Chapter 340 : Side Story (10)

It was Shion, and no one else.

The 51st Emperor who had hated the Empire more than anyone and tried to bring it down, but eventually chose to obey his own life and reconciled with his father’s Empire.

The one standing opposite him was Ferbias Caseptus.

A man who became Emperor with talent superior to anyone else, a solid will, and great ambition, but instead became arrogant and base.

The 50th Emperor was afraid of Shion, who had reconciled with his own life, and ended up fleeing.

The two are brothers.

Even though their mothers were different, they clearly had one father.

Once, they hated each other.

Shion had everything taken away by Ferbias in his life before regression.

Ferbias had the Emperor’s seat taken away by Shion and fled to this mountain village.

Yet, there is no longer hatred in their eyes looking at each other.

Was it because they were too worn out?

Was it because they realized their shame?

The two ended up feeling a kind of gladness toward each other.

“…I heard you’re called Shion, Zionis.”

“You may call me whichever is comfortable, Brother.”

“Then I shall call you Zionis.”

Ferbias’s beard was long and shaggy. Since it wasn’t well-groomed, he looked like nothing but a country bumpkin.

Shion, remembering his eldest brother who used to trim even a single strand of his bangs with care, felt somewhat awkward.

“Work… must be busy.”

“That’s right. There’s a lot to do.”

Shion laughed softly.

“Sitting in it, it’s not easy.”

“Right? It’s a difficult seat.”

“I’m receiving a lot of help, so I’m managing somehow.”

“Help, help, you say….”

Ferbias trailed off.

“…Right, that would have been enough, why was that so difficult….”

It would have been enough if he just asked for help, there were so many people more capable than me…. Regret he didn’t even know existed suddenly welled up.

His eyes sank deep.

“…….”

Ferbias had thought he was broken.

That he was broken as he was kicked out of the Emperor’s seat, and that this was his life after being broken.

However, the thought occurred that perhaps he had been broken all along since he was in the Emperor’s seat, or even before that, since his days at Sdea Academy.

And that maybe he was only now being fixed.

“…Zionis.”

He looked at his younger brother.

Yes, Zionis was his younger brother.

A blood relative sharing so many things, having the same father though different mothers.

Yet why did he hate him?

Why was he so jealous?

Why couldn’t he treat his brother like a brother and only saw him as a potential enemy?

Was he perhaps afraid that his things would be taken away?

Saying it like this makes it a very childish thought, but was he just that childish all along?

“Did you come to kill me?”

“If.”

Shion answered.

“If you were the same as before, Brother. If you were still unable to reconcile. If you believed only you were right.”

“…….”

“I might have had to kill you. Although it’s something I don’t want to think about.”

“I see.”

Ferbias nodded.

“I am the same as before, so I must die.”

“You look different to me.”

“No.”

He laughed without realizing it.

A laugh came out because he felt despondent.

“No, Zionis….”

A giggling sound flowed out from between his beard.

“You don’t know a guy like me. I haven’t changed at all.”

Ferbias Caseptus raised his eyes.

His golden eyes were blazing. Ars, ‘Prince’s Eye’.

He still wanted to rule many things.

He had only lost the ability to do so.

“I’m still that kind of guy…. I’m pretending to be a good person because I have nothing in my hands.”

Shion let him continue speaking.

“If I gain even a little power, I won’t be the same as now. I’ll start resenting you for everything I lost.”

Tears formed in the eyes where golden brilliance was vivid.

Ferbias realized that his words were true.

“It’s just that I haven’t been given a chance; I mean that I’ll become arrogant again and run wild in no time.”

Facing Shion in person, seeing the Golden Crown on his head, old thoughts came to mind.

He wanted to reclaim all the splendor and honor he once enjoyed.

But thinking that he couldn’t reclaim them, he felt upset and wanted to resent Shion.

“I… this, Ferbias Caseptus is still… just this kind of human….”

“…….”

Shion felt his eldest brother’s sorrow.

It was a sorrow not unfamiliar to him either.

No matter how much I hate it, I cannot be other than myself.

Shion remembers the time he faced his own soul, which was like dirty dregs.

And that true reconciliation began soon after.

“Do you remember when you were Emperor?”

Ferbias nodded silently.

It is a time he tries to forget but cannot be forgotten.

Even though it was covered in arrogance and baseness, even though that fact is achingly shameful, he often missed everything he enjoyed back then.

“It might be sad, but the people of the Great Imperial Palace did not miss you, Brother. They needed an Emperor, but they did not need a person named Ferbias.”

“…That’s understandable.”

Shion’s words suddenly pierced Ferbias’s lungs.

Yes, he was a man who lived that way.

Because he was obsessed with his position, no one saw the person named Ferbias but only saw his position.

It is a sorrowful thing that no one regrets the seat he left.

“I am also a person with nothing great about me but… I think Emperor Ferbias was that kind of person.”

“…Your words are correct.”

Ferbias, having looked back on his past, bowed his head.

“I… was that kind of person….”

Tears welled up.

“…I couldn’t understand why everyone was leaving me. No, I knew, but I couldn’t admit it… because I couldn’t admit it… I got angry. How shameful and base I was ….”

“However.”

Shion turned his head.

He gestured with his chin as if telling Ferbias to look over there.

“There are so many people over there who need you now, Brother.”

“…….”

Ferbias couldn’t dare turn his head.

But he had no choice but to know what kind of people were looking at them.

The Peniteo villagers, Cheshih, his eight children.

Mano, Argus, Henna and Henni (the two are sisters a year apart), Pitus and Patus (despite the similar names, the two are not brothers), Exena, Ruios. Those children, not sharing a single drop of blood yet unexplainably precious, were looking at him.

“…At night…, I told them so much that they wouldn’t grow tall if they stayed awake at night….”

Ferbias said something irrelevant for no reason.

He couldn’t possibly look at them.

Because their gazes were filled so abundantly with affection he dared not hope for, he felt like he would want to live longer if he met their eyes.

“I think I should get going now.”

Shion smiled.

There was a small package in his hand.

“I think I can give you the gift I prepared too.”

“…What is this?”

“This is pumpkin pie. It tastes good even though it’s cooled a bit.”

It’s an extraordinary and very, very sweet pumpkin pie.

Ferbias suddenly remembered the day of the Succession War declaration long ago.

Shion also thought of his escort knight, Pies Roesti.

“And this. I came all the way here to give this gift.”

Towards Ferbias who had received the pumpkin pie, Shion held out another gift.

It was wrapped in the highest quality cloth but was long and thin.

“I became able to give this because you became a different person, Brother. It’s a relief.”

“…This, what is it?”

“Well. Since it’s a secret….”

Shion beckoned.

He had a mischievous face.

“Try bringing your ear closer.”

“……?”

The younger brother whispered to the older brother’s ear.

As if they had been affectionate since childhood, as if they had erased all memories of hating and trying to kill each other…. Because Shion had reconciled with his life, he became able to recommend reconciliation to Ferbias as well.

“…Uhh….”

Ferbias received Shion’s gift.

And hugging it to his chest, he collapsed and cried.

“…Uhh, uhuhuh….”

Holding the long package tight, he collapsed as if rolling over.

The sobbing was also sorrowful.

He looked as sorrowful as when he thought Mano had died.

Having suddenly received a gift he couldn’t handle, he sobbed making a very desperate sound.

Yet strangely, his complexion seemed to brighten a little every time he sobbed.

It also looked like a thick thorn stuck in his windpipe was being pulled out.

Several words were mixed in between the sobs.

You, how are you such a man…. How could you, to me like this, until the end…. Ah, me who abandoned you…. Shion pretended not to understand those sobs.

Instead, he turned his steps.

“Let’s go back, Obro.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

***

Cornelius drove the carriage.

Naturally, his profession was not a coachman.

Cornelius was reinstated as the Dean of the Imperial Academy of Magic.

However, if Shion had to go far for personal reasons, he always volunteered to be the coachman.

Since his skill in driving horses was also excellent, Shion did not particularly refuse.

Since it was a good carriage and a good coachman, there was almost no shaking.

Obro wanted to catch some sleep but held back.

Because his curiosity was greater than his drowsiness.

“Your Majesty.”

“Yeah.”

“At the end.”

Obro looked at Shion.

“What did you say to Ferbias? And what was that gift?”

There was no hesitation in his question.

It was because Shion was the Emperor and he was a subject, but personally, they had a relationship like friends.

Shion also answered with a light attitude.

“I didn’t say much.”

“But he cries like that? I watched him for weeks, and he was a man who didn’t even allow himself to cry easily.”

“Obro Denoebang. Do you remember the days when you were a drunkard?”

“…I’m still a drunkard.”

Obro lifted the liquor bottle held in his hand.

He was in the middle of sipping alcohol in a very comfortable posture as soon as he got on the carriage.

Shion giggled.

“I mean when you first saw me.”

“I remember. Although it’s a bit blurry….”

“Do you know what you were worst at back then?”

“…Quitting drinking…?”

“No.”

Shion shook his head.

“Getting angry.”

“…….”

Obro shut his mouth.

He recalled the nightmare he had forgotten.

It was so; it was a time when he realized he had become a strong madman and castrated all anger and sense of injustice himself.

It was very painful and deeply felt.

“…Was I. Yes, I was.”

“It’s really an old story.”

“Fortunately, thankfully….”

“But you got extremely angry and said you would tear me to death.”

Looking like a hairy mushroom.

“You did that when I talked about Mariet.”

“……I see. I understood.”

Denver’s daughter Mariet, who is now spending her school days in the West but was once thought to be lost forever.

Obro Denoebang’s reverse scale.

“Ferbias also had a person like Mariet to me. You delivered such an item and story.”

“Roughly similar.”

Shion looked out the window.

The sky was blue.

It was so blue and sunny that he missed the sea.

The sky of Arete Island was exactly like this.

“It’s a very regrettable thing.”

Would it be a stretch if he said that blue sky looked jade-colored?

Shion looked at the sky, just at the sky.

He knows now.

There are those who are there.

Those who went first do not disappear.

He came to know because the gentle breeze delivered the scent of Chyallo flowers.

“I coveted the position of his best friend too, but I guess that wasn’t mine.”

The Regressor Prince giggled.

Because there were no secrets now, he could laugh looking at the empty seat where many secrets used to be.

“You’re listening, right, Amethus?”

***

Some decorations were hung in Ferbias’s room.

It was an old double-edged sword.

Even though it was very old, the blade was very blue because he maintained it every day.

There is a phrase faintly engraved on the blade.

It wasn’t visible well because he had scrubbed it out, but if one read it with effort, it was written as follows:

[I, the future Emperor Ferbias Caseptus, bestow this upon my close friend and future Ten Great General of the Empire, Amethus Aretion.]

The phrase full of pomposity had already become faint.

Time and blood had erased it.

Another phrase was engraved over it.

It was crooked because he carved it urgently right before a life-risking fight.

[I trust you.]

[Amethus to Pel.]

The man who had forgotten how to laugh used to smile brightly only when looking at that sword.

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