TGS - Chapter 123
Chapter 123: The Death of Asilu
On a winding path, two unremarkable carriages sped forward.
Suddenly, they reached a relatively rough and bumpy stretch of road, full of potholes. The wheels rolled over gravel, jolting violently.
Romuer awoke amidst the jolting.
He sat up, and before he could figure out what was happening, he subconsciously clutched the back of his head, which was throbbing with a dull pain, and hissed.
“Romuer, are you all right?”
Horst sat across from him, looking haggard and worried.
“I’m fine—” Romuer began, but stopped mid-sentence. He finally remembered what had happened before he passed out.
It was nighttime. His father had summoned him to his bedchamber to discuss state affairs. Everything had been normal up to that point.
But just as he was about to take his leave, a royal guard burst into the hall, incoherently reporting that the city gate garrison had stormed the royal palace. The leader was the Princess, the Royal Guard couldn't hold them back, and they would reach them soon.
His father was first enraged, but his expression changed upon hearing that the Royal Guard was being overwhelmed. He ordered someone to move the bed, and following an inconspicuous seam, they lifted a stone slab, revealing a long, narrow, and dark tunnel beneath.
“Father, what is this?”
“This way. It leads outside Akhet.” Horst gritted his teeth. “Alyuin, Alyuin—I knew she wouldn't stay quiet!”
An advisor at his side urged, “Your Majesty, the most urgent matter is to leave quickly. The Princess's coup is illegitimate. As long as Your Majesty is safe, there is still hope.”
Romuer looked around and hesitated. “Alyuin? Could there be some misunderstanding? She wouldn't do something like this, and even if she did, she wouldn't be so reckless. Father, let me go out and talk to her.”
“What's the use of talking? She's coming to kill us! Hurry and come with me!”
“We have to try. And what about Mother? Mother is still in her chambers.”
At the mention of Queen Katisi, Horst's expression wavered for a moment before hardening. “We can't worry about that now.”
“But—” Romuer tried to argue, but a sharp pain struck the back of his head, and he lost consciousness.
The next thing he knew, he was waking up now.
Romuer turned his head to look out the carriage window. The sunlight was bright, and the carriage was traveling through a mountain forest. They were clearly outside the royal city.
Looking inside the carriage, his father and the commander of the Royal Guard, who was wrapped in white bandages, sat opposite him. The former had an ugly expression, while the latter's eyes were closed and his face was pale, clearly in a bad state.
Romuer asked with difficulty, “Mother...?”
Horst shook his head. The sorrowful expression lingered on his face for only a moment before twisting into a sinister look, startling Romuer, who had never seen his father like this.
“The situation was urgent, I had no choice. If anything truly happens to Katisi, I will make Alyuin pay the price.”
Romuer lowered his head, his mind a complete blank, and said nothing.
The carriage emerged from the mountain forest and soon arrived at a small town.
In total, only two advisors and a few royal guards had fled hastily with Horst. They were all crammed into the other carriage, so this was a good opportunity to rest for a bit in the town.
In a small eatery, Romuer ate something and gazed out the window.
According to his father, he had been unconscious for two days and one night. During that time, the group had been traveling almost constantly, but they hadn't actually gotten very far. Wary of the Princess's pursuit, they had taken a roundabout route, their path extremely cautious.
As a result, when news from the royal city began to circulate in this small town, it happened to reach Romuer's ears.
“Let me tell you something I just heard from the city lord's guard. You'll never guess.”
“What? Don't tell me some noble lord is causing trouble again.”
“Much bigger than that! Just two days ago, the Princess attacked the royal palace. His Maj—that one fled the city and his whereabouts are unknown. Akhet has fallen into the Princess's hands.”
“What?!”
“And that's not all. The word from the royal city is that that one murdered the former king and then framed the former queen for the crime, which is why... ahem, you understand. The news just reached the city lord, so a notice will probably be posted soon.”
The conversation between the two diners nearby continued, but Romuer could no longer listen. He looked at Horst.
“What, do you actually believe those absurd lies Alyuin fabricated?” Horst lowered his voice, his expression stern, refuting his son's wavering at a volume the nearby diners couldn't hear.
Then his tone softened slightly. “No matter what she makes up, it's all just to glorify herself and whitewash her treason. How despicable, to slander me with my cousin's death!”
“Romuer, my son. You were raised by me. Don't you know what kind of man your father is?”
His face was as upright and reliable as ever.
Romuer was silent for a moment, feeling a pang of guilt for his earlier hesitation. “Of course I believe you.”
Horst nodded, a weight slowly lifting from his heart.
Alyuin knew what he had done. When Horst first heard the news, his heart had indeed skipped a beat, and he assumed one of the confidants he'd left behind must have revealed it.
But he wasn't flustered. After all, he had left no physical evidence back then. Even if someone talked—even if the Perfumer had defected to Alyuin—what could a mere witness testimony prove? It could easily be dismissed as a confession extracted under torture.
The only problem was the empty coffin in the royal tomb.
But how could Alyuin possibly discover that?
Horst took a sip of water to hide the twist of his lips and changed the subject. “Next, we're heading south. Your uncle is there.”
Before Horst became the King of Solancia, his elder brother had inherited their father's position as the lord of a medium-sized city.
As soon as Horst took the throne, he transferred his brother to a major port city in the south. The military force under his brother's command was no less than that of the northwestern border legion, perhaps even greater.
His brother would certainly support him.
The branch of the family they belonged to shared a common destiny, their fortunes intertwined.
His brother's military leadership was not to be underestimated. Horst knew that Alyuin's priority right now was to stabilize the royal city; she wouldn't deal with his brother immediately. By the time she could spare the effort, the south would already be their territory.
…The worst-case scenario was simply that Solancia would be split into north and south.
Horst explained his plan to his son, still remembering to keep his voice down to avoid attracting the attention of others nearby.
Romuer listened quietly without interrupting, still worried about his mother in the royal city.
It was just that—
a fissure of doubt had opened in his heart. Perhaps it would never widen, or perhaps it would expand into a giant chasm until all his trust crumbled to pieces.
In Akhet, the afternoon sun was obscured by clouds, making the weather seem a bit gloomy.
Two days had passed since the change of power in the royal palace. Entry and exit through the city gates were still strictly controlled, and the nobles and ministers watched their words and actions, unwilling to cause trouble at a time like this.
But for many commoners, the tension had already largely subsided.
The person on the throne had changed. It wasn't strange; it had happened once before, ten years ago. Although this time sounded more complicated, it ultimately had little effect on their daily lives.
Thus, on the surface, the royal city was calm.
But for Alyuin, there were far more matters to handle than it appeared. Her already semi-regular sleep schedule had been cut short. She was either in her study approving documents or in the royal court summoning people.
Today was no different. As Alyuin was approving documents, a royal guard announced loudly from outside the door, “Your Majesty, Interrogator Lawen is here to see you. He says they've gotten information about the letter from the Perfumer's room.”
Alyuin: “Let him in.”
At the same time, she put down her pen, her expression solemn.
The letter from the Perfumer's room was actually a slip of paper with a rough draft written on it, discovered in a wastepaper basket. It was stained with an unknown, dried liquid.
That was probably why it had been crumpled up and thrown into the basket.
The note was only half-written, but its contents were of great importance—it contained Horst's instructions to the Perfumer. On the back was a strange symbol, somewhat resembling a bizarre beast's head.
Since the scrap paper was here, the finished version had naturally already been sent.
Alyuin had entrusted the matter to a trustworthy interrogator, and it seemed there were now results.
“Your Majesty.” The interrogator bowed.
“What is it?”
“We learned from a maidservant who attended to his daily needs that she often delivered letters for him. She doesn't know who they were for, only that they were to be buried under a tree outside the open-air theater.”
The interrogator paused, then added, “And he would also go there periodically to check for a reply.”
Alyuin was thoughtful. “The open-air theater?”
In that instant, a name leaped into her mind.
—Asilu.
The musical actress who could imitate the real Lotus's demeanor.
Alyuin shot to her feet and said to Lena, who was standing nearby, without a moment's hesitation, “To the theater. Now.”
On the way, Alyuin's thoughts raced without pause.
Asilu might be connected to the gods. She had once sent people to monitor her movements because of this, but they found nothing. She seemed to be just a normal, rather famous actress.
For the past three years, Alyuin had rarely gone to see Asilu perform, unless other dignitaries had set their meeting place at the theater and it happened to coincide with one of her shows.
Even then, she wouldn't watch closely.
Yes, the river goddess Asilu portrayed was an imitation of Lotus, but in Alyuin's eyes, nothing about it was right.
It was one thing to gaze upon the things Lotus had sent her and think of the goddess, but to gaze upon a person and think of the goddess? Alyuin truly had no interest in that.
She had her treasured memories, which were enough to get her through the difficult moments before sleep each night.
As for Asilu… honestly, Alyuin had once suspected she might be the incarnation of some god from the Solancian pantheon. But Lotus had said she had no divine power, so her identity remained a mystery, difficult to guess.
But faced with the Perfumer's secret letters to the open-air theater, Alyuin suddenly realized that Solancia's was not the only pantheon.
The Perfumer was a follower of the Beast God. The investigation had said so, and he had said so himself before he died.
But what if the god he believed in wasn't Solancia's Beast God?
Solancia did have a Beast God. He was one of the Earth Goddess's subordinate gods and a rather important deity. According to the investigation, the Perfumer's hometown did indeed have a temple to the Beast God.
But there was another country whose pantheon also included a "Beast God." They believed animals were beasts, and plants were stationary beasts. The deity who controlled animals and plants was called the God of Living Beings, the master of beasts, which was also shortened to Beast God.
If that were the case, it would all make sense.
And if Asilu was connected to the Kasnie pantheon, then what did her imitation of Lotus signify?
As she was pondering this, they arrived at the open-air theater.
Considering that the other party might possess abilities beyond human reach, Alyuin brought many people with her. They surrounded the theater and quickly brought the crowd inside under control, but they couldn't find Asilu.
“She has a performance tonight, she should be in the dressing room…”
The theater manager was on the verge of tears. He never would have imagined that he'd one day have a spear pointed at him by the Royal Guard.
Alyuin's expression was grave. Suddenly, she looked up.
On the roof of the theater, a figure slowly walked to the edge and looked down with a smile.
It was Asilu. To be precise, it was Asilu wearing a long, silver wig, dressed as the Goddess of the Yilu River from the mythological plays.
The theater manager was scared out of his wits and shouted, “Get down from there! What's going on? We can talk this out!”
Asilu didn't look at him. She only stared meaningfully at Alyuin, and after a long moment, she smiled faintly.
Her voice was very piercing. It might have lacked artistic expressiveness, but it somehow penetrated the eardrums and struck the mind directly.
“Your Highness.” Asilu chuckled lightly. “She hasn't been here. For how long?”
Alyuin's eyes narrowed, and she suddenly took out her bow and arrow.
She moved quickly, but Asilu was faster.
After all, all Asilu had to do was take a single step forward.
The actress's body plummeted from the height, landing on the theater stage with limbs twisted. A nearby guard, unable to dodge in time, was spattered with a bit of blood.
Asilu wasn't dead. She rolled her eyes toward Alyuin's direction, her expression still smiling.
Blood trickled from the corners of her eyes, her nostrils, and her mouth, staining the silver wig.
She opened her mouth, as if to say something.
Then, she peacefully closed her eyes.
A guard cautiously approached to check, then turned back and reported, “She's not breathing.”
Alyuin looked down at the twisted figure on the ground, her face like ice.
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