SWNOVELXO Chapter 2 - Exiled
Exiled
Of course, there was no death sentence.
Karia fiercely took my side, ready to start a rebellion if I were to be executed, and the Emperor was also on my side.
Nevertheless, since I had admitted my crimes in front of everyone, neither the Emperor nor Karia could completely erase my wrongdoings, and ultimately a thorough investigation was conducted.
I willingly handed over all the documents and had to return all the money listed in the evidence presented by Duke Pellings.
But that was exactly where it ended.
‘Isn’t it enough that all the embezzled money has been returned to the national treasury? And we should also consider that he voluntarily admitted his crimes. Let’s end it here.’
The Emperor still trusted me and believed that one mistake was permissible, bringing the investigation to an early conclusion. The prince in charge of the investigation, Golden Adran, strongly argued for harsher punishment, but the aging Emperor, whose judgment had declined, had become a ruler who valued emotion over reason.
He dismissed the prince’s legitimate opinion and ended my investigation early.
That wasn’t all. After all investigations were complete, the Emperor secretly called me for a private conversation and even consoled me.
‘Why did you do it? Why? You didn’t need to give Pellings something to bite into. Why did you do such a thing? What am I supposed to do if a loyal subject like you disappears?’
The Emperor even showed traces of tears.
Looking at this, truly. It was a clear example of how the Emperor’s stupidity and Randor’s silver tongue had ruined the empire.
But even an aging, foolish Emperor with diminished judgment still maintained minimal principles.
‘The nobles are in an uproar. They say the punishment is too lenient if it ends with just returning the money when you openly admitted to embezzlement.’
The Emperor looked at me with an expression of deep regret.
‘Exile has been decided. We haven’t determined where yet.’
And then he subtly asked me about it.
This meant he was giving me a choice.
Since things had come to this, it meant I should rest well at some quiet tourist spot until things calmed down.
And that was exactly what I had been waiting to hear.
‘Please send me to the Elrond Barony.’
‘The, the Elrond Barony?!’
The Emperor stared at me in shock at my words.
The Elrond Barony.
The empire’s westernmost region near the long Rako Mountain range that divides the vast continent vertically into western and eastern continents.
Naturally, being right next to the Rako Mountains, it was as cold as the Limnacal Plains in the north and had treacherous mountain terrain.
A place with no natural resources, nothing but snow, cold, and all sorts of monsters. It was so bad that even Baron Elrond, the lord of that territory, had given up long ago and practically abandoned the territory, making it now a remote region with no one managing it.
‘What if you fall ill in such a place!!’
The Emperor shouted angrily, but I was serious.
While I might not be as silver-tongued as the original Randor, I was still an avid reader of this novel. I had planned out exactly what to say.
‘I have taken the blame on behalf of others, Your Majesty. The vast wealth I accumulated – it has all returned to the national treasury. What was taken from my vault was also money that the cruel merchants of the capital had unfairly taken from the people. Let the people’s money return to the people.’
At my words, the Emperor was about to burst into tears. Looking at his teary eyes, I wasn’t finished speaking.
‘And please wait just one year, Your Majesty. I will make the Elrond territory the wealthiest land in the empire. With that money, I will fill the national treasury, and may the wise Emperor use it to make the nation prosperous.’
‘Ah! My Lord! To think you had such intentions all along!…’
The Emperor grabbed me and burst into tears.
Though he had become quite foolish in his old age and illness, fortunately, he was still useful to me right now.
‘We’ll do as you say. I’ll send you to the Elrond Barony. No, that’s not all! The Elrond Barony has been without an owner for decades. Since even the original Elrond family abandoned their rule long ago, it’s my decision to whom I give that territory. I’ll appoint you as the lord of that land.’
‘I am overwhelmed by your grace!’
I pressed my head to the floor.
For now.
The priority was to escape from the capital filled with all manner of dirty political schemes, betrayals, and conspiracies, and fortunately, my plan worked.
‘What were you thinking!!!!!!!’
As soon as I entered the Merchant Guild conference room, there was a man who shouted at me. With skin gleaming with oil and an M-shaped balding pattern actively progressing, he looked like he could be the very definition of a greedy merchant who wouldn’t bleed a drop if stabbed.
‘Don’t get too excited, Karl Hansen.’
‘How can I not be excited!! Do you know how much secret fund we lost!!!!!! What were you thinking when you admitted to it!!!!!’
While Karl Hansen was shouting furiously, I remained calm.
As soon as Randor gained power at the Emperor’s side, he unified the various merchant guilds in the capital into one. This was for the purely selfish reason that it would be easier to exploit them.
And the man before me, Karl Hansen, was the leader of this unified merchant guild. The evil minister Randor had placed a mental spell on Karl Hansen’s mind that would make him commit suicide if he ever betrayed Randor. In other words, he was Randor’s faithful servant with absolutely no possibility of betrayal.
‘Duke Pellings sharpened his blade quite well. To think he’d uncover nearly 40% of the secret funds. That hurt quite a bit.’
‘Do, do you know how much money that is!!!!’
‘Lost about 5 million gold, didn’t we? Probably?’
Karl Hansen looked like he might foam at the mouth. Knowing that without me, they would lose both the power protection from the Emperor and the strong military protection provided by Karia, he was barely holding back from cursing.
‘Why did you do this, seriously!!!!!’
‘Calm down, Karl. 60% still hasn’t been discovered.’
That was true.
Even after losing so much, this corrupt bastard still had accumulated nearly 7.5 million gold in secret funds hidden here and there – a transcendent amount. Though it was still an overwhelming sum, Karl, being a merchant, seemed unforgiving of me for losing 5 million gold that didn’t need to be lost.
‘At least tell me the reason. Why did you do this?’
Karl stared at me with such intensity that he looked ready to throw a punch if there wasn’t a proper explanation. I smiled at him.
‘The reason isn’t that important. What’s important is what I’m planning to do next. I’ve been exiled to the Elrond Barony.’
Karl finally blew up.
“How can you say that!! Elrond’s barony is in the middle of nowhere! Wasting 5 million gold and getting exiled!! What kind of nonsense is this!!!!”
“I’m going there to do business, Karl.”
Karl suddenly grabbed the back of his head as if suffering from high blood pressure and sat in his chair, breathing heavily.
“Isn’t the business you’ve established in the capital enough?”
“No. I want something greater.”
“What greater……… Hey! Lord Randor!! Why are you suddenly acting like this? Did you eat something wrong?”
Though these were aggressive words that would never come out normally, I didn’t bother to reproach him. What I was doing now was clearly unreasonable. But I had to be unreasonable to survive.
“I’m going to make the Empire prosperous.”
“What?”
Karl looked at me like he was watching a tiger declaring vegetarianism. A mere gangster saying he’ll make the Empire prosperous? That was the kind of lie you tell to deceive people, not something to be said among thoroughly corrupt conspirators.
“I’m going to make the Empire prosperous. What’s the current reality of the Empire? The monsters in the North have been rampaging, leading to two years of war. Though the invincible Karia brilliantly eliminated the enemies, many still died. The country is being twisted and rotting under the control of a powerful few, and the people are groaning under their exploitation, becoming poorer. Is this!! Is this a normal country!!”
“What does that have to do with us!! We just need to eat well and live well!!!”
Finally, an outburst erupts. It was truly a line befitting a vile merchant belonging to a gang of criminals, but I seriously shook my head.
“I’ve decided to make the Empire prosperous. This can’t be changed.”
“Ah. Oh God. Why are you really doing this.”
Karl Hansen, who had only believed in the power of gold coins, called upon God for the first time at my words. But well, it didn’t matter how this fellow reacted. To prevent my death, I needed to reform this thoroughly rotting Empire first.
Why?
Even at this moment, resistance forces were growing rapidly across the Empire due to the dimwitted Emperor, Duke Pellings who was trying to start another rebellion before the wounds from the Northern Great Expedition had healed, and the despicable Randor who planned to control the Empire by putting Karia on the throne using wealth accumulated from across the capital.
And in the final part of the novel, the rebels rise up on a national scale.
The Emperor orders Karia to suppress the resistance. As Karia brutally suppresses the common people who have nothing left but hatred from starvation, Adran the Golden turns against the Empire and joins the rebels, Selene of Grace attempts to assassinate the Emperor, and also tries to kill Randor but fails and is burned at the stake in the square by Randor.
From that point on, the already gloomy novel becomes sickeningly desolate and dark. To prevent this situation, we first need to feed the starving, embittered common people.
It would be foolish to go around persuading nobles in the capital to reduce taxes and bestow good governance to fill the people’s pockets. The existing privileges were already tightly held by many people, and I couldn’t do anything about it. Therefore, I had to create new privileges and markets.
“I’m going to dig a tunnel through the Limnacal Mountains. I’ll pioneer a trade route connecting the Western and Eastern continents. And through that, I’ll bring enormous wealth to the Empire. Wealth for the people!”
Perhaps when anger reaches its peak, it turns to resignation instead. Karl Hansen looks at me with an expression that says ‘do whatever you want’ while laughing hollowly.
“You’re saying you’ll dig a tunnel through the Limnacal Mountains? Does that make any sense? Do you know how treacherous those mountains are? If you establish a trade route between the Western and Eastern continents, the money… well, you’d earn astronomical amounts. You’d make in a day what the merchant guild in the capital makes in a year. But if everyone knows this, why hasn’t anyone tried it until now?”
The Limnacal Mountains were considered a place created by God with malicious intent. The mountains were insanely high and wrapped in permanent ice, making them terribly slippery. Snowstorms poured down irritatingly often, and that wasn’t all.
Because it was such dangerous terrain that humans didn’t approach, all sorts of monsters that hadn’t been exterminated by humans still swarmed there. Talking about digging a tunnel there was treated no differently than saying you’d teach ballet to an orc.
“Yes, Karl. You’re right. It’s a difficult task. But what if we had the remaining 7.5 million gold in secret funds and the Iron Blood Legion, which has just returned from the Northern Great Expedition and is at its peak in terms of discipline and ability?”
“You were planning to use the Iron Blood Legion to occupy the capital!! Why are you giving up on something with high feasibility and suddenly changing your goal to this strange plan of going to the westernmost part of the Empire to dig a tunnel! Why!!”
Because if I carry out that highly feasible plan, the ending would be me being drawn and quartered in the square.
Though Karl begged me to change my mind, I never did.
No one could stop me, and a few days later.
I headed to Baron Elrond’s territory with Karia and her Iron Blood Legion, along with my secret fund of 7.5 million gold that I had scraped together from the capital, which even Duke Pellings hadn’t known about.