The Emperor Who Was Chapter 91 : Chapter 91

Chapter . 91

"I embedded that heart of mine in our contract. I can't be sure since I can't test it, but I believe the mark will react when the ti cos."

"You really don't want

to follow you in death even if you die? Even if I make a contract with your enemies?"

"Of course I don't want you to make a contract with my enemies. But I want you dying even less."

Michelon stared at

piercingly for a mont, then leaned forward and whispered. Even though we were alone in this vast place.

"...But what if I want you to die if I die? Even if your mark contains your heart that doesn't wish for my death, what if my mark doesn't contain my heart that doesn't wish for your death?"

Having said that, Michelon added.

"Then when the ti cos, how will the mark react?"

I looked into Michelon's eyes. The sincerity contained in his brilliant golden eyes that was impossible not to recognize.

"I know."

Your heart that is different from mine.

"...What? You knew?"

"You are also the last dragon like Calamitia. Ultimately, until the next generation dragon is born, as all dragons have been."

"...I am not Calamitia."

"No. I just an I know your heart that doesn't want to die alone."

The heart that doesn't want to be alone when dying. The heart that made one sustain life longer than the will to live itself.

"But you are not alone."

"Yes, I have you. But you are not alone like . Don't think of saying you are the sa as . Even if they are enemies worse than strangers, you have a father and brothers. Subordinates who follow and like you are also increasing."

If only those eyes contained jealousy instead.

Not loneliness.

"If you want

to die too when you die, fine."

Michelon who followed

in death when I died. My heart ached at the thought that the reason he gave up the freedom he finally obtained might have been loneliness.

"Do you an it?"

"I do. However, you must not follow

in death when I die."

"What kind of nonsense is that? Do I look that selfish to you? What do you take

for?"

Michelon shouted angrily.

"What aning is there if we don't live and die together?"

"At the very least, we can prevent

from never knowing whether you are alone or not even if I die."

"...What? What are you talking about when you already know that fact now?"

"For now, yes."

He was still young. Unlike , he was truly a boy. He was my only friend, but I had to rember that point.

"I won't die, and neither will you. We will fight against them, and even if we lose, we won't die and will fight again. In doing so, we will grow, survive, and finally win. Then, even if I finally die, whether you will be alone or not can only be known at that ti."

"...But what if I am still alone then?"

"Even so, you can't. You can't follow

in death. You must live. To know whether you are truly alone or not until you die."

"If I'm alone until you die, the answer is already out!"

"That is the answer only until I die; the answer until you die cannot be known unless you live until then. You can't know if you die."

Michelon shouted in a fit of rage.

"Then I will betray you! I will contract with the enemy who killed you and sweep away all your subordinates and friends! You will regret saying that even in death!"

His golden eyes burned red.

"If they remain my subordinates and my friends until then."

I said.

"If they are not your friends nor your subordinates, if you are not us."

"......"

"......"

"...I might betray you... Even if it goes according to your will... I might betray you. Then it's your loss for not demanding the sa from ."

"That decision is yours."

I said.

"I have you, but just as I promised to follow you in death because of that, and just as I did not allow you to follow

in death, my decision is sothing even you cannot trespass upon. The mont a decision is made, I am alone and you are also alone."

"...Why does it have to be that way?"

"Because the reason for that decision is you."

"You decide alone for my sake?"

"Everyone must live their own share of life to be able to be with soone else. Just as one must be alone to be together, and because one is together, one can be alone. Those two do not contradict each other."

"...I hoped you would say we are together forever, let's live together and die together. That would have been enough for ."

I know that feeling. Because I feel the sa.

But you already died following . I cannot tolerate it a second ti.

"I'm sorry. But I can't say only those words."

Even if I die, you live.

Only then does the aning of my regression live. The aning of your sacrifice.

"Is it that even though we are friends, the friendship we desire from each other is different?"

Michelon asked like that, then added as if muttering to himself.

"Because we are friends, not subordinate."

I only nodded my head. To force my greed for him to survive even alone on Michelon, hiding the selfishness that would issue any command to do so.

"Then, I will cancel my wish."

"No need for that."

"I'm saying it because it's better for

to take care of it myself than to ask you to grant my wish?"

Michelon snorted.

"Didn't you say that for two equals to beco friends, each must decide alone and live their own share of life? This is my will that I have established, so don't mind it."

"My will is—"

"Uh-uh, don't try to cunningly insert your will into mine."

Michelon raised his index finger and waved it side to side, speaking teasingly.

"I won't ask you to do this and that together regarding our friendship anymore. Since you spoke so coldly, affection-killingly, and unluckily, I will also do as I please."

"That's not what I ant—"

"If you say any more there, I'll do as I originally wished."

When I shut my mouth, Michelon grinned. It wasn't his characteristic laugh. The one that was joyful and excited, bright and radiant like fireworks but one never knew when it would suddenly stop.

However, just looking at that small, natural smile in front of

put my mind at ease.

For now, that was enough. Because it was just us.

We continued exploring. Before that, Michelon tried to return the dragon's coffin to its original state. Looking at that beautiful jewel dragon for the last ti, I asked inadvertently.

"Is the inside of that coffin... empty?"

"Of course."

"Really? I thought perhaps the dragon who had the funeral last might be inside. I an, if this is the Dragon's Grave, until now......."

I trailed off. When an Emperor's dragon died, a kind of cremation occurred where the dragon's fla burned its body. According to the command the Emperor gave in advance.

Long ago, during the war with Roncer, although we won, a dragon died. While busy with post-war processing without being able to dispose of that massive corpse imdiately, rumors circulated that Roncer's remnants secretly infiltrated, desecrated the corpse, and cut off and ate the dragon's flesh. Because there was a superstition about dragon remains.

"No... I was just wondering if all the dragons who had funerals in ancient tis are in coffins like that. Are they all here? Or does each have a separate grave?"

"......."

"Either way, it's amazing."

"......."

Since Michelon continued not to answer, I was about to say he didn't have to tell

if it was a secret of dragons.

"I don't know either."

"...You don't know? Ah, because you didn't receive Ilaves's mories properly."

"No, maybe those mories weren't intact in the first place. They say mories were continuously passed down through generations, but they didn't talk about those mories or use them in other forms. Far from it, there were restrictions on acting based on mories. Eventually, there must have been limits to preservation."

As I hesitated, not knowing what to say, Michelon spoke boldly.

"Let's open it."

It felt awkward to stop him, so I stayed still, and Michelon urged .

"You have to open it. As long as I am not an adult dragon!"

I stood before the dragon's coffin like that. A tension similar to when I first faced the Throne Magic Circle arose.

And unlike then, I failed completely. The dragon's coffin, or statue, didn't budge an inch.

"To think you couldn't open it... How can this be......."

"Don't be frustrated. It's just protected by that amazing magic. I'm very impressed. This magic requires not only magical skill but also specific conditions to be t like the Throne Magic Circle—"

"I'm really glad you intend to beco Emperor. Otherwise, you would have beco a boring person with no friends but , knowing nothing but magic for your whole life, babbling mindlessly whenever magic is involved without noticing the mood."

"Then it's good for ."

"......."

"But why do you say that as if it's a bad thing?"

"Forget it. Let's put this back for now and continue exploring."

At a glance, the Dragon's Grave was a vast empty plain. It was like wandering endlessly in that vast place, stumbling if one's toe even hit a stone, lucky if one found sothing, and wandering again if not. Even Michelon knew important things like the dragon's coffin, but didn't know the details.

"This place was originally the dragon's ho. Because dragons are buried in their own hos."

Michelon said, caught in thought.

"But as dragons never returned, from a ho and a grave, it beca just a grave."

Just as I tried to grab Michelon's shoulder as he said that, the mark on my chest reacted.

"Michelon."

"I felt it too."

Michelon infused mana again. The sa round light pattern as before arose.

Dragon's mana is different from human mana. I, who had received mana directly from Michelon, knew. Everything inside here was made to react only to dragon's mana. Just as the Throne Magic Circle reacts only to the Imperial blood.

Otherwise, it was the sa that one couldn't even start. My mark was also reacting because of the contract with Michelon.......

"Leontes!"

Looking back, the wall was opening this ti. No, a wall appeared where there was no wall. Centered on where the two of us stood, a wall appeared circling around. A wall full of books.

"It's books!"

"Everything must be written there! Things we couldn't know until now!"

We ran towards it excitedly. They were enormously large and luxuriously bound books. Michelon picked up one volu, and I did too.

"Ugh!"

"Ack!"

Both Michelon and I dropped the books as we tried to take them out. They were incredibly heavy. They were like large rocks, not books. If Michelon hadn't grabbed

and yanked

back, I would have dropped it on my foot and gotten hurt or fallen forward.

The book that fell to the floor like that grew larger.

"Uh-uh-uh-uh!"

"Ugh!"

The books grew enormously large. Bigger than a bed.

"It's huge!"

"It's a size a dragon can see!"

Do they stay folded as book size on the shelf, then fall and grow to original size if a dragon just touches them with a fingertip, no, a claw?

We rushed at the book in excitent... and climbed up. Even the book cover was very beautiful. Jewels were embedded in the book spine, the dragon pattern on the cover, and the decorative letters.

The dragon pattern was sowhat familiar, and the decorative letters were characters I saw for the first ti, but they were incredibly beautiful and splendid. Then Michelon said sothing absurd.

"Why isn't the title written on the cover?"

"What do you an, it's written there. It's just characters we don't know. Characters I've never seen in my life."

"I said it's not written!"

"Then what's written here?"

I took Michelon's finger and made him touch the letters.

"I don't feel anything?"

"Even though it's the size of a small tree? Even though it's bumpy with embedded jewels?"

"Not at all."

"Can you feel the dragon pattern below it? This is also embossed and embedded with jewels."

"I feel it."

"But you don't feel only the letters?"

"Are there really letters?"