The Protagonist (1)
In the end, I half gave up on quelling the rumors. Irelphi, for her part, had stopped affirming or denying them altogether.
Charles, meanwhile, was surrounded by a crowd. People who found it too awkward to ask us directly had flocked to her instead, since she was close with Irelphi — and quite unintentionally, she was burying Irelphi alive in real time.
Once the tumultuous whirl of dancing wound down, we turned to the food. Irelphi crammed six slices of cake down her throat one after another and spoke in a voice drained of all energy.
"At this point, we might as well just let them misunderstand."
"Are you out of your mind?"
"It's a little embarrassing, but so what? It isn't even true. If anything, it's a rumor perfectly optimized for keeping tabs on you, Nepi."
Irelphi had a point — that is, if we were an ordinary man and woman. For an unmarried pair to live under one roof and be joined at the hip every day could have been an irreparably fatal scandal for her.
"You... are you really okay with this?"
"I told you before, didn't I? Scandals don't touch me at all."
Irelphi's position never wavered. In the end, I scratched my head in irritation.
"Ugh, fine. It's all become too much of a hassle. I concede. Let the bastards find out for themselves what it's like to live with a woman who could tear a man apart."
"Do you actually want to die, Nepi?"
"Well, if it's come to this, I might as well enjoy the ride. And you — go shut Charles's mouth before she starts inventing things that were never said."
"Phew! On it. And later... well, just you wait and see."
How adept she was at sending a chill down my spine — so very like her. By now, Irelphi's killing intent had grown almost familiar.
"Come to think of it, what's that commotion?"
"What commotion?"
Irelphi tilted her head, utterly baffled. Ignoring her for a moment, I strained my ears.
"..."
From the main gate of the ducal estate came the flustered, apologetic voices of the gatekeepers. For now, it was a small disturbance audible only to me and my sharp hearing.
Just as Irelphi moved to press me for an answer, a thunderous proclamation filled the hall from outside — the voices of the two guards posted at the banquet hall's doors.
At the resounding announcement, I was flustered beyond words, while Irelphi reacted as if such a thing were impossible. Belying our expectations, the truth revealed itself at once.
"Huh?"
At the wholly unexpected guests, every eye in the banquet hall snapped wide open. Attendees were generally given a rough sense of the guest list beforehand, and the names of heavyweights like the Emperor and Empress hadn't even existed on it.
At that unforeseen pair's entrance, the hall plunged into stillness in an instant. The only one who received them with unshaken composure was the banquet's host himself, Duke Troph Peita.
"It is a great honor that Your Majesty has deigned to grace this gathering with your presence."
"Could I possibly absent myself from a banquet of the Four Great Ducal Houses, successors of the Four Heroes?"
"Please do stop by from time to time. I can only be grateful that you remember our glory of the past, faded though it is. Heh heh."
There was something vaguely unsettling about Duke Peita's laugh. But judging by how at ease the Emperor seemed, it was probably just my imagination.
I turned my head toward the Empress. She was the woman the Emperor loved so desperately — and the very factor that would become a turning point of the future. Her looks were more ordinary than I'd expected, which caught me off guard.
'The Emperor loves her to death, so I'd wondered what she'd be like. She's a surprise. So Charles's green eyes come from the Empress, then.'
The Emperor had red hair and pale rose-pink eyes, while the Empress's hair was a light brown and her eyes a subdued peridot hue.
In that case, the one who had passed down Charles's blond hair had to be the Empress's illicit lover. My gaze drifted naturally toward Charles — I was curious how she would react to facing her birth mother.
Charles's small, fern-delicate hands were clenched tight, trembling. The Empress did not so much as pretend to look at her, facing the dais with cool detachment.
'Things between her and the Empress must be bad, then.'
Viewed plainly, Charles was the Empress's shame. Even in ordinary society, parents who failed to love their children were common as dirt. All the more so between an Empress and a child born out of wedlock — nothing about it going badly awry would be surprising.
"Irelphi, Charles and the Emp—"
My question died there. Irelphi was muttering to herself with a grave expression — markedly different from her usual attitude of fussing over the Emperor's safety.
"This can't be right. Why would His Majesty come here? He mustn't be here at all. Where did the mistake happen?"
"Irelphi?"
"Hah—!"
At my worried call, Irelphi answered with a startled breath. The moment her eyes met mine, she seized my hand and began dragging me along. Her iron grip actually hurt.
"Whoa, hold on, Irelphi. What is it? Explain the situation to me."
"Something has gone wrong. His Majesty and the Empress cannot be here — that's what I'm telling you."
"You seem unusually jumpy. Honestly, knowing His Majesty's personality, this is more than plausible. Isn't it just like always?"
"It is not like always!"
Irelphi burst out shouting. Mindful of the eyes around us, it wasn't loud — but it was a yell that anyone meant to hear would hear. I stared at her, dumbfounded.
She soon registered her slip and explained herself.
"Ahem. As you know, I'm the commander of the Nelprugia Knights. In other words, I'm the officer in overall charge of His Majesty's security. Even an Emperor doesn't enjoy total freedom. We taste his food before he does, scout and control every place he sets foot. Even his personal relationships aren't free of my intelligence network."
"I... didn't know that."
I thought back to my private audience with the Emperor. Hadn't that meeting in the Glass Greenhouse — with its wide-open sightlines — been the very limit of what the ruler of the empire could concede to Irelphi?
The Emperor had once refused Irelphi's entry into the greenhouse, and the matter had been let pass — but in truth, even that was closer to an act of consideration on her part.
Besides, the documents Irelphi was always processing were the Emperor's schedule and compilations of the countless pieces of intelligence built upon it. Looked at one way, the Emperor's entire life was an object of Irelphi's management.
"His Majesty had no plans to come here today. Just in case, I even gave instructions to the vice-commander. Short of a grave lapse, His Majesty's presence here is simply impossible. And yet he didn't bring so much as a single knight with him!"
"Look, Irelphi. In that case, shouldn't you go ask the Nelprugia kids outside what happened first?"
"You're right, of course. To think I of all people would misjudge. I'll be right back — please stay close."
"Okay."
The moment I answered, Irelphi rushed outside. Plenty of people gave her odd looks, but their interest soon wilted.
The crowd's attention converged solely on the Emperor and Empress upon the dais, and on Duke Troph Peita. The Emperor spoke first.
"Duke Peita — just how long has it been since we last faced each other like this?"
"Close to half a year, I should think. Forgive me for failing to call on you more often."
"Haha, think nothing of it. With your official duties so demanding, how could you visit often?"
"It has been long since I last saw Your Majesty as well... but Her Majesty the Empress, longer still. That you remain in such radiant health is a great blessing upon the imperial family."
To Duke Peita's greeting, the Empress replied with perfect composure.
"You look as hale and vigorous as ever yourself, Duke. Though it is a pity that eyepatch conceals such beauty."
The Empress's compliment was gentle. The Emperor reacted to it with playful mischief.
"My Empress — praising another man right before my eyes?"
"Hehe. Are the compliments shared in our bed not enough for you? My husband truly is a greedy one."
They were a couple still drowning in newlywed bliss. The Emperor was so ardent he seemed ready to dissolve into the Empress's eyes, and she flushed as though she found him utterly endearing.
"Since Your Majesty has come all this way, we would be honored if you would favor us with a congratulatory address... if it pleases you."
It was Duke Peita's suggestion. The Emperor accepted with evident delight.
"Gladly. A good thing I brought it along, just in case."
What the Emperor drew from his breast was a round orb — a globus cruciger. It was one of the sacred regalia, alongside the royal scepter and the royal sword, that embodied the Emperor's authority.
When the Emperor raised the orb, it gave off a faint, resonant hum, and the sounds nearest it began to swell with amplification.
"As expected of Your Majesty. Nothing escapes your thoroughness. Who would have imagined you would bring even the symbol of imperial authority to your visit?"
"Truth be told, I was half hoping for the chance. Hahah!"
The Emperor wore a sly grin, but I sensed instinctively that his preparation was no rash, off-the-cuff gesture — thanks to the intelligence on high society's currents that Irelphi had passed to me.
House Peita, I'd been told, had long been locked in an unobtrusive feud with the imperial family. Even Irelphi didn't know the reason. She could only guess vaguely that its roots lay in the previous generation.
Perhaps, by delivering an address with the globus at Duke Peita's own banquet, the Emperor meant to showcase a mending of relations between the two houses.
The truth of it was for the Emperor and the Duke alone to know.
Before long, the Emperor's majestic oration, amplified through the orb, began.
"How greatly it pleases me to deliver this address at the estate of Duke Peita, whose roots lie among the Four Heroes."
The Emperor gazed down upon the assembly from his high seat adorned in jet-black obsidian. Standing guard at his side were Duke Troph Peita, the Empress, and the Duke's personal guards.
"We give thanks that the Eld Empire of today stands upon the deeds of the first Duke Peita..."
I stared blankly up at the Emperor in full flow of his speech. He was speaking while letting his gaze drift naturally across the room — and by chance, his eyes met mine.
In that instant.
The Emperor smiled on, smooth as ever — but I could not. The ease drained from my face, and a chill felt as though it were gnawing into my body from the soles of my feet upward.
'What... is this?'
Without the slightest warning, my heart began to pound in convulsive spasms. The whole world seemed to lurch — I could have sworn an earthquake had struck. Had I not seen the crowd standing calm, I would never have realized the symptoms were mine alone.
Sweat traced a line from my forehead to the small of my back, and my consciousness blurred at the edges.
I had felt this sensation once before — the day I first had audience with the Emperor. I had always written it off as my instinct reacting to his ability.
'I was wrong.'
Now I understood. The affliction had nothing whatsoever to do with the Emperor's power. It didn't take me long to reach the answer.
This was no ailment at all — only an emotion as violent as an active volcano on the brink of eruption.
'I'm furious... and grief-stricken. But at whom? Why on earth am I feeling this?'
Eyes trembling uncontrollably, I looked up at the Emperor. The strength had drained from my whole body; I swayed, struggling to focus. Only superhuman willpower kept me upright.
And then the aberration passed in a single flash. Every symptom washed away as though cleansed, and my vision cleared, holding nothing but the dais.
A dais like a work of art, where red and gold blended in harmony, gracefully adorned with a model of the golden chain.
'Wait — red and gold? The dais was unmistakably decorated in obsidian.'
The Emperor now gripped the royal scepter and the royal sword, and five figures — men and one woman — knelt on one knee in tribute. Mere moments ago, no such people had existed.
I gazed at the Emperor with desperate intensity, hoping he would give me an answer. Looking up at his silent, immovable profile, I was struck dumb.
His hair still burned like fire, but the man was far younger, and his eyes held an indigo as deep as the twilight sky. The Emperor of this very moment was, without question, the owner of pale rose-pink eyes.
He was someone else — one who resembled the Emperor beyond all measure, and yet was not him.
"Astelnerca Euglinus..."
Against my own will, the name pried its way past my lips. I knew instinctively that it belonged to the man who so resembled the Emperor.
That was not the only name I found myself murmuring.
"Lorian Peita..."
Lorian was a woman whom raven hair, dark eyes, and attire of unbroken black suited strikingly well. As the lone woman among the five kneeling figures, she drew the eye.
And yet — why was it? Each time I looked at her, my chest grew heavy and hollow. As if I missed her... yearned for her... as if grieving that I could never see her again, the rims of my eyes burned red, on the verge of a sob.
By the time I came back to myself, I was reciting three more names.
"Aseln Meoric."
"Lusheon Estern."
"Bartlante Chester."
People whose very existence I had never known — and yet I already knew them. It was an uncanny sensation: memories that were mine, yet not mine.
Last of all, I looked upon the man at the very end of the line. The same jet-black hair as Lorian's, and eyes like rubies. Unlike the man as I knew him now, his nature seemed gentle — but his identity was unmistakable at a glance.
"Netionpis..."
He was me.