Part 4: Rest in Peace
IN this dusk-darkened room, a child wrapped in cloth lay in the closet, eyes closed, not even crying.
“A baby…?” Corinne murmured, puzzled.
It was so unnatural that this baby had survived in the closet after everyone else in the village had been killed. I didn’t know how old the child was, but it certainly wasn’t old enough to think for itself or follow instructions from others. The baby should have cried if someone really had separated it from its parents and locked it up in this dark place.
But these thoughts were accompanied by the joy of finding a survivor. It gradually welled up inside me. Rather than wondering why this child had survived without being found, I felt the strong need to protect it, so I crouched down and picked up the baby.
I didn’t have any siblings, so I’d never taken care of a baby before. Still, I picked it up as carefully as possible, so as not to hurt it. The baby was so quiet that I was worried it might be dead. Then I felt the child’s warmth and soft breathing.
When I looked at its face within the cradle of my arms, the baby slowly opened its eyes. They were a familiar dark brown that looked just like a Japanese person’s. Seeing it in the light, I noticed that the baby’s soft hair was also black. I had grown used to the colorful hair and eyes of this world, so the child’s coloring felt a bit nostalgic.
“Is it alive?”
“Please say yes.”
“Is it?”
Albert, Corinne, and Montana all asked the same question while peering into the baby’s face. Despite all the sudden attention, the baby didn’t cry, instead looking back at each of them in turn. The child’s eyes seemed to harbor an impossible sense of reason. I’m imagining things.
“Yes. Yes, the baby’s alive…” I said. “Let’s reconvene with Cody and Dekt. We’ll tell them about this child and how whoever was in this room might have escaped.”
The baby, who had been staring at me, closed its eyes again after hearing my words. We left the room. I walked carefully and without rushing, not wanting to jostle the baby.
By the time we made it back near the foyer, Cody and Dekt had finished searching the other rooms.
“Well, well, what have we here? A baby? A baby survived?”
“Montana found them in a bedroom closet. The bedsheets in the room showed signs of use, but there was no body. It’s possible the individual there realized the village was under attack and fled.”
“I see, I see… This baby wasn’t here when I came to this village before,” Cody said, peering into the child’s face. He would have remembered seeing the baby because of its rare black hair. Perhaps the child belonged to a traveler.
“But the closet? Really? Lucky baby, not to be discovered by the killers. Well, I guess not so lucky, considering.”
When Cody gently poked one of the baby’s cheeks, it opened its eyes. He snatched his fingers back quickly at the sight of the child furrowing its brow, preparing to cry.
“Shh, shh, I’m not bullying you. You’re all right, you’re all right,” he cooed, then his voice got serious. “So an outsider brought this baby here… What if it’s actually the cause of the attack?”
I realized that saying his theory out loud was probably just his way of organizing his thoughts, but it still sounded pretty ominous.
“Let’s try to find this child’s companion. What do you say, Dekt?”
“We’ll do what we can.”
“Appreciate it. Oh, what’s this? There’s embroidery on the hem of these clothes and…the name ‘Yuri,’” Cody said, then addressed me. “Will you take this child with you and join the others waiting for us? We’ll rendezvous with you again in about two hours, whether we find something or not.”
We did as Cody asked and walked out of the house. Outside were the knights who had been searching the rest of the village. Based on their reports, there were no other survivors.
Before Dekt, a few of his knights, and Cody left the village, Albert called out to them. “Cody, are you sure we shouldn’t tag along? I mean, we are your escorts.”
“You noticed, eh? Well done. But don’t worry about me. I want you to get the baby out of here as fast as possible. Even if I don’t know what’s going on, I don’t want to leave a baby in this place full of dead bodies. If something happens to me, I won’t blame you.”
His expression serious, Cody stroked the baby’s head once, then followed the Temple Knights. Despite his love of mischief and playful mean streak, he was actually a kind man. When he was out of sight, Corinne murmured, “He’s so cool.”
“He’s got a wife,” Albert said. “And kids.”
“Shut up, that’s not what I meant, you idiot.”
I felt the tension drain from my shoulders when I heard Albert and Corinne bickering as usual.
“All right, let’s go. I’m counting on you all to keep watch.”
After hearing their cheerful responses, I started walking with them toward the forest where the rest of our entourage was hiding.
✦ ✦ ✦
Part 5: Identity
THE emperor, already over fifty years old, had a young concubine who was pregnant with her first child. He had seen her in the city and forcefully kidnapped her to make her his concubine.
The emperor’s obsession with a woman younger than his own existing children was disturbing to those around him. But no one dared speak out against the long-reigning tyrant. Some sympathized with the woman’s situation, while others despised her because they believed she’d used her youth and beauty to seduce their ruler.
However, when she became pregnant with his child, the situation went beyond mere suspicion. A rumor spread throughout the country that the emperor had told his aides, “If this child is born a boy, I shall make him the next emperor.”
The emperor had originally been a powerful warlord and an authoritarian. His greatest achievement was expanding the empire’s territory to the south. He had the power to do as he pleased.
Even so, this was going too far. And while many of his subjects and nobles hoped that the baby would be a girl, the child was born a boy.
✦ ✦ ✦
THE emperor’s eldest son and first in line for the throne would be turning thirty soon. His mother was his father’s legal wife and official consort. The imperial prince had yet to lose a battle, and continued to expand the nation’s domain further south.
When he was young, out of a desire to broaden his horizons, he enrolled in the Oracle Comprehensive Academy, overriding the current emperor’s objections. He then proceeded to graduate in just three years as an outstanding student. He possessed a decisive personality reminiscent of the former emperor and was knowledgeable about both politics and military affairs. Furthermore, thanks to the connections he built during his student days, he was well known among important figures in various countries.
If he became the emperor, the country would surely flourish even more. Everyone thought as much and looked forward to such a future. Then the rumors started to spread.
The prince, making his triumphant return to the imperial capital for the first time in two years, visited the emperor as soon as he heard the rumors. He wanted to get a feel for the situation without mentioning the matter of succession. But his father seemed strange. Although he was still young, he looked like a senile old man. He kept repeating the same things over and over, and only spoke of things that sounded like dreams.
My father is broken. Convinced that this was the truth, the prince made up his mind and left calmly. He then gathered his trusted subordinates who had fought alongside him on the front lines, told them of the break in his father’s mind, and launched a coup d’état right away.
He had prepared for this eventuality by keeping the soldiers returning from active duty on reserve. His foresight proved successful. After only a few days of resistance, he emerged victorious. A significant factor could be attributed to the emperor losing the favor of vast swaths of his citizenry due to his failing mind.
Although the crown prince sympathized with the concubine, to avoid further chaos, he had her executed alongside his father. All that was left was their child, but for whatever reason, he couldn’t find the boy. When he saw the concubine laughing just before her death, he wondered if she too had gone mad. Then he realized almost immediately that she was happy because her son had escaped safely.
Now that she was dead, he would never know what she’d been planning. Had she loved the son she’d been forced to conceive? Or had she intended to make him the next emperor and wield power through him? Perhaps she truly had lost her mind. Whatever the truth was, there was no way to know it.
Realizing he’d been outwitted, the prince immediately issued orders to his troops. If the woman’s son lived, the boy would pose an obstacle to the crown prince’s rule in the future. He could not allow that.