Chapter 671
Episode 170: Meeting Another Friend, Dante (4)
“Seven, huh.”
Despite the many tragedies that had unfolded, Dante had seized absolute power over the empire at an astonishing pace over the past three years.
Usually, power gained that quickly is unstable.
But with only seven traitors uncovered, it was clear just how skillfully Dante and his advisor, Kashimir, had managed things.
Yuria handed Dante a map she had prepared in advance, marking the positions of the implicated officials.
“Three rank-10 officials, three rank-7, and one rank-5?”
Jin glanced sideways to confirm the locations of the traitors.
“They’re too insignificant to have been recruited to assassinate the empire’s regent.”
At a glance, none of them were even known to Jin by face. They weren’t from noble families, nor did they possess any remarkable talents. Just ordinary officials.
Dante shared the same doubt. He couldn’t immediately imagine what these people could possibly do to assassinate him.
But outward appearances and abilities could always be deceiving. Zephyr had been like that, and who knew how the prophet’s chaos control powers might transform a person.
“Yes, I trust that everyone’s too busy to even consider betrayal.”
Many officials inwardly cursed at that statement, but none of the liars were among them.
Silence fell.
When Yuria had identified the liars earlier, the room had been quiet for nearly ten minutes. The officials were utterly baffled by Dante’s behavior.
After a long moment of thought, Dante finally gave up and turned to Jin, signaling him to come closer and whisper.
“Why?”
“I knew those seven could be traitors, but what should I ask next?”
“Since when did you get so dumb? That’s not a question.”
“I’ve always been a bit slow on the uptake.”
“I should’ve prepared a proper list of questions for you. No need to think twice, Dante. Just ask if anyone here has passed information to Runcandel. That’ll tell us if they merely had second thoughts or if they truly betrayed us.”
“Oh, understood.”
Dante cleared his throat.
“Ahem! Since there aren’t many questions left, I ask you all to bear with my strange behavior.”
“Not at all!”
“Not at all!”
Yuria considered marking the liars again but stopped—there were simply too many.
“Among those present, has anyone shared information about me or the empire with the Garden of Swords?”
Naturally, the answer was no. But the seven who had sworn the truth were still lying.
Jin soon understood why the Garden of Swords had recruited such ordinary people as their pawns.
“Palace insiders. Unless the prophet granted them special powers, they only needed people with access to the palace.”
The reason palace insiders were necessary was obvious.
The Bimant Imperial Palace was the largest external structure in the world, with the most complex internal layout.
Especially the secret areas—like the emperor’s quarters or underground passages—were unknown even to other great powers.
“Since the seven confirmed traitors are low to mid-level officials, they probably don’t know all those secret areas.”
Even the long-standing spies planted by factions like Runcandel, Ziphl, and the Nameless had failed to uncover them.
Moreover, the palace’s secret zones were periodically relocated.
So why these seven?
Jin formed a hypothesis.
“What if the tunnels the prophet built in the Sota Desert required palace insiders’ help? Even if they didn’t have detailed info on secret areas, they might have needed a rough layout of the palace’s interior.”
Still, questions remained.
Dante had often gone on solo missions into contaminated zones, so if an assassination were to happen, those moments would be more opportune.
“We can figure out why he chose the palace later.”
For now, they needed to confirm what information had been passed and whether their suspicions were correct.
“Jin.”
“Ask if anyone here has received chaos or other special powers.”
Dante nodded.
“Final question. Among those gathered, has anyone been granted chaos or other special abilities?”
“No!”
This time, no one lied.
The traitors had not received chaos powers.
That meant capturing them wouldn’t cause further casualties.
“Restrain them.”
Jin whispered, and Dante’s eyes flared with suppressed fury.
“Hailan!”
“Yes, Lord!”
“Kima Rights, Julian Rights, Edmond Kell, Dva Roskella, Bernard Quain, Kilean Knash, Ata Boin. Capture these seven alive immediately.”
Hailan’s elite guards subdued them in less than fifteen seconds.
The officials were stunned by the sudden turn of events.
They had been summoned abruptly, only to see these lowly figures threatened—it felt like an attempt to instill fear.
Some even thought Dante had finally unleashed his vengeance against Ron and become a tyrant.
“Your Majesty! What is the meaning of this?”
“Why are you doing this to us?”
“To prevent misunderstandings among the other officials, I will explain the truth. Standing behind me is the princess of the Free Nation Tikan and a contractor of Az Mil.”
“Ah…!”
Gasps echoed throughout the room.
If the disguised girl was Yuria Alfrion, the man whispering with the regent was obviously Jin.
There was no longer any reason to hide their identities.
“I am Jin Runcandel of the Bamel Alliance. Our intelligence sources have confirmed that the palace betrayed Ziphl and sided with the Garden of Swords. Therefore, it was urgent to investigate if anyone within the empire was colluding with the Garden.”
The captured traitors were forced to kneel before Dante.
Dante immediately covered Yuria’s eyes, drew his sword, and struck one of them down.
A thick spray of blood quickly stained the golden floor.
“Eek!”
“Misunderstanding! I—I did not betray!”
“Shut your mouth. Those who died painlessly before were simply lucky. You are not.”
The traitors trembled, glancing around.
Not only Dante and Jin’s group, but even the officials—who harbored anger and hatred toward the regent’s brutal overwork—glared at them as if ready to kill.
Though they might dislike Dante, all present had devoted their lives to the empire.
They took great pride that, despite this chaotic era, the imperial capital remained intact. They believed no method was better for the empire than Dante’s.
Yet these traitors had tried to ruin everything.
“If you want to lessen your misfortune, you’d better answer my questions with complete honesty from now on.”
At Dante’s signal, servants quickly cleaned up the corpse and wiped the blood. When Yuria opened her eyes again, seeing only six left, she thought Dante had a surprisingly fierce presence.
“First, what did the Garden of Swords promise you?”
Jin expected the answer to be immortality, like foolish elders from Barton or Seigalga in the past.
“…Survival.”
One of the traitors met Dante’s gaze calmly.
He had the most composed eyes among the six remaining.
He had long prepared himself for this day.
“Survival?”
“Regent, we met Lord Rosa personally. Though it was through a crystal orb, we spoke with him and saw the power Runcandel wields. He vowed to destroy everything in the world except Huepester.”
“So you betrayed me to abandon a doomed empire and live a miserable life under Rosa’s rule?”
“If you truly care for the empire, surrender to Lord Rosa now. Though I am a traitor, this is my final honest advice.”
According to Yuria, the traitors genuinely believed this.
They thought neither the empire nor the world combined could stop Rosa.
“I do not blame your weak choice. But accept the punishment that will follow calmly.”
“You intend to annihilate our entire families, don’t you?”
“Everything belonging to your families will be erased from this world. But if you confess the information you gave to Rosa, I will spare your children and innocent servants.”
Yuria revealed a blue cord, confirming Dante’s words were true.
The traitor who had spoken bowed his head.
“We low-ranking officials know little, Your Majesty. The information we gave Lord Rosa is, I swear, only the palace’s internal layout.”
Jin recalled the prophet’s tunnels once more.
“Did they explain what they intended to do with that information?”
“Yes.”
It was true. As Jin had suspected, they had no information beyond the palace’s rough layout to share with Runcandel.
In fact, Rosa hadn’t asked for anything else.
“We will honor that promise. Take them away.”
As the traitors were dragged off, every official’s face was twisted with hatred.
Not toward Dante, but toward Rosa and the Garden of Swords.
Jin stepped forward.
“The prophet in the Garden of Swords has the ability to create special tunnels. It’s very likely that the traitors obtained the layout of the royal fortress to build those tunnels. They might not have been planning just to assassinate the regent—they could have been trying to invade the fortress through these underground passages.”
So, the task now was to find out if tunnels had already been dug inside the fortress.
Dante had already come up with a plan.
“We’ll tear down the entire fortress to find out. It’s filled only with the lost symbols of a vanished royal family, so there’s nothing to mourn. We’ll begin immediately. Prepare yourselves.”