Chapter 48

Eight Facts.

1.

Shion Pollinglight is a regressor.

He has gone back 19 years to the age of 11.

2.

His childhood name was Zionis.

As the Fifth Prince of the Great Empire of Cordis, he was an outcast in the Imperial Family.

3.

The day he regressed was the first day of the Succession War.

In the body of a child, he had no choice but to enter the fray waged among his half-siblings for the throne.

The gain from that was the ‘Mana Armor Valziart’.

Sen Sorti’s greatest masterpiece.

4.

The three factions of the Succession War.

Ferbias, Leniar, Secundus.

Shion sided with the muscular prince Secundus and helped him.

He did not hide the fact that he held a few secrets.

5.

The victor of the Succession War, the First Prince Ferbias.

He even held a Grand Convergence and finally seized the position of Crown Prince.

He would soon succeed the Great Emperor Continua and become emperor.

It was as everyone had expected.

Leniar and Secundus parted ways with their own countermeasures.

6.

Shion pretended to be dead.

Since Ferbias had been about to kill him, he gladly used the situation.

While he was at it, he buried his detestable half-brother and his treacherous guard.

Everyone believed him to be dead.

He had made it so.

All for his destiny.

7.

Shion of Merion has a destiny.

“I will destroy the Empire.”

8.

However, the time is not yet ripe.

He is an eleven-year-old child, and the Cordis Empire is the thousand-year master that holds the heart of the continent.

Therefore, he “must escape Cordis.”

***

[Shion of Merion.]

[Shion, my Pollinglight.]

[Vice Commander, our hero……]

Humming voices called to him.

[Destroy Cordis. Remember their evil deeds. Avenge our pain.]

[The secret, our secret……]

[Do not forget. Please do not forget us.]

He knew it was a dream.

They had always spoken only in nightmares.

And yet, he was so glad to see them that I couldn’t help but smile.

“Don’t rush me.”

Hundreds of thousands of voices, hundreds of thousands of grudges.

Pasts writhing beneath the seven secrets.

Looking at the hideously contorted faces, one by one, I, Shion Pollinglight, continued to speak.

“I’ve only just escaped the Imperial Palace, the capital. I’m still in the body of an eleven-year-old. I have to escape the Empire first, don’t I.”

Among the hundreds of thousands of faces, there were a few familiar ones.

I held out my hand.

I tried to stroke them, but I couldn’t.

It was natural, as they were grudges.

They were just images reflected in my heart.

That was quite sad.

“So just a little… just a little longer, please wait, my secrets.”

Septem Arcana.

Two were open and five were closed.

Seeing the aching heat below my collarbone, it seemed the third would open soon.

Still, it was not enough to contain this clamor.

Yes, it was still, just not yet.

Soon enough.

“…For our story is just beginning.”

***

Two things the regressor Shion did not know.

9.

There was a man.

His swordsmanship was so outstanding that he had even defeated a former member of the Ten Great Generals.

He had smelled a strange scent of anxiety and to confirm if his anxiety was real, he had left the capital.

Gripping a familiar double-edged sword and glaring with his jade-green eyes.

10.

The fortuneteller Amethus was chasing Shion.

***

“Name.”

“Pasionus Peleus.”

The soldier turned the travel permit over and over.

It was a forgery, but there was no worry of it being noticed.

The document itself was a real one I had snatched from the Great Palace.

I had only changed a few pieces of information.

“Age?”

“Sixteen.”

“You’re quite tall for your age.”

“I take after my father.”

I shrugged my shoulders.

My shoulders were broad and my legs were long.

I had a build comparable to a decent young man.

It was because I had wrapped Mana Armor Valziart around my limbs inside my clothes.

As it was early winter and I was wearing thick clothes, I didn’t look like an eleven-year-old kid at all.

“Traveling alone?”

“My father said he took his first journey at my age.”

“Hmm, it’s that age. My son will be sixteen next year too……”

The soldier clicked his tongue, tsk, tsk, and grumbled.

He chatted about how his son didn’t look like a man at all, and in comparison, how mature I was.

There was no trace of suspicion.

“How was Sortia?”

“It’s a good city. As befitting Sen Sorti’s hometown.”

“Right?”

I gave a bright smile.

Even with Valziart, I couldn’t do anything about my face, so it was still the face of an eleven-year-old.

However, the child’s face, combined with the large build, rather made me look like an adolescent boy.

“Alright. Where are you headed?”

“Penren. I want to see Prince Ferbias’ procession in front of the fountain there.”

“Oh? That sounds good!”

Destination, Penren, signed and stamped.

The soldier showed the document to the checkpoint commander standing next to him.

The commander, who had been listening to their conversation, also smiled and nodded.

“By the way, you said you’re from the capital. Have you ever seen Prince Ferbias?”

“I saw him from afar at the start of the Succession War.”

“How was he?”

“He looked exactly like the portrait of the Great Emperor in his youth. But, unfortunately……”

“Unfortunately?”

“…He seemed to be overworked and his forehead was, like the Rentero plains……”

“Oh dear!”

I spread a groundless rumor with a refreshed feeling.

The guard shook his head, saying it was truly a shame.

After a few more pleasantries, the travel permit was soon completed.

The systematized inspection and passage was one of the Golden Emperor’s great achievements.

“Well then, have a good trip.”

“Thank you.”

***

“Where are you from?”

“Sortia.”

“Why Penren?”

“I heard they have a lot of delicious fruit.”

I exchanged a similar question and answer with the soldiers of Penren.

Sixteen years old, name Pasionus Peleus, wanting to travel alone.

The soldiers of Penren also welcomed me with warm eyes.

“Eat your fill before you go.”

“Yes, thank you.”

I, Shion Pollinglight, walked on.

The way I walked with my shoulders thrown back and with a long stride made me look like nothing more than a boy eager to show off his maturity.

His youthful face, despite his build, further enhanced that atmosphere.

‘Easy.’

I smiled deeply.

Though my build was fabricated with Valziart, no one suspected.

Just as in Sortia and Penren, the soldiers here also looked at me with pleasure, thinking of me as just a boy excited about his first journey.

‘Actually, there’s no reason for it to be difficult.’

The Fifth Prince Zionis was dead.

The entire Empire knew it.

‘If anyone thought I was alive, they’d be a madman.’

Who would suspect?

The circumstances were so clear, and it was a busy time with the new emperor about to be enthroned!

And on top of that, I was disguised as a sixteen-year-old boy.

Though the path to escaping the Empire was long, if there were no hindrances, it couldn’t be difficult.

‘I’ve come a long way in ten days. If I cross Holbit, the south isn’t far.’

It was thanks to being able to follow the main road, eating and sleeping well without camping or sleeping rough.

It was a luxury enjoyed because there were no pursuers.

‘The Crown Prince’s procession must have just left the capital by now… I have time. It really feels like I’m on a trip. To Mekeros… another month and a half? Two months?’

My destination was west of the Empire, beyond the Drako Great Mountain Range.

However, I couldn’t head west right away.

It was because of the strictness of the three gates that crossed the great mountain range.

‘Crossing the great mountain range is more than just dangerous, it’s too dangerous. It’s much better to go around.’

One couldn’t pass without direct authorization from the Imperial Family, and each member of a party had to go through several stages of high-level magical inspection.

I didn’t even dare to cross the three gates.

‘If I did, the news that the Fifth Prince Zionis was alive would reach Ferbias’ ears that very day.’

Even if I couldn’t pass the three gates, crossing the great mountain range was a crazy act.

The magical beasts of the Sobel mountain range were also famous for being ferocious, but they couldn’t compare to the ferocity of the Drako Great Mountain Range.

‘Southwest, I’ll take a boat from Hobel Bay.’

Therefore, to the port city of Mekeros.

And above all, Arete Island was close.

‘Everything is for my destiny, for the collapse of the Empire.’

***

Amethus was surrounded by magical beasts.

There were several dangerous ones that commanded the Sobel mountain range, but they all flinched and cowered.

It was because the sharp double-edged sword and the calm jade-green eyes pressed down on them with immense pressure.

“Disappear, you beastly things.”

Amethus recited quietly.

It wasn’t strange for the magical beasts of the Sobel mountain range to understand human speech.

The magical beasts quickly disappeared.

Only the bodies of a few impatient ones were cold.

The jade-eyed man kicked the head of a magical beast he had cut down, as if annoyed.

It was a magical beast so powerful and dangerous that it was counted among the top five in the Sobel mountain range, but its head had been cut off with a single stroke.

The reason was simple.

Amethus was more powerful and dangerous.

“Hmm.”

An inconspicuous uniform and leather gloves.

He was dressed as a security knight.

It was because he had temporarily set aside his status as the Crown Prince’s confidant.

Amethus meticulously surveyed the area with sunken eyes.

He touched the soil, stared at the claw marks on the trees, and sprinkled some strange magical powder.

He had worked for a long time as a security knight in the Imperial Security Bureau, and he was renowned for his seasoned investigation skills.

The fog that rendered many kinds of magical tools useless could not harm his seasoned skills.

His trained techniques and cold intuition were superior to any magical tool.

‘Nothing.’

He reached a conclusion quickly.

‘There’s nothing strange at all.’

Nebulo and Zionis had died here.

At least, everyone in the Empire thought so.

The smell of rotting corpses that even the rain hadn’t completely washed away, the fallen trees, the traces of the broken Treasure, all proved it.

Upon closer inspection, all the evidence was clear.

The investigation was over.

Normally, that would have been the case.

There was nothing to doubt.

No matter what hidden card they had, even if they had a powerful Ars, it was Nebulo and Zionis.

A fatso who couldn’t even control his own body and an 11-year-old kid.

They had fought a fierce battle against a knight order and were wounded, and in that state, they had climbed a mountain for several hours in the rain, and in the end, they were taken by a magical beast.

The seasoned skills and deep common sense he had accumulated as a security knight told him.

That Nebulo and Zionis had died here.

That there was nothing strange.

‘…But.’

And yet, his intuition.

An anxiety that he could not deny.

‘…What if, what if by some chance……’

The blue eyes flickered.

The afterimage of Zionis’ b-l-ue pupils, which didn’t seem to belong to a child at all, constantly.

‘I don’t know what kind of trick he used, but if he is alive, if he has deceived the entire Empire so meticulously……’

If he had set the stage so that no one could doubt and had slipped away alone.

If he had held a secret beyond imagination.

If Yosef Haider had also smelled the scent of that secret and tried to kill Zionis and yet failed to kill him.

If all of this had been in the palm of his hand.

“…Then, how dangerous a person is he?”

A chill ran down his spine.

So much so that the hand holding the double-edged sword trembled.

An eleven-year-old, if a mere eleven-year-old kid had pulled off such a stratagem, what kind of man would he grow up to be?

Even His Majesty the Great Emperor Continua, could he have done this at eleven?

His grip on the sword tightened.

He had to kill him.

Because he would become the greatest threat to the reign of the next emperor, Ferbias.

‘Think, Amethus. Let’s keep making absurd assumptions……’

He calmed his thoughts along with his breathing.

‘If he is truly alive. If he has deceived the entire Empire and fled. If he knows how to pull off such a stratagem at eleven.’

Every hypothesis had meaning.

Even if it was absurd.

Amethus’ intuition had uncovered the truth from within absurd hypotheses several times.

‘How can I find him? Where would his steps have been directed?’

Not to Viscount Levio’s territory.

Because he had sided with Ferbias.

It couldn’t be the capital, Lutilium.

There would be no reason to re-enter the lion’s den he had painstakingly escaped.

The north was too far.

Then perhaps, south.

A few names came to Amethus’ mind.

His jade-green eyes glinted.

A city to the south of the Sobel mountain range, not too far and where the influence of the Imperial Family was relatively weak…….

“…Sortia?”

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