Chapter 90
Chapter 90
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 90
Chapter Title: Poisoned Apple
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Enji read down the genealogy as if entranced. Regina Grasha. The seventh king of Grasha. Ascended to the throne at age eighteen. Enji checked the family relations, wondering if perhaps Nihil was under Regina's lineage.
But there was no spouse or children. Instead, there was one younger brother. Enji stiffened slightly upon discovering an unexpected name there.
The king's younger brother and first in line for the throne, holding the status of Grand Duke. His name was Clavis Grasha.
"No way... It can't be."
Yes, it must be a coincidence, someone with the same name. Confusion came one after another, but Enji tried to judge rationally.
"His Majesty's name isn't anywhere."
That said, there was no one else who could be called princess. Enji endured the dizziness and finished reading Regina's genealogy. —Regina Grasha. Ascended as Grasha's first queen in 1790. From that very first sentence, Enji wanted to cry. It felt like the world he knew was shattering to pieces.
"The kingdom fell in 1784, so why...?"
The timelines didn't match. Not just by one or two years, but a full six years. His Majesty the Emperor's biography stated that wraiths appeared in 1784 and the kingdom perished. Yet the genealogy showed the throne being passed on steadily even in 1790.
"They deliberately hid it."
Enji gritted his teeth. Yes, rewriting history had happened often in the past. Tyrants shamelessly did such things to justify their dictatorships. There was no reason it couldn't happen in Grasha.
"I need to find out what they were trying to hide."
Then the riddle would solve itself naturally. Enji faced the truth once more. —Chosen by the previous king over the weak prince. —Held a public audience the day after ascension to soothe the angry populace. —Urged reconciliation with armed peasants opposing the landowners.
"What does this mean?"
An angry populace, armed peasants?
"Peasant revolt...?"
Muttering to himself, Enji suddenly realized. What those missing six years were meant to conceal. With a strange premonition, Enji flipped back the pages before Regina Grasha. During the reign of Regina Grasha's grandfather, precisely from 1784, riots and unrest had already begun. The cause was food shortages due to drought. No, it was because the nobles continued their exploitative taxation despite that.
"This is what they hid."
Nihil's biography described Grasha just before the wraiths appeared as prosperous and peaceful. That was a lie too. Grasha had already been devastated by the tyranny of the fanatic Hiens Grasha, losing the people's hearts and heading toward ruin.
"Regina tried to soothe Grasha's populace."
Enji groaned as he looked at Regina's subsequent actions. The king who became queen knew what she had to do. So right after ascending, she busily went around trying to resolve the issues. But it wasn't enough to turn the tide of the era. The people's discontent didn't cease, and the greedy nobles yielded nothing. Amid that, the allied nation where revolution had broken out first requested aid from Grasha. The king of the allied nation, besieged by enraged masses and on the defensive, asked for troops. Regina agonized deeply. Requesting foreign troops to slaughter one's own people—it was incomprehensible. But in the end, Regina couldn't refuse. The nobles raised a fuss that they must help the allied nation. Moreover, that allied nation was Regina's maternal family. Ultimately, Regina dispatched troops to save her maternal uncle and successfully quelled the neighboring country's peasant revolt. But it was the worst mistake. It had been a trap from the start. The nobles hated the commoner-friendly Regina and wanted her to lose public support and become a puppet queen. So they actively supported the dispatch. Their scheme hit exactly as planned. Grasha's commoners felt great betrayal upon hearing the news. She pretended to side with the citizens and masses in front, but crushed a foreign revolution with force behind their backs. The budding trust shattered completely, and slander poured that the queen was no different from other nobles. As public opinion turned, the nobles eagerly spread salacious rumors to slander Regina. Thus began the queen's downfall.
"In July 1792, mobs surrounded the palace..."
The revolution began.
"Regina Grasha bows her head and sends the mobs away."
The national fortune had already hit rock bottom.
"Flyers slandering Regina Grasha are collected."
The whole country boiled with rage,
"In January 1793, mobs seize the parliament and courts."
They inevitably demanded a scapegoat.
"In July 1793, Regina Grasha appears in court."
Enji's hands trembled as he read line by line through the densely written genealogy. A long and grueling trial process unfolded. Enji could guess the humiliations the queen must have endured from between the lines. His eyes suddenly stopped midway as he quickly read down. What caught Enji's gaze was the very last sentence. —October 1793. Regina Grasha passes away before the guillotine. Enji stared at that sentence, forgetting even to breathe. He couldn't think of anything. Grasha's last king, turned to morning dew on the execution ground, the tragic beheaded queen. Was it abnormal that, upon learning of her existence, he thought of the ribbon around His Majesty the Emperor's neck...? Lost in a daze, a part of the Emperor's biography floated in Enji's mind. At the end, the "Unforgiven King" spoke. —I shall return to rule over you once more. The living shall not endure the dead.
"Ugh...!"
Enji, who had been touching the genealogy, recoiled in shock at the sensation of bugs crawling over him. But there were no bugs. What made him shudder was merely the chilling suspicion, the conviction that had already seized him.
"No way..."
Enji groaned unwittingly. His stomach churned. The ground seemed to give way beneath his feet. Dizziness surged, his insides twisting, and unable to hold back the nausea, Enji finally burst out of the stone chamber.
. . .
The boy who came outside retched for a long while. The information invading his mind was too much. So his frail body emptied his innocent stomach. It was impossible to believe, yet impossible not to. Everything fit together too perfectly. The emperor who had lived a hundred years without aging or dying. The neck compulsively wrapped and hidden. If Emperor Nihil was Regina, truly the beheaded queen... Enji knew it wasn't impossible. This world was full of those who returned from death. We call such beings wraiths. Lightning struck in his mind. Terrifying hypotheses followed in droves. If so, what was the meaning of conquering the tombs they were doing now? Did the ducal heirs know this fact?
"W-what do I do? I have to tell someone..."
Should he tell? Could he? It was too much to bear alone—who to tell...? It was then, as Enji trembled in fear. Footsteps approached from behind. Startled, Enji turned and spotted a man. A man as beautiful as an angel—Cardinal Clavis.
"Why..."
Seeing him, Enji sighed mournfully. The moment he opened his mouth, tears welled in his eyes. Enji hurriedly wiped them with his sleeve and asked in a choked voice.
"Why show something like this to me?"
To the boy's question, Clavis smiled whitely and replied.
"Because of that."
"Because of that...?"
"Because you're the kind of child who asks such questions."
Enji shuddered again at Clavis's gentle voice.
"How about it?"
Clavis asked the frightened boy.
"Don't you want to know a little more?"
At that, the boy shuddered. A little more? He already felt like dying—more from here? Enji felt dragged to the middle of hell. The despair of realizing the ground he stood on was thin ice. He even resented the one who had shown him this. And yet, there was more remaining. Enji wanted to run away just like that. But Clavis's next words seized him once more.
"It's here. About your big sister too."
Enji's eyes trembled faintly. Seeing that, Clavis smiled and asked.
"Enji, you like your big sister, don't you?"
No answer came. But Clavis whispered as if he already knew.
"Me too."
***
Emperor Nihil woke in the dead of night. He seemed to have had a dream, but couldn't remember it. Even if he did, he wouldn't be able to distinguish if it was this night's dream or one from ten years ago. There were too many days passed to discern each one. Nihil stared blankly into the void before rising. His neck hurt. Pain spread through the neck tightly wrapped even in sleep. Nihil wrapped his hands around his neck as if strangling it, then irritably tore off the ribbon coiled there. The wide ribbon fell away, revealing Nihil's white nape.
His neck bore a crack. A crack perfectly traversing the cylindrical neck, like a broken porcelain vase pieced back together. As Nihil traced his nape with his fingertips, the cracked part crumbled with a snap. The price of reversing time and defying providence was manifesting in his body. The laws of the world were trying to expel the dead. No chance. Though his neck ached as if it might fall off, Nihil swallowed the pain. Then he reached out and gripped the seal ring and crown beside the bed. As he held the hearts of dead kings, the neck's collapse halted and the wound healed. But the distinct fissure coiling his neck never fully vanished. So Nihil returned to that day once more. 1793. The day the whole world screamed at him, the day all curses denied everything of his. Nihil's time stopped on that day. And the tyrant of the ages made even the world halt for him. Yes, no chance. Not yet. I returned to rule over you. And I'm not satisfied yet. The living shall not endure the dead.
***
It was early morning. Uni, who had just woken, suspiciously eyed the scene before her.
"Young Lady?"
"Yes."
"...Why are you up so early?"
To Uni's question, Lena smiled silently. She looked somewhat haggard, so Uni reasonably suspected.
"You didn't sleep at all, did you?"
"No, I slept. I just woke up a bit early."
"A bit early?"
The Young Lady, who would sleep endlessly if not woken, claimed she had risen at the crack of dawn—a bit early. Moreover, she had come home late yesterday. Late enough that Uni had dozed off while waiting, well past midnight.
'Maybe because she went home yesterday...?'
Uni recalled where the Young Lady had gone the day before and checked her complexion.
'...She doesn't look upset?'
Aside from seeming a little tired, Lena's expression was quite bright. So Uni grew even more puzzled.
"Young Lady, did something good happen?"
"No way."
"That's suspiciously strong denial. What is it? Did you run into Mr. Lin on the way back yesterday?"
Of course, it was a joke. But at that unexpected moment, the Young Lady's smile stiffened. As Uni pointed and went "Uh-oh,"
"Lady Lena, are you there?"
An unfamiliar voice came from outside the door. It was too early for visitors, so Lena and Uni startled and turned toward the door. Uni, tilting her head, ran to the door in her nightclothes and opened it. The visitor seeking Lena was an official from the imperial palace. The moment the door opened, he urgently announced.
"Sorry for the early hour. His Eminence the Cardinal has urgently summoned you."
"What's the matter?"
"An urgent dispatch arrived at dawn."
"An urgent dispatch?"
"Wraiths have poured out from the western rift."