Chapter. 14. One Empire, Three Legends (36)
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“The emperor’s power is not something to be wielded; it exists.”
Sarah. Sararak.
A golden sunset streamed in through the majestic throne room windows, and between them, shadows like thorny vines would grow and disappear.
A witch’s curse. They were constantly growing and falling apart, as if they wanted to come here, and it seemed like the witch’s image had materialized.
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. Alessio Vigilen, the head of the Vigilen family of the Margrave’s domain, who cut off his son’s head with a single sword even though his body had already been taken over by Mute.
Many wind wizards we met at Wuthering Heights. Astrad, a wizard with a hard and nervous look, and Gauman, his teacher.
Knights who rushed forward without pay at the emperor’s command. The wandering knights who travel the world and listen to the injustices of their subjects, the reserve knights from nearby families, all of them have extraordinary prayers even though they are surplus manpower, and they still follow the romance and chivalry of knights.
Haunuman. It is a vassal country trying to escape the interference of the empire, and a city of heterogeneous tribes and 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 and held their spears upside down, and the home of a wind wizard that had been around for 100 years was also destroyed by the monsters. Even though it is known that large and small battles and invasions by the Mutation Blood are taking place in most of the territories adjacent to the Blue Line and the North, 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. In the east, the 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 would soon lead to a weakening of the entire empire, so the ideal situation for the entire empire would be for the chaos to be confined 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 infer what is ahead and what is behind can fully understand this. Come on, saint. You have traveled halfway across the empire to come here, 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 rumored emperor, call themselves?’
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 an answer out of me.
“It wasn’t there. A trivial story that the speaker didn’t even think about and the listener was made to ignore. A small thorn that seeped through the cracks of worship engraved deep in their souls, from the mouths of subjects who considered me their father, teacher, and executioner. Think about it. “What am I known for?”
In that golden glow, the professor’s memory traced its journey back. Emperor. Emperor. Lion’s Empire. lion….
“Lazy… lion?”
[As expected, the name ‘Empire of the Lazy Lions’…]
[Bless the lazy lion!]
okay. It was definitely there. From Lucilla’s mouth, and from the mouths of imperial citizens passing by. Both outside and within the empire, they had different names for the empire.
A name that makes you question the fact that an emperor whom you cannot help but respect would dare to put such a profane name in front of the name of the empire.
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 is the one who becomes emperor, and he will 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, which refers to the omnipotent demigod who encompasses everyone who steps on that land.”
“And the mortal soul cannot withstand that divine prestige. “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. He himself, the emperor, announced that he would answer the question, so the answer continued, but his own will, which had already said it before, had disappeared 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, the emperor with a broken neck.”
The emperor knew. A fallen saint who barely survived a long time ago has taken up residence in this empire.
Even at the moment 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 territory, she knew everything.
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 he had no need to do anything or think. 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 was once again transformed into a shabby and dark castle. A shabby city covered in dried curse flowers that appeared when the professor passed the entrance of the imperial 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 in the capital of the empire, at its heart?”
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, sharply carved wooden fences were everywhere, and there was no house, from stone mansions to thatched huts, that was not equipped with wooden spears, bows, and arrows.
A look from the past. In an empire, the mansion and yard represent the owner.
“Even though the empire has grown like this, has it not yet escaped the ghosts of those days?”
“It’s not that we couldn’t escape, it’s because it is 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, it is driven only by the great will of the first emperor and the will of the old ghosts of 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 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 people of the empire and the empire itself are so numerous that it is hard to count them. 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 must adjust it to reality, is a puppet who has lost his ego in the curse of sloth, close to a receptor for the power of the ‘Emperor’.
The empire grew endlessly without being able to repair the gap, and this 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 fade away without being able to reach action. 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 possible. That was how Baltin, a kingdom that could not afford even a single defeat because it had only one capital left, 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 horrible, overflowing with blood and flesh, but good and evil have nothing to do with the gigantic creature that is the Empire. “The Empire needed surgery, and she was a pretty good sword in the eyes of the great will called ‘Empire.’”
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A shock for an ailing empire. An empire that accepted a cancerous lump to heal itself. Meanwhile, the witch grew stronger, burrowing like a snake, and finally to the emperor’s side. She 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, even before the empire, which was as heavy as its massive body, noticed…
They 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 planted a curse on me, here, and throughout the empire, and while I was weak, she opened the gap with the curse and took over a part of the empire’s divine power, which exists on its own and has no owner.”
Sreuk-
The Emperor loosened the laces of the magnificent robe that covered him. The emperor’s upper body is revealed with the front flap open. Even in his old age, his strong body still had traces of a strong body, and the deeply rooted curse 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. The witch moved to wield the power that was in her hands, to take even the outer parts of her empire into her hands, and now… you and I are face to face and talking like this. It’s stupid. How foolish! This empire and all its subjects! The witch, and even you right 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! The Empire, indeed, all its events are for the Empire! Hahaha! Hahahaha!!!”
‘That’s why. He had already emphasized that the emperor was so slothful that it could be called a curse and that he had no character, but the question was how he could express his will like this.’
According to what he said, the emperor was nothing more than a receptor for the collection of power called ‘Empire’. The 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 volition, and the reason was now 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 suppressed the ego was released, and the will of the prisoner trapped within it, a person named 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 commanded the world and was strong enough to break rocks. When I opened my eyes, I found that my body was old, and even that was cursed. If this, this position of emperor, is not a curse, then what is? “If I had known sooner, I would not have tried so fiercely to become emperor.”
The Emperor, Kalesiax, chuckled and turned his eyes to me, as if it was funny to see his lifeless body. The voice was still old, but its 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 vast empire gather in the capital for 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 cut out the ills of this empire and drastically reduce the excessive number of imperial citizens.”
“Then, is the witch… the 2nd prince’s mother, Empress Terenua?”
“…That’s ridiculous.”
Taaaak-!
The emperor’s scepter hit the floor 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, majestic, 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, were lying at the emperor’s feet.
Rolling the body on tiptoe, wearing clothes that only the royal family, especially the empress and empress, could wear, the emperor flashed one eye that had lost its golden glow.
“She was a foolish and ambitious woman who wanted to elevate her son to the throne of emperor by any means possible. Taking advantage of the confusion, she broke into the palace with the 2nd 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 question, 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 the 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 most administrators of the empire, magicians who are essential to construction, and magistrates.
“…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 thing to the throne, both on the outside and underneath. “Even though she is her own, bound by her curse, she even possesses a considerable amount of the power of her emperor, so her empire may already regard her as her emperor and organize the surroundings around her.”
Patter. Patter. Patter.
With the emperor’s low voice, dust began to fall from the ceiling of the imperial castle.
“…However, 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 as an emperor who has inherited the rightful throne of this empire and has not lost his will, saint.”
Kurrrrr-
thud! 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. The next legitimate emperor, kill the 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 a thousand years of history with the 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. 500 years ago, free from the ghost of the first emperor. “A new royal dynasty.”
Every time the emperor’s word rang out.
The meaning contained in that phrase or word seeped into the air.
The words that permeate become power and turn into wind and dust. 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.
Not the inheritance of power, but extinction.
The Emperor has made the rest of the power, which will fall into the witch’s hands if things continue this way, disappear along with the empire.
“You, saint. The only person since the first emperor to have had an audience with the true emperor, the union of the empire’s power and will. Since you refused to become emperor, you will use your hands to become a beacon announcing the end of the Lion Empire and a standard-bearer announcing the birth of a new dynasty.”
Grumble!
In the crumbling ruins of the castle, a flag that had burned itself fell and landed in front of the kneeling professor.
“For those who rejected the emperor, let them choose a new emperor… Just as it was when the name Empire was attached to Baltin’s name. Just as the first emperor was appointed…”
The emperor fell to his knees, his body dry and broken. 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.
The royal 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 golden energy that flowed from the ashes of the broken emperor completely dispersed into the air,
『Ah-ahhhhh!!!!』
Far away, somewhere in the capital, a terrible scream rang out.
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 sacrifice and curse stake that engulfed the entire empire.
[Survive.]
Perhaps that scream is the scream of a witch who is angry that the empire she thought she had completely conquered has fallen apart through her grasp.
“…I came here to beg the Empire to hold your hand.”
What actually 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 threw it into subspace, barely recovering enough to walk.
As if there is nothing left to hide, thorn vines and cursed flowers as large as the castle walls grow, destroying the city.
To where the witch is.
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fantasy,
