Human beings are creatures who must always long for the radiant past.
Because they feel themselves aging with every passing moment. Because they grow weaker than they were yesterday.
Because they remember, with perfect clarity, the glorious self they once were.
“…”
The Founding Emperor was staring blankly out the window.
There was no trace in his eyes of the sharpness they had once possessed.
A dead old tree on the verge of collapse. That was exactly what the Founding Emperor looked like now.
He had lost everything. The Empress. The Chancellor. And his sons.
They said there were still imperial princes left, but they were no longer his children.
They were all wicked beasts. Fools steeped in lust for power.
How. How could they dare do such a thing?
While their father had been laid up in bed with a brief illness.
The woman who had borne them was not their mother, but someone they had called Mother had died.
Yet rather than protecting that mother’s children—their younger siblings—as their elder brothers,
they had joined hands with other nobles and slaughtered every last one of them?
They had even killed the Chancellor, a comrade who had stood beside him for decades?
“Ggh…”
His head burned as if it would explode. It felt as though his eyeballs would pop out.
He wanted to smash something, anything, but his body no longer had the strength.
He wanted to die. He wanted to die, but he could not even do that.
This could not go on. If things remained like this, he would be too wronged to close his eyes.
After all he had done to get this far. After the kind of man he had been.
Those bastards called his sons had dared stab their father in the back and make their move.
Drunk on petty power, they had killed their uncle and their younger siblings alike.
They were no longer his sons. They were beasts that had to be erased from this world.
Especially the Fifth Prince, Ishmael. That bastard had to die. No matter what.
But how? Was there anything he could do now?
Issue an imperial decree declaring the Fifth Prince a traitor and have him executed?
The various administrative ministries had already been seized by the Fifth Prince’s forces.
Starting with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, then the Ministry of Finance, and even the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
There was nowhere left that would obey the Founding Emperor’s orders.
The military, which he had thought of as his own hands and feet, was in the same state.
The imperial princes, led by the Fifth Prince, had won them all over as well.
If the Chancellor removes us, do you really think he will leave you alone?
Do you think the Eighth Prince, who has never shed a drop of blood, will understand you?
On the contrary, he will strip you of your rights and place his own people in your seats.
Follow us instead. Then we will guarantee everything.
When you think about it, were we not comrades who fought together?
With such arguments, even the commanders had all turned their backs.
“Ungrateful bastards…”
Because of all the years they had spent together, he had treated them with generosity second to none.
So how could they betray him and go over to those bastards?
Was that thing called power better than your honor?
With rage boiling inside him, the Founding Emperor curled his body even tighter.
It could not be here. The throne of the Emperor was, rather, a chain.
He had to move again from someplace where he still had a chance.
Even if he was not what he had once been, he was still a war hero.
If he left the imperial capital and moved about, followers would gather to him.
He could gather strength that way and punish every one of those insolent bastards.
“Your Imperial Majesty. The Crown Prince has come to see you.”
“…”
Among the imperial princes, he was one of the few who had not participated in that day’s events.
But in the end, his opinions aligned with his younger brothers’.
The Second Prince, Raharel. The current Crown Prince and his heir.
Normally, he would have flown into a rage and ordered him sent away at once.
“Let him in.”
But the Founding Emperor changed his mind and summoned the Crown Prince.
Perhaps. Just perhaps. He might accomplish what he wanted.
A moment later, the Crown Prince entered, looking extremely cautious.
“Your Imperial Majesty.”
A look of sorrow settled on the Crown Prince’s face when he saw the Founding Emperor.
Because he had hardly eaten or drunk properly since that day, his appearance was wretched.
His once imposing physique had now shrunk by half. It was truly unsightly.
“Your Majesty. Please, you must preserve your imperial person.”
“Crown Prince.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“What is the point of this body living any longer? This is fine as it is.”
“What dreadful words are those?”
The Founding Emperor stared for a moment at the Crown Prince, who begged him to take those words back.
Then, as if he had made up his mind, the Founding Emperor stepped forward.
“I will pass the throne to you.”
“Your Majesty?”
“Do not refuse. If you do, I will take my own life right in front of you.”
“Y-Your Majesty…!”
For the Crown Prince, who cherished his family terribly, they were words he could not dare disobey.
Looking at his second son, who could neither do this nor that,
the Founding Emperor, as if resolved, called in everyone waiting outside.
“I will hand over the throne as quickly as possible, so know that and make preparations.”
“Your Imperial Majesty!”
“If anyone tries to stop me from doing this, I will wring that bastard’s neck myself and then die as well. So none of you are to speak of this matter.”
They were all people who had served at the Founding Emperor’s side since long ago.
That was why they knew. Those words were in no way an empty threat.
If someone here were to say, Please withdraw your will?
The Founding Emperor would immediately wring that person’s neck with his own hands.
Although he had refused food and drink and spent his days lying like a corpse,
although his once steel-like body had now rusted in many places,
he had still been far stronger than others, and much of that strength remained.
Killing a single person was nothing to the Founding Emperor.
“Your Majesty…!”
The Crown Prince, who at least did not fear death, almost stepped forward.
But when the Founding Emperor grabbed his own throat, he had no choice but to back down.
A father threatening his child by taking his own life hostage.
And the content of that threat was the absurd demand that he accept the throne being handed to him.
In the end, this matter was immediately conveyed to the Ministry of the Imperial Household.
His Majesty wished to pass on the throne, so they were to prepare.
And this news soon became known to all those in power.
“What in the world. How could His Imperial Majesty…!”
Some could not help but lament at the staggering news.
“If this happens, what becomes of things now?”
Some began calculating the rapidly changing political landscape.
“Finally. Has the time finally come?”
Still others smiled as they looked toward greater heights.
“Looks like terrifying things are about to happen again.”
And there was even a young founding hero who spoke as if this were not the first time such a thing had happened,
worrying that things were going to become quite chaotic from here on.
*
Around the time each administrative ministry was going, Aaagh! over the Founding Emperor’s abdication uproar,
“Um, Director. Are you sure this is really all right…?”
my Enforcement Department began preparing to beat down the bastards who were not paying their taxes.
Of course, Wesley and Sinclair looked worried today as well.
“Team Leader One is right, Director. This is… this is truly dangerous.”
“The information came in through the National Tax Service. The Review Department acknowledged, for now, that it was indeed a serious matter. The Investigation Department confirmed it and judged that there were grounds for concern. So our Enforcement Department is moving. What’s the problem?”
“No, even so… Given the situation right now, I’m wondering whether this is really the right thing to do.”
The two team leaders were several times more flustered than when we raided the family connected to the Fourth Prince.
And understandably so, because our target this time was connected to the Mentus family.
And the Mentus family just mentioned was none other than the Fifth Prince’s wife’s family.
“If one wrong move is made, we could incur His Highness the Fifth Prince’s displeasure!”
“Look, Team Leader One. We’re doing the nation’s work, aren’t we? What is there to incur or not incur?”
“Why are you acting like this when you know perfectly well! The world belongs to His Highness the Fifth Prince now!!”
“Careful what you say, Team Leader One. His Imperial Majesty is still here, and so is His Highness the Crown Prince.”
“Aaagh! I’m seriously going to lose my mind!” Wesley grabbed his own head.
I understood. Wesley had once been a household soldier who served the Fifth Prince.
Raiding a family connected to his young master’s wife’s family with his own hands?
Even if he tried to think positively, bad futures would keep coming to mind.
“Director. Our Enforcement Department already raided a family connected to His Highness the Fourth Prince not long ago. If we touch His Highness the Fifth Prince’s in-laws’ side here, it could become a message that we intend to set ourselves entirely against them.”
“They didn’t properly pay the taxes they owed. In fact, they openly evaded taxes, so we’re paying them a visit. Our Enforcement Department is doing what it has to do. How could political logic get involved in that?”
“We’re saying this because it really might get involved.”
He had a point. People could absolutely do that over something that was simply our duty.
But it was truly fine. This matter had already been discussed with the Fifth Prince.
“I would like to keep seeing you for a long time, little brother.”
Just as I was about to grow uneasy at those somehow slightly chilling words,
the Fifth Prince leaned forward a little and lowered his voice as if telling me a secret.
“In that sense. Would you help this elder brother of yours?”
“As you said, little brother. I cannot dare strike my elder brother. Because of what I have done, I must forever remain the younger brother who cherishes his elder brothers terribly. If my elder brother were to obstruct me, I would be put in a very difficult position.”
“So I need him to mistakenly believe that he has a chance. So that he strikes me in the back, and I am left with no choice but to stop him.”
As expected of the Fifth Prince. It had not even been a few months since he had removed the Chancellor and the Eighth Prince.
Yet he had already drawn up what came next in his head and set the framework.
He knew far too well what he had to do to seize power.
It was a great relief. If I had been even a little later, I might have failed to raise my own value.
Hit the Fourth Prince and make him anxious. Make him wary of the Fifth Prince.
Then the Fifth Prince comes to me and scolds me for daring to touch his elder brother.
After that, as if our relationship had soured, the Enforcement Department suddenly checks the Fifth Prince.
The Fifth Prince probably wants the Fourth Prince to quietly make contact with me.
‘And while we’re at it, I can also discipline the underlings who are starting to get arrogant because things are going well.’
What the Fifth Prince wants from me right now is clear.
I will permit you to bite at my side, so shake the Fourth Prince.
If his elder brother obstructs him with nothing but the title of “elder brother,” he cannot stop him.
Because he has to become a “competitor,” not an “elder brother,” for him to be legally removed.
If it is his elder brother, he will surely see this as an opportunity and react.
Pour oil and fire alike onto that already impatient temperament and make it blaze.
Just in time, the Founding Emperor had expressed his intention to abdicate, throwing the political situation into even greater chaos.
If the current Crown Prince becomes the second emperor, a new crown prince must be appointed quickly.
As I said before, the Crown Prince has no children. He has had no child at all.
If he had been Crown Prince from birth, they would have somehow made him take a second wife.
But as things happened, he suddenly became Crown Prince. And now Emperor.
There is no time for that now, and above all, the person himself does not want it.
Therefore, the Crown Prince will be chosen from among the existing imperial princes.
The Third Prince is famous for recoiling at the mere mention of politics.
It is a fight between the Fourth Prince and the Fifth Prince. Naturally, the Fifth Prince has a far greater advantage.
But it is not perfect. The Fourth Prince has the justification of being the elder brother.
And the Fifth Prince happens to be the one who staged a coup using that very justification.
“Now. Everyone, stop acting like frightened puppies. Let’s work, work.”
“Aaagh! Seriously, if the very first Director of Enforcement starts off with such terrifying moves, the pressure felt by the next directors will be enormous!”
“That’s a good thing. If nothing else, when it comes to taxes, you need the crazy mindset of not reading the room. In that sense, Team Leader One? Lead the way.”
It would be a little unfair if I were the only one getting cursed at, you see?
It’s only proper to share it with the friends going out into the field, right?