“The Duke of Genoa raided the Therios Church at dawn.”

The Emperor rested his chin on one hand as he listened to the report.

There was no surprise to be found in the golden eyes looking down at the investigator.

He nodded slightly with a bored expression, as if hearing something he had expected.

“I see.”

When the Emperor’s indifferent voice rang out, the investigator quickly continued reading the report.

The names of the nobles who died under the Duke’s sword began to be listed one by one.

They were all Imperial faction members, and all were known to be devout at the Therios Church. Nevertheless, the Emperor did not grieve or rage at their deaths.

The Emperor listened to the investigator’s report with a face that seemed devoid of even a hint of emotion.

“So where is the Duke?”

“He is said to be at his mansion.”

Only after receiving Damian’s location from the investigator did the Emperor let out a short, hollow laugh.

With one eye squinted, the Emperor released his resting chin and leaned his upper body against the chair’s backrest.

“Just like him.”

The Emperor recalled the day when, as Crown Prince, he had rested his face on Damian’s shoulder while floundering in the river.

Even then, upon returning to the Empire, Damian had calmly told the Emperor with an indifferent face that he had only done what needed to be done.

Yes, even now he would only be doing what needed to be done. He could not leave the shadow of death looming over the wife he cherished so dearly.

While everyone said that Damian’s mind was difficult to understand, that his expressions were unreadable, the Emperor wanted to sneer at such words from the nobles.

Damian had always stood within the Emperor’s predictable range. It was the natural order determined from the moment Damian was born as the Duke of Genoa.

Although he claimed to serve the Empire, the structure that ultimately forced him to serve the Emperor made Damian’s actions easy to read.

“Call the Crown Prince. We will have an early successor’s lesson.”

The Emperor blinked slowly as he tapped his fingers on the armrest with a tap-tap sound.

There was a time when he felt powerless looking at Damian’s broad shoulders and large back.

That day, that moment when he frowned in pain, clutching his injured shoulder. While he felt relief that the man standing before him to protect was none other than Damian…

At the same time, he also felt the urge to stab a knife into the back of his neck as he turned away.

The thought that this might be the only moment to eliminate him wouldn’t leave his mind.

A great noble of the same age he had been forced to compare himself to all his life.

To the Emperor, Damian was both a subject and a friend, and always someone with an insurmountable wall.

The sense of defeat he couldn’t help but feel as Crown Prince, the moment on the battlefield when he was safely protected behind Damian’s back. It hit him the hardest.

That base and shabby feeling he couldn’t shake off for a single moment during his time as Crown Prince.

For him, that time was a pitch-black history.

“Shall I convey the message about the successor’s lesson, Your Majesty?”

The attendant carefully asked the Emperor. He was seeking confirmation if it was alright to tell Eden this.

The Emperor willingly nodded to the attendant’s words.

“Of course.”

As he gave permission to the attendant, the Emperor’s lips curved up into a grin.

However, on that day when he tasted defeat most bitterly, the Emperor was able to wash away all of those shabby feelings that had lasted a lifetime.

Returning from the battlefield with injuries, he immediately received the successor’s lesson that had been kept secret for generations from the previous Emperor.

His father seemed to have already known. About what kind of worries were troubling his son who had been saved and injured by Damian’s hands.

He still felt as if his whole body trembled when he recalled the time his father took him to the church, saying he would give the successor’s lesson.

The moment he was revered as a god, any feeling of jealousy he could have towards Damian, who had become a mere human, became smaller than a grain of sand scattered on the ground.

*

“This is…”

Eden, unable to continue his words, hurriedly covered his mouth.

He frowned at the sudden surge of nausea, but ultimately couldn’t hold back and abruptly turned his head.

Quickly bending over, he vomited what he had eaten for breakfast onto the floor.

The world shook with a bloody wind.

It was a scene far more miserable than even the death of Count Scala, whose head had been displayed in the square.

“This is the Duke of Genoa.”

The Emperor, patting Eden’s shoulder, continued in a low voice.

“Let’s go in. There’s something to show you in the church.”

At the Emperor’s words, Eden, wiping his mouth with a handkerchief, received a new one from his aide.

The handkerchief in Eden’s small hand was terribly crumpled.

Fear, along with a sense of betrayal towards someone he had trusted, swirled in his small golden eyes.

“You may not have been to the Therios Church before, but you must have heard quite a bit about it. Since Count Scala frequented it.”

Eden covered his mouth and nose with the new handkerchief as he listened to his father’s words.

The Therios Church that Count Scala had attended. Whether because of the church or not, an absurd rumor that the Count was a cult leader had spread.

Though he thought it was nonsense, he understood why such a rumor had spread.

Because there was no clear reason for the Count to shoot an arrow at the Duchess.

But there must be some reason why the Duke of Genoa had done this to the church.

“Yes, I have heard of it.”

“I see…”

As they entered the church, the stained glass windows bathed in morning sunlight immediately illuminated the hall, showing off their brilliance.

Eden’s eyes wavered at the sight of holiness emanating even from a place reeking of blood.

The sunlight beautifully shone on the bloody altar, to the point of seeming grotesque in its mismatch.

The Emperor, walking slowly past the arranged chairs, paused for a moment.

Eden, who had stopped accordingly, naturally fixed his gaze on the church wall.

At first glance it seemed strange, but if one tilted their head completely to the side, the imperial family’s crest could be seen drawn on the church wall.

Eden’s head tilted along with the peculiar pattern.

“Can you see it?”

The Emperor smiled as he saw his son’s head tilt.

“This is originally the place for those who serve us.”

“…Pardon?”

Eden threw out a question, unable to understand his father’s words.

Eden’s head quickly turned towards the Emperor, but by then the Emperor’s gaze was already no longer directed at Eden.

Having shifted his gaze from Eden, he looked at that pattern and raised the corner of his mouth.

“A god needs a temple and followers befitting its reputation.”

The Emperor moved without hesitation.

Eden hurriedly followed his father’s steps, once again going over whether what he understood was correct.

Did he refer to the Therios Church as a temple befitting a god? Then the place for those who serve us…

Father… a god?

Eden’s eyebrows twitched.

“For generations, there have been those in the Imperial faction who separately served the Emperor.”

The Emperor began speaking as he stood in front of a certain door.

As the knights opened that door at the Emperor’s gesture, a gust of wind mixed with a fishy smell blew strongly for a moment.

“They worshipped that god, led by this Therios Church. My son, what did I say the Duke of Genoa serves?”

“You said he serves the Empire.”

“Yes, the Duke of Genoa is one who serves the Empire. But a minority of the Imperial faction serves not the Empire, but this Emperor. To them, we are gods. A god is the principle of all things and an figure that cannot be defied.”

His father took the first step down into the pitch-black underground.

Eden couldn’t easily take a step forward and looked at the Emperor.

In his mind, the bell that only rang in times of danger was ringing rapidly.

His father, who had taken one step down the stairs, was gradually being swallowed up by that darkness.

Eden swallowed hard and called out to his father.

“…Father! Father!!”

The smell was even more terrible in this underground.

He thought he should stop both listening to his father’s story any further and his father from going down below this underground door.

Eden, who had forgotten about the handkerchief covering his mouth and nose, quickly stretched out his arm to grab his father’s clothes.

The fluttering handkerchief that had fallen quickly turned red in the blood on the floor.

Though only a single handkerchief had disappeared, the terrible smell stimulating Eden’s nose intensified even more.

Eden, who had sharply furrowed his brow, tightly gripped his father’s clothes.

“My son.”

His father’s voice reaching his ears was gentle and soft.

But it was unfamiliar. Even hearing a stranger’s voice wouldn’t feel like this. Eden looked up at his father, holding back the tears that seemed about to well up.

The golden eyes, the same as his own, looked at Eden with gently curved eyes.

“Are you afraid of the dark?”

…No. I’m not afraid of the dark. But I’m afraid of you being stained by this darkness, Father.

However, Eden couldn’t utter a single letter of his thoughts and answered his father with mumbling lips.

“Yes, Father.”

There was no other answer he could give.

He felt the pressure that if he blurted out his thoughts as they were, he didn’t know what kind of fate he would suffer from his father here.

“Bring the torch.”

The knights standing behind handed the torch to the Emperor.

The Emperor raised the torch to the candles hanging on the dark basement walls.

The pitch-black basement was now all red on every wall.

Blood on the floor, red fire on the walls filled the color of every surface.

Now it felt like entering the mouth of something.

The anglerfish with the huge mouth he had seen before. Yes, it felt like slowly entering that anglerfish’s mouth.