A young boy with a clearly childish appearance stepped into the wide hall immersed in calm darkness.

It was Gwenalt, the youngest prince born to the emperor in his old age.

“Father.”

As he carefully greeted, the old emperor sitting alone in the dark hall raised his head with joy filling his wrinkled face.

“Yes. Welcome, my beloved son.”

Gwenalt was the emperor’s most cherished prince.

The emperor’s nature of being indifferent and cold to others, a combination of innate temperament and environment, was no exception for his children.

However, even for such an emperor, the son like a grandson born in his later years was an exception.

It was a tender feeling he experienced for the first time just before death.

“Father. This place is……”

The young prince who came close to the emperor looked around with an unfamiliar expression.

This was the hall where portraits of past emperors were enshrined.

“Yes. Come closer, my beloved son. ……I have something I must tell you.”

The emperor was sitting in a chair, looking at something.

The young prince who approached his side soon confirmed where his gaze was resting.

It was the portrait of the founding emperor.

The great sage who came from the northern continent three hundred years ago and established the Astrax Empire on this peninsula.

The hero who drove out the evil witches and wizards swarming on this peninsula.

Their proud ancestor.

But the image of the founding emperor in the portrait was somewhat shabby for a hero.

The young prince who was staring at him suddenly tilted his head.

“……But Father?”

“What is it, my son.”

The boy asked with a face full of pure curiosity.

“Surely in the legend, didn’t the great founding emperor build two layers of walls in just one day?”

“Yes. That’s right.”

“But then how did the emperor accomplish such a feat without using magic?”

The emperor silently stared at his young son’s clear face for a moment.

His face was tinged with the emptiness peculiar to an old man facing death.

“……Father?”

“Gwenalt. Can you see the writing under that portrait?”

Instead of answering the question, an unexpected statement was heard, and the prince looked at the portrait again.

It was true.

At the very bottom of the painting, there was a shining line of text, very small.

“It’s a sentence that only those of the imperial bloodline can see. Try reading it.”

The prince read the visible phrase in a clear voice.

“……Beware the whisper heard when you are most desperate.”

The boy tilted his head.

“What does this mean, Father?”

“It means exactly what it says.”

The emperor grasped the prince’s shoulder with his wrinkled, thin hand.

He emphasized repeatedly to his youngest son with bloodshot eyes.

“If there comes a moment in your life when you become most desperate for something, and, and……”

The old emperor took a deep breath and continued.

“If something approaches you and whispers at that moment…… you must never give in to that whisper. Do you understand?”

There was a strange madness in the emperor’s eyes as he said so.

Although the prince did not understand his father’s intention, he quickly nodded, feeling somehow chilled.

“……Yes. Good boy. As expected of my son…… You may go now.”

The prince kissed his cheek with respect and carefully withdrew.

Left alone in the large, dark hall, the emperor thought.

The imperial family already had everything. And this empire would never fall.

……So, that child would never have anything to be desperate for in his lifetime.

To love someone was to worry about things that would never happen.

And to regret things done in the past.

Only after having that child and loving another person for the first time in his life did the emperor vaguely realize.

Perhaps this empire was wrong from the beginning.

It was a fundamentally flawed empire built on twisted and gloomy love.

At that moment, the door of the hall opened and someone quietly approached, shining smooth silver hair.

It was Duke Purcell.

“……Yes. You said you wanted to see me separately.”

Still buried in his seat, the emperor asked in a tone tinged with fatigue.

“Yes. May you live ten thousand years, O Great Sun! ……You were looking at the portrait of the founding emperor here.”

Purcell, who glanced at the portrait, flattered him with a brazen attitude.

“You must be truly proud. Isn’t he the one who built everything of the empire?”

There was no way he could see that red writing left by the founding emperor.

So he must be saying such things.

Inwardly mocking like that, the emperor coldly snapped.

“Enough with the introduction. I’m well aware of your flattery skills. I’m tired today, so just get to the point.”

“Flattery, Your Majesty? It’s always my sincere truth without lies. ……But the reason I came today is none other than because of Viscount Pryde.”

“What about the viscount again.”

Despite the emperor’s curt reply, Purcell continued undeterred.

“It’s truly an amazing power. He’s producing almost battalion-level strength all by himself, isn’t he?”

Pretending to praise the viscount, Purcell asked in a passing tone.

“……But Your Majesty, don’t you know? What the condition was for the viscount to gain such immense power……?”

However, although he now looked old and very tired, the emperor was no easy opponent either.

“Purcell. I sincerely advise you. Don’t be any more greedy than this.”

The emperor said in an utterly firm tone.

“Just be satisfied with the black crystal.”

“……Haha. Your Majesty, really. Greed, you say.”

Purcell waved his hand, exercising his characteristic brazenness.

“I just asked out of curiosity. Hmm. Well, it seems you’re not in a good mood today, so I’ll take my leave now.”

He bowed his waist deeply in an exaggerated manner, then slowly withdrew.

However, the emperor clearly saw deep dissatisfaction flash across his face the moment he bowed his head.

“……”

Left alone again, the emperor leaned his tired body against the chair and fell into contemplation.

Yes, that’s exactly why.

Humans who suddenly gain power are completely unable to control their greed.

So the founding emperor must have left such a will to his descendants.

[Beware the whisper heard when you are most desperate.]

The emperor quietly mulled over that sentence visible only to his descendants.

As his father’s, father, fathers had done before him.

[This is the timeline separator]

“Hmph. What a cowardly old man……”

Purcell muttered in an indignant tone as he passed through the corridor of his mansion.

“What good is being emperor? After all, the core of this empire is held by that viscount.”

Moreover, without that black crystal, neither the emperor nor himself could exert any power.

The power given by the black crystal was certainly great.

At first, he was just amazed and pleased by the fact that he could use magic, which he had only heard about, but how can the human heart know satisfaction?

More than that, after learning that there was a man with even stronger power, greed grew more and more.

‘Such power for me too……!’

According to his investigation, Viscount Pryde was clearly from District 3.

Traces of his past that he had failed to erase remained throughout District 3.

The rumors about the ‘Golden Devil’ were the same.

“It’s clear that he gained power after that, but I don’t know the specific method……”

If he only knew that, he too could have this empire at his feet.

‘How dare I just watch a commoner pretend to be a viscount!’

Just how should he go about bringing down that lowborn?

To make that lowborn but terribly strong man fall…….

Weakness.

Purcell, who had arrived at his office, secretly lit up his eyes.

He must find that man’s weakness.

But what on earth could be the weakness of a man who is inhumanly strong and as ruthless as someone without a heart?

As he pondered, his eyes fell on a report about Viscount Pryde.

He flipped through the papers with a careless gesture for a moment.

His gaze stopped on one page.

[Wife: Delphine Pryde (maiden name: Pembrook)]

It was a name Purcell knew well too.

After all, she was a woman who had already made a name for herself in the empire for her beauty since childhood.

So he thought it was nothing special for the viscount to covet such a beauty…….

[Evidence that Pryde stayed at the Pembrook mansion in District 1 before gaining power.]

If they had a connection from before, did the viscount deliberately marry that woman?

……What, because of old affection or something like that?

Purcell, who was examining the sentences in the report, smirked with a sneer.

“……No way.”

Can even such a man truly love?

But it didn’t matter whether it was obsession, greed, lust, vanity, or whatever.

As long as it could be used to bring the man down and steal his power.

Purcell’s eyes gleamed secretly.

“Delphine Pryde…… It might be worth a try……”

[This is the timeline separator]

“This is……”

Delphine swallowed a surprised exclamation under the warm sunlight.

In the garden where she had come out for a spring walk with Ioan.

Although it was still early spring and not yet the season for flowers to bloom, that man had once again planted flowers all over the garden.

As soon as the bitterly cold winter passed and the accumulated snow melted.

The flowers he had planted last winter all froze to death in less than a week.

Now that spring has come, will those flowers be able to take root?

“I asked the maid, and she said madam likes daffodils the most.”

He recited as he carefully plucked a flower and tucked it behind her ear.

“Social activities, free outings, daffodils….. Is there anything else you like that I didn’t know about?”

He smiled kindly and added, as he always did, like stamping at the end of his words.

“My wife?”