Chapter 1
The Holy Emperor’s Children
Nathaniel Klein, known as Nate, was the 17th Holy Emperor of Delcross.
Except for the very first Holy Emperor, no ruler in history had ever possessed power like his.
He wielded overwhelming divine power worthy of the title God’s Representative, was the youngest Sword Master in unofficial history, and the strongest swordsman on the continent.
Under his rule, Delcross enjoyed an age of unmatched peace and prosperity. Relations with neighboring vassal kingdoms had never been better, and many praised him as the greatest ruler of the century.
However, he was even more famous for another title:
“The Most Notorious Playboy Holy Emperor in History.”
When he ascended the throne at the young age of twenty-one, he already had three wives, one lover, and five children.
Now, after more than twelve years on the throne, the number of officially acknowledged children had already exceeded seven. As for how many illegitimate children he had hidden away, no one knew.
For generations, the Holy Emperors of Delcross had maintained the image of God’s Representative, living disciplined and restrained lives. Because of that, they rarely had many children.
Only the First Holy Emperor was known to have fathered more than fifteen children. Considering that the man, who was called a demigod, ruled for over three hundred years, the number was understandable.
Because of this, even such a capable young emperor could not escape being known as a womanizer.
Nate accepted that everything had been the result of his youthful recklessness.
As their father, he decided to take responsibility and care for every one of his children as best he could.
He ordered the head butler to report carefully on each child’s condition and often delayed his official duties so he could spend time speaking with them personally.
Unfortunately…
Raising children was never easy.
Children rarely grew up exactly as their parents wished.
Sometimes, even one’s own flesh and blood would do things that no parent could ever understand.
Take his eldest child, the First Prince, Owen, for example.
The boy had only been discovered after he had already grown into a young man. At first, he seemed overjoyed to finally meet his father after years of hardship.
Then one day, he suddenly started saying strange things.
He claimed he could see mysterious floating documents in the air.
“Father, with the power of this Status Window, I shall become even stronger.”
After saying that…
He immediately left for the southern front.
Nate had only just found his long-lost son and wanted to spend more time with him, but the ungrateful boy paid no attention to his father’s feelings.
His second child, the First Princess, Amelia, was no different.
She was a pitiful girl whose mother, the illegitimate daughter of a frontier count, had passed away. Only afterward was it revealed that she was truly an imperial princess, allowing her to finally meet her father.
Despite her grief, she always hid it behind a bright smile and happily chatted with the father who still felt like a stranger to her.
She had been as lovely as a blooming rose.
Then one day…
She changed.
After waking up one morning crying from what she claimed was a nightmare, she suddenly lost her appetite and became noticeably depressed.
Worried, Nate invited her to tea and gently asked what was wrong.
Instead, tears streamed down her face as she dropped a shocking confession.
“Your Majesty… I… have returned to the past after dying!”
Nate was completely stunned.
She then poured out her story.
According to Amelia…
Leonard, the handsome but shallow second prince of the Kingdom of Rohan, had tricked her into marrying him.
It had never been because of love.
He only wanted to use the Holy Emperor’s influence to secure his own throne.
After forcing the marriage, he openly took numerous concubines while constantly abusing and humiliating Queen Amelia.
Eventually…
He imprisoned her alone in a tower.
“Your Majesty became furious and even started a holy war to rescue me. But Leonard killed me in the end… He cruelly wanted me to die before Your Majesty’s very eyes.”
“…”
“Ah… You opposed the marriage from the very beginning, yet this foolish daughter ruined everything!”
She broke down sobbing.
Nate simply stared blankly at her.
He married you…
Locked you away…
And murdered you?
But, my daughter…
You’re standing right in front of me alive.
“So I will have my revenge. I’ll chase him to the ends of hell. I’ll destroy every hope he has and completely ruin him. I won’t forgive anyone who stands in my way!”
“…”
Seeing the dangerous light flickering within his daughter’s tear-filled eyes, Nate unconsciously held his breath.
The daughter he had cherished like a delicate flower bud had somehow become a poisonous rose covered in thorns.
By this point, Nate had no choice but to admit something.
He had greatly underestimated how difficult raising children could be.
Were all parents on the continent forced to endure this kind of suffering?
Or were his children simply… unusually strange?
The young Holy Emperor clutched his aching head.
But even that…
Was only the tip of the iceberg.
Among all his unusual children, there was one who caused him the greatest headache.
His fourth child.
The Third Prince, Mores.
Prince Mores was the son of the passionate First Empress, Lizabeth.
Aside from being an uncontrollable troublemaker as a child, he had originally been perfectly ordinary.
Sadly, unlike his siblings, he showed no outstanding talent.
He was merely average.
Far from meeting the expectations his ambitious mother had placed upon him.
As a result, Mores endured harsh training from an early age because the First Empress desperately wanted to make him the Crown Prince.
When he was younger, he at least obediently followed his mother’s wishes.
But eventually…
He began bullying the palace servants.
By the time he reached puberty, he had become a hopeless fat delinquent that no one could control.
Neither his mother’s furious scolding nor her tearful pleading had any effect.
Nate himself could think of no solution.
All he could do was quietly wait and hope his son would come to his senses.
Instead, Mores only became worse with every passing year.
It seemed certain that he would forever remain the greatest disgrace in the history of the imperial family.
Then…
Everything changed without warning.
He suddenly caught a terrible fever and nearly died.
When he finally woke up…
He was like an entirely different person.
He stopped tormenting people.
Instead, he spent every day training at the practice grounds.
The fat melted away from his body.
His swordsmanship, which had always been mediocre, improved at an unbelievable speed.
It was as though his natural talent itself had changed.
The once ordinary prince now carried a surprisingly sharp presence.
The change was certainly welcome.
Yet…
Nate couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling growing inside him.
Perhaps he should have sat down and had an honest conversation with Mores long ago.
But the boy still seemed mentally unstable.
After much hesitation, Nate chose to continue treating him carefully, just as he always had.
That indecisive choice…
Would eventually lead to an irreversible storm.
BOOM!!
A thunderous crash echoed outside, as if an entire mountain had collapsed.
The imperial palace shook violently like an earthquake.
The cardinals and ministers, who had just finished the morning council meeting, rushed into the palace courtyard in panic.
There…
They saw it.
A gigantic black mass had been thrown carelessly into one corner of the courtyard.
Massive wings with almost no membrane left.
Rotting flesh hanging from a huge body.
And black demonic energy pouring endlessly from it.
“A… Bone Dragon…”
“W-What in the world…”
Why was a demon species that had supposedly been rampaging through the eastern region suddenly lying in the middle of the imperial palace?
As the stunned cardinals struggled to understand what they were seeing, the Imperial Guard and the Holy Knights quickly surrounded the creature.
Even after crashing down, it was still twitching weakly.
But the terrifying demonic energy pouring from its body prevented anyone from approaching.
Then—
“Oh… I wasn’t trying to cause a scene. Please, go back to what you were doing.”
A cheerful voice came from beside the Bone Dragon’s head.
A young man wearing light armor appeared.
Pale blond hair with a gray tint.
Sharp-looking eyes.
A mischievous grin.
“…Your Highness Mores?”
“Your Highness, what exactly happened here?”
Even when Knight Commander Balthazar asked with a trembling voice, Mores answered as casually as ever.
“The exorcists from the subjugation force told me this guy doesn’t disappear completely after being killed like other demons. The corpse stays behind. They said it had to be purified in the Imperial Capital where Father is.”
“…”
“So I figured if we killed it way out east, transporting the corpse would spread demonic energy through the villages and soldiers along the way…”
In other words…
To minimize the damage…
He had chased the Bone Dragon all the way to the Imperial Capital…
Then dropped it directly onto the Holy Emperor’s palace.
“…This lunatic…”
One high priest muttered without thinking.
No one scolded him.
Because everyone present was thinking the exact same thing.
That fat, worthless delinquent prince…
He’d evolved into an even bigger maniac.
SKREEEECH!!
Using the last of its strength, the Bone Dragon let out a furious roar and struggled to throw Mores off.
The black demonic energy surrounding it exploded outward.
The knights surrounding it instinctively stepped back.
But standing in the center of that terrifying energy…
Mores remained completely calm.
He slowly drew the sword at his waist.
Dark crimson aura began gathering around the blade.
The aura became visible along its edge.
Considering his young age, it was an extraordinary achievement.
Yet…
The blood-red aura carried an ominous, sinister feeling.
It was not the kind of aura one should ever see from a prince of the Holy Empire.
“I’m finishing this now. Be careful of the demonic energy.”
He spoke as casually as if discussing the weather.
Stab.
His sword pierced directly into the dragon heart, blackened by demonic energy.
Crack.
The dragon heart split apart.
An overwhelming torrent of black demonic energy erupted from the crack.
FWOOOSH!!
In an instant…
The Bone Dragon and Mores disappeared inside a cloud of black smoke.
“AAAAH!”
“Prince Mores!”
“Your Highness!”
The demonic energy surged across the courtyard—
But before it could reach the knights…
A shining silver barrier blocked it.
The Holy Emperor had instantly cast an enormous divine barrier around the Bone Dragon.
Shhhhhh…
For a brief moment, the barrier looked like a giant black dome filled with darkness.
But every trace of demonic energy that touched the divine barrier was immediately purified.
Little by little…
The blackness faded.
When it was over…
Only clean air…
And the giant white skeleton of the Bone Dragon remained inside the barrier.
“W-Where is the prince?”
The demonic energy of an undead demon could rot away an ordinary person’s body with mere contact.
A young prince with only a small amount of divine power shouldn’t have been able to survive standing at the center of such an explosion.
Yet Mores was completely unharmed.
As the barrier disappeared, he slowly walked toward the Holy Emperor.
His entire body was wrapped in his own aura.
He looked as though the demonic energy had never posed any danger at all.
Dark crimson, sinister energy flowed from every part of his body.
To anyone who didn’t know better…
It was hard to tell whether the prince or the Bone Dragon was the true servant of the demons.
“…Your Majesty… Forgive my boldness, but… can you truly say that power of the prince does not belong to demons?”
Cardinal Benitus, standing beside the Holy Emperor, asked with a trembling voice.
To even suggest that a prince of the Holy Empire possessed demonic power was practically blasphemy—perhaps even treason.
Normally, such words would be unforgivable.
Yet the old cardinal was so shocked that he hadn’t even realized what he had said.
Silently watching everything unfold…
Nate slowly raised a hand to cover his face.
Then he let out a quiet sigh.
Yes, Mores…
The son who had once been nothing more than a reckless troublemaker…
Had become the eye of a new storm—
One that would bring an enormous tide of fate crashing down upon the Empire of Delcross.
