Chapter 179

Santia had left too.

I was left alone.

“…Why did you save my sister, you ask…….”

I clutched my throbbing head.

There were various things in the lodging where I was staying.

They were gifts brought by people vying to get on the good side of the man now called a hero.

I rummaged through one of them and took out a small liquor bottle.

I didn’t usually enjoy alcohol, but I couldn’t resist.

I didn’t even bother with a glass and put the bottle to my lips.

The strong liquor flowed down my throat.

A burning sensation.

But for me, who always lived with a flame inside, it felt rather refreshing.

“Honestly… when you ask a question like that, how can I not recall…….”

My head ached.

It was throbbing so much it was hard to bear.

I poured more alcohol down my throat.

The alcohol took effect quickly.

Voices like auditory hallucinations swirled, and the past whispered.

‘…Zionis…….’

***

“Zionis.”

Santia was crying.

This was before my regression.

Fifteen years ago from my perspective, and about four years from now in terms of the timeline.

Back then, no one could stop the calamity.

Four calamities swept through the West.

Before the regression, Cordis had also tried to kill Santia to gain a pretext for war. But it didn’t happen right away.

The Del Conti family was still intact, and the Empire had no reason to rush their plans.

This meant that the Ten Great Generals’ Nana did not disguise herself as the head lady-in-waiting and try to assassinate Santia on her wedding day.

The Empire’s attempt to kill Santia came about four years after she crossed over to the West.

When she had already been living as a member of the Guidone family for some time.

I had barely managed to save Santia’s life, but that was all.

I couldn’t save anyone else from the Guidone family.

That’s why Santia was crying.

In the blood of the Guidone people, her heart crushed by an overwhelming sense of guilt, she couldn’t even sob freely and just let her melted heart drip from her eyes.

“Zionis.”

“…Yes, Sister Santia.”

“It’s all because of me, isn’t it?”

“……”

Back then, I couldn’t answer.

It was before I was called a hero.

I wasn’t a regressor yet, and I had just obtained the Septem Arcana and apart from these reasons, I couldn’t bring myself to speak.

Santia was in such a miserable state.

“Answer me.”

She asked, out of her mind.

Her two eyes, having shed all their tears, had lost their light and sunk deep.

Even groping in the air seemed to be a struggle for her.

Santia held onto Gwaemos’s, her husband’s hand, but it was already cold.

That coldness tore at her heart.

“They… Gwaemos died because… I married into the Guidone family, didn’t he.”

“…No, sister, that’s not it…….”

“Don’t lie, Zionis!!”

The once beautiful Santia.

My half-sister who always smiled like a human even in the bleak Great Imperial Palace of Cordis.

But in the midst of misery, she could only scream, and I could only chew on the wretchedness.

“Because we are Cordis, that’s why they died-!!!”

“……”

Her scream was piercing.

I too knew that feeling, so I kept my mouth shut.

I bit my lips until they bled, afraid that my own scream would burst out.

I pressed down on my heart again and again, and chose my words again and again.

“…Sister, I…….”

My lips, with beads of blood forming, quivered.

“…I am not Zionis.”

“No, Zionis. You are Zionis.”

Santia giggled.

She laughed, holding her stomach and shaking her head back and forth as if something was so funny, but her eyes didn’t smile at all.

She wanted to go crazy but couldn’t, trapped in reality, forcing out laughter.

It was heartbreakingly sad.

“Just as I am Santia, you are still Zionis.”

“……”

“No matter how much you want to deny it, no matter how much you hate it to the point of being unable to accept it, in the end… in the end…….”

They were called by similar names.

The 5th Prince, Zionis.

The 2nd Princess, Santia Hostanio.

Because they were the son and daughter of the greatest man in the entire continent, Emperor Continua.

“…We, more than anyone, and forever, can only be Cordis, my dear brother.”

I did not answer.

Santia did not want an answer either.

She carefully bent her body.

She held the cold hand and sobbed.

She fumbled and touched the face that always smiled at her. It wouldn’t smile at her anymore.

It would just become a lump of flesh and rot.

A cruelty that was undeniable, no matter how much one wanted to deny it.

“I’m sorry, Gwaemos, I’m sorry…….”

Gwaemos Gustav Guidone lost his life protecting his wife.

That loafer who hated sword practice so much, he gave his life, took up his sword, and protected his wife.

He even left splendid last words, saying he was glad he could protect Santia, before breathing his last.

“Because we are Cordis, because you took a woman like me as your wife…….”

Santia endlessly blamed herself.

She hated Cordis.

But she was more Cordis than anyone.

She hated her bloodline so much that she had no desire to live.

“I’m sorry, Gwaemos… you loved me, a person like me, so sincerely…….”

Santia fell silent.

“……”

She stared at the palm of her hand, at the Cordis blood flowing within it. Then she raised her eyes and looked at me.

“…The blood of Cordis is disgusting……. My own blood is enough to make me sick…….”

“……”

“…So leave quickly, Zionis.”

Santia muttered blankly.

“So that we never… never, see each other again…….”

I went back.

And then I heard the rumor that Santia had hanged herself in the collapsed mansion of the Guidone family.

I couldn’t bring myself to confirm the truth of the rumor.

***

“…It was like that. It was like that back then.”

I massaged my temples.

It was something that had disappeared. It was not reality.

“Forget it, Shion, forget it…….”

If only I could forget, it would become something that never happened, but I just couldn’t forget.

“Think about what you have to do. You still have a lot to do, Shion Pollinglight…….”

I put the liquor bottle to my lips.

I poured the remaining half of the strong liquor into my stomach in one go.

Taste didn’t matter.

My tongue could now barely taste anything other than intensely sweet flavors.

It was enough if it could breathe even a little heat into my exhausted body.

Even if my heart cooked in that heat, I would be satisfied as long as I could bring down Cordis.

I saw Santia outside the window.

I also saw Gwaemos running towards her.

“……”

Gwaemos rushed to Santia, making a fuss.

He was holding a bouquet of flowers, and he tried to act manly as he presented it to Santia.

But his hands were trembling and his face was red.

It was obvious he was nervous.

Santia burst out laughing at Gwaemos’s appearance.

It was quite a sight.

To the point where I suddenly wanted to cry.

“Sister Santia, the man named Gwaemos is a loafer. He’s also a little foolish.”

I rambled on, words that no one could hear.

“But he cares for his family more than anyone. He is a man who would gladly lay down his life for his wife, regardless of whether she is Cordis or the Emperor’s daughter.”

Outside the window, Santia took Gwaemos’s hand.

Gwaemos’s face was as red as it could get, looking like it would explode at any moment.

“Live in peace.”

I smiled.

“Live in tranquil happiness.”

The sound of crying echoed in my ears.

Is it because of me, Zionis?

Did Gwaemos die because we are Cordis?

I shook my head to shake off the auditory hallucination.

It was a familiar occurrence.

“The debt has been repaid.”

The regressed prince’s eyes were a deep blue.

“Since we suffered from the same blood, I suppose I should offer this much consideration.”

So please,

“Be happy… please live happily…….”

***

“Nana.”

Ferbias Caseptus did not hide his displeasure.

“Nana Nereyades.”

“…Yes, Your Majesty.”

Ferbias was the emperor.

The Nine Streams General Nana knelt on one knee before him, her head bowed low.

Ferbias swept back his blond hair and said.

“Didn’t Warden Kentil tell you? I said I didn’t want to see your face for a while.”

“…I heard, but there was something I had to tell you in person…….”

“Couldn’t you have told me through Warden Kentil?”

“…It was a matter that could not be done, Your Majesty.”

“Hmm.”

Ferbias Caseptus swirled the glass a couple of times.

He downed the red wine.

The Volmark vintage really didn’t suit his palate.

He drank it from time to time because Emperor Continua had liked it, but Bururade wine was still the best for his taste.

“Nana, we’ve known each other for a long time.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“So you should know my trust in you.”

“I have always considered it an honor.”

“An honor…….”

Ferbias’s eyes flashed blue.

“Then you shouldn’t have disappointed me like this.”

The emperor’s voice was cold.

Nana could do nothing but bow her head even lower.

“My disappointment is as great as my trust was.”

“……”

“When the intelligence agents in the Bururade Peninsula went missing one after another, and when the plan for the sea calamity was moved up by a full four years, I didn’t say much. Because I trusted you.”

A crack appeared in the glass.

There was a snapping sound.

Ferbias wanted to shatter the glass completely, but it was obvious that spilling blood would only make things more troublesome.

He put the glass down with an annoyed expression.

“But how could you repay my trust like this?”

He said, almost growling.

“The name of Cordis was revealed, three legions were mobilized, and we lost the Whale of Hobel Bay. And yet, not a single thing was successful!”

They failed to kill Santia, failed to turn the Bururade Peninsula into a wasteland, and even failed to hide the fact that this calamity was the Empire’s doing.

Ferbias was furious.

“What do you think this means, Nana?”

“…I have nothing to say.”

“With this incident, they might even realize that the previous two calamities were also our plans!”

“……”

Nana lowered her head deeply.

The Cordis Empire had prepared four calamities.

The ‘Calamity from the Sea’ was the third.

The first two calamities had already successfully shaken the West.

They didn’t even know it was the Empire’s doing.

“Do you understand the extent of my disappointment, Nana!”

“…I do.”

“Ha…….”

Nana said calmly.

The girl was small in stature.

Just like in her school days.

Ferbias remembered that it had only been a few days since she had lost her grandfather, and the complicated love-hate relationship between Nana and Niko.

He felt a little pity.

“…Yes, so you do understand…….”

He struggled to catch his breath.

“If you came to me knowing that and braving it, and if the matter is that important, then I should listen. Isn’t this also a virtue of an emperor?”

Ferbias wiped his face.

He was deeply fatigued.

He was the master of the thousand-year empire, and he always lived shouldering the responsibilities that came with it.

“Speak, Nana. What is it that you wanted to tell this Ferbias so badly?”

“…There are two men who thwarted this plan.”

“Yes. I received the report. It said you couldn’t identify them at all, right? That was another reason I was disappointed in you.”

“It was a false report.”

Ferbias’s eyebrows twitched.

Falsifying a report to the emperor?

If the person in front of him wasn’t the Ten Great Generals, Nana Nereyades, he would have had her beheaded on the spot.

Ferbias summoned his last ounce of patience and suppressed his anger.

“……There had better be a good reason.”

“There was a good reason, Your Majesty.”

Nana recalls.

The two men who had blocked her way.

A young man with blond hair, and a swordsman with jade-colored eyes.

“One of them was indeed someone I’d never seen or heard of… but the other was someone impossible not to know.”

“……”

Ferbias felt a sense of foreboding.

Without realizing it, he thought of him.

The confidant and only friend who had left his side long ago, whom he had cherished more than anyone.

He was seized by the impulse not to hear another word from Nana.

But Nana finished her sentence.

“Amethus Aretion.”

The color drained from Ferbias’s face.

“That man was in the West.”

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