The Game of Thrones, Conclusion
Conwy Castle, Sophia's room.
A bright light flared near the bed.
Riraber, the healer-type Awakener on Sophia's side, examined the queen's condition.
"Hmm."
Riraber let out a small hum.
Sophia, who had been watching quietly, spoke.
"How is she?"
"She's grown quite weak, but there's nothing particularly abnormal that stands out. As for why she hasn't awakened… we'll need more detailed tests."
"I see."
This was not a general hospital.
There wasn't even equipment for thorough examinations.
But taking Elysia to an ordinary hospital was dangerous as well.
There was no telling where Widric's eyes might be watching from.
Sophia turned her gaze toward the terrace.
There sat Leo, the captured physician, with a stubborn look on his face.
"Leo. Even now, make the right choice. What did you do to Her Majesty the Queen?"
The syringe contained nothing more than an ordinary sedative.
With this alone, it was difficult to determine the cause.
"I told you I don't know. The only order I received was to administer the sedative at the designated time."
Leo answered while fiddling with his badly swollen jaw.
Sophia bit her lip.
It was an obvious lie.
Leo, physician of Windsor Castle.
Everyone knew he had awakened into a class proficient in manufacturing various drugs.
As far as Sophia knew, Leo was the only one in Windsor Castle capable of inducing an unidentified coma.
"Stop lying, you bastard!"
Olivia grabbed Leo by the collar.
"If you hadn't done it, Prince Widric would never have left you by Her Majesty's side!"
Widric was deeply suspicious by nature.
Unless someone had already dipped their feet into the same filth, he would never allow them a one-on-one audience with the queen.
Leo had been permitted to remain alone with Her Majesty under the pretext of administering sedatives.
That alone was proof he'd stepped fully into the muck.
"I told you I don't know. If you're so suspicious, go ask Prince Widric yourself."
"You little—!"
The corners of Leo's lips curled upward.
'What are you going to do about it?'
Through Widric, he had heard what kind of person Sophia was.
Kind-hearted, soft, someone who had never even killed an insect.
Even if he played dumb, she was the type who wouldn't kill him—couldn't even bring herself to torture him lightly.
And the people who served her were just as spineless.
'If I hold out like this, it's our victory.'
Before long, Widric would notice what was happening.
He'd push in with superior forces and reclaim the queen in one swift move.
As long as the queen didn't awaken before then, this side would win.
Leo looked at Olivia with a face full of ease.
'Don't resent me too much. What idiot would bet on the side guaranteed to lose? I've got to make a living too.'
If anything, this was a good chance to prove his loyalty to Widric.
Leo steeled himself once more.
No matter what happened, he would endure.
Creeeak.
'That bastard…!'
As the door opened and Jinhyuk appeared, Leo ground his teeth.
The man who had struck his throat without warning—and then smashed his jaw as well.
Because of that, his jaw was swollen like a balloon, and everything from his neck to his back ached.
Jinhyuk entered, rubbing his stomach, and swept his gaze around the room.
When he arrived at Conwy Castle, Sophia had told him to rest, providing a meal and a bath.
Thanks to that, he'd eaten his fill and washed up nicely—but the situation here didn't seem to be improving.
'Looks like he's not cooperating.'
There was no need to ask.
That sulky, stubborn face said it all.
Leo was standing his ground.
Jinhyuk walked onto the terrace and examined Leo with piercing eyes.
Leo, in turn, puffed out his chest like a peacock.
He had no intention of losing a contest of nerve.
'The brat still has wet blood on his forehead!'
They said even if you entered a tiger's den, all you had to do was keep your wits about you.
Even now, as long as he didn't panic—
"Let's throw him away."
"…?"
Everyone in the room was struck with question marks.
Throw him away?
"He's the one who harmed Her Majesty the Queen. He's going to be executed anyway, right?"
"E-execution was abolished ages ago! Don't talk nonsense!"
"He'll receive a punishment equivalent to it, won't he?"
A dumbfounded Olivia nodded.
"It's wartime. Let's call it an execution."
Jinhyuk opened the terrace door.
Then he leaned his head over the railing.
"High. Very high."
This was the top of Conwy Castle.
It was high enough that an ordinary person would either die on impact or be crippled for life.
Jinhyuk grabbed Leo by the back of the neck.
'B-bluffing.'
A kid who looked barely twenty.
There was no way someone like that could actually throw a man off.
"Stop bluffing! You think I'd fall for such a threat—?"
Leo's eyes met Jinhyuk's.
Leo's face stiffened rapidly.
Eyes without a shred of wavering—eyes in which hesitation itself did not exist.
Instinctively, he knew.
This wasn't a bluff.
"W-wait—"
He tried to say "wait," but he was a moment too late.
Whoosh!
Leo was hurled outward and began to plummet.
He clenched his teeth.
'Even if you enter a tiger's den…'
Wheeeee—
'A tiger's den…'
The fall began, and an eternity seemed to pass.
The fragile thread of reason he'd been clinging to finally snapped.
"Tiger my ass—Aaaaaaah!! P-please, spare me!! I have the antidote! I have the antidote!!"
With a harsh metallic grinding sound, his body was yanked upward.
The fall stopped, but now an unbelievable chill seeped into him.
Cold so intense it felt as though his blood and organs would freeze solid if even a few more seconds passed.
Thud!
Fortunately, he was hauled up and slammed onto the floor before that could happen.
Sh-sh-sh-sh-sh—
Drooling, with snot and tears streaming down his face, Leo trembled violently.
A man who, just a minute earlier, had stood with arms crossed and nose held high was now down in a single blow.
'Th-this bastard. He really tried to kill me.'
Leo, utterly terrified, looked up at Jinhyuk.
Only after he'd shouted the word "antidote" had he heard the sound of friction.
If he'd spoken even a moment later, it truly would have been too late.
Jinhyuk squatted down and held out his hand.
"The antidote."
"I-I'll give it to you!!"
Leo scrambled forward and tore open the lining of his white coat.
From it came a single slender capsule.
Sophia and Olivia approached and examined it.
"I'll take this and have it checked. It could be poison."
"No. Could you give it to me instead?"
"Ah…!"
Before anyone could stop him, Jinhyuk dripped a few drops into his mouth.
Smacking his lips, he smiled.
"It's the antidote. Have her take it right away."
Sophia, wearing a dazed expression, took the capsule.
She poured the liquid into the mouth of the sleeping Elysia.
And after a few seconds passed—
Twitch.
Queen Elysia's finger began to move.
Returning from his outing, Widric entered Windsor Castle wearing a mask.
"Ha."
A hollow laugh escaped him.
The castle was in complete chaos.
Hallucinatory fog that still hadn't fully cleared, and personnel sprawled across the floor after falling victim to it.
Even as he looked at it, he couldn't comprehend what he was seeing.
"Prince Widric!"
The subordinates who had gone in first to survey the castle.
For some reason, their faces were deathly pale.
'Don't say it.'
Widric clenched his teeth.
He prayed desperately that it wasn't the worst-case scenario he had imagined.
"Her Majesty the Queen has disappeared! And Sir Leo is nowhere to be found!"
"Haah."
A low groan escaped him.
Worst-case—no, even worse than that.
No matter what, he should have kept hold of at least one of them.
Yet he'd lost both.
"It's Sophia."
He didn't know how his weak, powerless younger sister had dared to do something so bold—or how she'd succeeded.
But given the circumstances, she was the only one with a motive to attack Windsor Castle.
"Wake up the ones who are down immediately. And prepare the transport. We're going to Conwy Castle."
Leo was good at calculating odds.
He wouldn't be ignorant of the fact that all he had to do was hold out.
If they went now and retrieved him, that would be the end of it.
Ring ring ring.
Widric stopped mid-command.
The phone began ringing incessantly.
Not just his—his aides' phones rang as well, as if by prior agreement.
The names on the screens belonged to political and financial figures and broadcasting executives with whom Widric had been dealing under the table.
A nameless sense of dread seeped into him.
"P-Prince Widric."
As if to prove his premonition correct, a nearby aide handed him a phone.
"Ha…!"
He couldn't help but gasp the moment he saw it.
From Welsh broadcasters to famous YouTube current-affairs channels—
Everywhere was broadcasting live.
The queen, Elysia Jeri Windsor, who should have been lying unconscious in bed, was on screen.
Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding.
Perhaps because he wasn't answering, messages poured in without pause.
Widric lowered his gaze.
Let's pretend everything up to now never happened.Don't stir up unnecessary scandals. If you want to keep what remains of your life, that is.Destroy the documents. Return what you were given.
Had they decided the situation was beyond salvaging?
Those who had sided with him began cutting ties with alarming speed.
Widric's expression turned strange.
Their greed had grown, but their cowardice was just as pronounced.
There was no way this was the end.
Step.
Sure enough.
The mercenaries he had hired today slowly closed in on him.
They had neither loyalty nor devotion.
They simply followed whatever contract paid the most.
And at this very moment, it seemed they had accepted one.
A new contract—far more tempting than the last.
'Who is it?'
Death was right in front of him, yet Widric's mind was filled with countless questions.
He had accounted for every individual on Sophia's side.
He could swear it wasn't them.
There was clearly a third party intervening—someone Widric didn't know.
'Just who the hell are you… to flip such a massive board as if it were nothing?'
From Widric's perspective, it was deeply unjust.
He had spent an extraordinarily long time building this scheme.
It was a game he could not lose.
Widric let out a self-mocking laugh.
Now that things had come to this, none of that mattered anymore.
He just wanted to see their face at least once.
The identity of the massive variable that had never once appeared, even in the long history of Britain's royal line.
Standing on the terrace, Jinhyuk pinched his own cheek.
'Not a dream, then.'
He was still a little dazed.
How had he ended up getting involved in a British version of the game of thrones?
'You never know where life will take you.'
Shaking his head, he looked toward the center of Conwy Castle.
With Elysia awakening, all truths had been revealed.
And before the cameras, she had calmly admitted everything.
Her own indecisiveness—how she had been unable to cut down her beloved grandson, even after countless misdeeds and atrocities.
Despite the late hour, internet articles were flooding in like a tide.
Among them were reports about Prince Widric, who had taken his own life at Windsor Castle.
Who overturned the board?
A sharp headline that sensed the presence of a third party caught his eye.
As he watched with interest—
Creeeak.
The door opened.
Thinking it might be Charles or Olivia, Jinhyuk turned his head—
'Gasp.'
He sucked in a breath.
It was Queen Elysia Jeri Windsor herself.
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T/N:
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