CHAPTER 072
"Did she die by the hand of my father, who had become a beast? Answer me."
The Emperor's voice cracked with despair for the first time as he spoke through gritted teeth.
Count Corald, glancing between the Emperor and the prisoner, clenched his fists, feeling sweat accumulate in his palms.
Derek, whose head had been bowed, slowly lifted it to meet the deep crimson eyes in front of him.
"The Crown Prince never harmed the Crown Princess. Even at the moment, he lost his sanity after transforming into a beast."
Derek's voice, without a hint of hesitation, contained only the truth.
Swallowing the hot air rising in his throat, the Emperor asked through clenched teeth.
"Then, my mother...?"
"It was the Crown Princess's choice. She left the palace with the Crown Prince."
As Derek answered, the Emperor's eyes twitched momentarily, then settled.
The muscles in his shoulders, which had been tense, relaxed at the realization that his father had not harmed his mother.
But then, thinking about the young Crown Prince couple who had to abandon everything and leave, his heart tightened, and he furrowed his brow.
One of the things they left behind in the palace was...
As if reading the Emperor's thoughts, Derek lowered his head again and spoke.
"At that time, Your Majesty was not yet even a year old. In the situation where the Crown Prince was being pursued in his beast form, they couldn't take you with them. They couldn't put their beloved son in danger."
As Crown Prince Luka, who had begun rampaging after catching the scent of the assassins' blood, turned the Crown Prince's palace into a den of terror, Maxwell woke up and started crying.
As the black panther, not recognizing his own son, swung his paw at Maxwell, the Crown Princess shielded him with her body, crying out her husband's name.
"Luka!"
At that moment, when he heard the desperate scream of his beloved wife, the black panther regained his sanity and saw...
The corpses piled on the bedroom floor and the dark red liquid staining his paws.
He also saw Derek, who had tried to stop him and was bleeding from injuries.
The beast, who had regained his human consciousness, realized that he could be the greatest threat to the young son he loved the most.
Already, outside, hearing about the "appearance of the black panther," over a hundred palace guards were quickly gathering with torches, spears, and bows.
All were anxiously asking about the safety of Crown Prince Luka's family and looking for Sir Derek, the captain of the guards.
If the curse of Crown Prince Luka was discovered...
Even if he was the Crown Prince, if he was revealed to be a monster threatening the empire, as warned in the founding myths, he would not be able to survive.
The black panther's blood-red eyes and the Crown Princess's green eyes simultaneously looked at Maxwell, who was crying in his mother's arms.
It was clear that Maxwell, the son of a monster, would not only fail to become the future ruler of the empire but would also be in mortal danger.
Emperor Maxwell looked at Count Corald and spoke softly.
"My grandfather, the previous Emperor, was not originally the heir to the throne. He ascended to the throne after his cousin, the Crown Prince, died in an unfortunate accident. The records say that the Crown Prince had two sons, but they also lost their lives in that accident."
Count Corald swallowed dryly and met the Emperor's gaze.
The Emperor had already taken a step closer to discovering the secret of his lineage.
"Is my guess correct? It seems it's now your turn, Count. The story you've kept inside all these years."
Count Corald, as if having made up his mind, slowly began to speak, his voice devoid of emotion.
"The first time I encountered a black panther was when I was thirteen, just starting to assist with my family's duties."
It was when he first accompanied his father to the field as the heir to the Count Corald family, known for being 'monster hunters.'
Following the Emperor's command, his father and young Count Corald led their family's troops along the western mountains.
They were to capture the black panther that had suddenly appeared and ravaged several mountain villages overnight.
His father, the greatest hunter on the continent, finally succeeded in capturing the monster alive.
As he raised his great sword over the severely injured black panther, his father's hand suddenly stopped.
Looking down at the black panther, who was reverting to human form as it died, his father hurriedly covered the body with a cloak and began pulling out the dozens of arrows and spears embedded in it.
There was no way the head of the Corald family, trusted by the royal family, did not recognize the face of the Crown Prince.
"My father secretly brought the Crown Prince back to the palace and informed His Majesty."
Unfortunately, by then, the beastly nature had taken strong root in the Crown Prince's body, which had tasted blood.
At first, they announced that the Crown Prince had been severely injured and needed rest, then confined him to a villa, providing all possible treatment.
They brought in not only the best doctors but also anyone who knew even a little about curses, all under the guise of secrecy.
During this time, the Crown Prince's transformation into a monster became more frequent, and the violence escalated to the point that ordinary guards could no longer control him, resulting in dozens of soldiers dying.
No matter how much they tried to keep it secret, rumors began to spread.
Rumors about the Crown Prince started circulating within and outside the palace, and the Emperor had to make a decision.
The news of the death of the Crown Prince and his twin grandsons reached the ears of the father and son of the Corald family while they were crossing the sea to learn more about the curse.
Maxwell's grandfather, Maximus, who was the Emperor's nephew, was not originally destined to become Emperor.
The Emperor had a twenty-six-year-old son and two twin grandsons who were just two years old.
However, the Crown Prince and his sons went hunting and returned to the palace as ashes due to a wildfire.
The Emperor, having lost both his sons and grandsons at once, adopted his younger brother's only son, Maximus, as the heir.
Maximus, who was thirty-three at the time, became the Crown Prince and ascended to the throne two years later. Crown Prince Luka also became the Crown Prince at the age of fifteen.
"The reason even the twin children were killed..."
"It's because the children of a human who has become a monster are born with the same curse in their blood."
Count Corald answered the Emperor's question somberly.
Hearing the Count's response, the Emperor looked down at Derek, still kneeling on the floor.
"So, my parents left to save me?"
Derek, instead of answering, bowed his head even lower.
Crown Prince Luka, realizing that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't lift the curse, was about to reveal his monstrous nature and accept his fate.
However, his wife became pregnant, and Maxwell was born.
The monster records clearly stated that the blood of a monster would be passed down to its descendants, and they too must be killed.
The curse that had skipped over his father, Emperor Maximus, had manifested in Crown Prince Luka, implying that it would also pass on to Maxwell.
Knowing that if it was revealed that he was a monster, his son Maxwell's life would be in danger, Crown Prince Luka fled the palace in the form of a black panther. His loving wife, the Crown Princess, followed him.
"You..."
The Emperor, narrowing his eyes as if the darkness hurt, asked quietly.
"Why didn't you tell me? If you had informed my grandfather, at least, I wouldn't have had to live in this hell."
The Emperor's chest felt heavy as he asked the question to which he already knew the answer.
When Derek slowly raised his head, his black eyes, honest and resolute like those of a knight, were revealed.
"I swore to the Crown Prince as he left. I promised to protect Your Majesty. I couldn't protect Prince Luka any longer, but I vowed to protect his son... I promised."
If the truth had been told to the Emperor, Maxwell would not exist in this world.
Especially after the Emperor had a son with the new Empress three years later, it would have been the perfect excuse to eliminate Maxwell.
Count Corald turned his head and tightened the muscles around his eyes, now damp, as he saw the Emperor's cold, unresponsive gaze fixed on Derek.
The prisoner, who had been scorned as a coward and whose honor had fallen, had endured in the darkness for 25 years for the Emperor he had not seen since that day.
"I've recorded all the information I collected while I was out there. I thought it might be of some help..."
Derek, barely able to stand on his trembling legs, moved toward the corner where he had been sitting.
It seemed like a miracle that he could take even a few steps without a cane.
He brought a tattered cloth that looked like leather covering from under a pile of straw and knelt again before the Emperor, presenting it to him.
In the Emperor's view, faded red letters on a yellowing cloth appeared.
The fact that the writing was done without ink...
The Emperor's crimson eyes stared intently at Derek's chapped and cracked fingers.
As if signaling the approach of dawn, the oil in the lamp began to burn low, casting shadows in the narrow, foul-smelling cell.
A brief silence fell in the cell.
Without taking his red eyes off the bowed head of the prisoner, the Emperor spoke.
"Stand up."
At the sound of the deep voice in his ear, the prisoner stood stiffly, creaking as he did.
Though his body was gaunt, his height and broad shoulders nearly matched those of the tall Maxwell, indicating that he had once been a knight who protected the glory of the empire across the continent.
The Emperor drew his long sword from his belt.
The sharp blade hovered over the prisoner's neck, entangled in long, disheveled hair.
Count Corald's eyes widened in surprise before he gritted his teeth hard enough to crush them, thinking to himself.
The Emperor, having learned what he wanted from the prisoner, intends to eliminate the man who knows his secret to remove any weakness.
The Count silently lamented as he looked helplessly at the prisoner, who was about to be beheaded.
The black eyes that met the Emperor's red gaze disappeared under his closing eyelids, offering no resistance.
Swish.
Thud.
Instead of the prisoner's head, the long hair severed by the Emperor's sword fell to the floor.
"I don't allow my knights to have long hair. I don't know what my father thought, but from now on, the Emperor you will serve as a very difficult and exacting personality."
At the Emperor's indifferent and calm voice,
Thud.
A thick tear fell down the wrinkled and scarred face of the prisoner.
"Baron Derek Che Beohrer. By the authority of the Emperor, I restore your title and honor at this moment."
The Emperor's sword, now horizontal, touched the bowed head and shoulders of the standing prisoner.
It was the moment the prisoner, who had lost his name for 25 years, regained it.
***
"I also have a book to show you in the third historical archive."
Count Corald said, picking up the lamp from the cell wall.
"It's about the three kingdoms and the Lumen Savior tribe before the Heltarud Empire was established."
The Count slowly began to speak to the red eyes looking at him, as if hearing this for the first time.
"It seems to be deeply connected with the royal curse... and Lady Arabelle."
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