Children of the Holy Emperor

“It seems we overdid it with the spatial leaps.”

How much time had passed? The Holy Emperor, having regained his composure first, sat Seongjin up on the sofa and spoke. By the looks of it, he was in high spirits, intent on giving his son a near-death experience.

“Rest here for a bit until you feel better.”

Seeing the somewhat sullen expression on the Holy Emperor’s face as he said that, Seongjin couldn’t help but chuckle.

“But thanks to that, it was incredibly fun. You saw it too, right? That kraken burning up in flames… Ugh!”

“……”

As expected, a cascade of divine power pours down upon his head once more.

Then, with faltering, feeble steps, the Holy Emperor approached Katrina, who was kneeling at the entrance.

Leaning against her sword with a haggard face, Katrina instantly regained her energy the moment she received his divine power. It seemed this terrible motion sickness was an aftereffect that only affected those who had directly entered and exited the gap.

“Your Majesty!”

Katrina sprang up from her spot and supported the Holy Emperor.

Following behind, Louis awakened and tidied her disheveled clothes, and the attendants also rose one by one.

They were puzzled as to why they had suddenly collapsed, but upon receiving the rare honor of being directly healed by the Holy Emperor’s miracle, they couldn’t hide their delight. The attendants returned to their duties with much lighter steps.

“Emperor Daddy! You’re safe!”

“Your Majesty! What happened? Where is Prince Morres?”

Just then, Amelia and the knight came running to the office, only to be dumbfounded as they too were showered with the Holy Emperor’s divine power.

“Let us head to the banquet hall as is.”

“Yes, I shall escort you, Your Majesty.”

Katrina placed her hand on her chest and bowed her head respectfully.

As the Holy Emperor moved to step into the corridor, he suddenly halted and turned his head to gaze at the terrace. For a moment, a faint silver light flashed in his eyes.

“Did Logan happen to come here?”

“Ah, yes. He came with me but went to the garden, saying he was chasing the assassin.”

At Seongjin’s answer, the Holy Emperor’s brows furrowed slightly.

“…He encountered that person at a bad time.”

“Pardon?”

“Louis. Please prepare extra blankets and fresh warm tea in the office.”

Although puzzled by the sudden order, the experienced chief chamberlain soon bowed his head and obediently replied.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“You all follow me as well. Let the children rest undisturbed.”

Amelia and the knight, who were about to rush towards Seongjin, were caught by the Holy Emperor and dragged back to the banquet hall.

‘Hmm…..’

Seongjin watched them for a moment before closing his eyes. A sense of relief washed over him, knowing everything had been resolved.

Even though the Holy Emperor looked a bit low on energy, the transmitted Aura movements were as calm as ever. It must be due to the motion sickness, and his actual condition wasn’t that bad.

As he was lounging around in the office for a while.

[Lee Seongjin.]

The Demon King muttered.

‘Yeah?’

[The 2nd Prince is outside?]

…What?

Seongjin was startled and sat up. A momentary dizziness hit him, but the nausea had subsided to a tolerable level by now.

‘Seriously, I just can’t sense these Decalon Knights unless I’m on high alert! If he’s back, why isn’t he coming in right away?’

Could it be that he’s dejected after letting the assassin escape?

Grumbling like that, Seongjin walked to the terrace. Rain was pouring into the office through the slightly open window.

“Oh……”

And at the end of the terrace, Seongjin found Logan completely drenched in the rain. For some unfathomable reason, he wasn’t coming inside and just stood there blankly, facing the garden while getting soaked.

Seongjin was astonished.

“You!”

Hey, how could a former Sword Master end up looking like a drowned rat, with all that Aura!

Seongjin dashed over in a single stride and grabbed Logan by the collar. His body temperature had dropped so low that Seongjin’s hand holding his lapel turned chilly.

After dragging the dripping wet Logan to the office sofa, Louis, who had just entered with blankets, was startled and rushed over. Soon, a dry blanket was draped over Logan’s head, and a warm cup of tea was pushed towards him.

In that moment, both Seongjin and Louis realized.

Ah, so that seemingly random order had a reason behind it.

Once the situation was somewhat settled, the perceptive chief chamberlain quietly made himself scarce.

“What on earth happened? Did you lose the guy? No, what’s the big deal about letting one assassin escape?”

“……”

Logan kept his head lowered and remained silent. His fingertips gripping the teacup had turned blue, but the shivering seemed to be due to something other than the cold.

Sensing something unusual, Seongjin waited quietly until Logan spoke in a barely audible voice a moment later.

“…Lee Seongjin.”

“Yeah.”

“I’ve remained a coward to this end. Back then, I shouldn’t have burdened my friends and comrades with everything and closed my eyes so easily.”

“What?”

“I shouldn’t have taken comfort in reality like this, using the excuse that it was inevitable. When I think about what state of mind that young boy must have been in to decide to walk the path of an assassin while I was doing that……”

Logan fell silent again, but from that one remark, Seongjin could infer a great deal.

It seemed the assassin was someone Logan knew in his previous life.

In that case, he must have harbored an intense antipathy towards the Empire, and Logan ended up confronting him as an imperial prince. It was the worst possible situation.

‘No, but still……’

I may not know the detailed circumstances of the Ortona Civil War, but you didn’t die so easily, did you?

Finding it absurd, Seongjin picked up a nearby cushion and threw it at Logan. The cushion hit his head with a thud and fell to the floor, rolling away.

This bastard isn’t even dodging?

Ah, it’s infuriating.

“Hey, Logan! There’s a limit to self-blame. Why are you feeling unnecessary guilt towards the people you risked your life to save? Why? What did that assassin bastard say to you? Being ungrateful has its limits too.”

“…That can’t be helped. To them, I’m just a prince of the enemy nation.”

“Of course, you can’t reveal your true identity to them. But you see, what wrong did ‘Logan’ of Delcros do to them? You weren’t even born at the time of the civil war, dude! Is the Ortona Civil War your fault?”

“But still……”

“On top of that, you diligently hunted Sea Demons for the sake of your compatriots! Do you think just anyone can consistently manage troops like that? It’s all possible because you’re an imperial prince! How many lives have you saved with your own hands? If you realize that, you should be more confident in yourself!”

As the second cushion came flying, this time Logan slightly moved his body to avoid it.

“Even if I saved their lives, their miserable situation remains unchanged.”

“But you already gave your life! Then what more do you think you should have done back then?!”

“……”

Logan lifted his head and looked at the fuming Seongjin with slightly surprised eyes. Then, he soon crinkled the corners of his eyes. It was a smile that seemed somehow hazy and sorrowful.

“When we resolved to fight to the end on that plain, can you imagine the weight that was forcibly placed upon the people who were compelled to survive?”

Seongjin thought with a disgruntled expression.

I don’t know about that. I’ve never tried to preserve myself for the sake of the future in the first place.

“As the tide of war turned irrevocably against us, Benicio and I shared many conversations over drinks. And the conclusion we finally reached together was that it would take much longer than we thought for republicanism to blossom on this continent. Without slowly changing perceptions from within the Empire over generations, there would be no future for this continent. A hundred years… No, it might even take several times that long.”

“……”

“Yeah. I’ll be honest with you, Lee Seongjin. When I died at the hands of Commander Silas, I was actually deeply relieved. An undertaking that could take centuries, who could easily shoulder that? I had no confidence in silently walking through that endless dark tunnel forever.”

Setting the teacup down on the table with a clink, Logan rubbed his face with both hands and continued.

“I passed that heavy burden onto Benicio and died carefree. Consoling myself that I had done my best. How utterly cowardly of me, right?”

And after running away through death like that, what did he do when he gained life again?

Rationalizing that there were limits to what he could do as a prince of the enemy nation and that he couldn’t betray his newfound family. He just wandered meaninglessly outside the Empire.

But now, Logan had come to a clear realization.

The reason he had been so busy hunting Sea Demons without a moment to think. The reason he hadn’t searched for Benicio and his companions more actively.

“I thought I would do anything for my homeland. I was determined to help from behind the scenes, concealing my identity. But you see……”

“……”

“I was just running away. Simply afraid of the cold gazes I would receive from them, I couldn’t bring myself to take the shortcut even though I knew it. I thought I could endure any stigma, but in reality, I wasn’t prepared to properly face any of my former comrades.”

Seongjin’s eyebrows twitched.

This guy is starting to dig a hole with no end in sight.

“Oh, is that so?”

Pretending to change the blanket, Seongjin approached Logan and pulled the blanket over his head, then performed a headlock with all the brotherly love he could muster.

“Ack! Hey! Lee Seongjin!”

So, how’s that? This is the technique of hunter Lee Seongjin, who could snap the legs of a Blatta Mantis in an instant!

While Logan struggled under the blanket, unable to bring himself to use Aura to break free, Seongjin’s eyes gradually turned fierce as he glared towards the terrace.

What kind of bastard is he? Just who the hell touched this poor guy?

If I ever meet him, I won’t let him off easy!

***

“Achoo!”

Guild’s Capital Central Branch.

Greta, the Capital Branch Chief, clicked her tongue as she watched Enrique constantly sneezing.

“What on earth were you doing, coming back completely drenched like that? Today isn’t even a regular reporting day, so why did you enter the Imperial Palace?”

“Isn’t it the birthday banquet? It’s a once-a-year event, so unexpected variables could arise. Fortunately, I had good luck today. There was an interesting occurrence at the main palace.”

“An interesting occurrence?”

“Yes. A phenomenon similar to when he entered the prayer room appeared in the office today. The headache was so severe that it was difficult to approach recklessly. It might be a clue to finding his weakness.”

“……”

Greta offered a dry towel and gazed at the young man’s stubborn face for a moment.

“…Kike.”

“It’s No. 21.”

“Right, No. 21.”

Then, she quietly sighed and asked.

“Isn’t it time you let go of that anger now?”

Enrique looked at her with an incredulous expression.

“How can you say that? Aren’t you a compatriot who fled Ortona together?”

“Yes. That’s right.”

Known as a prodigy since her academy days, she had thrown herself into the Republican cause with youthful passion. As a member of the Republican faction’s staff, she had strived to the end to overcome the desperate situation.

In the end, on General Gale’s orders, she had been tasked with evacuating Prince Benicio and his son Kike to the Empire.

That connection of seeking refuge with the Astros Mercenary Corps led her to take on a key position in the guild.

Therefore, it wasn’t that she couldn’t understand Enrique’s feelings.

How much had he relied on and followed the mercenary corps’ ‘Bart’ since childhood? To the point where it seemed he regarded him as his protector even more than his father, Prince Benicio.

But later, it was revealed that he was the prince of Delcross who had brought ruin to their homeland. How could words even begin to describe the betrayal young Kike felt towards him at that time?

The problem was that the Holy Emperor, who used to kindly answer Kike’s questions, became excessively tight-lipped around that time. He offered no excuses or explanations for inheriting the throne.

Thus, the relationship between the two deepened into a rift, and Kike, who started training to become an assassin, now repeatedly aimed for the Holy Emperor’s life by his side.

However, those who had worked in the guild for a long time had noticed.

The Holy Emperor quietly let the intelligence agent, who occasionally couldn’t hide his murderous intent, be and had him investigate this and that about the continent’s situation under the guise of missions, essentially educating him.

To him, Kike was still that child who needed to be looked after, just like when they first met.

“Kike. There are some major conspiracies brewing beneath the surface of the continent right now.”

Rubbing her eye wrinkles that had started to crease with the passage of time, Greta spoke.

Initially, she too had burned with immense anger towards the enemy of her homeland, but working together for such a long time naturally led to certain realizations.

“Major conspiracies?”

“Yes.”

The branch chief’s eyes shone with gravity as she faced the young man’s defiant expression.

“Without maintaining even this irrational form of the Empire, we might not be able to handle the enormous things that could soon……”

What the eyes of the wise woman who had nurtured the guild for many years saw.

It was none other than the signs of a massive approaching storm.