Three days later, in the Lemurian Empire’s throne room, a half-crazed scream echoed.
“What is this I hear about Nidhogg, Blight of the Heavens, being the dragon that breached the inner zone?!”
An older man—Zilsonia von Lemuria, the emperor—pulled his hair in distress.
“What manner of jest is this, Prime Minister?!” the emperor demanded angrily. “Did you lie in your report?! Explain yourself!”
The prime minister bowed his head deeply before speaking. “I-I would never jest about so serious a matter, Your Majesty! My men told me it was just an ordinary dragon, I swear!”
What had enraged the emperor was that the dragon meant to eliminate Crow had turned out to be one of the feared Seven Calamities, who were supposed to be safely sealed away.
This fact hadn’t been discovered until after the incident, when the residents of the settlement the dragon had descended upon had come to plead for its restoration and to report the incident.
“We were attacked by a dragon hundreds of meters long, but Sir Crow defeated it,” they’d said.
No dragon but Nidhogg fit that description.
Thus, the emperor had gone to the place where the beast had been sealed. There, he had eventually confirmed that the seal once placed on the fearsome dragon had indeed been broken by unnatural means.
“Such a massive monster is not something to be used in a scheme! It’s a threat that must be brought down at any cost, even if it takes all of our nation’s power!”
Zilsonia trembled at the thought of what could have happened if anything had gone awry. This was not out of concern for the people, however.
“Prime Minister! What if I had been attacked?!”
The emperor didn’t give a rat’s ass about his people. No, all he cared about was his own life. His body, his noble blood, had to be protected at all costs, even if that meant using every last knight to achieve it.
One could have said this was only natural for royalty. However, Zilsonia’s words were the ravings of a mind gone mad.
“If I am lost, the nation is lost! Harm done to me is harm done to the nation! Do you understand this?!”
In an act utterly unbefitting for an emperor, he raised his royal scepter and struck Superbius with it.
“Y-Your Majesty?!” the prime minister exclaimed with a pained groan. “What is—?”
“Silence! Shut up! Those who would threaten me deserve death! Die! Die!” the emperor ranted, striking him over and over.
The dull sounds of the blows and the prime minister’s cries echoed together across the throne room.
“I-I have done no wrong!” Superbius pleaded. “It was all my subordinate! He lied in the report!”
“And with that subordinate gone missing, you, as his superior, must take responsibility! You’ve endangered your emperor’s life! The punishment is death!”
“My emperor, please!”
The ruler raised his scepter high. And just as its tip was about to strike the prime minister’s head—
“Stop this, Zil!” a girl’s voice echoed, freezing him in his tracks.
“Oh... You...!” the emperor stammered, panting heavily.
A girl walked in through the doors to the throne room and approached the enraged ruler. She didn’t even seem to be a teenager yet, despite her dignified behavior. She had flowing white hair and wore an elegant snow-white dress.
“Superbius is not the only one who bears responsibility for this incident. You do too, do you not, Zil?”
“What?! Why?!”
“The emperor alone should know where the Seven Calamities are sealed. This matter is one requiring the utmost confidentiality. And so, if one with an inclination for evil was able to determine where such a foe was located, does that not imply a fault in your ability to perform your duty?”
The emperor listened quietly to her ruthless accusation. Had it come from someone below him, like the prime minister, he could’ve immediately lashed out, demanding to know how dare they insult him.
However, his bravado failed him before this young girl, in front of whom he cowered like a child.
“P-Please don’t be mean to me, mother!”
Indeed, the girl before them was none other than Zilsonia’s biological mother, the queen dowager Eldia von Lemuria!
“No one is being ‘mean’ to you, pitiful child. Do you realize the damage that would’ve been done if this knight, this Crow, hadn’t defeated the black dragon?” she asked sharply. “And you and the prime minister were both hoping he would fail, no?!”
“That’s not...” The emperor trailed off, his face growing pale as he realized it would be futile to continue denying it.
Although his mother looked to be seven years old, she was actually seventy. Thanks to her long years spent among high society, where schemes and intrigues ran amok, she had easily seen through the plan to eliminate this commoner named Crow Titus.
“Do you not know how the modern nobility and royalty came into existence?” Eldia asked her now silent son, her eyes hardening as she fixed her gaze upon him. “Those who hunted down the many aetherborn plaguing the land earned the respect and trust of the people.”
The atmosphere in the room turned ice-cold, and Zilsonia could feel her fury.
“Indeed, if kind, strong commoners like Iris gain influence, the value of lineage will decline. Between those who ride on the coattails of their ancestors and those who help people today, it’s obvious who the common folk will hold in higher regard, wouldn’t you say?”
“I...”
“Silence! Trying to eliminate a promising young man in an attempt to maintain your own authority is nothing but protecting your aging ego. You would do well to be ashamed!”
Before his angry mother, Zilsonia continued to tremble. Enduring her admonishment was all he could do. Partly because she was his mother, yes, but that wasn’t the only reason.
“Emperor Zilsonia, Prime Minister Superbius, count yourselves fortunate that I’ve entrusted the holy sword Excalibur to Iris. Were it still in my hand, there would be two heads at my feet this day.”
Her chilling words left the men speechless.
Eldia came from a noble military family. Among her peers, she was considered the most powerful, and her combat potential was immeasurable. Her youthful appearance was merely a side effect of her overwhelming compatibility with the holy sword.
“Now, then. I have said what I wished to say. This retired old woman will now take her leave,” she declared. With that, she turned on her heel and confidently strode out of the room, looking every inch the queen she had once been.
No sooner had her figure vanished beyond the doors than the emperor cursed under his breath.
“Why is this happening to me?! All I wanted was for that pest of a commoner to disappear!”
He’d done the same before to many others, after all.
“Just like my pathetic brother! That little bastard Vortigern!”