Chapter 81
Chapter 81
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 81
Chapter Title: Longing for a Friend
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“To be honest with you, the princess is quite the greedy one.”
What do I think of Her Highness the Princess? Hmm... a greedy little thing.
She tries hard to hide it, but you can’t really conceal your true nature. I’m not blind—I can see the desire brimming in the way she looks at me.
It’s just that she’s so desperate to keep it under wraps that I’ve pretended not to notice.
“That girl told me herself. She said she’d do anything to bring you into our imperial fold.”
How many glasses had we drunk by then? We’d been sipping away like it was tea, and soon enough, I was tipsy, and His Majesty had a flush on his cheeks too.
My body might have been swaying, but my mind was clear as day. It was a sign that ascension was drawing near. Everything comes with a warning. It’s just a matter of whether you see it or not.
His Majesty’s cheeks were rosy too, but his eyes were sharp and steady. He wasn’t using magic to dispel the alcohol—it was pure force of will.
“I saw right through what you were weighing the moment you heard it. Ardaine... My daughter’s even considered proposing to you herself. But I can’t tell if she’s greedy for you as a man, or for the divine powers and miracles you wield.”
“I had no idea Her Highness held me in such high regard...”
The princess loves me? That strikes me as awfully strange.
At least from what I can sense, she doesn’t seem to have feelings for me as a person. If she truly did, that would complicate things even more. I don’t know when my time of ascension will come.
—Remember, I don’t pluck my feathers for just anyone.
Above all else, after my ascension,
someone will be waiting for me at the Lord’s side. In the broadest sense... she counts as a person too.
—I’ll be waiting for the day we become the perfect pair.
The Holy Spirit who inverts hope. I wonder how the bluebird is faring?
Somehow, I missed her. Sometimes in the form of a true bird. Sometimes as a girl my age.
She’d come to my side after I lost my parents and taught me how to wield the power granted by the Lord—my teacher and friend. The year I turned fifteen, she declared there was nothing more to teach and ascended to the heavens.
“You’re thinking of another woman.”
And just like that, she caught me red-handed.
“So you’re a philanderer after all. Who were you thinking of? That beastkin girl who left with the imperial envoy?”
“Roca is a child I must care for, just as the Lord cared for me. No, it was someone else. An old friend I’m currently parted from.”
“Perhaps the current hero, Yurinel Rakfonzia?”
It seems the princess spilled everything, even about Pumpkin Vine Village.
The fact that Yurinel and I were childhood friends wasn’t exactly a secret, and with the imperial resources, it wouldn’t have been hard to uncover. But they’d figured it out this quickly? She must have told them straight out.
“Yurinel is a dear friend I miss, but she hasn’t promised me a future together.”
“Could you tell me more about this friend of yours? These matters are best settled before they get messy. Look at me—things got complicated with the women in my life, and now my children’s relationships are knotted up like tangled ropes. There’s no untangling it now without cutting it with a blade.”
“She settled in my hometown for a time, then left when the moment came. She flew off, leaving only a promise that we’d meet again someday.”
His Majesty’s eyes sharpened for some reason, and I couldn’t help but confess.
“I won’t see her again until after I leave the earth to follow the Lord.”
“Do you love this friend?”
“Of course. But if you mean romantic love between man and woman, I’m not sure. I’d have to see her again to know. I was still young back then.”
Tsk. His Majesty clicked his tongue.
“Fine, then. Fine. If you already have a sweetheart—a divine spirit up in the heavens, no less—my daughter will suffer, but what can be done? Even an emperor can’t fight that. Nothing in this world goes exactly as you wish.”
“Her Highness will surely find a worthy match.”
“But you haven’t answered yet. What do you think of my daughter? Don’t think you can brush it off with ‘greedy’ and call it a day. Does that mean you dislike her?”
Ah, no, that’s not it.
Greed isn’t always a bad thing.
“There was a time when I couldn’t understand it myself.”
I used to see people who weren’t satisfied with what they had and reached for more.
Back then, it struck me as odd. Why not stop running, look around, and appreciate what’s there? I wondered about it often.
But that very desire had turned Yurinel into the hero who protects the world.
My childhood friend wasn’t some saintly, purely good soul, but in the end, that’s what she became. She swung her sword for her own glory and riches, yet it led her to grow in a way that benefited everyone.
The biggest reason I don’t regret leaving the village to follow Yurinel is that I learned plenty from that adventure too.
Desire is the driving force. The power to pray and achieve.
It’s neither good nor evil in itself—it’s just desire. Label it evil, treat it as such, and it truly becomes evil, manifesting before us. Accept and embrace it, and there’s no issue. Guide it in the right direction, and it might even become a tremendous strength for one person.
“Everyone has the desire to live. That’s the most fundamental one. Once it’s fulfilled, they wish the same for those close to them.”
“To satisfy that, they pursue money, power, strength, and so on. Sometimes those very means become the object of desire and draw people in. It’s only natural. It’s human nature.”
Judging it as good or bad is pointless. Desires drive human action—it’s inevitable.
Even beasts have urges, and mere plants stretch toward the sun. So how could humans transcend desire? Deny that premise, and you can’t take a single step forward. Accept it, then think about what comes next.
“Your Majesty, it’s the same for everyone. Of course parents cherish their own children more than others’. It’s natural—no need to correct it. I see the princess as worldly, but not evil. She’s simply honest about her greed.”
“Worldly, but not evil?”
“Everyone deserves to pursue their desires. But in this world, some trample others’ desires and steal what isn’t theirs. That’s true evil. From what I’ve seen, Her Highness isn’t that kind of person.”
His Majesty pondered my words before speaking.
“No, you’re wrong there. My daughter is ambitious and power-hungry—she’s harmed countless people already. By your own words, the girl she used to be could be called evil.”
I don’t know the princess from before her illness, so I have no right to judge.
But if she truly was like that, then her long bout with leprosy wasn’t entirely in vain.
“The girl I saw after so long wasn’t as reckless or violent as before. Back then, she’d have grabbed a sword and charged out to strike down her brother. Instead, she held back and listened to her father’s pleas. Maybe she’s matured with age, or perhaps following you around changed her heart...”
His Majesty hesitated, then continued.
“I don’t want her going back to how she was. She’s my daughter, after all—the child I love most... So deep down, I hoped she’d end up with you. Even if she’s worldly, if you guided her by your side, couldn’t she at least remain a good-hearted one?”
Is it the Lord’s will to dig up your own roots to help others when you have nothing? Such selfless acts may be nobler than the charity of the rich. But preaching that everyone should adopt that mindset? No matter how I think about it, that’s not the Lord’s way.
Selflessness should be like the charity of the wealthy. First, ensure you have surplus to spare. Only then help others. No one can demand you sacrifice your own to aid them.
Especially not me, whom the Lord replenishes when I lose something. For me to preach renunciation to others would be sheer hypocrisy.
So I didn’t want the princess to abandon everything she held. Even when desire for higher power glinted in her eyes, it didn’t bother me much.
I just hoped she’d become someone who wielded power while helping others appropriately. Someone who made her faction the wealthiest while sharing wealth with those outside.
That seemed to be what His Majesty the Emperor desired too.
“You may have a sweetheart, but she’s far away in the heavens. Heaven and earth follow different laws—so is there a rule saying you can’t have another on earth?”
“Your Majesty, that’s not for me to say definitively.”
Which is why I can make this promise.
“But whenever Her Highness seeks my counsel, I promise to gladly share my thoughts.”
“Hah, if you’d accepted outright, I’d have been disappointed.”
His Majesty downed another glass as he spoke.
“She’s my daughter, but a rare beauty. A bit older, sure, but her looks outshine the young ones.”
“Seeing you turn down a chance to marry such a peerless beauty and become the emperor’s son-in-law—to wield that power—without a second thought... It makes your words ring true for me. Very well. You’ve made yourself clear, so I won’t press further.”
The drinking session was wrapping up when suddenly—
Boom.
A distant rumble echoed.
It wasn’t that loud, coming from so far away, but its suddenness was the problem. And it didn’t stop—explosions kept coming one after another.
“What in the world? That girl? But she wouldn’t act without preparation unless she’d taken the wrong medicine...”
“Your Majesty, we should head to safety first.”
A man in black robes dropped from the ceiling and approached His Majesty.
But something was off about his expression. If I’d sensed it, His Majesty surely had too.
“Director Albus. What’s going on? What’s causing this commotion?”
“We haven’t confirmed yet. These blasts aren’t coming from the palace. The protective magic arrays are fully operational, and the capital is calm. Everyone’s just panicked by the noise.”
“What are you saying? Then where are these explosions coming from?”
“Hard to believe, but it seems like massive blasts outside the capital.”
His Majesty grew furious at the vague response.
“If explosions that big happened, you should at least pinpoint the source. You must have seen them with your own eyes!”
“It’s our failure. Forgive us.”
“Find out what’s causing this noise. The capital’s citizens must be terrified.”
“Your Majesty. Emergency reply just in from the Republic.”
A messenger rushed up then, stumbling repeatedly in his haste. He handed a document to His Majesty, whose face twisted oddly as he read it.
“The Citadel Republic is requesting we open a long-range teleport gate...? What’s happening? Is the problem in the Republic, not the capital? Even these explosions...”
He shook his head, barely composing himself.
“No, that can’t be. The Republic is so far—how could trouble there reach us? Anyway, maybe I should’ve just died quickly. I barely stand, and now more problems pile up.”
Something enormous had happened.
Something truly massive.
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