Children of the Holy Emperor

*Plunk.*

A small stone creates ripples upon the tranquil surface of the water.

Seongjin was squatting at the shallow lakeside, watching the circular ripples spread outward. Every so often, his hand, still that of a small child, would pick up a pebble from around his feet and plop it into the lake.

Strangely, the scenery, faded into a shade of gray, seemed unreal.

It was a situation he had experienced before.

So, this is inside a dream, right? If that’s the case, could this be another memory of Morres?

Once he became aware, the sullen feelings of the child sitting with his chin on his knees transmitted directly to him. The child was very angry, but more than that, he was sad, and so he clenched his mouth tightly to keep from crying.

*Rustle.*

Then, from ahead, the bushes moved and a little boy stepped out.

He must have been around seven years old. The round head covered with fine black hair resembled someone Seongjin knew well.

“Why are you here like this? The time for swordsmanship class has long passed.”

As the boy approached with concern, Seongjin—or rather, the child—responded with a sharp and petulant retort.

“Go away, Logan! I’m not going to classes anymore!”

“Why? You like swordsmanship, don’t you? Let’s go. Commander Bruno is waiting.”

“I don’t like it! I’ve had enough, so you go ahead and enjoy!”

The child was showing a particularly irritable reaction.

However, Seongjin couldn’t blame Morres, feeling vividly the child’s imminent tears being forcibly held back.

“…”

Surprisingly, the boy of a similar age seemed to have noticed this as well. After hesitantly lingering around, he carefully approached Morres.

“Did Lady Lizabeth have something to say to you again?”

The corners of Morres’s tightly closed mouth began to tremble slightly.

Eventually, unable to hold back, the child buried his head between his knees and hunched over. Seongjin felt a twinge of sadness as he sensed the child’s trouser legs getting damp.

Morres did not make a sound; he just shed tears.

But Seongjin could vividly hear the voice mixed with sobs that the child was repeating internally.

“I’ve ruined all of Mama’s dreams.”

“It’s because I… can’t do it like you, because I don’t resemble Papa.”

“That’s why she gets angry every time she sees me.”

“She hates me so much…”

After listening to the sniffling for a while, the boy quietly sat down next to the child, squatting in the direction overlooking the lake.

“Hmm…”

The boy seemed to ponder as he looked at the surface of the water, as if he was choosing his words carefully.

It appeared he had some inkling of the words Morres had swallowed.

“Morres.”

As the time seemed to pass and Morres appeared to have calmed down a bit, the boy softly called out his name.

“I’ll only tell you this little secret. It’s a secret nobody else knows.”

When the child lifted his reddened eyes to meet Logan’s gaze, Logan gave him a gentle smile. Perhaps it was the slightly droopy corners of his eyes that made his smile seem somewhat sorrowful.

“The truth is, it’s not my first time learning to wield aura. It looks like I’m good because I’ve had lessons before.”

“You’ve learned it before? When?”

“Well… The truth is….”

* * *

“…So, the truth is, what?”

Seongjin blinked with a still dazed consciousness.

A single tear rolled down the corner of his eye unwittingly, as if he had sympathized with Morres’s emotions in his dream.

So, it’s all well and good to show memories, but why does the dream have to end at the most crucial moment? It’s as if I’ve seen nothing at all.

So, what is the truth?

Feeling somewhat wronged, he glared at the canopy of the ceiling when a flustered voice rang out in his head.

[Ack! You’ve come to? Hey! Are you alright?]

What’s with all this fuss now?

[Oh my! Hey, man! I thought you were really dead! Who charges so recklessly with their entire body like that?]

“Uh….”

It was then that the events before he lost consciousness slowly began to come back to Seongjin.

The attack of the monsters. The gate. The rampage of Pavo Nephila. The old man who died….

It was an unprecedented chaos.

He had thought it was quiet today at Pearl Palace where the birds usually cried, but now he realized it was the middle of the night. Seongjin had been sleeping since the daytime disturbance and had just come to his senses.

“So what happened to the spiderling? And the gate?”

Seongjin asked the Demon King, but he wasn’t really worried. He was certain that he had felt the core of the spider creature shatter completely in the end.

The gate? The monsters? Surely, the Demon King would have taken care of them effortlessly.

Wasn’t the fact that Seongjin was lying safely in Pearl Palace evidence enough?

[I knew of your tendency to charge headfirst without thinking ahead, but this time, really! Wow… In that brief moment, you really looked…]

Ignoring Seongjin’s question, the Demon King mumbled on as if ranting to himself. Seeing Seongjin’s expression grow ominous, he hastily became alarmed and began to explain what had happened.

When the Demon King had descended underground, there was a small gate opened in the underground corridor, and through it, spider, wasp, and ant-like monsters were emerging.

The monsters had attacked the underground prison and were feasting on the Lophellum eggs in the chests of the prisoners, turning the jail into complete chaos.

Wait, Lophellum eggs?

[Yeah. Most of the prisoners confined in the Heresy Tribunal’s prison had eggs within them. They were mostly alive, seemingly implanted recently.]

Seongjin’s expression turned grave.

Just as he had suspected, it seemed that the Academy students had indeed had eggs planted in them by the Heresy Tribunal. There was someone there indiscriminately implanting monster eggs into prisoners who had no one to look after them.

The Demon King continued to explain.

It was clear that Priest Hayes had opened that gate. However, by the time when the Demon King had descended, Hayes had already been killed by the hand of the Holy Emperor, making it impossible to know now how he had opened it.

And after that, the Holy Emperor himself closed the gate and swept away all the monsters underground in an instant.

[I have never seen anything like it. Your father crumpled the gate with one hand, just like crushing it to nothing. Even I, the Ruler of Gehenna, can’t simply squash distorted space in such a way.]

The Demon King’s soul shuddered as if recalling that moment. Seongjin also felt a chill.

Could a gate be closed so easily? Just how far do that man’s limits reach?

[And from a distance, without even touching them, he burst all the little monsters into pieces. I can’t even begin to guess how he did it. You should have seen it…[

“Um…”

Seongjin swallowed a groan.

Was it really unnecessary for him to have recklessly fought the spider creature?

If he had just temporarily retreated and waited, it felt like that man would have appeared and easily settled everything.

[And when your father came up to the surface, to describe what state you were in…]

The Demon King’s description of Seongjin’s condition was far more serious than he had anticipated.

He had intracranial hemorrhage and widespread necrosis of the muscles throughout his body. The fractures and scratches were just extras.

Without the Holy Emperor’s divine power, those would have been injuries that either slowly led to death or, even if he survived, would have resulted in severe disability.

The Holy Emperor’s cool silver-gray eyes unconsciously came to mind, and Seongjin broke out in cold sweat.

Only now does the fear of repercussions begin to dawn on him.

He had received a stern warning not to cause trouble, yet it hadn’t been long before he was left half-dead again. How was he going to face that man now?

And then there was Sir Masain… what would be his reaction…

“Ah… maybe I should just never wake up.”

Seongjin cradled his head and burrowed into his bed. The uncomfortable dream he had earlier was long forgotten.

Fortunately, his escape from reality did not last long.

[Seongjin, it’s that woman.]

Before the Demon King could warn him, Seongjin, already familiar with the aura of concealment, slowly got up and sat down on the bed. Soon, as always, the terrace window opened, and a slender figure dressed in black infiltrative clothing entered the room without a sound.

Dasha, catching sight of Seongjin watching her enter, flinched for a moment, then approached him with a sigh, as if her recently bruised pride was slow to recover.

“Yes, I must be the fool for thinking I could succeed in sneaking in this time.”

She sat down on the sofa opposite the bed and smiled.

“I heard you were badly injured, but fortunately, you seem to be fine.”

“Dasha, you really know everything.”

“It’s not just me. Everyone knows. Rumors are already all over the capital that the brave young prince has caught a giant monster alone, undeterred by his injuries, for the sake of the capital’s citizens.”

Had such rumors spread?

Seongjin had never taken the lead for the sake of the capital’s citizens, nor had he caught the monster alone.

“The city was in turmoil due to the monster disturbance during the day.”

It seemed like one of the swiftly spread tales to quickly settle the people’s hearts. Perhaps this would have a positive impact on Morres’ reputation, which was at rock bottom?

Dasha briefly explained to Seongjin the day’s events.

The numerous gourd wasp monsters that had flown into the city scattered here and there, attacking the people. It was mostly those who lived in slums or remote areas.

As a result, it took the knights a while to catch all the monsters, as they had to split into teams and disperse throughout the capital.

Somehow, it made him think that all of them were suffering from the gray plague.

Sure enough, Dasha confirmed his suspicion.

“Strangely, all those attacked by the monsters died with their chests torn open. The capital guard confirmed that parts of the corpses’ skin had turned gray.”

Seongjin suddenly remembered what the Demon King had said during the day.

—[I’ve figured it out now! I know what the commonality is among the gathered monsters!] (Chapter 90)

Could it be that these creatures’ common trait was feasting on the eggs of Lophellum?

The Demon King answered Seongjin’s question.

[It’s a bit different. The eggs that spiders, ants, and wasps commonly favor are, in fact, separate.]

He said it was the egg of a butterfly, rare even in the demon world, a delicacy that most monsters who feast on eggs would die for.

But why had Seongjin never seen such a butterfly monster during all those years?

[They’re channelers. If they sense danger, they’ll flee to a completely different dimension.]

It seems that Gehenna, which was in the midst of a war with the Sigurd 34th District, was seen as a dangerous area to live in by these creatures.

[The problem is that the smell of the Lophellum’s eggs before death becomes very similar to that of the butterfly’s eggs. It seems they attract insectoid monsters to be eaten in that manner, but I don’t know the reason either. It might have something to do with another lifecycle I’m not aware of.]

So, it seems the Lophellum’s eggs were releasing a strong scent to lure insect-type monsters when suddenly, a gate opened. This explains why insectoid monsters were crazily jumping out.

But why did that priest named Hayes suddenly open the gate? Could it be that he was also the one who planted the Lophellum’s eggs?

Seongjin pondered for a moment but nothing came to mind.

The purpose of planting the eggs and the reason for opening the gate remained unknown.

Seongjin decided to do what he could for now.

“Dasha, could I ask you to investigate?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Dasha’s turquoise eyes began to twinkle.

Seongjin had only met her a few times, but he was gradually getting to understand her.

Whenever Dasha became curious or saw something interesting, she couldn’t hide her excited expression. It seemed that work related to the intelligence department suited her quite well.

“Firstly, about the priest named Hayes who was working at the Heresy Tribunal.”

Oh! Dasha’s face lit up with interest.

“You mean that problematic priest who died today. No problem! There are suspicions that he was a remnant of the Dark Order, and our intelligence department has already started investigating. I will bring you detailed news soon.”

However, the words that followed from Seongjin made even her confident face momentarily lose its composure.

“And about my mother, Queen Lizabeth as well.”