Chapter 305

“How long has it been, Zionis?”

Ferbias Caseptus Cordis is the Emperor.

Seated on the Golden Throne, he looked down at his half-brother.

He now found it hard to endure this Golden Throne, and his heart was only in torment, but he tried not to show it.

“It must be 7 years.”

“It has been 7 years already.”

Shion let Ferbias look down on him.

He also obediently looked up at Ferbias.

Yet he wore a faint smile.

The Emperor found that unpleasant.

“I thought you were dead.”

“You tried to kill me, Brother.”

“I should have killed you for sure back then. What do you think.”

“It doesn’t seem like something to say in front of me.”

“Is that so?”

Ferbias giggled.

Although his mouth smiles, his eyes are fierce.

His golden pupils resemble their father Continua, fierce as if to tear Shion to shreds.

In front of that ferocity, Shion asked calmly.

“Do you hate me, Brother?”

“…….”

The Emperor could not answer immediately.

The feeling that was about to surge up ached as if stabbed from the side.

However, Ferbias composed his hatred.

The brother in front of his eyes was Shion of Merion.

He interfered with all calamities and inflicted massive damage on the Empire in the Western War.

And above all, Great Emperor Continua remembers Zionis’s name.

Even though Ferbias, who became Emperor, still cannot remember his name!

Ferbias could not endure this fact more than any other.

Because of that, he gritted his teeth.

“…Yes, I hate you, Zionis.”

“I also hated you very much, Brother.”

“Are you saying you don’t hate me now?”

“Strangely enough.”

Shion speaks like a person who has realized everything.

He wanted to shatter that detachment.

He wanted to prove that no matter how much he pretended to have overcome everything, it was just a pretense.

Ferbias’s eyes became even fiercer.

“How did you come here?”

“I walked.”

“…….”

Ferbias almost screamed without realizing it but barely held back.

Whether Shion found his own words funny, he smiled even deeper.

“I am sorry. Did I offend you?”

“…Were you even imprisoned in Kosavagarobira in the first place?”

“Yes. I was imprisoned. It is very terrible there.”

“What about the horde outside?”

“I merely did not stop them.”

Shion said.

“I did not stop those leaving nor those coming. I did not stop even those so precious to me that I begged them not to leave. Then, they came to me.”

“You find the world ridiculous!”

The Emperor shouted.

He could not believe Shion’s words.

No, he could not tolerate them.

In those words, no kind of responsibility or qualification existed.

For Ferbias, who thinks he lives carrying a responsibility heavier than anyone in the world, he absolutely, absolutely could not tolerate it.

“Nothing gets solved with such words! No problem gets resolved! Just how ridiculous do you find the world…!!”

“It is not ridiculous.”

There is a wooden crown on Shion’s head.

Thorns are sprouting and pricking Shion’s forehead.

At one time, they pricked so deep that he was covered in blood.

Shion remembers his completely rotted heart.

“To me, the world was not more ridiculous than anyone.”

He lost the whole world.

His one and only daughter, one and only wife, one and only comrades, one and only friends, one and only memories, one and only world…….

In the end, he lost even his one and only self, became miserably distorted, and turned into ashes.

“I have forgotten now. Because I have forgotten everything, I can live. The world was not that ridiculous to me.”

“…….”

“So I did not stop them. I let everyone leave me. I waited for a long time with a piercing heart. Then look, they are returning, having become even more beautiful.”

“…Sophistry.”

The Emperor growled.

“Then why did you come here? You should have gone into some mountain or ascended to that sky, why did you go out of your way to appear in front of me?”

“Because I have a burden I left here, I came to shoulder it again.”

“…Burden?”

“You should know, the burden is heavier than anything in the world.”

Ferbias lowered his gaze without realizing it.

The Golden Throne he sits on, the seat allowed only to the master of the Millennium Empire.

It is merely a lump of gold, but it is heavier than the whole world.

“I hated that seat. I wanted to grind it and drink it. But that was running away.”

“…….”

“I will not run away. I must take that seat.”

The regressor prince declares.

“It is a Succession War, Brother.”

***

Capital Lutilium, the capital of the Empire.

Outside the walls of Lutilium, there were many people.

The number was about 3,000 and 200.

More than half were Cordis soldiers.

They left the place where they should be and came here.

Seeing the high walls of Lutilium, the soldiers realized where they were and suddenly looked back on the current situation.

They were undeniably deserters.

And the Cordis Empire is very cold-hearted toward deserters.

The soldiers were about to tremble in fear right away, but two men did not allow it.

“Why are you trembling?”

It was the Six-String General.

He shouted loudly toward the crowd.

“If you are deserters, then so am I! Do not be afraid!”

“I suppose I am too.”

An old man intervened.

His name is Sen Hostanio, the second-ranked Grand General in the Empire.

The soldiers found comfort in the fact that two of the Ten Great Generals were with them.

However, the comfort could not continue for long.

“They’re coming soon.”

Sen Hostanio glanced at the wall.

He has a relaxed attitude.

However, the Six-String General could not be calm and gripped his weapon tightly.

The gate of Lutilium opened, and a few men and women began to appear from there.

There were six men and women on horseback.

They slowly approached the crowd.

They did not bring soldiers.

Yet merely six people are more threatening than three thousand two hundred.

Sen Hostanio knew their faces.

There is a grinning man.

His name is Soltus Sortem, the Ten-Coffin General.

He took the seat of the Ten Great Generals replacing the Ten-Vigorous General who lost his life fighting Secundus.

There is a woman with a scar on half her face.

Although small in stature, she is dignifiedly beautiful.

The granddaughter of the renowned Whale of Hobel Bay, Nine-Streams General Nana Nereyades.

She was demoted once, but returned as one of the Ten Great Generals after the war.

There is no hair, but the beard is thick.

The newly appointed Eight-Thread General, Manton Menetia Motea.

A woman held a spear.

Three of her fingers were missing, and she had a demonic face.

It is because not long has passed since she lost her only son.

Her name is Marina Debius, the Seven-Forged General who was one of the Ten Great Generals, became an Imperial Consort, and became one of the Ten Great Generals again.

There is a mage flashing five stars.

The Four-Grief General, who succeeded Karkarsso.

Because they always hide their appearance, it is unknown whether they are a man or a woman.

And, an old man wearing armor.

The armor is thick too.

That lump of iron, thicker than magi-chariot armor, is called ‘Steel Nest’.

Even wearing such a thing on his body, the old man did not care and walked with big strides.

Every time he walked, the ground rumbled.

He was like a lion.

Not just a lion, but a steel lion that would more than smash anything it grasped.

Everyone except Sen Hostanio, even those on the same side, shrank back at the majesty of the steel lion.

One-Grand General.

Deballo Debius.

“Sen.”

Deballo’s voice is resonant even inside the thick armor.

“Sen Hostanio.”

“Why are you calling my name anew, Deballo.”

“Do you know where this is?”

“Well. I don’t know well.”

The Two-Flame Grand General shrugged his shoulders.

Two old men glared at each other.

“I merely followed along.”

“You led this many soldiers to Capital Lutilium without permission. This is treason, Sen. It is a matter where everyone’s head must be cut off and hung here.”

“Is that so?”

Sen Hostanio slowly drew his sword.

Apart from being famous for swift skill, he revealed the blade slowly enough to make one’s insides burst.

However, no one could ignore it.

No matter how slow he pretends to be, he is the Two-Flame Grand General, a martial artist and commander right next to Deballo Debius.

Fire ignited on the sword.

It is his Ars, ‘Old Fire’.

Scorching heat enough to burn even Deballo, who is in fact not human.

Seeing the flame burning transparently beyond bright yellow, Deballo hardened his face.

Deballo Debius clenched his fist while wearing the ‘Steel Nest’.

Sen Hostanio’s eyebrows curved.

He had known Deballo for over 50 years.

“You have no intention of fighting, Deballo.”

“Does it look like that?”

“It looks like that.”

Sen Hostanio extinguished the flame as if the excitement cooled.

Deballo did not stop him.

He did not deny Sen Hostanio’s question either.

The Two-Flame Grand General asked again as if spitting out.

“Why did you come out?”

“I made room.”

Deballo answered.

“Because the conversation of the two must not be disturbed.”

***

“What did you say?”

At Deballo’s words, the heads of the other Ten Great Generals turned sharply.

From the Ten-Coffin General to the Four-Grief General, everyone took turns saying a word.

“…What did you say, Grand General?”

“It is different from what we heard.”

“Grand General! Then His Majesty the Emperor with that lawless fellow…!”

“His Highness Zionis and His Majesty Ferbias, only the two of them….”

“Things are turning out interestingly.”

Deballo snorted while watching the clamoring Ten Great Generals.

“Everyone talks too much.”

To him who has lived for a thousand years, they were all brats.

At least Nana, Marina, and the Four-Grief General were worthy of recognition, but the rest were merely dregs gathered hastily to fill the seats.

“Only one speaks. Who would be good… You, General Nana.”

“…Me, Grand General?”

Nana pointed at herself.

Deballo nodded.

Nana felt reluctant.

She had little interest in this situation, no questions, and was not bewildered.

Deballo gestured with his chin to Nana.

“You said it’s different from what you heard. How did you hear?”

“…To block Shion of Merion, that is, His Highness Zionis and his group from entering the capital….”

“Who said that?”

“His Majesty Ferbias….”

Deballo tilted his chin.

“However, His Highness Zionis has already entered the capital. Then there is nothing we can do, right.”

“…….”

Nana raised her eyes.

She had experienced many things recently.

Demotion and reinstatement once, the death of her grandfather who was an object of love and hate, the first romantic feelings experienced at a late age, the first love that ended in death, yet the weight of life she still had to carry.

Before she knew it, she came to possess insight that surprised even herself.

“It seems you have something to say, General Nana.”

“…Yes….”

“Speak. What are you so curious about?”

“……If you are making room for the conversation of the two, whose command is it?”

The Ten Great Generals opened their eyes wide.

Nana’s question harbored a dangerous meaning.

Isn’t Deballo following the command of someone other than the current Emperor….

Instead of giving an answer, Deballo grinned, revealing his teeth.

Despite the neat teeth, he was like a lion.

“An interesting question. Whose command is it….”

Deballo took off his helmet.

He threw the heavy steel carelessly.

From the revealed hair, the smell of blood wafted.

Having been covered in blood for a thousand years, the smell of blood did not disappear no matter how much he washed his hair.

He was closer to a beast than a human, and in fact, was a kind of god.

“Who would it be?”

“…….”

If it is someone who would give a command to Deballo, someone he served even before Emperor Ferbias, there is only one.

The great name, Continua Cordis Magnus.

Nana Nereyades realized Deballo’s true intention and fell silent.

“…So the Grand General’s objective was to drag us out of the capital? So that no Ten Great Generals are in the Great Imperial Palace.”

“It’s a rule.”

“What rule…?”

“In the Cordis Imperial Succession War, the involvement of the Ten Great Generals was strictly prohibited. It is the word of the great 1st Emperor His Majesty Cordisias.”

…Succession War.

Succession War?

A familiar yet unfamiliar word passed among the people.

Sen Hostanio moved his steps slowly and stood by Deballo’s side.

“I know your intention only now, Deballo.”

“Thanks for understanding, Sen.”

“I wondered if I could clash with you after a long time, but it’s a shame.”

“Next time.”

The two old men stood blocking the other Ten Great Generals.

As Deballo said, it was to prevent any Ten Great Generals from entering Capital Lutilium.

There were six Ten Great Generals, but no one dared to move.

Because the two old men blocking them were Deballo Debius and Sen Hostanio.

In front of the steel lion and the flame sword, the best they could do was not freeze.

“They must have encountered each other by now?”

“Probably.”

“I wonder how things will turn out. I’m curious.”

“We must watch.”

The One-Grand General and Two-Flame Grand General flashed their eyes.

“It is the same for you all.”

“Watch.”

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