Chapter 81：Beginning of the End

While wearing his traditional heirloom armour, George Liam Gudewill greeted a royal admiral at the reception of the theoretical 'heart' of Breeton and home of the Royal family, the Royal Castle.

However, this certain golden-eyed and pitch-black-haired royal admiral that he was currently greeting was a rather special case.

"Welcome back to the Royal Castle Michelle. I must express that the King is indeed glad that you decided to attend this High Council meeting."

George's eyes narrowed as he greeted Michelle. His voice grew sharper on the second sentence.

"Especially since you seldom do attend any."

"I have many duties to attend to which forced me to miss a majority of them. Besides what use is a Royal Admiral to a Council meeting that mostly discuss domestic and economic issues? I thought that you already knew that George."

Michelle giggled as she responded to George, her right hand partly covering her mouth as she did so.

"It's been a while George. It is a pleasure to meet you again."

However, contrary to what George originally thought, Michelle did not call him the 'taxmonger' like she normally did. In fact, she seemed to be a lot more sincere and polite than usual. Although she did put up a facade of sincerity in the past, she either purposely and accidentally let some of her snide smugness leak too.

But George knew he had no reason to dwell on these thoughts, after all, he hasn't seen Michelle in some time and perhaps his impression of her was a lot more different to reality than he originally thought.

Instead he quickly casted these thoughts aside as he took a glance at the over-abundance of huge crates being carried into the castle by Michelle's men. Each crate was so huge and so heavy that they needed at least two men each to be carried.

Although he was vaguely aware of their contents, he was still required to question Michelle about them.

"It is a pleasure to meet you as well. However, I must ask... those crates that your men are carrying, those are tributes to the King correct?"

Michelle smiled faintly when she responded to George.

"Oh but of course. There are more awaiting that we left deposited at the castle's cellar but I decided that I should also personally present a small 'sample' of these tributes to the King. Especially to make up for all those High Councils that I have unfortunately missed."

Michelle's warm, almost insultingly benevolent smile continued to remain present on her face as she spoke.

"All of these are exotic or expensive spoils of war looted from Espain. That surprise attack really worked wonders."

The 'two pronged' attack in question being how the Panish Empire was invaded from two fronts. One attack from the southeast which was spearheaded headed by Portegeese rebels and supported by confederate forces.

Such a bold and audacious move has shocked everybody, including the King of Breeton himself. Partly because Michelle somehow 'forgot' to inform anyone but her closest confidants of the operation until mere days before the landing in Jardim City.

Purposely withholding information for something on a scale like that operation like Michelle did was enough to call into question her loyalty but her feats and merits provided her with a sort of 'shield' that protected her from all forms of criticism.

But that was all about to end today.

For even with Michelle's long list of feats and achievements, the King can only tolerate so much insubordination before his hand is forced.

For this specific High Council wasn't merely for discussing domestic and economic issues.

But it was also for Michelle's trial.

The bitch's time is up.

And now that the war is drawing to a close, there is no longer any reason to keep Michelle around.

Of course Michelle could have been put on trial any time in the past, but the fact that Michelle's outstanding naval commanding abilities were always required during the course of the way took away any opportunity to put her on trial.

But the war was now close to ending.

Now was that opportunity.

Her time was up.

And she is going to stand trial while presenting a large tribute to the King.

How ironic.

How ironic indeed.

George could help mentally smiling to himself at the thought alone.

"Tributes you say? Well I must say that the King will be very impressed by your show of generosity."

"Oh I do hope that he does."

On the hand, Michelle continued to hold her polite and welcoming disposition, completely unaware of the true nature of the situation.

A polite and welcoming disposition which George would try to reflect as he replied to Michelle.

"Then what are waiting for? The King is already awaiting for you and your gifts in the throne room."

When Michelle heard George's response, she smiled as she snapped her fingers. Soon a small band of crate bearing men came up behind Michelle, ready to follow here around.

"Just lead the way Sir Gudewill."

Although he was slightly taken aback by the co-ordination and reaction speed of the men, this was nothing too special and thus, George lead Michelle and her men from the castle's reception and into the castle's throne room.

Only a few minutes passed until they went through the grand double doors that were present in basically every throne room of a castle. George along with Michelle and her men were all greeted by a stunningly huge hall the moment they passed through said double doors.

In spaced intervals, there were towering, gleaming white, marble columns which held the ceiling high up in the air. At the wall of the back end of the throne room, there hung several banners, all of which representing all of the great noble houses of Breeton while the largest one that hung directly behind the Throne itself was the banner of the Royal Family.

As one would expect, the royal family sat on their thrones in front of the banners and were flanked by the king's personal entourage of knights and advisors.

As George had suspected, the throne room was rather full of people today.

After all, a lot of people wanted to see Michelle get put in her place.

And as such, who would want to miss such an opportunity once it presents itself?

It was no exaggeration to say that there was a huge variety in the nobles were present even when one excludes the King's personal entourage.

Not only were the heads of the great houses presents, but so were the heads of the vassal houses.

And of course, the chief knights and closest confidants of said family heads were present as well.

Even the Royal Admirals who like Michelle seldom attended the High Council were present.

All of them, wanted to witness Michelle's humiliation.

That fact that so much nobles were present to witness Michelle's trial just goes to show the general opinions of Michelle in the eyes of the noble community.

When George glanced to his left, he was even able to spot Michelle's father; the head of the Dyme family; Reuben Vannal Dyme as well as her older brother; Micheal Val Dyme who was currently acting as the chief knight of the Dyme family.

George wasn't able to stop himself from letting out a chuckle at this sight.

"Ahahaha-"

"Is there something that's funny?"

However, George's laughter was soon interrupted by Michelle. After clearing his throat, George told Michelle the truth. An abridged truth to be precise.

"Ah yes. I've thought of something funny actua-"

"That's not the real Michelle!"

However, like before, George was suddenly interrupted not by a question but by a large booming shout instead. A shout that came from Micheal. Soon, the hall was feared with murmurs before quickly silenced by more of Micheal's shouts.

"That's an imposter! Although her appearance is somehow a perfect replica of Michelle's there is no way a member of her own family would fail to recognise an imposter when we see one!"

As Micheal screamed, he pointed his finger at 'Michelle,' anger and hatred were both clearly evident in his eyes.

"Her eyes! It's not the 'golden dyme' colour. While it is golden in colour, it's not 'our' colour!"

Waves of shocked murmurs and voices quickly swept across the hall in reaction to Micheal's declaration.

George himself instinctively grabbed Michelle's pitch-black hair and tried to restrain her.

Only for her hair to come off altogether to reveal a lighter coloured brown-black hair.

It was a wig.

Within seconds the halls once again became silent as they realised that this 'Michelle' was indeed an imposter.

However, what was even more uncanny was what she did next after being exposed.

She started giggling.

Giggling to herself.

Her facial expression expression started to distort and warp before she let a single sentence out of her mouth.

"The real Michelle gives her regards."

Before anyone can even react, a sudden blinding light appeared out of seemingly nowhere.

A blinding light that was accompanied by a moment of unimaginable pain.

Pain that felt like a horrible, searing sensation.

As if one's blood and bone were literally being melted away.

But even that moment did not last long.

Not even a few seconds passed until the feeling of searing pain was over.

And with the disappearance of the searing pain, so did everything else.

...

Through her telescope, Michelle spotted the massive mass of black smoke rise up into the atmosphere. A smile growing on her face as she confirmed that he plan was a success.

She was currently on the top deck of her ship; the Dragonhawk, well out of the range of the explosion.

There were enough explosive rounds within that castle to level an entire small hill, let alone a castle that will collapse once all of it's infrastructure is gone.

Granted, such a move was rather expensive and even rather wasteful of useful ammunition.

But for Michelle's purposes, it was exactly what she needed.

A majority of the nobles died in that bombing.

The King.

Some of 'childhood friends.'

And her family.

And yet she still felt nothing.

Perhaps it was because she was aware of how flimsy life really is.

Perhaps it was because to her, they weren't her 'real' family.

Either way she didn't care.

Soon, Michelle turned to her closest subordinate before questioning him.

"Is everything else going according to plan?"

"Yes my Lady, by the end of this week everyone will know 'the truth' and you shall be crowned as the queen regent of all of Breeton due to... lack of successors to the royal family."

The subordinate paused for a short moment before he continued.

"Do you have any specific wishes for how you want the coronation ceremony to go?"

Michelle shook her head as she replied.

"Unnecessary. As long as I'm officially crowned as this nations ruler then you are free to do as you please."

"Yes my lady."

The subordinate nodded as he confirmed his orders before leaving Michelle alone.

It was once Michelle was sure that no one could hear her that she begun speaking out loud.

"I know that you can't hear me Leon but I can't help but let it out of my system. Do you see it?.. Do you see it coming?"

As she spoke to herself, the smile that was already on her face continued to twist upwards even further.

"The end. This is it. The end of the road. Nothing lasts forever. And soon, I'll have to put an end to our little game. As sad as that may sound."

Michelle didn't know what it was actually was but for a brief moment, she actually felt a tinge of 'glee' in her voice.

"But that is also when the real fun begins."