corridor, yet it seemed no one heard it.

“You…!”

Creak, thud. The sound of the door closing was not loud. But to William, left alone inside, it sounded like an entire wing of Belmor Palace collapsing.

* * *

The morning air in the office was oddly light.

Unlike the thick tension that had settled in through the night before, the sunlight coming through the window was almost aggressively honest. Light filtering between the curtains cut across the desk and lit up the edges of the ink bottle and the documents. It was the same place as yesterday, yet with only the hour changed, the world wore an entirely different face.

Kailen stood by the window, holding a teacup. He had not taken a single sip yet. He was watching the steam rising from the tea slowly scatter and disappear when the door opened without a knock.

“Good news first thing in the morning, hm?”

It was unlike Collen, who maintained his role as chief secretary with proper formality inside the office. Collen held a newspaper in his hand, the ink smell not yet fully faded from it. He made no effort to hide his excitement as he waved the paper.

Kailen, a faint smile on his lips, played along with Collen the way he would in private.

“Is it really worth making such a fuss over first thing in the morning?”

“A fuss, he says.”

Collen shrugged and dropped the newspaper on the desk with a thud.

“This calls for a cannon salute at the very least!”

Kailen set down his teacup and picked up the newspaper. The sound of the paper unfolding was unusually crisp. Unlike the excited Collen, his gaze landed on the first line with a certain detachment.

King William Announces Intent to Abdicate.

Below the bold headline, a lengthy passage continued.

King William today, through an official state document, indicated his abdication. This is assessed not as a simple transfer of the throne, but as a critical turning point marking the end of a long-standing monarchical system.

The royal family plans to introduce a parliamentary system composed of representatives from the nobility and the citizenry, and members will obtain their seats through election rather than bloodline…….

Kailen’s gaze moved slowly downward.

……This will mark the beginning of a new political order based on ability and merit rather than social standing, and signifies that the kingdom will now move forward as a nation governed by law and consensus, rather than by the name of a monarch.

Sunlight reflected on the surface of the newspaper, bleeding across several lines of text.

“Honestly, all I can think is that what was coming has simply come.”

“Still, you just toppled a king. How are you this unmoved.”

Dong, dong, dong. The sound of bells rang out from beyond the window.

Like the sound of a king’s era drawing to its close, the old metallic toll spread out into the morning air.

“A seat in parliament is a given for you now, and going forward you ought to be aiming for at least party leader.”

Kailen, who had not so much as raised an eyebrow at Collen’s joke, folded the newspaper.

“Something like that. Well…”

“You say ‘something like that’ and leave people speechless.”

Dong, dong. The unfinished toll of the bells and Collen’s muttering faded, and an entirely different sound rang through Kailen’s ears as he looked out the window.

〈Move! Stand back!〉

A soldier’s voice, rough and shouting.

The smell of rotting rope and wet wooden floors, the sound of waves striking an iron ladder.

Dozens of lights poured through the gaps in the cracked deck and stabbed at his eyes. Kailen, barely managing to open his eyes, peered through the gaps. On the other side, his father and brother, who had told him to hide and absolutely not come out, were bound and being dragged away.

Father! Brother! He had nearly cried out without thinking, but his mouth was suddenly clamped shut by his mother’s hand shooting out.

His mother’s face, watching with fear-filled eyes as her husband and son were dragged away like animals, was wet with tears.

Kailen’s father had been a successful businessman who ran several factories. A self-made man who had risen from nothing, he had always taken pride in himself.

He believed that even now, if he set his mind to it, he could accomplish a great deal. For a man like that, the monarchical system was a shackle.

One day, an excited voice had drifted through a crack in the door. At first he thought it was his drunk father and mother having a petty argument.

A world where the people, not the king, move the country.

An order built on choice, not rights inherited through blood.

“…Watch what you say, dear! You are not trying to get our children killed, are you?”

Kailen had sat crouched on the stairs, holding his breath and listening in on that voice.

Of course, at the time, he had not understood those words. He had only felt afraid, for no reason he could name.

And a few days later, his father was arrested.

〈He will be back soon.〉

His mother had said so, but her hands were shaking.

His father did actually come back. The household seemed to settle back into calm. Everyone acted as though nothing had happened.

But one night, his father packed his things and said:

〈I have secured a ship. We need to leave this country quickly.〉

And so the whole family had made their way to the harbor together.

“…Kailen?”

Collen’s voice pulled him back to the present. Only then did Kailen return his mind to reality.

“Are you alright?”

“Ah.”

Kailen exhaled briefly.

“My mind wandered for a moment.”

For an instant, the lines filling the newspaper on the desk looked like letters stripped of all meaning. He gave the now-useless newspaper a nudge, thud thud, into the wastebasket beside him, and another face flickered into view.

Adeline.

What expression would she make when she faced the fall of the royal family before her own eyes.

She was so fragile she could not stop crying even when the mother who had used her passed away…

The mere thought of it brought a strange, unsettled feeling creeping in, and Kailen’s brow furrowed deeply.