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Juan recalled Hela telling him that she once had a son, but that he was killed on the battlefield by an arrow. Juan regretted not listening to her story properly. He had a feeling that he didn’t focus on her story properly because he assumed that Hela had married another man.
But the truth was that Hela had been pregnant with Gerard’s child even before she married another man.
‘She must have hurried to get married again to trick everyone.’
It was highly likely that the man who married Hela had known the truth, since Gerard’s relationship with Hela was quite famous in the East. Thanks to Hela’s trick, Gerard’s son was able to survive even after the assassination of the emperor. But Hela’s son was killed by an arrow shot by the rebels.
‘No, was he really dead?’
Juan couldn’t tell if her story had been a trick from the beginning or not. It was clear what would have happened if the empire ever found out that Gerard’s son was still alive, since Gerard’s son would definitely resemble his father as he grew older.
“What is your name?” Juan asked.
“My name is Haild Henna, Your Majesty.”
‘Henna… I guess he had no choice but to follow Hela’s last name.’
While it was the custom of the empire for sons to follow the family name of their father and daughters to follow the family name of their mother, it was not a hard tradition that had to be followed. Juan understood that Haild couldn’t use Gain as his last name, since he had to hide the fact that he was Gerard’s son. Juan wondered if Hela had hesitated before giving Haild her last name rather than the last name of the man she married.
“I had thought you were dead.”
“It is true that I was pierced by an arrow. This eye is the result of what happened back then,” Haild said as he pointed toward his hollow eye that resembled a dark hole. “That’s when my eye was encroached upon by the Crack. I also thought that I was dead. But my father, who I had never seen before, was in front of me when I woke up. He told me that the arrow that pierced me was intentionally shot from inside the Crack, so he had to stop my growth in order to stop the encroachment of the Crack.”
‘Father, huh.’
Juan gulped with difficulty. After a moment of silence, Juan opened his mouth.
“Where’s Gerard right now?”
Haild hesitated to answer, but Juan patiently waited for him to open his mouth.
“He suddenly disappeared a few years ago. He left all of his belongings and disappeared without any word of whether he will come back. I tried to look for him everywhere, but couldn’t even find a single trace of him,” Haild answered.
“Then were you the one who appeared in Hiveden?”
It can be hard to make great work when its stolen from bit.ly/3iBfjkV.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Why didn’t you reveal your identity until now?”
Haild looked perplexed upon hearing Juan’s question. He continued to answer with his head down.
“My father taught me how to use swords and how to deal with the Crack, including how to prevent the encroachment of the Crack from deepening. Out of everything, the thing my father taught me with the most zeal was teaching me what to do when ‘he’ appeared one day. I couldn’t wander around the empire looking like this until then. Furthermore, I couldn’t go and see my mother after learning who my father was,” Haild said as he touched the hole that was his left eye. “When I felt that tremendous power back in Hiveden, I realized that ‘he,’ the person that my father taught me about, had finally appeared. But I had to approach him carefully.”
“Why is that?”
“My father had told me that there will be two possible situations with ‘his’ appearance. One was that ‘he’ was the emperor. And the other was…” Haild looked straight at Juan. “…the possibility that ‘he’ is a monster.”
“Hah,” Juan smiled faintly.
Gerard’s assumptions did not seem to be wrong either way. If anyone put the existence and the concerns of the current empire as their priority, Juan really might be closer to a monster rather than the emperor. But ironically, it was Gerard himself who turned Juan, who used to be the emperor, into the monster he was today.
Haild quickly continued to speak.
“Of course, I no longer have any doubts about Your Majesty now. I’ve watched Your Majesty from afar for a long time, and I think Your Majesty has proven himself enough. In fact, I was planning to show myself before you after some more time, but I ended up meeting you all of a sudden like this.”
“You were planning to visit me?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. I knew what I had to do once it became clear to me that Your Majesty was indeed the ‘emperor.’”
Juan glanced back at Elkiehl upon hearing Haild’s words.
“Does that include stabbing me in the back with a sword?”
Haild looked visibly perplexed as he waved his hand in denial.
“I know that there was room for misunderstanding, but the situation back then wasn’t one where I could explain everything; I didn’t know what would happen if I dragged all the junk inside Your Majesty’s body into the Crack. And…”
“And?”
“...I couldn’t rule out the possibility that Your Majesty had been contaminated by the Crack.”
“Is that so? Then tell me, what would have happened if I had turned out to be a ‘monster’? What would you have done then?”
Haild was speechless. His silence alone answered Juan’s question.
Not only had Gerard directly stabbed Juan in the back, but he had also passed on his sin to his son. Haild had shown him that he had no intention of killing Juan. However, Juan felt very uncomfortable leaving his fate in the hands of another. Such discomfort wasn’t something that could simply be tolerated.
“Your Majesty doesn’t know about the ‘monster,’” Haild managed to speak out an answer with difficulty after a long period of silence.
“I don’t know about the ‘monster’?”
“My father talked about the possibility that Your Majesty is not the ‘emperor,’ but a monster called ‘Qzatquizail,‘ a monster that will split the world in half and cause destruction. The word ‘monster’ is not just a metaphor when describing it. It is something that will really bring about the end of the world,” Haild explained.
“I’ve heard a few times about that Qzatquizail before. Is that why Gerard stabbed me? What even is that thing?”
“I don’t know why my father stabbed Your Majesty. And about Qzatquizail… everything I told you is all that I know as well. All I know is that the Thornbush Priest Organization worships him, and he is the one who created the Crack.”
Juan glared at Haild. The black hole in Haild’s left eye bothered Juan; it, too, had the mark of the Crack. The depths of the Crack were not measurable, and Juan wondered if the Crack had encroached deeper than Haild’s eye, all the way into his brain.
Juan shook his head to push such thoughts out of his head; Juan knew that once he began to doubt one thing, he would eventually end up doubting everything. But that didn’t necessarily mean that he would trust everything that Haild had said.
“Why should I trust you?” Juan asked.
Without any hesitation, Haild lifted up Elkiehl with both his hands and showed it to Juan.
“My father left this for me. I’m sure you’ve heard of Elkiehl before, Your Majesty.”
“I have. I was told that it has the power to destroy everything, including curses and those that are physically untouchable.”
“While that is true as well, my father was more focused on one other effect of Elkiehl.”
“And what is that?”
Haild spoke with firm eyes.
“Elkiehl is almost certainly the only way to completely destroy the Crack.”
***
Juan looked at the setting sun from atop the skull of a dragon. The flesh of the unknown dragon had already rotted and disappeared a long time ago, leaving behind only white bones. The area around the island was sandy, with pieces worn out from the dragon bones lying around. No matter how hard the bones of a dragon were, the years of rough waves hitting against the bones had turned them into fine sand.
Juan felt that it was a pity that he was never given the time for his hurt feelings to be broken down like the dragon’s bones.
“Dad.”
Nienna’s voice came from behind.
“I know that your thoughts are all over the place and can’t be easily organized. But…”
“What do you think?” Juan asked.
“What?”
Juan picked up a piece of dragon bone and threw it into the sea.
“About what that little boy said,” Juan muttered.
“That you might be the ‘monster’ that will destroy the world? I mean… that can be true for anyone that is strong enough, isn’t it? Even I could destroy the empire if I aimed to do that rather than dominating it. Such a prediction is the murmur of the gloomy and sympathetic losers stuck in the corner of their dark room.”
“I don’t think what the kid was saying was only related to the empire.”
“It’s not even a big deal in the eyes of ordinary people. To everyone, the world was going to end soon when you got stabbed to death, dad. But look. Everything is fine, isn’t it? Isn’t that what life is all about anyway?”
“I think the kid has a point.”
Nienna looked at Juan with suspicious eyes.
“Listen. Dad. I respect you, but don’t you think you are overestimating yourself a little too much? Even I’ve stopped thinking that I could dangerous enough to destroy the whole world ever since I was fifteen—I humbly accept that at most I could be dangerous enough to destroy the empire, but not the whole world.”
“...I’ve heard of the name Qzatquizail before,” Juan said.
“I don’t know all the details, but I know there’s something in the Crack that they serve and worship—something that will split the world and destroy everything, blah blah blah. If such a monster did exist for real, the empire would have been destroyed a long time ago. Even gods wouldn’t be a match for it.”
“If I really am that monster, maybe I deserve to be stabbed in the back.”
Nienna frowned.
“Dad…”
“Do you think that was why Gerard tried to kill me?”
Juan had asked Haild about the reason why Gerard had tried to kill him. But Haild only said that he didn’t know anything and that his father had refused to answer him as well.
Nienna snorted.
“If his reasons could be so easily justified, why would he have kept it all a secret? He would have probably told me first if you were something related to the Crack—and I would have been the one to stab you in the back. It would have been hard for Gerard to find an ally as strong as me when it comes to dealing with the Crack.”
“...I guess that’s true. But you two didn’t really get along very well.”
“If you can’t believe me, then trust my eyes. Besides, you know nothing about the Crack, dad. If you really turn out to be a monster of the Crack, then I will make sure to end your life without pain.”
“I wish I could go back to the past and teach you again, this time spending a little more effort in teaching you manners. I should have listened to Harmon when he emphasized educating the children on manners and etiquette. Day by day, I am regretting being negligent about the things Harmon told me to do more and more..”
“Killing you with courtesy and manners won’t change anything, dad. Everyone looks like shit when they die.”
“You’re right. Anyway, thanks for saying all that.”
“So what are you going to do?” Nienna asked.
“What do you think I should do? I have no idea where my son who killed me has disappeared to, and my son’s son is the only one that’s here. To be honest, I don’t even know what I’d do if I were to meet Gerard. I thought I’d know when I got to meet him. But now…”
“That’s your grandson, dad.”
Juan closed his mouth. He was avoiding the use of the word ‘grandson’ on purpose.
“To be upfront with you, that’s the only grandchild you’ll ever have. I totally forgot about this, but Dismas, that maniac declared celibacy for life and became a Priest after you were stabbed. I’m rooting for you, but I don’t want you to encounter that lunatic. And Ras… didn’t really have a chance to have a child. So that boy… is my only nephew.”
“But he’s been encroached upon by the crack. Is that okay with you?” Juan asked.
“There are many people around me who have been encroached upon by the Crack, but are suppressing it. Besides, you heard what the kid said about Elkiehl—it’s the only way to get rid of the Crack for good,” Nienna twisted her lips. “It’s hard to trust him just yet, but I think his words are reasonable. From what I remember, Gerard was frantically looking for a way to get rid of the Crack. If he found the way to get rid of the Crack at the end… I don’t know. To be honest with you, it’s hard for me to disregard that boy’s words.”
Juan looked back at Nienna. Her lips were trembling.
“Dad. I’ve been doing absolutely everything I could do to prevent the Crack from contaminating the empire. But how do you think I’d feel to hear that there is a way to get rid of the Crack? And what if it had a pretty convincing basis?”
“Haild can’t even get rid of the encroachment of the Crack in his eye. Keep that in mind.”
“If we can remove any contamination by the Crack in the earlier stages, where it has not eroded too deeply into one’s mind, that alone is enough. I wouldn’t have had to execute so many of my people if that had been possible. Of course, we are not fully sure about this use of Elkiehl just yet, and there’s a lot that we need to find out. But…”
“It is a concept that’s hard to get used to.”
Excluding all abstract expressions, Elkiehl was an object that could eliminate ‘anything.’
Juan nodded as he thought that it would have been easy for Gerard to kill him with such an object. Although Juan had been revived for unknown reasons, it was true that Juan had died by Elkiehl.
In other words, Gerard really tried to kill Juan. But Haild’s existence was constantly making Juan’s conclusion even more complicated.
“Well, the matter of your grandson definitely is a problem that’s hard to look over. I wish I could use Elkiehl to split you from the emperor and Gerard from the traitor.”
Juan smiled upon hearing Nienna’s words. Despite Elkiehl having the ability to cut even abstract concepts, it would be impossible to alter such a social relationship.
Juan’s expression hardened for a moment, and Nienna grew perplexed when she saw his face.
“Um, dad? I was only joking. If such a thing was possible with Elkiehl, Gerard would be wandering around the empire without any problems.”
“Of course you’re only joking. Stop saying silly things.”
Juan snapped at Nienna as if he thought she was being ridiculous, then jumped off the dragon’s skull to head to the valley.
Inside the valley was Halid still waiting for an answer from Juan.
“Haild,” Juan said.
Haild flinched and raised his head. Juan glared at Haild and continued speaking.
“What your father did is unforgivable. But fortunately, your father was given a second chance from the man he stabbed to death by him coming back to life. So let me tell you a way to convince me.”
Haild looked up at Juan with hopeful eyes. Juan looked into Haild’s eye and whispered.
“The only person who can forgive Gerard is the emperor.”
“...Your Majesty?”
“The emperor must return for Gerard to be forgiven. Tell me with your own mouth what the ‘emperor’ should do to return.”