The First Gift (2)
The Marin family possessed a sea of mana. It was the most obvious thing in the world. For those who spent their entire lives by the ocean, the sea existed within their hearts as well. One person, one sea.
"Huff... huff... huff."
The stronger that person was, the vaster and more boundless their sea became. A sea that could embrace everything, swallowing and enveloping anything in its entirety.
"Huff... huff... huff!"
Right now, that one sea had vanished.
Not temporarily, but an eternal end.
Amid this bizarre turn of events, the former Eastern Grand Duke, Jabairen Marin, ignored everything around him and charged straight ahead. None of the servants noticed. The knights failed to detect the anomaly either. In this situation, only the father, Jabairen, sensed the calamity befalling his son and ran.
'Please let nothing have happened. Please.'
There had been no detectable energy at all.
Yet when he came to his senses, the sea within his son had disappeared.
How was this possible?
Clutching that thought, Jabairen raced to where his son, Kailen, was.
"Ah, you've arrived."
And there, he encountered an unexpected figure.
"C-Crown Prince, Your Highness?"
"I was just sorting out the issue of the Eastern Grand Duke succession, and you arrived right on time."
The Eastern Grand Duke succession issue? What did that mean?
Jabairen's confused gaze darted around, finally landing on his son.
Twitching.
Kailen convulsed intermittently. He could feel the mana slowly draining from his son's body. Not a temporary depletion, but an eternal end.
As a warrior himself, Jabairen realized what was happening in his son's body.
'His dantian has been destroyed.'
By whom?
That thought made his head turn naturally once more.
A Kailen without a dantian, unable to use mana, reduced to the level of a commoner—continuing as Eastern Grand Duke? That made no sense.
This must be the "Eastern Grand Duke succession issue" he had mentioned.
But how had his son's dantian been destroyed? In this short time, unnoticed by anyone.
'No, no... But could it be?'
As an unwelcome hypothesis forced its way into his mind, Jabairen's eyes met those of a girl standing beside the Crown Prince.
Opal eyes contrasting against black skin, with vertical pupils. She emitted no energy at all—and that very fact made her all the more alien.
'One of the Executioners I've only heard about...!'
The Crown Prince had entered the Eastern Grand Duke's chambers with an Executioner.
By the time he arrived, his son's dantian was already destroyed.
>
No one seemed concerned about his son.
Putting it all together.
"C-Crown Prince, Your Highness, did you do this?!"
The situation clearly pointed to the Crown Prince as the culprit.
"Indeed."
"H-How... How could you do such a thing! Why! Why!"
Forgetting all decorum, Jabairen shouted and demanded an explanation.
"You already know."
"...!"
His eyes widened at the response.
It was blatant treason.
No one had said it outright, but Jabairen knew. He knew his son's actions were no light matter.
Yet he had turned a blind eye because it was his son.
Because it was his son, whom he trusted and had passed the title to.
He firmly believed it would lead to an astonishing positive outcome that would surprise everyone.
'But this is the result...'
Jabairen couldn't even think to calm his trembling hands as he lowered his gaze again.
There was his son, still convulsing in agony.
With his dantian completely shattered, living as before was impossible.
Exploring sea ruins would be a pipe dream, and he could no longer expand his own sea.
"Ah... aaah...."
It was a grave enough sin for the Crown Prince to punish personally.
Thus, the most rational judgment now was to accept it all.
But could his heart follow suit so easily?
The longer time passed, the more rage boiled within him.
He knew he should feel relief that his treasonous son hadn't been killed.
He knew he should reclaim the Eastern Grand Duke's seat and swear loyalty to the Crown Prince.
"Why! Why!"
The fury of nearly losing his son overflowed his body.
The man before him no longer looked like the Crown Prince.
An enemy who had harmed his child.
An evil that had destroyed his son's dantian.
"You dare!"
The thread of reason snapped.
He committed the unforgivable act of confronting the Crown Prince.
Mana surged through his body like waves, dominating the surroundings.
The roar of a storm echoed as blue mana swirled around Jabairen.
A tidal mana wave. Currents fierce enough to pulverize anything they touched formed naturally around him.
"Crown Prince, Your Highness."
Arbeda, seeing this, widened her eyes and moved to respond immediately, but.
"No, Arbeda."
The Crown Prince extended a hand to stop her.
"Grand Duke Jabairen, I judge that your son's injury has clouded your reason... I won't hold this sin against you now."
Stepping forward leisurely, the Crown Prince gazed at Jabairen with a faint smile.
"Looking down on people like that—only for now! I won't forgive you!"
Boom!
Jabairen didn't even try to suppress his rage and launched himself at the Crown Prince.
Like the unpredictable surging waves of the sea.
Jabairen's body blurred his vision, covering the Crown Prince's blind spot.
'He won't react in time.'
Jabairen had never seen the Crown Prince fight.
He only chuckled idly, benevolently overlooking everything.
He had never used force, not even trained.
No energy could be felt from him at all.
'Kailen was probably handled by the Executioner too.'
Yet to tame an Executioner and face him in his rage.
Even as fury eroded his reason, his mind kept analyzing.
'First, shatter both shoulders. Then exact punishment.'
He couldn't kill him, but he'd repay the exact pain his son felt.
With that thought, as Jabairen's arms, wrapped in fierce currents, aimed for the Crown Prince's shoulders—
"How tragic, to have grown so frail."
The Crown Prince spoke flatly, visible before him.
"Still, I praise you for not aiming for the head. You're as sharp as ever, so you can reclaim the Grand Duke's seat."
With those leisurely words.
Bam!
In an instant, Jabairen's body slammed into the floor.
"Guh!"
Crunch!
Despite the floor shattering completely from the impact, Jabairen didn't fall because the Crown Prince had grabbed his hair.
'What the hell?'
Jabairen was stunned.
He hadn't even reacted.
He had struck first from the blind spot.
Yet now he was on the floor, hair gripped?
And more shockingly, it hurt—like hell.
With mana cloaking his body, normal physical impact shouldn't hurt.
But excruciating pain flooded in, making it hard to breathe.
"Gaaaargh!"
Even so, Jabairen tried not to stop.
He rose again to punish the enemy before him.
But.
"Grand Duke Jabairen, think calmly. What do you think will happen if you keep raging?"
The Crown Prince's following words restored his reason.
"Must I tear off your traitorous son's limbs in real time, reattach them, and dismantle him while he's wide awake—for his father to watch—before you calm down?"
"...."
One of the Bellos Empire's infamous torture methods.
Rip off the limbs, reattach, repeat.
When shock nears death, give a brief rest.
Then repeat.
A hellish punishment that denies even suicide.
For that to befall his son?
'More than possible... He'd do it right now without hesitation.'
Even as Grand Duke, he couldn't do as he pleased.
But ignoring duties as Eastern Grand Duke and playing with a foreign kingdom?
Frankly, killing Kailen on the spot wouldn't be amiss.
Yet his son lived.
'Because I'm useful.'
The East he had ruled wasn't like this.
It relentlessly expanded influence, gripped surrounding coasts.
For the Empire, he did the dirty work without hesitation.
His son lived because his merits were recognized, and the Crown Prince expected the same ahead.
If he steadily met those expectations, his son could keep living.
Even after this insolence, the Crown Prince overlooked it.
'Because I'm still useful.'
Realizing this, Jabairen's body shriveled pathetically.
"Ah... aaah... Crown Prince, Your Highness...."
He curled up, posture low.
Unbelievable for the Empire's Eastern Grand Duke.
Jabairen pathetically licked the Crown Prince's shoe.
"I am grateful for Your Highness's boundless mercy."
Reason drove out rage.
The Crown Prince smiled as if pleased.
"Haha, you've finally come to your senses."
Grabbing Jabairen's hair, he tossed him aside like trash, next to Kailen.
"Your broken son will be sent to the Maselin Kingdom he loves so much."
"Thank you... thank you... thank you...."
Jabairen begged repeatedly.
As long as he lived. As long as he managed the East.
Then his son could live in the Maselin Kingdom he'd always wanted.
He couldn't command people as before, but.
Jabairen was simply grateful his son lived.
He saw this as the Crown Prince's mercy too.
"I hope the successor is like you. Marin history can't end with your generation."
"Yes! Exactly!"
"Perfect timing for Kailen to have a sibling."
"I-I'll prepare swiftly!"
In rage's wake.
Filling the void: reason and blind loyalty.
Jabairen knew.
Even in Maselin Kingdom, his son couldn't escape the Crown Prince's grasp.
If the Crown Prince willed it, his son would die anytime.
A commoner with a shattered dantian.
It made no sense for the Empire to spare him.
'If he wants, the Empire can kill my son anywhere.'
Protect a shattered-dantian commoner forever? Impossible.
Better under the Empire's safe watch.
Escape? Laughable.
Who dares flee the Empire?
Shivering.
Terror of nearly losing his son shook Jabairen.
His trembling hand touched his son.
A foolish son.
And he, who let him be foolish, a foolish father.
Stroking his son's hair, Jabairen fixed his gaze on the floor.
'I can make amends now. His Highness has shown mercy.'
Do it again. No, better than before.
He was confident.
"I can hear your brain working overtime."
"Lost in thoughts for the Empire, I committed rudeness. Please forgive me."
"Haha, I've never doubted your wisdom serves the Empire."
"An honor to be recognized."
Thud, thud.
Feeling the Crown Prince approach, Jabairen unconsciously pulled his hand from his son.
"Quick on the uptake."
Thud.
The Crown Prince's foot stepped on his son's back.
But Jabairen averted his eyes.
"When I return to the East..."
Listening, Jabairen thought.
'This is fine.'
His son lived—that was enough.
What more could he do here? Ignore Marin history and rage over his injured son?
Absurd.
Why had the Crown Prince come personally?
'He could exterminate the family based on attitude.'
Jabairen erased his old views of the Crown Prince.
Forget the past, focus on now.
Or both he and his son die.
But survival was simple.
"...I want to see that mighty East I knew before."
"Even greater! Greater! An East dominating a vaster sea! I swear it! I swear!"
As the Crown Prince finished, Jabairen sprang up and bowed deeply.
"Haha, hearing the Eastern Grand Duke say that delights me."
With that.
Arbeda, who had been still, gently took the Crown Prince's hand.
Whoosh.
They vanished in an instant.
Teleportation.
Without any prelude, instantaneous spatial transfer.
A miracle even grand archmages would yield to.
Thus, Jabairen stared at the empty spots left by the Crown Prince, Executioner, and his son.
"Hoo...."
He sighed.
'So much to do.'
Reclaim the Grand Duke seat, purge Eastern corruption, plan for the next generation.
"...But I saved the family."
Wiping belated tears of relief.
Jabairen rose laboriously.
Only then did he realize.
"...Ah."
The air around him had changed the moment the Crown Prince left.
"Ha."
Why had the Crown Prince reacted so swiftly and destructively?
The mystery solved.
This space had been under his control from the start.
'This was my last chance.'
Nearly losing his son, rage and reason faded.
Filling it all.
'I must satisfy His Highness with my life.'
Primal terror.
Bold Choice!
Fate changes.
Worldline changes.
Kailen Marin's story has changed.
Confirm? Y/N
+++++
"Treat him, and inform me immediately once his condition improves."
"Yes, sir."
Upon arriving at the imperial palace, the first order of business was treating Kailen.
Before sending him to Maselin Kingdom, he should at least be presentable.
The servants lifted Kailen and vanished swiftly.
"Arbeda, you worked hard too."
"This lady did not find it laborious at all, Your Highness."
"Even if it was your duty, it was comfortable thanks to you. Thank you."
"Not at all. Then this lady shall take her leave."
"Go ahead."
"...."
Arbeda fidgeted instead of leaving right away.
Doesn't want to go?
Makes sense—Executioners rarely get involved, so she must have been bored.
'And I'm curious why a dragon became the Empire's Executioner.'
Should've read the novel more diligently.
Muttering that.
"Come anytime casually. And uh... you don't have to leave right now."
A fitting response.
"Eh! Hehe, then this lady will stay a bit longer, Your Highness."
Arbeda liked it more than expected—I was a bit surprised.
'What an unusual dragon.'
Anyway, a very productive Eastern stroll.
As I tried to end the day on a high note.
The system message appeared before my eyes.
No need to think.
'Of course yes.'
I accepted.
And the moment I did.
Flash!
My vision shifted.
And the first thing in my changed view was.
"Hic... guh... hiiic...."
Kailen, sobbing like an idiot.