WeTried Translations
Translator: Hydrogen B
Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 179: The Red Banquet (18)
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Kyle reflexively tightened his grip on the sword hilt. The thing wearing Philip's face watched him with interest.
Who is this?
It was someone else. The man before him was not Philip Merkan, King of Russel. Kyle struggled to suppress Prisia's mana and remain as calm as possible.
It wasn't easy.
His instincts were sounding the alarm. This felt different from Cassius Mortein, Commander of the Celestial Knights. Cassius had been a visible disaster, while the thing before him was a bottomless abyss with no end in sight. Prisia's power raced wildly through his veins, like water and oil that could never mix.
Don't tell me.
“Emperor Leonis...”
Kyle muttered without realizing it. The thing wearing Philip's face still had a smile on its lips.
“No. The First Emperor.”
“.......”
“Am I wrong?”
At Kyle's confident question, the thing's amusement deepened. Its bright red eyes glinted in the scarlet glow of the Magic Stone lantern. The Emperor, temporarily wearing Philip's body, examined every inch of Kyle from his fingertips to his toes.
For an instant, Kyle felt as though insects were crawling all over his body.
“It seems your assimilation with Prisia is complete.”
“.......”
“Last descendant of the Dragon, do you also glimpse the future to come?”
The Emperor spoke. It was Philip's voice, yet the pressure behind it was on another level.
“Glimpse the future?”
Kyle answered through clenched teeth. The Emperor let out a soft laugh.
“There's no need to pretend you don't know. The Progenitor Dragon Prisia's Authority is time. Unlike me, Prisia can see far into the future. Your arrival in this world, where you never should have existed, and the Dragon Heart passing through thousands of years before finally falling into your hands. It was all Prisia's arrangement. It was one possibility among countless others I could not see.”
“What...?”
“Do you still think all of this was a coincidence?”
Kyle couldn't answer at once. No, he couldn't answer at all. Countless thoughts swept through his mind as everything that had happened flashed before his eyes like a panorama.
The first time he killed someone after falling into this world. The time he met Yurian and Rowen, then received a second life in the north. The more than three years he wandered after losing everything. Then, after meeting Elysia, the Imperial Princess, he had ultimately failed to complete her request and ended up here.
Had it all begun with Prisia?
“You... who are you?”
Kyle finally forced out the question, his voice trembling.
“I am a fragment born at the beginning. A piece of the Progenitor Dragon Prisia.”
The Emperor continued calmly.
“Prisia and I were originally one. We were born from a single existence. Like the other side of a mirror. Like a shadow cast where light has been engraved.”
“You're... the same kind of being as Prisia?”
“Did you not know? It should have been recorded in Alfred Lucent's research journal. Though unstable, I can also use some of the same Authority as Prisia. More precisely, I don't directly see the future. I sense it.”
“So you're just a leftover.”
Kyle mocked him bluntly. The Emperor smiled without a sound.
“I won't deny it. But even leftovers have their own ways. Just as the mana of Prisia flowing through your body was once subordinate to me. I am not bound by the limits of the flesh. The ability to transfer and take over consciousness is an Authority granted to me alone.”
He raised Philip's right arm. Blood Philip had vomited only moments ago clung thickly to its grimy fingers. The shackles and chains hanging from the wrist rattled as the Emperor sharply twisted his right hand.
His forearm tore free from the wrist.
“This kind of body... is nothing more than a disposable tool to me.”
Drip. Drip.
Bright red blood and chunks of flesh fell to the floor. Even so, the Emperor didn't so much as twitch an eyebrow.
“Is that answer enough for you?”
He looked up at Kyle with blood-red eyes. Kyle showed no reaction. He only assessed the situation, searching for any way to increase his chances of killing the Emperor.
The Emperor's consciousness is connected to Philip's body right now.
If I forcibly sever that connection...
“It's pointless. Even if you kill this body here, you cannot reach me.”
As though he had seen through Kyle's silent thoughts, the Emperor spoke carelessly. Kyle readjusted his grip on the sword hilt.
“Then why have you appeared before me now?”
“Because there was a need.”
“You watched without lifting a finger during the Northern War. Have you changed your mind now?”
“Yes.”
The Emperor readily admitted it.
“Why?”
“I realized there was no need to leave the easy path and take the difficult one. Come to me, Blue Wolf. Then I will give you everything you desire. Wealth, power, honor. If you wish, even more than that.”
“.......”
“Were you not the one who wished more than anyone for the dead to return?”
The Emperor sneered. For a moment, Kyle felt an overwhelming urge to swing his sword.
The resurrection of the dead.
For the three years he spent in the south before meeting Elysia, it had been the goal and illusion he pursued blindly while wasting his days in numb routine. Back then, Kyle had searched for resurrection spells even while knowing they were impossible, simply to force himself to keep living.
Only after meeting Lena and facing Gerard, an elder of the Lenore Magic Tower, had he finally let go of that lingering attachment.
“Not anymore.”
Perhaps he had once been like that. Not now.
“They wouldn't truly be alive anyway. Even Prisia cannot directly turn back time. There's no way someone like you can do it.”
“Yet you hesitated just now. Did you not still have some attachment to that faint possibility?”
“.......”
“You need not deny yourself. You need not feel ashamed. I will accept you. I will embrace every part of you, including your negative side.”
“Why... do you do this?”
Instead of answering, Kyle asked on a sudden impulse. The Emperor, whose arm continued to bleed from the torn wrist, tilted his head expressionlessly.
“What do you mean?”
“Invading the north. Killing my family. No, the massacres committed even before that in the name of wars of conquest. Why did you do it? Why were you never satisfied? Was founding the Empire still not enough for you?”
“Ah, that's what you meant.”
The Emperor giggled like an innocent child.
“Because that is my reason for living.”
Kyle was left speechless for a moment. For the first time, emotion entered those scarlet eyes, which had been empty and without feeling despite the smile on his lips.
“What... did you say...?”
“I breathe to live. I eat to live. I sleep to live.”
“.......”
“To me, war and slaughter are no different from those things. The pain of others and the sound of their screams are why I live. They are instinctive acts of survival, and war and slaughter are merely extensions of them. Without them, I cannot live. I have no reason to live.”
“You...”
Kyle roughly tightened his grip on Yurian's sword. Prisia's mana, rising unconsciously, wrapped around his entire body more fiercely than ever before.
“What a shame.”
The Emperor sighed. Yet there was neither fear nor dread in his eyes as he watched Kyle. There was only curiosity toward something interesting, along with a little amusement.
Crack!
Yurian's sword came down in an instant, cutting through Philip's shoulder and reaching the center of his chest. The sickening sound of breaking bones echoed through the room.
Yet the Emperor smiled instead.
Looking up at Kyle, he let out a faint breath.
“Why... are you so angry?”
“.......”
“Anger will not help you.”
“No.”
Kyle cut him off, spitting out the words as if he were chewing them.
“At the very least, it will become the fuel that destroys you and the Empire. It won't be long before the day we face each other directly.”
“...I look forward to it.”
Kyle pulled out the sword that had shattered Philip's ribs and passed through his heart. Philip's body, its eyes dyed red, collapsed limply to the floor.
Until the final moment before his consciousness was severed, the Emperor stared directly at Kyle. Yet a few seconds after Kyle withdrew his sword, the strange light vanished from Philip's pupils.
All that remained was Philip's corpse and the stench of blood that filled the air.
Kyle stood alone, staring blankly down at it all for a long while.
* * *
Once he confirmed that Philip was dead, Kyle went straight to Adrian. Even when Adrian saw Kyle covered in blood, he didn't rebuke him.
“You've done well. Go get some rest.”
That was all he said.
Had he expected this outcome from the moment Kyle took charge of the interrogation? Without mentioning the Emperor, Kyle simply gave a slight nod and returned to his room.
After that, the same monotonous days repeated themselves. While Kyle rested, Adrian and the hardliners were busy bringing order to the chaotic Federation. The existing Crown Prince succeeded the King of Selaine without issue, while Philip, the dead King of Russel, had his death disguised as a tragic accident.
None of the nobles believed it, but the Federation's citizens continued their ordinary lives. Information had been tightly controlled.
Then winter fully passed, and spring arrived.
“We'll be leaving soon... Are you all right?”
Kyle silently nodded at Walter's question. The veteran knight of the Knights of Ash leaned against the open doorway.
“Have you packed everything?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I'll go on ahead, so come out when you're ready. Don't take too long.”
Walter turned away. Kyle watched the place where he had disappeared for a moment, then looked back.
The room he had stayed in for nearly a month stretched out before him. When he first arrived, it had been a guest room without any sign of life. Before he knew it, traces of Kyle's presence had settled throughout it.
Spring, huh.
Kyle gave the teacup on the table one last glance before leaving the room. As he hurried down the hallway, the familiar servants lowered their heads slightly when they saw him.
Outside, Hermann, Walter, and the other Ash Knights were already preparing to leave. Kyle received his horse from the stablehand. Several bulging Inventory Pouches, already packed with food, money, and other supplies, were fastened to its saddle.
Kyle was checking the supplies one last time while stroking the horse's mane when he heard a voice nearby.
“Leaving already?”
It was Adrian.
Kyle turned to look at him.
“I've finished what I needed to do here, so it's time for me to leave.”
“If that is your decision, Sir Kyle, then so be it. I won't stop you.”
“How is the situation at the front?”
“As I said before, it is neither good nor bad. It is a drawn-out standoff.”
“Neither side will be able to move easily for a while, then.”
“That's right. Thanks to that, the north won't come under attack. Unless the Emperor has gone mad, he won't strike at you as you head north. The moment he redirects the wyvern knights from the front, his own homeland will be at risk.”
The Empire was not invincible. It may have possessed the greatest national strength of any single country, but it still had limits.
Its military had been badly worn down by the wars it had fought one after another since the Northern War. The number of wyvern knights in particular had dwindled. There were likely only a little more than half as many as there had been at the height of its power.
Training Wyverns required astronomical amounts of time and money.
“What about support for the north?”
Kyle asked Adrian again.
“The council's internal affairs have mostly been settled, so it will be approved soon. The exact scale has not been decided, but it won't be small.”
“I see.”
As if by prior agreement, the two turned to look behind them. Eight knights were inspecting their horses near the main gate.
They were all surviving Ash Knights.
It was a pitiful number compared to the past, but every one of them was precious to Kyle. They were a force that could destroy the Empire, and they were family who shared the same memories.
“For now, I have done everything I can. It is temporary, but you should not lack anything for a while.”
Adrian nodded toward the several Inventory Pouches tied to Kyle's saddle. The pouches the Grand Duke had personally prepared contained countless Gold Coins, top-grade Magic Stones, and food.
“I intend to send further support after the council is reorganized and the north has stabilized to some extent, but...”
“Until then, we'll have to deal with the traitors.”
“Can eight men do that? No, nine? If you wish, I can assign a few knights to you.”
Kyle shook his head.
Whether they were the Grand Duke's knights or Council Knights from the Chevaliers, he didn't want to involve outsiders in his family's affairs. More than anything, eight Ash Knights were enough to seize most large cities. Besides, there would still be people in the north who had not betrayed them.
“I see. That was a pointless question.”
Adrian smiled gently. Before leaving, Kyle spoke as if he had suddenly remembered something.
“Please give Count Perian my regards.”
Gilbert Perian. Grand Duke Rivelius's closest confidant and most loyal vassal.
“Gilbert? Of course. When you have time, come visit Rier. I will give you a proper welcome.”
“No. The next person to come to Rier will not be me.”
“Then who will it be?”
“Elysia.”
Adrian suddenly stood there with his mouth open. His shoulders trembled for a brief moment.
“Elysia is...”
“She will be alive. The request she gave me is not over yet.”
“.......”
“I'll be going now.”
Leaving those words behind, Kyle swung himself onto his horse. When he took hold of the reins and pulled them, his black cloak stirred faintly as the horse turned.
The nine knights left the estate through the open gate.
Every one of them wore a determined expression. Adrian and the servants of the estate silently saw the departing knights off.
The sun overhead continued to climb higher.
Footnotes:
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