Chapter 97

Grumbling voices erupted here and there at the Emperor’s command. But the Emperor paid no attention.

“Scribes, record clearly. The black dragon and its master shall belong to the Empire by my command, and those who speak of ill omens regarding this shall be treated as traitors and severely punished.”

Only when the Emperor made such a stern warning did the disturbances breaking out here and there finally stop.

“Also, as I don’t have much time left, I shall declare together in this place.”

Sian, who had been blankly blinking with her mouth open from unreality, raised her head at the Emperor’s continued words.

With everyone’s attention focused, the Emperor glared with bloodshot eyes. His words about not having much time weren’t empty. He was barely holding his blurring vision with desperate willpower.

“I hereby revoke Prince Carlston Klaus’s position.”

Then came a declaration no one had expected. The commotion that had barely settled instantly surged like waves filling the space, and Sian, watching the Emperor, unconsciously took a deep breath.

Both Carl, who had been keeping silent and watching everything as if uninvolved, and Hendrick, who had been supporting the Emperor, looked at him with wide eyes in shock.

“The succession rights of Prince Carlston, who bears the imperial surname and is silver Idelin’s master, shall be revoked together, and instead I shall grant him the title of Duke.”

“Father.”

At the Emperor’s continued words, Carl belatedly understood the true meaning of revoking the prince’s position.

This was what would have been declared on Carl’s twentieth birthday when he came of age. When expelling the prince who was only eleven years old to the wasteland, the Emperor had promised to completely extinguish the seeds of political strife by granting him a duke’s title in the year of his coming-of-age ceremony.

That had been disrupted solely because of the Emperor’s illness. Now, having barely regained consciousness before death, the Emperor was trying to complete everything he could.

“Choose and create your new surname yourself, Carlston.”

The Emperor’s voice suddenly weakened, as if drained after speaking loudly with his last strength. Carlston frowned.

“Even if your succession rights are revoked and you become a duke, the talkative ones won’t immediately fall silent. But at least the official pretext will disappear.”

The Emperor looked at Carlston with loving eyes and smiled bitterly. His eyes were clouded like fog as they met Carl’s gaze, furrowed with worry.

Though he had never seen someone die of illness, Carl instinctively realized the murky shadows in the Emperor’s eyes were the air of approaching death.

“…Brother. We should end the council and escort Father now.”

Hendrick nodded.

“Scribes, receive His Majesty’s words solemnly like a will and record them meticulously. Today’s trial is hereby adjourned.”

Hendrick, who had sensed the same thing, quickly called to the front while supporting the Emperor’s tilting body.

“The court is dismissed!”

The chamberlain called out loudly following the Crown Prince’s will, and the trial was over.

Like when they had come, the Crown Prince and Carl, who had just been stripped of his prince status, left the council chamber through the doors supporting the Emperor.

Sian still stood on the platform. As soon as the Emperor left the chamber, she was struck by piercing gazes that made her scalp ache and commotion. Though the position wasn’t comfortable, Sian was still too dumbfounded to feel particularly uncomfortable.

“Lady! Lady! What are you doing, come back quickly!”

Sian belatedly realized the familiar voice calling her from afar and turned around. Beyond the doors she had proudly passed through earlier, her mercenaries who were like her limbs were gathered in the corridor.

Only then did Sian come to her senses and hurriedly left to join them.

“Is this a dream or reality? Lady, are you really becoming a dragon knight?”

Max asked abruptly before Sian could even stop walking. Sian, who couldn’t feel it any less real than he did, if not more so, could only shrug her shoulders.

“I thought you’d rise by becoming the Prince’s wife, but this… This is really an unexpected direction.”

“Not a Prince’s wife, but I suppose you’ll be a Duke’s wife if nothing major happens.”

Skull said, and then Dr. Zivago followed with a sulky, seemingly sarcastic comment. Despite the clearly sarcastic tone, Sian was startled and could only respond with “Huh?”

“Congratulations, Lady.”

“Lady, congratulations.”

Before her mind could recognize this as a possible reality, Max and Skull said with bright smiles of joy. Only Dr. Zivago frowned.

“What exactly are you dissatisfied with to keep such a blank face unable to gather your wits?”

“…It’s not dissatisfaction…”

She was just completely dazed.

Though the day she was abandoned still stood vivid before her eyes, after everything that had happened, the fact that she suddenly not only didn’t have to hide her dragon but could proudly stand by Carl’s side as a knight was utterly unbelievable.

She had thought she could have nothing she wanted. It had been so long since she’d resigned herself to the fact that impossible things remained impossible no matter how much you yearned for them.

Yet when she overcame her fears to reach for what she wanted, something even greater that she hadn’t dared hope for had become reality and awaited her.

It was a situation worthy of tears of joy, but now that what she had unconsciously yearned for had become reality, she felt numbing unreality rather than the urge to celebrate.

“Aira Chandler.”

It seemed it would take quite a long time for all this to feel natural. So into Sian’s ears as she wandered about in a daze, a man’s subdued voice reached her.

Sian and the mercenaries simultaneously turned their heads toward the voice’s source. A middle-aged man with neatly swept platinum blonde hair and a woman of similar age with twisted-up golden hair stood in the corridor.

‘You are a non-existent child from now on.’

Setting aside Count Chandler whose face she had seen once before, upon seeing the woman’s face, Sian couldn’t help but furrow her brow at the memory that surfaced.

The woman with eyes reddened as if about to cry wore the same face as when she had abandoned Sian that dark night when the black dragon Luna rose to the sky and obscured the moon.

“Mother…”

Sian murmured in a voice about to die out.

It was strange. The memories she had intentionally turned away from to minimize the pain remained only partially, as if painted over. Yet the moment she saw the Countess’s face, memories she had utterly forgotten until now came back as vividly as if they had happened yesterday.

The smell of the damp forest, the ominous wolf howls echoing from afar, the rustling noises, her mother’s voice in the pitch darkness, heavy with near-despair.

And even her face, endlessly crying.

At Sian’s call, the Countess burst into tears as if overcome with complex emotions.

“We’ve been waiting. Could we talk?”

Count Chandler carefully spoke while heaving a sigh.