Valcaros Lantana von Staufen.
In the original story, no detailed information about him ever appeared.
There was never a dedicated perspective covering the emperor, nor was there any special side episode about him.
All the players could do was make inferences based on the princesses' stories.
Perhaps because of that—
Valcaros was not well regarded.
[Category: Free Board]
[Title: No matter how you look at it, the emperor is the root of all evil in the Rose route]
There is no one as irredeemable as this bastard.
His only blood relatives, his daughters, were neglected from a young age,
And he barely ever showed them his face.
As if that wasn't enough, when the second princess got sick, he threw an eight-year-old child into confinent without a second thought.
The family ended up in ruins.
The once-close sisterly bond was shattered.
Elize spent over ten years battling her illness alone,
Fell into severe ntal illness and self-harm addiction,
And in the end, she took her own life before her ti was up.
Charlotte was left traumatized, her social skills deteriorating.
In the story,
If the headmaster was the top-tier incompetent,
Then this emperor bastard was the top-tier scumbag.
[He really is just a fucking bastard.]
→ Even beasts care for their young.
→ Reading the Rose side story makes hate the emperor even more.
[Headmaster vs. Emperor]
→ A battle of irredeemable bastards.
→ Trash vs. garbage.
Everyone threw stones at him.
I was no different.
At the ti, we had almost no information.
By the ti anyone could notice sothing strange, our perspective had already been skewed.
If you are reading this translation anywhere other than Novelight, it has been stolen.
The fragnted puzzle pieces had been forced into a single conclusion.
It wasn’t even surprising.
"That’s just how it is."
Understanding—
It only cos after knowing the full truth.
Without a guiding light, one's steps are bound to stray.
Misunderstanding, delusion, distortion... We call these the errors of comprehension.
And we live surrounded by them.
"But."
This ti, it was different.
We could finally understand each other.
Reports on the illness, knowledge from the original story, the traces I uncovered—
The scattered clues wove together into a single thread, leading to the truth.
At the end of this long and arduous journey, the story revealed itself as the complete opposite of what we thought.
It spoke of a certain possibility.
"Everything."
The emotionless eyes.
The voice devoid of warmth.
The perpetual indifference.
The coldness with which he confined his own daughter—
And the strangely detached way he spent his ti.
All those winters—
Were love.
They were his ultimate devotion.
[Category: Q&A Board]
[Title: So why does the emperor die in the story?]
At the start of the final chapter, he just suddenly dies.
There’s no proper explanation, just a sudden death announcent while playing.
The timing is right before the cathedral collapses, aning it’s early in the final chapter...
What the hell happened to him?
Did the cultists wipe out the imperial family along with the church?
Does anyone know what actually happened?
[That part was never fully explained.]
→ There was never an official reveal.
→ Like the headmaster (Prophet), it’s still an unresolved mystery.
→ This ga is just full of unresolved plot points.
[There are a few theories.]
→ So say he was assassinated by the cultists.
→ So say he was taken out by noble rebels, like the Duke of Vanity’s faction.
→ Others think his preexisting illness worsened.
→ But these are all just theories—there’s no confird answer.
→ Wow, we really just don’t know, huh.
[Honestly, who cares that the shitty emperor died?]
→ From a gaplay perspective, it sucks. He was actually pretty reliable when you asked for support.
→ If we rank allies, he’d be at least Tier 2.
→ Compared to the headmaster, the emperor was an angel.
→ "Emperor supremacy gang rise up."
→ "Charlotte, turn off the WiFi."
→ "The ta slaves are already hyping him up."
→ "Classic WWE-tier argunts."
A mysterious death.
In every route, Valcaros would always die in the final chapter.
No clear cause of death was ever revealed, and he simply vanished from the story.
At the ti, it remained an unsolved mystery—
But now, I could finally see the truth beyond it.
The emperor’s cause of death was none other than illness.
"Mana Stone Consumption Disease."
He died carrying that curse to the very end.
About six months from now—
Elize had already taken her own life,
And with the curse transferred to Valcaros, there was no way to undo it.
In the end, the emperor could not save his daughter,
And so he, too, had to die.
The fall of the imperial family—
It was that tragic.
"What... should I live for now?"
"I couldn’t protect anything."
After the consecutive deaths of her family,
Charlotte wandered aimlessly.
The imperial family had collapsed in an instant.
The rose she had lived for was dead.
The emperor who had upheld the empire was gone.
Before she could even process her grief and confusion,
She was forced to take up responsibility.
She was the only heir left.
"Is this what it ans to be an adult?"
"I can't even cry."
Charlotte ascended to the throne.
At first, her tears flowed endlessly, but as ti passed, they dried up.
The innocent expression she once carried was nowhere to be found.
[EP41. The Emperor of a Fading Empire]
"As she grew up, the girl who was no longer young—"
The Little Prince.
The title that once described her no longer carried the word "young."
The girl who stepped into the world of adults took her place upon the imperial throne.
Thus, in a world on the brink of destruction, she inherited the empire and stood against the coming calamity—
That was Charlotte’s story.
It was praised for its elegant depiction of psychological conflict and bleakness.
But in other words, it was a tale steeped in agony and misfortune.
"Answer , Elize."
"I couldn’t even save you... Can I really lead the empire?"
"I’m afraid that once again, I won’t be able to save anyone."
"I am so unbearably small."
The guilt of failing to protect her younger sister.
The crushing weight of the crown upon her head.
The sudden loneliness and confusion of a girl who had beco an adult too soon.
That was why I never liked Charlotte’s story.
It was far too tragic.
"If there was a reason for my sympathy—"
The imperial family's misfortune was born from misunderstanding.
A lack of communication had led to disaster.
Perhaps—
There could have been a different ending for them.
Elize might not have given up on life.
Valcaros might have found a way to survive.
Charlotte might have had a chance to avoid despair.
If only there had been a single mont where they could understand one another.
That fragile gap, thinner than a sheet of paper, made the story all the more sorrowful.
Tragedy, by nature, is like that.
"This ti, it's different."
An opportunity for understanding.
Sothing that never existed in the original story—
But now, it did.
As I said before, if ignorance is the root of misunderstanding, then its cure is none other than knowledge.
I had resolved to be the one who brought that knowledge to their twisted story.
All it took was a few words.
"......"
The princesses sat in silence.
In their hands was a thick book.
It was none other than a journal written by the emperor himself.
When I asked about the past, he simply threw the book at , saying it would be faster to read it directly.
Within its pages, Valcaros had ticulously recorded his actions and goals.
The neatly arranged text filled the gaps in our understanding.
With each turned page, the scent of ink spread through the air.
The princesses still seed unable to process what they were reading.
"......"
But—
No matter how confused they were, the truth would not change.
If the aesthetics of lies shift and transform endlessly, then the aesthetics of truth are unchanging, eternal.
Truth does not contain falsehoods.
It only requires ti to be accepted.
So, I waited for their confusion to settle.
"I can't keep up with this."
"......"
"If what’s written in this book is true... Then every action His Majesty took was for Elize’s sake?"
"You understood correctly. The First Princess is right."
Charlotte murmured in a daze.
Perhaps hearing her words, Valcaros responded indifferently.
His gaze was still cold, emotionless.
Like a machine.
"Of course, the of today cannot understand it, but the of that ti must have thought differently."
An expression that said he found all of this botherso.
"To think that I weighed the empire and the Second Princess against each other and still chose the latter. It was far from rational. If I had sacrificed just one, everyone else could have lived in peace. If it were the of today, I would have personally beheaded the Second Princess. For the cri of carrying such a filthy curse in a royal body."
He spoke with detached indifference.
Every word was as sharp as a blade, devoid of a beating heart.
But no one was hurt by them.
Because now, we knew what process had stripped his voice of warmth.
Even his cruel tongue was proof of the past he had endured.
"......"
Elize remained silent.
It was difficult to discern the emotions reflected in her green eyes.
She was sinking into the weight of realization.
Nearly ten years of resentnt, hatred, and solitude—
And now she learned that all of it had been based on a lie.
It was as if the very ti she had lived was being denied.
Her slender fingers gripped the book tightly.
[Guidelines for the Second Princess]
"Everything was for my beloved daughter."
"For Elize."
Those words were written across the open page.
Elize couldn't bring herself to turn to the next one.
It would take ti for her to accept this.
A decade of resentnt could not be overturned by a single hour of devotion.
She no longer had a reason to despise Valcaros now that she knew the truth—
But humans do not live by reason alone.
A wound that had deepened over the years could not be so easily healed.
I left the princesses behind as I continued my conversation.
"It seems the princesses need ti."
"Indeed. Let’s give them so space."
The emperor still wasn't looking at his daughters.
His gaze was fixed on —on whatever interested him in the mont.
And then he spoke.
"I must say, I’m impressed. I never expected you to uncover the details of the ritual as well."
"I have rather capable people by my side."
"You are certainly «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» intriguing."
"I’m honored by the complint."
"But it's too late."
"What do you an?"
"That nothing will change."
His dull, lifeless eyes.
Like withered leaves, his gaze was empty.
"The ritual is nearly complete. In about two weeks, the Second Princess’s curse will be fully transferred. I will die within the year."
Fate remained unchanged.
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