Chapter 371: The Southern Tomb (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 371: The Southern Tomb (5)
There were two documents.
The first contained nothing of note, but the second was labeled as an observation log.
‘This isn't a record brought here by Cortez Valhalla. It must be a record left behind by Stern Valhalla, the 14th Son and former emperor, after he ascended the throne.’
The emperors of Valhalla.
With the sole exception of Canellas Valhalla, who created the Southern Tomb, no emperor was permitted to record post-accession events here. What did that mean? The Southern Tomb existed to verify the truth. This observation log, penned by Cortez Valhalla during the successor selection process, could only have been brought down here by the next emperor.
Flip.
He turned the page.
The first person to catch his eye was Cortez Valhalla's eldest son, Crown Prince Zessus Valhalla.
`[...When Zessus first held a sword, the leadership of the imperial court, including myself, was absolutely certain that he was the right person to inherit the future of Valhalla. Zessus was born with the blood of a warrior. He awakened his mana at the mere age of seven, and his aggressive, relentless swordsmanship showed no fear of combat. If he were to ascend the throne, Zessus would grow into a brave warrior leading from the front, just as the emperors of Valhalla have done for generations.]`
Flip.
`[Zessus is not just skilled with the sword. He is also deeply interested in strategy, spending his days buried in the library studying tactics. There was even an incident where he engaged in a simulated tactical battle with Valhalla's top strategist. After a fierce clash, he forced a concession straight from the strategist's own mouth. He was only fifteen years old at the time.]`
Flip.
`[Zessus also knows how to manage people. He placed the right talents in areas where he lacked expertise, and treated his subordinates with such respect that they had no choice but to pledge their absolute loyalty to him. He was truly perfect. Even before Zessus Valhalla reached adulthood, a massive faction formed around him. Even the vassals who whisper sweet words in my ear insisted that Zessus Valhalla must lead the empire's future. I, too, acknowledge this fact. It is certain. If Zessus inherits the throne, Valhalla will undoubtedly forge a brilliant future.]`
Flip.
`[Therefore, he is disqualified.]`
A single sentence.
Roman's hand froze.
Cortez Valhalla had spent pages detailing his eldest son's brilliance, only to abruptly conclude that he was disqualified. It made no sense. If this logic held true, it meant that placing the 14th Son on the throne was definitively not for the sake of Valhalla. The problem was, even if it was done for the benefit of the Kronos Empire, there were still unresolved mysteries.
He turned the page.
Passing over the other successors, Roman Dmitry stopped at one particular name.
`[Stern Valhalla]`
The 14th Son of Valhalla.
This was the observation log of the man who would come to be known as the tyrant.
* * *
`[Stern is a weak child by nature. Far from wielding a sword properly, he shows absolutely no desire to ascend the throne as my son. He takes after his mother. Just like his mother, who was a lowly palace maid, Stern lives in a way unbefitting of one born with imperial blood. Preferring books over swords, and quiet walks over the training grounds, he gave up his rights, unlike the others who strive fiercely to catch my eye.]`
Flip.
`[I heard an interesting story from a servant. People call Stern the "Angel in White." Dressed in spotless white clothes every day, Stern roams the imperial palace, caring for others so deeply that he earned the moniker of an angel. He makes sure the ordinary servants don't go hungry, keeps company with those resting from exhaustion, and secretly helps anyone facing financial difficulties. Stern does not care for status. He constantly says that because we are human, we must live like humans, and he spends most of his time caring for those around him rather than on self-improvement.]`
This was entirely unexpected.
Stern Valhalla.
The man remembered by history as a tyrant.
Considering the bloody life he had lived, one could only assume he was a completely different person from the figure recorded in this document. The former emperor of Valhalla had reveled in slaughter. He strictly enforced a ruthless meritocracy and did not hesitate to execute anyone who fell out of his favor, which was exactly why the world feared him.
Yet, this very man...
...was once called the Angel in White.
It was a jarring contradiction. Roman Dmitry turned the page.
Flip.
`[One day, I asked Stern if he coveted his father's throne. Stern replied that he did not possess a shred of greed, and that the reason he lived this way was to avoid drawing the ire of his brothers. If he showed even the slightest ambition, he would be marked as a competitor. Stern chose compromise over conflict, using a lifestyle unsuited for the imperial court to prove to his brothers that he was no threat. Indeed, his efforts were effective. With Zessus Valhalla's succession virtually guaranteed, none of the opposing factions targeted Stern Valhalla's life.]`
Flip.
`[Some asked what would happen if Stern Valhalla inherited the throne. Perhaps a kind emperor would make the country a pleasant place for the people to live, but what is certain is that the Valhalla Empire would undoubtedly walk a path of decline under his rule. If it were a small, peripheral nation, he would be the right fit. But in an empire destined to conquer the continent, Stern Valhalla is absolutely unsuited for the throne.]`
Flip.
`[He is, indeed, the perfect fit in my eyes.]`
It was a paradox.
Unlike his assessment of Zessus Valhalla, Cortez Valhalla had endlessly listed reasons why Stern was utterly unqualified, only to reach a conclusion that defied all common sense: that he was the perfect fit.
* * *
Thud.
He closed the document.
A slight frown creased his forehead.
It was an enigma.
He had thought that reading Cortez Valhalla's records would resolve some of his questions, but the observation log only deepened the confusion. In truth, Cortez Valhalla had not left anything of substance in the Southern Tomb. Roman was only able to uncover this because Stern Valhalla had brought the log down here himself; without that desperate effort, the reason behind Cortez Valhalla's absurd appointment of his successor would have been buried in history forever.
After reviewing the records, only one plausible hypothesis remained.
A secret collusion between Cortez Valhalla and the Kronos Empire.
Come to think of it, Valhalla and Kronos had always used their borders to manufacture a geopolitical landscape that exclusively favored their two nations.
The term "the two great powers" referred to the very structure that propped up the two empires.
Yet, the recurring question remained: regardless of the underlying reason, there was no logical justification for designating Stern Valhalla as the successor, nor was there any reason to kill him after going through the immense trouble of staging a rebellion to put him on the throne.
Ultimately, he needed Stern's own records.
This time, Roman Dmitry examined Stern Valhalla's personal diary.
`[...On a morning no different from any other, I opened my eyes to find the mutilated corpse of the cat I had lovingly raised lying by my bedside. Staring at the blood-soaked sheets, I screamed at the top of my lungs for the servants. From then on, the horrors repeated. The carcasses of all kinds of animals—cats, rats, birds, dogs—were constantly placed by my bed. The servants who were supposed to clean them up would always walk agonizingly slowly into my room, open the door, and just stare at me. As if telling me to clean it up myself. From that day on, I felt that something was terribly wrong.]`
It was a diary.
The neat handwriting vividly conveyed the raw terror of that time.
`[Today, I bit into a stone while eating. At first, I thought it was a simple mistake, but as the days went by, foreign objects appeared in everything I ate. Oil in my water, insects in my meat—nothing I consumed was normal.]`
Flip.
`[The door creaked open. Someone was watching me through the narrow crack. Terrified, I begged the guards to get rid of that presence. But they just mocked me. They questioned my sanity, claiming no such thing existed. As I stayed awake all night, I locked eyes with that mysterious entity in the dark until dawn.]`
Gradually, the neat handwriting deteriorated into a frantic scrawl.
The systematic breakdown of his mind was laid bare on the parchment.
Stern Valhalla had not been mad from the beginning.
His sanity had been intentionally eroded for a specific purpose, and those who were supposed to obey his orders had deliberately tormented him. The latter half of the diary was filled with handwriting so erratic it was completely illegible. As if he had entirely lost his mind, the pages were packed with unrecognizable scribbles and incoherent, rambling thoughts.
And at the very end, on the final page, was this entry:
`[At this rate, I will die. Before I die, I will kill every single one of those trying to kill me, and I will free myself from this agony.]`
That was Stern Valhalla's final record.
* * *
The meaning of the diary was glaringly clear.
The former emperor.
He had been nothing more than a puppet.
It was unclear why Cortez Valhalla had driven his own flesh and blood to such horrifying lengths, but he had chosen the weakest of his sons to serve as the protagonist of a manufactured rebellion. On the day the imperial court of Valhalla was drenched in blood, a madness-stricken Stern Valhalla slaughtered all of his brothers. The people remembered that day and branded the emperor of Valhalla a tyrant, but the hidden truth was that the tyrant himself had been meticulously forged.
If so, the former emperor's bizarre behavior all this time finally made sense.
Why he had lived in madness, and why he had shown absolutely no interest in state affairs.
His past explained his actions.
‘There are three truths I can be certain of from the Southern Tomb. First, the Kronos Empire was involved in Valhalla's past. Second, Cortez Valhalla deliberately placed someone entirely unfit for Valhalla on the throne. Third, Stern Valhalla was nothing more than a puppet who couldn't even decide his own survival.’
When Duke Vieto staged his rebellion, the puppet had simply been abandoned by his master.
Though he had been placed on the throne for a specific purpose, he was discarded without any regard for his own will, just as he had been before.
Creak.
Roman leaned back in his chair.
It was not enough.
Although shocking truths were recorded in the Southern Tomb, the most crucial piece of the puzzle was still missing. It was a natural outcome, of course. If there was a mastermind orchestrating this from the shadows, they would never have left traces of their actions in the Southern Tomb—a place accessible to successive Valhalla emperors. From this point on, he had to piece together the fragmented information to deduce the truth hidden from the world.
"Why? Why was he made emperor, and why was he abandoned by the mastermind now?"
Why?
He repeated the same question.
He fell deep into thought.
In both his past life and his current life, whenever Roman Dmitry faced a complex problem, his blood would run cold and his mind would clear with razor-sharp precision.
‘As long as the core truth is missing, I cannot reach a definitive conclusion. To prepare for the worst-case scenario based on these fragmented pieces of information, I must focus on a single, undeniable fact.’
And that was:
‘Who benefited the most from this situation?’
He closed his eyes slowly.
Ultimately, a conspiracy always led directly to a clear outcome.
A conspiracy is carried out for a specific purpose, and its outcome serves as the evidence proving why it occurred. Therefore, the logical correlation was that whoever benefited from the outcome was highly likely to be the mastermind behind the conspiracy.
Of course, it was merely a hypothesis.
But after contemplating in the silence for a long time, Roman Dmitry opened his eyes.
Now, it was time to return outside.
* * *
The stage of the trial.
The crowd had been waiting.
When Roman Dmitry finally reappeared, the Emperor of Valhalla greeted him with a bright, welcoming expression.
"Did you find what you were looking for?"
"Yes, I saw many things. I now understand why Carlos, revered as a great warrior of Valhalla, claimed that the ugly truth of the empire lies within the Southern Tomb."
"...It is indeed a bitter matter. I cannot describe how shocked I was when I first verified that truth myself. Let us speak of this in private. It is not a suitable topic to discuss in front of the crowd."
He, too, had entered the Southern Tomb upon ascending the throne.
Bitterness was etched deeply onto his face.
For someone who took such great pride in the Valhalla Empire, the shocking revelation that the Kronos Empire was connected to the ranking system had been deeply unsettling. He had not left any special records in the Southern Tomb. Many other emperors had done the same, simply verifying the truth of Valhalla before leaving in silence.
Their conversation was shielded from the crowd.
They spoke in hushed tones, intentionally blocking the sound from leaking to prevent any unforeseen complications.
It was then.
"However, the more of the truth I verified, the more questions arose. Canellas Valhalla, Cortez Valhalla, Stern Valhalla. If all of their records are true, there is only one being who truly benefits from Valhalla's chaotic state."
He pursued the conclusion.
Starting from the outcome rather than the process, he envisioned the single individual who stood to gain from this entire, bloody sequence of events.
"The Emperor of Valhalla. No—Duke Vieto. You are the only one who benefited from this bloody struggle."
At those words, the Emperor of Valhalla's expression instantly contorted into something violent.