Joachim touched the man’s bloodstained gray hair with his fingertips. He rubbed it between his thumb and middle finger. Over and over.
“I think I deluded myself into believing that you were my real father. I simply didn’t want to think of the mad king who had raped me and my queen as my father. I don’t know the truth. It’s all speculation… And Lagarea, you can’t talk anymore, or take away anyone’s memory.”
“Oah… oai… oaiu…”
Joachim looked sorrowful for the first time then.
“If you and our father had to take something away from me, I wish it had been my memories…so I wouldn’t have had to live in despair for nineteen years as an illegitimate king who should have never inherited the throne.”
Joachim wiped the tears of blood flowing from the old prisoner’s empty eye sockets with his fingers.
“I will send you to meet my mother, Lagarea. You are a traitor and thus I cannot clear your name, but I will put an end to this filthy bloodline.”
“Brother…please stop!”
In the next instant, Joachim took a dagger out of his pocket and artlessly slashed the Marquis of Lagarea’s throat.
The sound of the blade on skin echoed through the dungeon.
The striking scent of blood wafted through the air, overpowering the rotten stench of the dungeon. The queen dowager couldn’t help but let out a shriek.
Dripping dark red blood from its throat, the body of the criminal collapsed on its side. The chains binding his limbs produced an unpleasant jangle.
Joachim stared at the tip of his blood-soaked blade.
“Is this the blood that flows through my veins? It’s darker and dirtier than one would expect.”
“Brother…”
Joachim looked back. His gentle face was speckled with blood.
“I knew I had no right to be king. I wasted nineteen years… I’m sorry, Gravis.”
“Brother…come to me.”
“A mediocre king ascended the throne, and as a result, I have allowed this old man to trample all over this country for so long. In that sense, I am the true traitor.”
“Brother, you are no traitor. Please come out, come to me… Brother, please hand me that blade.”
Gravis held out his right hand.
Joachim looked at his hand quizzically. He placed the tip of the dagger against his own neck.
“This bloodline will one day fade into history with me. Then perhaps it would be better if I, the true traitor, were to sever this bloodline here and now.”
“I don’t believe that… Brother, come.”
Joachim smiled faintly. “You still call me brother. Even when I can only remain your brother for so long, now that the Marquis of Lagarea’s plot has been revealed?”
“You will always be my beloved brother.”
Hearing that, Joachim inclined his head. “Why? Why do you still call me brother?”
“Because the same blood of Fanoren delusion runs in you and me.”
Hearing that, Joachim’s gentle face took on a stern expression for the first time. It was the face of a man who had remained on the throne for many years. It was the face of a king who had ruled the country despite being scorned as mediocre.
Gravis knelt on the filthy floor of the dungeon and bowed to Joachim.
“Your Majesty. The delusional blood of the Fanoren royal family may one day bring this country to ruin, but it will not be today.”
“Gravis.”
“Kyle did nothing wrong. He is not a son of iniquity, I am certain of that. He is your son. He is the rightful heir of Fanoren.”
Gravis made a desperate appeal to his brother’s heart, afraid Joachim was about to go somewhere Gravis couldn’t follow.
“Kyle…”
“If Kyle doesn’t know the truth, then keep it that way.”
“Who can say? I don’t see how he would find out, but I can’t be certain. Emilia is not aware of it, either. I thought the only people who knew would be me and the queen dowager.”
“If that is the case, Brother, then please don’t let Kyle suffer the same pain you did.”
“Why not? Is he not the son of the mad king? Does he not deserve to suffer as you have suffered?”
“He is also the son of Emilia. Please… Brother, I beg you.”
Gravis stood up, approached Joachim, and held out his hand.
“Please protect yourself so that Kyle may inherit the throne from you… Now, the blade, Brother.”
“Yes… He is Emilia’s son. Then I suppose I must deceive them to the very end.”
Joachim nodded and slowly held out his hand, easily handing the dagger to Gravis.
“Can I ask you to handle matters from here?”
“Yes,” said Gravis. “I’ll take care of it… All will be well.”
“I am sorry to have surprised you, queen dowager. A noble lady such as yourself should not be forced to witness something so unsightly.”
Adele remained on the floor in a daze.
“Gravis. May I leave this country in your hands until Kyle becomes king?”
Understanding the meaning of his words, Gravis could not help the tear that trickled down his cheek.
That was the moment when Joachim, the thirteenth king of Fanoren, effectively relinquished his crown.
Joachim no longer had the energy required to rule the country.
For nineteen years with a broken heart, Joachim had borne the weight of the crown he had worn for revenge.
Out of kindness, out of weakness, and out of love.
But now that the Marquis of Lagarea had been captured, his heart had only enough left in it to cross that final line. The king himself was aware of this.
But even so, Gravis was saddened to think that, despite everything, his brother cared about this country to the very end the way a statesman should.
Gravis knelt to signify his assent.
“Of course, Brother… I live to serve Your Majesty.”
“Still, I’m sorry to burden you with this.”
“I will support this country until Kyle succeeds to the throne. So, Your Majesty… Brother, please live in peace from now on.”
“Oh yes. I’ve long wished to travel with Emilia. I would like to visit the remote palace in the lake region where she spent her childhood in Francoure. She has served this country well for many years.” As he spoke, a soft smile appeared on Joachim’s kind face. “Perhaps not immediately, but one day when things settle down. I wonder. Do I get to have that?”
“We will make it happen. I am certain the queen will be pleased.”
Joachim nodded and stared at the fallen corpse of the criminal. “You can deal with him as a traitor, but I would like to lay him to rest with my mother, if only a piece of him. Can you at least allow me that?”
Gravis nodded.
The next moment, Joachim’s hand caressed Gravis’s head as if he were a child again.
A modest, reserved touch. A gentle, slender hand.
“Gravis. Can you truly be happy with this choice?”
“Your Majesty…”
“You were always meant to wear the crown of this country. I will never be able to atone for my mistake of bending the royal path to carry out my own personal vendetta, but I want you to be happy.”
Gravis smiled reassuringly at his brother. “I, too, have someone I want to travel and lay to rest with in my final days. It is someone I could never have met had I not walked this path.”
“…I see. That’s a relief.” Joachim gave a small smile.
“Gravis, my dearest brother. It has taken me decades to tell you this…but please, be happy.”
Joachim brought his blood-stained face close, and pressed a kiss to Gravis’s black hair.
Then, in a faltering gait, he climbed the stairs leading aboveground.
The smell of blood and rusty iron.
Beneath the royal palace, where the roar of the beast had ceased, the memories of love and despair, which had never been taken away, lay exposed in the form of a corpse.
There, a mother and her child remained.