Chapter. 14. One Empire, Three Legends (36)
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“The power of the emperor is not something to be wielded, but something to exist.”
Sarah. Sararak.
A golden sunset streamed in through the majestic throne room windows, and shadows of thorny vine-like things grew and disappeared between them.
A witch’s curse. They seemed to be the embodiment of the witch’s image, constantly growing and crumbling as if they wanted to come in here.
Like choosing words. Or, the emperor, who had remained silent as if extracting the necessary information from among countless answers, finally opened his mouth.
“From the tip of the empire to its center. You’ve reached halfway through the empire. “What was the empire you saw like?”
The empire I saw. The professor thought of all the people he had met on his journey from the Margrave’s territory to here. The head of the family, Alessio Vigilen, cut off his son’s head with a single sword, even though his body had already been stolen by the Vigilen family of the Margrave’s territory.
Many wind wizards we met at Wuthering Heights. Astrad, a wizard with a stiff and nervous appearance, and Gauman, his teacher.
Knights who rushed forward without pay at the emperor’s command. A group of wandering knights who travel around the world and listen to the injustices of their subjects. All of them are knights from nearby families who have surplus manpower, but their prayers are extraordinary, and they still follow the romance and chivalry of knights.
Haunuman. It is a vassal state trying to escape the interference of the empire, and a city of heterogeneous grassland tribes where the culture of the empire and the culture of the grasslands are evenly mixed.
“…Isn’t it peaceful? If you look at it one by one, it is disparate, but everything is tightly connected and harmonious under the name of the empire.”
“….yes.”
“Yeah… it’s peaceful. In the territory right next door, more than half of the territory guards were infected by a race of monsters called Mutts, holding their spears upside down, and the home of a wind wizard that had been around for 100 years was completely destroyed by the monsters. Even though it has been known that large and small battles of Mutation Blood are in progress in most of the territory adjacent to the northern part of the Blue Line, the daily lives of the people of the Empire are just as peaceful as in the past. “It would be foolish.”
Facts from the emperor’s mouth. That was the starting point for the professor to become suspicious of this empire. The Eastern Vigilen Territory would have been destroyed by the invasion of Mute and Blueline Undead if the Professor himself had not stopped it. Since there is letter magic, news is not slow. Even the estate next door seemed not to be responding to the crisis.
Of course, from the perspective of the entire empire, such a calm response is excellent. As chaos spreads, residents become anxious, relocate, and the production of various goods is disrupted. This will soon lead to the weakening of the entire empire, so the ideal situation for the entire empire is for the chaos to be limited to areas where there is military conflict and the rest to do their own thing.
‘In an RTS game, even if all combat units die, worker units must focus on production. ‘But can a person move so mechanically?’
“That is the empire. They are not working for the empire. Just live naturally. “They just act that way because their naturalness is integrated with their deep-rooted worship of the empire.”
“….okay. I see you know up to this point. This is a fact that anyone with clear eyes and ears and who can guess what is ahead and what is behind can fully understand this. Self, saint. You have traveled halfway across the empire to come here, and in that time, you have probably met many people and heard many rumors about the empire. Do you remember what they call me?”
‘What do the people of the empire or the rumor call the emperor?’
The professor desperately recalled his journey so far. Emperor. A story about the emperor. What did you hear? The emperor is the empire and the empire is the emperor? Worship of the emperor? Was there anything else besides that?
“There was.”
Before I could think of an answer, the Emperor’s golden eyes poured the answer out of me.
“It wasn’t there. A trivial story that the speaker didn’t even think about and the listener ignored. A small thorn that seeped into the gaps of the worship engraved deep in their souls from the mouths of my subjects who regarded me as their father, teacher, and executioner. Think about it. “What am I known for?”
In that golden glow, the professor’s memory traced his journey back. Emperor. Emperor. Lion’s Empire. Lion….
“Lazy…. lion?”
[As expected, the name of the Empire of the Lazy Lion….]
[Blessings to the lazy lion!]
Yes. It was definitely there. From Lucilla’s mouth and from the mouths of imperial citizens passing by. They had different names for the empire, both outside and within the empire.
A name that makes one wonder why such a profane name would be placed in front of the name of the empire to an emperor whom one respects.
The Empire of the Lazy Lion.
“Even those outside the empire. Even those within the empire. Not because they were swayed by the atmosphere, but because they actually respected me as if they were their parents, and even those who would jump into the fire pit at my word. “There is no hesitation in calling me a ‘lazy lion.’”
“….why?”
“Because that is the burden that the emperor of the empire must bear. He who becomes emperor shall carry the crown. Even if his neck breaks under the weight, he is the emperor of an empire. I am the emperor of a great empire. Kalesiax Til Agdan IX and master of the empire. “Even a sip of water or a blade of grass on that land belongs to me. This refers to the omnipotent demigod who encompasses everyone who steps on that land.”
“And the mortal soul cannot withstand that divinity. “It is natural that a price must be paid.”
The professor could see. Even as I speak, the vitality in the Emperor’s eyes is fading away. Since he himself announced that he would answer the question with the emperor’s mouth, the answer continues, but his own will to say it before that has already faded away in a golden glow.
“battery. Knowing everything. The soul of a mere mortal cannot endure it, so it falls into a boredom and sloth that is close to a curse. That is the burden placed on the emperor of this empire. Knowledge that was planted as a matter of course in the hearts of all subjects who were part of the empire. An emperor is lazy. That’s why they call me a lazy lion.”
From the booming voice of an emperor commanding the empire to the voice of an old and small man. From a blazing torch to a flickering flame that seems ready to go out. The emperor’s ever-changing voice seemed to speak of his own state.
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The emperor said that he had fallen into a state of laziness that bordered on a curse. Although he looked quite out of breath, the professor did not let go of the tension in his eyes as he looked directly at him.
Although his body looked exhausted, the golden energy surrounding him was still intact.
If the empire is the emperor, it means that the emperor will not fall until the empire falls.
“sloth. That means that this human named Kalesiax Til Agdan IX is divided into ‘Khalesiax’ and ‘Agdan IX’. Because I know everything and understand everything. Nothing in the empire can find its place on its own, so it becomes an endlessly lazy, empty shell. Just like that, Kalesiax disappears and only Emperor Agdan IX remains in its shell. “That is the curse placed on the emperor of this empire whose neck is broken.”
The emperor knew. A fallen saint who barely survived a long time ago has taken up residence in this empire.
Even when she became a member of a small farming family and ate them all, using her power to devour a village, a city, and an entire estate, she knew all about it.
But he just watched without reacting to all of that. That too was accepted by the empire. Because it was brought in.
Everything in the empire was brought in for the empire’s own prosperity, and the emperor who knew this became endlessly lazy because there was no need to do or think about anything. The emperor is like a symbol that just needs to exist.
Percussion!
The emperor’s scepter fell to the ground, and the majestic throne room turned into a shabby and dark castle. A shabby city covered in dried curse flowers that appeared when the professor passed the entrance to the castle.
“Look at this. An old and worn-out kingdom of the past. Before this country was called an empire, it was a weak country that was sandwiched between other countries and repeatedly plundered every day. This is the appearance of Ol Amperia, the capital of the ‘Kingdom of Baltin’. I will ask you “What does it mean that there is such an old and shabby city at the heart of the capital of the empire?”
With the emperor’s question, the walls of the fortress burst open, revealing the cityscape below the hill.
Although it was clearly shabby, it was clear that the city had once been forged in battle. The steep cliffs turned the city on the hill into a natural fortress, with sharply carved wooden fences everywhere, and from stone mansions to thatched huts, there was no house that was not equipped with wooden spears and bows and arrows.
A look from the past. In an empire, the mansion and yard represent the owner.
“The empire… has grown like this, but has not yet escaped the ghosts of those days?”
“It’s not that we couldn’t escape, but it’s because it’s an empire.”
The empire is the union of the will of the first emperor and the will of all the people captured by that great hero. It was said that it was just an increase in size.
“The empire is the emperor. The emperor is the empire. The uncontrollable will and power of the empire pushed the personal will of the emperor deep into his consciousness. As a result, the great will of the first emperor was moved only by the will of the old ghost 500 years ago. “The empire that wanted to be an empire on its own has been completed.”
An empire that has become too wealthy. After endless expansion, the empire grew to reach a huge mountain range to the east and a dense elven forest to the west, and it came to have as many people as its territory.
That became a problem.
“It has grown too big. Both the territory and the subjects on it.”
The people hope for peace and prosperity.
The empire itself is so numerous that it is difficult to enumerate it. The will of foolish people united as one and the voice calling for peace and prosperity was finally the will of the first emperor. It has surpassed the spirit of the old hero who united the empire, and the emperor who has to adjust it to suit reality is close to the power receptor of the ’emperor’, a puppet who has lost his ego in the curse of sloth.
The empire was unable to repair the gap and grew endlessly, which was manifesting itself as the reality of the empire.
“Me, the nobles, and the empire’s military. Everyone knows it. The upheaval occurring in the three eastern countries across the mountain range is not simply limited to the eastern region. If they fall, a force called Mute, which ate everything there, will reach out to this empire. But look. I know it, but thoughts cannot reach action and fade away. Because of the selfish and foolish hearts of the people of the empire who just want to be carefree. There are so many foolish people who are satisfied with their own small fields being fertile even if their neighbors’ estates burn down! “Because the empire is one, that great foolishness ended up moving the empire into one!”
The empire is sick. At a time when we need to move quickly, we are trying to solve everything in the safest and most passive way with the least damage. That’s how Baltin, a kingdom that could not afford even a single defeat with only one capital remaining, survived a long time ago.
And because the empire is close to a collection of wills that grow stronger on their own. The will of the empire, which recognizes that it is sick, seeks to cure it.
“The witch is a clear change for an empire that is hardening like stone. It’s a horror full of blood and flesh, but good and evil have nothing to do with the gigantic creature called the Empire. “The Empire needed surgery, and she was a pretty good sword in the eyes of the great will called ‘Empire.’”
A shock for an ailing empire. An empire that accepted a cancerous lump to heal itself. Meanwhile, the witch grew stronger and burrowed like a snake, finally reaching the emperor’s side. Arrived at the center of it all.
However, this is something that the will-driven empire of 500 years ago could not have thought of.
From the beginning, the witch had been reading the identity of the empire, which was like a gigantic collection of wills, and had set her sights on it.
The witch burrowed like a snake through the flow of the empire, and before the empire, which was as dull as its enormous body, could even notice… it
robbed the emperor of some of his power.
“A witch… robbed the empire itself of the power given only to the emperor?”
“In the first place, didn’t you say it was something like power given to someone? The emperor is just a living symbol. The power of the empire simply exists throughout the empire. “The witch placed a curse on me here and throughout the empire, and while I was weak, she opened the gap with the curse and obtained a part of the divine power of the empire that had no owner since the divine power of the empire exists on its own.”
The
Emperor untied the strings of the colorful robe that covered him. The emperor’s upper body is revealed with the front flap open. The curse that had taken deep root in his strong body, which still had traces of his strong body even in his old age, was growing vividly, covering half of his body.
The emperor, who was talking about the empire’s most painful failure, seemed paradoxically happy.
“Hehehe…. The Empire couldn’t estimate the witch’s capabilities, so they gave away part of her heart. In order to wield the power she gained, the witch moved to take control of even the outermost parts of the empire, and now… you and I are facing each other and talking like this. It’s stupid. How foolish! This empire and all its subjects! The witch and even you in front of me! This is so foolish and laughable in my eyes! Hahaha! Hahahahaha!”
The emperor was smiling. A demigod whose roots have been dug into the curse. Half of his face still looked like a doll full of laziness and boredom. The other half of his face was smiling with such unbearable joy and madness that it made the old fortress roar.
“Because the witch took half of the ‘empire’ from the emperor! This means that this ‘human Kalesiax’, who was sleeping while oppressed by a huge power, has woken up and has a place to be active! This means that the ‘Emperor’ and ‘Empire’, who had been unable to unite due to being weighed down by one gigantic entity, were finally able to move with one will! Because that vile corruptor’s tricks have come to strangle me! How could it not be funny! Indeed, all events of the empire are for the sake of the empire! Hahaha! Hahahaha!!!”
‘That’s why. The emperor had already emphasized his laziness and lack of character to the point of being called a curse, but the question was how he could express his will like this.’
According to his words, the emperor was nothing more than a receptor for the aggregate of power called the ‘Empire’. Succession to the throne was simply an act of replacing a new emperor, like replacing a worn-out light bulb.
But now the Emperor was clearly communicating with me of his own free will, and now the reason has been revealed.
The gap where the witch’s curse penetrated. The power of the emperor leaked through that gap.
The will of the great empire that had been suppressing the ego was released, and the will of the prisoner who was trapped within it, Kalesiax, who had been sleeping in the name of the emperor, finally came out into the world.
“Ahhh. It’s like a nightmare. Saint, look at this old body. When he ascended to the throne, he had a strong body that commanded the world and broke rocks. When I opened my eyes, I found that my body was old, and even that was cursed. If this is not a curse to this position of emperor, then what is? “If I had known sooner, I would not have tried so fiercely to become emperor.”
Emperor Kalesiax turned his eyes to me, chuckling as if it was funny to see his lifeless body. His voice was still old, but his tone was closer to that of a 30-year-old Kalesiax who had just ascended to the throne, not that of an old emperor.
“It was a long story, so I’ll give you the answer now. How a witch wields the emperor’s power. That’s because the witch gained the body of a royal family member. The battle for the throne is a time when all the powers scattered across the huge empire gather in the capital to seek succession. That instability is the most suitable state to usurp that power. The reason the witch was able to penetrate that far is because the power of the sick and broken empire accepted the witch as a means to drastically reduce the excessive number of imperial citizens in order to eliminate the disease of this empire.”
“Then the witch is… the 2nd prince’s mother, Empress Terenua?”
“…That’s ridiculous.”
Taaaak-!
The emperor’s scepter hit the ground once again, and the surrounding scene changed once again.
‘It’s reality.’
It felt instinctive. This place is not a ‘garden’ decorated with the power of an emperor who was close to divinity, but an imperial castle that exists in real life.
A huge, grand, blood-stained throne room.
A place where the corpses of the knights of the royal guard who killed each other to protect the emperor under a curse and the corpses of two people wearing royal clothes lie at the feet of the emperor.
Rolling the body on tiptoe, dressed in clothes that only the royal family, especially the empress, could wear, the emperor flashed one eye that had lost its golden glow.
“She is a foolish and ambitious woman who tried to elevate her son to the throne of the emperor by any means necessary. Taking advantage of the confusion, they broke into the palace with the second prince and his bastards to assassinate me. There is a separate passage for the royal family. “She is a woman like Sagar, but she is not a witch.”
“Then…”
“Think, you who have doubts. The reason I chose you and brought you here is because of those endless questions. “Who would be a witch if not Terenua?”
The power of the emperor. A person who has absorbed only part of this truth and seeks to make its power his own, not from behind the truth, but from the surface.
The ostensible position of the emperor. A battle for the throne. Imperial family.
A position that allows you to spread curses throughout the empire.
If a road is to be built, one who can plan it in advance.
A person who relies on the support of the wizard magistrate, who is a required part of most administrative work in the empire.
“…1st princess. “She was a witch.”
“Most of the things that run the empire’s affairs have already been taken into their hands, and the rest is driven by curses. Now that the 1st Prince has sunk, she is the closest to the throne, both on the surface and underwater. Even though she was bound by a curse, she possesses a lot of the power of the emperor, so the empire will already regard her as the emperor and are organizing the surroundings.”
Patter. Patter. Patter.
With the emperor’s low voice, dust began to fall from the ceiling of the imperial castle.
“…But even though I myself hate the imperial throne, I am still the emperor of the empire. It is impossible to see all the subjects of the empire leading a life of self-destruction under the rule of their fathers. So the emperor of the empire. As Kalesiax Til Agdan IX. “This is my first command, saint, as an emperor who has completely inherited the rightful throne of this empire and has not lost his will.”
Kurrrrr-
Boom! Coogung!
Inside the imperial castle, which is starting to crumble from its foundation, as if collapsing on its own. The emperor lifted his scepter and tapped my shoulder.
“Open a new empire. Kill the next legitimate emperor witch. “Let us establish a new imperial dynasty and announce that the empire has finally awakened from its long sleep of 500 years and that we will once again achieve another thousand years of history with a new empire!”
Coooooo!
Finally, the wall that divided the capital and the imperial castle collapsed. A capital city filled with fire and chaos appeared before the emperor and the kneeling professor.
Patter. Patter.
A collapsing imperial castle. Just like that, the emperor’s body began to crumble and fall apart.
An emperor who is one with the empire. When the emperor announced the end of the empire, it meant the same thing as accepting his own death.
“therefore. The empire… will survive. Survive, empire. He claims to be the last emperor of a half-thousand-year empire. This is the first and last imperial name of Kalesiax Til Agdan IX. The Lion Empire will end and a new dynasty will be born. Freed from the ghost of the first emperor 500 years ago. “A new royal dynasty.”
Every time the emperor’s words rang out.
The meaning contained in that single word seeped into the air.
The words that permeate become power and turn into dust and wind. Strands of golden power spread towards the ends of the empire.
Due to that force, the imperial castle symbolizing the empire collapsed, and the lion flag hanging at the tip burned itself down.
Destroy an empire and thus create an empire.
‘Part of the empire is in the hands of witches. The rest remains in the emperor’s body.’
The emperor used the power of the empire that was still with him to bring the empire to an end.
Extinction, not inheritance, of power.
If things continue like this, the emperor has decided that the remaining power that will fall into the hands of the witch will disappear along with the empire.
“You saint. Since the first emperor, you are the only one who has had an audience with the true emperor who combined the power and will of the empire. “Since you refused to become emperor, you will use your hands to become a signal signifier that the Lion’s Empire has come to an end and a standard bearer that announces the birth of a new dynasty.”
Grumble!
A flag that had burned itself fell from the crumbling ruins of the castle and landed in front of the kneeling professor.
“I let those who rejected the emperor choose a new emperor… Just as it was when the name Empire was added to Baltin’s name. Just like when the first emperor was appointed…”
The emperor knelt with his dry and broken body. The emperor’s scepter was tied to that half-burned piece of cloth as a flagpole. With that, the body of the last emperor who had fulfilled his calling was reduced to ashes.
“….at last. “It happens like this.”
Since the curse spread throughout the empire, it was assumed that the emperor was not in an ordinary state.
If the emperor is an empire, then from the point of view of the witch who wants to devour the empire, the emperor must be subject to the curse. The emperor expected to die one way or another.
With the scepter as the flagpole and the banner of a half-burnt lion as its base.
The professor accepted the flag, which was still blackened and had no symbols on it.
At that moment, the last of the golden energy that flowed from the ashes of the shattered emperor completely dissipated into the air, and at the same time,
a terrible scream rang out from somewhere far away in the capital, saying,
“Ah-ahhh!!!!”
The emperor’s last gift. The curse of a witch who has lost her goal and can never be completed. A command instilled in all the people of the empire. A single word that broke the curse of death flowing through the stake of the curse of sacrifice that enveloped the entire empire.
[Survive.]
That scream was probably the scream of a witch who was angry that the empire she thought she had completely taken over was falling apart.
“…I came here to beg the Empire to hold your hand.”
What came into his hands was the starting point of a new empire. I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing.
“…If the heart of the empire turns to bean powder like this, the next world will be obvious without even looking at it.”
With a deep sigh, the professor picked up the flag and put it into subspace, barely recovering enough to walk.
A place where thorn vines and cursed flowers as large as castle walls grow, destroying the city, as if there is nothing left to hide.
To where the witch is.
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