Chapter 97
Chapter 97
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 97
Chapter Title: Son of the Serpent
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“Since they said you were Naza’s son, I had high expectations, but what’s this? Some pup that barks louder than it bites.”
Seven years ago, those were the first words Nihil spoke upon seeing Lin enter the imperial palace. It was right after Naza had died and Lin had come to take his place. The young Lin averted his gaze, looking embarrassed by Nihil’s indifferent assessment.
“Don’t look away.”
But Nihil wouldn’t even allow that.
“Now that I see you up close, you do look a little like him.”
Nihil muttered as he lounged on the throne like it was a bed, then stared at his fingertips with a bored expression.
“Even so, you’re just a lion cub with foreign blood in your veins. You ought to be killed.”
Lin paled at Nihil’s calm words. Then, a man standing beside him who looked just like Nihil chuckled and interjected.
“Your Majesty, you’re scaring the boy.”
Lin wouldn’t learn until much later that the man was Western Duke Clavis. At Clavis’s intervention, Nihil waved him off knowingly.
“Well, I should kill you by rights, but I’ll spare you for Naza’s sake.”
As he said this, Nihil gave Clavis a look. Clavis stepped down from the dais and handed Lin several folded sheets of paper. It was a letter envelope with the wax seal already broken, along with the letter inside.
“You can read Imperial tongue, right?”
Lin hesitated but nodded, and Clavis beamed, gesturing for him to read. Caught off guard by the sudden demand, Lin first checked the sender’s name on the envelope. —Naza Aiterner Grasha. At the familiar name, Lin unwittingly held his breath.
“Since Naza died because of you, you fill his empty spot.”
Before Lin could even finish reading the letter, Nihil recited it. By then, Lin’s eyes had turned red as if he were about to cry. Seeing this, Clavis let out a snicker.
“But like this, it won’t be easy, will it? You need to get stronger, Eastern Duke.”
Eastern Duke. That unfamiliar title marked the beginning of the nightmare. A nightmare of a monster with cold eyes and a devil with a smiling face—one impossible to escape. . . .
From that day on, Lin roamed the battlefields carrying out the emperor’s absurd orders. Especially right after the rift opened in the West, he was thrown there alone and had to survive. Lin fought Wraiths by himself for weeks at a time, then returned to the East only to be betrayed by lovers with ulterior motives. Days of getting wounded and rising again passed, and the boy became a young man.
A few years later, Lin had grown strong enough. No—he had been made strong. Once Lin no longer struggled with the missions the emperor assigned, Nihil issued the order as if he’d been waiting.
—This is a command. Go subjugate the Eastern rebels. Kill every last one who rebels against me, man, woman, child, no exceptions. Do this, and I won’t summon you for every little thing. This is the last one. Prove you’re mine.
The Eastern rebels. They were Lin’s fellow countrymen whose homeland had been taken by the Empire. To Nihil, they were mere rioters daring to defy the Empire. They were also a headache in the East that the Eastern Duke had turned a blind eye to.
‘What do I do?’
Lin felt the ground give way beneath him upon receiving the emperor’s decree. His Majesty had commanded it. He had to obey. If he didn’t, if he failed, death was the only outcome.
‘Should I run?’
Run where? The whole world was the emperor’s domain.
‘Should I go back and fight with them instead?’
No, then the emperor would send the Northern Duke. It’d end in pointless death.
‘...Should I just die?’
Pushed to the edge of the cliff, Lin finally couldn’t take it and sobbed quietly. It was his limit. He didn’t want to do this anymore. He was sick of this position. He was tired of being branded a traitor by his own people and pointed at as a foreigner by the imperial citizens.
He belonged nowhere, utterly alone. As everything he’d held back came crashing down, Lin clenched his teeth and sobbed, clutching at his throat. It felt like dying was the only way out.
‘Ah...’
The moment that thought crossed his mind, one fact belatedly surfaced in Lin’s head. The fact that he’d already tried to die once before. And why he was still alive. His thoughts reaching there, Lin instinctively rummaged through the drawer. Then he pulled out the letter shoved deepest inside.
It was the letter Naza Aiterner had sent to the emperor—practically a suicide note. Lin still didn’t know much about what kind of person Naza had been. He’d barely been like a father to begin with. Moreover, Naza had dumped everything on Lin without leaving him so much as a word or a note. So this letter was the only way Lin could learn about Naza.
At this dead end, Lin unfolded Naza’s letter for the first time in years. Naza’s cold handwriting chilled Lin’s mind as well. A moment later, Lin gritted his teeth and wiped away his tears.
‘Even if I run, the end result will be the same.’
No, if I run, that ghost-like Yiura will come. Then things will get even worse. If that’s the case, it’s all the same—the worst outcome is death anyway, so instead...
‘Let’s save them.’
Even if I get caught, I’ll try. My life is borrowed anyway. If I do that, then you...
‘Maybe I can atone a little.’
Lin put Naza’s letter away and shook off his final hesitation. After that, Lin carried out Nihil’s order and subjugated the rebels. And that was when he first used the Authority of Dominion on people.
Under Lin’s Authority, those who had been fighting at the forefront laid down their weapons of their own accord, and the leader even led his followers into a trap. Hundreds of rebels were thus captured, and Lin rooted out even their families. Over a thousand Easterners were dragged to the Empire.
They screamed wildly, pale as if they’d seen a demon. The Eastern Knights couldn’t understand their words, but Lin listened to their rage and curses and quietly declared victory.
To Nihil, he reported that he would drive the traitors to the West and use them as bait to lure the Wraiths. Nihil approved. The nobles cheered, and the imperial citizens shuddered.
Yiura, who had been guarding the western border, came to Lin at the barrier with the prisoners and said,
“Kill only the men who directly took part in the riot and send the women and children back. That’s the bare minimum of mercy you must show.”
Disappointment filled Yiura’s eyes as he spoke. It was a rebuke for Lin betraying his own people. Realizing this, Lin was incredulous.
“I never asked for your advice.”
For the first time that day, anger boiling over, Lin looked Yiura straight in the eye.
“And I don’t need it.”
He met eye-to-eye with the man he’d always looked up to and snarled viciously.
“Don’t mess with my achievements. I plan to handle every single one perfectly and get the praise I deserve.”
He deliberately acted more brutal, becoming the merciless beast Yiura wanted him to be. Yiura’s violet eyes grew even colder.
“Naza must be pounding the dirt in his grave.”
With that, Yiura turned away as if he wanted nothing more to do with him. The words stabbed Lin’s chest like a dagger, but he gritted his teeth and endured.
Yiura was wrong from the start. Kill only the men who took part and send back the women and children? It wasn’t just the men. Women and children had resisted the oppression too. Desperation is like that. Those born and raised as rulers wouldn’t understand.
Afterward, Lin sent a hundred prisoners out beyond the barrier every day. They became food for the Wraiths under the watchful eyes of the Northern Knights.
Or so it seemed. The Wraiths under Lin’s command pretended to hunt them and instead smuggled them into the deep forest where surveillance couldn’t reach.
And it was around then that the Crow appeared. He was a heretic who had unauthorizedly occupied the western border zone. The one and only, unprecedented public enemy of the Empire.
***
“You’ve been protecting people like that all this time?”
“Sometimes I just helped. They were strong, so after that, they survived on their own.”
Lin replied with a long sigh. Unburdening the secret he’d carried alone felt a little relieving.
Meanwhile, Lena, who had received Lin’s secret, was speechless for a while. Hiding and caring for over a thousand people for three whole years—not just a day or two.
“Do those people know you’re the Crow?”
“No.”
“Why didn’t you tell them?”
“It’s dangerous.”
Lena could only sigh at Lin’s matter-of-fact response. There was no guarantee no betrayer would emerge from that many people. Some might even criticize Lin as a hypocrite for helping from the shadows instead of fighting alongside them.
So Lin remained the nameless Crow even to his own people. Becoming an outsider to the very end.
“How could you?”
“That’s why I moved alone. It was easier to slip away that way.”
Lin oddly misunderstood Lena’s question and answered. Lena realized his mistake but didn’t correct him.
The duke who ran on foot, the arbitrary and autocratic Eastern Duke who preferred to go alone—all personas crafted to play the Crow’s role.
“...This time, you couldn’t slip away, so you faked your disappearance.”
At Lena’s sigh-mingled words, Lin nodded. Normally, he might sneak out at night, but this time the situation was different. The scale of Wraiths pouring out was severe enough that the Northern Duke might move. He could fool the others, but deceiving Yiura was hard.
Just a few days ago, he’d ambushed thinking it’d put him down for weeks, but that monster Yiura had dodged even the surprise attack and taken only light wounds.
Having heard everything, Lena felt a bit sorry for punching him earlier. At the same time, resentment welled up. If he’d told me, I would’ve helped. Blaming Lin for shouldering it all alone, Lena startled herself and changed the subject.
“But isn’t this a bit too bad taste?”
As she spoke, Lena picked up Lin’s Crow mask.
“And if you’re going to hide, wouldn’t it be better to cover everything? Why bother with makeup too?”
Lena deliberately glanced at Lin’s lips, intent on embarrassing him. As expected, Lin covered his lips shyly.
But she hadn’t expected him to wipe her lips with his other hand. As Lena’s eyes widened in surprise, he made an excuse.
“You had something on it.”
Lin showed her his reddened fingertip, and Lena realized this wasn’t the time to tease, inwardly writhing.
“Th-then, what now?”
“I’ve taken the necessary measures, so I’m heading back.”
“How?”
“By getting found injured...”
The Eastern Knights were still searching for the Eastern Duke. Even if their goal was closer to body retrieval, if they found him, he could pretend it was a miraculous survival.
Lena glared sharply at Lin, who declared he’d injure himself, and shot back.
“Then all the people have evacuated? If they search the forest and find nothing, the Northern Duke will search elsewhere.”
“It wasn’t that forest to begin with.”
“Huh?”
“The place where the people are hiding—it’s not the forest Yiura’s searching now, but another one closer to the rift.”
“Then the area the North is searching now had nothing from the start?”
It’d be the same in the end. The Northern Duke, coming up empty, would search again. As Lena asked dubiously, Lin shook his head.
“No. It’s not empty.”
Lin said this while looking at the Crow mask Lena had called bad taste.
“There’s something there that’ll catch Yiura’s interest.”