Chapter 21
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Chapter 21
Quite some time had passed before the Emperor remarried—to Lady Fron.
Lady Fron had no social standing whatsoever, was blunt to the point of rudeness, and lacked any semblance of refinement.
As a former mercenary who had clawed her way up from the gutters, she would occasionally let slip remarks that would scandalize the noble ladies of the court.
Naturally, there was considerable opposition, but the Emperor dismissed it all.
"The only person who can oppose my marriage is Kiaros. But he has given his blessing."
That single statement had even solidified Crown Prince Kiaros's position as heir.
After weathering the Dark Period unscathed, no one dared question his exceptional talents and qualifications.
The Emperor spoke to Kiaros in private.
"Kiaros, I support your first love as well. Whoever she may be, the Imperial Family will not stand in your way."
Though it never reached the public ear, this allowed Crown Prince Kiaros to escape the burden of his betrothal.
The Emperor himself had chosen silence on the matter of his son's marriage.
"My son has developed an abnormal obsession with a woman whose face he has never even glimpsed, someone he exchanged only a few words with... but I respect you nonetheless."
It was far too late to correct the Emperor's misunderstanding.
For the sake of family peace, Crown Prince Kiaros had resigned himself to being that abnormally obsessed man.
And so time passed.
"You still haven't found her? And you're telling me that until you find this girl—whose face you've never seen, with whom you've exchanged only a handful of words—there is no other woman for you?"
"Yes. Well, that is correct."
"My son certainly lacks rational thinking when it comes to such matters. But if you choose to remain chaste until you grow old and die, so be it. Not everything can be perfect. I will always respect and love you, my son."
I had never intended to go this far, yet somehow I had. Still, I believed that once I found her, everything would be resolved.
Time continued to flow.
A child was born to Lady Fron and the Emperor. Crown Prince Kiaros gained a much younger brother.
More time passed.
The Emperor, once as solid as a mountain, began to waste away from an inexplicable illness.
And through all those fifteen years that elapsed...
"I apologize, Your Majesty. We still... cannot find any leads whatsoever."
Crown Prince Kiaros could not find that girl.
"Could she have gone to the Magic Tower? With her talent at that age, it's possible."
"Even so, one cannot be certain. Continue searching."
I would need to ask that girl—now a mature woman—directly.
Whether she still dreamed of marrying a wealthy man, and if she did, that I would marry her myself.
Love had nothing to do with it, of course, but it was a promise I had made in exchange for her saving my life.
For that reason alone, I had never shown interest in any other woman.
'Because I thought of myself as a man betrothed to marry her at some unknown future date.'
Though I had never properly thanked her for it.
Perhaps that was why.
[I wanted to express my gratitude directly and properly... but I suppose I'll have to do it next time.]
I wanted to thank my second life's benefactor properly.
That is, Namia Loapi of the Scroll Management Department.
To do for her what that girl had taught me, what I had failed to do for that girl.
[If there's something I can't grasp precisely, I should at least seek an expert's opinion.]
Everyone around me dismissed it as pointless, but I ignored them all and directly requested an opinion report from the Tower Master.
That girl had once said I needed to understand exactly what I should be grateful for.
'If it hadn't been for that first Dark Period, I probably wouldn't have known how to properly thank my subordinates.'
I would have simply handed out a commendation certificate, just as the White Knight Commander suggested.
By that logic, the Emperor was right—I had learned something significant thanks to the Dark Period.
'Will this Dark Period also yield something I can gain from? But the situation is far too dire.'
So it was time to bury the past for now and focus on the present.
Just then, for reasons I couldn't fathom, Namia Loapi returned to the Imperial Palace. And she was crying.
In that moment, past and present began to intertwine in Crown Prince Kiaros's mind.
'The Southern Region... If, as The Ravens deduced, Namia Loapi is the daughter of Baron Loapi's younger brother, then Namia Loapi must have been in the Southern Region during her childhood too.'
Crown Prince Kiaros's eyes gleamed.
In an instant, a plausible hypothesis flashed through his mind.
'Either way, it was scrolls that saved me both times... and if Namia Loapi is that girl, it makes sense there's no record of her in the Southern Region.'
Crown Prince Kiaros furrowed his brow slightly in thought.
'The reason she didn't come to Count Kalto's Residence must be because something happened, or she came up to the Capital instead.'
Though I can't fathom why she didn't go to the Magic Tower.
'I need to summon her directly and verify this.'
There's still much I don't know about her.
There was no need to speculate. I could simply summon her and ask.
After all, that girl from childhood wouldn't have known his identity either. He had been concealing it back then as well.
She had lived her life without even knowing she had saved the Crown Prince.
'If she really is Namia Loapi... she did seem oddly tall, though.'
It was just as Crown Prince Kiaros recalled Namia Loapi's vacant expression.
"Your Highness!"
Urgent footsteps sounded, and the door burst open without a knock.
"Your Highness, forgive my rudeness! I have urgent news to report!"
The White Knight Commander fell to his knees in panic.
"We have just apprehended the Empress on charges of flagrant violation!"
"Flagrant violation?"
"Yes!"
Even as he gasped for breath, his expression suggested this was inevitable.
Indeed, Crown Prince Kiaros was well aware that suspicion of the Empress had been mounting from all quarters.
'...Lady Fron.'
The biological mother of Young Prince Jayden, who was not yet eight years old, and the Emperor's second wife.
With Crown Prince Kiaros gone, Young Prince Jayden could smoothly inherit the throne.
"She left the Imperial Palace in secret without any record, and was carrying deadly poison in her possession. Upon urgent investigation, her suppliers prove to be extremely disreputable and covert. It appears she has been searching for specific toxins for quite some time."
The White Knight Commander bowed his head to Crown Prince Kiaros as he spoke.
"Please review this urgently and proceed with an Imperial trial!"
* * *
"I need to change my salary account."
"Of course. Please fill this out."
I went to the Administrative Support Department and changed my salary account.
Changing accounts was absurdly simple.
"Starting this month—meaning the salary deposited today—it will go to this account, correct?"
"Yes."
I exhaled slowly, feeling hollow inside.
It seemed as though everything had changed, yet nothing had changed at all.
The staff in the Administrative Support Department seemed to be glancing at me, but I lacked the energy to care.
"Father...."
My guilt over Huan Loapi Sr. accumulated as steadily as the salary that would pile up in my account.
I had resolved to find him, but the path ahead seemed impossibly dark.
'If he's involved with a criminal syndicate... there's truly no way out.'
When I lived with my father in the Southern Region, a criminal organization had once thrown the entire region into chaos.
It was when the Emperor and the Crown Prince came for an inspection and to eliminate the remnants of magical beasts.
'Some insane criminal syndicate was discovered conducting forbidden experiments with magical beasts.'
At that time, the Emperor beheaded everyone connected to that criminal organization. Such illegal groups must be eradicated root and branch, he had said. Even now, punishment for illegal organizations showed no mercy whatsoever.
'Father won't receive clemency either. Judging by the amount of money involved, this isn't a minor matter.'
Dragons were inherently merciless toward those who violated the nation's principles.
Therefore, even if I begged Crown Prince Kiaros, 'I saved your life, so please save our father,' he would likely not bat an eye.
'What good is knowing the original story? It's a tale of a dragon's judgment—something beyond the reach of an ordinary human like me to solve.'
The gap between the original narrative and my circumstances was far too vast.
Even the original protagonist, the Young Prince Jayden, only eight years old, faced considerable hardship in the beginning because of dragons' inherent arrogance and their rigid principles....
Still, the only ones who could spare a life, even for committing heinous crimes, were the Royal Family... wait, hold on.
'Just a moment.'
An idea struck me like lightning.
'The Royal Family... doesn't consist only of dragons without sentiment.'
At this point in time, there was one member of the Royal Family who was not a dragon.
'The Empress.'
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