The voices that had been boiling with heat until a moment ago vanished.
The fervor of the young nobles shouting for "Civilization Enlightenment" dissipated beyond the closed doors.
Inside the underground meeting room, only the sound of candles burning remained.
Terriuss Assis sat in his chair.
Gracchus still stood in the center of the room.
He remained in the same posture he had held while explaining the rebellion plan to the Young Guard nobles just moments ago.
His expression had not changed.
His voice had not wavered.
It was as if what he had just described—the arson of the royal castle, massacres, the kidnapping of the King, and the overthrow of the regime—was nothing more than a simple administrative tax procedure.
Terriuss slowly spoke.
"Now, let us confirm the actual procedure."
Gracchus looked at him.
"Speak."
Terriuss tapped the table with his finger.
"The Young Guard sets fire to Ro Lente Castle and massacres the key figures of the Noble and Royal factions. Afterward, they secure His Majesty Ramposa III and announce that the Noble faction has staged a rebellion."
He continued while looking at Gracchus.
"I will be the one to obtain the King's official request for intervention at that time."
Gracchus nodded.
"Indeed."
"Once I deliver that request to you, you will move the Commissioner’s garrison. The pretext will be restoring order to the castle and suppressing the rebellion at the King's request."
"Precisely."
Terriuss narrowed his eyes.
"But immediately after that, the private soldiers I have prepared will move."
Gracchus did not respond.
Terriuss continued.
"My private army, the Six Arms of Eight Fingers, and Princess Lana’s Blue Rose."
Those names dropped into the meeting room one by one.
"With that force, we will wipe out both the Young Guard's forces and your Commissioner’s garrison."
Gracchus spoke quietly.
"And in that process, I shall die."
Terriuss stared at Gracchus.
"That is correct."
Gracchus summarized calmly.
"And then you will tell Ramposa III the truth."
"It will be the 'necessary truth' rather than the actual truth," Terriuss said coldly. "That the Young Guard rebelled, a portion of the Commissioner's troops were caught in the chaos, and I suppressed the rebellion."
"I see."
Terriuss leaned back in his chair.
"After that, I will make a public proclamation. That the Young Guard attempted to overthrow the Kingdom and murdered the leaders of the Noble and Royal factions, and that I saved His Majesty and purged the traitors."
His voice grew colder.
"For that merit, I shall rise to the positions of Acting Minister of War and Acting Minister of Finance."
Gracchus didn't even blink.
"Positions that seize control of the Kingdom's administration, military, and finances."
"In a situation where the political landscape has collapsed, someone must take charge."
"And when the Thousand Kingdom's main army arrives, you will be the one at the negotiation table."
Terriuss gave a small laugh.
"In the capacity of representing the Kingdom."
Gracchus nodded.
"That is the plan."
Silence fell for a while.
The candlelight flickered low.
Terriuss stopped tapping his finger and said in a low voice.
"The world is about to be turned upside down."
Gracchus immediately countered.
"The world is not being turned upside down; rather, the legitimacy of His reign is merely being proven."
The corner of Terriuss's mouth twisted.
"Spoken like a puppet that moves exactly as it was made."
In that instant.
Gracchus's eyebrows, which had shown no change in expression until now, twitched ever so slightly.
In the next moment.
Gracchus moved.
Before Terriuss could even react, his throat was seized.
"Gack...!"
Terriuss's body was lifted right out of the chair.
Gracchus's hand was as hard as an iron vice.
Terriuss's toes left the floor.
His throat tightened.
His breath was cut off.
While holding him aloft, Gracchus spoke coldly.
"Yes. I may have been 'made.'"
For the first time, emotion was laced in his voice.
"But we are not beings that simply execute coded command values."
Terriuss grabbed Gracchus's wrist with his hands.
"Urgh... Ack...!"
No breath would come.
Gracchus continued.
"His Majesty could have coded us to obey absolutely. If He wished, He could have engraved our thoughts, emotions, loyalty, fear, and love as command values from the very beginning."
His eyes pierced through Terriuss.
"But He did not do so."
Gracchus's grip tightened further.
"His Majesty made us obey through His own charisma, His own absoluteness, and His own rule."
His voice dropped an octave.
"Do not be presumptuous, human."
Terriuss's face turned red, then pale.
"Guh...!"
Gracchus let go.
Terriuss's body slumped to the floor.
Thud.
He sprawled on the ground, gasping for air violently.
"Haah... Haah...!"
His throat felt like it was on fire.
His fingertips trembled.
His vision went dark for a moment.
Gracchus looked down at him.
"'Power enough to find an object dropped into the ocean,' was it?"
Terriuss's body froze.
Those words.
He had said those words to Princess Lana.
He had not said them in this meeting room.
Gracchus said coldly.
"Regrettably, you will never enjoy power of that magnitude."
He took a step toward Terriuss.
"Just eat the crumbs we give you, human."
Terriuss looked up at Gracchus while propping himself up on the floor.
The shock was greater than the pain in his neck.
How did he know about the conversation with Princess Lana?
Gracchus spoke as if he had read his mind.
"Are you curious?"
Terriuss couldn't say a word.
Gracchus explained slowly.
"The Thousand Kingdom does not operate solely on military force and magic. We dominate information."
He raised a finger.
"Elements."
The word dropped into the cold air of the room.
"The Thousand Kingdom's quantum computer weapons and information observation terminals. Smaller than matter, more secretive than mana, they permeate the cracks of the world. They cannot be seen by the eye, heard by the ear, and cannot be caught even by standard magic detection."
Gracchus pointed around Terriuss.
"They float like dust in the room, mix into ink, hide within the smoke of a candle, cling to the scratches on armor, and can even remain within a person's breath."
Terriuss's face hardened.
Gracchus continued.
"The Elements observe. They read sound through vibrations, expressions through the reflection of light, the flow of mana through waves, and the contents of documents through the distribution of ink."
He paused for a moment.
"And they connect that information to Ea."
Ea.
The super-intelligent computer of the Thousand Kingdom.
Terriuss felt a chill run down his spine the moment he heard that name.
Gracchus said.
"Your conversation with Princess Lana has already been recorded. Your desires, her desires, and your deal."
He gave a very faint smile.
"You said you wanted to find an object dropped into the ocean?"
Gracchus's voice grew even colder.
"We know when, where, and from whose hand that object will fall before it even hits the water."
Terriuss was speechless.
Gracchus turned around.
"Do not mistake yourself, Terriuss Assis."
He spoke as he walked toward the door.
"You are a piece on the board. You may think you are moving of your own accord."
Gracchus stopped in front of the door.
"But we are the ones who created the board."
Terriuss looked up at him while slumped on the floor.
Gracchus spoke one last time.
"If you want to live, play your part."
The door opened.
Gracchus left the meeting room.
The door closed.
Terriuss could not move for a long time, remaining slumped on the floor.
His throat still ached.
It felt like it was burning every time he inhaled.
But it wasn't his throat that hurt more.
He thought he was reading the board to some extent.
He thought that even if he was being used by Griel and Gracchus, he could use them in return.
By holding hands with Lana.
By deceiving the Young Guard.
He thought he could occupy the heart of the Kingdom.
And yet.
Every word.
Every secret meeting.
Every desire.
They were already watching.
The Thousand Kingdom was listening.
The Thousand Kingdom was recording.
The Thousand Kingdom was calculating.
Terriuss looked at his two hands.
Is there nothing I can do?
That thought struck his mind like a hammer.
He had said he wasn't a puppet, but perhaps even that rebellion had been a permitted act.
Even what he believed he was calculating might have been within the scope of the Thousand Kingdom's own calculations.
He grit his teeth.
His hands trembled.
Whether it was out of fear.
Or out of anger.
He couldn't even tell himself.
The candles in the meeting room had almost burned out.
The light of dawn began to spread very faintly outside the window.
A blue darkness sat upon the roofs of the capital.
The sound of a rooster crowing could be heard in the distance.
The sound of the first cart heading to the market scraped against the stone road.
The windows of the sleeping mansions began to hold faint light one by one.
The capital was greeting the dawn.
But to Terriuss Assis, that dawn did not look like a new beginning.
It felt as though a giant eye was slowly opening.
The Eye of the Thousand Kingdom.
The eye that saw everything, recorded everything, and calculated everything.
Terriuss clutched his throat while sitting on the floor.
And he muttered very quietly.
"Damn it..."
The dawn was quietly breaking.
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