The location was the Royal Palace of the Kingdom of Altfode.
To be more precise, the underground.
There were three floors serving as dungeons for prisoners.
For years, there had been no criminals there, with the exception of just one.
On the third floor, the dirtiest and darkest part of all.
A man was there. He was naked.
His body was very toned.
He had old and new scars from battles because he had been tortured since he arrived.
The cell was the only one occupied in that place.
That man, Bandel, was sitting on a steel bed.
His "room" was a cave with steel bars impregnated with reinforcement magic and magical shields to prevent his escape.
Three men in uniform; two seemed to be generals, and one of them a captain.
From left to right, they were: Clavis van Reinfield, Heinkel van Nightray, and Sven van Arses.
Clavis was a tall, burly man, but with a belly. His hair was orange with four prominent strands sticking out.
Heinkel was a thin, very tall man, with long sapphire-green hair the same color as his eyes.
Sven, unlike the other two, was muscular, with a zigzag-shaped scar on his face, red hair with black roots.
One of them had requested permission from the palace to bring his two companions to interrogate the man in front of them.
Bandel was sitting with his legs open, showing his entire body because they feared he might have a hidden weapon.
The only weird things on his body were two: the first was on his left arm, almost above the shoulder—a tattoo of a black snake eating its own tail. It represented his mercenary group, the Black Ouroboros.
Some time ago, they had been hired to test a new type of weapon and to kill a certain girl. Their plan went wrong because a boy of dubious reputation had humiliated and defeated them.
The other characteristic of his was his face, his left cheek.
When one of the men from outside called him.
Bandel lifted his head; his spiky black hair was illuminated by the little light there.
His lightning-shaped eyebrows moved in disgust to see the men in front.
His black eyes looked with displeasure at others seeing him with superiority.
He clicked his tongue, moving it across his lips from right to left, which touched the acrylic laminate extending from the end of his lips to almost his ear and below his sideburn.
There was no skin there; only the flesh of the muscle and teeth were visible.
He spoke to them with disgust.
"What the fuck do you want from me now? The interrogation was from six in the morning until a few minutes ago."
"My ass hurts more sitting here than your whips and burns."
"The only place I have to shit is this bucket that's already overflowing."
"You bastards feed me a viscous paste that could even be your own ground-up shit."
"I have to drink water from the stalactite up there since you don't even grant me that."
"You're the worst hosts I've ever had, guhahaha."
He laughed as if his punishment were just terrible hotel service.
Sven spoke to the man laughing like a winner.
"Shut up, criminal! Can't you see you've finally received your punishment? You are in the hands of the kingdom; your era of tyranny and terror is over."
Bandel stopped laughing and looked at the man who said that.
"You think so?"
Heinkel heard him and asked, very curious.
"What do you mean? Can't you see you've lost? You've been caught and will now pay for your crimes. No one will save you—"
"Defeat only happens when you admit it. Have you heard that?"
The three men were astonished by the immense optimism of the imprisoned man.
This time, it was Clavis who spoke.
"Stop telling lies! His Highness, Crown Prince Liam, was the one who defeated you!!"
"Admit defeat like a man!!"
"You're wrong," Bandel said in a very serious and cold manner.
"Liam, that snot-nosed brat from Altfode, did not defeat me. The one who defeated me was someone you would never have imagined."
The three men were even more perplexed.
"Black hair, a black armed unit, a fool's face that shows he's a jester, not a warrior."
He clenched his fists tightly, remembering that someone.
"Not even the man who did this to my face has earned my desire for revenge like that boy... his name, tell me!!"
Hearing his request, as if it were a humiliation, Heinkel responded.
"Viscount and mid-rank knight, Rudel van Bradford. That's the name of the man—no, the boy you want to know?"
Bandel stopped clenching his fists upon hearing that name; instead, he made a terrifying smile.
"Rudel. Even his name is that of a jester."
Not caring what he was saying, Heinkel pulled out a notebook containing a large number of questions they wanted to ask him.
His punishment would never end, nor would he receive forgiveness; they could only reduce the lashes from 100 to 99.
"Answer. What exactly where you and your group doing in the Talis Commonwealth?"
"Why did the Kingsfort appear in the letter we received?"
"Where did you get that technology?"
The questions kept coming until a man rushed down.
He was a knight without rank, just an average soldier.
"Lord Nightray, there are problems in your territory!!"
The three turned towards the man who called one of them.
"What do you mean?" he responded while the out-of-breath man told him.
"It's the commoners!! We received a report that it's not just your territory; other territories also report that the commoners have risen up and are causing riots!!"
None knew how to respond, but Bandel, who heard it, said quietly.
"The first phase of the plan has begun. Finally, the end of Altfode has arrived."
"Then you two will follow, Bismarck and Rudel, guhahahaha!!"
◇◇◇
At the same time, in the upper part of the palace, Liam was there. He was sad while walking through one of the corridors.
He had been called by someone, according to a servant.
Normally, the situation would be reversed, but this person was very important and required Liam to personally go to the indicated place.
As he walked, his thoughts conveyed sadness.
(I don't understand it. I said it was Bradford who defeated that man.)
(I thought that because of what happened, he would stop treating me like a fool. I was happy when he asked me to guard that man and take care of his weapon since it was very heavy.)
(I thought that finally there might be a tiny shred of a chance that he and I could erase the past.)
(I was willing to forgive him for the Klein incident, but upon returning to the kingdom, he told me to stand in front of that knight, and when I returned, he would bring a surprise.)
(I thought he'd bring an apology gift, but he arrived with a group of ministers and told everyone that I was the one who defeated him, and I even had the evidence in my hands.)
(Everyone is praising me for it when I only defended my life, but it was he who defeated him along with the enemy fleet.)
After much walking, he had finally arrived at the room where he had been called.
(Neither my mother nor my father believes me; why does no one believe that he gave me that "hero" title to mock me?)
"I want to rest; let's get this over with."
He knocked on the door, and upon opening it, the room was dark.
He didn't notice until after entering.
A light turned on from the front.
He covered his eyes, and after getting used to the brightness.
He observed that three individuals were seated on some furniture.
The one on the left wore minister's clothes.
The one on the right wore white clothes with the sanctuary's crest.
Meanwhile, the person in the middle...
"Welcome, Your Highness Liam."
It was a girl.
When Liam heard that voice, his words were unimaginable.
"Erselica-san? What are you doing here? What's going on?"
For some reason, the protagonist knew a girl who was a mob/background character in this world.
This fantasy world with RPG themes where a villain, a reincarnate, was altering the game's plot for his peaceful life.
Erselica van Reinfield, a reincarnate, stood up, and in her hands, she held an object that wasn't hers but belonged to the main heroine.
It was a white staff with a beautiful blue gem, surrounded by a heart where it was embedded.
The girl, she was occupying one of the lines that didn't belong to her.
"Your Highness Liam, I have come to help you."
"Help me, you say?" He didn't understand what Erselica was saying.
She made a charming smile.
But that smile conveyed another feeling.
Erselica...
"I am the new Saint, and I have come to save our country."
She was forcing her way into the story in order to destroy Rudel once and for all.
The birth of the Saint has begun in an erroneous way.