You are at the End of the Downfall

The Emperor is dissatisfied with everything these days. The Crown Prince he appointed is inadequate because his mother isn’t the Empress, and the Empress herself remains unconscious.

“Perhaps the magical artifacts had some influence… No, nevermind.”

The doctor who was about to speak quickly closed his mouth upon seeing the Emperor’s glare. The Empress had collapsed in a room full of magical artifacts.

Usually, she couldn’t move an inch within the palace. The Emperor strictly limited the Empress’s movements. It was the typical behavior of a distrustful husband who couldn’t trust his betraying spouse.

So how did she even think of going to the room with magical artifacts? Everyone who attended to the Empress was thoroughly interrogated, but no one could answer.

According to their testimonies, the Empress suddenly vanished with a “poof” and unexpectedly appeared with another “poof” in the sealed room with magical artifacts, where she collapsed.

“She must have wanted to see her son. That’s a mother’s heart, longing to see her child. She must have been so worried about the son kept far away.”

So she probably went to the room with magical artifacts to look into the mirror and find her son. It must have been like that.

The Empress had always been agile and light on her feet since she was young, so she could have gone there without anyone noticing.

Even now, looking at her sleeping face, it was hard to believe she was forty-nine. The Empress had barely aged since giving birth to Peon.

The Emperor looked down at his own hands, which were starting to wrinkle. Only the Emperor was aging. Seeing this as some kind of sign, he became furious. Indeed, nothing pleased him.

If there was one thing that pleased him amidst all this, it was the gold nugget sent by the Grand Duke of Lusenford. The Emperor had never seen such a large piece of pure gold before.

“She must have wanted to see our good son who’s doing so well.”

Yes, that’s probably why she went to the room with magical artifacts. The Emperor muttered to himself several times as if trying to convince himself, then left the Empress’s bedside. He was starting to feel pain in various places.

His back hurt, or his shoulders ached. While the Empress remained young, the Emperor alone was aging. Time cannot be held back, but knowing the reason for this made the Emperor extremely upset.

Everything was displeasing. The empire had stabilized after he killed off all the useless men vying for the throne. There had been no incidents until now.

That evil dragon Gusalante is bound by a promise it made a thousand years ago and cannot use its power against the empire. The Emperor reminded himself of this fact several times a day. The evil dragon cannot use any magic, he thought.

The heavy door opened silently, and the Emperor took a step into the sealed room where no one else was allowed to enter freely. He seemed to smell a pungent smoke from somewhere.

“Open the door a bit. There’s a smell.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

The attendants and knights who were about to close the door bowed their heads. They couldn’t smell anything, but they simply obeyed as the Emperor commanded.

Should I ventilate it more? The Emperor frowned as he looked around at the magical artifacts. Drawers, mirrors, swords, magical artifacts of various shapes were all blackened as if burned.

This place had never caught fire, but when the Empress was found collapsed here, everything was already in this state.

There was no sign that the Empress had started a fire. The floor, walls, and ceiling were perfectly fine, even clean. Only the magical artifacts were burned, which was truly strange.

Moreover, the problem was that the functions of these burned artifacts were not as good as before. The Emperor glared at the mirrors, which were barely visible due to the soot. All the mirrors were focused on Lusenford, but almost nothing could be seen.

It was maddening, but at least the Grand Duke had discovered a gold mine on his own and sent a huge gold nugget.

After confirming several times that this was the largest nugget from the mine and the largest gold nugget among all the treasures the Emperor possessed, he felt somewhat relieved.

“…About Lusenford.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

There weren’t many in the Emperor’s inner circle who could follow him to this secret place. They were people ready to answer and carry out the Emperor’s words and orders immediately, anytime, anywhere.

“What happened to those who spoke insolently to the Grand Duchess?”

“The main culprits were executed by the Grand Duke, and the head maid was mercifully exiled by the Grand Duchess.”

“Right. But what about the rest of them?”

How dare they nearly kill the Grand Duchess, disregarding the Emperor who arranged the marriage. The Emperor thought he should sweep away and kill all of them.

“Most of them died in recent battles with foreign tribes, I’m told.”

“They still need to be punished. Disregarding rank and hierarchy is a crime that shakes the foundation of the empire.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

You’re right, Your Majesty. Your words are just. Your judgment is wise.

Those meaninglessly echoing words somewhat alleviated the Emperor’s unpleasant mood. They were truly pleasing words to hear every time.

“Since the Grand Duke is doing well enough, tell him to thoroughly punish the remaining offenders himself.”

There would be distrust and antipathy towards the Grand Duke in Lusenford for punishing local nobles by imperial order. The Emperor had calculated this as well.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

But shouldn’t they be grateful that the Emperor gave them the right to punish? The Emperor looked at Lusenford, barely visible through the sooted mirrors. He could hardly see anything.

What he could see, strangely, was not Lusenford but his own gradually changing face.

He had aged. Yes, he had aged. Wrinkles were visible, and his once sharp facial features were beginning to crumble. His face, maintained with the help of all kinds of magical artifacts, magic, and medicine, was gradually aging.

Even the Emperor couldn’t escape time, but the Empress had. If he died of old age like this, he might not be able to hold onto the Empress.

“Where are the magicians? Tell them to come and fix these magical artifacts at once!”

Many magicians and sorcerers had already been brought in to fix the artifacts, but proper magicians were rare, and most were incompetent sorcerers who gave up without being able to repair them.

No matter how much they cleaned, the soot remained. Among them, one mad sorcerer trembled and muttered an old thousand-year prophecy:

–When the heart of the Golden City burns, the dragon will descend upon Crania.

Nonsense. The Emperor laughed as he beheaded the sorcerer who dared to speak of the Golden City, Crania burning, calling it nonsense.

Dragon? Dragons can’t even set foot in Crania. Even the dragon cherishes its own son and wouldn’t dare step on Lusenford, so how dare it! It can only struggle with a son it can’t even communicate with, so how dare it!

As the Emperor fumed, the latter part of the prophecy, whose origin was unclear, clung to him:

–When the dragon descends upon Crania, the sun will fall.

The Emperor, who called himself the sun of the empire, once again shouted that it was nonsense. The dragon’s promise not to use magic against the empire is far stronger than that prophecy.

Moreover, besides these two sentences, the prophecy was filled with various trivial details, making it nothing more than an unreliable oral legend. They were all just quacks.

“Who on earth can I trust to rule this country!”

The sealed room briefly echoed with his shout, but no one answered. Even that shout wasn’t particularly loud and quickly faded away.

****

He tried not to run away. If one has committed a crime, one should face it squarely.

Just as Peon dealt with criminals, he tried to deal with himself in the same way. He didn’t even want pity. Kaela’s pity was too precious to be wasted on someone like Peon.

But facing punishment was only possible when there was a will to punish. Faced with a thin woman asking to be killed, Peon couldn’t maintain his sanity. All the justice he believed in was destroyed, and common sense crumbled.

Just as he had sworn never to be hurt like this again, he subconsciously believed that Kaela would have the same determination. He never imagined Kaela smiling and asking to be killed, having lost all will and desire.

“You said you’d grant me a wish before we marry, didn’t you?”

His head spun. His knees wobbled. Amidst labored breathing and ringing ears, Kaela’s clear words came through distinctly as she smiled brightly.

“I was going to ask you to kill me painlessly back then too.”

Painlessly. Someone who said they could die well was asking to be killed without pain. He had heard that starving to death was slow and agonizing.

“I, I can fix everything. I can do it. I can make sure nothing like that ever happens again.”

Then you can live, can’t you? You can just live, can’t you?

“I’m completely useless, aren’t I?”

He apologized for making her hear such things. He prostrated himself, but Kaela tilted her head, confused as to why he was acting this way when she was just stating facts, not trying to hurt him intentionally.

“You must live, Your Highness. This time, I can do it painlessly. I can also never see you again for life, forever, so you must live.”

Kaela averted her gaze from Peon, who desperately listed all the reasons to live, asking if she couldn’t live then.

“What should I do? What would make you want to live? I can give you anything you want.”

There was no answer to his frantic questions. Peon realized there was nothing he could do for a wife who wanted nothing but death. He couldn’t kill Kaela. He couldn’t kill her again.

“Your Highness?”

Peon inhaled sharply and stepped back. He groped at the air, at the darkness. This is hell. Kaela’s puzzled voice grew distant. No, it had already faded into the distance before he realized.

-Peon.

Why did you do it? Why did you extort even the will to live from a young Grand Duchess who was just trying her best? Even if you were bewitched by all sorts of spells, you shouldn’t have done that.

Even if Kaela was selling out Lusenford, you should have doubted once and looked back. You should have.

Even after the regression, Kaela was never happy and always wanted to die. Ah, yes. That’s how it was. She must have wanted to die every moment she spent with him. How did she endure him, it must have been horrible. He touched her with these filthy hands. He dared to desire her.

-Peon!

At the majestic voice striking his brain, Peon gasped for air. The cold air slapped his face. Suddenly coming to his senses, he looked around anew. It was a large cave untouched by human hands.

It looked like the cave he had discovered while roaming Lusenford as a child, but he couldn’t remember how he got here or why he suddenly came to his senses here. His clothes were covered in dirt. Where was Kaela?

Ah, I left her safely in the castle.

-Pull yourself together!

The voice calling him was full of sorrow and sadness, not scolding or lecturing.

“…Father.”

His voice cracked. It sounded unfamiliar, as if it belonged to someone else.

-Yes, Peon. It’s me. Are you coming to your senses?

The dragon, his heart melting for his mentally unstable son, called out to him desperately.

-Don’t stay there, come here if you have nowhere to go. Come to me. Everything will be alright. Whatever happened, I…

“Father.”

Peon stared blankly into the air.

“How did you recognize me, Father?”

Born in the imperial palace, Peon was raised there until he came to Lusenford at the age of twelve. The small boy who came to Lusenford, barely holding out against the evil dragon Gusalante, bravely faced the dragon.

Not knowing it was his father, he only nurtured hostility. He lived swearing to kill his father someday. He always charged forward earnestly, not knowing that his father immediately withdrew the monsters and spirits whenever he saw his son.

I lived a truly wretched life.

I knew it from the beginning.

“When I came here…?”

Did you immediately recognize me as your son at first sight?

-From the moment you were conceived.

Gusalante knew well that he should be grateful just for the fact that he could barely converse with his son, who was wandering alone outside of Lusenford in a state of mental distress.

He needed to somehow continue the conversation to bring his son back to his senses and then send him back, or rather take him to his own domain.

“Yes…, mother said the same thing.”

-Peon, your father knows you. He never abandoned you. He’s been waiting for you since before you were born.

The emperor had prevented the empress from speaking properly, so she mostly kept her mouth shut. But very secretly, in hushed whispers, she rarely spoke.

You have a father. You have a father who loves you. It sounded so much like the ramblings of a crazy woman that Peon just listened silently, not believing it.

“Dragons recognize their offspring from the moment they’re conceived, I see.”

That’s right.

“But I didn’t know.”

While the baby was in that small body, I, who was responsible, confined that fragile and innocent woman and comfortably knew nothing.

“Why didn’t I know?”

Until that prim and proper lady with great pride came to belittle and beat herself up without a second thought, what exactly had he been doing? While a pregnant woman carrying a child was starving to death, what on earth was he doing?

-It’s not your fault.

A small laugh escaped. The first words are ‘it’s not your fault.’ Father knew too. Being a dragon, of course he would have sensed an unawakened dragon creating another dragon.

He must have seen it all – his son, who couldn’t even communicate properly, creating his own child without even awakening and then killing it. I’ve shown my father quite a spectacle. I’ve thoroughly been an unfilial son and a monster.

“But I did it.”

Does a child come into being on its own? The child he created by touching the emperor’s niece whom he so dreaded, does it come into being on its own? Peon looked down at himself, who had once again desired the woman who had been corroded, worn out, and broken by wounds, without coming to his senses.

The horror was right here.

“I did it.”

The dragon’s voice trying to dissuade him was no longer heard. The one who had become closer to being a dragon’s son from a human’s son had cut off his existence from his father.

Desire, the desire for Kaela, is still stiffly rising even now. He was completely insane and beyond help. That’s why that fragile young lady begs to be killed.

What on earth did he do to that small body? It must have hurt. It must have been horrible. She must have found it disgusting and wanted to scream. It’s repulsive. It was too repulsive.

Peon cut off his desire with no expression. This shouldn’t exist. It needs to be eliminated so Kaela will be less afraid. Blood splattered on the eerie face.

That face calmly tilted its head. Strange. It grows back even after cutting it off. Why does it grow back? This is strange. This isn’t normal. Kaela is afraid.

Then I should remove it until it disappears. That way Kaela won’t be afraid. If she’s not afraid, she’ll be able to live. Right?

He kept castrating the ever-growing desire, again and again.