The Script (4)
Creta was a bustling trade city situated halfway between the Imperial Capital and the frontier borders, and it was there that First Imperial Prince Theseus had chosen to take up residence.
Though terrorist activity had largely concentrated in the capital, that very focus meant the Imperial Knights were seldom dispatched to liminal regions like this. Whenever trouble erupted, the local lords were left entirely to their own devices. Yet what was the state of the world today? Under the imperial decree of Emperor Abraham, who had strictly capped the permitted size of regional standing armies, barely a handful of territories possessed the strength to mount an adequate response when disaster struck.
To confront the crises no one else could handle, Theseus had stepped forward.
His presence was entirely public, and naturally, assassins and terrorists had come sniffing around at first, seeking his head.
"Hmm..."
Yet after he crushed every last threat beneath overwhelming force, Creta became the most peaceful city in the empire. Every soul within its walls revered and praised Theseus as a hero.
Then, one day, an uninvited guest breached that hard-won peace.
"Help me! Please!"
Drenched in blood, a young girl fled desperately from her pursuers. Theseus moved swiftly toward her. It was a simple matter.
"Halt. What is the meaning of this?"
"Th-Theseus?!"
The thugs chasing the girl froze the instant Theseus blocked their path, immediately recognizing the man before them. The crimson hair and golden eyes emblematic of the imperial bloodline. An overwhelming presence. Theseus, the Hero of Creta. There was no one who did not know his name, and none foolhardy enough to ignore how suicidal it was to cross him.
Confronted by the immovable wall that was Theseus, the ruffians had no choice but to bow their heads and slink away.
"Haah... Being a trade city really does invite every sort of vermin, doesn't it?"
Despite the deterrent of Theseus's name, the endless flow of travelers meant incidents never ceased. Even Theseus was growing thoroughly sick of it.
"In any case... what should I do with her?"
Contemplating what to do with the girl, who had fainted the moment she felt safe, Theseus carried her to a local clinic. The physician, an old acquaintance, took one look at the unconscious girl in his arms and scowled.
"You poke your nose into other people's business far too much."
"It's my nature. What can I do?"
"Tsk."
This was hardly the first time Theseus had brought someone in like this. The doctor could never help nagging him, as the prince invariably dragged in patients bundled with complicated baggage. Yet the very fact that he could speak so bluntly was proof of how close their relationship truly was.
"Leave her here."
"Thank you. I'm counting on you."
"And stay nearby for the time being. If troublesome guests come knocking, you're the one who'll have to deal with them."
"Haha, will do."
From then on, Theseus visited the clinic regularly to check on the girl's recovery. Whenever she saw him, she trembled as if drowning in anxiety, keeping her mouth firmly shut as though she had lost the ability to speak. Even so, Theseus did not give up. He was a man so benevolent and righteous that people hailed him as a hero, and he spared no effort on her behalf.
Though she never truly opened her heart to him, her health visibly improved day by day.
This quiet routine persisted for some time—until rumors surrounding Second Imperial Prince Loki, spreading out from the capital, finally reached Creta.
"It has been a while, Brother."
"Loki...?"
Second Prince Loki had arrived in person, accompanied by his personal retinue. A young man who looked like a scholar draped in lavish attire, bearing dark green hair and yellow eyes. Loki Vicious van Miltonia offered a serpentine smile.
"Ah, don't tell me you feel uncomfortable seeing me just because we have different mothers?"
"...Let's step outside to talk."
"Is there really any need for that? You aren't the one I have business with, Brother. I'll simply finish my errand and take my leave. Unless, of course, you have something you wish to say to me?"
"Business? What business could you possibly have in a place like this?"
"Ah, I heard that someone I've been pursuing for quite a while is staying here. I merely came to collect them."
"Is that so."
Theseus was no fool. At Loki's words, his thoughts immediately flew to the girl he had rescued days ago. Everything had likely been calculated from the start. This entire sequence of events was nothing more than an elaborate scheme to fabricate a pretext.
"Who is it you came to take?"
"They should be inside the hospital room you're currently blocking, Brother."
"What a pity."
"My thoughts exactly. To think you would harbor a criminal like this... It means I'll have to go through you, won't I?"
"The pity I spoke of..."
Schwing.
Theseus drew his blade. Every person present felt the atmosphere shift in an instant.
"...was that you thought numbers like this could defeat me, Loki."
Shielding the girl, Theseus faced Loki's personal guard.
Even saddled with such a burden, Theseus did not waver in the slightest. On the contrary, with barely any wasted motion, he completely overwhelmed the elite guardsmen drawn from the Imperial Knights. The clash spilled out into the open courtyard outside the clinic, leaving Theseus surrounded in the open.
Yet not a single soul believed they could breach the fortress that was Theseus.
"Impressive as always, Brother."
"Give up, Loki. You cannot bring me down with this. Your arrogance has gone too far this time."
"Arrogant? Brother, when have I ever been arrogant? How hurtful. Did we not spend our childhood together?"
"..."
Yet Loki did not lose his composure either. Half the guards he had brought lay sprawled across the cobblestones, gasping for breath in sheer exhaustion. The remaining half, unable to devise any effective strategy, did nothing but cast hesitant glances at one another.
While the passersby of Creta held their breath, fleeing or hiding from this explosive display of violence, only the two imperial princes conversed in calm, measured tones.
"I lost my mother before I was even old enough to remember her," Loki murmured. "So Lady Aethra, the imperial concubine and your mother, became a parent to me. Granted, it was a wet nurse who raised me, but I still remember Lady Aethra's love."
"..."
"She treated me without prejudice, and you treated me as your own flesh and blood. Do you remember?"
"I remember. Which is why you should end this pointless affair, Loki."
Among the imperial scions of this generation, none shared the same mother. The ruthless imperial palace made it nearly impossible to protect them together. Only children who had not yet come of age received protection; beyond that threshold, none survived without proving their worth with their own hands. The same had been true for Concubine Aethra, Theseus's birth mother.
One morning, she was discovered with a dagger driven through her heart. A scene of assassination all too common in the imperial palace.
"Brother, you strive to be a good person, just as she taught you. But I am different. I want to become emperor and change everything so that no one ever suffers her fate again."
"I do not seek the throne."
"Those around you think otherwise. If you truly harbored no desire for the crown, you should have kept your head down and lived in absolute silence."
"..."
"Well, what good does speaking of this do now? Both you and I are shackled by countless unseen chains regardless."
Loki sneered.
No matter how immense their martial prowess or how towering their authority, they were bound by invisible restraints. That applied equally to Loki, who sought the throne, and to Theseus, who had cast aside his imperial status. The name of the shackle binding them both was 'expectation.'
Second Prince Loki, cold-blooded and ruthless, yet decisive.
First Prince Theseus, burning his own flesh and blood for the sake of the common folk.
Both were chained by the expectations placed upon them.
"Brother, do you know what those who expect me to become emperor are thinking?"
"They believe in your wisdom, surely."
"How generous of you to gift-wrap my villainy so neatly. But... fine. It doesn't matter what label you slap on it."
Loki shrugged and took a step toward Theseus.
Clang!
With a sharp ring of steel, a neat line was carved into the ground before Loki's boot. Theseus was no fool. Allowing the person he needed to guard against most to casually approach under the guise of conversation was a blunder he would never commit.
At Theseus's sharp warning, Loki raised both hands and took a step back.
"At any rate, people pin their hopes on my ruthlessness. Then what about those who look up to you, Brother?"
"I told you, I—"
"That goodness! They harbor foolish hopes in your self-righteous crusades!"
First Prince Theseus had renounced every privilege of his royal blood. Yet the reason he still commanded such overwhelming support was that the ignorant masses still viewed him as their prince. And what blinded them so was the very banner of justice Theseus held high.
"Brother, I have never once believed I could defeat you by force of arms."
"..."
"Did I not tell you? My business is not with you, but with the girl you are sheltering."
Loki let out a hollow laugh and swept his hair back. The throbbing veins along his temples betrayed the venom simmering beneath his calm exterior.
"Hand her over."
"I cannot. Whatever the reason, I will not condone this method. If this child has truly committed a crime, let her be judged through a fair and lawful trial."
"A lawful trial? Haha! What an utterly hilarious joke."
Loki raised a languid arm and pointed directly at the girl trembling behind Theseus.
"Do you even know who she is?"
"..."
"Brother, as I said earlier, I hold no hatred toward you. Nor toward Lady Aethra, who raised me as her own child."
"Then..."
"Which is precisely why!"
"..."
"How could I possibly let the culprit who murdered Lady Aethra live?"
The words froze the air solid.
Behind Theseus, the girl's small frame trembled violently. Loki had never intended to overpower Theseus through brute force from the beginning. That was not how one shattered First Prince Theseus. The way to break him was to demolish the very justice and virtue he stood upon.
The killer who took the life of the mother he had loved so deeply—could Theseus truly forgive such a person?
"Brother, I will handle the dirty work. So just hand our mutual enemy over to me."
"..."
Theseus fell silent. In truth, he too had spent long years searching for his mother's killer. Though he had ultimately failed to track the culprit down, deep within his heart, he had always harbored the ache of maternal love and the grief of her sudden loss.
What would he do now? Would he indulge in vengeance? Or would he uphold the justice he had championed?
"Loki."
"Yes, Brother. Have you made your decision?"
"I'm sorry."
Theseus unclasped his coat and draped it gently over the trembling girl.
"I am not so foolish."
"I suppose that depends on one's perspective."
"Indeed. But first, let me ask you: judging by this girl's age, could she possibly be the assassin?"
"Haha, quite right. I suppose it was a bit clumsy of me, wasn't it? It has been well over twenty years since Lady Aethra passed. An all-too-transparent lie, wasn't it?"
Loki shrugged casually. The veins on his forehead had vanished, replaced once more by that cool, venomous smirk.
"Even so, it's a fact that she's connected to the assassin. To be precise, she's that wench's daughter."
"..."
"Ah, I don't need to explain what happened to the assassin herself, do I? I already killed her."
"Which means you intend to hold this child accountable for her mother's sin."
"Yes, exactly. Wait, no—is that slightly off? I'm not holding her accountable."
Cough!
At that moment, the girl behind Theseus retched, vomiting a mouthful of dark blood.
"Because I've already carried out the punishment."
Could a schemer of Loki's caliber have truly let a mere slip of a girl escape his grasp?
Hardly.
His business with her had already concluded, which was why letting her slip away had been effortless. From the very beginning, this entire stage had been orchestrated for this exact moment—to shatter Theseus's justice head-on.
The smirk across Loki's lips twisted into something grotesque, while fury blazed bright within Theseus's golden eyes.
And in that explosive, knife-edge standoff—
"Whoops, pardon the intrusion."
A pierrot stepped into view.
"I hate to interrupt while you two are having such a grave conversation, but there's something I need to say."
He looked for all the world like a shrimp foolishly tossing himself between two clashing whales.