At that time, in the harem of the King of the Kingdom of Gloria.
A man, stripped from the waist down, was suddenly tossed into a place filled with nothing but women.
He had attempted to assault Nathan's sister, Sarah, but had been struck by a tremendous impact that rendered him unconscious, and Alan had teleported him away.
He was immediately captured by a female knight on guard duty.
"Speak! How did you get in here?!"
"I don't know, I swear! Please, forgive me! I was changing clothes at the Earl's residence and ended up like this!"
"There's no way that's true! Speak, I said speak!!"
The female knight, who was more physically imposing than the man, interrogated him with a terrifying expression.
A half-naked man besides His Majesty himself had infiltrated the royal harem.
If she couldn't get him to talk, her own head would fly along with his.
As the officer responsible for security, she would be made to take responsibility — in the most literal sense.
That was why the female knight had used her connections to obtain a collar of subjugation.
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But the result was unchanged.
"This is useless! I was trying to assault a commoner woman and this is what happened to me!! I'm telling you, I don't know how I ended up here!!"
What did that even mean!?
Thanks to the effect of the collar of subjugation, the man had revealed the true reason he was naked from the waist down, but he still didn't know how he had gotten in.
Was he claiming he had entered unconsciously?
But he truly had appeared without any trace or prior sign whatsoever.
This is bad. I really could lose my head over this.
I need to redirect the blame somehow…
"Then who do you serve?"
"That would be… Lord Dahlen."
It was the moment the scapegoat was decided.
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"Your Majesty, this is some kind of mistake! Please, I beg you for mercy!"
The incompetent subordinate had confessed his connection to him, and so Dahlen was subjected to endless torture for a crime he had absolutely no knowledge of.
Since the suspicion had spread all the way to the nobility, the interrogation had already been taken out of the hands of the rear palace's female knights and handed over to the royal palace's torturers.
And yet, no matter what they tried, the method of intrusion remained completely unclear.
The royal palace torturers were growing desperate too.
They had heard that His Majesty was absolutely furious about this matter.
At this rate, their own heads were liable to go flying.
No — they *would* go flying.
They needed to file some kind of report as quickly as possible.
And so, the torturer decided to fabricate something.
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"Why on earth would I have helped smuggle someone like this into the rear palace?! There's no reason I would ever do such a thing!! Someone, help me!!"
Mounting the execution platform were the man who had been thrown in by Alan, Dahlen himself, and the rear palace female knight who had been the first to interrogate the man.
The cornered torturer arranged it so that the female knight who had first interrogated the man was the one who had facilitated the intrusion, and that the two of them had conspired together to keep the method of entry secret.
And that the Count was the mastermind.
The reason could be anything—it didn't matter. The story they settled on was that the Count had desired a woman of the rear palace and orchestrated the man's attempt to kidnap her.
The female knight, who had harbored a long-standing grudge against the woman, caught wind of the plan and facilitated the intrusion.
The enraged king swallowed every word of the torturer's fabricated tale and ordered their execution.
A perfunctory semblance of a trial existed, but all such formalities were entirely bypassed.
The torturer had urgently recommended same-day execution before his story could be independently verified, and the king had obliged.
And so Count Dahlen and his aide—who had schemed to eliminate Nathan and Sarah to save face—and the female knight—who had tried to weasel her way out of bearing any responsibility—were all executed together.
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For those who found the ending a bit unsatisfying, I've written a milder reimagining. If you're interested, please check out Chapter 70: "If" of the spinoff, Loser Skill.
Skills: [Reverse] [Divine Eye] [Sword God] [Gentleman Thief] [Dark Magic] [Iron Rock Magic] [Holy Magic] [Space-Time Magic] [Scorching Heat Magic] [Freezing Ice Magic] [Magic Hand] [Sedation] [Pain Suppression] [Complete Status Ailment Resistance] [Flame Spirit's Protection] [Phantom Demon]
Rank: Silver (Alisa: Gold)
Thank you, as always, for reading. 😊