Chapter 82

I called Amethus by his last name, Aretion.

“As I thought……”

Amethus opened his mouth with difficulty.

“…You knew.”

“Knew what? That you're an Aretion?”

I was sly.

I laughed excitedly, as if I had been waiting for this moment.

“Why would you think I wouldn't know? Just because you’ve spent your life hiding it away?”

“…Your Highness, I must ask.”

The jade-eyed man had been angry ever since he faced me.

Anger usually cools with time, but strangely, he only continued to boil.

His hand holding the double-edged sword tightened even more.

“From the beginning, was this your intention?”

Even the question was fierce.

But I didn't lose my feigned ignorance.

“‘Was this your intention from the beginning?’ you say? You have to be more specific. From when? And what intention? I can’t understand.”

“……”

He almost swore.

Amethus bit his tongue, barely managing to maintain his last bit of courtesy.

The way I brazenly asked, knowing everything, was infuriating to him.

“What a scary look in your eyes.”

I mustn’t lose my kindness.

“So, what you’re saying is… you’re asking if I knew you were an Aretion and intentionally made you come to Arete Island? If so, what are you going to do?”

The jade eyes still glared.

“What if, ever since we escaped the capital after the Succession War, that has been my intention all along?”

“……”

Amethus let out a long breath.

Still holding the sword, he looked at the sky, closed his eyes, then suddenly opened them to stare at me.

“…If your intention was to make me angry……”

The hand holding the double-edged sword trembled.

It was utter rage.

“…You seem to have succeeded.”

I shrugged.

The way I spread my arms out exaggeratedly was very annoying to him.

I asked back with a look of puzzlement.

“Are you angry, Amethus? Why?”

“You’re stirring up my family’s disgrace……”

There was a grinding sound.

Amethus unconsciously ground his teeth.

It was so hard that his molars ached as if they were shattering.

Just how far did I intend to mock him?

“You ask me why I’m angry, and……”

He wanted to cut my throat right then and there.

He wanted to take my head and present it to Ferbias.

He was only holding back because he knew it wouldn’t be easy.

He suppressed his anger and continued.

“…It only makes my blood boil more.”

“Disgrace? Ha, ha!”

I held my stomach.

“Haha! He calls it a disgrace, hahaha-!”

“---”

Something snapped in his head.

It was only natural, as I was endlessly digging into the most painful part of him.

“--Shut, your mouth!!”

The blade flashed.

“What do you know to speak like that!”

The force was so menacing that I instinctively dodged, but it left a wound on my side.

“I almost got cut in half.” I grumbled. A smile still lingered on my face. Amethus couldn't stand it without venting his seething rage.

“What do you know to be laughing like that!”

“Oh? Oh……”

“You, you lying brat! Do you take people lightly? Is it that fun to tear apart someone else’s life?”

Blood vessels stood out in his jade eyes.

“When, just when, are you going to stop laughing like that! Do I need to cut your throat for you to stop treating others like imbeciles and laughing-!!!”

“That’s it, Amethus, that’s it!”

I clapped my hands together and laughed.

There was no hint of mockery.

“Now you look a bit more human. People are truly most honest when they're angry.”

“……”

“Stop grinding your teeth. You’ll have trouble when you’re old.”

He was bewildered that I was pleased with his anger.

Amethus breathed out in rage, but he couldn't bring himself to say anything more.

He wanted to shut my mouth right away, but strangely, he continued to listen.

“You know, your cursing is quite honest. Oh, I’m not saying you’re doing anything wrong. I’d rather call it ‘retaining your dignity.’”

“……”

The jade eyes blazed.

With anger, hatred, bewilderment and everything else.

They were all difficult emotions to handle, and when they mixed inside, it became difficult to express them.

He had never thought it was difficult to control his emotions.

But I was carelessly stirring his feelings, turning them into a complete mess.

“Amethus, let’s get this straight.”

I raised my index finger.

“Are you angry that I brought you, the last Aretion, to Arete Island? Do you feel that I’m stirring up your family’s disgrace?”

He nodded.

The jade eyes wavered.

By the time he noticed, he had already moved his head.

I smiled shyly and continued.

“Then it seems, you must be thinking this.”

The Regressor Prince recited.

“Oh, Aretion, Aretion.”

Stupid Aretion, despicable Aretion.

The lines from a fairy tale everyone in the empire knew.

“Why did my ancestors rebel against the empire? Why did they try to turn the Breath of Light into a weapon and bring about a calamity? I resent them, I resent them so much. There is nothing but lamentation.”

I placed my index finger on my lips.

“Then what if.”

As if I was deep in thought, or still hiding something.

“What if they hadn't done that, and Aretion had not become such a shameful name?”

“……”

“You wouldn't have had to live hunched over, despite your sharp swordsmanship. You wouldn’t have had to shy away from revealing your name. I would have also lived a life free of guilt.”

“Stop it……”

This brat, this damned lying prince, how does he know so much?

How does he know the childish pain still in my heart and stab me like this?

“My dear parents, who were so good, wouldn’t have had to suffer such humiliation.”

“I said, stop it……”

No, the reason didn't matter.

What did the reason matter when I was rubbing the most sensitive part of his heart with a grater?

It just hurt him.

He hated the tongue that was forcing him to confront a pain he had always avoided.

“Yes, this is my family's long-cherished wish.”

I gave a wry smile.

“I will repay the shame of my ancestors.”

I raised my fist towards the sky.

“If my ancestors brought about a calamity, then shouldn’t I, the last descendant, be the one to solve it? I will use my polished swordsmanship to defeat the corrupted Breath of Light. I will make the empire see the Aretions in a new light!”

Amethus’s face distorted.

He was so angry that blood trickled from his bitten lips, but strangely, his eyes were red-rimmed.

A sorrow so intense that it made his cheeks tingle, which he couldn't fully suppress, seeped out as a sob.

“…Please, stop it……”

“Then, if that happens……”

I paid no attention.

I was exposing Amethus’s heart.

“…my deceased parents will finally be able to rest in peace.”

“-I SAID, STOP IT-!!!”

The sword flew like a scream.

It was so fierce that my fingers were severed.

I clicked my tongue and picked them up.

The index, middle, and ring fingers.

He had cut off three at once.

“Ah, I have to reattach them… but will they even reattach?”

I put them in the Golden Medicine and put it in my pocket for now.

I figured it would work out somehow.

“Are you angry, Amethus? You must be.”

I twisted the corner of my mouth.

“Just bear with it for a bit. My head is a mess, too.”

“Why?”

He asked so menacingly.

His eyes were now a disturbing mix of jade and blood-red.

“Why is your head a mess, you bastard? WHY--!!”

“I’m just wondering where to start the story.”

I raised my hand with the severed fingers and tapped my forehead.

I didn’t care that the diviner was screaming in rage.

On the contrary, my face looked refreshed.

“How can I clear up this misunderstanding? How can I convey this truth so that this imbecile, who is steeped in the smell of the empire to the bone, will understand?”

The word “truth” brought a memory to mind.

‘You don’t know? You really don't?’

The look of lamentation on Niko Nereyades’s face.

As if there was a secret to the name Aretion, as if there was something Amethus didn't know.

“What am I going to do with this guy, who was completely fooled by the empire’s lie to be ashamed of his own family?”

***

It was today.

The day the First Imperial Prince Ferbias Caseptus would become the Fiftieth Emperor of the Empire, Ferbias Caseptus Cordis.

“……”

Ferbias Caseptus nervously tapped the window frame.

Beyond the glass, he could hear the excited cheers of the citizens.

They were waiting for the next emperor.

This was also a day that Ferbias had been eagerly awaiting.

The Imperial Throne, finally it was his.

All that was left was for him to sit on it.

But there was one, and only one, thing weighing on his mind.

“Dean Kentil.”

“Yes, Your Highness. No, Your Majesty.”

“I am still Your Highness until my enthronement.”

He stroked his chin.

His beard had grown quite long.

He had been told many times that he was imitating his father, Continua the Great, but he didn’t care.

Because he really had started growing the beard to imitate him.

“Where is Amethus?”

“…A report just came in.”

Dean Kentil cautiously handed him a letter.

He was the chief of the exorcism bureau.

He had the duty to protect the next emperor from all magical harm, so he must have checked the contents of the letter beforehand.

But his face didn't look good.

“……”

Ferbias felt anxious even before reading the letter.

Nevertheless, he had to read it.

That was what an emperor was.

He had the duty to turn anxiety into certainty and to let out a sigh.

“…As I thought, he went to Arete Island.”

He had secretly followed Amethus.

He had received reports on all his movements after leaving the capital, Lutilium.

And finally, Arete.

“I heard he was chasing someone with the Special Operations Unit……”

“I wish that were the case.”

Ferbias covered his face with his hands.

Who was he chasing?

The Succession War was already over.

Secundus and Leniar had left to preserve themselves.

Who would he chase that was more important than assisting the next emperor?

It was only natural that he never dreamed his half-brother, the Fifth Imperial Prince Zionis, was still alive.

“If only there was really some hidden reason… that would have been good……”

A transparent excuse, a transparent lie.

Ferbias was convinced of it.

“…In the end, he went to Arete, the place I told him not to go, even lying to me.”

He knew that Amethus wasn’t a man who easily lied.

However, he also knew what kind of obsession he had with his family.

A few lies didn't seem strange.

‘Amethus, my most precious. No, my only friend…….’

He was being cruel.

At the same time, it felt like his heart had been stabbed.

It was guilt.

Because there was a secret he was hiding.

‘Right, I promised. I told him that if we won the Succession War, I would send him to Arete to restore his family’s honor.’

Ferbias closed his eyes slowly.

‘But I couldn’t, because he would find out. And if he did, I wouldn't be able to keep him by my side.’

It was only natural.

He had to hide it.

What else could he have done?

Should he have told him the truth earlier?

Or should he have used force to stop him from leaving?

Beyond cruelty and guilt, he even resented the heavens.

“Dean Kentil.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“I told you to call me Your Highness.”

Ferbias gave a bitter smile.

“What were you doing 46 years ago?”

“It was around the time I was just starting out at the Imperial Academy of Magic.”

“Did you participate in the war?”

“It was my duty.”

“Then you must know about the Arete incident.”

“I was there to conceal the truth.”

“I see……”

The next emperor let out a long sigh.

“If he goes to Arete, the truth will be revealed.”

“If it’s anyone else, maybe not, but with him, it’s a certainty.”

“Exactly. His intuition will tell him everything.”

Ferbias Caseptus’s eyes were golden. Just like the great emperor. Those eyes now held a mournful light.

“If Amethus finds out, will he come back?”

“……”

“I suppose so. He’ll have no choice.”

The sigh deepened.

His face, clouded by a shadow of contemplation, looked exactly like his father, Continua the Great.

His face had always carried a hint of the great emperor, but after winning the Succession War, he resembled him even more.

‘I’m tired. I’m already exhausted.’

There were so many worries it felt foolish to even count them.

The rivalries with Leniar and Secundus, the rewards for those who helped him, the countless duties that came with the Imperial Throne…….

‘And my damn father is still a recluse…….’

He hadn’t seen Continua the Great since the declaration of the Succession War.

He would probably make an appearance at the coronation, but only for a brief moment.

Had he done something to earn his hatred?

No, if he had, it would have been easier to bear.

The great emperor had no hatred or fondness for him; he simply didn’t show any interest in Ferbias.

Even though he was the eldest son who would inherit the Imperial Throne, it was as if that held no value.

‘…And those three old monsters don’t even pretend to listen to me.’

Continua the Great's three close aides.

Prime Minister Kerenneus Cansella Caseptus.

Head of the military, Deballo Debius.

Director of the Imperial Academy of Magic, Hermai Merhes.

Kerenneus was Ferbias's greatest supporter and maternal grandfather, so he had to show him a certain degree of deference even as the next emperor.

But Hermai and Deballo were a different story. He couldn't even count how many times they had refused his request for a meal.

‘Amethus… you’re not here when I need you…….’

He had to go out.

He had to stand before the people with a smile and inherit the Imperial Throne.

There were so many duties and so little time.

He never knew the Imperial Throne would be so heavy, and he hadn't even fully received it yet.

‘I need you more than ever, and you chose to leave me.’

His chest felt constricted.

It was as suffocating as if thousands, tens of thousands of invisible hands were squeezing it.

He couldn’t hold on forever.

He had to make a choice.

If Amethus had made his choice, it was time for him to make his as well.

‘Choice. This, damn, choice.’

How long would it continue?

When would this cursed crossroads finally become a straight path and bring him peace?

With the Imperial Throne right in front of him, his choices only seemed to multiply.

“…Dean.”

He opened his lips with difficulty.

“Send the prepared document to the Security Bureau, as soon as possible.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“And I’m entrusting this matter to you. Do not let me hear the name Amethus until I ask for it.”

“I will do as you say.”

The next emperor stood up.

“I should go.”

His golden hair and golden eyes glinted in the sunlight as he stood up confidently.

“That damned Golden Throne is beckoning to me.”

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