The Emperor's Children (2)

Well, if it were a situation like before, when Lucas had his guard down, maybe, but standing face-to-face like that, I could've tried a hundred times and still not landed a shot to his head.

Not a hundred times, but if I tried a few hundred, a few thousand times... maybe I'd hit him once.

... But for the main story to proceed, this bastard needed to stay alive. He was a fairly important reactionary figure in the original work.

So, in order to have even the slightest idea of what was to come, that meant I had to go through hell to kill this bastard, then deliberately turn back time just to keep him alive. What kind of pointless nonsense was that?

Besides, even if I found him annoying and occasionally truly wanted to kill him, he wasn't exactly someone I loathed with a burning passion. I didn't hold any particular affection for the male characters in the original game, but that didn't mean I detested them either.

And, strictly speaking, I brought this whole situation on myself, at least in part.

Moreover, up to a certain point, the Emperor actually played a role in indirectly helping the protagonist. He mainly provided help through his children, and Lucas was one of them.

Maybe I could end up being one of them too. Since I was in that position now, instead of Claire.

In the original, Claire didn't enter the academy from the start. Initially, she got tangled up with the protagonist's party as an outsider, and only infiltrated his side under the guise of a transfer student after the story had properly kicked off.

Though in truth, she was the Emperor's pawn and a watcher.

Even in the current situation, I wasn't sure if I'd end up being slotted into Claire's role as a replacement.

At least, from ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my perspective, my personality was vastly different from Claire's.

If Claire was a multifaceted character who usually charmed everyone with a little devil style and then turned incredibly prickly once her true identity was revealed, the persona I'd built under the Emperor was that of a 'cold, expressionless character in any situation.'

I couldn't help it.

I'd once dreamed of being a voice actor and attended a voice acting academy, but I didn't have any prodigious talent for acting. So rather than putting on various expressions and reacting appropriately, I opted to cultivate a consistent aura of no reaction and no expression.

And this 'as if foreseeing the future' reaction speed blended remarkably well with that aura, and it synced even better when combined with my ability to turn back time and start situations already knowing what would happen, amplifying that atmosphere considerably.

"Oh, Sylvia. And Lucas."

I was walking briskly through the Imperial Palace corridor, doing my best to ignore Lucas, who was grating on my nerves beside me, when a figure approached from the distance.

Unlike Lucas, who, despite being one of the 'Emperor's sons' within the Imperial Palace, slouched around like a degenerate without even managing his hair, this man had his radiantly shining golden hair precisely parted in a 2:8 ratio, and even kept his eyebrows tidy without a single stray hair sticking out. He, too, was one of the 'Emperor's children,' just like Lucas.

It definitely wasn't my imagination that his face lit up the moment he saw me, then instantly cooled when he looked at Lucas. This man was obsessively fond of neatness, and Lucas, if we're being honest, tended to look a bit messy.

For the record, though he looked every inch the noble, he wasn't actually one. Among the Emperor's children, only one, a daughter by blood, was a true imperial. The rest were all nothing but gutter rats he'd scraped from the back alleys.

Though why all those gutter rats turned out to be such monsters, I couldn't say.

"Lucas, I beg you, can you at least button your shirt properly up to your neck within the Imperial Palace?"

"Huh?"

And naturally, Lucas wasn't too fond of that man either. They were that incompatible.

"Who are you to boss me around? Trying to act like my big brother or something?"

"Well, I was born a few months before you."

And he was taller.

In that situation, making a comment like that would only rile Lucas up further, though.

"Hey, jackass, Jaden."

Lucas, with a feigned expression of anger, strode over towards Jaden Fangriffon.

... But that expression being an act was painfully obvious.

Lucas always started a... ruckus—no, picked a fight—every time he saw Jaden, but the reason wasn't simply that he disliked him.

Jaden was already the empire's strongest knight.

Lucas would later become the empire's greatest swordsman.

The strongest knight and the greatest swordsman. It was a bit questionable whether the two could even coexist, but Jaden had earned his fame on the battlefield, and Lucas earned his later renown after cutting down the Sword Saint.

So it could be said that the implications of those two titles were subtly different.

If Jaden was a soldier who practically worshipped the Emperor and followed his orders with his life, Lucas was a madman with the ambition to one day surpass the Emperor entirely and become the strongest being in the world.

He loved fighting immensely. If I'd seriously gone at him, he probably would've gleefully charged right back at me.

... Though earlier, he'd gotten shot in the head before he could even do that, thanks to his guard being down.

"Didn't I tell you before? If you want to order me around, you have to defeat me with a sword first. Prove you're definitively stronger than me, and I'll follow even an order to drink horse piss."

"... Haa."

Jaden let out a sigh with a somewhat exaggerated gesture, swept a hand down his face, and then, in an utterly artistic continuous motion, pointed that same hand straight at me and said,

"Look at Sylvia there. The grace carried in her every single gesture! And even when you swing your sword at her all day long, she dodges everything with nothing but disciplined, noble-like, beautiful movements. Is that all? Even when granted an audience with His Majesty, she displays courtesy with beautiful motions unbefitting her age. Try to be even half like your little sister!"

All of that was just the result of practicing hundreds and thousands of times, though.

Well, to the people here, it would look like I'd 'been that way from the start.'

... And this was a relationship that deviated significantly from the original work, too.

Putting aside the fact that I was here in Claire's place, Claire and Jaden had not been on good terms. Because from the perspective of Jaden, who liked people who dressed neatly and conducted themselves like nobles, Claire's usual attire was just too 'hideous.'

Of course, I had no intention of ever wearing that sort of outfit, and thought it didn't fit this image, so I did tend to dress as neatly as possible.

And that seemed to be a huge point of appeal for Jaden.

Thanks to that, I'd become Jaden's most cherished 'little sister.'

... Cherished to the extent that he openly went around saying that if I ever got a boyfriend, he would personally go and vet the guy's qualifications first.

Why the hell would you be vetting him, you crazy bastard?

Ah, of course, this man was originally a character used somewhat for comic relief, so his reaction wasn't entirely incomprehensible.

"......"

Ah, Lucas's expression, which had been full of competitive spirit just moments ago, truly twisted horribly.

Yeah, it was a bit much, wasn't it? Even to a lunatic like him, that statement sounded a little... pedo-ish.

Calling a twelve-year-old 'beautiful' and such.

Of course, Jaden didn't mean it that way in the slightest; he genuinely just thought that.

But still, if he had to, couldn't he have chosen words like 'graceful' instead?

"There, there, Sylvia. Let's go."

Lucas, who'd been speaking in a completely punkish tone just moments ago, suddenly spoke in a voice that sounded like an incredibly affectionate older brother.

"You shouldn't be next to a pervert like that."

"A pervert, what utter nonsense!"

As Lucas grabbed my shoulders, turned me around, and gently pushed me along, Jaden followed, protesting vehemently.

*

The phrase 'the Emperor's children' originally held no particular meaning beyond its literal sense under normal circumstances.

But in this game... no, within this empire, it was used as a kind of generic term.

Commoners might not have known it well, but among the nobility, it was synonymous with the Emperor's private organization.

And that was the truth of it.

I had no idea how he'd managed to scrape them all up, but every single human the Emperor called his 'sons and daughters' was a being who had stepped beyond the bounds of human ability in some specific field.

... If we're being fair, that included me too.

"Oh, everyone's already here?"

Lucas said as he opened the door to the Audience Chamber and walked in.

Under normal circumstances, the Audience Chamber should have been occupied by knights guarding the Emperor... but at that moment, inside the chamber, there was only the Emperor, one adult woman, and one man.

"Oh, you've come."

For a guy who appears as the final boss of an evil organization in the game, his voice sounded surprisingly fatherly when calling for us.

Arthur III.

The incarnation of 'Fangriffon.'

The emperor who had established the most powerful imperial authority in the history of the Aetherna Empire.

He was a villain who harbored the ambition to place everything in the world beneath his feet, literally desiring 'world conquest.'

And the two people kneeling before him were also among those 'Emperor's children.'

The man with the delicate impression and black hair cascading down to his back was, contrary to that impression, a monstrously strong bare-knuckle fighter. Looking like that, if he took off his shirt, his ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠body was all lean muscle, as if he didn't have an ounce of body fat.

He was a man of few words and had a handsome face, making him quite popular with the female players of the game.

For the record, Lucas was also one of the more popular characters.

Jaden was not.

And the woman with the slightly gloomy impression sitting next to him was, in the original work, essentially Claire's mentor. Though in terms of their relationship, she was called 'older sister.'

A woman who wielded a whip-like sword. For the record, by the time the original story began, she was already deceased. How she died was never shown; she only ever appeared as the original owner of Claire's weapon.

Apparently, she'd been quite fond of Claire and taught her many things, but Claire ended up inheriting that nasty personality as well, contributing to her becoming a character who sharply divided opinions.

... ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠No, actually, that was just a setting detail, and really it was the writer's fault, but... well, nitpicking that here was pointless.

Anyway, I was curious about what kind of swordsmanship the talented Claire would end up learning at the Grace household. Unless they had knots for eyes, Baron Grace would definitely teach Claire swordsmanship and send her to the academy, too.

His true daughter, the imperial princess, wasn't here. It figured; in the original work, her sense of inferiority toward the 'Emperor's children' was part of her characterization, and the process of overcoming that inferiority was her character story.

I wondered if she'd end up feeling inferior to me, too.

"Have you been in good health?"

"Mm."

As I knelt in the posture I'd practiced hundreds of times and said that, the Emperor nodded with a pleased smile.

From behind me, I heard Jaden suck in a breath of admiration, but I ignored it.

"And you, have you been well?"

Almost had my body cleaved in half and died from a sword swung by my brother with a savior complex, actually.

I couldn't say that.

"Yes, I spent my time training, as always."

"Splendid. Knowing your own exceptional ability yet not neglecting your devotion to improvement is what matters. You're old enough now, so I'll assign you a mission soon. Don't worry too much. It will be a mission well within your capabilities."

For a villain, his tone was truly like that of a benevolent father, but that mission was surely an order to kill someone.

Probably to kill someone from the noble faction, or at least put them in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a similar state. In the original work, the number of nobles the Emperor secretly had killed was said to be in the double digits.

I had strong suspicions, but to blame the Emperor, mere suspicion wouldn't suffice.

"I shall await it."

And the fact that he was entrusting such a mission to a twelve-year-old child proved, at that point, that this gentleman was indeed a villain.

Chances were, this Emperor had a hand in Claire's personality turning out so twisted.

"I have returned from my mission, Father."

The person most fanatically devoted to the title of 'Emperor's child' was Jaden.

That was also the reason he wasn't popular. He was a character with no complexity, wholly and utterly fixated on the Emperor.

"Yes, well done. The count is still alive, I presume?"

"Yes, he is not dead. But he will have understood your message with absolute clarity, Father."

"Good."

Were these words fit to come from the mouth of the empire's greatest 'knight'?

"Lucas."

"Done and dusted."

Jaden glared at Lucas for his sloppy response, but the Emperor paid it no mind whatsoever.

"Excellent. It gladdens this father's heart to see my children perform their duties so well. Please, continue to do so in the future."

A benevolent smile on the Emperor's face.

... And I was certain that smile was completely genuine. The whole 'my children' business, the 'father' talk. This Emperor meant every word of it.

And precisely because of that, this man was the true villain.

That was what I thought.