Chapter 240
Chapter 240
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 240
Chapter Title: The Imperial Family's Secret Illness
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Dalpiron Juno.
Krash didn't know much about him either.
Because on the day the empire fell,
he had met his end right there alongside it.
True to his moniker as the Sword of the Imperial Family, his final moments had been just as grand.
"Above all, their geographical positions were just too different."
Back then, Krash had been treated like a cursed outcast even among the Generation of the Sky.
After enduring all sorts of harsh trials, the twisted Krash had a foul mouth and constantly spouted rude remarks to those around him.
So naturally, opinions on Krash within the Generation of the Sky were sharply divided.
Especially since he had extremely bad blood with the imperial faction.
As a result, he had little reason to cross paths with someone like Juno.
And now,
Krash found himself face-to-face with a man he had no connection to before his regression.
He had only a rough idea of the man's character.
Since he didn't know everything, Krash felt a considerable tension building inside him.
He had stood tall before the Ten Great Powers of the World time and again without flinching.
Yet facing Dalpiron now made him freshly realize just how vast the gap was between the Ten Great Powers and the Four Transcendents.
When he was weak, he couldn't even see the wall, so he hadn't known.
But now that he had come this far, he could faintly glimpse the wall—and understood how impossibly high it truly was.
No matter how far back he tilted his head,
the end of that wall, shrouded in the clouds, remained out of sight.
The stronger he grew, the more he realized the towering wall standing between him and the world's absolute strongest.
"Arthur had climbed even higher than these kinds of people, huh."
In time, the Generation of the Sky would reach even beyond the Four Transcendents.
Especially the three women who had gathered around Arthur—they held an unrivaled position.
"Even if they're in that state now."
It was a fact that they had all reached the pinnacle.
They had no choice but to grow amid those hellish, desperate battles back then.
Yet even with that power, they couldn't prevent the world's destruction.
"That's probably why Sigrin doesn't devote herself solely to her own training."
Sigrin, who had laid hands on the Sword Emperor's legacy and was salvaging all sorts of other things, wasn't much different from Krash.
She knew full well that her own strength and status alone couldn't stop the end.
Only, her focus had shifted entirely from preparing for destruction to bolstering her own position.
"So you're Krash Valheim."
As Krash lost himself in tense thoughts,
Dalpiron's mouth opened.
He slowly set down his teacup and gazed steadily at Krash through strands of his golden hair.
His eyes felt like they were peering straight into Krash's soul.
"They called you a young hero, but you give off a different impression than you appear."
And it really seemed like he had seen right through Krash.
Just like Balok Valheim, he too had ascended to demigod status.
And in doing so, he had awakened divine sight.
"If you keep accumulating that sort of thing in your body, your lifespan will shorten."
Just in case, Krash had converted all traces of World Erosion power into his aura.
But could divine sight pierce even that?
Krash reacted awkwardly.
"I'm doing my best to live a long life."
Always with full effort, of course.
Dalpiron stared into Krash's eyes for a moment.
He was reading the sincerity reflected in Krash's pupils.
"You won't live long."
He wasn't the type to offer polite compliments in front of others.
But if anything, that was for the best.
Being able to see through him meant that as long as Krash spoke the truth, Dalpiron would believe it.
"I heard the story from the Fourth Princess."
Sizli was the one who had arranged this meeting.
Fortunately, being privy to the situation, she had actively spoken to Dalpiron on Krash's behalf.
As Krash glanced at Sizli, she winked back at him with a grin.
It was a signal to hurry up and praise her efforts, but Krash ignored it.
"The illness of the Epania imperial family. White Stone Disease."
A disease known only to a tiny handful deeply tied to the imperial family.
White Stone Disease.
An affliction unique to the imperial bloodline, where the body's internal organs gradually turned to pure white stone.
Krash knew exactly why this disease occurred.
Because he had personally stolen it from Sigrin.
The curse Sigrin had once suffered from, Human-Ghost Reversal.
Human-Ghost Reversal was a curse that amplified any illnesses or weaknesses in the body.
As a result, once afflicted, the dormant White Stone Disease within Sigrin had awakened.
Her internals had rapidly turned to white stone, and just as her breathing was about to stop,
it was none other than Krash who had stolen the disease from her.
And only after stealing it did Krash realize
why, despite countless high priests and even saints, no one could cure Sigrin's White Stone Disease.
This White Stone Disease was something the imperial family had absolutely never revealed to the outside world.
The moment Dalpiron mentioned it directly,
Krash knew that if he failed to treat the emperor, there would be no simply walking away.
His skill would activate on any attempt to leave.
'Memory Thievery.'
A skill that erased the target's memories.
And through this ability, he would have wiped all knowledge and memories related to the Hell Fairy.
"That's why I couldn't obtain any information on the Hell Fairy before my regression."
Ixion had failed to cure the White Stone Disease.
The emperor ultimately died from it, and Dalpiron erased all memories and facts about it.
The imperial family's shame had to remain hidden forever.
"You're asking about the treatment method."
Dalpiron could pierce through lies alone.
So Krash raised his hand as if presenting evidence.
The moment Dalpiron's gaze followed Krash's hand,
the teacup before him was suddenly in Krash's grasp.
Dalpiron's eyes widened ever so slightly.
He had read it as a skill.
"...A skill?"
As he asked with a hint of doubt, Krash nodded.
"Yes, my skill."
Skill: Black Hood.
A skill that could steal an object from a target—either conditionally or without, depending on the value they placed on it in their mind.
If the conditions aligned, this skill could steal anything—even White Stone Disease.
Dalpiron fell silent for a moment, staring at Krash.
Various thoughts seemed to flicker through his eyes.
Krash quietly waited for his decision.
He couldn't approach the emperor without this man's permission.
"Just one question."
And after a pause, Dalpiron's heavy lips parted.
"Is that really a skill?"
The follow-up words stirred doubt even in Krash.
Really a skill?
With his awakened divine sight, he should have been able to see through Krash's Black Hood.
Yet he asked something like that.
"...Could you explain what you mean by that?"
"I have ascended to demigod."
That much Krash already knew.
With that, he raised his hand as if to demonstrate.
Golden light poured from his palm.
It was warm and captivating, drawing the eye inexorably.
Divine power.
The might of the divine realm.
A force that could be seen as the most primal form of a skill.
After showing it, Dalpiron clenched his fist, scattering the light.
"And skills aren't much different from the divine power I just showed."
"That's—"
"The skill you just used wasn't based on divine power."
Krash's eyes twitched.
Because it was something he'd never heard before.
"I've met others who ascended to demigod before, and even faced gods directly."
No one had ever said anything like that back then.
Let alone the Night God who granted him Knox—she had only remarked that his power was a divine skill capable of stealing even godly might.
She had never claimed it wasn't based on divine power.
"No way."
Krash recalled the woman who had given him a skill not long ago.
The nameless one who had suddenly appeared before him.
She had spouted cryptic words as always and vanished without even revealing her name.
"What did she do back then?"
Nothing else came to mind.
Gazing down at his own hand, Krash cautiously spoke.
"Could you tell me what the difference is?"
If Dalpiron had seen it, he could probably explain.
As Krash asked, he replied impassively.
"If you can cure His Majesty's illness, then yes."
A sort of deal, then.
Even without compensation, Krash had intended to treat the emperor anyway.
It wasn't a bad proposition for him at all.
Better yet, adding the condition of a transaction would likely inspire even greater trust.
People trusted deals more than unprompted favors.
"Very well."
Krash gladly accepted his offer.
Meeting Krash's honest gaze, Dalpiron stared at him a moment longer before rising from his seat.
"Staron Kingdom will continue to grow ever more prosperous."
It was as if, through Krash standing before him, he had glimpsed a glimpse of the future.
Krash was a resolute man.
Even before Dalpiron, who had reached demigod, he spoke his mind firmly without a hint of wavering.
Most shrank back from one who had awakened divine sight.
Yet he had leveraged it to speak only truth.
Such a person was rare, regardless of age or gender.
Staron was the kingdom closest to the empire, home to the world's strongest family, Valheim—and thus always a potential foe.
And now, another star had been born in Staron.
"While the empire, on the other hand..."
From the moment the emperor's condition began to worsen,
the imperial family had descended into chaos.
Everyone had drawn their swords to seize the throne, turning them on their own siblings.
They had no choice.
If they didn't claim it, they would be eliminated.
Dalpiron shifted his gaze to Sizli.
She, hailed as the world's greatest mind, seemed to have foreseen this situation from the start, watching Krash with a subtle smile.
Moreover, Sizli had long distanced herself from the imperial throne.
Though she had nearly been caught in the imperial purge a few years back, she had shown no interest in the throne since.
But lately, her movements had begun to change.
Not out of greed for the throne, but she was starting to read the empire's currents and intervene.
It was a massive shift.
Sizli had always kept her distance from the throne to prevent the family from shaking even a little.
"And the one who caused that change..."
Dalpiron's gaze returned to Krash.
It had to be thanks to him.
Dalpiron closed his eyes briefly.
He was the emperor's sword and held the second-greatest authority in selecting the next emperor.
What if Sizli became emperor?
At the very least, for the decades of her reign, the empire would boast unrivaled prosperity.
She had the talent for it.
Even now.
The First Prince was deliberately standing back, waiting for his prey to show an opening.
The First Prince had a fine mind and strong body, but he was squarely average in everything—a regrettable lack.
One could call it balance, but his talents fell just short, lacking the charisma to lead the entire empire.
The Second Prince was so foolish, dull, and greedy he hardly seemed of imperial blood.
Dalpiron had long excluded him from the throne.
The Third Princess was the most aggressive, ceaselessly building her faction.
Her mind was average, but her physical prowess most strongly inherited the White Dragon's bloodline.
However, her arrogance and excessive self-esteem left her lacking the power to lead others.
Finally, Fourth Princess Sizli Epania.
She wielded neither arrogance nor self-importance, understood her position most thoroughly, and would bring the best results no matter what seat she took.
The only drawback was her frail constitution, prone to frequent illnesses, which could unsettle the throne.
But aside from that, she was best suited to lead the imperial family.
His eyes slowly opened.
Sizli and Krash appeared to get along quite well.
If he made her emperor, and despite any backlash, took Krash as her husband,
then had them bear children...
The empire might prosper eternally.
"What a shame."
Putting that on the table as part of the deal would have been a fine choice too.
"But it's too soon."
Before evaluating Krash, Sizli's own resolve to claim the throne mattered most.
A somewhat distant future.
After envisioning it briefly, Dalpiron turned his body.
To bring about that distant future, it was time to resolve the reality right before them.
"Let's go."
To treat the emperor.