Margrave’s Bastard Son was The Emperor - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 1. The Emperor’s End
I ascended to the throne as a boy.
And before reaching adulthood, my head was severed.
The life of Emperor Ian Verosion would be remembered in those two sentences alone. Who would remember the young emperor who came like the wind during times of upheaval and vanished just as swiftly?
A man entered the Underground Prison and seized me by the hair. Though covered in blood and filth, his eyes burned with fierce intensity.
“Uncle Ian.”
The man’s name was Chroni. Due to our twisted family tree, he was my nephew—twenty years my senior. Each time he shook my head, blood-tinged saliva dripped from my lips.
“How did it come to this? I told you then, did I not? That you lacked the qualities to be emperor and should refuse the throne. Had you listened to me, this would never have happened.”
I stared at Chroni without answering. Displeased by my gaze, he struck my face viciously.
Crack!
“Even a thoughtless teenager should know where to lie down before stretching their legs! Magic! What’s so great about that anyway!”
I sighed inwardly.
Magic—a power so sublime and magnificent that it was called the very trace God left upon the world. And it was precisely this that had allowed me to ascend to the throne.
“Uncle, look! Your kicks cannot stop my precious magic, can they?”
Thud! Thud!
It was true. Thanks to the mana-sealing shackles binding my limbs, I was now nothing more than an ordinary nineteen-year-old human. Even if I could break the seals, death awaited me. My fate was already decided.
“One in ten thousand, the first noble mage—all meaningless before this blade.”
Shink.
Chroni finally drew his sword.
To end my life in such an underground prison, branded a traitor emperor—a hollow laugh escaped my lips.
“…Ha.”
“You’re laughing?”
“…Yes. It’s amusing, Chroni. You haven’t changed, just as I haven’t. Do you still envy me for being a mage?”
At my words, Chroni’s face hardened.
The rarer something was, the more precious it became. Mages were no exception. In all the Bariel Empire, there were perhaps a hundred at most.
Because of this rarity, a mage born into a noble house was unprecedented in the history of the great Bariel Empire.
“I remember. When I was just a mana user as a child, knowing nothing, you told me this: ‘Mages are rare, but most come from commoner stock. If discovered, you’ll be cast out from the estate, so hide it.’ Do you remember?”
“…Ian. Why bring up old matters?”
“Isn’t it ridiculous? Of course commoners vastly outnumber nobles, so most mages must inevitably come from commoner origins.”
“Silence!”
“Why? Are you ashamed?”
“I said silence!”
Thud!
My vision went dark. Chroni’s fist had struck my eye squarely. The back of my head, sprawled on the floor, was trampled repeatedly.
“What does it matter? I stand here now, and you lie with your head on the ground. That is what matters.”
Chroni pointed his blade at my neck. Without a moment’s hesitation, he moved to sever my life. Then, a voice came from outside.
“Lord Chroni. A letter has arrived from Duke Hilron.”
“…Is it urgent?”
“Yes, my apologies.”
Chroni clicked his tongue and withdrew his foot from the back of my head. Glancing at me lying motionless as if dead, he left the Underground Prison.
How much time had passed?
Click. Clank.
“Ian…”
An unfamiliar metallic sound and a familiar voice.
I barely regained consciousness and opened my eyes. I lacked even the strength to turn my head. As I shifted only my gaze, Naum, the Minister of Magic, was tearfully unlocking my shackles.
“Ian. Please, please try to stay conscious.”
“Naum, what is… what’s happening here…?”
“This is not the time. You must hurry and hide your body first, and you must survive. Ian, please, somehow find the strength…”
But the seal-stone shackles would not come loose easily. Moonlight streamed through a small window, illuminating Naum’s hands. His fingertips were completely scraped raw and bleeding.
“…stop.”
“Ian?”
“…I want to stop.”
“W-what are you saying?”
I smiled faintly and closed my eyes again. Then the memory of when I first entered the Ministry of Magic came flooding back vividly.
“I’m grateful. That I could become a mage from a mana user, that I could ascend to the throne—it was all thanks to you all. Though I have fallen short and come to this, I hope you will continue to survive and protect the Bariel Empire.”
“No. That cannot be. Without you, Ian, the Ministry of Magic has no meaning. So please come to your senses and accept my mana. If you die, if you die, it will all be over…”
If I die, it will all be over.
That was precisely what I truly desired. Everything had been so difficult, so exhausting, so draining. The past three years of life as emperor had destroyed everything within me.
“Ian. Please listen to what I’m saying.”
But Naum did not give up. He gently gripped my chin and made me look directly into his eyes.
“There is a separate building directly under the Ministry of Magic beside the central main hall of the Secondary Imperial Palace. You know it, don’t you? The place you would visit whenever you first came to the Imperial Palace and wanted to cry.”
“…I only cried once.”
“Yes. Anyway.”
Why had I cried then?
I furrowed my brow, grasping at hazy memories as if through fog.
That was when Naum sensed something and glanced toward the prison entrance. It was clear that Chroni, having finished his business, was approaching.
“…dispel the barrier and hurry to hide yourself.”
“That cannot be done. Ian, go in that direction. If you go, you will be able to find a breakthrough.”
“What do you mean by that?”
To my question, Naum answered only with silence.
I realized his face was darkening not because of the darkness of the Underground Prison, but from worry and concern. I barely held onto my fading consciousness and grasped Naum’s sleeve once more.
“Naum, I asked you.”
“I mixed my blood into the magic.”
“…Naum!”
“I cast a spell asking for an answer—that if you go in that direction, it will open an opportunity for you. I don’t know why it must be there. It may be due to my insufficient ability as well. In any case, you must hurry.”
The power of magic that defies the laws of nature by its very existence. Should the balance of power shift even slightly, one would fall into the abyss. The Papal See calls it hell, and among mages it is known as the Eternal Curse.
“You twisted spacetime?”
“It was unavoidable. Ian, so please…”
“Why, why!”
Creak.
“I should have known. Even if we purge all those Ministry of Magic bastards, what good is it if their minister shows up like this?”
It was Chroni. Behind him stood a man being groomed as the next Minister of Magic to succeed Naum.
Naum clenched his teeth and summoned a magic circle.
A ripple shimmered at his fingertips. The dizzying patterns wavered and no longer shone as they had before. It was because the power of the sealing stone binding Ian’s wrist was far too strong.
“Naum! Please! You can’t!”
“Ian. It’s all right. There is always, always another chance. The Divine does not pose problems without answers.”
Whoooosh!
Naum’s magic circle blazed crimson. But strangely, the flames were not directed at Chroni—they were consuming Naum’s own hands.
“Aaaahhh!”
“…No! Naum, wait! Stop!”
Ian, still prostrate, lifted only his head and cried out.
I had no attachment to my own life, yet I could not bear to watch those dear to me die because of me.
I understood only after becoming emperor. The weight of the crown was the weight of faith that those who followed me sent forth. And it was not I who bore it, but them.
Whoooosh!
“Ugh!”
Chroni too blocked the surging flames with his left hand. Had the mage behind him not raised a protective barrier, his face would have been burned away.
‘Damn it.’
Meanwhile, Ian felt his consciousness growing distant again from the searing heat. Everything brightened into light, and even pain became distant—in that moment.
Ian suddenly became aware of a metallic ring echoing in his ears.
Clang.
Chroni’s blade touched the nape of Ian’s neck.
So this was how a three-year emperor’s reign ended. I thought I had done my best for Bariel, yet those who pledged their faith were devoured by their own hands, and now my own neck was about to be severed.
“Ian. In your next life, do not be born.”
With Chroni’s cruel words, everything vanished. Death was so quiet, I thought, as silence surrounded me.
And then I saw….
‘A fork and knife?’
And my own hands holding them backwards.
* * *
Ian slowly lifted his head.
My body felt heavy as lead, yet compared to the suffering of the past few days, it felt light as air.
“Ian.”
An unknown woman across from me was looking down at me.
A sprawling garden, well-tended flowerbeds, and sumptuous food before my eyes. As my senses returned, I realized everyone seated around me was watching me.
“Ah.”
This doesn’t seem to be hell. Then is it heaven?
But the scenery is not so different from where I lived. If anything, compared to the Imperial Palace, it seems rather plain….
“Why is he acting like this? Ian, you’re being rude to our guest.”
“It seems his lack of manners shows itself at any time.”
“Tch. Choose your words carefully.”
“Ian. Come to your senses.”
The Chubby Boy sitting beside the Unknown Woman spewed crude remarks, but I paid them little mind. It was the tantalizing aroma of food wafting from above that consumed my thoughts. Trapped in the Underground Prison, I couldn’t even remember when I last ate.
‘…I don’t know what this is. I’m going mad.’
It was an instinctive action that emerged unbidden. With an elegant gesture, I straightened the utensils and assumed the proper dining posture. Then, with more grace and speed than anyone present, I cut into the steak and ate with refined composure.
“Mm.”
A moment ago, I had gripped the fork like a fist—unthinkable now. This was a gesture of dignity and propriety. Even the brief exclamation of approval I uttered was measured, subdued, and utterly refined.
The Marquis across from me, the Countess who was my stepmother, and my Half-Siblings watched me with expressions of utter bewilderment.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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