“Please… please spare my life, Your Highness.”

Julia bowed her head on the cold floor. Her fingertips gripping the stone floor were blunt.

Standing in a corner of the grand assembly hall, I watched the scene and then turned my gaze to the vassals and their successors gathered in the distance.

The faces of the old vassals showed regret, while the young successors’ faces reflected anger and a desire to look away.

Communicating with a southern spy, helping the spy escape during the battle with monsters, and causing the death of an innocent life as a result.

Everyone gathered here now knew all the crimes she had committed.

I looked at the Grand Duke.

‘What will you do, Your Highness?’

After a long silence, the Grand Duke opened his eyes.

His gaze was directed only at the vassals. He did not even glance at Arcadia and Julia.

“Today, we have gathered to ask for your opinions representing all of the North. I ask you. What punishment do you think is appropriate for Julia Nugent?”

“I am Benel, the young lord of Baron Armand’s family, Your Highness.”

Amidst the silence, a young blonde successor raised his hand.

“Speak.”

“The crimes committed by Lady Nugent are, no matter how you look at it, treason. We should apply the precedent of how the North has dealt with traitors to this criminal as well.”

“Are you speaking of execution?”

“Yes. Regrettably, I believe that is fair, Your Highness.”

“I see.”

‘I see, he says.’

“Are there any other opinions?”

At the Grand Duke’s question, an elderly nobleman raised his hand. He was a small man with a gentle appearance, his white hair half balding.

“Speak, Antoine.”

‘Antoine! That’s the Empress’s brother.’

“Your Highness. Though I may not be qualified to speak as one who has lost his title, I heard that the criminal was under hypnosis when she helped the spy escape. Is this true?”

“It is.”

The Grand Duke said flatly.

“If I may humbly suggest, in consideration of the loyalty of the previous Nugents, perhaps punishment could be limited to stripping the Nugent family of their title?”

Antoine’s tone was extremely cautious.

He too had lost his title for failing to prevent the death of the Crown Prince and Princess within his own territory.

Perhaps that’s why he’s even more careful, yet he musters the courage to speak.

The Grand Duke opened his mouth.

“I ask you all. Those who agree to conclude this matter by stripping the Nugent family of their title, raise your hands.”

Then, some people raised their hands hesitantly. Barely a dozen or so.

The Grand Duke asked again.

“Then those who agree to execute Julia Nugent for treason, raise your hands.”

At that result, I closed my eyes.

Almost everyone, except for about a dozen, raised their hands.

Arcadia lowered his head.

Bran’s face contorted in pain.

“Lord Arcadia Nugent, what do you think?”

The Grand Duke’s final, flat question was directed at Arcadia. Cruelly so.

The low murmuring noise completely disappeared. Everyone looked at Arcadia.

‘Arcadia.’

My heart ached.

His long platinum blonde hair, almost silver, covered his face, but I could tell. That he had already given up hope.

I slowly approached him.

Arcadia knelt on one knee and removed the epaulette on his shoulder.

Then he removed the silver brooch in the shape of a thorn vine, his family’s symbol, from his chest and placed it on the floor.

People began to stir.

“Your Highness, the law should be fair to everyone. Knight Hans Edel died. It’s an incident that would not have happened if the southern spy had not escaped. My sister’s crime is this heavy.”

“Brother?”

Julia’s face contorted. Arcadia spoke.

“Therefore, punish all Nugents, including myself, along with my sister.”

“!”

Julia closed her mouth.

‘All Nugents?’

“As soon as my sister’s sentence is carried out, I will relinquish the Nugent title. And please send me to the northernmost border with Sanctus. There, I will atone for the sin of treason committed by my blood relative until I die.”

“…Have you discussed this with your family head as well?”

The Grand Duke’s voice sank.

“…Yes.”

Arcadia answered. Infidel Nugent also knelt below the platform.

“Brother! Why… why are you trying to throw your life away because of me? If you go to the northernmost border, you’ll die!”

Julia shouted, trembling. With an expression of incomprehension.

With a face that couldn’t understand why her little brother, who didn’t even love her, would give up his title and go to his death because of her.

“Why…”

Her voice trailed off.

“Why.”

Sadness began to seep into the end of her voice.

In the heavily sinking air, the Grand Duke opened his mouth.

“The red caterpillar who killed Knight Hans Edel and escaped is an assassin of the Southern Grand Duke Lahert.”

“!”

The vassals stirred.

It was because the Grand Duke had officially revealed the background of the incident.

Revealing the name was officially identifying who the enemy was.

In my previous life, the Grand Duke couldn’t officially declare Lahert as an enemy because they were still part of one empire, even while suffering secretly.

But now, he has spoken out loud the truth that everyone suspected but no one dared to say openly.

“He approached the criminal under the pretext of bringing a diamond mine as a gift, under orders from the Southern Grand Duchess Medeia.”

The Grand Duke looked at Julia Nugent for the first time.

“Grand Duke Lahert tried to poison me in the South, and failed in an attempt to assassinate Lord Arcadia Nugent. The one who tried to kill Lord Arcadia Nugent was an assassin called the ‘Black Bug’. He is the one who assassinated the former Acting Grand Duke of the North, Hern Nugent.”

The hundred or so vassals and their successors began to stir.

“So it was really the South that killed the former Acting Duke!”

“What we only suspected turns out to be true?”

“If it hadn’t been stopped, this time it would have been Your Highness and Lord Nugent…”

The stirring soon turned into surging anger.

In my previous life, the death of Hern Nugent remained an unsolved case until the Northern Grand Duke stood on the execution ground for treason.

Because there was no evidence that it was the South’s doing.

“Evidence, do you have any evidence, Your Highness!”

An old vassal with graying hair raised both arms and shouted.

The Grand Duke looked at me.

“Knight Esther, can you show the vision stone?”

“Pardon?”

‘Vision? Could it be that vision.’

I was taken aback for a moment, but soon obeyed the order. It’s something I always carry with me anyway.

As I took out the vision stone, the Grand Duke said.

“Let everyone see the conversation you had with the red caterpillar at the tavern when you were in the Empire.”

“…Yes.”

I see.

In that vision, the caterpillar tells me to approach Julia Nugent.

And when I ask if the Black Bug killed Hern Nugent, he affirms it and says the bug is already dead.

“You should know in advance that I used Knight Esther as a spy to investigate the South.”

The Grand Duke said.

I projected the vision onto the ceiling of the grand assembly hall.

On the infinitely high white ceiling, the vision unfolded like a fresco painting.

When the red caterpillar mentioned Julia Nugent’s name and admitted that the Black Bug killed Hern Nugent, angry exclamations burst out.

“That damned Southern Grand Duke!”

The vassals who saw everything trembled with anger.

The Grand Duke spoke.

“We have not yet taken our revenge on them for the North. I want to ask. Do you want revenge?”

“Yes!”

“Of course!”

Everyone shouted in unison. The seething anger reached even me standing in the corner.

“Then I will ask once more. Do you only want revenge? Or do you want victory?”

“!”

The boiling heat cooled down coldly.

A question asking whether they only want revenge, or if they want true victory.

After a while.

“Victory! True victory!”

The oldest vassal, who looked over 90 years old, straightened his back and shouted.

“Count Barkun.”

“Your Highness. Revenge is but a moment, and when that moment passes, only emptiness remains. But victory is eternal. Victory is the greatest revenge, surpassing revenge itself. It is to annihilate the enemy beyond retaliation.”

Everyone nodded at the old vassal’s words. The young successors looked as if their blood was boiling, ready to draw their swords at any moment.

But only the Grand Duke showed no reaction.

He spoke to me in an even colder, more detached voice than before.

“Lord Esther, can you show us the scene of the red caterpillar hypnotizing Julia Nugent?”

“…Yes.”

I projected that scene onto the ceiling as he ordered.

The caterpillar pleads his innocence to Julia with tears.

Then Julia, with a face about to cry, begs the caterpillar inside the bars.

– Let me be with my mother and father just one more time.

At those words, everyone fell silent.

Among those gathered here, there is no one who doesn’t know who Julia’s parents are.

The caterpillar casts the hypnosis.

– Julia Nugent, who am I?

– My friend.

– Yes, you foolish girl.

– I’m a foolish girl.

I showed until Hans Edel’s death.

One vassal muttered regretfully.

“Ah… this foolish!”

Julia bowed her head to the floor as if burying it.

‘Has she now realized her sin?’

The Grand Duke spoke.

“Julia Nugent deserves the death penalty.”

Most people had said to kill Julia. But at this moment, at the Grand Duke’s words, everyone held their breath in silence.

“I thought all night. As the Grand Duke of the North, descendant of the God Belfast! Because I must punish traitors.”

“…”

Words everyone could understand.

The Grand Duke continued.

“But I thought as a human being, not as a Grand Duke. I… do I bear no responsibility for today’s tragedy?”

Everyone looked at the Grand Duke.

“I was not strong enough to protect Hern Nugent from the South. Because I had to go as a hostage to the Empire, Julia Nugent had to lose her little brother. That little brother left his family alone at the young age of nine to follow me.”

At those words, Arcadia raised his head.

“Can I hold my head high before you all?”

“…”

“While I was gone, you did your best to survive solely with the strength of the North. I am grateful to you and cannot hold my head high.”

‘…Your Highness.’

“Your Highness!”

The vassals called out to the Grand Duke.

The Grand Duke said.

“The South, Lahert, approached the only daughter of the Nugent family to try to divide the North. The important thing is that they tried to divide us.”

‘!’

I realized what the Grand Duke was trying to say.

‘My Grand Duke.’

“After the southern spy was imprisoned in our underground dungeon, monsters attacked the northwest. Is that a coincidence?”

The hundred or so people who had been listening began to raise their heads.

“While fighting the monsters, we encountered Sanctus, who seemed to be waiting for us. The arrows they shot at my knight, who is a Sword Master, were coated with southern poison. Is that a coincidence?”

Once again, anger began to engulf the hall.

The Grand Duke ordered.

“Knight Esther, would you show us how the holy sword revealed itself to you?”

“!”

‘I obey your command.’

So this is how you use what you told me to use.

I projected onto the high ceiling the image of the Grand Duke coming towards me holding the holy sword Lapis.

Seeing that image, everyone knelt on both knees and clasped their hands in worship.

“It is the God Belfast!”

“He has revealed himself after a thousand years!”

“Oh Lapis!”

The image of the holy sword shown by Ventus’s vision stone was brilliant.

Something that anyone could see was not a human object. The Grand Duke, who had become one with the sword’s blue aura, raises it.

That sword pierces my shoulder.

A brilliant light envelops the entire room and Lapis disappears like smoke.

Everyone looked at the Grand Duke. And then, at me.

“The holy sword saved the first Sword Master in the history of the continent, for our North.”

A Sword Master, a being who could destroy or save an entire continent.

“In response to my prayer, the holy sword descended from the highest place by itself. For our North.”

“!”

“We can win. Because we are us.”

The low murmuring gradually changed into fierce cheers.

“Will you take revenge, or will we protect ourselves, unite, and achieve victory?”

“We will achieve victory!”

Everyone shouted.

The Grand Duke commanded.

“I will pass judgment on Julia Nugent. First, Sword Master, Knight Esther, come forward.”

“Yes.”

I slowly walked and stood below the Grand Duke. Then I removed the mask covering the left side of my face.

“I, Esther, have regained my appearance and power by the grace of the holy sword, so I will become the sword of the North and fight for the North. However, only Belfast can draw the hilt of that sword.”

“Knight Esther, cut the criminal’s hair.”

I infused the sword with sword energy. In an instant, the sword grew more than three times its original length.

Hearing the gasping sounds of everyone, I faced Julia sitting far away.

Her eyes widened with fear.

I lightly swung the sword in the air.

Her long platinum blonde hair that reached her waist was cut short and fell to the floor.

This time, a real exclamation burst out.

The Grand Duke spoke.

“I will pass judgment.”