Chapter 87
There's a man nad Athus the Diviner.
At just twenty-five years old, his swordsmanship is so exceptional that he receives the full favor of the next emperor and stands shoulder to shoulder with the empire's legion commanders.
Look at the nas he stands alongside: Yosef Haider, Marina Debius, Niko Nereyades…
He had always taken pride in his sword.
There was no reason not to.
But today.
He was simply ashad.
The sha was so unbearable it was painful.
“…Your Highness Zionis.”
Athus opened his mouth with difficulty.
“You were……”
His eyes were srized, staring at the chest of the Ancient God.
He couldn’t tear his gaze away from it. From the undeniable brand, the symbol of the millennium empire.
“…Right, it seems.”
Yes, it was Cordis.
It was Cordis that had tried to turn the Breath of Light into a weapon, and the fairy tale they spread was a complete lie.
Each word he uttered felt as heavy as a lead weight, making him want to bite his tongue off.
“…And, I was……”
He closed his eyes tightly.
“……”
If it was all the empire’s doing, then the Aretions, his ancestors whom he had hated his entire life… might not have been stupid or despicable.
He had always thought of the Aretion na as stupid and despicable and had lived in hiding.
If that was the case, then he was…….
“…Wrong, it seems.”
He had lived to repay the sha of his family.
He had endured his life with the mindset that he would give the loyalty that his ancestors couldn't to the empire, that he would make the Aretion na shine again and that he would fulfill the long-cherished wish with his own hands.
“My life, it seems, was wrong.”
When you pull out the biggest pillar of your heart, it can’t help but be heartbreaking.
The entire life that relied on that pillar couldn't help but collapse.
“This man, Athus… how could I have……”
In the end, tears flowed.
It was because of a sha that was too difficult to fathom.
“To be so, stupid……”
He was muttering, as if he was tearing his own heart out.
“And to be so despicable……”
To have been deceived by the empire’s lies and to be ashad of his ancestors.
To have lived proudly as the empire’s dog, not knowing that they were his family's sworn enemies.
The feeling that he didn't even have the right to scream was so profound it felt as if his spine was lting away.
“This stupid, this despicable……”
“Athus……”
I opened my mouth.
“I’m sorry, but get a grip. You don't have ti to be muttering to yourself like that.”
I had no intention of sympathizing with Athus’s self-deprecation.
It was a damn annoying thing to say, but Athus smiled wryly instead of getting angry.
How could such a shaful person dare to get angry?
He didn't even bother to wipe his tears and looked up with his jade eyes.
“…Yes, you’re right. I’m a man who doesn’t even have the right to do that.”
Athus smiled. Sha, regret, and other things.
He struggled to suppress the feelings that had already beco a ss and were now like a whirlwind.
“Your Highness Zionis, you have won.”
He looked down at the Regressor Prince.
Golden hair, blue eyes, girly features, and a mouth that was good at lying.
For so reason, I was no longer annoying to him.
“It seems your will has been done. I have no choice but to thank you for letting , Athus, who has always aid for your neck, know the truth.”
He lowered his double-edged sword.
It was still sharp.
I had withdrawn my ‘Iron Bloodline’ and Valziart, so he could have taken my neck at any mont.
But he didn’t.
He no longer had any intention of taking my neck.
“Go, I will not pursue you further.”
He didn't know what I was going to do.
He didn’t know what kind of threat I would be to the empire. But what did it matter?
“I will even forget the fact that you, Your Highness, are alive.”
He seed to finally understand why I had brought him to Arete Island.
He must have known that if he knew the truth of the Aretions, he would no longer be able to pursue .
He must have foreseen that.
“The pursuit is over. I will return to the Imperial Palace.”
He looked into the distance.
It was blocked by the Hill of Storms, but far beyond it, was the capital, Lutilium. T
here was the Great Imperial Palace of Cordis.
“I have sothing to talk about with Pel… with His Highness Ferbias.”
“What are you talking about?”
I scratched my temple.
“Get a grip, Athus.”
“……?”
“Did you really think I brought you all the way here just to tell you the truth about your family so you wouldn't pursue anymore?”
“…Wasn’t it?”
“You must think I’m an idiot.”
The Regressor Prince shook his head.
If I was being serious, I could have ditched Athus a long ti ago.
No matter how much of a diviner he was, he was still only twenty-five.
Why did I struggle so much all the way from the capital, Lutilium, to Arete Island?
Because I had to make sure Athus pursued so precariously.
Even if it ant risking my life like I did in the Rubeko Valley, there was a reason I had to bring Athus to Arete Island.
“I have a lot to explain, but I’ll start with the most urgent thing.”
I glanced to the side.
The Breath of Light was in the distance.
The giant carrying a searing light orb in place of a head was letting out a roar of brilliance.
The chains binding its hands and feet were creaking, and it seed they would break at any mont.
“Why did the Breath of Light wake up? It had been sleeping for half a century.”
“…Because we ca?”
“Doesn't it seem that way?”
We had awakened on the quiet Arete Island.
As soon as Athus and I arrived, flocks of crows and swans flew, the deer that moved the fire ran and soon the Breath of Light awakened.
“Now think again. Who would the Breath of Light hate the most?”
Athus’s jade eyes darkened.
“Would it be the Aretions, who sold it out even if it was to save their islanders? Or would it be Cordis, which turned it into a monster while trying to make it a weapon?”
“…It would hate both of them terribly.”
“Right?”
I chuckled and raised my index finger.
And then, I pointed to my chest.
“Look, I hate to admit it, but I’m the Fifth Imperial Prince, Zionis. A Cordis bloodline.”
I really hated to admit it, but I would have to destroy it soday!
I grumbled and Athus noticed my hatred for the empire.
“And you, the last Aretion.”
Athus couldn’t bring himself to smile in front of my pointing finger.
His jade eyes looked at the Breath of Light.
The searing light orb had the light of hatred.
“The two bloodlines it hates the most ca to it on their own, didn’t they?”
“……”
He got goosebumps.
He realized why the Breath of Light had awakened and scread.
It was a kind of cheer.
It was the joyful roar of a monster that had gotten a chance to release the hatred and rage that had accumulated terribly.
“…I wondered, it seed to have been watching us the whole ti.”
“I felt that too.”
The light orb, which the Breath of Light had in place of a head, had a mask-like face.
He couldn’t read its emotions, but he could tell which way its gaze was directed.
The empty eye sockets of the mask were staring directly at Cordis and the Aretion.
“Once it breaks its chains, it will try to kill us imdiately……”
Rumble-!
The chains that bound the limbs of the Breath of Light broke powerlessly and fell to the ground.
It was because of the Ancient God’s imnse strength and the heat of the light.
I continued to speak.
“…is what I was going to say, but look.”
The Breath of Light took a breath.
The air trembled, and heat filled the space.
The entire island was submitting to it.
The Hill of Storms, the Thorn Wave and even the islanders who had beco birds, all of them.
The Breath of Light roared with brilliance and raised its hand.
Its fingers pointed at Athus and .
There was a clear murderous intent. I clicked my tongue.
“How murderous.”
“…Is it an enemy?”
“Yep. The monster that was once a god is trying to kill us.”
The Regressor Prince chuckled.
“If we don’t defeat it, we’ll both die.”
***
“Do we have no choice but to fight?”
“Do you want to go and try to talk to it?”
“……” Athus’s eyes were calm.
“Your Highness, did you know that we would end up fighting the Breath of Light?”
“What if I said yes?”
“I’d think about aiming for your neck again.”
“What. Where does that co from?” I chattered with Athus.
There was no more murderousness between us.
There was complexity, but the sharpness directed at each other had clearly disappeared.
The Breath of Light looked at and Athus, at Cordis and the Aretion.
It aid its mask-like face at us, and then slowly raised its hand.
Even its hand was huge.
The grip of the Breath of Light seed big enough for an eleven-year-old to fit in.
It stretched its palm out, and soon a tree grew. It looked like a palm tree.
The few palm trees that grew tangled with each other and then bent to beco a bow.
A wooden bow in the hand of the Breath of Light.
A palm longbow, just as enormous as the giant Breath of Light.
“A bow?”
Athus questioned.
The Breath of Light put the hand that wasn't holding the bow to its head, to the searing light orb.
The brilliance was pulled out and beca an arrow.
“The Breath of Light was also originally the god of archery……”
The arrow of brilliance flew.
I hadn't even seen it put its hand on the bowstring, but it was already right in front of us.
The brilliance, filled with old hatred, tried to burn , and I took a deep breath in a panic.
The speed was far beyond what I expected.
There was a clang sound. It was the sound of a double-edged sword cutting the arrow of brilliance.
The jade-eyed man shook his sword and stood in front of as if to protect .
“That was dangerous, Your Highness.” “…Thanks for the help, Athus.” I scratched my chin.
There were a few surprising things.
The speed of the Breath of Light and the fierceness of the arrow of brilliance.
But the most surprising thing was that this jade-eyed man had protected without hesitation.
“I thought you would just let die.”
“There’s still more I need to hear.”
Hadn’t I said that there was a real reason I brought him to this island?
He had to hear it.
Athus had a feeling that this ‘real reason’ would leave a greater aning in his life than anything else.
As always, his intuition would turn into conviction and then into reality.
“Can’t you use your repellent Ars on that arrow?”
“It only works on things with a heart.”
“I figured as much.” My second Ars, ‘The Unclosable Twenty Steps’.
No matter how convenient and powerful it was, it was useless against a heartless arrow.
The Breath of Light waved its hand over its head, over the searing fla.
The brilliance was pulled out, again becoming six arrows.
The monster that was once an Ancient God put the six arrows on the bowstring.
It was to shoot the hateful bloodlines.
“……”
His jade eyes were calm.
The Breath of Light aid its arrows at us, but Athus lowered his sword.
He even released his grip so much that it seed like he would drop his sword at any mont.
But his eyes, as always, were sharp.
He watched sharply and moved gracefully.
His double-edged sword slowly drew a curve.
It was even beautiful, as if he were dancing.
The arrows of brilliance flew only then.
There were consecutive whizzing and clanging sounds.
The arrows of brilliance scattered and disappeared.
But it shouldn't be described as having blocked the arrows.
It was as if he had brought his sword to the place where the arrows were going to fly, or rather, the arrows seed to be sucked into his sword.
“…To know where they’ll fly before it even shoots them.”
“It’s been weirdly easy to see ever since I ca to this island.”
“You shouldn’t hate your nickna, Diviner.”
“I don’t intend to hate it anymore.”
Athus’s intuition was inherited from his ancestors.
Because the Aretions were a family of prophets who received divine oracles.
He just didn't know that the Ancient God that gave them the oracles would beco their enemy.
He had hated his ancestors, so he also hated the intuition he inherited and his nickna as a diviner.
But now, he felt a willingness to accept it blooming in him.
It had just blood, and it was still unfamiliar, but one day, it would surely.
The arrows of brilliance.
They burned the air and were shot at us.
His jade eyes flashed, and he cut the arrows in half.
The Breath of Light didn’t care and continuously shot out brilliance.
“More importantly, Your Highness, it seems we have to get closer.”
“I’ll give you cover.”
“Yes, I would appreciate that.”
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