Chapter 369 Agent
Chapter 369 Agent
"Pardon me, King, I mean, President Will. However, all my retainers have been serving our kingdom for years. There can't be a traitor among us!"
Although her words denied the possibility, it was easy to guess that she was starting to have doubts. Of course, I'm not one to just spout nonsense either, so I just shrugged my shoulders.
"Well, then who's the person rummaging through the documents in the King's study?"
"...!"
A hint of panic appeared on her face before she waved her hand, ordering the kings before her.
"Knights! Go to the King's study and confirm President Will's words!"
Of course, running there would take too much time, so I grabbed her hand and lowered it.
"No, it'd be faster this way."
I opened a portal; the location was the furthest end of the room from the door. As soon as I passed through the portal, I saw the scene spreading before me. A majestic worktable, which was obviously something that craftsmen spent hundreds of hours making.
A beautiful red carpet covered the floor, seemingly more expensive than even my current attire. And four large bookshelves line both walls.
"Stop right there."
As soon as I raised my voice, the figure of the only other person in the room stopped abruptly. When he turned to face in our direction, his face turned pale.
"Y-You are...!"
Before he could finish his words, Queen Thalia and Princess Hazel entered behind me, followed by two knights. As soon as Queen Thalia saw the other person's face, she was shocked.
"Prime Minister Vermont?! Why?!"
From the tone of her voice, it was easy to guess how surprised and heartbroken the Queen was upon seeing him. I guess he's one of the most trusted officials in the kingdom and most likely a close confidant of the late King.
"Queen Thalia! Princess Hazel! T-This is a misunderstanding. I, I'm just safeguarding these records to make sure the demons don't destroy them!"
"Safeguard?"
I turned to look at a broken device at the corner of each bookshelf.
"The shelves are protected by a barrier, and you destroyed those instead of disabling them."
If he wanted to "safeguard" the records, then he should've gone and carefully removed the barriers protecting the shelves. However, he instead roughly destroyed the barrier, causing sparks to fly and damaging some of the documents. He even threw some of them on the ground, which was completely opposite of what he was claiming.
"I can't help it! The demons have already breached the entrance, and they'll soon reach this place! I have no time to waste carefully unlocking the barrier!"
The Prime Minister defended himself, trying to appear as if he were clean. However, he seemed to be digging his own grave for me.
"Really? Weird... You entered from the back entrance, so how do you know the situation at the front entrance?"
"...!"
His face immediately paled, as if he realized that what he said was a mistake. However, instead of countering my words and trying to plead for his innocence, he instead decided to take a different path.
"Queen Thalia! I've worked for this kingdom for over 10 years! You know I wouldn't betray you and the late King! Don't believe the words of this brat; he's spouting all lies to delude you!"
His plan seemed to have backfired even further, however.
"What are you saying, Vermont?! This person is the President of Heaven's Republic, the one we begged to take our Cleaver Kingdom under their wings!"
"W-What...? Isn't he Will, the Clan Head of the Luo and Seimei Families?!"
Oh, it looks like this spy was a little late with current events.
"Yes, I am. And I also became the new King, now President, of the Heaven's Republic. Aren't you the Prime Minister? Then you should know the name of the king you were talking to, at least."
"...!"
His eyes opened wide before showing his bare teeth, grinding in anger.
Then, without any warning, he suddenly charged forward, his hand glowing a fiery red. From the angle of his jump, I knew that I wasn't his target. He probably knew he couldn't handle me and instead switched his target to Queen Thalia and Princess Hazel.
"Come on, do I look like a scarecrow to you?"
Well, it's not like I'll just stand and watch as he attacks the two, however. As soon as he approached us, I grabbed his wrist, pulling it down. His body soon followed, crashing down the carpet. His limbs spread wide like a frog about to be dissected.
I raised my leg, about to stop his head and flatten it, but Queen Thalia suddenly raised her voice.
"Don't kill him!"
It was too late to stop my attack, so I just adjusted the angle a little. Instead of his head, my leg went down on his right shoulder, destroying his shoulder blade and collapsing half of his lungs. Just from the pain of that attack, the poor Prime Minister fainted in agony.
Still, the injury I gave him was definitely fatal. He'd die sooner or later if we didn't do anything. So, I had to take out a pretty expensive potion and sprinkle it over his body, just to preserve his life. I just wasted a million to help a spy... What the hell am I doing?
Queen Thalia kneeled before the Prime Minister, touching his head. Her hands glowed with a green light, which slowly and magically invaded the man's head. His body started to twitch like someone getting electrocuted or having a seizure, as Queen Thalia continued on with what she was doing.
After a few seconds, she lifted her hand and sighed. Her face was covered in a deep frown.
"This b*stard...! To think he's a spy planted by the Paragon Empire! I'll never forgive him!"
Was that... Mind reading?
I felt a chill run down my spine, seeing the now-unmoving body of the spy. Queen Thalia's "interrogation" method was simple and even included the cleanup at the end!
… And if she's planning to kill him either way, I shouldn't have wasted my precious potion on him.
*Sigh*