They brought me up to the throne room. The last time I’d been summoned here, it had been empty except for me and Eberhart, but now the walls were lined with guards and ministers all around. Eberhart didn’t move to his throne—he stopped right in front of it and had the guards sit me on the floor at his side.
He seemed to be waiting for something. He stared straight at the doors, occasionally tugging or stroking my hair idly, as though to kill time. I sat there in a haze, just letting it all happen. I didn’t know what was right anymore. What should I say? What should I do? Even if I arrived at an answer, I couldn’t trust myself anymore.
My stupor was finally interrupted by the sound of the door opening and a guard quickly stepping inside.
“We’ve brought him, Your Majesty.”
I was distantly aware of a group of people walking into the room at Eberhart’s command. I lifted my gaze to them, my eyes bleary and aimless...and my breath caught in my throat.
“Lord Heinreid... It’s a relief to see you.”
“Craig...?”
Two guards marched in the man who I’d poisoned and abandoned at the estate. They stopped near the entrance, holding a pair of crossed swords at his throat. The sword he always wore at his hip was gone.
Utterly confused, I looked up at Eberhart in search of answers. He noticed my gaze and gave a little smile back.
“Honestly, Heinreid. I warned you that he’d originally been Sighart’s dog and that you needed to train him thoroughly, did I not? The fool stormed into the palace all alone, demanding your release... Ah, no, that’s right—you aren’t Heinreid. You’d have no way of knowing what warning I gave him.”
I was Heinreid, dammit—but that didn’t matter at all anymore. My mind was filled with recollections of the final battle scene from the novel. Sig and Natasha were the ones to storm into the throne room, and Craig’s role was to hold off the other enemies downstairs.
Craig never came in here. He couldn’t be here...
“Why...?” I asked.
“Whichever of you I kill first, I’m certain that letting you die before each other’s eyes will prove most entertaining.”
My unthinking question was met with an utterly inhuman reply.
No... No way. I betrayed Craig that ruthlessly, and he still came to save me? And he let the guards capture him because Eberhart had me in here? Then, this is all my...
“S... Stop! Please, don’t! I’m the one you hate, aren’t I?! So just—”
“Silence.”
My desperate, pleading cries died in the face of that single word and the sword pressed to my neck. Eberhart had drawn his blade with a swift, practiced motion, and now he spoke coldly and mercilessly.
“I warned you to cease such pathetic displays. Keep it up, and my hand may slip. Let me be clear: Even if I choose to kill you first, I have no intention whatsoever of releasing that man. This room shall be the site of your executions—both yours and his. Now, which shall I start with?”
His voice was utterly casual, and he glanced back and forth between me and Craig as though he were having trouble deciding which snack to eat from a platter. I finally realized that there was nothing I could do anymore—I lost the strength even to speak.
But another voice rang out, cutting through the heavy silence.
“Your Majesty,” said the man who was literally trying to share in my fate right now. “Why do you wish to kill His Grace? You were...quite deeply invested in him, were you not?”
Craig’s voice was quiet and strangely tranquil, completely at odds with the situation.
What do you mean, “why”? I told you back at the estate, didn’t I? So what’s... Is he buying time?
“You know the reason as well as I, don’t you?” Eberhart replied. “This man is not Heinreid, not by any means—merely an impostor, alike only in appearance.”
“You have brought him here, you’ve had him kneel at your feet, and you still believe so—is that correct, Your Majesty?”
“Of course. Heinreid was not—could never be—a disgraceful, suicidal wretch such as this forgery.”
For some reason, Eberhart was playing along with Craig’s questions. Even I could tell that Craig was up to something—there was no way Eberhart hadn’t noticed too.
“He did not live merely for life’s sake, let alone for death’s,” Eberhart continued. “He was a man who understood the natural order of things, death following at the end of life. He would never, under any circumstances, perpetrate such an idiotic act as to throw his own life away.”
Oh... I get it now.
The spear of his words stabbed through my heart once again, and I finally understood.
This guy genuinely, utterly loathes me, doesn’t he? That’s why he wants to kill me. Just ruining my body isn’t enough for him anymore—he won’t be satisfied until he’s torn me to shreds on the inside too.
God... Maybe it would’ve been better if I’d just stayed the villain. Then things wouldn’t have ended up like this, would they? If Craig had killed Heinreid without any hesitation, just like in the novel, then we wouldn’t be facing this hollow, meaningless ending...
Countless emotions were pressing down to crush me. I couldn’t even raise my head anymore.
“If you are so certain of that, then you have no further use for that man, do you, Your Majesty?”
But...as I sat, head hung, some absolutely ridiculous words reached my ears. Question marks floated through my mind.
“If that is indeed the case, then surely you should have no objection to me taking him. You may no longer have need of him, but he is precisely what I want.”
Wait, hang on. What the hell are you saying? That’s not what this is— Huh?
Is that what this is about?
While I sat there, lost and confused, Craig pushed on through and issued his demand.
“If you would cast him aside yourself, then matters are quite simple. Give him to me.”
A strange stillness took hold of the room. The silence was deafening. Even Eberhart was taken aback for a few moments. But before long, he burst into laughter.
“Ha ha ha! You would demand a boon from me? And this man, of all things? Oh, what a delightful farce! I see now why Heinreid found you worth keeping!”
He laughed long and loud. Then, finally, he let out a sigh and lifted his sword away from my throat.
“But you misconstrue my character, Craig Bauer. I am a man of many terrible habits. I may discard something of my own will, but the moment another should seek to pick it up, I begin to covet it jealously.” He turned back to me. “And so, my mind is set.”
The moment the words left his lips, I heard a sick piercing noise, and a jolt of heat raced through my foot.
My mind couldn’t keep up with what was happening. When I turned toward the source of the heat, I saw the polished blade of a sword stuck straight into my foot and finally realized that Eberhart had stabbed me.
“H...hgh—!”
An intense pain followed soon after, and a strained grunt spilled from my mouth as I barely held back my scream. The blade slowly withdrew, and blood gushed out, staining the marble floor.
That definitely wouldn’t be enough for him. I shut my eyes tight, trying to brace myself for the second blow, wherever it would come. But the pain I prepared myself for never arrived. Instead, the scraping clash of metal against metal rang out over my head. The ministers assembled around the wide throne room began kicking up a stir, and a shout of “Your Majesty!” sent my eyes snapping back open. Instinctively turning toward the clash of metal, I saw Eberhart blocking a swing of Craig’s sword.
Wait, he was unarmed... So how did he...?
I glanced over at the entrance—the two guards who’d been holding swords to Craig’s throat moments ago were both crumpled on the floor. Looking closer, one of the pair was missing his weapon.
Did... Did Craig just knock out two of the king’s personal guards, steal a sword, and make it all the way over here, all in that one instant? Holy shit...
Amid the tense atmosphere, I sat there feeling a little bit terrified of my former guard captain’s unreal strength. Eberhart was having trouble holding him back, but with a sharp exhale, he let up the pressure and parried Craig’s sword off to the side. He let his longsword slip from his grip and pulled a hidden dagger from somewhere. As Craig’s stance fell apart, Eberhart lunged for his throat.
But Craig dodged at the last second, and as he retreated, he grabbed me by the collar and yanked me away with incredible force. As he pulled me away from Eberhart, all I could do was go where he dragged me, leaving a trail of blood in my wake.
“Now this is a surprise,” Eberhart said slowly. “I knew that you were quite skilled, but you have truly come a long way from the powerless brat you once were.”
“My master was a strict and fearsome man. His Grace decreed that my punishment was to be kept alive—but nevertheless, he cared little for my life, and I was sent into battle all alone on more than one occasion.”
“And so you make use of that experience now?” Eberhart chuckled. “But all you’ve done is seize a momentary opening with a surprise attack. The guards of this palace are no mere common rabble.”
“I suppose not. However, as it happens...I am not alone.”
Eberhart cocked his head at Craig’s pointed declaration. Just then, the doors to the throne room swung open with a loud BANG, and one of the palace guards came rushing in.
“Your Majesty!” he shouted, his voice strained with panic. “The rebels are attacking! They’ve already taken over the lower— Gaah!”
His report turned into a scream midway through, and he slumped forward and sank to the floor. Behind him stood a boy—no, a rebel—with blazing red hair and eyes as blue as the sky.
“Brother! I’ve come to take this country back!”
As he shouted, a crew of blue-clad comrades came charging in alongside him. I stared over at them, and a clichéd phrase floated into my head from the reaches of distant memory.
The hero always arrives in the nick of time.