Will You Cry for Me If I Die? - Chapter 13

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 13

“Is the baby alright?”

At the maid’s question, Demian answered with a slight smile.

“The crying has stopped.”

“…I see. Then the young master is…”

“Clinging tight and won’t let go.”

The maid and all the servants around her quietly swallowed sighs of “oh my.”

Becky lowered her gaze and bit her lips.

Self-reproach for what had happened while that baby was left unattended lingered silently in that place.

Watching them in their strangely subdued atmosphere, Demian spoke leisurely.

“For now, let’s have the aide guard here.”

“W-we could do it too!”

“You need to help me.”

“…Ah!”

Come to think of it, they had to receive guests.

They had been so focused on the small uninvited guest that they hadn’t thought of it.

At Winter Castle right now, there was a precious guest who had to be received in secret.

“Well, shall we go to Father first?”

“I’ll help you prepare.”

“Thank you.”

None of the servants knew what Demian was thinking.

They only saw him pause briefly in front of the door.

Beyond the door were two children. One had been crouched for a while even after coming down from the column, and one was the child who had simply settled down and sat beside him.

Demian carefully closed the door.

The servants following behind quietly noticed and passed by the tenderness that emanated from that gesture.

* * *

“You have arrived.”

At the Duke’s polite greeting, the Emperor smiled faintly.

“To be so courteous even to an uninvited guest who entered through the window, I can only be grateful.”

“An uninvited guest? That’s hardly appropriate.”

The Imperial Family that ruled the center was, strictly speaking, a family closer to the role of priests than governance.

Their original duty was to read the balance of the world on behalf of the gods, and sometimes to intervene so that balance wouldn’t collapse.

But the fact that they were formally the family of lords passed down through generations remained unchanged.

‘Though this only applies to the Night Emperor.’

The Emperor with two souls in one body was clearly different – the one who governed the day and the one who governed the night were distinctly different emperors.

The Day Emperor was more of an enemy than their lord. But the Night Emperor was different.

It meant he was always a welcome presence.

‘Besides, it seems there’s also a guest this time.’

Since this Winter Castle was an environment not good for the Emperor’s frail body, the Duke was even more concerned that he had come such a long way.

However.

“Please, sit.”

The Duke personally brewed tea and seated the Emperor in the spot closest to the fireplace. While the tea’s fragrance quietly spread through the room, light conversation passed between the two. About the weather, about the current state of winter monsters.

It was brief, but that time was necessary. The Duke knew it, and the Emperor knew it too.

Eventually, the Duke carefully asked.

“Your Majesty. May I ask what urgent matter brought you here?”

The Emperor paused for a moment.

Holding the cup with both hands, he took a few sips of the cooling tea. Then he slowly set down the cup and raised his head.

His face was more serious than ever before.

The Duke knew that expression.

When the Emperor made that face, the Duke had lost his wife.

Rozitsa Ryu, Lord of the Spring Clan.

A mage born of sealing. Even on that night when she sealed herself and disappeared, the Emperor had stood before the Duke with that same face.

Tension naturally rose through his body. He couldn’t hide it.

They say ominous premonitions are usually right.

“The sacred relic has responded.”

The Duke closed his eyes tightly and opened them at those words.

The sacred relic.

People of the world don’t know. What it is.

Because why this world became as it is now has been kept secret.

But the two people in this room knew. That it was the culprit that made the world this way.

And at the same time, that it was also the only hope remaining in this world.

That sacred relic had responded after 400 years.

It meant that hope to save the world from the monsters of the four seasons had finally appeared by their side.

Silence filled the room for a while.

The fire in the fireplace crackled low.

* * *

The appearance of ability users began after the ancient Demon King and heroes, the saint and sacred relic all perished together.

It was a kind of phenomenon that occurred as nature tried to fill the empty spaces by itself.

The world quietly but ceaselessly tried to fill the void left by the great beings’ disappearance. That’s how special powers began to sprout among very ordinary people.

But just because ordinary people gained special powers didn’t mean they could completely fill the heroes’ places.

There wasn’t just one empty space.

The disappearance of the demon race also played a part in this situation. They were beings that should have been confined, not beings that should have disappeared. Just by the Demon King and demon race remaining in their domain, this world’s magic could circulate. Just as water must flow when there are mountains and rivers, just as light gains meaning when there is darkness, they were beings that functioned within the world’s structure.

However, at that time, the Demon King died. The saint sacrificed herself in place of the heroes. And the heroes who survived.

“Have those chosen as heroes appeared?”

The Duke asked calmly. His voice didn’t waver. But he didn’t notice the slight tension in his fingertips.

“That’s not all.”

“Then.”

“A saint.”

Those two short syllables settled heavily in the room.

The Duke hesitated.

A saint.

Since sacrificing herself by burning in place of the heroes in ancient times, no saint had been reborn. Hundreds of years had passed. In that time, the world gradually tilted, the number of monsters increased, and people came to live thinking this was just the way of the world. Because it had been that way for so long, few people even felt that this tilting was strange.

One reason the world was falling apart was the absence of a saint. So the Emperor’s words could be seen as good news.

However.

The Duke’s gaze briefly drifted toward the window before returning.

Beyond the window, the night of Ikaros was spread out. The snow wouldn’t stop.

Somewhere in that winter, there were things he had to protect.

Demian and Theo.

And now, his second son Yurahel was struggling alone in a distant place, living as if dead.

Just protecting his three sons was overwhelming enough.

The Emperor couldn’t not know this fact. Knowing this, he had still come to this place.

Because there was no other way.

It was a passage that allowed one to guess how far the Day Emperor had gone with the priests.

“…I know. How could I not know your circumstances? Yet I had no choice but to come here.”

The Emperor’s voice contained neither apology nor coercion. It was just a fact. And accepting that fact was also the Duke’s circumstance.

“I understand.”

The Duke answered quietly.

“I’m also grateful that you came here first.”

Just thinking about what would have happened if Clofford Noble House, which opposed the Four Seasons Houses, had learned this news first was unpleasant.

This was a race against time.

“If it’s a superficial reason, I have one prepared.”

The Duke tilted his head slightly.

The Emperor said.

“That child will come.”

“When you say that child.”

He couldn’t be referring to the baby intruder who was probably sleeping soundly with the youngest right now.

Could he be talking about the companion the Emperor brought?

“I have formally ordered the Prince to seek refuge at Winter Castle.”

“The Prince.”

The Duke recalled the child he had seen once long ago.

A black-haired child who had just started walking. The sight of him toddling alone down the long corridors of the Imperial Palace. Even when there were hands ready to catch him, the child who wouldn’t reach out would simply get up without crying when he fell.

Born noble and raised noble, yet it was a position where he could never have more than what was given.

Like the Emperor before him. A child who would grow up not knowing what happiness was.

The Duke had already known then that this was the child’s fate. What had he said when his wife felt sorry for that child?

‘I told her not to worry too much since our children could breathe thanks to that child accepting his fate.’

And he had been severely scolded by his wife.

The Duke cast a mocking smile at his past self.

With complicated matters piling up, he had forgotten about that child.

“That child is one of the newly designated heroes. I plan to make contact with the remaining two gradually. …We must move without Clofford knowing.”

The Duke said nothing for a moment.

The fire in the fireplace burned low. The tea had already gone cold. The Emperor didn’t rush the Duke’s answer. He knew this weight. He also knew that time was needed to accept it.

Eventually, the Duke bowed his head.

And recalling a conversation he’d had with his wife on some day in the past, he gave an answer completely opposite to his foolish past self.

“I understand, Your Majesty. We will serve His Highness the Prince.”

“I’m counting on you.”

The Emperor finally showed a relieved expression.

His tightly tensed shoulders dropped just a little. It was a face that looked much older than his years. Whether it was the position of Night Emperor that made a person like this, or the weight of this world that did so.

Probably both.

And he knew that he too was not completely free from that weight.

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