Chapter 525.1

Loyalty (2)

I... see...

Someone he couldn't speak of, huh?

This man's loyalty must be very high.

Since the other party was a member of the royal family...he wouldn't talk, no matter how bad it might have made his own situation.

Looking at Shen, Alveiro said in a hesitant manner, "However, Demon King... The royal family may be up to something behind the scenes, but they most likely are not the ones responsible for this incident. After all, they are not in a position to openly do such damage. I... They made me do something but... I mean, they are probably aiming for something else and this attack was something that coincided with it..."

"Oh? What do you mean?" (Finar)

Shen immediately noticed Alveiro's reluctance to speak badly of the royal family in his presence, so he said with a sigh, "I am ashamed to say that my relatives have become complete fools over the years, addicted to power. I thought that the country would collapse if I let them continue to rule, so I confiscated all of their authority and purged about half of them, but there might be some of them remaining who are still aiming for something."

"Purge." (Yuki)

That's quite a disturbing thing to say.

"What are you surprised about? It's not just me. Well... the Demon King over there would have done the same thing if he was in a similar situation." (Shen)

"Well, I guess so. If I was in a similar situation and the one who was involved was my wife, it would have been a different story. However, if it were one of my children who really got in the way, even if they were my relatives... well, I would have just culled them." (Finar)

Demon King Finar agreed without any hesitation.

Well, I know that kings have that kind of temperament.

It was the king's role to save and lead the country.

But be that as it may, sometimes the few must be sacrificed for the greater good even if they were kin.

Only a person who could make such a [decision] deserves to stand at the top of a nation.

"The royal family today does not have the power to move the military or the judiciary. Without me, they also can't make plans and put them into action directly. They could have used my name as a [Palanquin] if they somehow knew that I was still alive, but that's not the case. It appears that those royal family remnants at least have half a brain to try to do something before my influence completely declines." (Shen)

It was a terrible thing to say.

But now that I think about it, I had never heard of the Royal Family ever mentioned while I was in the Rogard Empire until now, but was that because of Shen's purge and with the remnants going into hiding?

"So, was the reason this real enemy had the council arrest Alveiro this time was to reduce the power and influence of those remnants?" (Yuki)

Shen said, "Perhaps that's part of it. On the record, I am already dead, but many of those who supported my faction are still alive. And as long as those influential people are not taken care of, remnants of the royal family will still have some influence. Alveiro is also a part of my faction, a pillar member of it. If such a man were publicly accused of plotting and carrying out a terrorist attack that shook the nation, the destruction of my faction, or rather, my remnants, will be all but inevitable. That's probably when the real enemy will reveal themselves."

These words sound like praise, but Alveiro, the man in question, looked bitter.

He must be feeling remorse that it was his fault, that it was about to happen.