183. The Final Piece

2024.03.31.

The iron armor was hardened with dried blood whose origin was unknown, and the brilliant golden hair was likewise soaked and disheveled with blood.

The red cloak was tattered, evidently damaged from climbing this treacherous ravine. And the sword in Clade’s hand.

Droplets of blood ran down the crimson-stained blade, staining the white ground.

“The son of Jurgen Racha takes after his father in being particularly vicious. It must have been difficult to evade pursuit, yet you managed to escape him and climb all the way here.”

His blue eyes, filled with proud affection as if gazing upon a cherished only son.

His gaze softened upon the face of his nephew—still beautiful despite the bloodstains, the murderous intent in his eyes now long gone.

Facing Clade, who had parted the bushes with his bloodied blade and entered his domain, stirred deep emotions within him.

Tall, broad-shouldered. A face soaked in blood. The deep golden hair, and that faintly arrogant posture—something about it.

Clade, who had returned from the crow to once again become Euphris’s treasure, had grown so much that he was astonishing to behold.

Igor gestured with his chin toward the bow and arrows carelessly scattered near Clade.

“There are monster-hunting arrows there.”

Just weapons someone had used in a hunt and then tossed aside carelessly. Yet Igor smiled faintly as he looked at them.

“I shot my younger brother exactly five of those arrows.”

Meeting Clade’s unchanging, silent stare, Igor calmly held up five fingers.

“I killed him with five shots.”

Igor, in the past.

Had killed his own younger brother, Emperor Alexei Euphris, with five monster-hunting arrows.

He had been assigned to guard the Emperor’s back during the royal hunt, and seized the chaos to shoot the Emperor instead of a monster.

There were no witnesses, and his excuse was flawless.

“You’re not surprised at all. Did you already know?”

Poison had been used in Eleonore’s carriage, which was busy managing guests and hosting events at the grand estate.

He hadn’t intended to kill her. He merely wanted to give his former fiancée one last chance, hoping she would make the easy choice.

To betray Alexei and become his woman.

If she had done so, he would have erased the Companni Marquisate from the map forever and made her Empress.

But on that day, Eleonore, facing death, had said this:

“I would rather die proudly as the mother of my beloved Clade and Apollini, than continue a pitiful life as the wife of a wretch less than a beast, even if it means losing the Emperor Alexei.”

Igor had belatedly forced an antidote into Eleonore’s mouth, but as she was being transported to the capital in a patient’s carriage, the moment his hand touched her body, she bit her tongue and died.

Before the poison had even fully spread.

At that moment.

How utterly stunned he had been.

It was a shock unlike any he had ever known. What exactly was that man’s love?

Would they really not yield, even at the cost of death? What could it possibly be? Was his love so vastly different from Eleonore’s?

Igor simply could not understand.

He himself had started a rebellion for the sake of his first love, but if someone asked whether he would die for Eleonore, he would refuse without hesitation.

Though he did not wish to make his son Bollonico a firstborn destined to be overshadowed by a younger brother as he had been, if asked to die for Bollonico, he would still refuse.

Eleonore and Alexei both had countless opportunities.

Alexei could have avoided rebellion simply by ignoring his brother’s flirtations with his wife and taking a mistress for pleasure, even as Emperor for life.

Eleonore could have simply said, “I do not love Alexei. I will become your woman,” and instantly received the antidote, maintaining her position as Empress by Igor’s side after he became Emperor.

Yet they did neither.

Alexei, even as Emperor, failed to separate duty from emotion and emotionally condemned him. Eleonore, even as she was dying, spoke only the truth.

Holding Eleonore’s cooling corpse, overcome with despair, he still could not comprehend it.

And at the same time, he refused to believe that his own love and beliefs had been wrong because of her death.

They were the ones who were wrong.

Love cannot take precedence over everything. There are far too many things in this world more important than love.

With love alone, nothing can be accomplished.

They had lost everything for the sake of love, and even Igor himself had never been able to possess any of the things he was born to love.

He had been abandoned by his father and never even earned a shred of pity from his fiancée.

Perhaps that was why.

He resolved, if only to prove it to his already-dead younger brother and his wife.

To take from them everything his brother had loved, just as his brother had taken everything he loved and driven him to death.

Even his nephew, Clade.

But then, the black sword—something astonishing happened.

The black sword, which his father Leon Euphris had never shown to Igor, had done something unexpected.

Clade, who so closely resembled Alexei and Eleonore, lost his beauty and fell under a terrible curse.

When the child—living proof of that accursed love they had cherished so deeply—became a hideous monster, Igor became certain he had been right.

Clade’s transformation into a monster was proof that he was correct.

It was proof that even the gods refused to recognize Alexei’s couple and Clade.

The mere thought of how utterly devastated they would have been, had they lived to see their once-proud eldest son become such a hideous creature, filled Igor with such exhilarating pleasure that his entire body shivered.

Yes, he would not kill Clade, but let him suffer eternal punishment—punishment in place of his parents.

That night, basking in the perfect retribution, he slept deeply and contentedly, everything feeling right.

He had succeeded in rebellion, skillfully fabricated excuses, and controlled public opinion.

Having obtained the black sword according to the legend that “the one who possesses the treasure of Pelliese shall become Emperor,” he believed everything from here on would go smoothly.

But as he had confessed to Yuan Pelliese, the problem lay not in the rebellion itself, which had been flawless, but in what followed.

At first, Igor had genuinely tried to rule the nation well.

But those who had followed the virtuous Emperor Alexei only feigned obedience, never offering him true loyalty.

The north, which had prospered by supporting Igor, was no concern, but the proud east—except for Drietter—had been given chances, yet family heads and heirs had taken their own lives, and Lord Noe had distanced himself from the imperial court.

The despicable western nobles now bowed their heads deeply, pretending loyalty, but were ready to switch allegiance at the first opportunity.

They were contemptible men who, if Bollonico weren’t somewhat capable, would have sidelined him long ago.

He had hastily crushed them under a reign of terror, but in truth, Igor was flustered.

He had believed people would recognize him as superior to the soft Alexei, seeing his strength.

But the nobles, whose arrogance had grown unchecked, remained difficult to control, even after he trampled the entire south as a warning.

As Emperor Igor, who had ascended the throne through legitimate external procedures, he could not simply exterminate them without cause.

Thus, he became even more obsessed with the treasure.

“You knew I killed your father, yet you’ve managed to survive all this time, keeping your head low.”

Emperor Igor’s eyes narrowed.

“Your father couldn’t have told you, and I’ve never openly spoken of it.”

He lazily ran his fingers over the black sword at his waist and chuckled lowly.

For a very long time, he had strived to uncover the secrets of this black sword.

He scoured the imperial library, opened secret vaults, and read every book he could find. Slowly gathering information, he eventually heard a rumor.

That the previous Count Pelliese had a daughter, and that she was still alive.

Then, did that mean the girl he had killed was not Philip Pelliese’s daughter?

Igor’s doubts began here.

Even after Clade, Igor had swung the black sword in various directions, and strangely, occasionally people fell under curses just like Clade.

He gathered such people, observed them, then killed them. The more he did so, the more his thirst grew to understand the sword’s secret.

He needed someone who could explain whether this sword possessed enough power to wipe out every disloyal noble.

He wanted to eliminate all nobles who believed he had unjustly usurped the throne, along with terrible curses.

That was the sword’s purpose. And by eliminating those who opposed him, the legend—“the one who possesses the treasure of Pelliese shall become Emperor”—would finally be fulfilled.

Judging by the half-hearted loyalty he had obtained, it was clear he was not using the treasure properly.

Moreover, this treasure was clearly still incomplete!

Thus, he decided to send Yuan Pelliese—the daughter of the previous Count Pelliese—to Clade.

But nothing happened. And when he used Bollonico to sneak into the bedroom, wasn’t it the same child he had killed once before?

A girl who, even after having her heart pierced by the black sword, neither fell under a curse nor died, but walked around perfectly alive!

Suspicion arose—could there be a power that absorbed curses, just as the treasure’s power inflicted them?

If the daughter of Pelliese who entered the bedroom possessed such an ability, what might the combined power be like if these mystical forces united?

No matter the outcome, he might be the first human to unravel this secret.

The legend might unfold right before his eyes. And so, he stabbed Louise—who stood before him under Yuan Pelliese’s name. He needed confirmation.

She ultimately died, but in the process of investigating Pelliese again, he discovered Philip Pelliese had another daughter—great progress.

If Gerret Pelliese had gone so far as to defy imperial orders and sent Louise disguised as Yuan, then the ‘real one’ must be Yuan Pelliese—he was certain.

He longed to bring her here immediately, but decided to test her first.

Would anything happen when she was placed near Clade? Or could she prove she was the ‘real one’?

And when he saw Clade’s face restored to its pristine beauty once more, he was overcome with rapture, not knowing what to do with himself.

At last, he had found the final piece to complete the legend.