Chapter 38
Carl’s expression subtly contorted. A faint smile appeared on his lips, but his face wasn’t particularly bright, complex with resentment, gladness, and relief at the memory of his near-death experience.
“I’m glad to see you’re safe. I heard you were severely injured.”
“Thanks to you. Fortunately, someone happened to help me, and I survived unscathed like this.”
Carl wore a sardonic smile.
“Your words are barbed. I understand from Michael, but it wasn’t my intention.”
“If only all matters in the world could be settled with such simple words, it would be so easy.”
“I’ll talk to you directly about what happened when we meet again. But let me make it clear once more, it wasn’t my intention.”
Carl slightly massaged his side, twitching his eyebrow. Although the wound had almost healed and felt fine now, it seemed to throb, perhaps due to his mood.
No matter how many times he said it wasn’t intentional, the resentment for nearly dying and for coming to Ivarid with all the dragons without any explanation wouldn’t disappear so quickly.
“Idelin’s scales were found on Dragon King Elena’s corpse.”
Carl, who had been stroking the fully healed wound, abruptly stopped at the Crown Prince’s next words.
“…What?”
“Hence, there was quite an uproar in the noble council. To suppress the backlash, I had no choice but to go to Ivarid immediately.”
“No, how could Idelin’s scales be there…”
Carl trailed off in bewilderment.
It had been well over 10 years since Prince Carlston Klaus was granted the Ivarid region, which was little more than a wasteland, as his domain and left the capital. It was when the Emperor, who had long been bedridden with illness, was still robust.
Although he had traveled to and from the capital for personal matters during that time, Carl had never once taken Idelin with him. Therefore, the fact that Idelin’s scales were found on the corpse of the Dragon King, the Emperor’s companion dragon, was not just unexpected but shocking.
So that’s why they brought all the dragons without the temple’s permission.
Carl stared blankly at the materialized Nathan, his brow tightly furrowed in near-astonishment.
“I ask this just in case, but it truly wasn’t your doing, was it?”
“Brother. If I had been aiming for the throne, would I have worked so hard to develop Ivarid like that? I will remain as Idelin’s master and the lord of Ivarid.”
Carl answered in a lowered voice, his expression hardened. His rather subdued voice was filled with genuine bewilderment and indignation.
“I see. The evidence is so blatant that it’s rather suspicious. I too believe it wasn’t your doing. No matter how foolish you might be, surely not to that extent…”
“You’re still harsh with your words, brother.”
Carl interrupted the Crown Prince, his eyes widening. Sian, listening to their conversation, unconsciously covered her mouth with her hand.
…This is quite different from what I’ve heard. They seem to be quite close brothers?
It was unexpected.
Because the empire’s founding myth began with the silver dragon Yggdrasil defeating Pegadrasil, the black dragon who was the incarnation of evil, there was a prevalent belief that the closer a dragon’s color was to silver, the more sacred it was.
Black was evil, and white was good.
Therefore, the Crown Prince’s dragon Nathan, with purple scales, was considered less pure than Carl’s silver dragon Idelin, despite them both being princes.
This was why the succession to the throne, which could have passed without incident, became complicated.
In the empire’s long history of over 1,500 years, the masters of the imperial dragons frequently waged civil wars against their siblings to gain the throne.
As a result, the only imperial law that the Dragon’s Temple, which doesn’t interfere in imperial affairs, ever intervened to establish was the law of primogeniture succession.
According to this, Emperor’s eldest son Hendrick Klaus was Nathan’s master from birth and was to be the next emperor.
However, Carl Klaus, born after the second prince Gerriot Klaus who hadn’t even been chosen by a dragon, became the master of Idelin at the age of four when Idelin revealed herself as a descendant of Yggdrasil and chose him.
The perception that the Crown Prince’s purple dragon Nathan was impure began because of this. While Nathan had been revered as the supreme being when there was no basis for comparison, the situation changed when another dragon, Idelin, appeared that could be compared to Nathan. Compared to the near-white silver, the mixed purple color seemed infinitely closer to the evil black.
Nathan, who had been promoted as the dragon of the future emperor, had to endure even being ridiculed as a mongrel, while supporters emerged claiming that the youngest prince Carl, as the master of Idelin, a descendant of Yggdrasil, was the true heir to the throne.
Emperor Bastian, the master of the red dragon, didn’t want political strife. He hastily appointed Hendrick, the master of the purple dragon Nathan, as Crown Prince, while simultaneously giving the barely ten-year-old youngest prince the wasteland of Ivarid as his domain, effectively banishing him from the imperial palace.
He had also declared in advance that he would grant Carl the title of duke in the year he came of age, completely separating him from the imperial family and stripping him of his right to succession. However, the problem arose when the Emperor collapsed and couldn’t recover just before Prince Carl’s coming-of-age ceremony.
The ducal title was never bestowed, and thus Carl Klaus remained the Third Prince of the Empire and the Lord of Ivarid, still retaining his full right of succession to the throne.
This caused another commotion.
There were those who clamored that the prince with Idelin was destined to inherit the throne, and rumors were rife that the Crown Prince was jealous of the Third Prince.
The relationship between Crown Prince Hendrick, who held the first right of succession, and Prince Carl, who held the second right of succession, was very poor. This was what Sian, as a third party and mere citizen of the empire, knew of the situation.
So, even when she first heard that Crown Prince Hendrick Klaus had attacked Ivarid, she had thought it made sense.
…Come to think of it, Carl never really spoke badly about his brother, the Crown Prince.
Sian belatedly realized she needed to reassess her evaluation of Crown Prince Hendrick Klaus.
“Enough of that. Let me get straight to the point, Carl.”
While Sian was lost in thought, the Crown Prince, in Nathan’s form, spoke.
“Return to the imperial palace.”
Sian raised her gaze to look at Nathan with her golden eyes open. She saw Carl furrowing his brow. Soon, Carl twisted the corner of his mouth and let out a light chuckle.
“In this situation? Regardless of the reason, if Idelin’s scales were found on Elena’s corpse, no one will believe in my innocence.”
“Get a certification from the temple that you’re not related to Elena’s death. The noble council is waiting for the temple’s warrant. But if you personally bring back a certificate confirming your innocence from the Dragon’s Temple, although there will be those who claim that divine law is above imperial law, no one will dare to act rashly.”
That makes sense. Sian unconsciously touched her own lips at the Crown Prince’s words.
“But it will cause quite a stir, won’t it?”
Carl voiced exactly what Sian was thinking, without missing a single detail.
“That’s what I’m hoping for. We don’t know who the real culprit behind the Dragon King’s assassination is, but with such clear evidence, the culprit must also be expecting the temple to issue a warrant. Come in person and cause a commotion. Then, they too will show an opening.”
“Are you asking me to be bait?”
Carl let out an incredulous laugh.
Quite a bold strategy they’re putting forward. Sian listened to the conversation between Carl and the Crown Prince with an intrigued expression.
“You must have your own suspicions too, don’t you? About who the real culprit behind the Dragon King’s murder is.”
“…”
Carl recalled a face he hadn’t seen in a long time, beyond his furrowed brow.
Daniel Klaus.
He was a prince in the previous generation, but when Emperor Bastian ascended to the throne, he was given the new surname Gregory and elevated to the rank of marquis. And Antonio Carter. A commoner who was chosen by a dragon and rose to the noble rank of knight.
“In the current situation with the Dragon King assassinated, no one fully trusts me. But no one fully trusts you either. It’s a situation that benefits neither of us.”
“So, you too judged that it wasn’t my doing, brother?”
“That, and you’re not that diligent of a person, are you?”
“…That’s harsh.”
Carl grumbled. Sian clenched her teeth to keep from laughing. Meanwhile, Michael, the imperial knight, maintained a solemn, expressionless face.
Impressive, to endure that.
Sian genuinely admired him.
“The marquis came to me directly and suggested calling in a former dragon hunter to pursue you. On the surface, he claimed it was to bring you in as soon as possible for punishment and to quell the rumors about me, but…”
“Dragon hunter?”
Sian inadvertently spoke up at the Crown Prince’s words, conveyed through Nathan’s body. Nathan’s golden eyes, which had been fixed on Carl, turned towards Sian.
“A woman?”
“…Ah.”
Sian belatedly covered her mouth. But it was already too late.
“I apologize, Your Highness the Crown Prince.”
She had unconsciously reacted to a word with ominous resonance that seemed both present and absent.
“Who might you be?”
The Crown Prince asked a very natural question. Sian pressed her lips tightly together, feeling like a groan might escape.
She was unsure how to answer. If she introduced herself as a mercenary, they would ask why a mercenary was with the prince, and it was obvious that the conversation would become lengthy in various ways.
That’s why I said I didn’t want to come in the first place, so why did you insist on bringing me…
Sian pondered in her mind while shooting Carl a reproachful look with her eyes.
“Your Highness.”
At that moment, Michael, who had been silent as if he wasn’t there, intervened. The Crown Prince, embodied in Nathan, looked at him. Michael raised both hands in a gesture that Sian couldn’t see, forming some kind of shape.
…? What’s that?
