Chapter 167 Roeni’s Struggle Part Eight: The Knight’s Deception and the Throne’s Anguish in a Web of Political Intrigue
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
It was no exaggeration to say that King Valentio owed his current station to the trust placed in him by the majority of the noble houses. Thus, he couldn’t simply dismiss the Marquis’s petition without even allowing a forum for discussion. Any decision he made that ignored the current of senior nobles gathered in this chamber would certainly leave behind a catastrophic wound upon his future reign.
The nobles, keenly aware of this fact, actively debated and tried to gather more support so their opinions would carry the most weight. But while the arguments became heated, they ultimately remained educated guesses based on each noble’s own self-serving desires, and naturally, no consensus could be reached. In the end, the King stood, silencing the room with a raised hand.
”—I am pleased that all of you have offered your opinions,” King Valentio declared, his voice formal and authoritative, “but your words do not extend beyond a mere statement of position at this point. Therefore, I have summoned the knight who returned alive from this incident to this very room. I ask that you lend your ear to his testimony, and… allow it to help us reveal the truth.”
King Valentio surveyed the now-silent room, his words carefully chosen due to his weighty position.
Truthfully, his genuine desire was to intensely question the man he suspected of the crime. Yet, he suppressed the raw agony of his daughter’s vanishing, striving to act as the rational master of the state who had received the formal petition.
As the King took his seat, his aide gave a signal, and a soldier placed his hand on the central door. The heavy door slowly swung open, drawing all eyes, and a figure with a commanding presence—Arman Fried—strode into the chamber with a dignified gait.
”Oh, is that him—”
”How brazen he appears—”
Though he was neither wearing his full armor nor belted with his sword, his towering height and the thick chest clearly visible even beneath his ceremonial knight’s uniform spoke of raw strength. The nobles on both sides of the long table glared at his imposing figure as he advanced with a grave expression.
Yet, even standing in the center of all these powerful figures, Arman Fried’s brow didn’t so much as twitch. He presented the very image of the ideal knight, as if silently proclaiming: I am the Kingdom’s Sword.
”Arman…”
He was truly the man who, long ago, had embodied a life sworn to the sword and the oath—the figure of aspiration.
If not for the suspicion hanging over Yuuri, one might be tempted to believe that his betrayal of the princess was some kind of terrible mistake due to his seemingly noble bearing. But the mere fact that he had betrayed my sweet little brother-figure sent a scorching rage—an anger that twisted my very guts—at his composed countenance.
King Valentio, who could not shake the suspicion that Fried had been responsible for his daughter’s fate, felt the same. He abandoned the look of an impartial judge he had worn moments ago, knitting his brow as he glared with a piercing gaze.
However, a pawn of conspiracy with such a lack of fortitude would never suffice. Calmly receiving the King’s barely contained fury, Fried knelt and offered the formal homage of a subject.
”It’s been a while, Arman Fried. Not since your knighthood, I believe?”
”That is correct, Your Majesty,” Arman intoned, his voice smooth and poised.
Both maintained the appearance of a King who had summoned a witness and a witness who had complied.
But Valentio had already given up on trying not to scowl, barely managing to maintain a superficial calm only to avoid hindering the proceedings. Fried, too, continued the exchange with a feigned indifference.
A commoner would have trembled at the King’s intimidating expression. Yet, Fried understood that in noble society, where interests clashed, a person could not be lightly punished without decisive evidence.
And a labyrinth, where no eyes watched and no evidence remained, was the perfect place for an assassination. He calculated that so long as he stuck to a consistent, reasonable explanation, he could keep the upper hand, even against the King.
”Let us dispense with the formalities. You will reveal everything you saw and heard right here, and in full detail.”
”Yes, Your Majesty—”
Since Arman Fried was technically not a criminal, he was usually required to spend a lengthy time listing the honors of an audience with the monarch. But Valentio skipped the elaborate praises, which would only have been irritating, instead urging his testimony—as if challenging Fried to concentrate and leave no room for error.
”—Up until then, the man named Yuuri showed no suspicious signs. This was likely a feint, a prelude to lure our party to the ‘stairs’ of the twenty-seventh layer, where the eyes of others would be absent.”
Fried’s testimony began, sounding plausible enough if one accepted the premise that an unknown commoner was secretly a villain: Yuuri had lured the party into a narrow passage within the Safety Area to avoid monsters, then used a magic stone to instantly eliminate all the interfering knights with stone stakes.
However, against Fried’s Rigid Body skill, the stakes themselves had shattered. Yuuri, panicking, then threatened the Princess with a magic stone, taking her hostage and fleeing.
”Your Highness’s Holy Armor only grants invincible defense to the armor itself, unfortunately; it does not make Her Highness’s person sturdy. Therefore, I could not risk an imprudent action,” Fried explained, his voice even and self-assured.
To those of us who knew Yuuri, the vile accusations were nauseating.
Yet, though he was clearly lying, his dignified posture was exactly that of the trusted knight he had once been. This blatant display of calm fabrication in a public forum began to swing the court’s consensus toward accepting Fried’s testimony as credible.
”After all, he is a commoner. If he was offered a sum of gold he’d never seen from his daily earnings, he might have been swayed to change his allegiance—”
”—Wait a moment,” interrupted Count Alegria, raising his hand to silence the supportive whispers. “You said only the knights were attacked. What became of my daughter?”
Fried had anticipated this. He turned toward the Count without shifting his rigid posture and restarted his believable testimony.
”Your daughter was taken hostage alongside Her Highness, used as a human shield. I had considered finding a chance to deliver a sword to the man, but with Ashley-dono positioned between us, even that was impossible.”
”And after that… what happened?” the Count pressed.
According to Fried’s account, the stone stake magic had been set up inside the knights’ armor beforehand.
While this alone strongly suggested the involvement of a high-ranking noble, Fried’s testimony that only Ashley-jou, who was not wearing armor, had been spared this specific attack, was a clever move that enhanced his credibility. The Count, unable to find a logical point of contention, urged the witness to continue.
Fried glanced subtly toward the corner of the room, a knowing expression crossing his face, then turned back to the Count.
”He carried her away along with Her Highness. My investigation reveals that the man is originally from the Alegria territory. Is it possible he held some specific grievance toward your daughter?”
”What—!?” the Count gasped.
Fried’s face briefly displayed a flash of triumph—the first crack in his composure. In the depths of his eyes, a dark satisfaction mocked the agitation of a father searching for his missing child.
A knight, by rights, should not take such an attitude toward a Count. But with Fried driving a wedge into the belief of Yuuri’s innocence, the Count could not reprimand his disrespect.
The Count, stunned, spun around. He knew a mere nod wouldn’t suffice to convey his complete meaning.
Frantically, he pulled a folder of documents from the bag at his feet, selecting Yuuri’s biography. He marked the birthplace, and after raising his hand and being recognized, he rushed toward the King.
The fact that Yuuri was born in Alegria territory was undeniable. And perhaps, despite the difference in their status, the two had feelings for each other.
But such nuances were only more fuel for Fried’s malicious speculation. Therefore, by submitting the document, the Count insisted that the birthplace was nothing more than a coincidence. But perhaps due to his intense anxiety over the fate of his missing daughter, the Count, though his face remained controlled, could not continue his questioning and subsided into silence.
”May I continue?”
Taking the Count’s distress as a conclusion to his line of questioning, Fried heartlessly sought to press on with the proceedings.
Since this was an assembly where many nobles were expected to speak, it was the etiquette to have one’s thoughts prepared in advance. Finding no immediate counter-argument, the Count could only nod and retake his seat.
Watching the Count’s weakened, slumping back, the frustration grew. If the Prince’s Faction was going to accuse the incident as Yuuri’s rebellion, there might have been more shared information if the Count and I could have exchanged notes again.
This rush to judgment, preventing any under-the-table meetings, was likely part of the Marquis’s calculated move: committing the act in a time-sensitive place like the Labyrinth where evidence vanishes quickly, then using the slow-moving nature of the Royal Palace to push through a verdict of insufficient evidence before a proper defense could be prepared. It was a strategy only a Marquis knowledgeable in both arenas could have conceived.
As I silently seethed over the missteps and the fractured unity, Arman Fried’s defense grew more passionate.
With no one left to interrupt, he cataloged Yuuri’s supposed wicked deeds, even adding words that sounded like he was blaming himself for his failure to act. The Prince’s Faction, sensing victory, immediately offered support, suggesting Fried be given a fitting punishment that would effectively clear his name, and the momentum seemed to turn decisively.
”Your Majesty, we must search for Princess Marina,” Fried pleaded, his voice now taking on a tone of urgency. “I learned from the Marquis that the twenty-seventh layer contains random warp traps. This is likely how he escaped, but because his plot failed with my survival, there is still a chance he has not harmed Her Highness.”
Fried was careful to maintain his innocence in the plot while simultaneously suggesting the Princess might be alive.
His intention was easily guessed: he was forcing the King’s hand. Pressed to make a decision to search for his daughter, Valentio found himself unable to answer immediately.
Of course, the King wanted to believe his daughter was alive and issue a massive search mandate. But if he allowed just anyone into the Labyrinth, those aligned with the Aprelton family might sneak in and assassinate Princess Marina.
Yet, committing only fully trusted forces to the Labyrinth would leave the Royal Castle dangerously exposed in this volatile situation. Unable to determine the correct move, all Valentio could do was lash out with his resentment at the brazen knight before him.
”…Did you, then, stand idly by and watch my daughter be taken away?”
That one statement was essentially King Valentio’s declaration of defeat.
It appeared to criticize his opponent, yet it was a question that could be answered in any number of ways depending on Fried’s interpretation. It was an admission that he had no further means of pursuit.
For a moment, Fried’s expression seemed to brighten with internal glee.
He bowed deeply, as if to control his sudden joy, and when he straightened, his face was fixed in a deeply earnest expression. Suppressing his triumphant feelings, Fried began his final defense, speaking eloquently again.
”No, no! Of course, I would have chased him to the bottom of the Labyrinth if I hadn’t been blocked! But that sly rogue used a magic stone to seal the passageway. That is why he escaped, and why I was forced to waste time searching the twenty-seventh layer!”
”Your account is vague, Fried…!” King Valentio’s tone grew increasingly harsher, bordering on a cutting reprimand. “A man of your skill would not be deterred by any common magic! Were you loath to suffer even a little blood for a knighthood granted by me?!”
Fried continued to parry the King’s fierce demands without shrinking away. His testimony was, ironically, likely mostly true.
By recounting the actual events but changing the casting, he preserved consistency while painting Yuuri as the villain. Thus, even when strongly challenged by the monarch, all he had to do was recount the ‘facts’ as he remembered them, and his defense would complete itself. Even if he were to be reprimanded for failing to protect the Princess, the petitions from the Prince’s Faction would significantly reduce any penalty.
”That is unthinkable, Your Majesty! As a knight sworn to the Kingdom, I would follow through fire or water…! But the stone wall magic stone used by Yuuri… by that Yuuri… it completely blocked the passage! Even I needed time to shatter it!” Fried argued, his voice ringing with false sincerity.
With Fried asserting that the passage was physically blocked, King Valentio, who had not been there, had no further way to challenge him.
The monarch’s angry voice fell silent, and Fried, having finished his report, also closed his mouth. No one in the room spoke up to challenge his account, and thus, the assembly room fell into a heavy silence, a sign that the petition had concluded exactly as the Prince’s Faction had intended.
—
Summary:
The political tension within the royal court reaches a fever pitch as the King is forced to hear the testimony of Arman Fried, the knight suspected in Princess Marina’s disappearance.
Despite the King’s mounting paternal anguish, he must maintain the facade of a fair arbiter while Fried, the ideal knight on the surface, weaves a detailed lie to frame the commoner Yuuri for treason and kidnapping. The chapter concludes with the King cornered, unable to disprove the calculated deception, leading to a devastating political victory for the Prince’s Faction, while the fate of the missing Princess remains tragically unresolved.
—
Character Insight:
King Valentio’s character is defined by the devastating conflict between his duty as a monarch, which demands rational judgment and political calculation, and his private grief as a father. This struggle makes him politically vulnerable.
He is forced to confront the cynical power dynamics of his own court, where the appearance of integrity—exemplified by the treacherous Arman Fried—outweighs the actual search for truth and justice. His inability to act decisively is a key moment in the narrative’s political drama.
—
Behind the Scene:
This chapter was strategically structured to showcase the Marquis’s brilliant political maneuvering.
The key event was holding the assembly before the Count or the unnamed narrator (who clearly supports Yuuri) could coordinate a defense or gather counter-evidence. Fried’s consistent, technically true (but contextually false) testimony about the labyrinth—leveraging the magic stone and the random warp trap—made his lie virtually unassailable in this formal setting, resulting in a massive setback for the King’s position and the truth about the kidnapping.
Notes:
• Valentio – The current King of Restea. A large, imposing man with sun-gold hair and a crown, he commands authority, though his current actions reveal a deep-seated agitation, likely due to the political crisis and the uncertainty surrounding his daughter, Marina’s, fate. Looks like King Bradley from certain series.
• Arman – Knight captain who escort Marina on the first mission.
• Ai – The recently-formed sub-divinity/ego who manages the world’s Skills. Her sudden, intense burst of divine will (‘ki’) almost bleached Yuuri’s wicked thoughts. Called Yuuri ‘Elder Brother’ and declared genuine affection and trust based on his efficiency with her Skills.
• Count Alegria – A distinguished noble and a key figure in the Princess Faction. He is known for his strict outward demeanor but possesses a kind heart and a fierce loyalty to his only daughter, Ashley. He has short, neatly trimmed silver hair and wears exquisitely tailored, dark three-piece suits and look like like Vayne Solidor.
• Ashley – Count’s daughter, royal attendant, has a crush on Yuuri.
• Marina – First Princess of Restea—needs labyrinth escort.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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