Chapter: 31
The Emperor’s Legacy
However, Ekiel himself seemed unfazed. In fact, he even let out a genuine, faint smile for the first time.
“Haha. What he says is true, so calm yourselves.”
The young emperor silenced the Archmages before turning to face Ritain.
He was right.
A single misstep could overload the brain, easily leading to madness.
There were indeed such cases, instances where mages went insane and lost control of their magic, causing them to run rampant.
Therefore, it was both natural and familiar for those around Ekiel, with his immense power, to be cautious and wary.
And yet, to speak of it so nonchalantly.
Ekiel found it rather refreshing and even amusing, a small smile playing on his lips.
“As expected of the great Holy Emperor leading the Penterin Empire. I am impressed you understood at once. However, please do not worry.”
Ritain’s eyes shone as he smiled back.
“Then, does that mean you are all right for now?”
“For the time being, yes.”
Ekiel lowered his gaze for a moment before meeting Ritain’s vivid golden eyes again.
“A legacy left to me by the one who guided me in my youth remains. As long as it is intact, I will be fine.”
“……May I ask who that person was?”
The eyes of the young emperor, always so mature and resolute, filled with longing as his lips slowly parted.
“The former emperor of Rilberg, Tantitus Isles Rilberg.”
“……”
“He was my grandfather.”
The Penterin delegation was astonished, while the Stars of the Rilberg Empire bowed their heads with solemn expressions.
As if recalling the day the former emperor passed away.
A heavy silence descended.
It was Ritain’s question that broke it.
“Three years ago, was it?”
“Yes.”
“It is far too late. I offer my condolences for the death of your grandfather, the former emperor of Rilberg.”
Ritain spoke in a serious tone, then rose from his seat, placed a hand over his left breast, and bowed his head deeply.
The Penterin nobles followed suit, rising to offer their condolences together. Ekiel and the Archmages also stood.
For a moment, silence filled the hall.
Ekiel was the first to raise his head. He looked at Ritain, who was still observing a moment of silence, and was overcome by a strange feeling.
‘He is a good man.’
I’m glad. That someone like him is Jusi’s father.
‘Then again, just seeing Jusi’s birthday card displayed at the birth banquet was enough to tell he was no ordinary person.’
The thought of the birthday card made Ekiel feel a pang of envy and emptiness.
After the mourning for the former emperor concluded, Marquis Skoten, noticing Ritain lost in thought, leaned over and whispered to one of the Archmages.
“So His Majesty the Emperor is the grandson of the former emperor. And that is why you said his family lineage affects his magic.”
“Yes. However, this is the first time that three generations of the same family have been chosen as emperor.”
“Oh?”
Ritain and the other Penterin nobles looked at Ekiel with great interest.
It was an unprecedented event.
And so the boy, who was originally Ekiel Isles, inherited the name Rilberg upon ascending to the throne after his grandfather.
That was how he became Emperor Ekiel Isles Rilberg.
The Archmage, looking prouder than anyone, straightened his shoulders and added as if just remembering.
“Due to his youth and to prevent any opposition, the Rilberg Empire currently has a regent.”
“A regent?”
“Yes. He was originally one of the Ten Stars, the Archmages, but he retired upon becoming regent. He is stabilizing the Rilberg Empire and focusing solely on politics.”
Ekiel, who had been listening idly to their conversation, thought of ‘that regent’ and couldn’t help but chuckle.
Duke Luke Jetar, who had grumbled while seeing him off on his departure from Rilberg.
‘Please return as soon as possible, Your Majesty.’
‘Why?’
‘Why would you stay so long in that barbaric land! You’ll just end up learning how to howl like a beast.’
‘I doubt it.’
‘Don’t tell me you’ll pick up some strange animal just because you’re in the land of beastmen. The Rilberg Palace does not allow pets.’
‘Is it not my palace? Though I suppose I can’t do much if the regent stages a rebellion while I’m away.’
‘What? Aaargh! That’s not what I meant!’
Duke Jetar, who had nagged him endlessly—eat your meals, sleep well, eat your fruit, be careful of animal fur in case you develop an allergy.
Is the work of a regent that taxing?
Why is he getting more and more irritable?
Ekiel’s expression turned grave as he recalled the duke, who was always complaining about wanting to retire from the regency.
I once followed him when he snuck off somewhere at night, only to find him developing a ‘magic potion to accelerate a child’s growth.’
He probably intends to feed it to me, make me grow up, and then bolt from his position as regent.
‘Is he serious?’
The thought of Regent Jetar was amusing, but the prospect of another barrage of nagging upon his return was exhausting. Ekiel shook his head.
He rubbed at his eyes, which were growing warm.
He felt a genuine, small pang of nostalgia for the old days, and he lowered his head, closing his eyes for a moment.
Even though he knew he could never go back.
***
The Western Continent.
The summer of the year Ekiel was born.
Heavy rains began to fall near the Rosart River, below the mountain range on the eastern border of the Rilberg Empire.
The torrential downpour, falling as if in a frenzy, finally broke the levee, causing the river to flood.
Naturally, no one lived near the Rosart River, known as the River of Death, but the flood damage spread to the villages beyond.
Evacuation orders were issued for the residents of the nearby villages, and the military and the Magical Investigation Department were belatedly dispatched from the capital to the Rosart River.
This was no ordinary rain.
Dark, ominous clouds were concentrated solely in the sky above the Rosart River, and the river water swirled in place instead of flowing downstream before overflowing its banks.
Upon hearing this report, the former emperor, Tantitus, saw something dark writhing through his scrying orb and became certain that this was no simple natural disaster.
A long, long time ago.
The wicked Dark Divine Beast that had ravaged the world and soaked the land in blood during an ancient war.
It had been sealed in the Rosart River, and now it was showing signs of reawakening.
Tantitus intended to go to the Rosart River himself to prevent the Dark Divine Beast’s revival.
But the Ten Stars who served him stood in his way.
The emperor was ninety years old.
Even with immense magical power, an aged body could not be ignored.
Magic, which develops the power of the mind, cannot halt the aging of the body.
They insisted they could seal the beast before it fully awakened, and that His Majesty should remain to protect the capital.
And so, the ten Archmages departed for the Rosart River.
Before the Dark Divine Beast could be fully unleashed, the ten Archmages cast a high-level sealing formation, pouring their magic into it for three whole days.
The rain, which had poured down with a terrifying ferocity reminiscent of that fierce ancient battle, gradually subsided.
Soon, the dark clouds parted, and sunlight streamed through.
In the end, the Dark Divine Beast was sealed once more within a jet-black crystal orb.
However, in the process, five Stars fell.
Some died, poisoned by the vile venom of the Dark Divine Beast as it resisted the seal; others perished from magical exhaustion after pouring too much of their power into the sealing.
Although they had succeeded in resealing the beast, the Archmages did not know for certain why it had been freed from the Rosart River.
They could only surmise that it was perhaps due to the passage of a thousand years.
The possibility that the original seal had worn away over such a long time.
The five surviving Stars returned to the capital with this conjecture.
Among the five Stars who perished were Ekiel’s parents, when he was just five months old.
Archmage Jetar, having lost his old friends, collapsed from his grief.
Though the sealing was a success, the Rilberg Palace was steeped in sorrow, unable to escape the darkness for some time.
In particular, Emperor Tantitus, who had lost his son and daughter-in-law at once, found his black hair had turned completely white.
Returning after the state funeral, he looked down at the pretty crimson eyes of his grandson, who stared up at him blankly without a single tear, and his own tears began to fall.
Emperor Tantitus embraced the tiny baby and apologized.
“I’m so sorry, little one.”
Ekiel was a precious child to his parents, who had him late in life, after they turned fifty.
He was a precious grandson to him, but how his children must have worried about their own young child.
How their hearts must have ached as they departed.
He had denied them the joy of watching their child grow.
The guilt that he should have been the one to die weighed heavily on his chest, making it hard to breathe.
He gasped for breath, pained and agonized.
Just then, Ekiel placed a hand on Tantitus’s wrinkled cheek.
