"So, Lord Louis, why did we have to let things come to this?"
Seeing Louis remain silent and stone-faced, McKinney grew ever more convinced that he was right.
He immediately raised his head and gave an utterly obsequious smile. "I truly repent! As long as you show mercy, money, women, land, resources-you can have it all!
"The Red Tide Fief and our territory have always been good neighbors. There's no need to let this little misunderstanding..."
"Behead him," Louis said flatly, already tired of listening.
His voice was so calm it barely carried a ripple, as though he were reading out an inconsequential notice.
"What? I'm a noble! You-you can't just kill..." McKinney froze. His smile stiffened as though someone had slapped it off his face, and his eyes bulged.
Yet even he found those words hollow the moment they left his mouth.
He had only inherited his elder brother's barony through luck. He was young, and no one had ever taught him how to govern or fulfill his duties.
He had merely watched his father and elder brother strut about in all their imposing glory and assumed that, so long as he wore the skin of a noble, no one would dare touch him.
He had bullied men, abused women, and squeezed the common people dry. No one had ever punished him for it, so he assumed these were simply a noble's privileges.
Until today, when a young noble even younger than himself, who had won his fief on the battlefield, stood before him and ordered his execution.
Slash!
The blade came down cleanly, sending blood spurting high into the air and splashing across the snow.
McKinney's head rolled onto the snow, his face still frozen in utter horror.
His mouth hung open as though he wanted to offer