“I ask again, are you Crown Prince Patrick?”

“……”

The prisoner wearing silver plate armor did not answer.

“Remove the helmet.”

Harchen Eint Carl Berk, Emperor of the Karsik Empire, ordered.

He had just come out from enjoying lute music and leisurely drinking liquor in the bath. Water dripped from his wet black hair. He tied the sash of his black silk robe as he sat on the sofa.

The prisoner held by two knights on each side was noticeably smaller in stature than the knights, even at a glance. Deputy Commander Calip removed the closed steel helmet from the prisoner’s head.

“Ah!”

Exclamations burst from the mouths of everyone in the reception room connected to the Emperor’s bedroom.

As Calip removed the helmet, he also pulled off the hair tie. Golden waves cascaded down, flowing and rippling like a flood of molten gold.

“Hah, Crown Prince Patrick?”

The servant drying the Emperor’s wet hair behind him leaned forward and whispered in the Emperor’s ear.

“Your Majesty, it seems to be a woman.”

The Emperor swiftly stood up and grabbed the sword hanging on the wall. He unsheathed it and aimed the gleaming blade at the prisoner’s neck.

“Right, it couldn’t be Patrick. I know his poor sword skills well. Judging by the sword skills, it wasn’t Patrick.”

The Karsik Emperor removed the cotton cloth wrapped around his neck. It had been applied by the army doctor who had followed to the castle after treating and bandaging the wound with herbs.

He traced the wound with his left hand. As the cloth was torn away, droplets of blood that had clotted stuck to the back of his hand.

The Emperor raised the tip of the sword. The blade pressed against the slender white neck. A red line was drawn on the smooth white skin.

“Speak. Who are you?”

“Kill me.”

“Whether I kill you or let you live is my command. Just answer my question, who are you?”

“……”

It was suspicious from the start that she was wearing plate armor.

“Are you a woman? Why did you pretend to be Patrick?”

“Kill me.”

The Emperor moved the sword tip from pressing against the neck to under the chin, then looked at Calip and said casually:

“Remove the armor.”

Calip removed the separable armor pieces covering the shoulders and body – the pauldrons, spaulders, and cuirass – in order. When he removed the gauntlets, slender, thin wrists and white hands were revealed.

Such delicate wrists!

The Emperor was irritated.

Though he had been careless, the moment of being pushed back in swordfight with a woman with such fragile wrists came to mind. He recalled the prophecy he had just dismissed as the ramblings of a blind old woman in the bath.

“Today, Your Majesty will have to give your bedroom to a maiden like the sun.”

A lady who looks exactly like Patrick.

Hah, this is madness.

And then sealed memories came flooding back. The graduation celebration banquet at Tane Academy, the incident on the dim terrace. It had been an impossible thing, so he thought it was a hallucination and forgot about it. But it wasn’t a hallucination after all.

Yes, it was you.

*

The early summer sun rose hastily.

“It will be a long day.”

An ominous atmosphere hung over the misty Tamil Valley.

“Today, we capture the commander of Tane!”

The battle that began at Lake Pana was evenly matched. Without knowing Tane’s full combat strength, they had given up the Lake Pana area after four days of fighting.

The battlefield had shifted to the foothills of Mount Victoire, pushed back by the enemy forces. This was actually advantageous for the Karsik soldiers who had trained on Mount Victoire.

While reorganizing at the military camp below Tamil Valley, 20,000 soldiers who had been stationed in the Golden Valley of Kaoshan in the northern part of the empire arrived.

The previous night, they had captured a group of Tane soldiers moving along the darkened mountainside. From them, they extracted the information that the commander was Crown Prince Patrick.

“The one in plate armor is the commander of Tane. I’ll give a gold mine district for his head. Capture him, even just bringing the head is fine.”

The Emperor spurred his black warhorse, Khan.

“Let’s go!”

Horns blared and the sound of hoofbeats and drums shook the valley.

Patrick, you say…!

If it was Patrick, the Emperor could subdue him using only his right hand, despite being left-handed. He led his closest circle, the Black Chain Knights, in fierce pursuit of the silver armor.

They drove them like hunting rabbits all the way to Tamil Valley. While the knights engaged the guards protecting the silver armor, the Emperor closely followed behind the silver armor.

The silver armor briefly glanced at the Emperor, then quickly turned away and fled.

Patrick. You?

The Emperor pulled on the reins of his warhorse Khan. The massive black warhorse reared up on its hind legs before exhaling roughly and galloping forward. They approached the limestone slopes where the sound of the Tamil Valley waters could be heard.

The silver armor, cornered at the valley cliff, dismounted.

The Emperor also dismounted and removed his armet helmet. It was as if he had shown his face to Patrick who was driven into a corner.

He thought that if Patrick recognized Harchen who had become Emperor, he would lower his sword and surrender, and planned to capture him as a hostage with proper courtesy.

He was a junior from the Tane Empire Academy. Though Patrick was two years younger, they had been quite close.

During their academy days, they were both crown princes destined to become emperors of the two great empires on the Arkan continent.

Crown Prince Patrick, who never put down his books, was dignified and gentle in nature. His temperament was completely different from his warmongering father, Emperor Kazan.

Patrick enjoyed poetry recitals and debates more than sword fighting. His sword skills were poor.

Patrick, I respected you.

As the early summer sun was setting, red hues spread across the sky and summer evening mist and darkness descended on the lush forest and valley.

The Emperor looked up at the reddened sky and resumed his steps that had paused briefly, heading towards his opponent. The gap narrowed to a distance where they could see each other’s eyes through the openings in their armets.

Suddenly, the silver armor wielded its sword flamboyantly and lunged. It was a movement full of venom.

“Crown Prince Patrick, didn’t you say war was the worst choice that destroys everything? Was your claim that war and violence cannot be glorified regardless of victory or defeat so cheap that it easily changed before gold?”

The Emperor did not hide his disappointment as he sharply swung his sword. After exchanging several attacks and defenses, clashing swords, the Emperor realized that Patrick’s sword skills had clearly improved compared to their academy days.

The Emperor received the sword struck down by his opponent, controlling his strength as he matched blades, and looked into the eyes inside the silver armor’s armet.

They were blue eyes glaring sharply with a sense of killing intent.

After stealing a glance, the silver armor accurately slashed at the Emperor’s neck, which was exposed after removing his armet.

“How dare you! Patrick, how dare you do this to me.”

Though he dodged nimbly, dark red blood spurted from his neck and he choked.

The Emperor pressed his own neck with his gauntlet while deftly swinging the sword he held in his left hand.

Patrick, you’ve become sharp without my noticing. What changed you?

When the Emperor knocked away the clashing blade, the silver armor was pushed back but quickly regained position and swung its sword. They were evenly matched.

Suddenly, the silver armor raised its left gauntlet index finger, spinning it in circles towards the sky.

What kind of signal is that?

The Emperor persistently struck at the gaps in the shoulders and sides of the silver armor. Even though it was separable, plate armor did not allow for easy movement in the joints.

Just as the Emperor’s sword was about to pierce under the pauldron covering the shoulder, the silver armor’s sword parried.

Clang clang clang.

The blades clashed, sparking blue flames, and struggled for dominance in front of the silver armor’s armet. The Emperor briefly raised his sword, then quickly wrapped the blade around and knocked it away.

Clang.

The silver armor’s sword fell to the ground. Having lost its sword, the silver armor turned its body sharply, taking a stance to jump down into the valley below.

The Emperor was faster. He rushed forward and grabbed the silver armor by the waist.

When he grabbed under the arms, the body was weak and light despite wearing armor.

Patrick?

Damn it!

The Emperor frowned at the body scent that permeated through the thick armor.

“Your Majesty, are you injured?”

Deputy Commander Calip and three knights who had followed bound the silver armor with black chains. Calip provided first aid for the wound on the Emperor’s neck.

The wound was not deep.

In the final moment, the hand holding the sword was not strong enough to sever the neck. It was infuriating. Patrick, to aim for my neck with just that much strength, how dare you.

The Emperor’s party descended to the military camp at the bottom of the valley.

Soldiers resting against trees, soldiers preparing dinner by lighting campfires – they all cheered upon seeing the silver armor bound in black chains.

“The commander of Tane has been captured!”

“Hooray! Long live Karsik!”

“Long live His Majesty the Emperor!”

“Harchen, Harchen, Harchen, Harchen!”

The soldiers chanted Harchen like a refrain, adding accent and rhythm.

To them, Harchen was not the Emperor’s dignified name, but an object of praise like the sky, sun, moon and stars.

As the Emperor dismounted from his massive black warhorse Khan and raised his sword high towards the sky, it instantly became quiet.

The Emperor went to where about thirty Tane prisoners were sitting in a group, bound. He cut the ropes of one prisoner with his sword. He ordered the deputy commander to give him one warhorse.

“Go, there is the commander and crown prince of Tane.”

He pointed his sword tip at the silver armor.

“Tell the Tane Emperor. If he does not propose negotiations within three days, the crown prince’s head will be hung on the poplar tree at Lake Pana.”

The Emperor raised his sword high towards the southern sky in the direction of Tane.

“Also, the war is not over!”

“Woah! To Tane!”

“Let’s go to Tane! Harchen, Harchen, Harchen, Harchen!”

Calip suggested to the Emperor that they rest at Pana Castle near Lake Pana today instead of the military camp tents.

“Alright.”

“Your Majesty, what should we do with the prisoner? Together with the Tane soldiers…?”

“Keep them separate. No, bring them to Pana Castle.”

Calip loaded the armored prisoner onto a wagon and attached it to his own horse. The Emperor’s black warhorse Khan set off. Three knights and the wagon carrying the prisoner followed behind.

After riding for a short while, the majestic Pana Castle came into view.

The Emperor wanted to have a drink of liquor and sleep deeply after soaking in a hot bath with fragrances added.

As it happened, a wandering blind lutist was staying at Pana Castle. Since the Emperor enjoyed lute music, the steward had her stay in a separate building.

The Emperor ordered Calip to take the prisoner to a guest room in Pana Castle instead of the underground dungeon, and to treat them with the courtesy befitting an enemy crown prince.

He instructed to provide warm food and a bath, but to bind their hands and feet to prevent self-harm and escape.

The Emperor listened to the blind old lutist’s performance while drinking Panian, a green liquor.

Indeed, it was a fantastical melody.

The fatigue from the intense battlefield of the past ten days melted away.

As soon as he heard the news that countless Tane soldiers had crossed the Lake Pana border without a declaration of war, he had set out from the capital Liswan and ridden without rest.

Since it was Patrick rather than the warmongering Emperor Kazan, he was able to end it earlier than expected, contrary to expectations. That ungrateful Patrick.

Thinking of Patrick, a wave of extreme betrayal made his face flush with anger.

The lutist’s eyes before her were pitch black and unseeing. However, the blind old woman had eyes that could see the future.

When she saw the future, even the colors of objects were vivid, and she could feel the texture of fresh, moist grass blades.

After finishing two consecutive performances of plaintive and delicate melodies, the lutist turned her head towards where she could faintly hear the sound of water.

The blind old woman bowed her head towards where the Emperor was lying with his eyes closed in the bath.

“Burning flame of the empire, golden sun, Your Majesty.”

“Speak.”

“Today, Your Majesty will have to give your bedroom to a maiden like the sun.”