SWNOVELXO Chapter 86
“What was so urgent?”
“If you saw Duke Kreutz meeting with a suspicious man, you wouldn’t be able to resist following them either.”
I wanted to deny it, but I knew that in that situation, I would have made the same choice to follow Duke Kreutz. That’s just the kind of person I am.
When I couldn’t refute him and kept my mouth shut, Axel grinned as if he knew I would react that way and continued speaking.
“I didn’t come away empty-handed. Do you know who Duke Kreutz was with?”
“…Was it Hazen?”
When I guessed, thinking it was unlikely, Axel’s face twisted in displeasure. It seemed I had hit the mark perfectly.
“How did you know?”
“I ran into Hazen at the palace too. He’s much better at using illusion magic than when I was teaching him.”
I shrugged as I spoke, and Axel’s expression became complicated.
“You haven’t figured it out yet, have you?”
“Figured what out?”
“Hazen is just a shell. An empty vessel.”
As Axel’s conclusion came out, I blinked, unable to follow the flow of the conversation. Seeing my confusion, Axel explained further, sounding a bit frustrated.
“The body was definitely Hazen’s, but the soul inside seemed to be someone else’s.”
“What?”
“Hazen—no, the thing wearing Hazen’s body—told Duke Kreutz quite clearly.”
Axel cleared his throat as if to mimic someone and then reproduced a low, ominous voice.
“‘This body doesn’t have much time left. I need a new body to hold out until I can take over a proper vessel.’”
* * *
We needed to sort things out.
Axel and I sat down together and reviewed the situation.
Hazen seems to be dead.
Someone has taken over Hazen’s body and is pretending to be him.
That someone is treating Duke Kreutz as a subordinate.
“Isn’t Duke Kreutz an incredibly proud noble? Why would someone like him act as a subordinate?”
Unable to understand, I tilted my head in confusion, and Axel shrugged.
“The prouder a noble is, the more they crave status and power. If they think the other party is overwhelmingly superior, they might actually submit more easily.”
Someone overwhelmingly superior to Duke Kreutz.
If it’s about physical strength, there are plenty of people stronger than the scholar Duke Kreutz.
But there aren’t many people who are superior to him in terms of status.
‘The only person higher than a duke is the emperor.’
But the emperor is Kirke, right?
I was about to dismiss the idea of a superior being, but then a different thought crossed my mind.
‘But the emperor Duke Kreutz truly serves in his heart is…’
A face flashed through my mind.
‘The former emperor!’
* * *
Kirke’s father, the former emperor.
After the Mad Dragon was defeated by the expedition, he met with an infamously disgraceful end, one that would be recorded in history.
Long ago, when the Mad Dragon was turning the entire continent into a sea of fire, the former emperor, who claimed to be the leader of the continent, stayed safely in the capital and completely abandoned efforts to deal with the situation.
There were damages from the Mad Dragon even within the empire, but the capital was solid and secure.
The former emperor sent soldiers to the affected areas only as a formality and did not provide any substantial support.
The people, who desperately needed the former emperor’s help, slowly but surely began to be consumed by anger as they were continually ignored.
In peaceful times, he was at the forefront, receiving everyone’s adoration!
But when difficult times came, he was the first to run away, using others as shields—like a cowardly rat!
Public sentiment toward the former emperor plummeted in an instant.
Rumors flew daily to the imperial palace: some were planning a rebellion, others a coup.
He wanted to keep his throne, but he didn’t want to face danger.
That was the former emperor’s honest feeling.
However, if his true intentions were revealed, he would be immediately dragged off the throne.
The former emperor came up with a clever solution to navigate the situation.
“I will send my son Kirke to subdue the Mad Dragon!”
He gathered countless people in the square and declared,
“My son is a very strong swordsman, and I believe he will surely bring this situation under control!”
At that time, Kirke had just awakened as a Sword Master and was known as a prodigious prince.
He was very popular among the people.
The former emperor decided to use his son to calm the public sentiment.
“I take full responsibility and will abdicate the throne! On the day Kirke returns after defeating the Mad Dragon, I will pass the crown to him!”
The former emperor’s bold declaration completely swayed the hearts of the people.
“He’s sending his precious son to such a dangerous place.”
“He’s even going to give up the throne.”
“Maybe he isn’t as greedy as we thought?”
The former emperor’s story that he would wear the crown only ‘until Kirke returns after defeating the Mad Dragon’ easily convinced the people.
After all, someone had to lead the nation for the time being, and if the former emperor was willing to offer his precious son and express his intention to abdicate, the people thought they could trust him to lead the country one more time.
But the former emperor’s true intentions were entirely different.
“Everyone talks about Kirke, Kirke, Kirke! I’m the emperor, but all the talk in the capital is about him!”
This was something the former emperor often muttered to himself.
The former emperor was jealous of his young and talented son.
While he wasn’t particularly lacking, he also wasn’t particularly exceptional, unlike Kirke, who excelled in every aspect from the moment he started walking.
Then, Kirke became the youngest ever to reach the rank of Sword Master, gaining immense fame.
The former emperor saw an opportunity.
Thanks to the Mad Dragon, he thought he might be able to get rid of his annoyingly brilliant son.
No, he was certain he could get rid of him.
When Kirke stepped up as the leader of the expedition, the second son of the Elpinard family joined him. It was also said that an orphaned priest from the church and the young spirit sorcerer from the eccentric Count Kol family were aboard as well.
‘And what else? A dark mage?’
There had never been a more ragtag group. They were all just kids in their early teens.
The outcome seemed obvious.
The former emperor cheerfully bid farewell to the expedition, convinced he would never see them again.
Of course, that expectation crumbled as news came in of the expedition’s continued success.
* * *
“Find a way! Make sure they never return alive!”
The former emperor flew into a rage. The nobles who were loyal to the emperor and enjoyed various privileges from him were equally desperate.
No matter how much of a Sword Master he might be, they couldn’t accept the idea of serving such a young brat as the emperor of the empire!
They dug all kinds of traps, and at times, even attempted assassination.
But somehow, the young expedition group, whom they had dismissed as a ragtag bunch, managed to evade all the dangers.
And in the end…
News arrived that the Mad Dragon was dead.
The former emperor was now in a position where he had to keep his promise and pass the crown to his young son and step down.
He tried in vain to stir public opinion by claiming that ‘a young emperor is unstable’ to hold onto his position.
But the overwhelming support from the people for the hero who had successfully defeated the Mad Dragon was far beyond anything he could control.
Thus, Kirke, the youngest emperor in history, received the crown from his father.
Meanwhile, the former emperor, who had been deemed incompetent, was forced to pass his crown to his son in the prime of his life.
History recorded the two as a hero and a coward.
* * *
‘Even after passing the throne to Kirke, the former emperor continued his political activities in the capital for a while.’
He was likely waiting for Kirke, who had become emperor at such a young age, to make a mistake so he could reclaim the throne.
But Kirke, the hero, ruled wisely and courageously, leaving no openings.
‘In the end, the former emperor had to tuck his tail and leave the capital…’
His whereabouts after that remained unknown.