Children of the Holy Emperor

[What do you think? Shall we have a dance as well? Isn’t the first dance important?]

Nom nom. Cardmos, who had been preoccupied with eating, asked Logan, who was standing with his arms crossed.

“Have you lost your mind?”

Of course, he could only turn his head back towards the food while receiving Logan’s contemptuous glare.

[Look at that. Since you’re not dancing the first dance, those young ladies over there are just waiting and watching, aren’t they? Poor things.]

He was right. Not only the guests from Delcross but also those invited from foreign countries, all the young ladies were uniformly casting admiring glances at him.

It’s just that since he hadn’t danced the first dance with a partner yet, they couldn’t rashly ask him to dance and were only sneaking glances at him.

Perhaps Logan was the one receiving the most attention at today’s banquet.

He was a strong candidate for the next Holy Emperor and had been gaining favor from people all across the continent through his diligent subjugation of sea demons.

Considering that many subjugated countries basically held a negative sentiment towards the imperials, it could be considered quite an exceptional case.

However…

“Do you think I would carelessly leave my seat, knowing what kind of trouble you might cause while I’m away dancing? Just ignore it.”

The problem was that his own attitude was so stubbornly unyielding.

[…Anyway, he’s so inflexible.]

Cardmos clicked his tongue.

[Hey, descendant.]

“Don’t arbitrarily call me your descendant.”

Logan’s face was extremely stiff as he gave a rigid reply. Cardmos, who had been observing him carefully for a moment, asked.

[Why are you so angry with me? Despite my appearance, I am the one who drove out the demon tribes from the continent and laid the foundation for a thousand years of the holy empire. Shouldn’t you show at least a bit of respect?]

No matter how reckless Cardmos was, he couldn’t help but be a little concerned about the negative sentiment Logan had been consistently showing from the beginning. He was quite a likable fellow among his descendants, too.

However, Logan’s blue eyes looking at him were coldly sunken.

“Respect, you say? Your expectations are high. What have you done that’s so great?”

[What have I done so wrong?]

“If you’re so curious, I’ll answer you. Judging by how you arbitrarily impersonate the will of the gods and create a saint, it doesn’t seem like you have much faith. Why did you establish such an absurd ideology of ‘fully realizing the kingdom of the gods on this land’ when founding the empire? Thanks to that, the entire continent has been suffering from the empire’s internal interference for a thousand years. Do you even have something called a brain?”

[Hmm…]

He had nothing to say if he was asked like that.

He had merely engraved the mark in advance to make it easier to possess a body, but what could he do if people arbitrarily started to revere it as the reincarnation of a saint?

Well, it’s true that he left it as it was because it was amusing when they misunderstood.

As for the founding ideology, he had entrusted it to the subordinates who had been the main force in founding the nation.

-The more grandiose the ideology, the better!

-Let’s attribute everything to the will of God! So that everyone can easily accept it!

When he left it like that, before he knew it, he had become a demigod who had liberated the continent from the demon tribes according to the will of God.

[Founding a nation is not such an easy task, descendant.]

Cardmos reproached him solemnly.

[Do you know how much suffering humans endured under the power of the demon tribes that had prevailed throughout the continent for thousands of years, from the era of the Three Ancient Dragons to the ‘Primordial Pact’? In order to persuade and drive out those forces and eventually establish a proper nation, various compromises were necessary.]

“Then let’s say that was unavoidable due to the circumstances at the time.”

Logan continued, frowning.

“Anyway, you ruled stably without any major problems for the next 300 years, didn’t you? Couldn’t you have corrected the mistakes and led the empire in a better direction during that time? If that was difficult, you should have at least handed over the imperial throne to a proper successor! Why did you have to appoint such a bloodthirsty lunatic as your successor, plunging the entire continent into turmoil?”

The 2nd Holy Emperor, Remus, was also known by the epithet ‘Blood Emperor.’ Both internally and externally in Delcross, wherever he went, a bloody storm always raged.

The first thing he did as soon as he took the throne was to execute all his blood relatives who had the potential to threaten his position. After that, he mercilessly slaughtered all the subjects who opposed him.

After extensively reorganizing the empire in such a way, he turned his eyes outward and launched a conquest war to subjugate various countries on the continent. In the process, he did not hesitate in the slightest, no matter how much blood was shed.

[That, too, is a misunderstanding. Remus was not originally the type to go that far.]

Cardmos answered with an embarrassed look. As his emotions fluctuated, the golden scale pattern on his forehead shimmered and faded.

[That fellow was quite smart, so I chose him as my successor. It’s just that after inheriting divinity from me, he changed like that as a side effect. What can I do about it?]

“Side effect?”

[Yes. When an ordinary human tries to bear divinity beyond their capacity, they will inevitably develop problems in their body and mind, dying early or going insane. At the very least, Remus had some potential as my descendant, so he stopped at that point.]

Logan, who had become dumbfounded, asked again.

“You passed divinity to him even though you knew that would happen?”

[He desperately wanted it! And it was an unavoidable choice to maintain the empire. Once the country stabilized like that, I thought I could slowly take back the divinity later.]

Cardmos picked up a cookie and continued his excuse that wasn’t really an excuse.

[Even after that, whenever a child with slightly stronger divinity was born, most of them completely lost their emotions. You’re freely criticizing that fellow Remus now, but if you had inherited divinity as strong as his, your situation would have been very different from now.]

He explained that the divinity Cardmos had been slowly reclaiming over the past hundreds of years had already become much fainter, and even that was mostly concentrated in Nate, the current Holy Emperor.

[Rather, your father’s case is extremely exceptional. The unique ability his bloodline possesses can be seen as specialized in observing and regulating oneself from various angles. So, he doesn’t go insane easily and doesn’t lose himself over trivial matters.]

Logan had also heard about the blood of the Cornsheim family flowing through him.

Sometimes, among the elderly high-ranking clergy, there were those who still looked at the imperial family with white eyes for that reason.

[On top of that, his immense sacred power. That sacred power constantly and completely heals his brain and body that might be damaged by divinity.]

Crunch.

Cardmos paused for a moment, chewing on a cookie after saying that much.

[But you know, what about the generations of children in whom that peculiar blood has become diluted?]

Then he turned to look at Logan.

His golden glowing irises narrowed tightly, and his pupils elongated vertically.

[What do you think will happen if a child with diluted blood from that lineage and perhaps not even a shred of sacred power inherits some of that divinity?]

“……”

[Perhaps they will become a monster with not a bit of emotion left, even more vicious and cruel than Remus, who is called the ‘Blood Emperor.’]

The gaze of Cardmos, who had said that, fell upon the siblings who were dancing in full swing.

[So, in order to endure it, they may have to become something other than human. Or they’ll have to use a unique trick like your father. In any case, the process won’t be so smooth.]

“…Then what are you, the founding emperor of the empire who claims to be something other than human?”

Logan, who had been keeping silent for a while, spoke softly.

“You haven’t lost your emotions like them, nor have you been consumed by that divinity. Yet you did nothing even though you knew Remus would become like that. You even did nothing despite knowing full well that he would kill your infant son. And you still claim that you, unlike your descendants, are properly handling that divinity?”

[……]

As Cardmos closed his mouth, Logan’s face contorted. He spat out at Cardmos as if chewing on the words.

“The more I know about you, the worse you truly are.”

***

During the flow of the beautiful melody, Leonard blankly stared at the center of the banquet hall, lost in thought.

‘…This might be tougher than expected.’

The noble lady from Rohan he had brought as his partner kept giving him hints, but his gaze couldn’t leave the dancing siblings.

More precisely, from Princess Amelia, who was gracefully moving across the banquet hall.

Her brightly shining cheeks and fluttering pink hair were filled with the fresh vitality befitting her age.

On the other hand, the red dress hem that smoothly unfurled like petals in sync with her movements was fatally alluring, like a femme fatale from ancient mythology.

She was a woman in whom truly contrasting charms coexisted simultaneously.

“Oh my goodness…”

He couldn’t get the image of that radiant face smiling at him for a moment before leaving with Prince Morres out of his mind.

Yet, her clear gray eyes directed at him were extremely cold.

Where had that pitiful girl who had just fallen in love, whom he had met at last year’s birthday banquet, gone?

“I bragged so much to Romaine before coming here, and now I’m in big trouble.”

The problem was creating a point of contact with the prince, but he hadn’t even thought about the princess from the beginning. It was because he was confident he could make any woman fall for him in an instant.

But that princess now…

Feeling an inexplicable thirst bubbling up from within, Leonard unknowingly tugged at his collar tightly.

Clap, clap, clap, clap.

At some point, the dance had ended, and with loud applause, the music flowing through the banquet hall gently changed.

As he was gulping down drinks one after another with a dejected face, he heard the clicking sound of high heels approaching him.

Leonard, who had absentmindedly turned his head, widened his eyes. Princess Amelia, who had approached him at some point, smiled so radiantly that it made him feel lightheaded.

“Earlier, my brother was rude to you. You are Leonard of Rohan, right?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

When he replied in a slightly hoarse voice, the princess gracefully curved her lips.

“I saw you at last year’s birthday banquet as well, Your Highness. I’m finally making the request I’ve been wanting to make since then.”

A slender hand slowly approached him.

“If it’s alright with you, would you please dance the next song with me?”

Although she was asking shyly, what emanated from her gestures was already the noble dignity of a queen. There was no way he could dare refuse.

Feeling a strange sensation welling up inside, Leonard kissed her hand.

“…Of course. I’ll gladly be your partner. Princess Amelia.”

And he couldn’t help but acknowledge once again what he had been trying to deny.

The fact that he, Leonard, had fallen in love with this beautiful woman at first sight.

When several dance songs had alternated and the banquet atmosphere was at its peak.

Suddenly, the orchestra’s performance stopped as the empress, who had been sitting at the head table, nodded her head.

People who had been laughing and chatting stopped their conversations and turned their gazes towards the front in unison.

In front of the brightly illuminated platform stood Archbishop Wesker. As planned, it was to widely proclaim the existence of the empire’s prized saint to the people of the continent.

“A few years ago, after Saintess Gracia returned to our side once more, she traveled around the country and served the people.”

Her ringing voice echoed throughout the banquet hall even without the amplification of aura.

“And not long ago, another saint came to Delcross in accordance with the will of the gods, which is nothing short of the glory of the empire and the prosperity of the continent! Now, the two saintess will bestow blessings upon all of you who have attended the birthday banquet!”

It was something that had occasionally happened at the birthday banquets of previous Holy Emperors as well.

A simple event that ended with the saint uttering words of blessing and displaying sacred power.

However, the face of Sisle, who was stepping forward to the front of the platform, was unusually stiff with tension.

[Descendant. Has your mind still not changed?]

Cardmos asked while keeping his gaze forward. Sisle nodded and answered.

“No. I’ll do it as planned.”

[Can you handle the repercussions? This will be the first time since the founding of the empire, so it’s unknown how the state church will receive it.]

At that, Sisle bit her lip tightly.

As Cardmos said, this would probably be an unprecedented declaration that would cause a stir.

But didn’t Brother Morres clearly present a solution to her? She had agonized and agonized, but it seemed there was no clearer method than that.

“Yes. I can handle it. So please help me.”

The girl, who had made up her mind, raised her head and slowly took steps forward.

Sisle, receiving everyone’s attention, looked around the crowd with a slightly nervous face and repeatedly recited the words Seongjin had taught her in her mind.

And then.

“It’s truly a beautiful night.”

Her voice, clear and transparent like crystal, unconsciously carried by the aura she had awakened, distinctly pierced people’s ears as if amplified.