I Will Burn Up My Kingdom And Disappear

I picked up the brown bag just outside lord Salam's private room and put in it the three hexagonal cubes. There is something serious about these cubes. Otherwise, lord Salam would not have bothered himself to store them with such secrecy.

I am not showing anyone the cubes for it is still too risky. If for instance, Lorope Empire turned out to connected to these cubes and knew that I had acquired them, then my connection with the empire would get muddy... Depending on the importance of the cubes they may even wage another war to get them back.

As soon as I left the private room Pia asked in curiosity, "Your Majesty, how were things inside the room? Oh, and may I help hold the bag for you? You must be tired after this long and troublesome night."

Pia with hungry eyes walked immediately without my response and tried to grab hold of the brown bag.

A moment before she was about to hold the bag I grabbed her hand and said, "Pia, I have already told you that I won't allow you to see the content of the private room have I? Anymore of these petty tricks will result in a severe punishment that you would beg me to let it end. Do not let me lower my expectations of you."

Pia retreated her hands and lowered her head to the ground then said, "I understand... I am sorry for showing you this embarrassing side of mine. It won't happen again."

"Good," I replied as I patted her head twice then walked outside the library room.

Pia remained in the library for some reason, and as soon as I left the library, I heard heavy pounding coming from it. Curious, I returned to the library to find Pia, with a red face like a tomato, punching the library table nonstop. Once she noticed me, she got startled, covering her mouth with one hand and said, "I am sorry, it is nothing."

I did not get what was going on, but I ignored it and moved on.

I walked to the main entrance room where Varian sat on the floor waiting for me. Beside him was the unconscious priest, tied up endlessly with a rope that he looked like a worm.

"You are drenched in sweat Varian," I said. "What happened?"

I knew that he spent all this time to hurriedly tie up the priest thus became tired, but I wanted to hear his response. There are some who will always lie, some who will always tell the truth, and some who are in-between. I wanted to test that.

"I have tied up the priest as fast as I could Your Majesty," replied Varian. "Because surely you do not want him to kill one of us again. I also put the body of Rayan, and both his head and the head of lord Salam in a bag. It does not feel right to keep their them exposed to our eyes."

"Fair enough," I said in approval of his response. "Looking at the dead all the time is said to kill one's humanity... but what about the body of lord Salam? Even if he deserved to be killed, no, even if his sins are so massive that they cannot be washed off with his death, one must not disrespect the dead."

"Oh, I have forgotten all about his body Your Majesty," replied Varian. "It will still be upstairs where I had killed him as per your orders. Would you mind if I went to pick it up?"

"Do that," I replied.

Once Varian stood up and was about to ascend the stairs Pia said, "But when I went to get the key to the private room upstairs I had not seen lord Salam's body, Your Majesty. Not even a single drop of blood. I thought your guard have cleaned up the room."

Pia mentioned such an alarming and dangerous fact so innocently that I could not help but raise my voice in frustration.

"What are you saying?" I shouted. "Why have not you told me about it earlier? This means that there is another fourth person in this church that we did not know a single thing about him. Pia, is there any other way to get to lord Salam room upstairs beside going through the door that we had entered earlier?"

"No, Your Majesty," she replied with fear. "The only way to enter the room upstairs is by walking through the same door as you have mentioned. But how can this be? Before Your Majesty came to the church, we were only twelve people; me, lord Salam, and the ten priests. It is impossible that there is someone else who could take lord Salam's body then clean up his blood in the room."

This had become a dilemma.

Varian is not capable of hiding lord Salam's body in time. He was busy tying the priest up, and his noisy armor would reveal that he went upstairs.

But Pia seems the only person capable of hiding lord Salam's body. She is the only one who went upstairs, that is to pick up the key to the private room. Pia even liked lord Salam so much that she did not mind stabbing me when we were about to descend the stairs. She has an incentive to hide the body. Perhaps the information she is telling us right now may even be faulty.

"Varian, could you go upstairs and confirm Pia... No, we all should head to lord Salam room upstairs."

We ascended the stairs and entered lord Salam's room again. The status of the room is aligned with what Pia had told us. Lord Salam's body was not there, without any trace of blood.

Now, what should I do? Could it be something related to the cubes that I am holding right now in the bag?"

"Your Majesty," said Varian. "Should I search the room?"

"Fine, do that Varian," I replied.

The room is dull. The shelves on both sides of the room were empty. The wall in front of the door had a painting of Salamander. The painting overlooked a table and a chair that lord Salam was sitting on when we first saw him. There is nothing else in this room, nothing else.

I am becoming more suspicious of Pia. She is looking attentively right now to help us. But she could be hiding something, like a secret passage or a hidden door that allowed her to hide lord Salam's body.

"Pia, how come this room is empty?" I asked. "There should be some paperwork, books, statues, clothes, to somewhat fill up the room. Otherwise, how did lord Salam spend his time in this empty room?"

"Lord Salam has always been this very mysterious person, Your Majesty," replied Pia. "Even though I have worked as his assistant for the past four years, I have never felt I knew him much as a person, not to mention his personal life. In fact, the other ten priests and I have talked about this often. But in time we got used to it and accepted it as the norm.

So she had always been very curious about lord Salam. This somewhat explains why she was so furious to know about the contents of the private room.

Now that I think about it, both this room and the private room were empty... Perhaps I should have delayed killing lord Salam till I had the answers to all these puzzles.

In the meantime, Varian examined the shelves by knocking on them. He possibly thought that there could be something hidden. Varian then removed the painting on the wall, flipped both the chair and the table upside-down. He could not find anything besides dust.

"Your Majesty," said Varian. "There does not seem to be anything worthwhile in this room. I think we should investigate the other rooms downstairs."

"Fair enough," I replied. "Let us do that."

Now then, the moment I have put my hand on the doorknob, I heard a sneeze. It would not even be a stretch to call it a cute sneeze. The sound came from above.

How careless of me... To think that the three of us never bothered to look above our heads.

There was a wide wooden platform below the roof of the room. There, a very young lady was squatting so that her head does not hit the ceiling. On her left hand was a silver dagger, and she rested her right hand on the headless corpse of lord Salam.