Chapter 143
Chapter: 143
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>Translator: penny
>Chapter: 143
>Chapter Title: The Holy Emperor's Coffin (5)
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>The trigger for Cadmos Kline's decision to end his own life was remarkably simple.
It happened around the time his reign surpassed three hundred years.
As always, he casually delegated the interminable council of state affairs to his descendants and was lounging about in the palace when a voice calling out from the garden caught his ear.
“How much longer must I keep cleaning up after that man?”
“But Lord Remus, you know full well that you are the imperial family's eldest son.”
“That damned eldest son business!”
Rarely did anyone in the main palace raise their voice to irk him, so instead of annoyance, Cadmos listened with a touch of curiosity.
Remus. That was the sharp young descendant who had recently been presiding over the council in his stead.
He was fairly advanced in years, yet still full of vigor, it seemed.
“If I fulfill my duties as the eldest son, will that monster die someday? Will he pass on the throne?”
“Lord Remus! Compose yourself. Such words could easily be misconstrued as treason!”
“Misconstrue them if you must!”
The content spilling from his descendant's mouth was far more serious than expected.
Above all, that desperate tone.
The anguish of despair, rage, and resignation pierced a corner of Cadmos's heart more sharply than usual that day.
“You know it well, don't you, Uncle? My great-grandfather, grandfather, and father all lived out their lives like this! Crushed under the weight of that 'eldest son' duty, spending decades merely polishing a throne they would never inherit!”
“But Lord Remus...”
“And now the youngest prince sired by that monster is barely one year old! That infant is first in line for the throne! How long does he plan to live? Decades from now, will my children have to spend their lives cleaning up after His Majesty, only to watch my great-great-grandfather be born right before their eyes?”
His descendant was on the verge of tears.
“Do you know how the ministers look at me during the council, Uncle? What am I to them? The one who will inherit the throne and rule over them? Or just a servant tending to it with care?”
Only then did Cadmos realize.
The family tree was a total mess!
Indeed, the children he had with his empress in his youth had long since passed away, leaving behind grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
And the child born a few years ago to his newly taken young empress was just learning to toddle about.
Though the Holy Emperor Cadmos was revered as a demigod, he did not rule them personally. And the authority of the actual ruler had already plummeted to rock bottom solely because there was no chance of inheriting the throne.
At this point, even Cadmos, who lived without much thought, could see it. A nation like this could not endure for long.
“Perhaps it's time for me to step aside...”
Cadmos gazed at his hands. At his will, divinity stirred, faint golden scales shimmering and vanishing along his forearm.
He had never shared his divinity with his descendants. Because of this primal power, fully controlled by his divinity.
But with merely a slightly longer lifespan than ordinary people and slightly stronger divine power, was it truly enough to lead the vast empire he had sustained?
“Use the laws of the material world.”
When he confided this worry to his old friend, Sigurd Sigursson—the dimension-traveling storyteller—made the suggestion.
“If you seal your body to prevent that primal power from rampaging, you can pass on a portion of your divinity to your descendants without burden.”
“But what if I lose complete control someday?”
“Then reclaim the divinity from your descendants bit by bit before that happens, no? Over generations, their divinity will fade, but by then, the empire should be on a stable path.”
I see.
Though he responded thus, seeing Cadmos still uneasy, the storyteller added with a trustworthy smile.
“Worry not, old friend. Even if the timing is off and that primal power breaks free, this coffin will contain it completely, as if dimensions were severed. That's the nature of the material world's laws.”
As promised, Cadmos confirmed the Holy Emperor's Coffin functioned perfectly and smiled in satisfaction.
Now, shall I rest a bit? Not that I ever did much work.
And so the first Holy Emperor was interred in the coffin, preserved in his vivid lifelike form.
Remus, who inherited a portion of his divinity and became the second Holy Emperor, began his reign of blood by executing his great-great-grandfather—the former infant—and all the ministers who had fallen from his favor.
* * *
Hundreds of years passed after that, and the Millennium Holy Kingdom firmly established itself as the continent's center.
Cadmos enjoyed a thoroughly idle retirement during that time.
He spent decades drifting as a soul, lounging about, and occasionally, when boredom struck, borrowing the body of someone on the verge of death to live a new life.
Unfortunately, souls confronting his divinity tended to melt away without a trace, but he paid it no mind.
By the primal [Covenant] forged by the Chief God, souls dying in Delcros usually fell into the hands of the high demon kings anyway.
Better they vanish peacefully than suffer eternally in their hells, Cadmos rationalized diligently.
Saint Grazie was born from one such diversion.
A woman of peculiar mindset, neglecting her own body to serve others.
Wondering how far she would go, he watched her endure trial after trial, reviving her with divine power each time, only for her to become a saint revered by posterity before he knew it.
And twenty years ago.
Cadmos judged it time to fully reclaim the divinity permitted to his descendants.
Curiously, all the lingering divinity among his descendants had converged on a single child. Peering into her fate, he saw she would die soon, so he marked her with the saintess's sigil, thinking it fitting.
But contrary to his expectations, the child did not appear at the next Holy Emperor's Coffin ritual.
Enraged, Cadmos manifested before the audacious sixteenth Holy Emperor, who had entered the ritual alone, and berated him fiercely.
Yet this worthless descendant never thought to search for the child, fleeing in terror and never returning.
‘All this is because of that child...’
Cadmos's golden irises narrowed sharply as he glared at his exceptional descendant sneering before him.
What a marvel. Where had such a one come from?
Unlike his unremarkable father, the moment the mark appeared on his daughter's body, he flew into a rage and sealed even himself—hailed as a demigod—helpless in the church's underground.
Though it was a loophole enabled by the material world's rules, Cadmos had to admire his resolve.
Infuriating as it was, that was beside the point.
[It is not too late even now, child. You know well how much fate has been twisted by the causality you disrupted, do you not? Thus, you sent this false saintess to draw me out.]
“......”
[Now, hand over your child obediently. Do so, and I shall descend into this world through her body myself to purge the wicked. I will gladly relieve you of that heavy burden.]
“...I return those words to you.”
At the mention of Sisley, a chilling glint flashed in the Holy Emperor's silver-gray eyes as he glared at Cadmos.
“Who are you to speak of causality before me? Do you truly think I do not know your true nature?”
[...What?]
“If you wish to hear that primal, profane name from my lips, so be it.”
[......!]
Krurrr.
A beastly growl rumbled from Cadmos's throat, his aura turning savagely fierce.
Fangs protruded from his mouth, golden scales flickering across his skin.
[So you intend to see this through to the end...]
The Holy Emperor's aura surged in response.
White robes billowed in a wind from nowhere. Scattered furnishings in the office collided chaotically before soaring into the air.
“It seems best for us both. I hoped there might be room for talk, but that was mere delusion on my part.”
Kuuung!
The clashing auras emanating from them shook the entire main palace as if an earthquake had struck.
A crack spiderwebbed across one wall, stone dust trickling down.
It was then.
“Hmm, how about we call it quits now? The garden outside is already wrecked, total chaos.”
“......!?”
[...How did you get here?]
The Holy Emperor and Cadmos turned simultaneously toward the office entrance where the voice had come from.
There stood a boy, clutching the cracked doorframe, swaying unsteadily. He had been there unnoticed.
Blood trickled down.
Having scraped together aura to pierce the fierce pressure, his body was a wreck. He wiped the blood streaming from nose and mouth with his sleeve and smiled brightly.
“You must've been too absorbed in your chat. If you keep going, the main palace might collapse soon. You know the birthday celebration is coming up, and the palace is full of distinguished guests, right?”
Flustered, the two withdrew their auras in unison, as if by agreement.
[...That wicked thing...!]
Before Cadmos could speak.
Whoosh!
A tremendous gust of aura swept in, hurling him out to the terrace in the blink of an eye.
[......!?]
Crash!
Flung into the main palace garden alongside a desk, Cadmos rose in bewilderment to find the Holy Emperor ignoring him entirely, already rushing to the boy and pouring divine power from head to toe.
“Mores! What possessed you to stick your head where it doesn't belong!”
“Uh... Seems like you were in the middle of something important. Did I interrupt? Sorry.”
“No, I was just wasting time on trifles. Anyway, are you hurt?”
“Yeah, I'm fine now. Thanks.”
What is this atmosphere?
Reduced to a fifth wheel, Cadmos gaped dumbly at them.
“By the way, what brings you here?”
“Oh, nothing much. I had something to say, so I stopped by on a whim, but the palace seemed eerily empty. Then it started shaking, and I felt a weird presence inside, so I came to check.”
“If that were the case, you should've called the guard or stayed far away until it blew over!”
“Haha, you know I can't stand curiosity, Father.”
“You think that's something to brag about right now!”
Smack! The boy yelped and toppled backward.
By the time Cadmos leaped back up to the second-floor terrace in disbelief, the boy was rolling on the floor clutching his forehead, while the Holy Emperor tsked softly down at him.
An utterly peaceful scene, ignoring his presence entirely.
Cadmos swallowed a surge of inexplicable fury and ground his teeth.
[...Are you two daring to ignore me standing right here?]
The Holy Emperor turned to him with obvious annoyance and spoke.
“Watch closely, son.”
“...Yes?”
As the boy rubbed his forehead and looked up, the Holy Emperor slowly extended a hand toward Cadmos and continued.
“The laws of the material world have peculiar aspects that sheer power logic can't always explain. The most crucial is [Conditions].”
“Conditions?”
“Yes. No matter how great the power, if the condition isn't met, there's an absolute barrier or boundary it can't breach.”
The boy tilted his head.
“Even power can't break through?”
“Exactly. Think of a door that absolutely won't open without a specific condition.”
“Aha!”
As the Holy Emperor's explanation continued, the boy's face brightened, while Cadmos's sense of foreboding grew.
And then.
“Thus, even with such potent divinity nearby, material world souls do not wither but are preserved, and material world bodies can contain it wholly.”
With those words.
Click.
Suddenly, something locked into place in Cadmos's mind.