Children of the Holy Emperor

Prince Leonard of Rohan was carousing the taverns of the capital again tonight.

His normally handsome face was particularly gloomy today. Drinking and playing around wasn’t just a one or two-day affair; when on earth would he have to kill time so pointlessly?

He briskly pushed away the woman who followed him out of the tavern, and with a leisurely shake of his liquor bottle, Leonard headed to the meeting place with Romaine.

“F*ck you, Holy Emperor….”

The person who provided the reason for his idle time. The Holy Emperor made it so expensive to meet face-to-face that even with Leonard’s desperate requests, he hardly agreed to it.

What the hell is the problem?

He had suggested meeting with the Princess of Delcross as an alternative plan, but Romaine ignored it and kept his mind on something absurd.

So, he’s wandering the streets like a drunkard, tempting others.

“…Romaine?”

In the dimly lit street, Leonard spotted the familiar long silver hair of a person who was pulling a staggering drunkard. 

What on earth is he doing?

The drunkard looked rather disheveled, not a good sight. With his arm firmly wrapped around the man, Romaine was whispering something into his ear.

Soon, the two disappeared side by side into a deep alley.

Standing dumbfounded for a moment, Leonard took a sip of liquor and followed them into the alley.

He found the two after only a few steps. The drunkard was sitting on the ground with a vacant expression, and Romaine was piercing his chest with a sharp metal rod.

A small trickle of blood spurted out.

Soon, Romaine’s soft voice, whispering to the drunkard, reached Leonard’s ears.

“Now, forget everything that just happened. Sleep well at home for a few days, and everything will be better.”

It was a husky and slender but definite male voice. Yet the strange resonance made it sound like a young woman.

Sure enough, the drunkard with glazed eyes looked at Romaine as if he were the most beautiful woman in the world, even as his forehead was soaked with blood.

“Now go home.”

The drunkard nodded and staggered past Leonard and out of the alley.

After watching the poor man’s retreating figure for a moment, Leonard turned and asked Romaine,

“You’ve been doing this a lot lately. Does it mean anything?”

“All results start with diligently sowing seeds.”

Romaine replied, wiping the blood-soaked rod with a rag.

He had been planting strange things in people’s chests with that rod for some time now, like a real farmer sowing seeds.

“You talk like you’ve become a priest of the real [Sowing] Cult.”

It was a jab at Romaine acting like the remnants of the Sowing Cult. Romaine shrugged.

“At least I sow something more meaningful than they do.”

“When are you going to see the results from planting one by one?”

“I’ve already found some collaborators. They’ll do their best.”

A few more people going around stabbing others with metal rods doesn’t change much. Leonard scoffed.

“So, is it over? It might be faster to summon a demon instead.”

When Leonard spoke jokingly, Romaine looked straight at him. Although his face was hidden behind a half-mask, his tightly closed lips looked very serious.

“Don’t you know? As long as the current Holy Emperor is there, moving a demon race in Delcross’s capital is impossible. Those with magic cannot endure even for a moment. Delcross is the place where demons cannot step in unless they borrow a human body or directly contract with a human.”

“Yeah, you said that.”

Leonard grasped the bottle of liquor, a fake smile on his face.

He had heard the same story from Romaine several times.

About a monstrous character who suddenly appeared in Delcross, the capital that was once nearly occupied by the demon race. In a flash, he wiped out the demons and claimed the 17th royal throne for himself.

After coming to power, he discreetly dried up the seeds of four factions known as the Dark Church, successfully uniting them.

The result was considered relatively good in cases where remnants of sects like the [Sowing] Church or [Repentance] Church remained hidden in the corners of the continent. The Church of [Rest], on the other hand, was said to have been completely annihilated, leaving not even a corpse or bone fragment behind.

What could they possibly do against such a terrifying being?

From time to time, Leonard was overcome with a sense of hopelessness, wondering if they were hitting a sheer cliff with eggs.

“But the current guardian of Delcross is still human after all,” Romaine said, looking up at the distant sky. “It’s curious how he’s maintaining his balance up to now, but it’s undoubtedly a precarious tightrope walk.”

Leonard could not fully understand his words. Romaine always avoided going into details about that balance.

Yet, whenever the story came up, Romaine’s voice was filled with conviction.

“Such balance tends to collapse from a very small crack.”

Leonard turned his head, following Romaine’s gaze.

Off in the distance, in the direction where the royal palace of Delcross lay – where the Holy Emperor undoubtedly was.

“The limit will come someday. It must.”

* * *

That night.

Because he couldn’t concentrate, Seongjin ended his meditation earlier than usual and walked out to the balcony instead of lying down. He flung open the window, feeling frustrated as the words he’d heard from the Holy Emperor during the day continued to surface in his mind.

‘…To live as a child, doing what you want?’

It seemed absurd the more he thought about it.

Morres was a full 15 years old. In this world, it’s an age where you can join a knight order or take adult responsibilities like the debutante’s ball.

Some of the resident knights of the Pearl Palace at his age would flock to bars or linger around the red-light district. What’s with this man treating him like a child still?

‘Besides, I’m already doing what I want, right? I’m comfortably eating and sleeping while freely training….’

Hearing Seongjin grumbling to himself as he breathed in the cool night air, the Demon King quietly spoke.

[What’s on your mind? You’re not acting like yourself.]

‘What do you mean, not like myself?’

He was a contemplative person, as far as he knew.

However, the Demon King’s next words were an undeniable truth.

[Whenever something bothers you, you put everything aside and just train.]

‘…Did I?’

It seemed like that was the case. Recently, focusing solely on training, he had pushed aside many unresolved issues that surrounded Morres.

Queen Lizabeth, who was hiding something from him.

The mysterious organizations that Morres allegedly sponsored.

And Jonathan McAlpin, whom he met to gather information only to get caught in a demon accident and end up incarcerated in the tribunal.

‘I could dig into it if I wanted to, but…’

What use would that be?

After all, Seongjin was not Morres.

He had realized something when he experienced a near-death situation recently. He was merely possessing Morres’ body haphazardly, not truly living as Morres.

The emperor had said so. The soul maintains its appearance in life because it continues to be influenced by the physical body until death.

But even when he was swept away by an aura storm to Gehenna, or when the Demon King’s summon pulled him to the edge of the Void, Seongjin’s soul remained unaltered, just as it was during his Hunter days.

‘In the end, this body doesn’t interact with my soul even a little.’

He was breathing and moving in Morres’ body, but it was an unstable attachment where the body and soul were not in harmony. A precarious state where a slight trigger could send him flying far away, possibly never to return.

Can this really be called a living state?

Because swordsmanship training is quite fun at the moment.

So, with a carefree attitude, I lived by practicing as much as I wanted, and when the crisis of a dimensional invasion approached, I thought about lending a hand.

The Holy Emperor must have seen through that.

– You have so many blood relatives around you.

– Even if it’s not Delcross, there are many places worth looking at with interest.

As Seongjin pondered over time, he seemed to understand what the man wanted to say.

The Holy Emperor wanted him, Lee Seongjin, to live a proper life as Morres, bonding with his siblings and becoming attached to this world.

‘…Yeah, when I think about it, the biggest unresolved problem is the Holy Emperor.’

What the hell does he want to do, that guy?

A man who knew Seongjin’s current situation better than anyone else. A man who could come and go across the vast boundaries of dimensions to find a single soul.

Why doesn’t he think about finding his real son, but takes care of pitiful Seongjin as if he were his child?

“Hmm…”

After a moment of contemplation, Seongjin soon shook his head and slammed the window shut.

One way or another, the answer is one. Thinking about it alone won’t solve the problem now.

It’s annoying to waste energy on unnecessary things.

‘I can’t sleep, so maybe I’ll meditate one more time.’

[…So that’s how it is. I thought you were unusually worried for a long time. Don’t you ever grow?]

Ignoring the Demon King’s dejected voice, Seongjin spent enough time meditating until he fell asleep.

So life seemed to go on without any changes.

However, that day, the conversation with the Holy Emperor certainly left an impact on Seongjin. When he meditated or wielded the Nutcracked, the man’s words continued to slip into his mind whenever he seemed relaxed.

After receiving a call from Madame Justine about the fitting of a previously ordered dress, Seongjin’s decision to visit Salon de Merci was also for that reason.

“Wow, I don’t know how many days it’s been since I left the Pearl Palace!”

As Seongjin climbed onto the carriage, knight Dame Claudia exclaimed in excitement. Shehad obviously been stuck in the Pearl Palace too long lately.

Accompanying Seongjin on his outing that day were also senior knight Dame Maria and junior knight Dame Claudia.

Unfortunately, Haven, who would have been most delighted to go out, was off duty that day.

“He took a few days off. He will probably spend the entire vacation in the liquor bottle. Even though the liquor isn’t that strong, he really goes all out drinking it.”

Although Dame Maria spoke disdainfully, everyone knew that she was the biggest drinker among the resident knights.

“Will that not cost a fortune? Aura users don’t get drunk easily, do they?”

Could the aura circulating actively inside the body accelerate the decomposition of alcohol? Aura users seemed to sober up very quickly.

Most of the resident knights in the Pearl Palace were rumored to have come on assignment to earn liquor money.

In response to Seongjin’s question, Maria shrugged.

“That’s his funny point. He loves liquor so much, but since he can’t afford it, he cuts off his aura and drinks. Thanks to that, he has been picked on by local bullies who didn’t recognize him as an aura user countless times.”

“That much?”

“Yes. The fact that his talent is mediocre but he is a master at using aura is because he practiced while drinking.”

That’s surprisingly a hidden benefit of drinking.

Destete Street, which he visited after a long time, was busier than before.

The Emperor’s birthday celebration was approaching, and it was time for all the officials of the Empire to flock to Destete Street, where all the dressmakers were gathered. During the festival period, large and small banquets were held without a break, so it would not be enough to just tailor one or two new party dresses.

[Humph! Humans indeed love to waste energy on unnecessary things. What’s all this fuss over such a trivial event?]

‘…’

Although the demon king feigned indifference, Seongjin felt differently. The excitement was palpably transmitted.

Thinking about it, this is the first time the demon king has come to a busy street, isn’t it? He might have really lived an unwanted secluded life. It feels a bit sad.

[…What? I suddenly feel really bad for some reason.]

What a quick-witted guy.

As the carriage wove through the crowds, stopping and starting, they finally arrived at Salon de Merci. The employees who had been waiting in advance lined up to greet Seongjin.

“Glorious light upon the noble Imperial family! We greet His Brilliant Highness, Prince Mores!”

Truly a splendid feast of pink.

Among them, Madame Justine1, wearing an unrivaled shade of pink fur, was fluttering his fan and making a fuss.

“Oh my, Your Highness! Kyaa! You’ve become even more dazzling since the last time I saw you!”

It seems like he’s as boisterous as ever. If Masain had been here, he would’ve thrown a tantrum on the spot2.

Both Dame Maria and Dame Claudia, who were seeing the man for the first time, widened in astonishment.

Well, for the most renowned designer in the capital, he indeed had a rather unconventional character.

What was surprising was the significant curiosity the Demon King showed towards him.

[Hmm. A very, very peculiar individual.]

‘People can be a bit noisy.’

[No, it’s not the appearance that’s the issue. Truly a fascinating human. Where on earth did this character spring from?]

‘…?’

While saying this, in the meantime, Madame Justine, with intimidating muscles that surprisingly looked delicate, walked over with light steps, circled Seongjin, inspecting him, and then pulled up his red-stained lips.

“Oh my! Your body size has changed quite a bit since I last saw you! You’ve become slimmer and more firm! You seem to have grown a bit taller too. Goodness gracious! What would have happened if we had gone straight to Gabon? Now, now, shall we go to the special room?”

A foreboding feeling came over Seongjin.

“Could it be…?”

Madame Justine’s eyes turned into mischievous crescents as he caught Seongjin’s uneasy expression.

“Yes. As you guessed, we will inevitably have to measure your size from scratch again! Ohohohohoho!”

Damn it all.