Chapter 286 : Chapter 286
Chapter 286
The old man’s eyes are golden.
His name is Continua Cordis Magnus.
The Great Emperor of the Exalted Millennium Empire.
Even after abdicating, his name still exerts influence over the entire Empire.
He is not a man who should be on this mountain path in the West.
Yet, he appeared suddenly.
As if to prove he is not human.
I am lying down.
It is just after I begged Kerenneus for my life. My father appeared before me as I faced the most miserable moment of my life.
I was lost for words at the face of the flesh and blood I hated more than anyone, the face I thought I would not see until I brought down the Empire.
“Hey, Caseptus!”
Thump, thump.
Another man appeared, pushing through the bushes.
Unusually, he only had half a body.
It was Deballo Debius, who had not yet finished recovering.
Deballo approached, hopping on his only leg.
“I trust you kept my request…….”
Deballo shut his mouth.
He was shocked to the point of fainting upon facing the old man with golden eyes, his master who should not be here.
“……Your Majesty the Great Emperor!?”
Deballo Debius hurriedly lowered his body.
He bowed his head, expressing the utmost respect.
Kerenneus Cansella Caseptus also remained with his head bowed.
Deballo and Kerenneus are the ‘Last General’ and ‘Last Minister’, Man-Gods who have lived for a thousand years. The existence receiving the worship of those two cannot be human.
Great Emperor Continua was proving that he, too, is a Man-God who has lived for a thousand years.
‘Last Emperor’.
The leader of the Hotus Eight Gods.
Continua Great Emperor’s true name.
“You look terrible, Debius.”
“…Yes, I met quite an extraordinary child.”
“Was it fun?”
“It was very fun.”
“Then that is enough.”
Great Emperor Continua nodded.
He had an unusually gentle face today.
Deballo asked cautiously.
“…Um, Your Majesty… what brings you personally all the way here….”
“I came to see my son. Is that not allowed?”
The Great Emperor moved his steps.
“But this is strange.”
He looked down at me from in front of me.
Then he furrowed his brow.
“Is this my son?”
I was in a terrible state.
I was born with fine features and a fair, white face.
I used to hear that I was beautiful often.
However, long fatigue and pain had distorted everything.
Because I was originally white and fine, the distorted state now was even more terrible.
Because the Septem Arcana, the ‘Dragon of Six Horns’, had encroached, more than half of my skin had transformed into black scales.
The flesh touching the black scales had rotted black and oozed discharge, and the inside of my mouth was packed with fangs like those of a dragon.
On top of that, my heart was pierced by the dagger Ashkal leaving a hole, and it was revealed that all I had inside my chest was lies; I had no strength to go on living so I sat collapsed just gasping for breath, yet unable to die, I knelt before my enemy and begged to be spared.
This was me now.
Despite all convictions, will, and sacrifices, it was the shape of a life that had failed in everything and become a shipwreck.
“Caseptus and Debius.”
Great Emperor Continua turned his eyes.
“Why do you not answer? I asked if this is my son.”
“…Oh, Your Majesty. Forgive me. I was out of my mind due to old age.”
The scrawny old man, Kerenneus, took the word.
“This person is Shion. Your Majesty’s son, His Highness Zionis.”
“No.”
Great Emperor Continua asserts.
“This is not my son.”
The Great Emperor looked down at me.
“To me, this is no different from a lump of stone.”
I also looked up at the Great Emperor.
That golden eye color was unfamiliar.
Seven years ago, just after I regressed, it was a face I was seeing for the first time since the day of the Succession War proclamation.
Counting how many times I had seen that face from before the regression until now, today I only saw it four times.
How is this a father-son relationship?
I felt an incomparable disgust at the Great Emperor calling me his son anew.
Perhaps sensing that hatred, the Great Emperor also furrowed his brow.
“No, since a stone does not beg for its life, it might be a little better.”
I wanted to grit my teeth in humiliation.
But I had no strength to grit my teeth, so I just suffered.
“You begged to be spared, Zionis?”
“…….”
“Good. I shall let you live as you wish.”
The Great Emperor turned his steps.
Just as he had appeared suddenly, he seemed about to leave without lingering attachment.
And then, he spoke the name of the Empire’s worst prison.
“Instead, throw him in Kosavagarobira.”
***
The war ended.
***
The Cordis Empire kept its promise.
They obediently withdrew all troops stationed in the West.
And they acknowledged responsibility for all their acts of war and paid sufficient reparations.
However, their national power did not waver in the slightest.
It was because the abdicated Great Emperor Continua disposed of his private property to pay the reparations.
The entire Empire praised the abdicated Great Emperor once again, and Emperor Ferbias ground his teeth.
“We would have been in big trouble if we continued the war!”
In this series of processes, the West keenly realized the difference in power.
It was a war of life or death for the entire West.
For such a war, to pay reparations with the Great Emperor’s personal private property.
“That’s what I’m saying. To pick a fight with a country like that…? Ugh!”
“We were completely deceived.”
People of the West chattered in groups of threes and fives.
Not knowing what had happened, not knowing how a single regressor had lived.
They had no choice but to not know, so they did not know.
That is why it is even more heartless.
“Merion’s Shion, his heroism was excessive!”
“We almost all became slaves and got dragged to the Empire.”
“Let’s not be too harsh. Still, didn’t they say he took responsibility and was escorted to the Empire?”
“Tsk, true, considering 53 years ago, it’s not like we can forgive the Empire either….”
“More importantly, where did they say he went?”
“……Don’t even say it.”
People whisper, filled with fear.
“…It’s there, there….”
“Right, they say he was imprisoned together in the place where only the most terrible sinners are locked up….”
“They say that place touches hell…?”
A name that no one on the entire continent could not know.
But a name they dare not utter.
The continent’s worst prison.
“…Kosavagarobira….”
***
Peace came to the West.
Even a short war leaves scars.
However, the West became one and bound up the wounds.
The help of the massive reparations paid by the Empire was significant.
The peace they enjoyed was what Shion had always wished for.
But Shion is not here.
***
‘Hero and Peace’ arc ends.
***
Next, Verchello’s turn.
***
Serena de Verchello walked down the road holding a pouch full of coins.
Her steps were hurried.
However, she tried not to show it. She joined the long line holding the pouch.
“Next!”
An Imperial soldier shouted fiercely.
They were sorting the people in the long line into two groups.
One was let inside the fortress walls, and the other was beaten and chased away.
The war ended, and the people who had exiled themselves wanted to return to their own countries.
However, some wanted to abandon their own countries and flee to a stronger country.
Because of that, a long line stood like this on the road entering the Cordis Empire.
The Empire was strict, and they were in the middle of thoroughly screening out and chasing away those who were not originally citizens of their country.
‘…It is to screen out people like me.’
Serena felt a slight fear watching the people getting beaten.
Naturally, she was not a Cordis person either.
She was a native of Merion in the Bururade Peninsula of the West.
However, she had to go inside those fortress walls.
She tried to compose herself and moved her steps confidently.
“Next!”
“…….”
“Item to prove your identity!”
Serena carefully presented a brooch and a ring.
They were not originally hers, but things she had received as gifts.
The soldier examined the brooch and ring.
“…Hmm. The brooch is quite a high-quality item.”
“I received it from my late mother.”
“Where is your mother from?”
“It is a fishing village that is ruined now. Called Trite, next to Sillemol.”
“Trite!”
The soldier’s fierce gaze softened for a moment.
If one is a soldier of Hobel Bay, anyone knows the name Trite.
It is because it is the hometown of the Whale of Hobel Bay, Niko Nereyades.
It was also a name one could not possibly know if they were not an Imperial citizen.
“Then what about this ring?”
“…It belongs to my dead husband.”
“I do not know if you are aware, but this is a ring given to a Decurion of the Cordis 11th Legion.”
It means it is the same as the one I have.
The soldier showed his own finger.
As he said, a ring identical to the one Serena handed over was there.
“…I did hear that he was formerly a soldier.”
“Where is your husband?”
“…He died.”
“May I hear what his name is?”
“…….”
Serena moved her lips hesitantly.
The soldier moved his hand to his sword hilt just in case.
However, Serena already had an answer prepared.
“Glossios.”
The soldier opened his eyes wide.
“…Glossios!? Big Brother Gold-toothed Kifkos’s right hand, Sideburns Glossios?”
“His sideburns were indeed bushy.”
“No, no! Sister-in-law!”
The soldier immediately corrected the title he used for Serena.
Then he immediately reddened around the eyes.
It was because the drinks he had gotten from Glossios were not just one or two glasses.
“Glossios, Big Brother Glossios is dead?”
“…….”
Serena nodded with a sad face.
The soldier made a lamentful expression.
“…Ah! I was in his squad when I was a new recruit. He slacked off so much, I thought he would protect his own life by any means necessary….”
“…That’s right, he was that kind of person.”
Serena decided to take it a step further.
“But such a person, on my behalf….”
“Ah!”
“…So first, I must stop by his hometown.”
“…Aaaaaah!”
The soldier’s eyes became sad.
Seeing him shed a single tear without caring about the attention around him, it seemed his sensitivity was quite abundant.
Serena only then let out a sigh of relief.
‘It’s a relief I wasn’t caught being poor at the Imperial language. It was worth practicing with Ms. Ofenia.’
Naturally, since Serena was not an Imperial person, she was not fluent in the Imperial language.
She was merely conversing without giving it away somehow thanks to practicing expected questions and answers like crazy.
‘…If the conversation gets long, the fact that I’m not an Imperial person will be exposed immediately.’
The soldier did not know Serena’s inner thoughts.
He just spoke with tears welling up, thinking Glossios, whom he had known a long time ago, had really died.
“I apologize for not recognizing you, Sister-in-law. Please go in! Quickly!”
“Moduna Decurion.”
It was a sharp voice.
“Who are you to tell her to go in or not?”
“…Uh, Centurion Hempes.”
Moduna whispered to Hempes.
“This person is certainly an Imperial citizen. Why, don’t you know? Big Brother Glossios…. She is his wife.”
“Glossios’s? Ha, he made such a fuss about getting a beautiful wife, looks like he succeeded.”
“But they say he passed away.”
“…Uh. Is that so?”
Hempes’s face hardened instantly.
“Come to think of it, there is money I need to receive from Glossios.”
“…You’re going to collect that, Centurion? Even so, that is a bit, as a human being….”
“I won’t take it, you rascal!”
Hempes shouted at Moduna Decurion’s words.
When the Centurion holding power shouted, the people in the long line all shrank back.
Hempes felt good about that.
“Still, I can’t let her in like this.”
“It was certain when I talked to her.”
“No. We do it according to procedure.”
Hempes growled.
“It’s a mess right now.”
“It’s a mess?”
“Yeah. It’s a total mess because a high-ranking person is coming.”
“A high-ranking person? What kind of high-ranking person?”
“I don’t know either, you rascal!”
Moduna ended up getting hit once.
Why is this guy so clumsy even after eating legion food for over ten years? Hempes huffed.
“Anyway! Thoroughly! Without a single problem! You know the feeling!”
“……Yes.”
Moduna stepped forward, pursing his lips. Moduna asked Hempes.
“Then what should I confirm thoroughly first?”
“Just try continuing the story for now.”
Hempes’s eyes are sharp. Serena tried to hide her tension.
“Mother is from Trite, plus Glossios’s wife. Listening to the story alone, there is nothing strange….”
“There’s nothing strange?”
“The accent bothers me a little.”
Serena almost gasped without realizing it.
It was something she knew herself.
There was no problem understanding the Imperial language, but speaking was still awkward.
“Ask just a few more things. Then we can be sure.”
Serena felt a chill down her spine.