Margrave’s Bastard Son was The Emperor - Chapter 409

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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 409
Fire. The Pendant
Damon remembered the cool blade against the nape of his neck. That final sensation he’d felt in his previous life—when he lived as a prince rather than King Damon, and when he put a period to that existence.
Everything around him seemed to flow in slow motion. His subordinates and soldiers watching him, the continuous explosions stretching out languidly, all rifling through his memories.
—Brother, I’m sorry. This can’t continue.
—Wait, just wait!
—It’s an unavoidable choice for the Kingdom of Burgos. Please close your eyes peacefully.
—Do you think only you are a prince for this nation? I too am a prince of Burgos. How could you!
—It is all God’s will.
—Don’t make me laugh! You’ve always been like this. Always. Taking everything from me despite being my younger brother, and never satisfied with that. What do you want from me? What am I supposed to do? God? Fine. Let’s go ask God. Let’s ask together what the true choice for Burgos is!
Damon shrieked and drew his sword. Those supporting his younger brother Daon stepped forward to oppose him, but Damon’s brother was foolish and pious, holding them back.
Dozens of exchanges of blows echoed through the center of the royal palace as they fought to steal each other’s breath, and in the end, both died. Damon and Daon alike.
Damon chuckled as he watched Daon’s blood soak the marble floor. The fool—if only he hadn’t stepped forward, I would have achieved complete victory!
—Your Highness!
While everyone rushed toward Daon, Damon alone watched that scene as he died. And gazing at the yellowed sky caused by desertification, he made a vow. He would be reborn. In his next life, he would remake Burgos with the full dignity of the First Prince.
Perhaps his brother’s words about God’s will weren’t entirely wrong. Thus he obtained a second life, and moreover, he was now seeking a way to guarantee a third.
It was almost complete. He couldn’t die here like this. He couldn’t stop again here.
“…Did you ask what will become of me?”
Damon whispered with a chuckle. The blade pressed deep against his throat, and with each movement of Damon’s Adam’s apple, blood trickled out.
Laughter mismatched to the situation. Ian looked down at him and laughed along. Blood-soaked golden hair fell downward, casting shadows.
“I won’t die. I’ll live a third life.”
A voice so small only Ian could hear amid the chaos. Ian’s expression shifted slightly. After the second chance, it was the tone of someone certain about a third. Why? What could he possibly believe in?
“Kill me then. You’ll be there in my next life. I didn’t know before, but now I do. So in the next life, you’ll die with your head pressed to the ground just like me. I swear it with everything I have. Through death, I take one step forward.”
Ian’s grip on Damon’s hair tightened further. The generals and soldiers of Burgos flinched, paying careful attention to Ian’s every move.
A truly precarious situation. If Ian twisted his arm even slightly, the King of Burgos’s head would roll across the earth. This meant defeat, and moreover, their own deaths.
“A third life?”
…!
Crack.
Damon grimaced at Ian’s rough touch. Damon living his second life and himself who had come to the past transcending time and space. The grain was different, but wasn’t the foundation the same?
If he knew the secret behind this, he could obtain clues about his own situation. To return to Emperor Ian’s body, to traverse back a hundred years to his Bariel, and moreover, to reach some point where he could grasp everything before failure.
“Speak in detail.”
“Why? Do you also wish to live twice? Why? You’re the Empire’s mage, a young Minister whom everyone reveres. What could you possibly lack?”
“I have no desire to waste time with nonsense. Even as we speak, many are dying. A third life after death? Do as you wish. However, it won’t be easy.”
You cut Selena’s throat. I’ll do the same to you. However, instead of the death you desire, I’ll allow you only to the brink of death. Ian seized Damon’s left hand and twisted it backward, then forcefully bent it the opposite way.
Crack!
“Aaaahhh!”
Unlike the composed and cold Ian, Damon couldn’t endure the sudden agony and let out a scream. Everyone flinched and stepped back. Ian, pinning Damon down with his knee on his back, nodded to them.
“Have you lost your minds? Are you still holding weapons?”
Surrender. If you don’t, your king dies. At Ian’s warning, the general slowly lowered his weapon.
At the same moment, swords and spears clattered to the ground. The soldiers knelt and raised both hands, then prostrated themselves and swore their surrender.
Screeeech!
Boom! Bang!
In that instant, an attack came flying toward me.
It was an arrow that cut through the air in a dark crimson hue, brimming with magical power. I wondered if it had come from Eriponi’s direction, but the trajectory was completely opposite—it originated from the slope where the Atan Clan had descended.
I reflexively formed a barrier with my left hand to deflect the attack. A long-haired man wielded a bow and arrows made of pure light in his hands. He was one who could convert magical power into weapons, just like a Mage Knight.
“You’ve brought quite capable reinforcements, Damon.”
“Damn it!”
No matter how much he struggled, he couldn’t escape my grip. Attacks continued to pour down relentlessly. Unlike the demoralized Burgos soldiers, the Atan Clan still swept across the battlefield with vigor.
Their objective was singular: to create a fracture in Clifford. And what served that purpose was simple and obvious—Burgos.
“You bastards, don’t you dare retreat! Does it matter if the King dies?”
“It does matter, actually.”
“There’s a next King, you know. Everyone, pick up your weapons and fight! How far did we march down from the North for this?!”
“I heard wars usually end when the enemy commander is captured.”
“Nonsense. Wars only end when everyone’s dead.”
“Anyone without a weapon is considered an enemy—cut them down too! Did we warn you?”
“We came all this way for a proper fight, and you want to end it like this? Let’s taste some real blood!”
Screeeech!
The Atan Clan shouted irritably as they swung their blades. Their warning about treating the unarmed as enemies was no bluff. Several Burgos soldiers fell beneath their onslaught alongside Clifford soldiers.
As I turned my head toward the commotion, the General noticed that Damon continued to extend one hand. Why was he doing that? Upon closer inspection, a small Idgal pendant lay scattered at the end of his reach. The General quickly snatched it and hurled it toward Damon.
“Your Highness!”
Whoosh!
What was this? Damon stretched with all his might, but I was faster. I caught the pendant with its string in one hand, and the Idgal in contact with it began to glow.
Zing. Zing!
Countless concentric magical circles leaked through the gaps in my fingers. Intricately woven together with formulas, they wrapped around me. I was startled, but I soon realized the magical aura felt familiar.
‘…It’s mine.’
More precisely, it belonged to the other Ian. Some magic that had originated from the other Ian.
The Mages in the sky rushed forward in alarm, but I raised my hand to stop them. I felt my strength draining away—as if sand I didn’t know I possessed was tilting and pouring out to one side.
Whoosh!
I quickly threw the pendant away, but the magical circle enveloping me didn’t disappear. Instead, as if waiting for the seal to break, it shone brilliantly and wrapped around me. Everything around me was engulfed in light. My golden hair appeared white in its radiance.
As I frowned at the brilliant light, the Mages in the sky cried out.
“Ian! Are you alright?!”
“What’s happening?”
“Please tell us! I beg you!”
“We’ve safely relocated Tomi, Yen, and Kanci. All three are alive, and we can do anything! Please give us your orders!”
Damon watched from below my knees, observing closely.
The pendant Rutherford had given him. He’d said it would indicate the standard for the fracture to occur and would provide some assistance if problems arose, but I hadn’t known such a mechanism was hidden within it. To be honest, even now as I watched it unfold before my eyes, I couldn’t understand what was happening.
I grasped Damon’s left arm and asked.
“Damon, did you make direct contact with Rutherford?”
“Why? Curious? Does something seem off?”
“Answering a question with a question is not wise.”
Crack!
Damon’s left arm, already broken once before, twisted backward again in the opposite direction. Even as it did, my mana continued to hemorrhage from my body like water pouring through an invisible rupture.
I stared at the pendant I had hurled away, my cold sweat dripping steadily. Idgal, shimmering with golden light as if about to ignite.
Shatter!
It could not withstand the heat and shattered into countless fragments. Only Damon understood the significance of this. It marked the moment when sufficient force had been applied to cause a fracture.
A faint smile crossed Damon’s lips as he writhed in agony, and I felt vertigo wash over me, swaying slightly.
‘Is this my chance?’
The General and Soldiers moved to seize their weapons again, but the Mages would not permit it.
Boom! Bang!
“Everyone, do not move.”
Despite my command to keep their distance, they descended cautiously without lowering their guard. I pressed my hand against the ground, my face drained of all color.
With the leaders of both factions entangled and collapsed together, I could not discern how the situation would unfold. Damon attempted to crawl away from me using his intact right arm—
Crack!
“Aaaahhhhh!”
My dagger pierced through his Achilles tendon. Separate from the activation of the Idgal pendant and my mana bleeding away, war was war. Having drawn blood from the enemy commander, the outcome was already decided.
“Ian!”
“Restrain Damon first.”
“Are you well? Your complexion looks terrible.”
“…I’m fine. Just a little dizzy, that’s all.”
As I staggered, trying to regain my senses, I noticed something dripping down. Blood. In war, I could not afford to shed my own blood, but fortunately it was mixed with that of others and went unnoticed.
“Shall I transfer some mana to you? If this continues, we really….”
“No. Right now it would be like pouring water into a bottomless vessel.”
“Pardon? What do you mean by that?”
“Return to camp and I will explain. First, obtain the white flag of Burgos and raise it where all can see it clearly. Ruswena as well.”
“Well, Ruswena is one thing, but what about the Atan Clan? They don’t seem to understand reason at all. Their actions are far from ordinary.”
“It’s Berik. Berik will handle it.”
“Ah!”
The Two Mages bound King Damon and lifted him into the sky, while the rest supported me. Even as the battle entered a lull, the Atan Clan remained visibly restless, seemingly eager for the war to continue.
I pressed my throbbing brow firmly as I spoke.
“Convey a message to the clan leader called Efdiram.”
“They don’t seem to understand that the war ends when the leader is captured.”
“Tell them that regarding the fractures—that is, concerning the supply of magical beasts—we now hold the initiative over Damon, so let us discuss our opinions over a meal. Also, announce King Damon’s capture so that all in the vicinity may hear it.”
“Yes, understood. Ian, can you walk?”
“I’ll need to ride a horse….”
“A horse! Bring a horse!”
It meant I could not even fly.
I closed my eyes as I gazed upon the Idgal pendant, now completely shattered into dust. It felt as though the shackles of my illegitimate birth reached across time and space to strangle my very neck.

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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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