Sam's voice resounded around the court that was already silent. They didn't expect Sam to have an outburst here.
The military commanders and generals who are in the court at the moment are all looking at him in awe.
"What would you do if you don't get the reason?"
One of the court officials who seemed to be extremely interested asked.
"I will take back everything I gave to this nation."
"Take back everything?"
"The cities I conquered, the soldiers I trained, the glory I gave this nation. Everything."
When Sam said these words, everyone took a deep breath. They looked at Sam as if he is a madman. He was already walking on a razor's edge but now he is dancing on it. He is directly saying that he would become a traitor and discussing treason right in front of the emperor in the middle of the Imperial court.
There is no way he would survive this predicament.
The emperor who is calmly listening to what Sam is saying, smiled and this is the first expression that he showed. Everyone felt that the emperor would kill Sam as soon as they saw the smile.
"You are talking about treason right in front of me?"
"It would only be treason if I betrayed first."
"You are quite the talked aren't you?" Emperor chuckled and continued.
"Today, not only will I give you a proper explanation for the humiliation you suffered in the ceremony, but I will also give you the reason why you shouldn't betray the nation."
Only now did the court officials came out of their shock and one of them stood up and said to the emperor in a serious tone.
"Your Majesty, I think we don't have any reason to do that. He is a treacherous person who is hiding so much malice for the nation. He would be a threat to the nation's and people's safety. We should announce his crimes and execute him."
"Yes, your Majesty. A person as vile as he is and so arrogant and so greedy for money and glory would become a threat one day or the other. It is better to nip the bud while we still can."
Everyone is giving various suggestions, most of them aimed at killing Sam.
"Did I ask any of your to speak?" Emperor said in a cold tone.
"Forgive me your Majesty." Everyone abruptly stopped and said in unison.
Emperor looked at the chief attendant and said.
"I was never a tyrant, but you made me look like this in front of a war hero. If you don't tell me, why you did this, you will wish you were dead. I will let you experience every torture there is in the Imperial dungeons."
The chief attendant immediately dropped to his knees and said.
"Your Majesty, it is Minister Soma's son, He told me to do it and he threatened to kill my family if I did anything wrong. There are already some people lurking near my home from the past few days, when I was still considering this.
Forgive me Your Majesty."
He started kowtowing with tears and snot running down his face.
Emperor heaved a sigh and said.
"You are too vulnerable chief attendant. I apologize on behalf of the minister and the court. But I cannot let this go unpunished, you are relieved of your duties as the palace attendant, you will be transferred to imperial ranch and you will be given a residence within the ranch. You shall attend the needs of the Imperial guardian Beasts. Take your family and report to them by evening."
"Thank you Your Majesty." The chief attendant heaved a sigh of relief. With that emperor gestured him to stand by the side and looked at the minister who is standing on the other side. He is looking down and his right hand his trembling.
"Minister Soma, I would like to meet your son now. I hope you don't mind."
"Of course, Your Majesty. It would be his honor."
He said it in a shivering voice.
An imperial guard moved out and went to the Minister's residence. He came back just after a few minutes.
The young man walking beside the imperial guard has a carefree attitude as if he didn't care about anything that is happening here.
Sam recognized this fellow, he is one of the most regular customers of the Paradise. He whores around like there is no tomorrow. Even woman in the brothel section of the paradise was an acquaintance to this guy.
Sam has seen him quite a lot during the time he spent in the paradise.
But they never spoke. There should not be any conflict between the two, at least from his opinion.
"Sarn greets your Majesty." He came in and bowed to the emperor.
"Sarn, you are here because you are a suspect in an issue that occurred at the Imperial ceremony. You should tell me the truth, otherwise I will throw you into the Imperial dungeon and give the tortures full access. Do you understand?" Emperor said in a serious tone.
Sarn became serious immediately, he looked at the rest of the people in the court and the chief attendant at last, all of a sudden and his whole body trembled in fear.
He didn't expect that this situation came to light. As for Sam, he didn't think that he would dare to come out and blow things out of proportion.
"I understand your Majesty."
"This attendant claimed that you are the one who gave the slip to him and asked him to deliver it to Sam. What do you have to say about that?"
"I…" He didn't know what to say, he started moving his lips but no words came out, he looked at his father for help.
His father looked at him coldly, his eyes hinting something else.
"I did it your Majesty." He agreed in a low voice.
"Why?"
*PAK*
At this moment, a slap landed on Sarn's head and he was crashed to the ground.
"Your Majesty, this impudent son of mine is a jealous one, he must have done it due to great achievements of Soldier Sam. After all, being the minister's son gave him a lot of pressure and he was burning with jealousy because of the achievements of a mere soldier.
This can be considered as a squabble within the younger generations. I hope you forgive him."
All the officials sneered at his response. Everyone knew he is trying to shield his son, particularly emphasizing their statuses as minister and soldier.
"Your Majesty, I have one important question to ask. How did Minster's son Sarn get his hands on my scroll of achievements that should be on the stage with the rest of the scrolls? Aren't they supposed to be with the Minister? Where is my achievement scroll? And this is the imperial ceremony, it was supposed to be a ceremony that honors the soldiers' contributions.
Is this something for the son of Minister to play around with? He can do as he pleases in this ceremony, I would like to ask, who is the master of this ceremony exactly?
Does the son of the minister think that he is above the emperor himself?
Even if that is aside, for the minister to consider this is a squabble between young men, is the worth of a soldier's honor so little in your eyes? Or are you implying that just because I am commoner? I am pretty sure, Yodha who is in same generation of your son has better achievements, becoming a battalion commander at such a young age, why didn't he do that to him? Because he is the son of the Marshall.
Or because he is a Naga and I am a human? Anyway, I don't even have any relation with minister's son. I didn't meet him before much less talk to him to incite jealousy. If just serving the nation as a soldier and contributing in the war can incite this much jealousy in a noble man's son and he can take his anger out in such a prestigious ceremony, who should be held accountable? Is it just that we just have to die like that without any achievements to not be humiliated?"
Sam's words made everyone dumbfounded. He is too eloquent and he exaggerated everything but they couldn't refute them. He is clearly implying that the minister has something to do with it and if the minister didn't explain it properly his work ethic would be questioned for the rest of his life.
When there is no response from the minister except for the cold gaze, Sam said.
"Your Majesty. I would like an answer soon."
"Minister Soma, an answer."
"I confess. I am the one who did it and I deliberately made this all to humiliate Sam."
"Why?"
"I don't have any reason, I just don't like his face." Minister's reply was completely frustrating. Everyone knew he was lying.
Emperor looked at him coldly and said.
"Throw him into the Imperial dungeon and employ level-3 torture, his title, lands, honors are all stripped. Until he tells the real reason why he did that, don't let him die. Make use of the head Imperial user if you have to."
Everyone looked at the scene with their mouths wide open, they didn't expect that the minister would lose all his glory in just a few seconds. But only few understood that this is not over and the emperor continued.
"Take the minister's son and employ the same torture to him. Find any information they can give. I need the result in a week.
The trial will be postponed for one week and after the trial is over, another open court ceremony will be conducted to honor soldier Sam separately.
And on behalf of the imperial palace, the throne, I apologize for the humiliation you suffered."
Emperor said as he stood up from his throne and Sam bowed in reply as he said.
"I don't deserve your apology your majesty, I thank you for being fair and just."
