The empress dowager bit her lip as she watched her son’s pleading back.

She never thought the capital’s gates would open so ridiculously.

She belatedly regretted the years she had ignored Mercedes while feeling uneasy about her. No, how could she have known that woman was a magician? That wasn’t her fault.

But even so…..

‘Damn monster of a son…..’

The emperor’s power was too strong.

She thought the palace walls had opened because of that woman’s power.

The path she was dragged along bound was not the palace gate, but a wall with a huge hole punched through it.

Seeing that trace as if a cannon had been fired, the emperor’s soldiers said things like ‘I’ll definitely reach that level too.’

So that wall must have been the emperor’s doing.

“Crazy bastard. Are you truly human?”

The empress dowager did not stop berating Carlos even though she was tied up and forced to kneel. Carlos snorted.

“What. Did you become so confident just because I fell into a trap, empress dowager?”

“One person can’t defeat a thousand soldiers. You’re a monster. Not human!”

“Oh? Then what am I?”

“The people of the Lum Empire are being deceived by you! I, no, even if I die, I will reveal your true identity! That day will be your downfall!”

Even in this moment when her life could end at any time, the empress dowager screamed and struggled.

Isn’t this an absurdly impossible ability?

No matter how strong that woman’s magic is, how can two people defeat a thousand?

And in the end, the rebellion was so easily suppressed.

“You monster, you beast, how dare you pretend to be human, you will be punished! Divine punishment!”

The empress dowager’s curses gradually turned into imprecations.

The empress dowager in her messy red dress. That intense color she had always monopolized matched well with the palace that had turned into a sea of blood.

As the empress dowager’s curses continued, Carlos’s face visibly turned bored, and Mercedes went to Sky Ra to help with the wounded.

The only ones listening intently to her curses were the emperor’s soldiers surrounding the empress dowager and the commander, and they discussed each of her words with serious faces.

“Our commander− ah no, His Majesty is inhumanly strong.”

“For a traitor, she has quite the eye.”

“But isn’t it a lack of vocabulary to only express strength as monsters or beasts?”

“But even I sometimes think he might be a beast.”

“Hey. You’ll be arrested for insulting royalty.”

“Our emperor is not so narrow-minded!”

Carlos, who had been looking bored, burst out laughing at the soldiers’ chatter. Somehow the atmosphere was peaceful despite someone spewing curses and screaming.

It must be because everything was certainly finished.

Whether she was tired from shouting, or her pride was hurt that Carlos was unaffected.

The empress dowager finally bowed her head.

And this time the rebel commander opened his mouth.

“……Carlos Rivera.”

“Ah. Were you the commander or something? I heard you were somewhat better.”

Mercedes had told him he seemed quick-witted and talented enough to lead the entire rebellion. Carlos approached him with very faint interest.

“I challenge you to a duel.”

The commander said something ridiculous while glaring at Carlos with bloodshot eyes.

“He must be crazy.”

“His guts must be bursting out from being near death.”

“What’s with the audacious duel challenge from a traitor?”

The soldiers chuckled. But Carlos’s face turned serious as he knelt down to meet the commander’s eyes.

“Do you know what you’re requesting right now?”

“What. Are you afraid to fight me?”

“Of course not. Not because I’m great, but because I can see at a glance how weak you are, so how could I fight such a weakling?”

“Are you not just making excuses to avoid it?”

“Haha. I envy that simple mind that thinks I would fall for such provocation. Ah, I guess that’s why you were conquered by me so early. Charging in after already losing once. Even beasts don’t do that.”

“Eek…!”

“His Majesty is quite good at fighting with words too.”

As the commander’s composure wavered, the surrounding soldiers looked at Carlos with somewhat pleased expressions. Besides Blood Demon of the Battlefield, there was another nickname for Carlos among the soldiers. It was Ear Cleaner.

It meant he would sarcastically scrape at people’s insides until not only blood came from their ears, but their eardrums would be cleanly blown away just from listening.

On days they were scolded by Carlos, the soldiers would say to each other, “Got my ears properly cleaned again today.” Of course, whispering so Carlos wouldn’t hear.

“You cannot request anything of me. You are a traitor to the Lum Empire, and you caused harm to civilians by starting a war, crazed for revenge just to take my one life. Why should I bother crossing swords with such a weak bastard who could only lure me out that way? How annoying.”

“Emperor, you must be angry at me, right? So fight me properly! On a warrior’s pride!”

“Ah yes, I am angry. Then I’ll just cut off your head and be done with it. Don’t ask me to uphold your pathetic warrior’s pride. You seem to have already thrown away your pride.”

“I…!”

The commander looked like he couldn’t find an answer for how to provoke the emperor.

“Is that the end of your last words? I’m reaching my limit of patience watching this boring struggle. Try to entertain me a bit more.”

“You bastard! You say you value human life? Where’s the blood from your conquest wars? What a contradictory emperor. You’re no different from a devil who deserves to die!”

“Yes, you and I are no different from devils. I’ve admitted that. I’ll fall to hell when I die. My sins are great. Then let me ask you. Have you thought about whether you’ll fall to hell?”

The commander’s mouth closed at the returned question.

“I… I…”

And then he muttered to himself.

Thinking it was all over now, Carlos was about to stand up. That’s when the heated commander lunged at him.

With his hands and feet bound, his body should naturally have tilted, but he jumped with all his might and pounced on Carlos.

“Let’s fall to hell together, Rivera.”

Despite the sudden situation where he shouldn’t have been able to avoid it, Carlos immediately kicked the commander away.

Then he sat down heavily on the body rolling on the ground.

As the large body pressed down on his injured solar plexus, the commander let out a pained sound for a moment before quickly clamping his mouth shut.

“I already knew what you were going to do. I’ve seen bastards like you once or twice before.”

Carlos forcibly opened his mouth by pressing on his jaw with his grip strength, and thoroughly examined the inside of his mouth.

And he found something behind the molars. When he took it out, it was a pill wrapped in a very thin iron material that would burst if bitten hard.

“A pill that, when chewed and swallowed to die, the poison leaks from the corpse and spreads to the surroundings? You were originally planning to somehow stab it into my body during a one-on-one fight, right?”

“Eek…! Ugh… Aack! Aaack!”

“Nice try. The drug must have been expensive too.”

The commander struggled in a state where he couldn’t even speak properly.

“But you underestimated my experience too much. I’ve caught this kind of thing hundreds of times.”

Carlos stood up while stepping on the commander’s neck.

“Executing you immediately wouldn’t be enough, but we need to make an example. Send him to the prison next to the imperial palace where serious criminals are gathered. If he struggles, you can knock him out.”

The empress dowager, former crown prince Adolf, and the rebel commander.

Thus, the three were imprisoned in the deepest part of the underground prison while bound. In a state where they couldn’t even move due to excessively heavy shackles and handcuffs.

In everyone’s eyes, inevitably, the color of defeat was painted.

“Um− the treatment of the wounded is roughly finished. So please carefully move your comrades to the barracks infirmary without injuring them further, taking care of your colleagues.”

“Yes, Lady Sky Ra!”

With Mercedes’s help, they were able to provide faster and more effective treatment than expected. Sky Ra felt a sense of deprivation at the empress’s power no matter how she thought about it as she moved. The soldiers also quickly began to gather and move their comrades.

In front of her were Mercedes and Carlos. Though their whole bodies were injured and covered in blood, the two embraced each other without minding.

“You didn’t wait for me to come and recklessly broke through the wall? I was worried.”

“My. If we were to speak of my worry for you, it would take three or four days, but you were even more worried?”

“Of course.”

“It doesn’t feel bad to be worried about.”

Carlos chuckled and briefly rested his forehead against Mercedes’s. Afterwards, the lovers entered the inner palace again. The sound of the servants inside welcoming them back could be heard.

It was… a romantic scene.

But for Sky Ra, who could be said to have had magic books as her first love and had no interest in love with people, she somehow got chills.

‘It’s good if they live well… Be happy, Carlos.’

While inwardly blessing them, she also thought that she would never be able to date as she moved her feet.

I should go to the lab and play with my lovely magical tools. She quietly watched them for a moment before quickly turning away.

Now truly believing − and hoping − that there would be no more war.