Chapter 237
Chapter 237
Conclusion (1)
The fate of Philip IV, the current Emperor of the Valorn Empire, was now about to be decided. Kairus and Irena restrained Philip IV’s limbs and forced him to kneel on the floor.
“So, how does it feel to make the Emperor of the Empire kneel?”
Although Philip IV was kneeling on the floor, he instead boldly questioned the two of them back. He did not appear greatly shaken.
That was because he knew that if he showed weakness, it would only satisfy Kairus and Irena. However, Kairus possessed a method capable of shaking even the Emperor.
“How dare you act like the Emperor. You’re nothing but a stand-in.”
For a moment, a question mark seemed to appear in the Emperor’s eyes.
Then it quickly changed into an exclamation mark. And an enormous one at that. Rather than surprise, the word horror suited it better.
“You…! Y-You bastard, how dare you!”
Replacing the Emperor. Philip IV completely understood what Kairus meant.
Hand over the imperial seal to a fake, and Kairus would keep hold of the fake’s weakness.
“Your imperial family’s bloodline will end with your generation.”
The imperial family of the Valorn Empire would be replaced by a new bloodline, ‘dirty blood’ completely unrelated to Philip IV.
That meant the end of the current imperial family.
“Even if I die, the bloodline of the imperial family will not end.”
Philip IV had children. If one of them became Emperor, then the bloodline of the current imperial family would continue.
“And yet you still haven’t appointed a Crown Prince.”
In the Valorn Empire, the position of Crown Prince was not automatically inherited by the eldest son. Which imperial prince would be invested as Crown Prince rested entirely under the authority of the current Emperor.
However, Philip IV had still not appointed a Crown Prince.
“While protecting this friend, I happened to hear something interesting.”
Leaning against the wall, Irena smiled as she looked at Philip IV.
“I heard this stand-in had his appearance altered through the procedure, but he’s still a lively young man.”
A young man who had only just turned twenty-five. Yet through the procedure, they had transformed him into a middle-aged man.
“It couldn’t be helped. The results showed that body suffered the fewest side effects from the procedure.”
At the Emperor’s words, the stand-in smiled.
“There’s no need to say it couldn’t be helped. Isn’t me becoming the Emperor also something that couldn’t be helped?”
Now, the stand-in was naturally acting as the Emperor as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“So he’s still in his mid-twenties. Then how many years do you think the stand-in we created can remain on the throne?”
There would be no problem for around thirty years. And with that amount of time—
“It’s enough time for the child this stand-in fathers to grow up and even be appointed Crown Prince.”
When that time came, the stand-in’s newly born child would instead possess legitimacy. Thirty years from now, the children born by the current Emperor would already be entering their fifties and nearing their sixties.
“In fact, most people would probably think your children are too old and unstable even if they ascended the throne.”
Smiling, Irena continued Kairus’s words.
She was not wrong. There had even been real cases where an Emperor lived so long that the Crown Prince was skipped entirely and the Crown Prince’s son became Emperor instead.
And in this case, it would not even be the Crown Prince’s son becoming Emperor. It would simply be the youngest among the imperial princes being invested as Crown Prince, making the matter even easier to handle.
“…”
The Emperor’s expression gradually darkened. No matter how much he thought about it, there was no way to escape this situation. But at the same time, Philip IV also gained a faint glimmer of hope.
‘If they’ve gone this far…’
He imagined that they might not kill him. After going through all this effort to ensure Philip IV would no longer remain Emperor, and replacing the Valorn imperial bloodline with a cheap stand-in.
Naturally, anyone holding a grudge would want to watch Philip IV scream and despair after all this.
‘As long as he’s still breathing somehow, that’s enough.’
Philip IV still had opportunities. Countless opportunities. Even if he ended up half-crippled here, there were still many things he could do.
There were methods and means to make the Empire’s nobles believe he was the real Emperor.
It did not matter even if he lacked the imperial seal. Somehow, he could find a way. If he thought carefully, there had to be a method to prove that the current Emperor was fake and that he himself was the real one.
“Well, now you understand what we’re going to do, right?”
Kairus rose from his seat and slowly drew his sword. And the color instantly drained from Philip IV’s face as he remained lost in his own fantasies.
“N-No way, no way.”
“What do you mean ‘no way’? Did you seriously think you were getting out of here alive?”
Kairus looked at Philip IV with a dumbfounded expression. He had never intended to spare him from the very beginning. The only reason he had dragged Philip IV here was to kill him in front of Irena.
“…”
For a brief moment, Kairus stared at the Emperor’s expression as if savoring it.
“If we search the Imperial Palace, there should be a camera somewhere.”
Kairus intended to take photographs. He needed two pictures. One photograph of the stand-in and the real Emperor standing side by side.
And another photograph of the stand-in together with the real Emperor’s corpse after killing him.
“Go look for one. I’ll guard these two.”
“Yeah, I’ll leave it to you.”
At Irena’s words, Kairus nodded and headed back up to the surface. The Imperial Palace had collapsed into a complete mess, but if he searched carefully enough, he would surely find at least one camera.
After wandering through the Imperial Palace for quite some time while searching, Kairus finally succeeded in finding a camera.
“This should do.”
Taking the camera with him, Kairus returned underground where Irena was waiting.
“Alright, look this way and smile.”
Kairus lined up the two Emperors side by side and snapped a photograph.
And now…
Kairus approached the real Emperor. Since Irena had gagged him, the Emperor could not speak.
“You have no idea how long I’ve waited for this moment.”
At last, everything was finally ending. Slowly, but without hesitation, Kairus thrust his sword into the Emperor’s forehead.
The sensation of flesh tearing, skull cracking apart, and the soft mass inside that head being stirred transmitted vividly through his hand.
He could feel the final struggles of a life going out.
“So this is the death of an Emperor.”
The corpse toppled sideways. His eyes remained wide open, meeting his end unable to acknowledge his own downfall even in his final moment.
In the end, death was disgustingly equal for everyone. Even the death of an Emperor was not much different from the death of a mere commoner.
“…”
With a loud pop and a burst of light, the camera captured the dead Emperor’s body together with the stand-in. With that, everything necessary had been completed.
Once they took the film and developed it later, it could immediately be used as evidence.
“The real one is dead. Now the fake has to become the real one.”
At Kairus’s words, the fake Emperor swallowed hard. For someone who had believed his fate was merely to die in the Emperor’s place as nothing more than a stand-in, an enormous turning point had suddenly arrived.
“You agree, right?”
“If I obey your words properly… then I can remain Emperor forever… is that correct?”
Kairus shrugged.
“Even I don’t know that. But we won’t expose your identity.”
That was more than enough of an answer.
“From this moment onward, I am Philip IV.”
“Good answer.”
Kairus quickly drafted a document before handing it over to the new Philip IV. It was a document containing simple details.
It stated that today, the real Philip IV had died in the underground shelter beneath the Imperial Palace, and that the stand-in previously prepared by the deceased Philip IV was now acting as Emperor.
“Stamp it with the imperial seal.”
Thunk.
With that sound, the imperial seal of the Valorn Empire was stamped onto the document.
As long as Kairus and Irena possessed this document and the photograph containing the two Emperors, this new Philip IV would never be able to oppose them.
No. Rather, he would have no choice but to actively cooperate with whatever Kairus and Irena did. After collecting the document, Kairus took a deep breath and looked toward the stand-in Emperor.
“I’m not planning to demand anything grand. Just don’t interfere with us.”
He had no desire to manipulate the Valorn Empire however he pleased. Honestly, what Kairus truly wanted right now was simply to rest for a while without thinking about anything.
“Once you’ve stabilized your position as Emperor to some extent, stop all pursuit of me and Irena. I’ll give you half a year.”
Kairus knew perfectly well that doing it immediately was impossible. He gave the stand-in Emperor enough time and demanded the complete cessation of every kind of pursuit directed toward himself and Irena.
“Half a year. Understood. I’ll produce the results you want as quickly as possible.”
He had finally become Emperor, only to once again end up beneath someone else. But from the stand-in’s perspective, even this outcome was more than satisfactory.
Even if he worked under someone, the fact that he was Emperor would not change.
“Good. Then all that’s left is dealing with that corpse.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Kairus swiftly swung his sword toward the dead Emperor’s body. A violent wind instantly wrapped around the corpse.
The blade-filled wind shaved away flesh and crushed bones apart. After some time passed, what had once been Philip IV’s corpse had become nothing more than minced meat.
“This way, nobody could possibly think it’s the Emperor’s corpse.”
Everything Kairus needed to do was completely finished. There was no longer any reason to remain in the Imperial Palace.
“Denver Hudson!”
After emerging from the underground shelter, Kairus loudly called out the Guardian of the Nation’s name.
“…What is it?”
Kairus grinned at him and spoke.
“You should go see your wife. I’ll give you a ride.”
The Guardian of the Nation, Denver Hudson, nodded with a slightly awkward expression. Now that the Emperor was dead, Denver Hudson’s time had begun flowing once more.
Liriana would probably awaken from anesthesia in a few hours as well.
“Once we reach Bennett, I’ll arrange passage on a ship. You can head to the Daeyeon Kingdom through the canal.”
“The clinical trial…”
Kairus replied while confidently giving a thumbs-up.
“There’s nothing to worry about. I’ll have everything on my end finished while you’re sailing up the canal.”
Denver Hudson only needed to go together with his wife and participate in the new drug’s clinical trial.
“Can that new medicine really cure my wife?”
“It’s already in Phase 3 clinical trials. You can practically say the effectiveness has already been proven.”
Even if side effects occurred, they would likely just be unexpected complications.
“Most serious side effects can be resolved through procedures. If that situation comes, I’ll pay for the necessary procedure costs as well.”
From Kairus’s perspective, it was quite generous treatment. But there was no reason not to do it. In a way, Denver Hudson had merely been another man whose life had been held hostage by the Emperor.
‘He’s fairly capable too, so it wouldn’t hurt to place him in my debt a little.’
You never knew when a debt like that might become useful later in life.
“…Thank you. I won’t forget this.”
In truth, Denver Hudson understood Kairus’s intentions to some extent as well. But since he needed every bit of help he could get right now, he did not refuse.
“Then let’s fly together.”
Kairus flew back to Bennett City together with Irena and Denver Hudson.
Denver Hudson reunited with Liriana. He planned to remain in Bennett until preparations were complete and passage toward the Daeyeon Kingdom had been secured, and the Operations Committee assisted him.
At long last, everything had been concluded.
To celebrate finishing everything, Kairus, Irena, and Nora drank heavily together. They drank until they were nearly unconscious.
“Ugh…”
The following morning, Kairus opened his eyes and noticed Irena lying beside him completely naked.
Every circumstance before his eyes proved that the two of them had not merely slept peacefully while holding hands.
“Irena, wake up.”
After briefly organizing his thoughts, Kairus woke Irena up, and the two shared breakfast together.
About a week after that day, the two of them came to wear matching rings.