Chapter 54

(53)

The long night ended, and finally dawn arrived.

Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of pairs of eyes peeked out the window, busily recounting the chaos of the previous night.

The royal family attempted to escape, infiltrators appeared, and Duke Valencius led the infiltrators to attack the Church.

The scene outside the streets added more substance to the tale.

Countless people were watching the farce as if it were a performance.

The emperor’s knights sent those who had lost their minds due to Lancea’s psychic waves to the Church, comforted the trembling coachmen, and dragged the Duke of Valencius, who was laughing helplessly, toward the Imperial Palace.

Public sentiment toward Valencius was already poor due to the execution methods at Wyvernfit and the chaos that had erupted in the Street of Learning.

Everyone believed without a doubt that this time, the rogue would hang.

As the cafes and marketplaces of the capital buzzed with gossips, the emperor was smiling with satisfaction in the audience chamber of Crimson Crescent Palace.

All the administrative officers, judges, and knights who were vaguely aware of the events from the previous night looked up endlessly at the child emperor, who had been on the throne for just one year.

“Sir Barbatos.”

“Yes, your majesty.”

The first to be called was the commander of the Black Iron Knights.

The towering knight, clad in black armor, knelt upon the extravagant floor covered in jewels.

“The ‘Red Candle Extinguishing’ operation owes its success to you. You dismantled the red-light district exactly as I wished.”

Barbatos and the Black Iron Knights, along with the constables under their command, raided all the casinos and upscale taverns in the red-light district last night, holding accountable for all the crimes they committed.

The owners, charged with tax evasion, illegal loans, drug manufacturing and sales, and murder contracts, were literally crushed.

Enormous fines were levied on the spot, and all money and property were seized; the wealth acquired would go toward military funding, while the land and buildings were set to resolve population density issues.

The only one not caught up in this was the masked collaborator working through Valencius.

In the red-light district, where 70% had been stripped and only a measly 30% remained, the new ruler of the night would be her.

“I heard the leader of the ‘organization’ is quite a powerful figure; how was it?”

At the emperor’s question, Barbatos laughed heartily as he extended a bottle from a wooden box.

It was a figure who had ruled as king of the red-light district in the history remembered only by Valencius, who fled to another country as the purges began.

He revealed all the secrets he had accumulated in exchange for his bounty, inciting discord among the imperial court nobles.

“One Black Iron Knight was sufficient, your majesty.”

It was a futile end in which he could not speak a single secret.

“Indeed. Your Black Iron has come through, once again.”

Barbatos grinned broadly.

Jeilliris, as if finding that smile delightful, continued in a bright voice.

“The red-light district will be chaotic for a while, and stabilizing it will be a difficult task. If you don’t mind, I’d like to leave the selection of the construction guild for its development to you; what say you?”

When it comes to appointing a guild for a monarch’s projects, bribery is always involved.

To entrust that negotiation to a knight intentionally means to have him take bribes and grease the palms of his subordinates.

Barbatos laughed heartily.

“Your majesty, you honor me.”

After he stepped back, it was Sererassie who bowed her head before the emperor.

The genius mage, robed in gold and blue, glimmering in a radiant display, wearing a blue outer robe and a red inner one, raised the hem of her robe as she respectfully bowed.

“Sererassie. Your contribution to my treasury has been great. Thanks to you, I won’t need to raise taxes this year. I wish to reward you; would you accept a new staff from me?”

“As it is a gift from my master, it holds great meaning for me. Please extend the validity of the magic circle plan instead.”

“Very mage-like of you. Very well; I shall grant you an additional month.”

Sererassie let out a sigh of relief.

The emperor smiled like a statue.

“Just now, I received a report regarding your share. The gold coins you won from over a dozen casinos amount to a total of 85,638 pieces…”

Everyone in that room drew a breath.

That was a sum that would hardly even come close to the budget of an ordinary great lord.

“42,819 pieces are yours. You said you haven’t been able to claim them all yet, so collect them gradually.”

“Yes, your majesty. Thank you.”

Through this conversation, Sererassie became one of the wealthiest individuals on this continent.

After she withdrew, the elderly court official bowed his head before the emperor.

Jeilliris called for attendants to bring her a chair and cane, showing respect to the old man.

“Court official. How many of my bloodline remain now? Compare that to before my ascension.”

The court official, his face marked with deep wrinkles, cleared his throat and unfurled a scroll.

“Including the preceding emperor, the empress, the imperial consort, and the concubines, there were 672 individuals legally belonging to the royal family.”

The preceding emperor had maintained dozens of concubines and fathered offspring until his vitality was nearly spent.

“Indeed.”

“On the day of your ascension, 122 royal family members, including the preceding emperor, passed away. The next day, all concubines, mistresses, and non-blood relatives were sent back to their parental homes, leaving 426 legal royals remaining.”

“Quite a number.”

Afterward, the numerous assassination attempts and plots of revolt, along with Jeilliris’s repression that had lasted a year, poured forth from the court official’s mouth.

The judges gathered in the audience chamber murmured in hushed tones.

“…Six infiltrators were executed, 13 took their lives as an accomplice to the poison placed in your cup, and Duke Valencius beheaded 47 of the 67 ‘illegitimate children’ who do not fall under the law of the royal family but share imperial blood. Since they do not belong to the royal family, 47 remain in the palace.”

“Long tale.”

Jeilliris murmured as she sunk into the backrest of her throne.

“Moreover, last night, the Duke of Valencius and the knights of the Black Iron killed 13 out of 45 who attempted a mass escape to disclose the imperial court’s secrets to foreign lands, apprehending 31 and capturing one who is being searched for; they should be apprehended soon.”

“Long indeed.”

Her yellow eyes shone faintly, a satisfied smile lingered on her lips.

“Out of those, excluding the eight who previously conspired with the court, 23 committed suicide this morning.”

Watching her smile, the court official clenched his teeth.

“Now, legally, those belonging to the royal family are only you, the Duke of Valencius, Sererassie, and eight others, totaling 11. Extending the scope through blood ties, Count Aquinas, who has been adopted into the House of Duke Planiaties, also counts.”

Everything was a consequence of her, the late emperor’s, the royal family and the empire’s actions.

When experiments succeed, the subjects become useless.

“Helena, Hadrian, and Duke Denia have expressed their intention to serve in the imperial court, while the remaining five have conveyed they wish to return to their mother’s family, relinquishing their inheritance rights.”

Jeilliris shook her head.

“I refuse. They must remain as hostages.”

“I will… inform them.”

The emperor brushed his platinum hair back and said.

“Over the past year, much blood has been spilled. It is regrettable that all were necessary. I could not lie with those who might become monsters I cannot defeat.”

The assembled officials felt a strange pressure watching that scene.

“It seems you have bled enough from kin. But there are still remaining relatives.”

The court official swallowed hard.

“Bring Duke Valencius.”

* * *

Holy Knight Angeros disliked the emperor.

She killed the preceding emperor, who maintained good relations with the Church, and over the past year, for various excuses, killed hundreds of relatives.

Just this alone filled her with an instinctive aversion, made worse by the fact that he had not visited the Church in over a year since his ascension.

In her understanding, how could a worldly monarch disregard faith to this degree?

Countless great lords and kings of foreign lands clamored for Jeilliris to be excommunicated for violating human and heavenly morality.

She could not bow her head in gratitude to the Church, which tolerated such an offense, nor send even a formal envoy or a letter.

No, there was one person who could be called an envoy.

A twin brother of the current emperor had come, which could indeed be considered a formal envoy.

The problem was, that twin brother had brought along transformed infiltrators.

Who in the world would come to a cathedral with such beings in tow?

What if the saint or the devotees got hurt?

For Angeros, it was a terrifying thought just to imagine.

If the saint hadn’t intervened, he would have truly lost his head.

Fortunately, he was well-known to have a poor reputation, and recently caused problems related to the infiltrators in the Street of Learning, so the emperor seemed poised to execute him soon; this was his only consolation.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes, saint. It is an honor to escort you.”

He felt quite proud to be part of this procession heading to the Imperial Palace with the Cardinal and Saint Matheos, several priests, and holy knights.

There were grievances about the emperor not coming to apologize, but it was unthinkable to hope for such a thing from a man who murdered his father.

He believed now was the time for the church to excommunicate the emperor.

No matter how much light spoke of mercy and forgiveness, such rudeness from the royal family could not be tolerated.

“W-What?”

So it was that as Angeros stood next to the emperor in the audience chamber, with a ceiling like the night sky, ready to receive the saint, he nearly ran out upon seeing him.

“I was rude at that time.”

“No, nothing of the sort, Duke. I, Matheos, cannot retreat before an infiltrator.”

The young duke, with bright yellow eyes shining and platinum hair swept back, donned a white uniform trimmed in red, arrogantly unsheathed his sword as he welcomed the saint.

Moreover, the Cardinal he respected, known for his sternness, was conversing with a kin-slayer emperor with the warm smile of a grandfather meeting his granddaughter.

“It brings me great joy as a servant of light to meet his secular sun, your majesty.”

“It was my fault for not visiting sooner. I could not commit the rudeness of stepping over the Church’s threshold with bloodied hands. Please understand.”

“It is indeed fortunate that you’ve come to see us now.”

“As a symbol of my apology, I shall donate 10,000 gold coins to the Church for their work against the infiltrators and in helping the poor, and I invite the five dukes and various relatives to join the clergy. The gold can be used to help the Church combat the infiltrators, and sending my relatives is a sign of my faith. Will you accept my apology?”

“There is no need for your majesty to apologize to men. Only light and conscience can hold you accountable. If you feel heavy at heart, please come to the cathedral this weekend.”

Angeros pondered for a moment before grasping what the emperor had said.

“!”

To become a monk means not to marry, and from the purges, it can be inferred that the emperor wants to regulate blood.

Making the five dukes—and perhaps the relatives he meant to refer to as illegitimate children—all take holy orders means there will be no spreading of imperial blood.

And 10,000 gold coins… that was money that could absolve much sin.

He let out a deep sigh inwardly.

That reckless rogue smiling beside the saint seemed he would be seeing him quite often from now on.

* * *

In a room at the southwestern corner of the Imperial Palace, made entirely of glass, where the air was fresh with fairy forest plants.

Clad in a black dress, Jeilliris sat me beside a long chair and gazed at the setting sun.

“Duke Valencius. Were you that shocked to have missed Justianus?”

When I lured Lancea to the cathedral, Justianus supposedly hid in the underground sewer and fled as soon as the city gates opened.

Upon learning that, I had fallen down in the street at dawn, trembling.

I had clearly seen the butterfly effect he would bring about about four months prior.

My legs had failed me, and I could barely return to the Crimson Crescent Palace with the help of knights.

“I’m sorry, your majesty. I committed a great sin, but please don’t truly kill me.”

“You have done enough. Though I dislike admitting it, there are things beyond human control.”

She looked at me for a moment with eyes of the same color, then placed her ringed hand upon my shoulder and awkwardly patted me twice.

In a normal circumstance, I would have shed tears of gratitude upon receiving comfort for the first time since the return, but this time I could not find joy in it.

“However, that man…!”

“Your personal strength is lacking, and there are no proper factions backing you. It is not as if an uprising of royal origin is flaring up all around, so you can feel at ease. Furthermore, I have already sent out several dragon knights.”

I couldn’t find comfort, but I could accept what she said.

At this time in my past life, Jeilliris was already on the battlefield, and she was at both ends of the escape for dozens of royal family members with influential great nobles who had weakened their vigilance.

However, today she was here, and the traitorous royals who would claim the emperor were all turned to dust, backed by the main faction of illegitimate children.

The last five dukes and capable illegitimate children were already being led to the monastery and would never come out for the rest of their lives.

Without a focal point, no power can rise.

Both Jeilliris and I understood that well.

Yet, thinking of Justianus, whom I felt I would surely meet again someday, I nodded.

“In the end, it has happened just as you said.”

“Pardon?”

“This Sunday, you and I shall participate in prayers at the cathedral, will we not?”

“Ah.”

Jeilliris slowly turned to face me.

Her platinum hair complemented her haughty gaze and enchanting smile, a face unchanged for decades after reaching her heights.

“You are quite peculiar. It seems you act recklessly yet ultimately create situations favorable to me, no?”

“Too much praise…”

“Even when meeting the duke, creating new punishments, in the Street of Learning, and now when capturing you and your kin; it has always been like that.”

“Everything has been by coincidence.”

“True. There are miracles in this world. But miracles are called such because they do not happen twice.”

The tyrant, the kin-slayer, looked at me with a face resembling a girl of her age.

“To think of what I have done until now and the poison I have consumed, merely being alive is a miracle.”

Though she spoke words that did not suit a girl of her age.

“Indeed, it is.”

“That’s quite a word to echo.”

“I have committed sins that do not warrant death.”

She chuckled cheerfully, then murmured with satisfaction.

“Finally, that task has been completed. But now, it has only just begun.”

“Yes, your majesty. You must keep the greedy great lords in check and close the magical realms.”

“What do you wish to do while I keep the greedy great lords in check and close the magical realms?”

Jeilliris’s eyes sparkled playfully.

I answered as befitting the reckless Valencius.

“I’ll drink, gamble, and brawl everywhere.”

“I refuse. No, it would be fine to grant you that freedom.”

“Pardon?!”

“Because everything you brought to me has been given in that manner.”

My eyes widened in disbelief.

She was certainly someone who would not have missed that.

Jeilliris, with the setting sun reflecting red upon the city beyond the glass, spoke.

“I wish for you to indulge even more recklessly, my only blood. If you bring forth the outcome I desire, I will overlook any deviation.”

I closed my eyes tightly and opened them again in response.

“Yes, your majesty. Forever.”

Surely I would etch my name into history.

As the loyalist of a tyrant, the legendary rogue.