Tombstone of Flames (2)

Griffith's scheme reaches its climax as he eliminates one of his most dangerous rivals inside Wyndham. Facing the Queen, who watched him confirmed dead by her own doctors, he explains that the supposed poison was a hyoscyamus-based draught taken in a dose small enough to mimic death, fooling the physicians. When one trapped man pleads for mercy, the Queen silences him. Griffith admits he knew of the plot all along and worked actively to unravel it, unlike his foes who schemed from their desks.

The Queen rages at the thought of dying by the hand of a commoner. Griffith answers that war has no spectators, and that the fallen are remembered not as royals or nobles but simply as the defeated, then walks away as flames swallow the tower and everyone inside. Outside, he meets a shaken Foss and observes that the minister's unease stems either from betraying his allies or from taking part in regicide. Foss asks how his plans were uncovered, and Griffith recalls sensing Foss' fear of him at their first meeting, certain such a man would never tolerate his existence. Foss realizes his trembling springs not from guilt but from the dread Griffith radiates.

Griffith tears up an old blood oath he holds over Foss, calling it needless, and expresses hope for a friendlier bond going forward. He leads Foss to a distant water mill and reunites him with his daughter Elize, taken by five hired men on Griffith's orders. Tossing the men a sack of gold, Griffith sends them off. As they travel, the five weigh betraying Griffith should he abandon them, unaware he has anticipated even this. They cross paths with a cloaked, feather-hatted Guts, who cuts them down. Griffith, who shadowed the men, joins Guts, and the swordsman sighs in relief that the plot is finished. Griffith tells him to leave the gold with the corpses, since the dead had still earned it. Asked whether he seems cruel, Griffith hears Guts scold him for posing such a question to a man who has slain a hundred alone, and Guts reminds him this is simply another step toward his dream. Reassured, Griffith walks on as Guts recounts the amusing sight of Casca in a dress.

Griffith reveals his death was faked with a measured hyoscyamus dose and burns the Queen and her conspirators alive in Wyndham. He voids Foss' blood oath and returns his kidnapped daughter Elize to secure the minister's loyalty. Guts kills the five hired men before they can betray Griffith, and the two reflect on the cost of Griffith's ambitions.

This twenty-two-page chapter belongs to the Golden Age Arc and appeared in Young Animal issue 6 on March 11, 1994. It is the second half of the Tombstone of Flames pairing and resolves Griffith's assassination of the Queen and her faction.