"He wished for death, and I granted it to him." Malin sat down in front of His Majesty Manheim, taking the teacup his wife handed him and placing it on the table: "It’s Thainan-made tea leaves, but they taste a bit aged. How long have you stored them, Your Majesty?" "Such expensive tea leaves, of course, require long-term storage. Do you know their price? This is a once-in-a-lifetime delicacy." His Majesty Manheim smiled as he downed the tea from his teacup in one gulp. "I have finally awaited your judgment. It came a bit late, but you have carried out your entire revenge plan perfectly. Old Hagelberry and old Svenson both helped me, and I must thank them. But they said it was just the price they paid for betraying me before." Finishing in one breath, the monarch laughed: "Those ungrateful nobles. While I sat in this position, they colluded with the Northerners, funding them, arming them, even allowing them to develop within their territories, all to overthrow me. For this day, they even attempted to assassinate my children multiple times. These sinners... they truly deserved to die." "So you planned all of this?" Malin still felt something was amiss. "No, how could I have planned this? I merely informed them that everything of mine was over, and that this winter I would pass the throne to that young man. This way, the succession would be completed. The Thanan have a saying, ’When the birds are gone, the bow is put away. When the cunning hare dies, the hounds are cooked.’ " With this, His Majesty Manheim laughed heartily and pointed at Link: "Young man, do you know why your grandfather acted as if he couldn’t see you getting closer to the Northerners? It was all because they needed your hatred for me, they needed you to fund the Northerners. Do you know, that sister you fancy wasn’t forced by me to become my lady-in-waiting. She asked me to let her escape from you nobles because she knew of their malice." "We knew they were deceiving us, and were we brothers not deceiving them too?" Link’s face brimmed with an icy smile: "With Prince Malin’s education, and the selfless sacrifice of our forebears, I understood what true Northernism is. The thought of wiping out all of you makes me so happy. In this world, finally, there will be no more of you." Seeing the anger on Link’s face, His Majesty Manheim smiled and shook his head. "No, child, I was also using you. Your old predecessors still held a glimmer of hope for me, naively thinking I would agree to let them form a cabinet. They forgot that I’m not their opponent, the nobles are. They would never let these former serfs and peasants stand over them." Manheim spoke with laughter, even as he coughed up blood. His wife sat by his side, and having long since been poisoned, she finally rested her head upon her husband’s. "Dear, I seem to see our children." The strong woman sighed in her final moments. Her husband caressed her head: "Don’t worry, dear, I’m smiling at you too." Malin watched the family’s souls reunite, watched as their souls began to self-ignite as they passed through the guiding passage, saw them transform into twisted spirits and eventually turn to ashes, Malin sighed. Your Majesty, do you know? Your so-called schemes and plots are nothing more than distortions twisted by chaos.