Chương 68: Choice

"Quite the sordid turn of affairs, this," Merriweather said, a look of consternation on his face.

"We'll have to inform the government about Phantasm–""And what, tell them that the Duke was assassinated by an unknown individual whom nobody aside from us had ever heard of before?" Qorbin raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I don't think they're gonna buy it." They were gathered in the Duke's quarters. Duke Alan Montague's body hung over them, almost taunting with its macabre presence. Eight iron rods affixed him to the walls: two through his hands, two through his feet, two through his thighs, and two through his shoulders. They pierced into him at an angle that avoided flesh and drove through the bones themselves.

Numerous other injuries marred the duke's form as well, the most obvious one being the perfectly circular hole carved through his chest. Likely the result of the same golden ball of light Phantasm had used against Levi inside the cavern. Merriweather paused.

"No one else knows about Phantasm?"

"Not a soul. As far as the government and Adventurer's Guild are concerned, he doesn't exist. His first known sighting was during Levi and Liliya's Ascension Trials." Qorbin turned to Anastasia.

"Unless the Church knows something?" Anastasia hesitated. Her brows furrowed, but she shook her head a moment later.

"This is the first time I'm hearing of this Phantasm as well. Whoever he is, the Church doesn't know about him." Qorbin nodded.

"There you have it. All anyone will care about is that we walked into Montague Castle tonight and strolled out with the Duke dead behind us."

"Aren't there ways for the government to determine the truth of what'd happened?" Liliya asked.

"Mind-reading skills? Truth potions?" Qorbin shook his head.

"All those methods can be countered or neutralized. The current most infallible technique is… well, Anastasia's [Lie Discernment] skill. But she's already proven that she has a conflict of interest here, so I doubt they'd believe her–" He sighed and whirled to Theodore Montague.

"We get the idea, can you pipe down already?" After getting dragged into the room with them, Montague had taken one look at his father's corpse and immediately began ranting angrily, threatening everyone involved with a long list of horrifically gruesome punishments. His vocal cords had been too damaged for him to shout too loudly, but he made up for it with sheer incessant vitriol.

They had tuned him out as they discussed their situation, but instead of quieting from the lack of attention, Montague had grown even more enraged.

"I will extract your cerebellum through your nasal passage while force-feeding you your own entrails," Montague snarled.

"You will smell your brain and taste your liver–" Qorbin sighed again.

"Someone get him out of here."

"I can wait with him outside in the hallway," Liliya volunteered.

"There are still some words I'd like to exchange with him."

"Right…" Qorbin raised an eyebrow.

"Words, I'm sure. That works. The castle should be secure, but don't stray too far. Give us a yell if anything happens." Liliya nodded and dragged Montague's bound protesting form out the door, a certain glint in her eyes. Just to be safe, Levi cast several spells on them both; they'd alert him if anyone approached or if Montague tried to escape. The door shut behind her, muffling Montague's enraged threats.

"Did Phantasm know that we were attacking Montague Castle tonight?" Qorbin asked. They all ignored how the muffled sounds of ranting became muffled screams outside.

"Is this a frame job?" Levi shook his head.

"No, from the way he acted, it was just a coincidence that we launched our operations at the same time." He paused.

"Are you sure the System doesn't have a 'Luck' stat?"

"Magical theorists have hypothesized the existence of such a thing before… but nothing confirmed. Hate to say it, but your bad luck seems to be all organic."

"Your?" Levi objected.

"If anything, I'm fairly certain it should be 'ours', at the very least."

"Dunno, kid, my missions don't normally end up being anywhere near this botched–" Anastasia coughed lightly.

"Didn't you just cause an international incident the previous year? On a routine escort mission, no less?"

"... Anyhow, Phantasm's original plan must've been to assassinate the Duke to accelerate the succession," Qorbin said.

"Montague would've become the duke, and his father's death would've made him inflamed and erratic – just like if Liliya had died during the Ascension Trials." He rubbed his chin.

"What makes Montague so important? Is it because he's the easiest to exploit? Or because he's a high-ranking Royal Sentinel?"

"What is Phantasm's goal?" Anastasia asked.

"To save the world, apparently," Levi answered. Qorbin, Anastasia, and Merriweather all blinked.

"His words, not mine. But at any rate… What do we do, then? Merriweather and I should be fine; Merriweather was disguised, while I made sure not to be seen by anyone other than Montague. But Qorbin… Even if you'd worn a disguise, your fighting style overall is too distinctive. Perhaps the guards didn't recognize you, but the Royal Sentinels definitely did." Qorbin pursed his lips.

"Yeah. I was fine with that at first. It's one thing to attack a duke's home and assassinate his heir. I could've excused it by saying that Montague had hired me to kill you." The general sentiment, at least amongst nobles, was that hiring an assassin always carried the inherent risk of them deciding to turn on you for greater coin, and thus to contract one was to accept that risk. An eye for an eye was the cost of doing business.

"But the Duke himself dying… That's a whole different matter."

"They'll put a kill order out on you," said Anastasia.

"Yeah…"

"We'll have to keep Montague alive, then," Levi said. He narrowed his eyes; it was an understatement to say that the thought displeased him. But…

"He's the only other person who witnessed Phantasm's existence." Neither of the maids in the room had seen Phantasm, which was probably why he'd left them alive.

"We can threaten him into testifying that Phantasm was present here tonight. It might also be useful to have a Duke under our thumbs."

"Yeah…" Qorbin didn't seem to like the idea of leaving Montague alive any more than Levi did, but he accepted it.

"You think you can convince him to testify?" This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Levi nodded.

"I'll find a way." The atmosphere in the room was gloomy. Through nothing but an unfortunate stroke of luck, Montague had gotten a free pass for his actions– Wait. Levi froze.

"Do you hear that?" They all paused, straining their ears.

"No," Anastasia frowned.

"I don't hear anything."

"Exactly." Qorbin realized it a moment after Levi did. Concern filled his eyes. It was quiet. Too quiet. Montague's constant muffled rants and screams in the background were nowhere to be heard. None of Levi's defensive spells had activated, which could only mean… In a blur, Levi rushed out the door and into the hallway – and abruptly stopped in place. Qorbin, Merriweather, and Anastasia joined him a few seconds later.

Anastasia's hand flew to cover her mouth, Merriweather coughed into a fist, Qorbin let out a quiet snort, and Levi… Levi simply stared at the scene before him, his expression unreadable. Montague's body was slumped against the wall. Blood slowly spilled forth to join the growing pool of crimson around him. Liliya stood over him, her sword lodged in his chest. She turned to look at them when they entered the hallway. She seemed neither guilty nor even pleased.

There was a terrible light in her eyes, a certain unassailable resolve that said she had no regrets clouding her soul. She looked unrecognizable, yet at the same time… In that moment, Levi could've sworn he was looking at a reflection of his younger self.

"Miss Volkov," Merriweather said awkwardly.

"You…"

"I couldn't let him live," Liliya said.

"Even if he promised not to retaliate, he'd just end up breaking his word in the end. That's all he ever does. The threats he gave, the things he said he'd do to us…" In a fluid motion, she pulled her sword out from Montague's chest.

"I did what I had to do." The hallway was silent, the only sound being the deceased ducal heir's blood dripping onto the floor below. The Lancaster garrison had set up a perimeter around Montague Castle. Anastasia had ordered them to hold the line while she went in to take care of the enemies. Despite her technically not having any actual authority over them, the garrison's soldiers had listened to her. Chain of command or not, a High Priestess was still a High Priestess.

Levi, Qorbin, Merriweather, and Liliya slipped past the perimeter easily enough, a host of stealth spells covering them. The soldiers seemed nervous as they muttered amongst themselves, staring at the castle with no small amount of trepidation; Levi caught the word 'lamppost' being mentioned more than once, which was somewhat confusing. Just what had Merriweather been doing to them before Anastasia showed up? As Anastasia had said, the city was in a state of emergency.

Guards, soldiers, and stationed adventurers flooded the streets, in position to defend against any potential enemy attack. Reinforcements from nearby cities had also begun streaming in. Nobody knew who had attacked Montague Castle, but it was clear they weren't taking any chances. Any moment now, Anastasia should be giving the city the all-clear signal. She was only delaying doing so to give Levi and the others enough time to get back to their base of operations and prepare an alibi.

The death of the Duke and his heir was going to shake the city to its very core. As they moved through the city, the guards mostly ignored them. There were enough adventurers in the streets that they didn't stand out much. They quickly made it back to the tavern inn they'd rented out. Qorbin made a big show of stumbling around and retching loudly in the adjacent alleyway; anyone who saw them returning to the inn would think that they just had a late night out drinking.

After entering, Qorbin and Merriweather had immediately excused themselves to their rooms. The night's events had caught up to them; the two of them had combined held off well over a hundred assorted guards and soldiers that night. They needed their rest, especially considering what was to come. Which left only Levi and Liliya. The tavern owner was already asleep, so Liliya was just in Levi's room located at the end of the hall.

She sat on the single bed within, while Levi looked out the window, examining the guards and adventurers that rushed through the streets. On the nightstand, a candle flickered errantly, causing their shadows to dance on the walls. Liliya had been silent ever since they'd left Montague Castle. It was only now that she finally spoke.

"Are you mad at me?" Levi turned to look at her.

"What? No."

"Disappointed?" Levi blinked.

"Where are these questions coming from?" Liliya hesitated. The resolve that had strengthened her earlier was gone; now, she looked unsure, even nervous.

"I… I killed Montague. I murdered him in cold blood."

"You did," Levi agreed.

"And?"

"And… well, that made the situation more difficult to deal with, didn't it? The government will now blame you all for the Duke's death."

"No, they'll blame it on Qorbin," Levi said.

"An acceptable sacrifice. Professor Merriweather and I should be safe. If anything, you're the one most at risk, considering how you disappeared right after the attack. They might think you fled the scene." Liliya narrowed her eyes.

"They can think what they want." Levi smiled.

"Funny. That's exactly what I was thinking." He scratched his head.

"I'll admit, Montague dying does make things a bit more difficult, but certainly not impossible. There's still a chance that Qorbin and Anastasia will be able to convince the government that Phantasm was responsible. And even if that fails and Qorbin is forced onto the run… I mean, knowing him, it was only a matter of time. Whatever the case, I doubt anyone would blame you. Though, I am curious. What made you kill Montague?" Liliya was silent for a moment.

"He wouldn't shut up no matter what," she whispered.

"He kept on threatening me, threatening Qorbin and Merriweather and Anastasia… Threatening you. He tried to kill you, Levi. Maybe he was influenced or possessed when he hired those assassins, but from the way he was talking, I think he would've done so even if he was completely sound of mind. Will do so again, if we leave him alive."

"So you killed him?" Liliya nodded.

"My sword pierced his heart before I even knew what was happening. It was like my body moved on its own."

"I see. Yeah, I personally have no issues, and I doubt anyone else does either." Levi paused before chuckling.

"Well actually, Anastasia probably does, but that's because she might be a little, ah, too nice." Liliya cracked a smile at that.

"She is a High Priestess…" Another silence fell over them, this one far more comfortable than before. Then, Liliya's expression twisted.

"Even still, though… I murdered Montague." Levi stared at her for a long moment. There was a certain weight to her words. What was she… Oh. Right.

"Is this your first time taking a life?" Liliya didn't respond, but her expression told Levi everything that he needed to know.

"I see." Levi had been killing people for such a long time that he'd almost forgotten what the first time was like. He most definitely wasn't qualified enough to handle this conversation. All the same, though…

"It's never easy, the first time," he said.

"No matter how prepared you think you are for it, no matter how justified the killing may be, no matter how much you harden your heart… It'll still feel awful."

"That's the thing," Liliya said.

"I don't feel awful. I feel good. Lighter. Like I'd cleansed this world of malignant rot." She turned to look at him.

"I slaughtered a man in cold blood and I feel good about it, Levi. What does that make me?"

"Human," Levi said.

"It makes you human. You may not feel awful about the act of killing him itself, but you feel awful nonetheless about your response. That, to me, is important. It means you recognize the weight of your actions, even as you freely accept it upon your shoulders. That is what separates you from psychopathic killers and inhuman monsters." He let out a long breath.

"Let me tell you a story about a certain servant's tasks…"