Chapter 1804 - 164: Before the Final Battle

"Your Majesty, as per your instructions, the navy has already entered the Nali Sea Area, and the army has placed the streets of Saint Nali under martial law."

The deep autumn morning was clear and bright, yet at this moment, because of the army’s arrival, the entire Nali City had sunk into silence; all the former clamor was smothered beneath Elizabeth’s power, stained with a golden hue of slaughterous austerity.

Beneath the plaza of the Golden Palace, the fully assembled troops were undergoing Elizabeth’s inspection, while on the gate tower above, Elizabeth, impeccably dressed in a white military uniform, was leaning on that golden longsword, gazing indifferently at the sky above. Her eyes trembled slightly, as though she were establishing contact with some existence beyond the sky, beyond the Gap, beyond the Spirit Realm...

She pressed her hand to her eyes with a trace of pain, then lowered her head and spoke softly to Dianne at her side,

"The announcement I drafted earlier—distribute it to all citizens of Saint Nali City in half an hour... The decision was mine; it is time they understood what they are about to undergo."

Previously, Elizabeth had not explained to the Nali people the reasons for what she now did, but after much deliberation, she finally decided to reveal the truth to her subjects.

Dianne, serving behind her, bowed and assented, then asked with a faint smile,

"If unrest arises because of this matter, Your Majesty, shall we suppress it?"

"Is it that you do not trust me, or that you do not trust my army?"

Elizabeth opened her eyes and said, expressionless,

"If there is Chaos, let them come and go as they please. I leave the army here only to maintain basic Order, to prevent those things from breaking into Saint Nali and causing losses that hinder me. As for everything else, let them be."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Listening to Dianne’s reply, Elizabeth fell silent for a moment, looking down at the army below, their heads held high and chests thrust forward, and at the Cardinals soaring through the sky like swarming birds. Suddenly she asked, in a faint tone,

"Dianne, you are the one who drafted the announcement. Seeing what I have done, are you not afraid?"

"Your Majesty, I do not understand?"

Elizabeth slanted a glance at her, her tone unchanged,

"I have betrayed the entire world, betrayed the current Order, and offered it up to the Divine of the Outer Realm. I thought you would be terrified enough to flee overnight."

Dianne merely smiled slightly, lowered her head, and answered,

"Your Majesty, is it that you do not trust yourself, or that you do not trust Dianne?"

"Heh, glib tongue."

Elizabeth’s lips curled upward. She turned back and cast a sidelong look at that woman hidden reverently in the shadows, who likewise lowered her head bit by bit, hiding those black irises whose blue-gold scattered pupils had begun to seep and change colour,

"Your Majesty is selflessly devoted to the affairs of the realm. As your subordinate, it is only natural that I swear to follow you unto death; how could there be any reason to flee the battlefield?"

"Heh, and if I were to say that I do all of this solely for a man? That it is all for Fisher Benavides?"

"..."

Dianne lowered her brows and smiled without answering, while the expression on Elizabeth’s face grew all the more mocking,

"As for affairs of state... to me, I have merely fulfilled the responsibilities of an Emperor: letting them obtain the wealth that should have been theirs in exchange for their support of me; this is nothing more than a contract. If this matter succeeds, Nali will continue to exist in the new world, and the contract will endure; if it fails, the contract will crumble. After my death, those who are grateful to me now will be the first to revile me then. Since ancient times, the relationship between leaders and their subjects has never been otherwise. To say it is for the sake of the realm would be overstating it..."

"...Then has Your Majesty ever considered why it is that you merely perform what is within your duty, yet with a single command from you, all the people of Saint Nali now obediently stay inside their homes?"

Dianne spoke again at this moment. The sudden interruption took Elizabeth somewhat by surprise, yet she did not rebuke her; there was still time, and listening to her subordinates prattle on a while was no great matter,

"Your Majesty, in my view, the reason you did not inform the people in advance of what you are doing is, first, because telling them would do nothing to help, since it has no bearing on your plan; and second, because even if you fail, the subjects of Nali, by remaining ignorant of this matter, will cleanse themselves of guilt after your death by insulting you... In a certain sense, you are severing your ties with them. You care for Nali, just as they care for you."

"...Fallacy. I have never trusted anyone; I trust only myself. And all that I want is what I seize for myself, not what others give. Right and wrong have no fixed judgment; they merely shift with the passage of time. What has been transmitted since antiquity, constant and unchanging, is only interest. Because I win, I possess everything; if I lose, then naturally I forfeit everything."

"Your Majesty, you must understand that not everyone cares about winning and losing."

Behind her, Dianne’s figure hidden in the shadows grew ever more indistinct, and these words echoed again and again within the darkness. It seemed a reminder, a counsel, yet Elizabeth only felt annoyed, treating it as wind at her ear,

"But I care about winning and losing... When I was young, a whore told me she would reveal to my family that I had privately pledged myself for life to my beloved. She wanted to watch me lose everything before her very eyes; she wanted to see the radiant elder princess reduced to a puppet at Gedelin’s mercy. She enraged me, drove me to strike at her, and this was precisely what she desired. I lost—in her scheme I lost utterly, so I lost Fisher. No matter how much I later wished to explain things to him, it was all to no avail, impossible to recover.