LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 73 - Father (5)
Chapter 73 Father (5)
“You’re not going to clear his name? What on earth does that mean?”
I pressed Bones’ leg down as he tried to spring up from his seat.
“You said if General Max was in the wrong, you’d make sure he paid the price. But it seems like you actually hope he’s innocent, don’t you?”
Bones flinched at my question, as if I’d hit the nail on the head, and quietly sat back down.
“Isn’t Captain Josef the culprit? Isn’t that why you sent me to him…?”
I stared at Bones for a moment before asking.
“Bones. Do you trust your father?”
“Of course I do. He raised me, didn’t he?”
“Then why did you tell me to leave him behind back then?”
As I brought up a dark chapter of his past, Bones’ face turned beet red in an instant.
“Please, can we not talk about that anymore?”
“Back then, you definitely didn’t trust your father.”
“At the time…”
“You respect General Max, but you still think he could abandon you at any moment, don’t you? You’re not his biological son, and he has plenty of other adopted ones besides you.”
“…”
Bones didn’t deny it.
It was only natural.
All the efforts Bones had made to gain General Max’s approval were, in other words, his desperate attempt not to be discarded.
“…Alright. I understand what you’re trying to say.”
Bones stared at me for a moment before speaking.
“I’m not trusting General Max. I’m just hoping that he didn’t abandon me, that he’s innocent. Is that good enough?”
“Yeah. I feel the same.”
“You feel the same, Lord Haydam?”
“There’s no concrete evidence that either Captain Josef or General Max is the culprit. I have my suspicions about Josef, but it’s all circumstantial. Which means General Max could still be the one responsible. Despite that, there’s only one reason why I’m staging this whole charade and calling for a council of officers.”
I raised a single finger.
“To determine which one of them is more worth keeping alive.”
“…I don’t understand.”
“I lost a lot of valuable soldiers because of this incident.”
“You’re not saying Colonel Samson was one of those valuable soldiers, are you?”
“Of course I am. If it weren’t for this, he would’ve continued fulfilling his duties in his rightful place.”
Seeing that Bones still didn’t quite grasp what I was getting at, I continued.
“What I want is for one of them, Josef or Max, to remain—someone who won’t sacrifice more of my soldiers.”
“And you think you can figure that out through a council meeting?”
“Exactly. You know, in the old days, when people wanted to find out which parent really loved their child, they would order the child to be cut in half.”
“What? Who the hell came up with such a horrible idea?”
“Solomon.”
“I’ve never heard of this guy before… wait, huh?”
Bones, deep in thought for a moment, suddenly looked at me as if he’d realized something.
“And the child who’s about to be split in half is me, isn’t it?”
“Smart, even if you don’t know Solomon.”
“You’re scaring me, Lord Haydam. You really seem like the type who’d actually do it, so could you please just tell me what you’re planning?”
“Don’t worry.”
I grinned as I looked at Bones.
“When the time comes, you’ll understand why Solomon ordered the child to be split in half.”
—
* * *
Josef entered the council room in an anxious state.
The rumors had been swirling, yet by the time the council meeting had been called, they still hadn’t been able to pinpoint any soldiers who’d seen Colonel Samson.
In the end, Josef had to attend the emergency council meeting based on Bones’ testimony without verifying the rumors.
They’d dragged in the people involved in the incident that day for interrogation—well, not quite torture, but close enough.
‘All I got from them was that they were certain Samson was dead.’
Josef knew.
He could see it in their eyes—they were telling the truth.
At the very least, those men had witnessed the moment Colonel Samson drew his last breath.
‘Now I can only hope that the rumors of Samson being alive are nothing more than that—rumors.’
As Josef surveyed the room, he saw only the commander, the officers, and Bones present.
‘Lord Haydam is nowhere to be seen.’
Josef, thinking idly about Haydam’s absence, suddenly realized something.
Without thinking, he had assumed that Haydam would naturally be present at the testimony of such a major incident—an event where seven soldiers had been murdered and one colonel had committed suicide.
It seemed Josef wasn’t the only one who thought so.
The officers, who had been glancing around as if searching for someone, all suddenly seemed to come to the same realization, their expressions hardening.
‘Is this the kind of influence wielded by a child who’s regained his rightful place after ten years? This influence is beyond normal.’
It was clear that this child would eventually swallow up everything in Josef’s domain.
Perhaps it was this growing pressure from Haydam’s influence that had driven Josef to take such extreme measures, like falsely accusing General Max, to protect his own position.
‘But now we’re in the same boat…’
However, Josef’s brief moment of relief didn’t last long.
Just as he began to feel reassured that supporting Bones would tie him to Haydam’s growing power, the former commander Anton burst into the council chamber with an explosive announcement.
“Based on Colonel Samson’s testimony, I’m here to accuse Lieutenant Bones of treason.”
“What are you talking about?”
It was the worst possible turn of events, something Josef hadn’t even imagined, but he stood up and spoke as calmly as possible.
“Accusing Lieutenant Bones based on Colonel Samson’s testimony? But Colonel Samson took his own life, didn’t he?”
Anton looked at Josef with an inscrutable smile, as if implying Josef already knew the truth.
“I’ve been keeping Colonel Samson under my protection.”
Josef felt a chill run down his spine.
‘Then the rumors were true?’
Still, Josef tilted his head, pretending not to understand.
“Under your protection? Are you saying Colonel Samson is still alive? Even if he were, why would a former commander, a civilian, be the one holding him?”
“Because His Excellency entrusted Samson to me.”
‘His Excellency?!’
Anton’s words couldn’t have been a lie, as there was no change in the commander’s expression at the center of the council.
In fact, if the commander hadn’t permitted it, Anton wouldn’t even have been allowed to enter the council chamber to speak in the first place.
“I thought all His Excellency did was turn a blind eye to Anton hiding Colonel Samson… but if he entrusted Samson to him directly…”
Josef’s heart began to race.
If things had escalated this far without his knowledge, the situation had already spiraled out of control.
‘In that case, now is not the time to support Bones.’
Abandoning Bones here would mean betraying Haydam’s trust, but the colonel was still alive, wasn’t he? If Josef didn’t align his story with the colonel’s, that man might change his mind and implicate Josef.
If Josef claimed General Max was the culprit, it would essentially be accusing the colonel of lying under oath.
But if he changed his stance too suddenly, it would draw suspicion.
Feigning confusion, Josef opened his mouth to speak.
“What exactly did Colonel Samson testify to, that you would accuse Lieutenant Bones?”
“Colonel Samson’s testimony was as follows: Lieutenant Bones, in his stubbornness to claim glory, made a mistake and accidentally killed a teammate. He then tried to eliminate any witnesses. Colonel Samson said that while fleeing from Bones, he fell into a crevasse.”
Aside from leaving out Lieutenant Lucas’s involvement, the testimony wasn’t too different from what Haydam had told him.
‘Good thing Lord Haydam isn’t here right now.’
Josef thought that if Haydam had been present, it would’ve been much harder to pretend he was hearing all this for the first time. He continued with his feigned ignorance.
“What do you mean… Didn’t Colonel Samson testify that General Max ordered the murder?”
“Lord Haydam found the fleeing Lieutenant Bones and saved him from a monster attack. At that time, Bones testified to Lord Haydam that General Max had ordered his death, and that Colonel Samson had actually killed the team members to eliminate witnesses. But since Colonel Samson’s and Bones’ testimonies differ, His Excellency decided to observe the situation after announcing that one of them was lying. Meanwhile, it’s been confirmed that there was no direct link between General Max and Colonel Samson.”
Of course, that was true.
General Max had absolutely nothing to do with this incident.
‘If there’s no proof he’s the culprit, it means they’ve found evidence clearing him.’
“Even so… there’s no proof that Lieutenant Bones is the culprit either, is there?”
“At the very least, we’ve confirmed that the gunshot wound on Colonel Samson’s shoulder was from Bones’ firearm. And really, if Colonel Samson had been ordered to commit murder, how could a fresh junior officer like Bones have survived? Unless Bones made the first move, it’s impossible for him to have survived that situation.”
Josef knew that Bones and Lucas had indeed survived that ordeal on their own, but it was clear that circumstantial evidence was building against Bones.
“Then why didn’t this come out from the beginning, and only now…?”
“We kept an eye on him because Lieutenant Bones didn’t testify against General Max. We thought he had given up on framing the general. But when I saw him stirring things up and calling for this council of officers, I knew I had to step in. No matter how retired I am, I couldn’t just sit by and watch my old friend, General Max, be accused of such treachery.”
‘So this council wasn’t convened to hear Bones’ testimony from the start.’
They’d already decided Bones was the culprit and set a trap for him.
‘I can’t let myself get caught up in this.’
Josef took a deep breath and glared sharply at Bones, who was standing at the witness stand with his head hanging low.
It was strange that he wasn’t defending himself more actively, but Josef assumed Bones had simply given up, realizing he couldn’t overturn the situation on his own.
‘This works out for me. If he’s not going to actively explain himself, it’ll be easier to cut him loose.’
Having calculated his next move, Josef raised his voice to finish the situation decisively.
“Bones! I trusted you and tried to protect you to the end, but how could you betray the father who raised you? It wasn’t enough to commit treason, now you’re trying to deceive me and Lord Haydam as well—what a disgraceful—”
“No!”
A sudden shout cut through the air, and Josef turned to see General Max.
‘Did he just shout… no?’
Wasn’t this the moment he’d finally clear his name? What did he mean by no?
Josef expected words of anger or disappointment about his treacherous son, but what General Max said next shattered all his expectations.
“Colonel Samson’s testimony is false! It was I who ordered Colonel Samson to kill Lieutenant Bones. It was my doing. Colonel Samson is lying to cover his own crimes!”
Josef couldn’t understand what was happening.
Wasn’t the one making the false confession now General Max?
“So my son is innocent.”
Josef was in shock.
Why was this fool making a false confession to save his adopted son when he would have been freed if he’d just stayed quiet?
Josef turned to look at Bones, half-expecting him to cover for his father, but Bones stood still, staring blankly at General Max as if he’d just realized something.
‘What is with these people?’
Josef felt uneasy, but he pushed the feeling aside.
‘No… actually, this works out for me.’
Even if General Max’s confession was a lie, it wouldn’t matter. He had confessed his own crimes in front of everyone, making it difficult for him to avoid punishment.
It’s always much harder to prove innocence than guilt, isn’t it?
And with the commander witnessing General Max’s own confession, there was no way this could simply be overlooked.
Thinking that, Josef turned to the commander—and immediately sensed that something was wrong.
The commander was watching General Max with an intrigued look, showing no trace of displeasure.
“This must be the ‘Solomon’ that Haydam spoke of.”
‘Solomon? What’s that?’
Josef had no idea what that meant, but Bones, understanding the reference, nodded his head.
“I understand now.”
“We’ve seen all we need to see. This meeting is adjourned. We’ll handle the punishment for this later.”
Without giving anyone time to respond, the commander swiftly left the chamber. By the time Josef came to his senses, both General Max and Bones had disappeared as well.