Schultz’s gaping mouth trembled.

Those were the words Schultz had whispered behind the king who said he was tired and would retire early on the day of the coronation ceremony.

This meant that the person before him was undoubtedly the king from that day.

His legs trembled with the utmost shock.

Several recent events that had shocked him rushed through his mind all at once.

Things increasingly were not going his way, the weekly magazine that had exposed his secrets, and the opera that had revealed the truth of that day to the world……

He suddenly thought that all those events must be related to the ‘sound’ king standing before him now.

“Im-impossible…… So you’ve been deceiving me with a fake king all this time……? Why, why……? Why….. Don’t tell me, to become king?”

Karl just stared at him silently.

It was frustrating not being able to see his face behind the mask.

Schultz felt confused.

For the first time in his life, he couldn’t decide what to do.

Everything went black before his eyes, and he swayed like a ship that had lost its direction.

When Schultz staggered, two men appeared from somewhere and restrained him by binding his shoulders.

“Let’s go down now. I’ve prepared a stage for the main actors.”

Karl passed by the struggling Schultz and returned to the secret passage.

Schultz screamed and struggled while being held, but a terrifying grip dragged him like a dog.

Schultz instinctively felt an ominous premonition.

A very ominous premonition……

“What is this……! No, let go, let me go! Let go! Uwaaaaah!”

His screams were swallowed into the dim secret passage.

After they had completely disappeared, Brook returned to his son’s side with a smile and stroked his thin cheek.

“Finally, it seems to be ending, Hans. Truly, the end……”

He slowly lay down beside his son’s head.

The past time had been a very harsh and arduous life for the old man too.

Now he wanted to take a little rest.

Oddly enough, Brook’s heart, as he drifted off to sleep, was more peaceful than ever before.

* * *

Bang!

When the explosion sounded, Maria screamed and hid behind the curtain.

The maids who were helping with her preparations did the same.

“The bridge, the bridge is collapsing!”

One maid who was trembling and pressed against the wall looking out the window shouted.

Startled, Maria quickly looked out the window and indeed saw the bridge connecting the king’s island and the nobles’ island collapsing.

And she could see numerous people who seemed to have crossed the collapsed bridge rushing toward the palace with weapons in hand and a terrifying momentum.

“Wh-what is that? A riot? They must be crazy!”

Maria covered her mouth with her pale face and shouted.

The first to regain their composure were the maids whose expressions suddenly changed completely.

“……I imagined such a day might come someday, but I never thought it would really arrive.”

One maid who had been trembling suddenly burst into laughter.

“My goodness, citizens are rebelling and storming the palace! And today is the king’s wedding day!”

“……Wh-what, why are you suddenly acting like this?”

“Why? Because it’s exhilarating!”

The maid tore off the headdress she was wearing, threw it on the floor, and looked at Maria.

“What’s so great about being born into a noble family and living in luxury.”

“……!”

“What’s the difference between nobles and us? Miss Maria, does different blood flow through your veins than ours?”

“Wh-what. She must be crazy.”

“That’s right. I must be crazy! So, please give some charity to this crazy woman!”

The maid laughed loudly and snatched the sapphire necklace that Maria had planned to wear for the wedding.

“It looks like the queen’s position is gone, so I’ll be taking my leave. Hey, you all should quickly assess the situation too. Why do you think they chose today? They wanted to stop this wedding, and they’re already at the palace’s doorstep. That means…… this young lady is going to die, don’t you think?”

“……!”

With those words, the maid ran away without looking back.

Other maids who had been blankly watching also quickly gathered their share and fled, leaving behind the shouting Maria.

The last one to remain was Lindsay alone.

“……Wh-what? What is this? What’s happening right now?”

Maria looked at Lindsay, trembling in shock and bewilderment.

Lindsay also stared blankly at Maria, then immediately turned around and left the room.

“Huh! Lindsay! Lindsay!”

Even Lindsay has betrayed me……

The empty room, the explosions heard again, the mess that the dressing room had become……

“Wh-what. I’m scared. What is this……”

Maria collapsed on the spot, trembling and sobbing.

She knew.

That she wasn’t a person who had grown up righteous and good……

But did her life have to completely collapse so suddenly like this?

“What is this. What is it…… What is this!”

Uh-huh-huk!

Since she was already wearing her wedding ceremony dress, her body was buried in the heavy dress.

Just when she thought she would be caught and killed helplessly, Lindsay, who she thought had run away, returned.

“Miss, wear this.”

“Li-Lindsay?”

“……I was going to just run away, but I thought it would weigh on my mind for the rest of my life. If you keep wearing that, others will immediately know who you are. Change into this. The protesters have already reached downstairs, so it’s difficult to go through the main entrance. Hurry!”

At Lindsay’s command, Maria hurriedly threw off her clothes.

While putting it on had been so difficult with all the care needed, taking it off happened in an instant.

Maria wore the ill-fitting servant clothes Lindsay had brought and grabbed the hem of Lindsay’s clothes with trembling hands.

“Wh-what should I do now?”

“Miss, this is the second floor, and if you jump down from here, you’ll reach the dock. Since it’s the second floor, you won’t get seriously hurt. Getting a little injured and rolling is better than dying. Can you jump?”

“B-but……”

“You need to choose, Miss. I don’t have time to convince you. I’ll go first!”

Lindsay took a deep breath and dropped down from the second-floor window.

“……!”

Surprised, Maria looked down through the window and saw Lindsay getting up from the ground, limping.

She found a boat used by servants without hesitation.

She truly seemed ready to leave like this.

‘No, I want to live……!’

After hesitating, Maria squeezed her eyes shut.

And holding her heart that felt ready to burst, she jumped out of the second-floor window running.

* * *

“Revolution! Eliminate the nobles! Defeat the rotten aristocracy!”

The shouts from outside echoed all the way into Luperia.

Startled by those fierce voices, Schultz anxiously looked around.

“Wh-where did the nobles go? Where, where did everyone go!”

The place where the king had dragged him was the palace chapel where the wedding was supposed to take place.

Seeing the blood-covered knights in front of the door and the empty interior, Schultz went wild.

Then suddenly, he discovered the familiar figure of someone sprawled on the floor like garbage.

“Landers!”

He rushed to the blood-covered Landers in surprise.

His hair and skin were all torn up, and his ankle was even bent in a grotesque direction.

“Landers! Landers!!”

“……Fa, ther.”

Landers painfully opened his eyes and looked at his father.

Shocked, Schultz tightly embraced his body and shouted at the king.

“What have you done to Landers!”

Karl smiled faintly and murmured.

“Still a father, I see. Your insides must be turning seeing your son in such a state.”

“Your Majesty!”

Schultz’s angry voice resonated throughout the empty chapel.

“No need to shout like that. I didn’t do anything to him. How could I do anything about him suffering the consequences of his own actions?”

Karl murmured cynically while slowly walking to the chapel’s altar.

Landers, who followed his back, coughed violently and said.

“……Are you satisfied? You’ve finally ruined the Tartiens.”

“……”

Karl stood on the altar steps without saying a word.

On the massive altar hung portraits of the bride and groom who were to be newly united.

Maria’s portrait was already uncovered, while Karl’s portrait was still veiled.

He slowly turned around and looked at Schultz and Landers.

“Did I do all this just to weed out the likes of you?”

Schultz’s eyes twitched at Karl’s statement.

His words were insulting, suggesting that they weren’t even worth his attention.

“Well, I did have personal grudges to settle, but that’s not all.”

Karl smiled faintly and slowly scanned his surroundings.

The places where nobles had left, the ruined grand chapel.

All of this would become the tomorrow of Levania.

He spoke in a heavy voice.

His voice resonated solemnly throughout the empty chapel.

“The Tartiens tried to go against the times. Because you tried to keep Levania trapped in stagnant waters, such a major operation became necessary.”

“What……?”

“Schultz, you seem intoxicated by the power you can wield in this country. Like you’re the king. But…… times are changing now, and will change even more, and with your rotten heart, this country can only perish.”

“Don’t, don’t talk nonsense!”

“Money will become power, and time will become the most valuable commodity. You wouldn’t understand. You’re obsessed with royal blood that can’t even be distinguished by the eye. Can you see how times are changing? How did you secure your noble position…… do you remember?”

Schultz gritted his teeth and shouted.

“Cut the crap! A ruler is always necessary! You can’t go against that natural order!”

“……The problem arises when it’s just one person. For that single pinnacle position, someone kills their brother, someone massacres their once-harmonious family to secure that place, and someone else pushes their only daughter into the bedroom of a man who might be a monster.”

“……So what? Looking back at history, everyone has claimed the throne that way.”

Landers shrieked in a voice that scraped his insides.

Karl smiled, showing his teeth at his words.

“You are people who try to live in the present based on the past. I…… want to use the present as a stepping stone to the future.”

“Ha, future……?”

What is that? Isn’t the present already the future?

Isn’t the present we live in becoming the future of Levania!

‘The king talks nonsense. Who doesn’t want to enjoy past glory!’

Landers, confused, stopped thinking.

Instead, he mustered all his strength and gripped the pistol he had hidden in his back pocket.

He couldn’t die alone like this.

Even if he couldn’t drag him down to hell together, he would at least put a bullet in that bastard.

Leaning against Schultz, he slowly pulled the trigger.

Schultz, reading Landers’ intention, supported his back firmly.

“……Stop talking nonsense.”

Landers gasped for breath, then took a deep breath and raised his hand abruptly.

“Die!”

Bang—

A sharp gunshot rang out.

But it wasn’t from Landers’ bullet.

“Kugh!”

Landers groaned, clutching his pierced wrist.

The pistol he had been holding fell to the floor with a thud.

“Landers!”

Schultz screamed and pulled Landers into his arms.

“Ha-hand…… My hand, hand……”

Landers trembled, gasping for breath and holding his bloody hand with his intact one.

Despair filled his eyes as he stared at his hand that had become a rag.

Two of the five fingers that should have been there were gone.

Schultz glared at the person who had shot Landers’ hand with bloodshot eyes.

“You woman! You, you crazy woman!”

Had she been there from the beginning, or had she slipped into the chapel without anyone noticing?

Lumiere, wearing a white robe, stood between the seats where nobles had sat, aiming her gun at them.