Side story episode 34
* * *
Loved ones leave, loved ones are born.
“father!”
“dad!”
His son, Alan, now the only one left. And Alan’s younger brother and sister, twins Liddell and Lena.
I thought about the paths that a life would take as one life dies, another life is born, a son and a daughter become father and mother.
“Don’t be hasty.”
Charlotte smiled kindly but strictly, and the eldest son, Alan, consoled his mischievous younger siblings. Dale smiled quietly at the sight. It was a family scene that could be found anywhere.
Even if he was the ruler of the only empire on this continent, it was no different.
One era was ending and a new one was rising, and the space for Dale, Charlotte, and the old powerhouses was steadily shrinking.
The Night Raven Knights also left Saxony one by one, and Dale also blessed them as they left and did not block their path.
In the past, those who fought in the shadows for Dale were no exception.
The pure white virgin Aurelia was left in the old world as the ruler of the kingdom of Britannia before Lize froze her world. And as a holy king, she left a record of being praised in the history of the time, and that was her last record.
However, the pitch-black maiden Aurelia was frozen in Dale’s empire, and after the ice melted, she headed to the island of Britannia to fulfill her old promise to Dale.
He is praised as another holy king, the reincarnation of the pure white virgin, Aurelia.
The members of the House of Saxony were leaving one by one, and each was meeting their own end in their own place.
Master Baro was also one of those who left the House of Saxony. And there were those who returned to the House of Saxony from time to time.
“Ah, this disloyal bastard dares to see His Majesty the Emperor.”
“You’re here, Master Baro… … No, Marquis Tolomeo.”
“Oh, what an unfamiliar name.”
Master Baro, and at the same time the Marquis of Tolomeo, laughed merrily. Together with his wife, Maria of Tolomeo.
“Congratulations on your pregnancy.”
Dale bowed his head to the woman next to him, and the woman who had once been known as the Shadow Saint smiled.
Her eyes are still wrapped in black bandages, just like Dale’s sister, Lize. And yet, she will never again see beyond what she can see.
“Now, drink less alcohol and become a new person.”
“It’s your order, young lady. What can I do?”
“Right, I told you not to call me that in front of people.”
Maria opened her mouth, and Master Baro scratched his head awkwardly.
“Oh, I see… …you.”
Dale turned his head away, holding back a laugh at those words. They were such an incongruous sight, and ironically, it felt so fitting.
After his father Alan and mother Elena left, Dale was not left alone in this world.
Because history is what happens when loved ones leave, loved ones are born, and the cycle continues.
In a sense, it cannot be said that Ray Yuris or Bloody Ball’s words are completely wrong.
The history of mankind is the history of blood.
The blood of the Black Duke and Duke of Saxony once flowed through Dale’s body, and that blood was passed on to his sons and daughters.
Just as the blood of the divine sword passes to Charlotte, it passes on to Charlotte’s sons and daughters.
That was all.
Even in an age where monsters are disappearing, there will still be a long time before Dale and Charlotte disappear. And in the meantime, no one dares to oppose this empire and its throne of black gold.
So, the days continued as I savored each day in peace.
With the people he loves.
* * *
As Alan of Saxony, Alan II, grew up, he began to understand the feelings his father, Alan, must have felt when he saw Dale.
As a prodigy in a ducal family, he tried to prove his commercial worth and talent in front of his father, and he believed that it worked.
But his son, Alan Jr., was not a child prodigy like Dale. He was an ordinary, honest child who could not feel the power of his time.
But strangely enough, whenever he saw what his son was doing, he felt an indescribable sense of confidence.
“Look, Father!”
“The flow of the sword is very clean.”
The very sight of him honing his swordsmanship in front of Dale and working hard without neglecting his studies was proof of his parents’ trust that could not be compared to anything else.
Even if Dale didn’t have the talent to be a monster when he was young, his father Alan would have been happy to believe in Dale and support him.
“I’m so proud of you, Alan.”
That’s why Dale said, just as his father had once told him.
“Because I am my father’s son.”
Alan also answered back, just like Dale did back then. Dale smiled bitterly at those words.
* * *
“Dale… … Sir.”
There was only one person in the world who could call Dale that. And then Dale realized that it wasn’t so strange to be called ‘Mister’, and he smiled bitterly.
“Miss Yuffie.”
Under Lize, there was a girl who was learning blue magic.
“I heard that you inherited the secret of blue from Lize.”
“that’s right.”
Upi smiled a little bitterly.
“Do you despise me?”
“Uncle Dale is a good guy.”
Upi shook her head in denial.
“You just don’t understand that sometimes, kindness can hurt people.”
“Maybe so.”
Kindness can hurt people. It was so true. It was truly a bone-chilling statement.
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“Yuppie Yang is a very wise person.”
At Dale’s words, Yuffie smiled shyly. She was a girl from the countryside who could not read a single word. However, she was now inheriting the blue karma, which was said to be the most complex and sophisticated in the world.
“How would you like to change this world, Miss Uffie?”
So Dale asked.
“It is foolish to think that you can change the world.”
“Is that so?”
“The world doesn’t change, it changes.”
“Yes,” Yuffie answered, and Dale laughed again.
“So, do you believe that this world will change for the better, Miss Upi?”
At those words, Yuffie fell silent for a moment. Yuffie was no longer a country girl who did not know the ways of the world. She was a sorceress who inherited the blue karma and looked into the world through the spider webs that Lize had spread throughout this continent.
After understanding all the ugliness and filth in the world, Upi answered.
“I don’t know.”
Upi smiled bitterly.
“I don’t think… it will change much.”
“… … .”
Dale was silent at Upi’s answer.
“Emperor or Revolution?”
At the end of the silence, Dale asked. That question had brought Uffie to this point earlier. And at the end, Dale asked again.
“Neither.”
Upi answered that question without a moment’s hesitation.
Emperor of the 10th Empire, Monarch of Black Gold.
In front of a monster that was once a god of nothingness and is still feared by the whole world.
* * *
As the dawn twilight crept through his eyelids, Charlotte was asleep beside him. And as Dale lightly ran a hand through her hair, Charlotte, too, woke up.
As days, months, and years passed, the way of welcoming the two people remained the same.
Before long, wrinkles began to form on Charlotte’s face, just as they had on Elena’s, and on Dale’s face, just as they had on Alan’s.
The age of monsters was coming to an end, and the end of that age lay before the two of them.
“shallot.”
It was the same that morning.
“Dale.”
Dale reached out and ran his arm through Charlotte’s hair, and Charlotte smiled and called his name. They lay on the bed, looking at each other’s faces, savoring the happiness they were feeling.
“Yes, Dale. Are you happy?”
“huh.”
Those were the days that felt the longest and the happiest.
It was the same the next day, and the day after that.
* * *
Master Baro’s wife, and a woman who once had the name of Shadow Saintess, were there.
“Miss Maria.”
“……your majesty.”
The contact with her itself was not long. As a shadow saintess, she was the one who awakened the path that ‘Shadow Lord’ Dale should take, and now she is a woman who is enjoying happiness with Master Baro.
Her child will be born soon.
“As the emperor of this empire, I have something to give you.”
Dale glimpsed the truth in her shadow. The happiness she now enjoys.
Furthermore, the madness of her father who gouged out her pupils with his finger, claiming that she was possessed by a demon during the Third Reich.
The weakness of a girl desperately crying out Master Baro’s name in the midst of madness.
“What is it?”
Maria asked and Dale answered.
“It is light.”
* * *
“Thank you, brother.”
“Aunt Lize!”
Lize smiled. Dale’s sons and daughters laughed beside her, and Lize hugged Dale’s sons and daughters affectionately.
Sometimes even kindness can hurt people.
After realizing that fact, the two siblings stopped hurting each other.
That was why Lize could only smile quietly. Just as Maria had once been given ‘his eyes’ by the Emperor, she looked at the world made of light through the eyes given to her by her brother.
“May the happiness you wish for come true.”
* * *
The dusk of dawn rose again. But Dale, wrapped in black bandages, could not sense the light.
But instead, I felt a loving touch that was incomparable to anything else.
“shallot.”
“Are you awake?”
“huh.”
Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not there. Charlotte was lying next to him, and he could feel her presence every time she stroked Dale.
Charlotte’s skin, her smell, her voice.
It was the same that day, the next day, and the day after that.
And then one morning, he didn’t feel Charlotte’s hand waking him up.
Dale smiled bitterly, realizing that fact.
After smiling, she burst into tears.
* * *
Among scholars, there are many theories as to what led to the fall of the Tenth Empire.
When the Black Gold Lord died and Alan II ascended the throne, the Saxon system was maintained for several generations under his regime. However, in a world where monsters disappeared, the heads of the Saxon family no longer had the power to bring the world to its knees.
So after several political strife, the Tenth Empire fell, and a new era of war began.
Yet, nothing was known about the whereabouts of the man once known as the ‘Monarch of Black Gold’ and the Demon Emperor.
* * *
This was after the end of the reign of Alan II, when the throne passed to the next generation, and the House of Saxony continued to rule the world for several generations.
A man was walking down the street.
It was a land where pure white snowflakes were fluttering. The sky was extremely black, and the ground was white.
In it, he was just walking aimlessly along the road, his eyes wrapped in black bandages, and he was groping around with his cane to gauge the path ahead of him.
Without knowing where to go or where to go, I just kept going.
Sobbing like a child.
“Why are you wandering around like that?”
Just then, a voice was heard. It was a voice I would never forget.
“My beloved father and mother have passed away.”
The man answered.
“My beloved wife left me, my sister left me, my beloved sons and daughters left me, my grandchildren left me. But I could not leave.”
“I see.”
A voice answered those words, pretending to be bitter, but leaving behind an indescribable emotion.
“Then, will you come on a journey with me?”
“Where are you talking about?”
“well.”
At those words, Sepia smiled and fell silent. After a moment of silence, Sepia answered something, and the man laughed quietly at those words.
* * *
“12. The Beginning of the Journey”
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It was a steam-powered train, a sign that several empires had been born and fallen, that dynasties had changed, that the form of the state had changed, and that a new revolution had come.
The Lords of Gold and Shadow, even their struggles are now relegated to the distant past of legend.
As the train’s departure neared, the gentlemen in suits began to move one by one.
There was a boy wrapped in black bandages.
I groped around with my cane like a blind man who couldn’t see ahead, and that was it.
There was a hand reaching out towards the boy, blocking the path of the cane.
“Sepia.”
“The train will leave soon.”
A woman in a suit whispered, hiding her ear between her wide-brimmed hat. The boy nodded.
“Where is this train going?”
“well.”
Sepia smiled and tilted her head.
“Anywhere would be fine.”
“That’s right.”
The boy laughed when he heard that.
