Chapter 139
Chapter: 139
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>Translator: penny
>Chapter: 139
>Chapter Title: The Holy Emperor's Crown (1)
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>Seongjin could only ask back.
“…Did I really say that?”
Get stronger, then trust me?
When did I ever say that?
Surely not that old wastrel Mores from before?
He was utterly dumbfounded when the Holy Emperor nodded.
“That’s right. And you said there was something to find there as well.”
Something to find.
Seongjin had a guess about that.
No, but that wasn’t the important thing right now anyway.
“When did I say that? Are you referring to before I had that fever, perhaps?”
At that, the Holy Emperor fell silent and lowered his gaze to the teacup before him.
The faint smile that had lingered on his lips vanished, and the somewhat excited air settled calmly.
“…….”
By now, Seongjin was starting to realize.
When the Holy Emperor held back his words, it meant they related to the future. That implied events that hadn’t happened yet, so why did he brood over the past like that?
Was the habit Amelia occasionally showed also inherited from the Holy Emperor?
“…So, did you find what you were looking for properly?”
Finally, the Holy Emperor spoke, tossing out an unexpected question.
Seongjin gave up on getting a proper answer and silently pulled two small accessories from his bosom.
The Nebraska summoning amulet.
And the small pendant with a shattered gem he’d found in the cavern.
* * *
Right after obtaining the amulet in the labyrinth.
The following selection window had appeared before Seongjin’s eyes.
〚List of summonable souls as familiars: 2/4〛
〚1. □□□□ (Inactive)〛
〚2. □□□ □□ (Inactive)〛
〚3. Hayes Martin (Active)〛
〚4. Red (Active)〛
〚Select a soul?〛
〚Accept / Decline〛
Faced with the unexpected text, Seongjin stared blankly at the letters, not even thinking of choosing anything.
‘Summon a soul?’
It wasn’t the sort of item one couldn’t understand if they thought of this as a world inside a game.
No, wait a minute. Sure, the Demon King being registered made sense, but why was this guy on the list?
Hayes Martin.
The remnant of the dark cult who’d turned the Inquisition into that mess before dying.
[Why? What’s up? What is it? Huh?]
As Seongjin stared fixedly into empty space, the Demon King curiously urged him on.
‘…He can’t see this, huh?’
Anyway, the Demon King as a familiar?
He got the idea, but the results were hard to predict.
‘Even so, testing it on the Demon King right away feels a bit iffy….’
Should he summon Hayes first? As he thought that.
“Groan…….”
A low groan from the side snapped Seongjin back to reality.
Ah, right, this wasn’t the time to be doing this.
Seongjin roughly shoved the amulet into his pocket and dragged his slightly uncomfortable leg over to Orden.
“Hey, you alright?”
Seongjin cautiously asked Orden, who was embedded a full inch into the stone wall, blood pouring from him.
Orden made no effort to hide his irritation.
“You… really asking if I look okay right now?”
“No. Sorry.”
Seongjin apologized readily.
Of course. Getting slammed that hard—it wouldn’t be strange if his spine had shattered on impact.
A normal person would’ve died instantly. He’d barely survived because he was an aura user close to advanced knight level.
Seongjin carefully lifted him from the stone wall, mindful not to twist his neck.
“……!”
Orden grimaced fiercely and held his breath.
His face rapidly paled; moving his body seemed to make the pain spike dramatically. It was impressive he wasn’t screaming.
After enduring the agony for a while, sweating profusely and groaning, Orden finally caught his breath and asked.
“So… what now, Your Highness?”
“Yeah, I think if we go in there, we can get back to where we came from.”
Seongjin pointed to the multicolored pillar of light in the center of the cavern. Surprisingly, Orden accepted it without question and followed along obediently.
He must’ve vaguely thought that since he’d been swept here by the butterflies, riding the light back might work.
‘This guy… the more I see him, the simpler he seems, huh?’
As he carefully supported Orden toward the portal.
Something on the opposite side of the cavern caught Seongjin’s eye. A figure slumped against the wall at an angle.
Noticing Seongjin flinch, Orden followed his gaze, spotted it too, and spoke.
“Your Highness. That’s what I mentioned earlier. The Imperial Guard knight’s corpse.”
“…….”
“Shall we take a look?”
For some reason, it felt like they should.
Seongjin sat Orden on the ground and approached the body.
An Imperial Guard knight, right? But the uniform on the corpse was a bit different from what Seongjin knew.
The overall color scheme was similar, and the knight order emblem was definitely there.
“This is the Imperial Guard uniform? It looks different.”
The current Imperial Guard uniforms were long coats split into three tails. But this was just a short, unslit coat?
Orden nodded.
“Yes. Probably over ten years old from now. I heard they changed to the current design because the old one was uncomfortable for riding.”
So this corpse was at least ten years old.
Yet the decomposition wasn’t that severe. Maybe because the cavern was cool and dry?
‘Or maybe this dimension being game-like has something to do with it.’
Anyway, the corpse was that of a quite sturdy-built man.
Seongjin had assumed he’d been killed by that giant lycansloth from earlier since he died in the boss room, but his sword was sheathed peacefully.
So he hadn’t died in combat, at least.
His appearance looked mostly intact overall.
Puzzled as to the cause of death, Seongjin examined closer and found a small metal rod-like object piercing precisely through the center of the throat.
‘Wait, isn’t this… a letter dagger?’
An Imperial Guard knight killed by this tiny knife that wasn’t even properly sharpened?
Seongjin was baffled, but no other marks were visible on the body no matter how he looked.
The only odd thing was the single scrap of cloth tightly clutched in the corpse’s right hand.
It nagged at him, so he carefully pried it out. It was a sleeve torn from somewhere.
Sized for a small child’s clothing, finished with delicate embroidery at the edges and fastened with quite luxurious buttons.
And then it rolled out.
A necklace hidden inside the sleeve. One with a small gem shaped like a clear water droplet.
It gleamed with a brilliant crimson hue—truly beautiful, but unfortunately, the gem was completely split in half.
‘…Huh?’
But this gem. It felt strangely familiar. Was it just his imagination?
[Yi Seongjin!]
Just then, the Demon King shouted sharply.
[We need to hurry! Something’s wrong with the portal!]
Whipping around, sure enough, the multicolored pillar was flickering and fading.
[The gate’s destabilizing. It might close soon!]
‘What?!’
Well, expecting an inter-dimensional gate to stay stable forever might be asking too much.
That’s how Seongjin had snatched up the necklace in a daze, supported Orden, and rushed into the portal.
* * *
“This is an item I got from killing the labyrinth beast that appeared.”
Seongjin first slid the Nebraska amulet toward the Holy Emperor as he explained.
At the time, things had been too hectic, and with text windows popping up the moment he touched it, he hadn’t examined it properly.
Looking now, it was quite finely crafted. A flat metal plate densely engraved with intricate reliefs.
There were small empty slots here and there, probably meant for gems originally.
The Holy Emperor picked up the amulet and examined it carefully.
‘It won’t suddenly pop up text here, right?’
He’d tested it once already.
Strangely, when he’d pulled it out again after returning to Delcross, it had become an ordinary accessory without the text window like in the labyrinth.
Maybe because this was the material world, not the regulatory one. If he’d known, he might’ve summoned Priest Hayes just to see.
But the Holy Emperor seemed to see the amulet differently.
“This follows the rules of the regulatory world. It likely requires some special conditions to activate.”
Ah, so this guy did know about other dimensions.
As he had that unsurprising thought, the Holy Emperor handed the amulet back to Seongjin and continued.
“It’s probably the type that fundamentally alters souls. Precious for sure, but you’d do well to use it cautiously.”
He should keep it, then.
He’d thought it was just something to summon souls, but it caused fundamental changes?
Good thing he hadn’t tested it on the Demon King after all.
“And this one…….”
Seongjin also slid the broken necklace over.
It was a worthless broken trinket, but since it belonged to an Imperial Guard knight, better to show it.
“It belonged to an Imperial Guard knight who died in the labyrinth. I grabbed it on impulse.”
“…….”
This time, the Holy Emperor didn’t pick up the necklace. He merely gazed at the split gem with an inscrutable look.
Regretting showing it, Seongjin was surprised by the Holy Emperor’s unexpected words.
“This is your grandmother’s keepsake.”
…What?
“Your grandmother gave it to me long ago. I’d always wondered where it went. So it fell there after all.”
Seongjin’s eyes widened.
What?
Wait, hold on? Then the child’s clothing that came with this pendant?
“Father, then… did you perhaps go there before…?”
Seongjin reflexively asked, but trailed off.
Because this guy had once again averted his gaze and clamped his mouth shut!
No, Father! Seriously?
Frustrated, he gulped down his tea, and the Holy Emperor tossed out praise in a dry tone.
“You said there was something you had to find, and you brought it back properly. Well done.”
But even as he said that, he showed no intention of touching the necklace himself.
No, you said it was Mother’s keepsake?
“So what do we do with this now?”
“You keep it safe. It’s no ordinary item. Your grandmother was a very special person, and there’s surely a reason it ended up in your hands.”
A special person.
Suddenly, Ricardo—no, Sigurd Sigurson’s words came to mind.
—The previous Oracle met a terribly lonely and miserable end. And this generation’s Oracle was fated for the same.
He’d definitely referred to the Holy Emperor as this generation’s Oracle.
Which meant.
“Grandmother… no, Grandmatron… was she an Oracle?”
At Seongjin’s question, the Holy Emperor lowered his eyes, pondered briefly, then nodded.
“Yes. No point hiding it now. She was.”
The Holy Emperor’s mother, Second Empress Consort Bethsheba, was a woman of the Kornsiim clan.
Black hair and gray eyes. The one who’d passed the clan’s traits fully to him.
She’d known she was an Oracle since very young, they said. But aware of the weight her prophecies carried, she kept it secret from her clan until her death.
So the Kornsiim clan had proceeded with her marriage to the Imperial family without suspecting a thing.
Had they known Empress Consort Bethsheba was an Oracle, they never would’ve let the clan’s treasure leak out like that.
But now the clan knew.
What she had been, and who the current Oracle was.
“Then we don’t need to hide it anymore?”
At Seongjin’s question, the Holy Emperor’s lip twitched slightly.
“What can they do if they know? Who would dare.”
A somehow chilling smile.
Seongjin could easily guess the unspoken follow-up.
Who would dare demand prophecies from the current Holy Emperor?