Chapter 48
Chapter: 48
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>Translator: penny
>Chapter: 48
>Chapter Title: Premonition (6)
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The sun was setting.
However, the western sky, which should have been draped in sunset hues before gradually darkening, was brighter than ever before. A massive blaze had erupted, engulfing the entire valley curving northeast from the ridgeline. It was the slash-and-burn village.
Enrique glanced back briefly.
“It looks like it’s begun.”
Nate stared silently at the sight. His eyes pierced beyond the festival-like blaze.
Souls. Transparent souls fluttered hazily above the burning mountain, rising into the air.
Some of them were likely writhing in agonizing death throes, while others thrashed about, unable to let go of their attachments to life. Yet to a distant onlooker, they all appeared merely to be dancing lightly.
They soon turned and hurried along the pass.
As they neared the Asain checkpoint, a familiar coffin came into view.
Enrique subtly checked Nate’s expression, but Nate obediently climbed in and lay down. He would have crawled straight into a grave if told to. He was exhausted enough to drop dead.
With a soft slide, the lid closed, and consciousness faded.
By the time they arrived at the guild branch, night had fallen completely.
Dazed, Nate leaned on Enrique’s support as he entered the building, where Aslan and Old Man Max waited with anxious faces. Their worry had visibly drained the color from their cheeks in the interim. Aslan even rushed to him, clutching his robe hem and bursting into sobs.
Even the old man, with whom they weren’t particularly close, couldn’t turn away. To think he’d grown so attached to Nate after just a few days. What an affectionate boy.
As they shared this heartfelt reunion, a booming laugh echoed from deeper in the lobby.
“Uhahaha! You’re so damn slow—finally made it, huh?”
A towering man with impressively developed muscles strode out, laughing heartily. He was the guild’s power player and one of the continent’s few Sword Masters, Asain branch chief Justin Astros.
“Kekeke, Your Majesty. Heard you had a rough time this go-around? The little squirt Aslan said you were totally…”
The man chuckled as he approached them, then abruptly stopped. Nate had silently extended both arms toward him.
Seeing the blood-soaked bandages wrapped around Nate’s wrists, the man flinched and glanced at his face. The once-jovial lobby atmosphere chilled instantly.
“Justin.”
The quiet call made the man tremble.
“If you pull a stunt like that even once more, I’ll slap a 30% tariff on your shop from now on. Understood?”
“What?”
Justin’s eyes widened as if they might pop out.
“Tariff of 30…? Hey! That’s straight-up banditry! Even Asain doesn’t pull that crap! And what the hell am I even importing to tariff anyway?”
“You import, don’t you? The latest Brittany fashions.”
“What…”
Justin’s jaw dropped.
Fashions count as imports? Hey? Well, fine! I’ll just jack up the prices! Skyrocket ‘em! You know your wife’s my top customer, right?
Grumbling for a while, the man soon meekly drew his aura blade and sliced off the handcuffs.
Clang, clang. As the handcuffs neatly shattered and fell to the floor, Aslan let out a gasp. Wow.
To think such a clownish guy was actually a powerhouse.
As Nate rotated his wrists, free for the first time in days, Justin watched for a moment before asking with a sullen face.
“…Hey, you okay?”
“……?”
What was with everyone today? If you’re gonna ask if I’m okay, don’t mess around from the start.
Before returning to Delcros, Nate received a brief report on the Asain branch’s current situation and how this incident would be handled. It included the whereabouts of the two he’d rescued from the slash-and-burn village.
Old Man Max, with no family or ties, would stay on at the guild doing odd jobs for now.
His face lit up at finally escaping the bandit gang that had bound him for half his life. Remarkably, he hadn’t even sought out his beloved booze; the successive waves of holy power seemed to have suppressed his withdrawal symptoms too.
Aslan had more options.
“He’s a talented kid. No complaints as an apothecary, and he even awakened aura on his own—a remarkable gift.”
Despite rolling with the bandits since childhood, he was one of the rare few with an upright heart. Nate’s calm praise lit up the boy’s face with joy.
“Help him as much as possible based on what he wants. He could continue studying under a renowned apothecary as an assistant, or I could write a recommendation to serve as a squire to a promising knight.”
But upon hearing this, the Asain branch chief smirked subtly and shot Aslan a knowing look.
“Hmm, while waiting for you, we had some fun chats with the kid here.”
Suspicious of yet another scheme, Nate glared at Justin, but Aslan stepped forward, face tense.
The boy marched straight to Nate, then carefully dropped to one knee and bowed. He’d likely mimicked Enrique on the way; the posture was awkward but earnest enough.
After the bow, the boy reported to Nate in a slightly trembling voice.
“Lord Bart… no, Your Holiness. I want to become your man from now on.”
Enrique tsked from the side.
“Another innocent life…”
Ignoring the aside, Aslan gazed up at Nate and continued brightly.
“I’ll hone my swordsmanship and head to Delcros. I’ll take the Imperial Palace Knight Order exam next year and become a knight in Your Holiness’s Imperial Guard, always at your side to serve you. I’ll do my utmost to make it happen.”
“…….”
Nate was inwardly flustered by Aslan’s unexpected words. It hadn’t even been a day since escaping the bandits, and here he was plotting his life already. And so specifically too?
Sure enough, someone fanned the flames from the side.
“Ahem, I already agreed to train him with the sword. The knight order exam? Piece of cake—I, the great Justin, will get him through easy!”
Umhahhah! After shooting a glance at the shamelessly confident branch chief, Nate met the eyes of the boy sparkling up at him.
“Aslan, you’re still young. No need to decide everything so soon. Childhood is shorter than you think. There won’t be enough time to try all the things you’ve never done or enjoy what you’ve missed. Why not take more time and think it over carefully?”
But Aslan shook his head.
“Had it not been for Your Holiness, I surely would have lost my life to the subjugation force today. My life now is as good as one you granted me. So isn’t it right that my remaining days should be devoted to you?”
He had endured a brutal childhood alone with the bandits. Just when he’d adapted, the subjugation force came, forcing him to flee bloodied and alone across Phlandor’s border. He’d lived diligently, but for a boy, those days were utterly lonely.
Yet following Nate these past few days, Aslan had felt an unprecedented sense of stability. Even in frantic pursuits, he could firmly trust, rely on, and follow someone. The boy never wanted to lose that first taste of security and bond.
“Aslan.”
Nate opened his mouth to dissuade the boy once more.
For an instant, the face of a grown young man overlapped the boy looking up at him. Nate instantly recognized him as Aslan years from now.
The splendidly matured youth wore the uniform of the Imperial Guard knight order as he’d vowed in childhood, though it was torn and bloodied from fierce battle. Around him lay the cooling bodies of fellow guardsmen.
He stood, sword shakily aimed at the dark gray sky. Glaring at some unseen foe, he bellowed.
—If I’d known it’d come to this, I never would have…!
The scene vanished swiftly. Yet the anguish in the young man’s scream prompted Nate to ask the boy the same question again.
“…You won’t regret it?”
But the boy’s eyes, brimming with conviction, remained as steadfast as ever.
“Yes, never.”
“…….”
“…May I not?”
What could he say against such earnest eyes?
“…I look forward to the day Delcros welcomes another fine Imperial Palace knight.”
Nate finally managed to reply, clearing his tightening throat.
* * *
Splash, splash.
Nate opened his eyes to the gentle lapping of water. It was a small artificial pond in the heart of the palace.
He rose from the surface and slowly walked out. His sodden vestments hung heavy, dragging him toward the pond bottom.
A mild-faced middle-aged woman approached with a clean robe. She was the ever-reliable and loyal captain of the Saint Aurelion Knight Order.
“Your heart truly stopped twice. Your Holiness.”
That explained her slightly haggard look. She’d been through hell these past days. Francis, who doted on his knight order captain, would surely chew him out later.
“Well done, Katrina.”
“No need for that. Did you find His Highness?”
Nate halted before fully emerging. He stared briefly at the droplets falling from his hair and robes, then nodded.
“Yes, I found the child. He’ll live as another Clanos outside the empire.”
“…I see.”
She’d assumed, knowing the Holy Emperor’s temperament, he’d bring the boy back at once. But something hadn’t gone smoothly. Sure enough, Nate stopped stock-still, covering his face with one hand and sighing unexpectedly.
“If I’d known, I wouldn’t have hated Solomon, that man, so much…”
Katrina unconsciously held her breath. It was the first time the Holy Emperor had mentioned his predecessor first.
Solomon Klein. Delcros’s 16th Holy Emperor, the cold sovereign who’d tightly bound the theology academy and council as political weaknesses.
The man who merely frowned and sipped wine while his young son vomited blood before him.
As a child, Nate had often thought unconsciously: weren’t all his and his mother’s misfortunes due to that man? Wouldn’t everything be solved by killing him?
But receiving the same gaze from his own child brought those childhood memories back with new meaning.
Though Kaien had seemed compliant in the end, faint killing intent toward him had occasionally emanated from the boy. He’d likely judged it better to seize a chance to slit the continent’s greatest power’s throat and fully escape than live under eternal watch.
The sole reason for yielding was that he’d found no opening in Nate.
Above all, during their talk, the chilling malice from the boy’s cracked black soul lingered vividly in his mind. The soul wept black tears, ceaselessly hurling curses at him.
-I’ll curse you! I’ll curse you! All this pain is your fault!
-I’ll devour your soul! Rip it to shreds and eat every last bit!
Kaien, unable to hear his own soul despite others’, would never detect that true intent.
“Katrina, at first… I thought I’d grant the child the freedom he spoke of.”
The thoughtful knight captain listened silently.
“But now I keep suspecting otherwise. Maybe I was just afraid I’d end up cutting him down myself.”
Nate hadn’t believed Kaien would stay meek forever, but nor was he prepared to forcibly inscribe a soul-binding seal, risking the boy’s damaged soul.
Could a crumbling soul recover? Had it passed the tipping point into collapse? If it twisted into something irredeemably evil, what then?
“I resolved never to raise a sword against my child again…”
Katrina watched the droplets tracing his jaw, then gently draped the robe over him.
“Your Holiness.”
“…….”
“Even if, it will never come to that.”
Her voice held firm, gentle conviction.
“Your Holiness gave His Highness exactly what he most desired.”
Though her words clashed with his premonition, it was a voice he wanted to believe forever.
“…Yes.”
That was why he’d always hoped his children would become people like this knight captain.