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MANY years ago, Erdal was in a state of turmoil.
The land was ruined, and politics became a battle for personal power. The rich lined their own pockets, while the weak and poor were left to suffer.
In the midst of that, a struggle for succession to the throne broke out. There was Crown Prince Raven, part of the Senate and its figurehead, and the talented but illegitimate Elizabeth. The struggle between the two only came to an end following Raven’s imprisonment.
Raven was kept at Dansk Fortress—also known as the Western Twilight Castle. Not many were aware that Eric Yggdrasil paid the crown prince a visit in his cell.
As the guard pulled open the door and Yggdrasil entered, Crown Prince Raven sat up from his hard bed and greeted his old friend with a grin.
“So you’ve come, friend,” Raven laughed as he spread his arms out. “Look how far I’ve fallen.”
“Yes, you have fallen far.”
Yggdrasil looked down at his friend with an unreadable expression filled with emotion. It had only been a few months, but the prince had lost a lot of weight. There was no trace of the fearless, dignified royal that was Raven, only a pitiful man forced out of his position.
“You have fallen…” he repeated. “It was a truly foolish thing you did.”
“Stop that. Do I still have to listen to your nagging even when in prison? I rarely have visitors. Can’t you be a little more entertaining?”
So saying, Raven looked around the inside of his cell. The place was furnished with the basics such as a bed, chair, and desk. Considering his status as crown prince, Raven’s situation was probably closer to house arrest than imprisonment.
However, the stagnant air of the Western Twilight Castle was definitely taking its toll on the crown prince, who broke out in a violent coughing fit. Yggdrasil supported his ailing friend and laid him back down while Raven let out a long breath as if to soothe his chest.
“This is my end,” the crown prince declared as he stared at the ceiling. “As you said, I was foolish and let my insecurities get the better of me. I was arrogant and overconfident and only listened to what I wanted to hear. You were right to leave me.”
Yggdrasil didn’t answer. He had no words to say.
As Raven’s friend and adviser, Yggdrasil was a loyal subject who understood the crown prince the most. After his confrontation with Raven, Yggdrasil had been determined to leave him. Words were not enough to convey the emotions swirling in his chest.
Perhaps sensing his inner conflict, Raven reached out. Yggdrasil hesitated, wondering if he had any right to accept the crown prince’s offered hand, but Raven grabbed his sleeve and pulled Yggdrasil towards him.
“Please,” the crown prince begged in a tone he’d never heard before. “Please help the Senate.”
“…Do you really mean that?”
Yggdrasil’s voice was cold as his eyes narrowed. The empire’s turmoil and Raven’s current sorry state were all brought on by the Senate. Was the crown prince really still so naive?
Besides, Elizabeth’s path to the throne was almost certainly clear at this point. She’d already ousted more than half of the Senate from office and would probably not stop.
However, Raven clung harder to his friend.
“I’m not asking for you to retain the Senate, but…!” The crown prince’s words dissolved into painful coughs.
“Raven!”
Yggdrasil hurriedly bent down to stroke his friend’s back as he writhed in pain and was shocked to see red blood bloom like a flower on Raven’s hand.
“But…” the crown prince took a deep breath and continued as Yggdrasil stood speechless. “Unlike me, they still have time. Time to make things right.”
He’d done nothing to correct his weak-willed father’s rule, nor had he been able to change the Senate, which had taken him as their figurehead, then abandoned him in crisis to save themselves. It was his own fault that he’d ended up here.
“So, as a royal, I’ll take my punishment. That should be enough, right?”
Yggdrasil closed his eyes. “You’ve always been too kind, Master,” he muttered.
Yggdrasil had advised Raven countless times to distance himself from the Senate and oust them from office, but the crown prince had always answered that he just needed time to bring them around to his side. However, it proved an impossible task. Why couldn’t those selfish individuals born into privilege ever change their ways?
Even with the plan to assassinate Elizabeth. Rumors claimed that Raven’s evil advisers misled him and sent the assassin after Elizabeth, but nothing could be further from the truth. Raven hadn’t wanted her to die. The Senate was the only one pulling the strings. Elizabeth herself knew this and used the plot to clear her way to the throne.
As Raven’s adviser, Yggdrasil knew the crown prince was dangerously incompetent, yet even now, at the very end, he couldn’t bring himself to hate the naivety of his old friend.
“You,” Yggdrasil spat, his heart burning. “You’re a failure because of your good heart.”
“Speak for yourself.” The crown prince gave a disappointed, wry smile. “To see me like this and still grieve for me, I think you’re the one cursed with a good heart.”
Not long after the secret meeting between the two friends, Crown Prince Raven of Erdal passed away quietly.
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A dead leaf fell from a branch outside the window. Eric Yggdrasil, chancellor of Erdal, sat at his desk with his back to the window and did not notice it. As his brush flowed smoothly over the documents, there was a knock on the door with a messenger bearing a note from the crown prince.
“This is good.” The chancellor calmly smiled as he put the brush down. “Please tell the crown prince that I will be there right away.”
Before long, Yggdrasil was standing before a set of extravagant doors. After exchanging a few words with the medic, who exited the room, the chancellor slipped inside.
“I am here, Your Highness.”
Crown Prince Fritz turned at his voice.
“Come. Mother is awake.”
Empress Elizabeth lay on the large bed in the center of the room, her gaze fixed on the bed canopy. She blinked as Yggdrasil drew near.
“I thought you’d had me poisoned, but it was just a numbing drug…” she huffed.
“Don’t underestimate it, Mother. Without control of your body, you won’t be able to protect yourself should anyone try to stab or strangle you. The numbness will recede soon, but it will take about seven days for you to fully recover.”
“Seven days… How short, but long enough to get so much done. Once the gears start to turn, they will be impossible to stop, especially when it concerns matters of war.”
“We will move you to Mylene Hall, so please don’t worry and leave all matters regarding Heilland to me,” Fritz declared.
The empress was silent. The crown prince frowned but stood to get ready to leave. Yggdrasil turned to follow Fritz out of the room, but Elizabeth’s voice stopped him.
“Why didn’t you just kill me?”
The chancellor stopped and turned back slowly to see a pair of dark green eyes staring at him.
“You were the one who supplied the drug,” she continued. “Once the empire heads into crisis, one of us will have to die, so why did you hold back from finishing your task?”
“Why…? Well, I’m sure all my actions will seem meaningless and baseless to you.”
Yggdrasil’s tone was calm, sounding just like he always did during their daily exchanges. Left alone in the large room, the two stared at each other for a long moment.
Finally, Yggdrasil broke the silence.
“Do you remember the last time we were truly alone? Back when it all started, you told me a lie.”
The empress moved to speak, but the chancellor continued.
“I don’t blame you for that. Lies are sometimes necessary to save a country, but that one lie held true significance to me and still affects me to this day. And that is what this is all about.”
“You speak of your promise to Raven?”
The smile finally dropped from Yggdrasil’s face at the empress’s hoarse question.
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CROWN Prince Raven had passed away quietly at the Western Twilight Castle. As husband of the second princess, Yggdrasil was quickly nominated as a candidate to rival Elizabeth’s claim to the throne. It resulted in the fateful meeting between the two.
Immediately upon entering the small room, Yggdrasil told his sister-in-law he had no intention of fighting with her and would willingly cede the throne to Elizabeth.
Elizabeth was obviously suspicious and questioned why Yggdrasil still wanted them to meet. In answer, Yggdrasil replied that there was one condition he wanted met for him to give up the throne.
That condition was for Erdal and Heilland to be unified as one.
“Unification with Heilland? If I remember right, weren’t you the one who was advising Raven to distance himself from the nobles who touted that nonsense?” she asked.
“Your Highness, I believe that unification to create the Great Erdal Empire is the key to bringing our divided people together, be it the conservatives or the commoners. The Senate has already lost many of its members, and with Raven gone too, they are too unstable to pose a threat to you. Now is the time to resolve the turmoil, Elizabeth. It is your duty as a ruler to forgive past mistakes and lead our people down the right path.”