“I’m sorry... I realize my mistake now, so please... please forgive me...”

“That’s your apology? There’s no sincerity in it at all.”

“No sincerity? I’ve already given you so much. I practically handed over everything I had and nearly emptied myself out in the process. H-how can you say I’m not sincere?”

“Heh. So your idea of sincerity is pulling out this sort of meaningless thing to brush me off?”

Inside the temporary reception hall, Anna lazily rested her cheek against one hand as she looked at the man kneeling before her in luxurious formalwear. A faintly contemptuous smile curved her lips.

“You really think far too little of me, Count Nancy.”

“...”

The layers of fat across Count Nancy’s body trembled slightly. As he carefully raised his head to look at the young woman seated above him, the last trace of disdain finally vanished from his eyes.

Ten minutes earlier, when he had learned that the Empire’s representative was merely a young girl around twenty years old, he had secretly scoffed. He assumed the Empire must truly be short on capable personnel if they had sent a mere little girl to negotiate.

But after actually speaking with her, he realized this outrageously beautiful young woman—whose looks surpassed every one of his dozen mistresses—was terrifyingly experienced in many ways.

She was not easy to fool.

Nor did she seem to care at all about the precious treasures, enormous sums of money, or even the vast eastern coastal territories of the Kingdom that he had deliberately offered up.

She resembled a cold, merciless beauty serpent silently observing him while calmly calculating every ounce of value he possessed.

This was an extremely dangerous person.

Yet even after wiping away a layer of cold sweat, Count Nancy still decided to gamble.

Because he smelled opportunity.

Not long ago, the Empire had already occupied this city.

Without question, the side this beautiful serpent belonged to had become the victor of this war.

But the Empire’s victory did not mean he—and the Nancy family behind him—had failed as well.

The Empire could never swallow the entire Kingdom whole. They simply lacked the capability. Their own internal upheaval had only recently ended, and the aftershocks of that purge had not yet settled.

At the same time, the Church would never allow a nation beyond its control to become a true hegemon dominating the continent alone.

So the Kingdom’s final outcome would be nothing more than territorial concessions, reparations, and submission.

The age from centuries ago—when nations grew wildly and waged chaotic wars across the continent—had long since passed.

Within the current continental framework, without unified agreement from all sides, the destruction of an entire nation was essentially impossible.

The Imperial army would eventually withdraw from this city.

But during this period, the city’s power structure would inevitably be reshuffled completely.

Because the Empire did not understand this city, nor did it possess any real foundation here. Inevitably, they would need to support local proxies who could help them seize even greater benefits.

Count Nancy understood this perfectly.

This was his chance.

The Nancy family’s chance.

A chance for House Nancy to once again stand atop the Kingdom.

That was why he had come personally without hesitation, lowering his stance from the very beginning.

Once upon a time, House Nancy had been one of the Kingdom’s highest-ranking noble families.

But decades earlier, they had chosen the wrong side during the royal succession conflict, causing their status to collapse overnight.

And now, decades later, the dignified Count Nancy merely controlled the security forces of the western district. Aside from exploiting wartime grain prices for a little profit, he could accomplish absolutely nothing.

To him—and to all of House Nancy—that was the ultimate humiliation.

So he had to seize this opportunity.

The opportunity to return House Nancy to the pinnacle of the Kingdom.

And for that...

Even selling out a bit more of the Kingdom’s interests...

No, no, how could that possibly be called betraying the Kingdom’s interests?

This was for peace. For friendly relations and mutual cooperation between the Kingdom and the Empire. For ending the war through his own contribution!

Surely the Kingdom’s citizens would understand!

“Lady Kaplin, if you agree to my proposal, then aside from everything I already promised...”

Count Nancy gritted his teeth and continued:

“The Tividis Mountains! There are several excellent iron mines there. Twenty years ago, House Nancy still managed that region, so we know the details thoroughly. If you wish, I can personally represent the Kingdom in advance and lease those iron mines to you.”

“Iron mines?”

Anna narrowed her beautiful eyes and smiled faintly.

“You’re willing to hand over such an important resource just like that? If your citizens learned of this, they’d cause quite a scene.”

“That’s why it’s only a lease.”

Count Nancy nervously rubbed his hands together.

“It would naturally be written into the later treaties as war reparations. A term of... ten years? No, twenty. The veins should still remain productive for about that long. Officially, it would be a matter between nations, so naturally the public would have nothing to say. As for privately... there are actually five iron mines there. The treaty only needs to mention two of them. The mines are close together anyway, deep in the mountains. No one will investigate too carefully.”

“...”

A twenty-year iron vein secretly gifted to a private individual through backroom dealings—

Without question, this was an enormous bribe.

Forget Anna.

Even a ruler of a nation would be tempted by such an offer.

However...

Anna looked at Count Nancy in confusion.

“You’re really this natural about it? Not even a trace of guilt?”

“Guilt?”

Count Nancy froze.

“Guilt for what?”

“Guilt that what you just promised isn’t yours. It belongs to this nation, yet you hand it away so casually while acting as though it’s perfectly justified.”

“Th-that... why should I feel guilty?”

Count Nancy looked genuinely puzzled.

“I simply want House Nancy to grow stronger. Isn’t that how the world works? The strong devour the weak. Besides, House Nancy’s rise never depended on the Kingdom... we relied on our own efforts!”

“...”

Looking at this obese creature greedily sucking blood from a dying nation while shamelessly proclaiming it was all thanks to “his own efforts,” Anna suddenly felt an indescribable sense of absurdity.

Truly.

A maggot and a rat were nothing more than this.

“Your ‘gift’ is very sincere.”

Anna nodded approvingly.

“From the Empire’s perspective, someone capable of selling out his country so casually would indeed make an excellent dog.”

“R-right?!”

Count Nancy instantly brightened with excitement.

“To become the Empire’s dog would be my greatest honor!”

“However...”

Anna’s tone suddenly shifted.

“You disgust me.”

“Huh?”

Count Nancy stared blankly.

“D-disgust you? What do you mean?”

“It means...”

Anna snapped her fingers.

“You should disappear from my sight now.”

Darkness instantly surged from every direction. Grotesque shadows twisted within it as distorted limbs seized Count Nancy’s body and dragged him toward the depths of the dark.

“W-wait! Wait!”

At last understanding Anna’s meaning, Count Nancy panicked completely.

“You want to kill me? You want to kill me?! You can’t kill me! I can do far more for you... you can’t... let me see your Empress... I want to see your Empress... I’ve worked for the Empire... I guided your armies... let me see the Empress! Let me see the Empress! Let me—”

“Enough. Stop shouting.”

Anna lazily clapped her hands and said impatiently:

“I’m actually doing you a favor. You should know my dear Empress sister hates people like you most of all. If you met her, she might very well skin you alive. Compared to that, this death is merciful.”

Crunch. Rip. Crunch.

Along with the horrifying sounds of flesh tearing and chewing, Count Nancy’s screams gradually faded away.

Silence returned.

Anna lightly flipped through the documents on the table before her. Those reports had already been delivered before Count Nancy arrived.

Smuggling military supplies. Manipulating prices. Human trafficking. Stealing compensation funds intended for dead soldiers’ families...

In the poorer districts of the western quarter alone, countless people had starved to death this winter because he had inflated bread prices severalfold during wartime.

And yet the war between the Empire and the Kingdom had not even lasted very long.

Given the Kingdom’s scale, it should have been impossible for its citizens to fall into such misery so quickly.

This winter held no natural disaster.

Only human disaster.

“To think the Kingdom’s villains must be judged by an Imperial citizen. Seems this nation has rotted to the bone beneath its prosperous exterior.”

Anna sighed softly.

But in truth, had the Empire once been any different in certain ways?

Beneath flourishing branches lay roots riddled with holes from maggots and rats.

However, not everyone possessed that woman’s resolve and courage—the willingness to scrape poison from the bone itself in order to cure a nation’s deepest illness.

And the Kingdom’s old king certainly did not.

Because he himself was the largest rat of them all.

“Wasn’t that... a little excessive?”

At that moment, Veil—now officially promoted to the Empress’s personal affairs officer—peeked out nervously from a side room, puffing up her bun-like cheeks slightly.

“Killing Kingdom nobles so casually could destabilize the city, you know.”

A mirror sat atop Anna’s desk. Reflected within it was another room where many nobles from across the city currently waited.

At a time when circumstances were changing so rapidly, Count Nancy was obviously not the only one to sense opportunity. Numerous families eager to secure positions in the coming power struggle had sent representatives.

But after hearing Count Nancy’s screams moments earlier, hesitation had appeared on many of their faces. They had begun reconsidering whether their choices were truly wise.

“With a full hundred thousand Imperial soldiers occupying the city, what instability could there possibly be?”

Anna’s beautiful face carried nothing but contempt as she scoffed:

“When we entered the city, there wasn’t even resistance. Now that the entire city is under our control, you think they’d dare start trouble?”

Although they had received Muen’s warning beforehand, whether it was Celicia, Anna, or even Duke Lorne at the time, their greatest concern had been resistance upon entering the city.

After all, this was a metropolis with millions of inhabitants. If riots or resistance erupted, even they would suffer a massive headache.

They could hardly suppress everything through slaughter alone. The Church was watching closely nearby and would never permit that.

Thus, when they marched into the city, everyone had been tense to the extreme.

Yet unexpectedly—

There had been no resistance.

Barely even any unrest.

Even the supposedly most loyal Royal Guard and Royal Mage Corps had voluntarily laid down their weapons.

Some people had indeed panicked at the arrival of the Imperial army.

But more people had simply watched silently as the Imperial troops entered the city.

Neither grieving.

Nor rejoicing.

It was almost as though, within some unseen timeline, the citizens had undergone a certain kind of cleansing. They had already lost faith in the Kingdom, while also holding no real affection toward these new arrivals—only a subtle overturning of their previous perceptions for reasons unknown.

And so, when facing the invading army of an enemy nation, they instead reacted with complete indifference.

Surely things couldn’t become any worse.

Whether it was merely her imagination or not, Anna felt that was exactly what the citizens were thinking.

“Did you do something again, Muen?”

Anna murmured softly.

Through the Silent Bureau’s intelligence network, she knew the city’s public sentiment had looked entirely different not long ago.

Back then, the streets and alleys had been filled with discussions of how many Imperial fortresses the glorious Kingdom had conquered and what terrible deed that villainous Muen Campbell had committed this time.

Even now, some newspapers still carried headlines absurd enough to make her laugh helplessly.

Which made this sudden shift in attitude deeply intriguing.

Unfortunately, events had unfolded too quickly and urgently. She had not yet found time to ask Muen directly.

And before the Imperial army entered the city, Muen had already fallen unconscious.

Reportedly, a Temple Archbishop from the Church personally examined him and concluded that he had merely exhausted his mind and spirit too severely. He simply needed rest.

Yet that “rest” had already lasted three days.

“Speaking of that...”

Anna looked toward Veil.

“What exactly is that woman doing? She dumped all the troublesome work on me, yet I haven’t even seen her shadow.”

“You mean Her Majesty the Empress?”

Veil wrinkled her nose slightly, clearly displeased by Anna’s disrespectful tone. But she also knew this woman dared speak that way directly to the Empress’s face, so there was little she could say.

“Her Majesty arranged a banquet tonight with several of the city’s major nobles.”

“Major nobles?”

“The ones with real power. You could say they’re the true foundation of the entire Kingdom.”

“I see.”

Anna let out a cold laugh.

“So the ones left for me are merely fattened pigs. No wonder she hasn’t even bothered to glance over here. Whether they’re slaughtered sooner or later hardly matters.”

“Please don’t say that! Her Majesty is very busy!” Veil protested angrily.

“Oh, I know she’s busy. At a time like this, if she isn’t busy, who would be? Even arranging banquets... hm? Wait. What time is the banquet?”

Anna suddenly narrowed her eyes.

“Several hours from now.”

Veil blinked, unable to understand why Anna would ask such an obvious question.

“A banquet is held at night. But it’s not nighttime yet.”

“And before that?”

“Before that?”

Veil pulled out a small notebook and flipped through it.

“It looks like Her Majesty doesn’t have any special arrangements beforehand. She probably went to handle miscellaneous matters.”

“Miscellaneous matters? Hah. There’s endless work right now, and the mighty Empress personally went to handle miscellaneous tasks? Then what exactly is her personal affairs officer doing? Coming here to supervise me?”

“Huh? That’s true. Why did Her Majesty send me here to help you?”

Veil scratched her head in sudden realization, equally confused now.

Anna Kaplin, Swordbearer of the Silent Bureau, handling these matters could still be explained as temporary reassignment due to manpower shortages.

But Veil was the Empress’s personal affairs officer!

She was supposed to help the Empress with miscellaneous matters—not help temporarily assigned personnel like Anna!

Veil knew that although the two women constantly bickered, the Empress actually trusted this Swordbearer greatly in private. So it could not possibly be because she feared Anna causing trouble.

“I understand now!”

After thinking for a long while, Veil suddenly clapped her hands.

“Her Majesty must have gone to handle something even more important!”

“...Are you sure?”

“What else could it be?”

Veil planted her hands on her hips confidently.

“Her Majesty’s eyes are always fixed on the Empire’s future. She’s definitely working hard for that future right now!”

“...You’re not wrong. She is working hard for the Empire’s ‘future.’ Just... in a somewhat different sense.”

Anna abruptly lost all laziness. She even crushed the armrest of her chair in one hand as a dazzling, dangerous smile bloomed across her face.

“Oh my. What an unexpected discovery.”

“Maggots and rats indeed.”

“Who would’ve thought that aside from the Kingdom’s vermin, there’d also be a little mouse on our side sneaking off to steal a taste?”

“Huh? Where are you going? There are still people waiting to see you!”

Seeing Anna stand, Veil hurriedly called out.

“To exterminate pests.”

Without even turning her head, Anna replied coldly:

“A little thief sneaking food behind everyone’s back...”

“...needs to be properly disciplined.”