Chapter 165
Chapter: 165
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Translator: penny
>Chapter: 165
>Chapter Title: Storm (6)
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
>“It seems I did too many spatial jumps.”
How much time had passed? The Holy Emperor, having recovered first, helped Seongjin up and sat him on the sofa as he spoke. From the looks of it, he had clearly enjoyed putting his son through the soul-projection experience to the fullest.
“Rest here quietly until you feel better.”
Seongjin couldn’t help but chuckle slyly at the man’s somewhat sullen expression.
“Still, it was incredibly fun thanks to you. You saw it too, right? That sea anemone bastard going up in flames… Urk!”
“……”
Sure enough, a waterfall of holy power poured down over his head once more.
The Holy Emperor then staggered forward with feeble steps toward Katrina, who knelt at the entrance.
Katrina, who had been leaning on her sword with an exhausted face, quickly regained her strength the moment she received his holy power. It seemed this dreadful motion sickness was a side effect that only afflicted those who had directly entered and exited the Rift.
“Your Majesty!”
Katrina sprang to her feet and supported the Holy Emperor.
Louis awoke next, straightened his attire, and the attendants gradually rose one by one.
Bewildered by their sudden collapse, they couldn’t hide their joy at receiving the miracle of healing directly from the Holy Emperor. Feeling much lighter, the attendants returned to finishing their duties.
“Father! You’re safe!”
“Your Majesty! What happened? What about Prince Mores?”
Just then, Amelia and Masaine came rushing toward the office, only to receive a baptism of holy power from the Holy Emperor and stand there dumbfounded.
“Go to the banquet hall as is.”
“Yes, we shall escort you, Your Majesty.”
Katrina placed a hand over her heart and bowed politely.
As the Holy Emperor moved to step into the corridor, he suddenly flinched to a halt and turned to gaze at the terrace. For a fleeting moment, a faint silver gleam flashed in his eyes.
“Has Logan been here by any chance?”
“Ah, yes. He came with me, but he went out to the garden chasing an assassin.”
At Seongjin’s response, the Holy Emperor’s brow furrowed slightly.
“…You’ve met at an ill-timed moment.”
“Pardon?”
“Louis. Prepare spare blankets and fresh hot tea in the office.”
Though puzzled by the abrupt order, the seasoned steward bowed his head without hesitation.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“You all follow me. Let the children rest well.”
Amelia and Masaine, who had been about to rush to Seongjin, were caught by the Holy Emperor and dragged back to the banquet hall.
‘Hmm……’
Seongjin watched them for a moment before closing his eyes. A sense of relief washed over him now that everything was resolved.
Even though the man looked a bit drained, the flow of his aura remained as steady as ever. It was just the motion sickness; his actual condition wasn’t that bad.
He was rolling around on the office floor for quite a while like that.
[Lee Seongjin.]
The Demon King whispered.
‘Yeah?’
[The Second Prince is outside.]
…What?
Seongjin bolted upright in surprise. A brief wave of dizziness hit him, but the motion sickness was now tolerable enough.
‘These Dekaron knights of yours can’t sense a presence unless they’re on high alert! If he’s back, why isn’t he coming in right away? What’s he doing?’
Surely he hadn’t let the assassin escape and was moping about it?
Grumbling to himself, Seongjin headed to the terrace. Rain was blowing into the office through the slightly open window.
“Uh……”
There, at the edge of the terrace, Seongjin spotted Logan, soaked to the bone in the rain. For some inexplicable reason, the man wasn’t coming inside but stood there blankly, facing the garden as the downpour drenched him.
Seongjin was stunned.
“Hey!”
A former swordmaster like him, with all that aura at his disposal, and he was standing there like a drowned rat!
Seongjin rushed over in one bound and grabbed Logan by the collar. His body temperature was so low that Seongjin’s hand grew chilled just from gripping the wet collar.
He dragged the dripping Logan to the office sofa and sat him down. Just then, Louis entered with blankets and startled, hurried over. Soon, a dry blanket was draped over Logan’s head, and a warm teacup was pressed into his hands.
In that moment, both Seongjin and Louis realized it.
Ah, so that seemingly random order had all been for a reason.
Once the situation had settled somewhat, the perceptive head steward quietly excused himself.
“What the hell happened? Did you lose him? Come on, letting one assassin slip away isn’t that big a deal, is it?”
“……”
Logan kept his head bowed in silence. The fingertips clutching the teacup were blue with cold, but the trembling didn’t seem to be from the chill.
Sensing something amiss, Seongjin waited quietly. After a moment, Logan spoke in a barely audible voice.
“…Lee Seongjin.”
“Yeah.”
“I was a coward to the very end. I shouldn’t have dumped all the burden on my friends and comrades back then and slipped away so easily.”
“What?”
“I shouldn’t make excuses like it was unavoidable and settle into this reality. When I think about what that child must have felt to choose the path of an assassin while I’ve been doing this……”
Logan fell silent again, but from that one sentence alone, Seongjin could infer a great deal.
It figured—the assassin had turned out to be someone Logan had known in his previous life.
Naturally, that person would harbor deep resentment toward the Empire, only to confront him as an imperial prince. It was the worst possible scenario.
‘No, even so……’
Seongjin didn’t know the full details of the Ortona civil war, but hadn’t you fought to the bitter end instead of dying so easily?
Dumbfounded, Seongjin grabbed a nearby cushion and hurled it at Logan. It struck his head with a thud and rolled across the floor.
He didn’t even dodge?
Damn, that pissed him off.
“Hey, you idiot! There’s a limit to self-recrimination. Why are you feeling pointless guilt toward the people you risked your life to save? What, did that assassin say something to you? Ungratefulness has its limits.”
“…That couldn’t be helped. To them, I’m nothing but an enemy prince.”
“Sure, you can’t reveal your true identity to them. But think about it—this ‘Logan of Delcross,’ what did he ever do wrong to them? You weren’t even born when the civil war happened, you fool! Was the Ortona civil war your fault?”
“But……”
“On top of that, you’ve been out there hunting sea demons for your fellow countrymen! Do you think just anyone could manage such consistent military operations? It’s only possible because you’re an imperial prince! How many lives have you saved with your own hands? If you realize that, stand tall with some pride!”
As the second cushion flew at him, Logan subtly shifted to dodge it this time.
“Even if I saved their lives, their wretched circumstances haven’t changed.”
“But you already gave your life for them! So what more do you think you should have done?!”
“……”
Logan lifted his head and looked at the fuming Seongjin with a hint of surprise. Then, his eyes crinkled slightly in a smile that seemed hazy and wistful.
“When I resolved to fight to the last on that plain, do you have any idea what weight was forcibly thrust upon those who were forced to survive?”
Seongjin thought with a displeased expression.
No clue. I’ve never held back or preserved myself for the future.
“As the tide turned hopelessly against us, Benicio and I shared drinks and talked at length. In the end, we concluded that establishing a republic on this continent would take far more time than expected. That without gradually shifting mindsets over generations from within the Empire, the continent had no future. A grand undertaking that might take a century… or perhaps several times that.”
“……”
“Yeah. To be honest, Lee Seongjin, when I died at Captain Silas’s hands, deep down I felt relief. Who could easily shoulder a task that might span centuries? I lacked the confidence to silently trudge through that endless dark tunnel forever.”
Logan set the teacup down on the table with a clink and rubbed his face with both hands as he continued.
“I shoved that heavy burden onto Benicio and died carefree. Comforting myself that I’d done my absolute best. How utterly cowardly is that?”
And after fleeing into death like that, what had he done when granted life anew?
There were limits to what he could do as an enemy prince, and he couldn’t betray his new family. Rationalizing it that way, he had merely wandered aimlessly outside the Empire.
But now Logan had come to a clear realization.
The reason he had busied himself with sea demon subjugations without a moment to think.
The reason he hadn’t actively sought out Benicio and his group.
“I thought I’d do anything for my homeland. That I’d hide my identity and provide support from the shadows—that was my resolve. But……”
“……”
“I was just running away. Scared of their cold stares, I couldn’t bring myself to take the shortcut even though I knew it. I thought I could bear any infamy, but in truth, I wasn’t prepared to face any of my comrades from my past life properly.”
Seongjin’s eyebrow twitched.
Once this guy started digging into the ground, there was no end to it.
“Yeah, I see.”
Pretending to swap the blanket, Seongjin approached and plopped the new one over Logan’s head before locking him in a brotherly headlock packed with affection.
“Gah! Hey! Lee Seongjin!”
There, how’s that? The signature move of Hunter Lee Seongjin, who could snap Blata Mentis’s legs in an instant!
As Logan flailed inside the blanket without even thinking to use his aura to break free, Seongjin’s eyes, glaring toward the terrace, grew increasingly fierce.
Which bastard was it? Who the hell messed with this poor guy?
Just wait till I find you—I won’t let you off!
* * *
“Achoo!”
At the guild’s central capital branch.
Watching Enrique sneeze repeatedly, Branch Chief Greta clicked her tongue.
“What the hell have you been doing to come back soaked like this? It’s not even regular report day—why’d you go to the palace again?”
“It’s the emperor’s birthday banquet, isn’t it? A once-a-year event, so unexpected variables could arise. Good thing today’s luck held. Something strange happened in the main palace.”
“Something strange?”
“Yes. A phenomenon similar to what occurred when he entered the prayer room appeared in the office today. My headache was so bad I couldn’t approach rashly. It might be a clue to finding his weakness.”
“……”
Greta handed him a dry cloth and gazed at the young man’s stubborn face for a moment.
“…Kike.”
“It’s No. 21.”
“Right, No. 21.”
She let out a quiet sigh and asked,
“Isn’t it about time you let go of that anger?”
Enrique stared at her in disbelief.
“How can you say that? Isn’t he a compatriot we fled Ortona with?”
“Yes. That’s true.”
A prodigy since her academy days, she had thrown herself into the republican cause in her youthful zeal. As part of the republican camp’s staff, she had striven to the end to turn the desperate tide.
In the end, at General Gael’s command, she took on the mission of escorting Prince Benicio and his son Kike to the Empire.
That connection led her to join the Astros Mercenary Group, eventually rising to a key position in the guild.
So she understood Enrique’s feelings well enough.
How the boy had trailed after the mercenary group’s “Bart” like a shadow, relying on him since childhood. He might have seen him more as a protector than even his father, Prince Benicio.
But later it turned out that man was a prince of Delcross, the empire that destroyed their homeland. No words could fully capture the betrayal young Kike had felt.
The problem was that the Holy Emperor, who had always kindly answered Kike’s questions, became unusually tight-lipped around that time. He offered no excuses or explanations about inheriting the throne.
That deepened the rift between them, and Kike, who began training to become an assassin, now repeatedly targeted the Holy Emperor’s life at every opportunity.
But those who had worked in the guild for years had noticed.
The Holy Emperor left the informant, who couldn’t hide his killing intent, be and assigned him missions to investigate continental affairs as if schooling him.
To him, Kike was still just that child he had to look after from their first meeting.
“Kike. Something big is brewing beneath the continent’s surface right now.”
Stroking the corners of her eyes, now beginning to wrinkle with age, Greta spoke.
She too had once burned with massive rage toward her homeland’s enemy at first, but working alongside him for so long revealed truths on their own.
“Something big?”
“Yes.”
The branch chief’s eyes shone gravely as she faced the young man’s defiant expression.
“Enormous schemes we might not withstand without preserving this unreasonable empire in some form……”
What the wise woman, who had built the guild over long years, saw in her eyes.
It was the harbinger of a massive storm soon to come.