◈ Episode 418. The Power of Intrigue Moves.
“If it is him……”
“His Majesty also held Sir Hoyeol in high regard.”
“Sir Harkon, thank you for making the decision first.”
Joy and sorrow flickered faintly across the faces of the retainers. But without a doubt, the one who despaired more than anyone else there was the head maid of the imperial palace, Joan. Joan hurried through the imperial palace with quick steps.
“Sir Harkon……”
The military might that protected the Empire?
The political power to encompass the Arcana Continent?
The character to lead people?
And beyond that.
“Pride, you said……?”
Unfortunately, however, she had no eye for recognizing anything so grand. At best, Joan’s duty was to manage the imperial maids and assist the imperial family.
She bit her lip.
‘……
I cannot follow this.’
The adventurer, Lee Hoyeol.
She knew his status well.
If not for him, the Empire would have collapsed long ago.
Especially when the rebel army led by the Sword Saint had advanced on Antonium.
Without his salvation, she would have……
‘Been beheaded, and not even my corpse would have been found.’
What increased in the imperial palace was one’s tact.
In her head, she already knew.
Since His Majesty the Emperor had entered eternal rest, the Empress, of course, and even His Highness the Prince would grow distant from power. Amid that, the true military power that had returned to the Empire, the Lionheart Knights, was putting forward an adventurer as the new emperor.
Joan murmured.
“……
It would be fortunate if they are not driven out of the imperial palace.”
No, she thought even more coldly.
Would the new emperor, in the future.
Ever leave His Highness the Prince alive, when he might become a threat……?
Step, step.
Once she thought that, Joan’s steps grew even busier.
“Your Majesty!”
Bang—!
When she opened the door to the detached chamber, what she saw was.
The prince sleeping soundly, and the Empress beside him, tending to His Highness.
The Empress answered in a small voice.
“He cried himself out and fell asleep just a little while ago.”
The eyes of the Empress, who spoke calmly, were faintly wet.
Had she perhaps heard the sad news of His Majesty?
The Empress approached Joan, who had frozen, and asked.
“It seems the situation has been settled for the moment?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“I have never experienced four days so long.”
The Empress seemed relieved.
Joan did not want to break this peace, but she opened her mouth.
Yes, everything was for the safety of the Empress and His Highness the Prince.
“More importantly, you must evacuate.”
“Evacuate?”
“I am gravely concerned for the safety of you both……!”
She did not want to say it aloud.
But she had no choice.
Joan explained the situation concisely.
The Empress had grown up like a flower in a greenhouse. Joan had worried what would happen if she was shocked. But it was needless concern. Even after hearing the entire sequence of events, the Empress nodded with an unchanged expression.
“I see. So that is what happened.”
“Yes, so you must flee at once!”
His Highness the Prince was the fruit the two of them had finally borne after much effort, late in life.
Only five years old this year.
That was why Joan had resolved to leave the imperial palace in haste.
“Now that His Majesty has closed his eyes before completing the succession to the throne, His Highness does not have sufficient justification to claim the imperial succession. I know your heart cannot be at ease, but please, until His Highness comes of age……!”
For now, he was no different from any other child his age.
But he was His Highness, carrying the blood of Seric Rose.
If he matured, then one day, surely.
He would gain the ability to reclaim the Empire once more.
Joan had already made up her mind.
“Until then, I will serve the two of you.”
“Joan……”
“There is no need to look at me so pitifully, Your Majesty.”
Decision?
She had finished making it while walking alone from the murmuring imperial palace to the detached chamber. Though she would need to gather some simple luggage and valuables. Just as Joan was about to turn around to prepare to leave the imperial palace.
The Empress stopped Joan.
“He has already visited the detached chamber, you know?”
……
She froze!
If she said he.
Lee Hoyeol, that adventurer……?
“What do you mean?! More importantly, Your Majesty, are you unharmed?”
To Joan, who was aghast, the Empress showed a gentle smile.
“How else could I have heard news of my lord from this detached chamber, far from the imperial palace? There is no need to worry, Joan. I had kept in mind that a day like this would come someday.”
That was right.
The Empress had not collapsed even at the sad news.
As a mother with a child, she could not collapse.
Suddenly, the Empress’s gaze turned toward the table.
On the table lay a dagger for self-defense. The Empress laughed despite herself. A dagger wielded by her would not even be a threat to Hoyeol, that great adventurer. Yet she thought it remarkable that she had managed to pick it up.
Tremble, tremble.
The Empress had held the dagger with trembling hands.
To her, Hoyeol had said.
—“A fine stance.”
He reminded her of the burden she had forgotten.
—“From now on, you must be wary of everyone.”
The reason she had raised a blade at the Empire’s benefactor without hesitation?
It was because her mind had been in utter chaos.
Now that her lord had closed his eyes.
She had judged that the only one who could protect the prince sleeping soundly on the bed was herself, his mother. Perhaps…… because, in the process, she had even thought that giving up on life would not be so bad.
If she closed her eyes like this……
She thought she might be able to follow her lord.
But that had been a tremendous misconception.
—“You must doubt everyone’s words, mine included. From this moment on, you are the one who must be the subject of every judgment. If you are swayed by another’s words, then the Empire, and the people of the Empire, will be swayed by another as well.”
—“W-what do you mean by that?”
The dagger was not even in Hoyeol’s sight.
His gaze was directed toward the bed.
The look in his eyes as he gazed at the sleeping prince was quite warm.
—“And the prince, too, will be no exception.”
—“!”
Of course, the words that followed were truly cold beyond measure.
Were those truly things a person could uphold?
Just hearing them was enough to make one retch from the burden.
Without paying that any mind, Hoyeol added.
—“However, if there is someone you may trust.”
The Empress repeated to Joan the words Hoyeol had left after that.
“You may trust the one who doubts me for your sake……”
“……
Your Majesty? What do you mean all of a sudden?”
“No. It is nothing, Joan.”
The Empress looked at Joan, who was clearly flustered.
Her mind must be complicated as well.
She had run to the detached chamber out of concern for the safety of the Empress and the prince.
Only to hear that the one she feared most had already come and gone.
But the Empress was confused as well.
‘Adventurer, that is the first time in my life I have ever heard such advice.’
To trust, rather, the one who doubts you?
In other words.
It meant that Hoyeol, the adventurer, had not the slightest interest in the throne of emperor. Since the prince had not been recognized as the crown prince, until such a prince came of age. As the Empress, she was to fill the emperor’s absence.
Suddenly, she remembered something the Emperor had said in passing.
—“A true monarch, I feel, is what one would call him.”
At the time, she had not understood why he said such a thing……
With a bitter smile on her lips.
The Empress quietly murmured.
“I think I understand a little now why you said those words, Your Majesty.”
*
What is a Black Dark Dragon?
For reference, I am not talking about a Black Flame Dragon.
I am talking about an entirely different Black Dark Dragon……!
According to the dragons, the reason Claudi was called the Black Dark Dragon was exactly as the words meant. Because Claudi was an existence that observed and adjusted the Arcana Continent from the shadows, from behind the scenes.
‘How embarrassing. Truly.’
My tastes back then were really so difficult to say aloud that it was painful. To the point that I only took recommendations for and read manga and novels where the protagonist hid his strength.
‘I no longer know whether that taste was reflected in this or not, but still.’
It was thanks to that troublesome taste.
‘This time, I survived thanks to it.’
Did I not refuse the seat of emperor that I nearly ended up shouldering?
Yes, the emperor, of all things.
Was an openly great position.
I, Lee Hoyeol.
Am a petty commoner who dreamed of a life where I had a lot of money but was not famous.
Now that Arcana has become reality.
Do you think someone like me could welcome the position of Emperor of the Empire……?!
In that sense.
There had never been a time when I was so glad for a dramatic agreement of opinion with Granfell.
“I do not know what I dare say to you.”
Harkon wore an expression that could not be described in words.
It was the reaction of someone who had not even imagined that I would make such a judgment.
“It is true that I am concerned. Whether Her Majesty the Empress can bear the weight of the throne, I mean. However, if that is your judgment, Commander-in-Chief, then I will trust and follow it.”
As I had told the Empress.
I hoped that, in the future, the prince would sit upon the throne.
Because that was the law of the Empire.
Of course, considering the state of the Arcana Continent……
As the prince grew up, I, the great Black Dark Dragon, would have to observe and adjust the Empire knowingly and unknowingly from the shadows, giving aid. Would that not be as exhausting as being emperor? you ask.
‘Even if it’s exhausting, I should be able to let it pass.’
He was five this year, was it?
The prince I met in the detached chamber had cried himself out and fallen asleep.
Yes, everything was because on the face of the prince, young enough that he could not satisfy the conditions of the crown prince.
I had seen the overlap.
My one and only niece, Arang.
‘I’ll just say I gained one more niece or nephew I know.’
Let’s see, considering the time difference.
He will grow four times faster than Arang.
That, at least, is a relief.
After that, I suitably added in Granfellian rhetoric.
Unintentionally.
It felt as though I had loaded the Empress with a tremendous burden……
‘Considering she pointed a dagger at me.’
Still, perhaps she will bravely do well?
I walked through the imperial palace with Harkon, speaking about that.
Harkon let out a laugh.
“Everyone will be wearing awkward expressions.”
“Is that so?”
“I could practically hear their eyeballs rolling. There is no need to mention anyone else, for I, too, had prepared myself for a secret struggle.”
“That is an exceedingly human sight. Not bad.”
“Indeed. Leaving aside their character, when it comes to their hearts for the Empire, they are more sincere than anyone. Those who were not would have changed their minds and left the Empire long ago.”
Harkon’s words were right.
Whether the retainers had thought of me as the new emperor or not.
They must have believed their choice was a decision for the Empire.
‘Just like how the Emperor tried to pass the throne on to me.’
But then and now, what I have to say is the same.
‘Let’s carry our own burdens ourselves, please.’
Reality and Akshan. And the weight of the Claudi family alone are more than enough, enough that I feel like I will be crushed and collapse……! Before long, Harkon and I reached the top floor of the imperial palace.
The imperial palace mage, Nash, who had been waiting, bowed his head.
“I have been waiting for you both.”
“It seems the preparations are complete.”
“They are, Sir Harkon.”
I looked at the soldiers lined up.
Each of them held a horn in hand.
Yes, as if nothing had happened.
The time had come to deliver the sad news to Antonium, where vitality still lingered.
Nash nodded.
“Then we shall raise it.”
Rustle—
When the rope was pulled, the imperial flag rose.
Bwooooo—
Then the sound of horns rang out solemnly.
With this, everyone in Antonium came to know of the Emperor’s passing.
The news would also reach the imperial territories in the midst of restoration.
And that was not all.
‘They will all be drooling.’
The forces that flowed back from the ill omen, of course, demons, and even the monarchs including Liuo Junchun. It would not be strange if any of them took advantage of the Emperor’s vacant seat to inflict harm on the Empire.
As expected, none of them can be called gentlemen, can they?
My vision flickered.
[World Quest: The Usurper’s Justification]
[World Quest: The Age of Magic]
[World Quest: For Chaos]
……
Not only my vision.
Before the eyes of every player.
Dense quest messages must have appeared.
Naturally, players who would be swayed by the quest rewards would appear one after another.
‘It reeks of the days when Arcana was nothing more than a game.’
Would it be an exaggeration to say that the days of the Arcana Continent Chronicle, when people killed and were killed over rewards, were coming again? Though if there was one difference from back then, it was that this time, they truly had to stake their lives.
In that sense.
My struggle began now.
The imperial flag fluttered.
Likewise straightening the fluttering Dawn Jacket, I murmured.
“You said you had prepared yourself for a secret struggle, Harkon.”
“I did, Commander-in-Chief.”
“Perhaps your judgment was correct.”
From the shadows.
From behind the scenes.
As Claudi.
The time had come to adjust the Arcana Continent.
Even if I answered at length about that, would it be anything more than loose talk?
In the end, I finished in Granfellian rhetoric.
“As the infinitely deep darkness, I shall bestow it.”
……
If only I really could not speak!
“The true secret struggle that will cover the Arcana Continent.”