The Emperor Who Was Chapter 3 : Chapter 3

Chapter . 3

-That's really cool! How do you do it? Teach

too.

As a child, I was captivated by the magic that shot fireworks into the sky and made them burst. So I grabbed the wizard who showed it to

and begged.

-…I am sorry…….

-Why not? Teach

just once.

Because the wizard refused, I was upset and begged even more. I had no family by my side, no friends at all, and even my nanny was busy doing nial tasks, so I was lonely.

-A descendant of Balaska wants to do magic? Can you call yourself my brother after saying that?

But soon Maximilian appeared and scolded .

The brother who always ignored

but appeared like a ghost whenever there was a reason to scold .

-I was wrong. It is not the young Prince’s fault. Please forgive .

The wizard said, shielding

as I shed tears.

However, when Maximilian signaled with his eyes, a knight stepped forward and struck the wizard’s face with a gauntleted hand. Blood splattered and teeth broke.

I scread.

-Since you are my brother, you cannot be beaten, so that man is being beaten instead.

Saying that, Maximilian held

tight and wouldn't let go. I had to watch crying as the knight turned the wizard’s face into pulp.

-You are incredibly ignorant.

It was only natural. I had no teacher and no books. My nanny teaching

letters and counting was everything.

-Are you saying you do not even know how our ancestor, the Great Emperor Balaska, passed away?

Maximilian pointed at the fallen wizard and said.

-He was assassinated by people exactly like that. Those who followed the dragon and stepped forward claiming they would use that evil power to retaliate!

Then he pointed at the fallen wizard and added.

-That man is lucky to be my wizard. If it were in the old days, he would have been imdiately burned at the stake by the judgnt of the Temple of Traneha. Those who repent their sins are taken in by the Imperial Family, but those who do not deserve to be hunted down as wizards.

After that, Maximilian said I was so ignorant that I embarrassed him, and sent a temporary tutor to teach

basic academics.

Only later did I learn what it ant for the Imperial Family to take in wizards. The black hand of the Imperial Family that takes charge of dirty work.

Just as Desmond and Rhiannon’s wizards cursed

in the na of a contract.

To use

as a scapegoat in case Desmond failed to contract with the dragon.

Being cursed was terrible enough, but the traces left on

by that curse ended up being revealed.

-Prince Leontes, possessed by magic, is hereby stripped of his status as a prince and banished from the Imperial Palace and the capital!

Because it looked as if I had dabbled in forbidden magic. As if I had been corrupted by the evil power defined as heresy by the Traneha religion, which killed the Dragon Slayer Emperor.

-I will definitely escape this curse…….

I had resolved while swallowing tears of resentnt.

But at the ti, I was just a powerless wanderer. I didn't know what curse I was under or how to break it. The only ones who knew properly were the wizards.

‘Since I’ve already been falsely accused anyway, what is there to hesitate about? Whether it’s taboo, my brother’s words, or the national law, I have no other path.’

Thus, I tried to beco a wizard and break my curse myself.

I could have earned money and had another wizard do it, but I didn't want a wizard to touch my body ever again.

At that ti, I t a wizard who had lost her husband and was wandering alone like . My master, who saved

when I nearly died after wandering, took

in as a disciple, and protected .

-Thanks to her, I stopped resenting wizards…….

Her mory is one thing, but above all, that greatest magic I saw last was absolutely not evil. Because it gave a new opportunity not only to

but to this country endangered by civil war.

Besides, since I thoroughly learned the theory under my master, the fastest way to beco strong now was the path of becoming a wizard. If so, national law or whatever…….

‘As a forr Emperor, I will reform evil laws.’

When competitors approach with the attitude of becoming an Emperor, let

approach alone with the mindset of a forr Emperor.

If I cannot escape the shrinking mindset that soone like

is not even an Emperor, there is absolutely no hope.

But even though I decided to beco a wizard, I couldn't beco one in the end before regressing. I practiced magic I had mastered in theory countless tis, but never succeeded even once.

-There is no one born with a talent for magic like you, yet you collapse at the final threshold.

My master’s lant still vivid in my ears.

Encouraging and comforting the frustrated disciple, she finally couldn't suppress her regretful heart anymore and poured out her sincerity.

Because I lacked magic power. Even that was completely consud in the contract with the dragon later.

But was the magic power I was born with really insufficient? If so, I wouldn't have been able to contract with the dragon.

I had a hunch.

-Since the Prince has a naturally weak constitution and gets sick often, I brought a special dicine. If you take this dicine, you will beco healthy.

The dicine that court physician handed over while saying that.

-It slls terrible…….

-What do you an? It doesn't sll like anything. That might also be a symptom, so please take it quickly.

The opaque pearlescent poison offered by the Empress’s spy.

I suffered a lot after taking that dicine.

‘Even after recovery, I had no appetite or energy, and my heart would race at the slightest thing.’

Later, knowing that my symptoms were the sa as those of magic power loss, I investigated what dicine I had taken.

Lasilex.

This poison causes no problems for ordinary people who cannot even sll its terrible scent, but it is fatal to those with magic power.

If fed to

and I am fine, one can know there is no magic power, and if I get sick, they can nip that magic power in the bud. The enemy’s calculated move experinting on a teenage boy.

-What kind of dicine is this?

-It is a dicine made from very rare herbs.

Larsil.

The flower that first blood where the blood of the dragon killed by Balaska fell.

Lasilex was a dicine made by decocting that flower.

-It is a dicine secretly handed down in the Armatia Imperial Family in the old days, restored by finding its prescription. Since it is a dicine your ancestors took, it will make Your Highness healthy, so why do you hesitate?

In the early days of Armatia, the Dragon Slayer Emperor’s magic power appeared strongly in the bloodline.

Because of that, those with strong magic power fought over the throne, and the country was on the verge of ruin.

Emperor Theuderic, who killed all his brothers in a particularly severe civil war and ascended the throne, made direct imperial family mbers who reached puberty drink Lasilex thereafter.

Unless their innate magic power was strong enough to overco the toxicity of Lasilex, they would lose it. That was how candidates were whittled down.

However, so of those who did not lose their magic power beca even stronger in magic power.

Since they ascended to the throne, Lasilex was considered the first test of the war for succession.

However, after that, the Lasilex test gradually disappeared. Its manufacturing thod was also lost, making it difficult to even find out the related history.

-The Lasilex test was a sham.

That was the conclusion of my master who investigated the dicine her disciple had taken together with .

-If it is harmless to ordinary people without magic power, and the less magic power one has, the less damage they suffer, it is because there is less material for the poison to react with. Then, the stronger one is, the greater the damage becos.

-What do you an?

-No need to think hard. Even if they managed to survive, aren't there royals like you who suffered chronically or eventually died? On the other hand, those who drank it and beca Emperor are but a few.

Master shook her head.

-Ultimately, it is nothing more than a thod for royals with less magic power to legally poison their competitors. Removing those born with stronger magic power who could overturn the situation early on.

She said that those who claid to have passed the Lasilex test and beco Emperor were likely the result of fabrication.

-As ti passed like that, those with magic power in the Armatia Imperial Family gradually decreased, so the Lasilex test also ca to disappear.

I nodded at the ti but still harbored doubts.

Of course, the magic poisoning I suffered must have happened, but would a disappeared tradition be rely a conspiracy?

‘All those Armatia royals were deceived and fell for it?’

If it was all fabrication, could that test really have lasted so long?

My master was the wisest person I knew, but having been persecuted and beco a widow, it cannot be said she had no negative prejudice against the Imperial Family.

Of course, Master’s inference is sharp and fits most cases. But…….

‘If by any chance taking Lasilex was a test beyond a test given to the Imperial Family…’

A test that eliminates the power of those with weak magic power but elevates the magic power of those with strong magic power. A poison or dicine originating from the being with the strongest magic power.

‘Either overco the dragon and beco a hero, or be defeated by the dragon and be devoured.’

However, how to overco the toxicity of Lasilex, which reacts more strongly the stronger the magic power is.

That would be the secret.

The conclusion reached after much deliberation was this.

‘If one is truly material to beco an Emperor, they would invoke magic even by instinct. Magic is the power to sense and control magic power. If one overcos the toxicity of Lasilex reacting to their magic power like that, and manages to handle even the magic power caused by Lasilex, it is possible to increase magic power. Of course, even if one does not beco as strong in magic power as a dragon, which was an aggregate of magic power, theoretically, one might reach a level beyond human limits.’

The dragon’s contract, no matter how much it is packaged as a sacred miracle handed down to the descendants of the Dragon Slayer Emperor, is ultimately magic. Even if the Emperor is not a wizard, at the mont of contracting with the dragon, he had to perform magic or endure it. I, who have done it myself, know.

I still don't know how I succeeded in that single magic. Since it was sothing all my brothers, who were superior and more competent than , failed at.

My success alone, beating my brothers, might have been luck. But Lasilex was a test where luck didn't apply. Because it is a test that weeds out the hopeless but prepares the hopeful for the contract in advance.

‘Of course, it is rely my theory.’

My master’s hypothesis was more plausible. Because there are far more royals who beca weaker after drinking Lasilex than those who beca stronger.

Since I still had enough magic power left to contract with the dragon later even after losing most of it by drinking Lasilex, my originally innate magic power must not have been small.

Although I failed to increase my magic power because I didn't pass the test.

‘Then can I do magic now, before losing my magic power?’

The magic I always only practiced, always only attempted but failed.

But if I fail again…….

I had failed so many tis that fear arose.

Since the contract was done together with the dragon and other wizards, strictly speaking, it cannot even be said to be magic I succeeded in.

‘A guy who has even died has a lot to fear.’

As soon as I sensed fear, I shook it off and stood up, walking to the mirror hanging on the wall.

“Mirror, mirror, who is the most beautiful person in the world?”

As I attempted the magic I wanted to do most, magic power naturally moved within . Just like that, it flowed out before I could even stop it.

Then soon, a face appeared on the shining mirror surface.

A wrinkled and sun-tanned face. A face that had aged too early, even though she was actually on the young side.

The face I wanted to see most, the face I missed most. My dead nanny’s face.

To , the most beautiful face.

My mother’s face could be seen in many portraits. Since Maximilian hung one in my room too, there were many tis I stayed up all night just looking at my mother’s face.

But my nanny, who raised

since I was a baby, had not a single portrait.

‘She only suffered because of

until she died.’

My nanny who died early doing even nial tasks for maids without receiving any of the treatnt due to a prince’s nanny.

As I grew up, that face beca faint. No matter how hard I tried to rember, struggling while drawing with a child’s clumsy hands. When I beca Emperor and tried to have a court painter do it, it was already after I had forgotten too much.

But now, the longed-for face finally revived before my eyes.

‘She really is pretty, my nanny.’

I brushed that face with my fingertips. It was cold. Unlike her embrace, which was warm when I was held.

So magic spells had to hide their true intentions to avoid wizard hunts.

-Don't philanderers ask the mirror who the most beautiful person is and then stand a noblewoman in front of it to win her favor? It is a magic spell conceived from that very point.

As my master said, the spell to revive the face of a longed-for deceased was hidden in that common expression.

‘If Nanny had been alive and not dead.’

I dread and dread again. Even while not daring to wish for my mother to be alive. Since everyone said my mother’s death was my fault, it felt like I didn't even have the right to wish for that.

‘But what if Nanny was alive as in my dream?’

Although I beca Emperor after being falsely accused and chased out to wander, she would have only seen

being cursed by everyone as a tyrant indulging in luxury.

Only when I create a world where Nanny could be happy even if she were alive, could I dream of Nanny being alive.

The longing face was watching , who was making a new resolution, with a warm smile.

“Your Highness? Ah, you were up.”

It was then.

An insolent person who opened the door abruptly without knocking entered.

Holding a foul-slling dicine.

It was the court physician, my magic poisoner.

As I dispelled the mirror magic imdiately, I thought.

I should bury that man alive in Nanny’s grave. If it’s the guy who hard

whom Nanny loved so much, Nanny would also rejoice in her grave.