Emperor Has Returned

[Why did you……Why have you returned so late, your majesty.]

His voice that was composed from magic, echoed in a low voice, that irritated the hearer.

But listening to this voice, Juan felt right at home.

Lars lifted his head and with his shaking hands felt around Juan’s face.

It appeared Juan’s face didn’t seem familiar to him. Lars soon realised the rudeness of his action as he quickly withdrew his hands.

“It’s alright. Not once did you show an irresponsible side in the past. Do what you want.”

Lars still hesitated aftering this, but slowly he stretched out his hand and gently placed his hand on Juan’s face again.

[It’s a weird feeling, your majesty, knowing that you’re smaller than me. Before, you were like the sky, out of reach.]

“Even I haven’t yet got used to this face. Anyways. It seems you were able to recognise me from the start. The others wouldn’t believe it even if I would tell them I’m the emperor. Some even refused to, even in the face of overwhelming truth.”

Lars had no reply.

Realising that he couldn’t see Lars’s expression, Juan’s feelings turned bitter.

His radiant smile, sheepish grins….. He could do nothing but only let Lars continue to touch his face.

“What exactly happened. I heard you’re……”

A traitor.

Juan didn’t finish the sentence but thought Lars would likely know what he is talking about. Lars’s hands stopped then shook. Juan felt some rage starting to boil from him.

[That’s not the truth, your majesty. The empire is being deceived by the general.]

“General? You mean Vares Valte?”

[Yes. At the time, I sensed a suspicious atmosphere in the empire’s inner circle. From somewhere within a disturbing aura was brewing, its target set on your majesty. I thought it was related to the fissure but…..]

“Fissure?” [1]

One of his old enemies that he never got the chance to finish off.

Juan’s eyebrows furrowed at hearing the unexpected name.

He didn’t expect to hear this name now.

Come to think of it, he would’ve guessed that humanity would’ve fallen to the fissure when he’d died, but surprisingly the empire was doing a good job keeping them at bay.

[Yes. However, I wasn’t all too sure. When I passed on my troubling fears……to my acquaintance, he was also quite concerned. So in the end, we joined forces to look into it more.]

“Acquaintance? Who?”

[It was Dain Dormunt.]

Juan’s face suddenly distorted.

High magician, Dain Dormunt.

He was a teacher and a father to Juan.

But then committed an unforgivable crime just after Juan had ascended to the throne.

Dain endlessly apologised, but Juan simply couldn’t forgive him with that. His fault wasn’t something that could be reversed back.

Anger rose on Juan’s face before slowly subsiding. He understood why Lars had gone to him specifically.

“It doesn’t surprise me that you chose to discuss with him. It would be hard to find someone that knew magic as well as he does. He would’ve taught you magic that I refused to teach…… Anyways. What did you guys find out?”

[That Gared Ga-in, your eldest had plans to harm you.]

Lars hesitated before replying, as he didn’t even want to mention any of this to Juan.

[After finding out, Dain immediately headed to the palace to inform you, while I took the Hugin knights and made my way towards the capital. However, as I was based in the south, it was likely that I would be too late to do anything. So I tried to let Hamon know at least. But……..on the way, the capital’s knights stopped us.”

“Knights from the capital?”

[Yes. I didn’t have any idea why the knights under the General were trying to stop us. So thinking that it may be a misunderstanding, I tried my best to persuade him. However, I wasn’t able to meet Vares Valte that day. So not wanting to simply backoff, I could only draw my sword.]

Then for a moment, Lars went into a silence. Juan had an idea what his silence represented.

[For 4 days, night and day the battle commenced. I didn’t like long fights, nor were my knights used to long drawn out battles. Despite that, we gave it our all. But, on the fourth day we received the word that……..your majesty had already passed.]

“………….I see.”

[Later we heard that you didn’t pass but was critically injured. But my knights had lost the will to fight. Additionally, we were branded as traitors. We had lost our emperor and lost the honor that we had fought for you. Unable to hold out, I decided to round up whatever force that remained and hid in the Laus ranges.]

Finally, Juan started to understand the picture.

He felt that Lars’s words weren’t a lie, but he couldn’t afford to be naive.

If Lars’s story was true, then it looked like the Capital’s knights contributed to his assasination. However, the Capital’s knights main priority was to protect the capital from external forces. It was only natural that they tried to stop the Hugin knights seeing them suddenly move towards the capital.

The Capital’s knights could have not known anything about the assasination.

[There’s something I wanted to ask your majesty. Eldest brother…….No, I mean Gared Ga-in. When I heard that he had assassinated the emperor, I couldn’t believe it. Even when I’d heard that your majesty had passed away, it was still hard to believe. Maybe I thought he was falsely accused just like me…..]

“No, Gared did indeed stab me. I saw it for myself. His hand and his knife stained in my blood. His eyes.”

Lars momentarily went quiet.

Gared was the only relative that Lars found himself getting along with. Gared who was virtuous and considerate.

Acknowledging Gared’s betrayal was difficult on him.

As much as Juan found it difficult.

[Then I’m not sure if the rest did really betray you or not. Regent Hamon Helwin and captain of the imperial guard Yenoa Weaver were executed, Gared Ga-in and Dain Dormunt went missing……Its hard to judge who the real traitors and loyalists are.]

Juan noticed Lars didn’t mention the last of the six apostles that were rumoured to have caused his assasination, but let it slide. He didn’t want to hear his lover’s name at this moment.

“I too find it difficult. Before I came here, I wasn’t sure if you had actually betrayed me or not.”

[Then, has your majesty really returned? For the empire? To get revenge? Also I’m curious to know how you manage to return. It’s certainly conceivable that your majesty was able to beat death but, it’s been so long…..]

“I’m not sure. I really don’t know how I managed to return.”

Juan said truthfully.

“I’m not even sure that I’m really back. In many ways, I’m not the same emperor that many have waited for so long. I’ve lost my power and my mind isn’t what it was. An emperor that claims himself as such but nobody acknowledges, is nothing but a blasphemous maniac.”

[Isn’t that what I am.]

Lars replied in a joking tone.

Juan put his hand on Lars’s skull that had no traces of his older appearance.

Like his outer appearance, Lars seemed different, his mind not like his old self.

However, he was glad at least Lars wasn’t one of those that betrayed him.

“So. What happened to you to look like this?”

Lars was jiggling the Indeterminate polyhedron in his palm with his bony fingers.

Juan saw the Indeterminate polyhedron absorb bits of the gloomy energy that was radiating from Lars.

[………After we fled to the Laus ranges, our order held out the enemy while waiting for an opportunity to strike back. The empire was in a state of anger and loss from losing your majesty, and so were we. But even though we were demoralised and outnumbered we were able to fight back evenly. As you already know, our speciality was defensive warfare.]

Juan smiled.

Juan could imagine enemies pushing deep into Laus mountains, then slowly dying from no water, no food, drying up in virtually a desert like environment.

[However it all changed with the introduction of these Paladins. It was as if……..they had your majesty’s essence in small doses. They called this ‘grace’.]

To his adopted children and a few select, Juan did give share his power for them to use.

That power didn’t make them equal with Juan who had the strength to overcome gods, but it certainly made them transcend over human limits.

It seemed this power endured even though he had died.

[From then on, slowly we saw more defeats than victories. A lot of knights died. We had to find a way to be on equal grounds with these Paladins that was using your majesty’s power. So……that’s when I sought my old connection.]

“Nigrato.”

God of death, who had lost all of his followers and found himself unable to grasp an opportunity to revive.

Lars nodded sturdily.

[Yes. In the past, my body was used as an offering for him, so I was able to drag out his essence that still remained on his altar. Plus your majesty’s power was with me so I was confident that I could contain him. And so, in the end I was able to absorb his strength and had become an incarnation of death.]

Juan lightly sighed.

Many made the same mistake Lars did and was made into an offering that fertilised evil. It appeared Lars also knew what he did was a mistake.

[However, the more I used his strength, his presence inside me kept growing larger. Soon I found myself hearing Nigrato’s voice more than your majesty’s voice. At some point I lost the confidence to suppress him much longer….. and this was when I decided on an assasination attempt on Vares Valte while I still had some form of consciousness left. I could saw with my own eyes that he was destroying the empire that your majesty had worked hard to establish.]

“Right. And then the attempt failed……”

[Yes. After that, I’ve self confined myself to this room so that I wouldn’t use any more power. Except when I’d revive fallen fellow knights of course. You may have seen an undead knight on the way here. They said they would be ashamed to meet the emperor in death when they’d been accused as traitors, so I couldn’t stop myself as I had the same line of thought as them.]

“And that Indeterminate polyhedron……..?”

[It’s to suppress Nigrato’s power. Since Annabelle got it for me, Nigrato’s voice has subsided. It’s quite effective.”

“It’s an item with its origins unknown, Lars. Be Careful not to be overly reliant on it.”

[Yes of course. But right now, I don’t have many options….. If I was to lose control to him, then I would no longer be me and you’ll be seeing someone entirely different. I’m glad that I got the chance to meet you again while I still have control over myself. I still cannot believe that you’ve returned and I’m seeing this.]

Lars went into his pocket and pulled something out. A small box wrapped around silk.

Lars respectfully handed the box over to Juan and lowered his head.

[Your majesty, it’s something that I’ve kept for you. Through the long fights, it was my all to defend this one thing till your return.]

Aftering saying so, Lars slowly opened the box. Juan couldn’t believe his eyes.

Inside was a decorated ring with a Sun and a flaming eagle engraved on it.

The seal of the emperor.

The ring that he had used when sending official documents.

The ring even contained power which could be used to restrict the contents of the letter available only to the sender and the recipient chosen.

“How is this in your possession?”

[Forgive me your majesty. Before everything happened, Hamon asked to keep it safe just in case. I was framed as a traitor because of this, but I never gave up protecting it. There was a time when I thought Hamon had planned this to frame me, but now I’m not much sure about anything.”

Rather than Juan, it was an item that Hamon mostly kept and used for work related to the empire.

In the past, not once Juan had thought this item was something of importance.

Whenever Juan shared this thought to Hamon, he often shook his head with a serious look, branding him foolish.

‘Your majesty. The reason why people follow you isn’t because entirely just because of your strength, but the authority granted to you. Authority isn’t something that everyone has. It’s something that is given by a collection of people’s agreement. And this seal and the crown are the physical representation of their agreement.’

Juan had many things to say to that.

However, Hamon always clicked his tongue and ignored his sentiment.

Juan, who’d just recalled an old memory smiled bitterly as he lifted the ring.

The ring that was made for his finger when he was the emperor, was so big that it didn’t even fit on his thumb.

Hamon who was rather thin never put it on his finger but grabbed it with his fingers when stamping it on documents.

If he’d given this ring that held so much importance to none other than Lars, then it was very likely he had suspected something was about to happen.

“It’s not an item he would have given so that you’d be branded a traitor.”

[Why do you think so, your majesty?]

“Hamon considered this ring like a smaller version of me. No, maybe in some ways he considered it more important than me. If he had ill intent, then he would’ve hid it somewhere in his quarters. The fact that I died in the north and you were based in the south…..I think he was trying to seperate it as much as possible from danger.”

[Danger?]

Juan turned his head towards the north.

“The danger that not only the empire but also the imperial palace could fall into the enemy’s hands. And it seems Hamon’s concern was right on mark.”

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[1] – Yeah, I didn’t know what they were talking about as well lol…… So I had to read ahead. Apparently, there’s a fissure on their northern border that has ‘dangerous things?’, crawling out……I think.