CHAPTER 073
Creak
Count Corald opened the narrow and low prison door.
With the Count's help, Sir Derek stepped through the open door. It was the first time in 25 years that the prisoner crossed the threshold of the cell.
All three men passed silently through the double prison and stood before a narrow and steep spiral staircase.
Count Corald, who had been supporting Sir Derek's unsteady body with his arm around his shoulder, looked troubled.
It was impossible to support Derek down the narrow staircase, designed for one adult man at a time.
"From here, I will go down on my own."
Reading Count Corald's troubled thoughts, Sir Derek spoke quietly.
His body was damaged by severe torture, lack of exercise, and malnutrition.
Even walking on flat ground seemed precarious; descending the steep staircase from the eighth floor seemed impossible.
Just as Count Corald was about to suggest carrying him down, thinking it was too dangerous,
"You lead the way with the lamp."
The Emperor's voice came from above the Count's head.
And soon, Count Corald's eyes widened in disbelief.
The Emperor stepped in front of Sir Derek and offered his back.
"Climb on."
"Your Majesty...!"
Sir Derek also called the Emperor's name in a voice full of shock, as if this were impossible.
"I can't do that. I'll go down by myself."
"There is something you need to know about the Emperor you will serve. I detest repeating myself. Especially when someone contradicts my orders, I find it extremely unpleasant."
Sir Derek, still not used to the Emperor's tone, looked at Count Corald with wavering eyes.
He desperately sought help from the Count, but Count Corald, still not fully understanding the Emperor's personality, was just as bewildered.
The Emperor deliberately spoke gruffly to the still hesitant Sir Derek.
"And one more thing. I do not tolerate wasting time. Waiting for you to descend the stairs will take half a day. So stop wasting my precious time and get on."
Sir Derek looked at the broad back before him.
The son of Crown Prince Luka, who was polite and kind to everyone regardless of rank or status, had the opposite tone.
Yet, strangely, he didn't feel any aversion to the Emperor's cold and arrogant tone.
The old knight, who had once faced the strongest warriors on the continent, thought it might be because he felt the true dignity of a victor, rather than empty arrogance.
Sir Derek closed his eyes tightly and climbed onto the Emperor's back.
Holding a lamp with oil nearly burned out, Count Corald led the way down the stairs, followed silently by the Emperor carrying Sir Derek.
Though the emaciated patient's body was nothing but skin and bones, he was still a tall man with a broad frame.
Yet, the Emperor, carrying him, showed not a single sign of strain.
His steps down the steep stairs were firm and steady as if he didn't feel the weight at all.
Memories flashed through Sir Derek's mind of when Crown Prince Luka had carried him back to camp after losing his left arm while saving him on the battlefield.
The last time he saw Crown Prince Maxwell, he was just about to celebrate his first birthday.
The baby, who was smaller than his arm, had now grown taller than his father, Crown Prince Luka, at his age.
The tightly packed, dense muscles felt through the Emperor's skin spoke of the valor he must have shown on the battlefield.
The scars on the Emperor's neck and the calluses on his hands indicated that the young Emperor, too, had lived a life far from easy.
The deep wrinkles around his eyes were damp with moisture.
The Emperor could tell that the old knight, who had endured a hellish time for 25 years for the safety of the young Crown Prince, was in terrible shape.
He couldn't bring himself to say "thank you" or "well done."
Such words felt woefully inadequate compared to the weight of the sacrifice he had endured.
Even though the Emperor was capricious and arrogant, he didn't want to diminish the knight's sacrifice with hastily uttered, common words.
The only sound on the dark, narrow stone steps was the quiet clinking of shoes.
Finally, the tower door opened to the outside world.
As Sir Derek, still on the Emperor's back, took in the sight of the sky beginning to brighten and the forest surrounding the tower, he opened his dry, cracked lips and took a long breath of the dawn air before slowly exhaling.
Seeing the outside world again after 25 years was dazzlingly brilliant, even before the sun had risen.
***
The third library, where materials related to the early history of the empire were kept.
It was a stark contrast to the vast and splendid first and second libraries, which housed materials that proclaimed the empire's prominence on the continent.
Unlike the first and second libraries, located within the museum inside the palace, the third library was situated in the basement of the seldom-used north wing.
It had been forgotten, squeezed between storage rooms filled with various palace odds and ends.
Even the Emperor had never set foot in the third library.
The empire's history, from the founding myths of Heltarud recorded by the imperial historians to the present, was kept in the first library.
The third library was a place for damaged records and miscellaneous stories from just before and shortly after the founding, too ambiguous to discard.
The shelves of the third library were filled with the poems and song lyrics of bards, whose truth was not verified, and diaries of unknown authors.
After entrusting Sir Derek to Sir George, the Emperor's personal physician, the Emperor entered the third library, his expression as always revealing nothing but cold indifference.
Standing beside him, the two large knights sobbed openly, making it hard to believe they were sharing the same story.
Jacob and Peter, unexpectedly called to the third library early in the morning, heard that the Emperor had met Sir Derek and had brought him out of the tower.
Their shoulders began to shake in unison as they learned that the Emperor had discovered the secret of the curse and the events of the night the black panther appeared.
Unable to control their overwhelming emotions, the two knights, reputed to be the most valiant on the continent, wept uncontrollably, wiping tears that wouldn't stop with their thick hands.
Count Corald, for the first time, looked at the visibly flustered Emperor Maxwell and whispered softly in his ear.
"In the knight academy, the three of them were nicknamed 'The Bizarre Crybaby Trio.' They were known for being the best on the training ground, showing no mercy, but they would get teary-eyed at the sight of falling petals."
Count Corald, a junior by a year, recalled with a faint smile.
"The three of you, not just the two of you..."
The Emperor's eyes narrowed slightly as he realized they were referring to his father, Crown Prince Luka, who had been their closest friend.
"We swore never to cry again after letting His Highness the Crown Prince leave us like that... We don't even deserve to cry... sob... for failing to protect His Majesty...hic..."
"It was heart-wrenching to see His Majesty inherit the curse... wailing..."
The commander and deputy commander of the Imperial Guard, who could easily capture wild boars with one hand and defeat dozens of enemies with a single sword, were now crying and sniffling.
The Emperor glanced at the two knights, unsure when they would calm down, and nodded towards Count Corald.
Count Corald led the Emperor to an old cabinet tucked away in the most secluded corner of the library.
"These are materials that my grandfather and father secretly gathered. Like me, they had suspicions but couldn't be certain."
Count Corald unlocked the cabinet and took out damaged clay tablets, individual pieces of papyrus, and bundles of parchment, placing them on the table.
The materials, recorded on mediums used before paper, were filled with stories and illustrations depicting the late Helterde Kingdom, just before it became an empire.
It was a history of the late Helterde Kingdom, compiled over three generations of the Count Corald family.
Stories that had vanished from everyone's memory...
No, atrocities of the Helterde Kingdom, meticulously erased and manipulated from history, soaked in blood.
To become an empire, to become the strongest on the continent, the kingdom had committed the atrocity of exterminating an entire race.
Even the Emperor, who wielded his sword without hesitation and executed his strategies mercilessly to dominate the continent, swallowed dryly at the brutality and cold-bloodedness of his ancestors.
The reason Helterde and two other now-nonexistent kingdoms were able to form an alliance and overthrow the empires and powerful nations on the continent...
It was because of the Lumen Savior Tribe, known as the Guardians of Light.
The Lumen Saviors could not only heal animals but also communicate with them.
According to a poem written on a damaged clay tablet, it was said that an ancient goddess who ruled nature gave the tribe the ability to control animals after they saved her daughter from being kidnapped by the Demon King.
Another record written on papyrus stated that they were a tribe born between gods and humans who crossed from the eastern sea, bringing animals unknown to the continent.
The Lumen Savior Tribe, numbering less than 300, lived like nomads, moving with animals along the eastern mountain range of the continent according to the seasons.
They tried to protect the animals from hunters and the humans who damaged the mountains for mining and logging, but it was difficult for them, as they were naturally gentle and knew nothing of fighting.
Then the three kingdoms reached out to them. Promising to protect the mountains and the lives within them, the kings of the three kingdoms gained the trust of the Lumen Saviors, who helped them become the continent's strongest powers.
The tribe trained animals, enabling the three kingdoms to win against empires and strong nations, and they made significant contributions to establishing trade routes connecting the ends of the continent.
Once Helterde thoroughly used them and became an empire, and the two other kingdoms rose to the status of the continent's strongest nations, the three kingdoms had to ensure that no other kingdom could possess the Lumen Saviors. And they devised the only way to ensure the Lumen Savior Tribe would never be used by another force.
Morning sunlight streamed through the library's only window, illuminating the bloodstained parchment in the Emperor's hand.
[Extermination Plan for the Lumen Savior Tribe, the Guardians of Light]
As he held the parchment, an old, yellowed piece of papyrus fluttered and fell to the floor.
A verse from an ancient bard's song, which kept him awake at night, came to his red eyes.
"Oh, pitiable and sorrowful last princess of the Lumen Saviors,
Abandoned by the King of Helterde, who lost her beautiful light,
Deceived by the king's false love, unable to cross the River Aether,
Do not be too sorrowful.
The tears we shed while waiting for you will become a curse and make the three kingdoms disappear."
Around the princess, lying with her eyes closed as if sleeping, animals shedding tears were drawn on the papyrus with the song lyrics.
As foretold in the song's prophecy, two of the three kingdoms had perished and existed only in the memory of history.
The last remaining kingdom...
The Emperor's jaw clenched tightly, his teeth grinding.
...was now the strongest empire on the continent, Helterde.
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