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“Call Riegers. No, find him and tell him.”

While I was still thinking about what to say, the king issued an order to one of the royal guards. I wondered who Riegers was, but it turned out he was one of the princes. The knight who was summoned to carry out the task stepped forward to receive the order, all the while keeping a watchful eye on me.

“Tell him to flee from Fraus immediately and stay in Aquilus temporarily. If necessary, you are to accompany him.”
“Understood!”

With a brief reply, the knight left. Letting the prince escape while staying behind meant that Riegers was likely the first prince. I didn’t know how the line of succession worked in this country, so I couldn’t say whether he was the crown prince.

If a queen were officially recognized, then Princess Topersion could also be a candidate for the throne.

The reason for sending the prince away was likely to preserve the royal bloodline in case Fraus fell. As royalty, it was the correct decision. If the prince survived, then the hope for Fraus’ revival wouldn’t be entirely lost.

Assuming the world didn’t collapse first. Since we had a moment of calm, I figured we might as well talk about that.

“Now then, Your Majesty. We have some time now before the people arrive. So, how about we have a little chat?”
“I don’t have the time for that.”
“Aren’t you just waiting for a report? Relax. When the people come, I will hide myself.”
“……”

He stayed silent, wearing a sour expression, clearly unwilling to engage, so I kept talking on my own.

“Do you know what the current state of things is, and I don’t just mean the Fraus Kingdom, but rather the whole world?”
“There was a disaster recently, but that’s about it. It will take time, but we will recover.”
“Oh, so you’re going to speak after all. In that case, let me continue. To put it short, unfortunately, the world will collapse.”
“Nonsense.”
“You can dismiss it as nonsense if you will, but can you say that after witnessing the recent disaster? That was the world screaming, telling you it can take no more. It’s retribution brought on by those who wouldn’t stop exploiting the spirits for their greed.”

As the ruler of a nation, it was the sort of thing he probably couldn’t acknowledge. But as a member of the royal family, I didn’t think he could remain completely blind to the possibility either. That was likely the reason behind the deep wrinkles on his face and the bitterness in his expression.

“As for the world, it has been heading for destruction from the moment you ignored God’s oracle. Slowly, very slowly, but without change, this has been the future that has always been here waiting for you.”
“We had full control of the spirits and the state of the world.”
“Yet it still grew weaker. I believe this goes to show that you didn’t have full control. And don’t be absurd. Do you think mere humans could grab hold of the world’s reins? Rubel’s king spouted the same nonsense, yet look at where we are now. What do you think brought on this recent disaster?”
“That would be because you stole the spirit.”

Ah, as expected, he figured it out. He must’ve heard something about the dwarven king. Or perhaps he’d learned elsewhere that the spirit vanished from Rubel. With the royal city destroyed, it wouldn’t have taken much to guess that spirits were involved.
If I told him exactly what King Rubel had said to me, I’d be admitting I had a hand in it. But that worked in my favor; it made the explanation easier.

“I only stole it recently. Not even a season has passed since then.”
“But nothing had happened before you stole it.”
“And you’re only saying that now. Can you guarantee things will stay that way? Do you even have enough food to be making that claim? Do you think you can survive without ever needing more? Or did someone’s research prove that the spirits are some kind of perpetual motion machine?”

I paused, waiting for the king’s reaction. He said nothing, only clenched his back teeth in frustration. So I took the liberty of continuing.

“Let’s leave it at that and get back to the collapse of the world. Once the oracle was ignored, the world’s collapse became inevitable. However, if I am to be honest, it wasn’t supposed to begin this soon. If we go by human standards, there should’ve been two or three more generations’ worth of life left in it. I don’t know the exact details, but it certainly wasn’t meant to be during this one. One reason for the accelerated collapse is the Fraus Kingdom.”
“Nonsense! Don’t be absurd!”
“You must have at least some idea. How can you forcibly summon people from another world and not expect it to affect this one?”

When I chuckled softly, the king fell silent again. He was starting to understand the weight of what his kingdom had done. There honestly wasn’t any point in pretending that the world could last another twenty years.

Be it twenty or one, it didn’t make much difference to the world itself.

“Enough. Shut your mouth. I cannot listen to your blabbering anymore!”
“That may indeed be better.”

I agreed that we shouldn’t continue. Though, of course, my reason for it was different than that of the king. After all, the reason why I decided to stop was because I could hear the footsteps of the king’s guests.

I activated Stealth and faded from view just as a commotion erupted beyond the door. Screams rang out, followed by urgent shouting, and the thunder of armored footsteps echoed through the chamber.

It seemed they had arrived sooner than expected, most likely guided by someone within the castle.

And then, at last, the door burst open with a violent crash.