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Loud footsteps could be heard throughout the empty hallway.
Opert breathed heavily and looked out the window.
The war was changing more rapidly than he had expected.
Aruntal was on the right side of the Northern Army to confront Pavan Peltere, but Opert had remained in the Dragon Citadel to carry out Juan’s instructions.
Opert saw a dark blue door after taking a few turns around the corner of the hallway. Inside the wall was a space where invisible blood vessels were concentrated.
Fortunately, there was no one guarding the door.
Opert stood with his eyes closed for a moment and placed his hand on the door. Then at one point, he strongly pushed his hand into the door. When he slowly pulled his hand out after a while, it was already drenched in blood.
Opert slowly pulled the door while breaking out into a cold sweat. One of the knights of the Order of Lindwurm behind the door keeled over and fell to the floor. When Opert saw the wound on the knight’s chest, he closed his eyes tightly.
‘Who could have known that the lockpicking magic I often used when I was a burglar would end up being useful here?’
Opert wiped off the cold sweat on his forehead and stepped beyond the door.
A dark red object was beyond the door, and it was moving in a rhythm.
Opert couldn’t help but be curious about how an inanimate object had become an animate creature. However, he couldn’t afford to think of that right now. He had to hurry up and find a way to take control of the heart.
All of a sudden, something grabbed Opert’s head and slammed it against the wall. Opert almost collapsed to the floor. However, the opponent didn’t let him fall. They grabbed Opert’s head tightly and slammed it against the wall once again.
The sharp pain made Opert feel as if his head would shatter. He barely manage to look up at the enemy, who slammed his head against the wall.
“Your name is Opert, right? The Vice Master of the Magic Tower.”
The enemy turned out to be Lenly Loen, the Captain of the Imperial Guards.
Opert barely had any contact with him. In fact, he had never had a proper conversation with Lenly, even after infiltrating Aruntal. It was all because Opert was a greenhorn in Lenly’s eyes, and Lenly was nothing more than a traitor in Opert’s eyes.
“What are you doing here?” Lenly asked.
Lenly had taken the words out of Opert’s mouth. Opert also didn’t expect that Lenly would still be in the Dragon Citadel, as the elite forces were already duking it out on the battlefield.
Opert belatedly noticed that Lenly looked strange. He couldn’t tell what was weird, but Lenly seemed to be nervous and perplexed.
“No, I guess that’s not really important,” Lenly whispered, “I saw you with Sina Solvane earlier. Don’t even think about denying that you’re a traitor because I’ve already searched through your luggage. More than that, what did you say to Sina Solvane?”
“The traitor is… you, Lenly.”
Lenly slammed Opert’s head against the wall once more.
Opert managed to hold onto his consciousness amidst the pain and shock.
“Tell me what you said to Sina,” said Lenly.
However, Opert refused to answer.
Lenly muttered anxiously, “Was it about the emperor?”
“What?”
“Did the emperor send her a message? What did he say? The thought that he was dead never crossed my mind even once. He had to have given Sina Solvane an order. Tell me what he said!”
“I’ll tell you myself, Lenly,” a voice suddenly echoed from behind.
Lenly immediately threw Opert away.
However, something hard collided against his philtrum before Lenly could even unsheathe his sword.
Lenly staggered. He tried to unsheathe his sword, but he was once again punched in the face.
Crack! Crack! Bang!
Powerful punches struck Lenly’s face one after another, and the punches were so strong that Lenly couldn’t even open his eyes.
And Lenly collapsed after a powerful blow to his nape…
***
“Ah!”
The intense pain made Lenly exclaim.
His vision was swimming as if it hadn’t been that long since he lost consciousness. He remembered what happened and was surprised that the other party subdued him in just a few seconds.
Lenly also realized that someone with a familiar back was dragging him across the floor.
Lenly spat out the broken teeth and minced flesh in his mouth.
“Your Majesty.”
“You’re still calling me Your Majesty, Lenly?”
Juan was looking down at Lenly with a smile on his face.
“A Captain of the Imperial Guards serving two emperors, huh? How absurd. To be honest, I’ve never seen such a big liar like you before. I didn’t expect that you would fool me like this. What you’ve done is impressive, considering that you’re just an ordinary human. Why don’t you quit your job in the Imperial Guards and become a swindler?”
Lenly didn’t answer. Juan beckoned Opert and instructed him to finish his task.
Opert nodded and went back inside the heart of the Dragon Citadel.
Lenly wiped off the blood on his nose. Half of his teeth seemed to have been shattered, and the bones on his face had fractured as well. However, he was convinced that his suffering right now couldn’t compare to the crime that he had committed.
Lenly looked at Juan with suspicious eyes.
“Why don’t you kill me?”
“Didn’t you want to know what I told Sina earlier?”
“You’re already here, so it’s meaningless. Why don’t you kill me?”
Juan smiled deridingly at Lenly’s words.
“All right, listen up. I don’t think your loyalty was a lie. I believe it’s possible to be loyal to a few people at the same time, just as a person can love several people at the same time. A dog can do that, so humans can surely do it as well. That is why humans are interesting.”
Lenly couldn’t tell whether Juan’s analogy was a compliment.
He looked at Juan with doubtful eyes before saying, “Are you telling me to betray His Majesty Gerard?”
Juan chuckled at Lenly’s question. He proceeded to slap Lenly’s face with Sutra’s handle. Lenly’s remaining teeth scattered into pieces and sprang out of his mouth along with the bloody flesh of his chin.
“Do you really think you’re that great? I’m sorry to tell you this, but you’re done now. Your existence means nothing. It is not because you’re worthy that I am bothering you with all this. I also didn’t come here to accept your apology or take revenge. I’m here because of Ivy. I think this will be our final conversation.”
Lenly couldn’t say anything. The pain was too much for him to even open his jaw.
“Ivy told me to tell you this in case we met…”
Lenly flinched and looked up with surprised eyes.
However, Juan only smiled softly without saying anything.
“What… what did she…” Lenly stammered.
“I’m not going to tell you.”
“...I’m sorry?”
“There are two great ways to annoy someone. First is making them curious about something but never actually telling them what it is, and lastly—”
Juan abruptly smacked Lenly’s head with Sutra’s sheath.
Lenly didn’t immediately lose consciousness, but his mind was still filled with many questions just as he lost consciousness. Unfortunately, there was no way for him to ask his burning questions, and his head eventually drooped to his chest.
Lenly had already outlived his usefulness, and he was already dead in Juan’s eyes when he betrayed Juan. Lenly was not much different from a weed that had its roots pulled out. After all, he had also failed to settle on Gerard’s camp.
He wasn’t going to kill Lenly, but Juan was planning on making Lenly live the rest of his life in regret. Juan wanted Lenly to suffer, despair, and regret all the decisions he had made until his death.
He wanted Lenly to die a lonely death.
However, Juan didn’t really have to do anything to make Lenly suffer.
He was convinced that Lenly would fall on his own.
***
It looked like there was a rain of flower pollens.
Gerard felt as if he would get drunk at the boundless energy in the surroundings.
The energy belonged to Juan. The entire battlefield was riddled with the monsters of the Crack just a few minutes ago, but the battlefield was now covered in Juan’s energy.
Gerard knew that Juan would eventually appear once more, but he didn’t expect Juan to appear in this manner—by kicking down the door.
“I must admit… this is quite impressive, Sina Solvane,” Gerard murmured as he looked around the surroundings covered in Juan’s energy. “I think I finally understand why you had acknowledged him as the emperor. Did you know that he would return this way?”
‘No way.’
Sina had no idea when Juan would return, but she was slowly unsheathing her sword. She could feel Juan’s energy as well, and she realized that Juan should soon appear in front of them.
Sina’s left eye turned red.
“It doesn’t matter whether I acknowledged Juan as the emperor or not, Gerard. In fact, that means nothing. Juan is just Juan. And the same goes for you.”
Gerard looked back at Sina in silence.
Sina spoke, seemingly desperate, “Get on your knees and beg for forgiveness. You already know that Juan is the one you’ve been waiting for all along. It’s not too late. It is the only way to make your sin a bit lighter.”
“Beg for forgiveness?” Gerard tilted his head as if he had heard an unfamiliar word. The corners of his mouth slowly went up, and he soon erupted into a cackle. “Sina. I have abandoned my father, my wife, my son, my territory, my subordinates, and my entire life for this moment, and you’re urging me to throw away what I have left?”
Gerard’s low cackle felt empty as it echoed. In Sina’s eyes, Gerard was empty. His physical body looked like an empty shell as well.
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Gerard’s laughter slowly died down as he raised his head. “But how can I disobey you?”
Sina felt hopeful.
However, Gerard immediately shattered her hopes. “I will lie down in front of my father’s grave and beg for forgiveness when everything is over. Even if it’s my father or the current emperor, it doesn’t matter. I’m ready to jump over any obstacles.”
“Gerard!” Sina shouted.
A huge tentacle emerged from Gerard’s back, and it was moving so fast that Sina felt dizzy tracking it with her own eyes. The tentacle was massive, and it seemed big enough to hide the entire horizon behind it.
However, the massive tentacle was as thin as a finger compared to what was wriggling beyond the Crack. In addition, the wriggling thing seemed as if it was ready to make a break for it and fly toward the skies.
“I still don’t understand what that man told me. Humans have certainly shown more potential than I thought. But what’s the point of that now?”
Gerard slowly approached Sina. A thin stream of blood was still flowing down from the wound that Juan had left on Gerard’s cheek. Ever since Gerard got the wound, he had been madly obsessed with his work on the Crack.
It occurred to Sina that the order he gave to his subordinates wasn’t to stop the Northern Army but to drive them out so that they wouldn't be able to get in the way of his work.
Sina was startled to see Gerard’s eyes.
His glazed purple eyes were empty.
“I can instantly turn the civilization that humans have raised for thousands of years into a powder. No, it doesn’t even have to be me. A tiny kindling is enough to raze humankind’s effort to the ground. The world almost collapsed once when Qzatquizail made a hole in the world for the first time. Against such a force, I am not sure what humans can do about it.”
Gerard calmly looked down at Sina and slowly raised his hand.
Sina flinched for a moment, but she felt herself being slowly pushed out.
“What is this? What are you doing?! If you’re going to hold me hostage, I—”
“You may leave now, Sina.”
Sina doubted her ears.
Juan would arrive soon, so she couldn’t leave.
“What? Wait. I still haven’t acknowledged you as the emperor yet!”
“I would like to apologize,” Gerard said out of the blue.
Sina was perplexed by Gerard’s unexpected remark.
Gerard lowered his gaze and said,
“I think I saw Elaine Elliot in you—the only woman that my father might have loved. I once thought that she might be my mother. So I thought I would become acknowledged as the emperor if you were to choose me—just as she chose my father.”
Sina felt strange upon hearing Elaine Elliot’s name come out of Gerard’s mouth. All Sina knew about Elaine was that she was one of the Six Apostates.
“But I guess it was absurd to be acknowledged as the emperor. Perhaps I thought I would be able to escape the guilt of killing my own father if someone were to acknowledge me.”
“Gerard…”
“I thought I would be able to justify the vile crime I had committed by being a better being than my father,” Gerard sighed and turned his gaze away from Sina. “But now, it’s meaningless...”
“Meaningless?” Sina asked back.
“Now I see a world too great. All I have left is the compulsion to fill this universe only with humans, but I don’t even know why. I no longer feel like I want to be acknowledged by someone, nor do I want to be better than anyone.”
Sina felt a pang of pain in her heart.
Gerard had no idea, but his life was destined to be a failure after he had abandoned his father, his son, his wife, and everything else. However, Gerard had done all of those for a goal, and right now, he was about to achieve his goal.
Despite that, he seemed indifferent to the upcoming result—he seemed like he wasn’t happy at all. However, there was one person who had known that this would happen from the very beginning.
“It’s inevitable, Gerard.”
Sina turned and saw Juan walking toward Gerard. Juan’s sword was sheathed, and he also didn’t have any subordinates walking with him. He was calmly walking toward Gerard as if he were on a stroll in his own backyard.
“Juan!” Sina exclaimed. She tried to run toward Juan without realizing it. However, she hadn’t even taken a step yet when she suddenly flew into the air.
Sina, seized by Gerard’s mana in the air, was leaving the rocky island and heading toward the edge of the Crack.
Gerard clearly didn’t want to harm Sina because she was slowly flying away.
Juan winked at Sina as a greeting.
“I’m glad you’re alive,” Juan said.
“That’s my line, Juan! I still have many questions for you!” Sina shouted.
‘Did you really try to revive me? If that’s true, why? What do I mean to you?’
However, Juan only smiled briefly at Sina and wordlessly walked away from her.
Juan stared at Gerard and said, “Thanks for making sure that Sina won’t get involved in all this.”
“She’s a necessary witness. She will be the witness to my reign after your death,” said Gerard. However, he suddenly realized that Juan didn’t look like he was injured at all. It was a baffling sight because he expected Juan to be mortally wounded at the very least.
Gerard unknowingly held his cheek and noticed that blood was still running down the wound on his cheek.
‘I haven’t been able to heal this tiny wound, but he’s actually unscathed?’
“Were you resurrected again in the flames? As far as I know, it’s not a common feat,” Gerard said.
“The fact that you’re asking me that question proves that you don’t deserve the crown, Gerard.”
Gerard frowned.
Juan continued with a smile. “However, your words about how everything is meaningless aren’t exactly wrong.”
“You understand me?” Gerard asked back.
“It’s more than just understanding. Most of the universe is ready to kill humans at any time. There’s no air in space, and it is either extremely cold or extremely hot. You know what that means, right? It means that the universe is not interested in humans at all. This tiny patch of land is the only place where humans can live.”
Gerard wordlessly stared at Juan. However, Juan’s eyes weren’t as empty as his eyes. Juan’s eyes were full of heat and light like the blazing sun. Gerard couldn’t understand how anyone who knew such a fact could have such lively eyes.
“So how can there be a meaning to humans in such a vast emptiness?”
With a smile, Joshua responded, “You idiot. Even a dog or a cow can ask such a question. The emperor’s job is to find the meaning. If you’re going to continue saying stupid things like ‘the world is meaningless, and everything is in vain’ despite wearing a powerful crown—how about you just wear a toilet cover and stop being a burden?”