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Chapter 212 - Rally (3)

No one lost their temper.

No one at the table would be careless enough to cause a scene, especially given the situation they were in. Perhaps that was why the atmosphere became even more solemn and serious.

The first person to break the silence was none other than the Iron and Blood Empress, Hela.

“Snitch... That’s not a very pleasant word.”

As tension filled the room, Hongwol tugged on the shirts of his left and right ministers while being weary of the adults.

At this, the left minister sighed and said, “Archmage, would you be so kind as to allow me to say something on behalf of Taejae?”

“Of course, left minister.”

"Thank you.”

As all the eyes were then set on him, the left minister proceeded to speak.

“Everyone, I believe this is something deeply concerning that needs to be addressed immediately. Given the situation, such a grave accusation with no solid evidence could be an unforgettable insult to the suspected individual.”

“I fully agree with the left minister,” replied Henry.

Everyone else agreed as well. The left minister continued, “Then allow me to proceed with my first question. Your Majesty Herarion, may I ask on what grounds you claim that there is a snitch among us?”

“I don’t have any hard evidence or basis. However, one of my abilities is to tell what others really have on their mind. In other words, I can tell how others truly feel, and that’s why Sir Henry suggested doing the oath.”

“The ability to tell how others truly feel... Then I suppose you’re able to prove your ability to everyone here right now?”

The left minister seemed to be questioning the power of La, and some people might’ve considered this disrespectful. However, Herarion was a wise leader. He wasn’t a conceited man who would get angry over such doubts. After hearing the question, Herarion turned his head and smiled at Henry.

“Sir Henry?”

“Haha, excuse me for a moment.”

With that, Henry walked up to Herarion, and the two whispered to each other. Herarion told Henry what he had seen, to which Henry smiled slightly.

"Got it. Thank you for your help."

Once Herarion was done talking, Henry thanked him again. He then faced the others and said, “It’s not that difficult to prove my abilities, but... I think it’d be best for Sir Henry to address this issue instead of me.”

Henry was the commander-in-chief of the Allied Powers, which meant that Herarion\'s ability was simply a tool in helping and assisting him. Just because Herarion had the ability to tell what others truly felt didn’t mean that he had the authority to call the shots.

So, rather than answering the left minister’s question himself, he decided to pass it to Henry so that the tension within the room would abate.

Henry proceeded to speak on Herarion’s behalf.

“Left Minister...”

“Yes, Archmage.”

“As a reply to your question, it is indeed more than possible to prove the ability that His Majesty Herarion possesses. And if you want proof of his ability, I believe he should give you proof. However, don’t you think we ought to decide on what we should do with the traitor first?”

“The order doesn’t really matter, but if doing things that way is more comfortable, I don’t see why it would be a problem. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to decide on the punishment first, wouldn’t you agree, Right Minister?”

As Henry and the left minister seemed to come to an agreement, the left minister asked his partner, the right minister, for his approval. Then, the right minister, who had been listening quietly, responded in a startled tone, “Ah, hmm, yes! Of course! I agree.”

‘Hmm.’

At his reaction, Henry narrowed his eyes. The right minister was acting like a chicken, scared and intimidated by the whole situation. Henry found his disposition strange because it was in stark contrast to the bold, adamant impression he had felt when he had first seen him.

Initially, Henry didn\'t believe Herarion either, or rather, he was just very surprised at the identity of the snitch. Out of everyone here in the room, he never would’ve thought that one of the most clever leaders of the Sore Empire was an informant.

However, thinking from their perspective, it made quite a bit of sense. In fact, given how smart and wise they were, they were the most likely to turn into snitches. In the end, one of the principles of surviving in this world was for the weak to latch onto the strong.

However, despite all his wisdom, his judgment had been flawed. In fact, he was way past the point of forgiveness.

‘Was I really that untrustworthy?’

Henry had told him that he was the sole disciple of Henry Morris, and after forming the Allied Powers, he had even shown him the former Ten Swords. However, despite all that, the right minister had chosen Arthus over him. That hurt Henry’s pride to the point where he questioned himself whether he could’ve prevented this from happening.

At any rate, there was no point in being angry about his wounded pride. The truth was that the right minister had already leaked information to Arthus. He had already crossed the point of no return.

‘But how on earth did he know about the Snow Spire? I did send the school head to the Sore Empire, but I never told him about relocating the wizards over to the Snow Spire...’

There were so many things that Henry had no clue how the right minister had managed to find out, but at the moment, that didn’t really matter. Since Herarion had determined that the snitch was the right minister, the only thing left to do was to interrogate the hell out of him to get the information he needed.

Thus, Henry contemplated on how to further play with the right minister; and how to further torment him. Just like the case with Aubert, there was nothing more fun than torturing someone who was in the wrong.

With that, Henry said, “Now then, let’s start by discussing what we ought to do with the traitor. If you have any good suggestions, please don’t hesitate to share them.”

The meeting had completely deviated from the main topic. By this point, they should’ve been talking about what the Allied Powers had to do in the future, but with the sudden discovery of a traitor, the atmosphere had turned grim, hostile.

“Ever since ancient times, it’s been standard to punish snitches by cutting off their tongues.”

“Why don’t we rip their mouth off so that they can never go around town talking again? And of course, pull their tongue out as well.”

“I’d say it wouldn’t be a bad idea to burn the inside of their mouth with a branding iron.”

“Let’s just kill the traitor. Why make things difficult?”

Everyone came up with all sorts of ideas, which didn’t surprise Henry. After all, humans had always found it easier to punish than to reward people. For a while, they all kept coming up with gruesome punishment methods for the traitor.

However, out of everyone present, there was one person who was pale as a ghost and didn’t say anything.

Henry laughed and looked at the right minister.

“Right minister.”

“Ah, y-y-yes..., yes? Cough, cough!”

When Henry called him, the right minister coughed as he swallowed the wrong way, the nauseating fear overtaking him. His face turned red from the coughing, and after a while, he looked at Henry, his eyes brimming with tears.

Henry looked at him with a gentle smile and said, “If you haven’t noticed, everyone is quite eager to suggest ideas for punishment, but I guess you don’t seem to have any good ideas?”

“Hmm... Um... Go-good... good ideas?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm, then I think...”

The right minister furrowed his brows and looked at everyone else in the room. It seemed like everyone was competing on who could come up with a more wicked idea to deal with the snitch.

The right minister felt discouraged at their enthusiasm and muttered quietly as he cowered in his chair, “Well, how about just whipping them?”

“Just whip them? Do you think that’ll be enough for them to realize the severity of their misdeed?”

“Hmm... Cough... You do have a point...”

“Well, it seems like everyone has good ideas anyway. I particularly like the idea of hacking off their flesh little by little until they die.”

“...!”

The right minister’s face turned from red to purple, which made him look like a pig that had just swallowed poison. Henry found the change in his complexion extremely amusing.

After the wicked ideas for punishment reached their peak, Henry raised his hand to silence the room.

“Alright, I believe this is enough.”

The room turned dead silent. Henry thought this was enough to scare the imposter. Then Henry spoke up quietly as everyone tried to read the room with their mouths closed.

“Elder Doyle.”

"Yes."

“How do you suggest we punish the traitor?”

Henry turned his attention to Doyle, the head of Zipan.

Doyle was an old man over ninety years old. He was also the wisest sage in Zipan. In fact, he was greater than anyone else at making wise and benevolent decisions. His decision-making abilities had aged like fine wine.

After a silent pause, Doyle answered, “I hope you can forgive the traitor just this once.”

“Forgive, you say?”

"Yes. I believe that a good master could transform a snitch into a valuable double agent.”

“Double agent...”

Henry didn’t think it was a bad idea. The snitch had probably gained the trust of the enemy, which would allow them to cause some disorder among them, thus making them useful. At this, Henry nodded and tried to conclude this issue.

“I think that’s a good idea. Since they need to be punished anyway, it doesn\'t seem like a bad idea to make them atone for their sin by being our double agent. I propose we do this. If the snitch turns themselves in right here, right now, we shall not punish them like we normally should. Instead, just as elder Doyle has said, they’ll just have to act as a double agent. What does everyone think about this?”

Just like that, Henry briefly summarized what they had discussed the past few minutes. Since they had to punish the traitor anyway, it was better to punish them later on after they served their purpose.

Silence lingered in the room, but after a while, everyone nodded one after another to express their assent to Henry’s suggestion.

“A double agent... That’s not a bad idea.”

“The fact that there’s a traitor among us infuriates me greatly, but... it would be to our advantage if they end up bringing more to the Allied Powers as a whole.”

“I agree too!”

The majority agreed with Henry, but of course, some argued that they should punish the traitor right away to set an example for others rather than trying to spare them for future usage.

However, since all Allied Powers had come to this meeting as equals, they ended up voting on the matter.

“It seems like we’ve reached a consensus. Now, the traitor may reveal themselves,” declared Henry, frowning and looking at the right minister with the corner of his eye.

However, the right minister stayed quiet for a good minute.

“What the... Even after giving this bastard a chance, they still won’t turn themselves in? Stop wasting everyone’s time and just reveal yourself!” demanded McDowell with a tone of irritation.

Thud!

McDowell slammed the table, and right after...

“I-it’s me!”

Everyone looked in one direction. They were all facing the right minister, who was so frightened that his face was as purple as a grape. Herarion and Henry smirked at this.

“Right Minister?”

Everyone was shocked to see him step forward, but the left minister was naturally the most shocked one in the room. He couldn’t believe that the snitch who deserved to be killed and torn to pieces was the right minister, someone who was basically part of him.

Just like the left minister, Hongwol, their leader, was white as a sheet.

“Ri-right Minister...? W-why...?”

Hongwol looked like she was one step away from bursting into tears. Even though she was the Taejae, she was still a young girl who hadn’t even turned twenty yet.

As to not let the situation devolve into chaos, Henry intervened, “Now, let’s deal with all the disappointment later... Since we have the snitch now, shall we first hear his excuse?”

With that, everyone looked at the right minister again with cold eyes that were full of contempt, disgust even. They wouldn’t even look at dogs or pigs like that.

However, the right minister had to endure it. As a traitor, he had to bear the contempt of everyone present.

“Right Minister...?”

Henry gave the right minister a chance to confess his wrongdoings while maintaining his smile. In fact, he had an even gentler smile before. The right minister sagged his head at the unbearable pressure and began to confess his wrongdoings.

“I-I’m s-sorry! I wanted to live! Y-yes, I-I did it to survive...!” cried the right minister with a quavering voice. His whole body was trembling as he confessed his sins.

His confession was exactly what Henry had expected.

\'I knew it.’

He had turned to Arthus to somehow find a way to survive because he didn’t think that the Allied Powers had any chance of winning. Henry felt deeply insulted by the right minister’s lack of faith in him, but on one hand, he also partly understood where he was coming from.

‘This is what happens when a decently smart individual thinks they’re a genius.’

Even though all the members present had promised to forgive the traitor if he confessed, the right minister proceeded to tell them things they hadn’t asked for, as if trying to butter them up.

After he was done with his rant-like confession, Henry casually said, “Right Minister, apart from this... How did you know there were wizards in Salgaera? That’s something I haven’t told anyone here.”

“Yes...? Sal-Salgaera? I’m not sure what you mean...?”

“Excuse me?”

Something wasn’t right.

Henry looked at Herarion.

“Sir Henry, Right Minister is telling the truth.”

“...?”

Henry sensed that something was terribly wrong.