“What… what do you mean?”
The princess asked again in a trembling voice.
Of course she did.
Who could easily accept the fact that the mother they believed had died after a long illness had actually tried to kill them?
“What are you talking about, exactly?!”
“…Heavenly God Cult.”
At the unfamiliar word that came from the Emperor’s mouth, her movements halted for a moment.
“Their name is the Heavenly God Cult.”
Though it was a name she had never heard before, something about it felt ominous, and in that brief moment of hesitation, the Emperor continued speaking.
“The one who killed Helena… was a high-ranking member of the Heavenly God Cult.”
***
If the Emperor were asked to name the happiest moment of his life,
He would, without hesitation, choose the birth of his daughter Asteria.
“Waah… waah…”
“Even your frown is adorable! Haha! Who did you take after to be this beautiful already?”
The most precious being in the world, born of the woman he truly loved.
Of course, the Emperor already had an Empress, whom he had married first and even had a child with, but their relationship was purely political. He had never felt any emotion for her that went beyond the formal bond between a man and a woman.
Though the children he had with the Empress were precious to him all the same, just as there is always one finger that hurts more when bitten, Asteria was that especially painful finger to the Emperor.
He wished for his daughter to escape the suffocating, tiresome palace and live a life of freedom.
Because he didn’t want her to wither away in this place full of betrayal and political strife without ever spreading her beautiful wings, the Emperor did not want Asteria to become the next ruler.
He was so sincere in his feelings for his daughter that he even made a secret pact with the Empress. That she doesn’t interfere with Asteria or her mother on the condition that one of the Empress’s children would be chosen as the next Emperor.
Thanks to that agreement to make one of her children the successor, the Empress didn’t interfere much with the concubine, and the Emperor believed he could continue to enjoy a peaceful life.
That is, until one day, when his wife began to act strangely.
It started with something very small.
The concubine’s nerves became more sensitive than before.
At first, he thought it was a temporary symptom of depression.
Since it was common for new mothers to experience emotional instability, he responded with more affection, gave her flowers, and tried various ways to comfort her.
But her condition only worsened.
Her symptoms manifested as extreme jealousy. Especially toward the daughter she had given birth to, which led to bizarre behavior filled with envy and resentment.
One moment she would be lovingly holding the child as if nothing could be more precious, but the next, after seeing her husband showing affection toward the baby, her attitude would turn cold, or she would suddenly withdraw her attention altogether.
This led to several arguments between her and the Emperor. Though she vowed not to repeat it, her condition only grew more severe.
Her increasingly erratic behavior began to resemble that of someone with a split personality and ultimately escalated toward an extreme act.
” …If… only… you weren’t…!”
“Helena? What’s going on?”
Taking advantage of a brief break in his duties, the Emperor stopped by the child’s quarters to spend some time with his daughter. Hearing sounds from inside, he assumed the Empress was taking care of the child and opened the door.
But what he saw was the Empress with a grotesque expression as she strangled the child she had given birth to.
“What is this—! Helena, stop!!”
The Emperor urgently pulled her away from Asteria, and fortunately, though the child was gasping for breath, her life didn’t appear to be in danger.
“I… What have I… done?!”
Whether it was the shock snapping her back to her senses or something else, she looked down at her trembling hands, her eyes darting in wild confusion, as if she remembered what she had just done.
“Darling! Are you all right?!”
“I-I’m fine— No! No, I’m not!!”
As the Emperor tried desperately to check her condition, Helena clutched her head and began muttering to herself, as if talking to someone only she could hear.
“Someone… Someone is speaking to me!! Jealous of Asteria… Telling me to get rid of my own child…! Damn her! That man is mine!! His love belongs only to me—aaaah!!”
“Helena!!”
Clearly not in her right mind, she looked at her beloved husband and precious daughter through blurred, dazed eyes.
“Leon… If this continues, I’m going to end up killing my daughter… Someone… is controlling my emotions… making me jealous of Ria and pushing me to kill her with my own hands!!”
“Helena, what are you saying?!”
“Then… in that case—!”
Thud!
Fruit and a fruit knife that had been left on the table to enjoy later.
In one swift motion, the Empress rolled her body and grabbed the knife—
Thud!
“No!!”
The Emperor hastily set Asteria down and rushed to her, but it was too late. She had already stabbed her heart deeply, and blood gushed out.
“There’s a way… We can find a way!! If we wait just a little longer, we can cure this illness—”
“No, Leon… this isn’t some curse…”
In her fading consciousness, the Empress revealed the identity of the force tormenting her to the Emperor.
“It’s not a disease or a curse… It’s something much more fundamental… something controlling me from within. To protect Ria… this is the only way…”
“Don’t speak! Please! You can survive—!!”
“Please… take care of Ria…”
And with that, the Empress drew her final breath.
Before the Emperor could even come to terms with such a senseless end, the sound of someone laughing echoed in his ears.
“Heeheehee…”
“Who… are you?”
At his call, a man sprang out from the Empress’s shadow.
He was so short one could believe he had only just entered middle school, and he had sinister dark circles that shadowed his eyes. The man giggled gleefully, as though finding the entire situation endlessly amusing.
“I’m Zelos! An executive of the Heavenly God Church! Nice to meet you!”
“You… you did this, didn’t you?”
“Mhmm!!”
Zelos responded with such a bright, innocent grin that the Emperor was left utterly dumbfounded.
“I amplified this lady’s jealousy! Ah, and let me tell you. Finding that jealousy emotion wasn’t easy! What kind of person lives without even a hint of jealousy…? Hmph. Personally, if she’d ended up killing her own kid, it would’ve been so entertaining… but well, this isn’t bad either!”
Emotion, jealousy, amplification.
Everything Helena had suffered…. all her symptoms and actions had been the result of this man’s ability.
“Why… would you do something like this?”
“Hmm… well, you see… I hate happy people the most…”
“What…?”
“I just happened to pass by and saw this woman looking so happy~ But I’m miserable… and when someone makes that kind of face in front of me… of course I want to kill them, right?”
“……”
A madman.
Communication was impossible, understanding was rejected, and reason was denied.
A madman.
“All because of… something like that?!”
“Hey, hey~ Is this the most precious thing to you?”
“?!”
Before anyone realized it, Zelos had approached the crying Asteria and was lightly tapping the child’s cheek.
“Take your hand off her—!”
“Oooh~ I really hope this is super precious to you~ That way, when I destroy it, your despair will be… absolutely delicious~!”
“!!!”
He was insane.
This man was completely mad.
And yet, that power….his ability to control human emotions—
The power that had driven a person’s life to ruin could never be ignored.
If he said right now that Ria was his beloved daughter, then just like Helena, would Ria also… die?
That man, for the sake of his own amusement, might very well cause Ria’s death with his own hands.
The horrifying realization that this madman who toyed with people’s emotions and forced them to kill each other for his own pleasure might kill Ria filled the Emperor with a tremendous sense of dread.
“…She’s not.”
“What?”
“She’s… not something precious. She’s the filthy thing that killed her own mother.”
Blood flowed.
His tightly clenched fists had nails digging into the skin, drawing blood, and his eyes, unable to contain the fury, had burst blood vessels. Tears of blood streamed down his face.
The grief of a father who had to deny and be disgusted by his own daughter.
That sorrow and bitterness could not be held within his aching chest and flowed out as blood.
“Hmmm~ I see.”
Zelos, who had been sneering at the Emperor, began to disappear back into the shadows just as he had arrived.
“I’ll have to keep watching this one a little longer. To see whether or not she’s really precious to you~”
Perhaps the man had cast a barrier. Because only then did someone finally come, drawn by Asteria’s crying, and they were horrified by the situation.
But the Emperor couldn’t even bring himself to hold her in his arms.
***
“…So?”
The Emperor had finished his explanation, but the Princess showed no sign of softening her gaze.
“So what, you’re saying I should endure it and try to understand, because it was all to protect me from that monster?”
“…That’s not it.”
Despite the Princess’s sharp, biting glare, the Emperor continued speaking in a calm tone.
“I knew you would resent me. Since everything happened because of my decisions, it’s only right that I bear the consequences.”
Shff—
The Emperor of the Empire bowed his head.
The man who had never once yielded to anyone in his life now lowered his head powerlessly before the daughter he had turned away from all his life.
“It’s just that… I wanted to say it.”
“……”
“I’m sorry…”
Thud!
Before the Emperor could even finish speaking, she stood up abruptly and the chair made a loud noise.
Her lips trembled, tears brimming in her eyes, but perhaps she couldn’t bring herself to say the words she wanted.
“Go to hell!”
With just that one line, she stormed out of the office in angry strides.
As I hesitated, unsure whether to follow after her sudden outburst, the Emperor who had been silently staring at the seat she had just vacated, spoke to me.
“Thank you. For saving Ria. For keeping her from falling into the hands of those heretics. Thank you.”
“N-No, not at all.”
“There’s a reason I invited you into this room. This place… was the only space where I could ever face Ria.”
Now that I thought about it…
I had always felt a strange sense of discomfort in this secret room, and only now could I finally understand why.
For a secret place created by the Emperor, it felt oddly rustic, almost quaint, and the room was filled with things like flower crowns, floral rings, and clumsy drawings. It was filled with items a child might have made.
There wasn’t a single jewel to be found. The entire space was packed with old papers and random trinkets.
“These… are these Her Highness’s belongings?”
“That’s right. I secretly gathered them here. These are things Ria tried to give me or things I kept to remember her growing up.”
The Emperor pulled a thick book from a small shelf and opened it in front of me.
Inside, the pages were filled with drawings. Scribbles made with crayons, messy and hard to identify, clearly drawn by a child.
“This one…Asteria drew this of me and her mother. Even back then, she showed talent in art.”
This?
So those were supposed to be people? I thought it was a squid rice bowl and seafood jjamppong.
After that, the Emperor kept softly smiling as he introduced me to various things his daughter had made for him.
Maybe it was because I had only ever seen his face cold and rigid, but I wasn’t used to the genuine happiness in his smile.
“Why are you telling me all this now?”
“…I had a feeling that everything that’s happened recently was orchestrated by them.”
Although they had only recently revealed themselves, the Emperor who had already had a past encounter with a member had reportedly been investigating matters related to them in absolute secrecy for a very long time.
They were such a thoroughly hidden group that there hadn’t been many breakthroughs, but it was said that all of them received special powers granted by an entity referred to as “Him”.
Each of those powers, it was said, was strange and evil enough to bring ruin to the entire continent. The emotion-manipulating ability of Zelos, who had once driven the Empress to her death, was also believed to have been granted by Him.
“And you are the hero who defeated members of their kind. Without a doubt, future conflict with the Heavenly God Church will be inevitable. But I saw hope in you.”
With those words, the Emperor knelt before me.
“Y-Your Majesty!?”
“I don’t care what you want. Please… please, kill Zelos, the one who killed Helena…”
The Emperor, who had been forced to turn away from his beloved daughter for over a decade out of fear of some unknown and unknowable terror—
As a father,
And having cast aside even his title as Emperor to kneel before me, he looked so pitiful it was almost heartbreaking.
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