Why did I choose the unjust path of attacking House Mercurius in the first place?
Alkan had never viewed House Mercurius as his enemies. Far from it, he thought highly of them as a truly loyal family who stuck to their principles.
He had felt some frustration in regards to the house.
House Mercurius may have been famed for its military might, but the heads of house throughout the generations had always held intellect and perspective to match House Riga’s. Percival, the previous head of the house, had an especially sharp eye for seeing the true nature of things.
He was definitely not a fool who only had interest in fighting. A fool would not have been capable of maintaining the unity of such a great house. Percival was not the simple warrior he appeared to be. He even had the ability to challenge Alkan on level ground when it came to managing affairs of state.
Despite that, Percival avoided the royal court. He held a seat, but he didn’t even try to participate. Alkan thought that it may have been for self-concealment because Percival didn’t want to be suspected for ambition after marrying the king’s little sister, but that wasn’t the reason.
Alkan once tried to appoint Percival as the commander of the Fourth Division of the Imperial Guard. The Fourth Division was the order of knights assigned to protect the second prince, so Percival would be able to earn favor and enter the cabinet when the second prince was named the crown prince.
But Percival refused outright.
This ended up inducing a strange sequence of events after Percival’s death.
The commander of the Imperial Guard’s Fourth Division was the head of one of House Riga’s branch families, and after Percival declined to succeed him, the commander’s son assumed the role. This new commander felt a strange sense of rivalry with Percival, and that continued even after Percival’s death.
That sense of rivalry ended up having a direct impact on the Fourth Division’s attempted subjugation of the minotaur.
The commander’s initial plan was to challenge the minotaur with a group of eight elite knights. However, the subjugation force ended up swelling to eighty people. It was common knowledge that the king was singularly devoted to the minotaur’s defeat, and because subjugation missions never failed—provided the proper preparations had been made—knights signed up in quick succession, none of them wanting to miss the boat.
Every one of the knights’ families was adamant about their sons’ participation. None of them wanted to be the odd one out. There was also an absurd rumor that loyalty to House Riga was being tested on participation in this subjugation force.
In the end, the commander himself pulled out of the operation. That was understandable. He wanted to demonstrate his own valor by taking down the monster that had defeated Percival. There would be no meaning in a fight where they just overwhelmed it with numbers.
As a result, the subjugation force ended up lacking strong leadership.
Even still, Alkan never would have expected them to be wiped out. When he heard the report, he grew so weak at the stupidity of the knights that he felt like he had lost all strength in his legs.
The families of the knights completely forgot the sequence of events that had led to the massacre and blamed Alkan. He had opposed the dispatch of the subjugation force from the beginning to the end and then was made out to be responsible for the tragedy.
But political leaders were occasionally placed in this kind of position. Alkan definitely had some responsibility for the incident, in the sense that he should have foreseen the outcome and taken measures to prevent it.
Regardless, Alkan’s hope that Percival would actively participate in politics ended when he died too young.
House Riga needed a political rival. A mighty political rival.
How long had it been since they had had a decent discussion in the royal court? A discussion in which the members of the court did nothing but agree with every statement made by House Riga’s cabinet minister was not a discussion. Political measures became sound through exhaustive debate in which they were battered by opposing opinions. Answers that rose to counter objections were what polished political measures and made their significance apparent. For that reason, Alkan was earnest in his desire for a political rival.
That political rival then appeared. It was Julius Mercurius.
Julius was the new head of House Mercurius, and he distinguished himself in a way typical of a family known for their military prowess. Alkan had called out in his heart on numerous occasions for Julius to use his accomplishments as background to enter the political world.
When Julius did enter the royal court, he made dignified and sound arguments. It was a scene that should have pleased Alkan greatly.
But for some reason, what Alkan felt was fear.
He had been very thorough in his preparations to set up the second prince as the crown prince, and the chances of his plans being overturned were minuscule. Then, with just one statement, Julius realized that minuscule chance. With a voice that didn’t contain a fragment of greed or high-handedness.
He was a person who could overturn years of effort with just one act.
He was a person who could make an impression with casually spoken words.
He was a person who possessed a natural ability to have an immense influence on other people.
It was then that Alkan learned that Julius Mercurius was that kind of person.
He then had a thought. House Riga could not oppose Julius with Garrest. Julius was too dangerous.
That thought was what made him consent to killing Julius.
But Panzel protected Julius and killed Garrest.
This plunged House Riga into a life-or-death crisis.