# Chapter 116
Raziel, who had been sitting languidly on the imperial throne, straightened his back and crossed his legs arrogantly. What emanated from his figure was the noble dignity and powerful intimidation that the Emperor of the Caron Empire usually displayed without filtration.
“Leave.”
“…Your Majesty.”
Anton nervously trembled his shoulders as he stepped one pace closer. At the toe of his extended foot were three steps leading up to the dais where the imperial throne stood. If he continued forward, regardless of whether it was disrespectful or not, he could reach out and forcibly drag the Emperor away, but that single step felt difficult.
In the end, Anton turned away without daring to set foot on the stairs that only the Emperor was allowed to ascend.
As Anton walked down the unguarded corridor after leaving the throne hall, he placed his hand over the left side of his chest. Between his palm and his rapidly beating heart—pounding from anxiety and unease—he could feel a slightly thick piece of paper.
Anton stretched out his foot while biting his lips tightly, caressing Raziel’s letter that he had tucked away in his breast pocket along with the fabric of his clothes.
After walking out of the imperial palace, which felt so devoid of human presence that it gave him chills, Anton boarded a shabby carriage prepared in advance and left the vast domain that could no longer be called the capital.
Meanwhile, Raziel, sitting alone on the imperial throne, gazed out the window where victorious cheers could be heard, and fell into memories of Theodore.
‘Back then, it was the opposite.’
In the past, when he had killed the “real Raziel” and carried out the coup that he had planned.
The one sitting on this imperial throne was the black fragment that had been the shadow emperor of the “real Theodore,” and he himself had been at the vanguard of those charging to occupy the imperial palace, just like the owners of those cheers outside.
Like a fragment resonating with another fragment, Raziel, who could sense Theodore’s presence even from a distance, was able to reach this place faster than anyone else.
To have time alone with him, he had deliberately kept others away as he entered the hall, and a voice greeted him as if it had been waiting.
“Welcome.”
As he recalled that moment, Theodore’s soft smile naturally came to mind.
Theodore’s appearance seemed more comfortable than expected. He even looked pleased, as if thinking that he could finally end it all.
With his sword lowered, stained with the blood of many humans, he headed toward the imperial throne where Theodore was. At last, he stepped onto the stairs leading up to the dais.
Tok tok—
The sound of blood drops falling from the tip of his sword to the floor seemed particularly loud.
Theodore, who had been quietly watching him, pointed to a square iron box placed beside the imperial throne.
Raziel noticed that a strange energy surrounded the box, which looked so sturdy that it seemed nothing ordinary could scratch it. It was something that normal humans wouldn’t be able to sense, but any entity like Raziel, who had a connection to the “source of magic,” would recognize it.
Magic.
One of those things that had disappeared from this continent along with the extinction of the gray dragon, which had become nothing more than a myth, was surrounding the iron box that Theodore’s fingertip pointed to.
To the wary Raziel, Theodore opened the box himself to show him. Upon seeing it, Raziel couldn’t help but understand what Theodore was thinking.
What was contained in the box was Theodore’s “head” with a peaceful expression.
The Theodore sitting on the imperial throne as the shadow emperor was originally a black fragment that had broken off from Levi. If a fragment detaches from a body or breaks, it would disappear into black ashes, just like Levi, the original body, would.
The way to prove the success of a coup was to behead the former emperor.
If the Theodore on the throne died and turned to ashes, there would be no evidence that the former emperor had actually been dealt with. In that case, Raziel would have nothing to show except his word that he had personally beheaded the emperor, making it difficult to unite all the participants of the coup and all the people of the empire. That would soon lead to the empire itself creaking and making all kinds of noises.
As if knowing this, Theodore had prepared the head of the “real emperor” in advance.
When Emperor Theodore died, they would have had to secretly cremate him to conceal the fact that the Theodore on the throne was a shadow emperor, but it seemed he had left only the head for this day. In an imperial relic with preservation magic cast on it.
Without lengthy conversation, Raziel read Theodore’s thoughts and boldly climbed the stairs to stand before him.
“Good work.”
It was a brief farewell.
Nevertheless, Theodore smiled brightly as if those words compensated for all the days he had lived until now.
Raziel wanted to ask Theodore, who was closing his eyes and revealing his collarbone submissively.
Had he never once been greedy?
Had he never once wanted to change himself, who moved and progressed according to the forcibly raised will of a human and his thoughts? Raziel wanted to ask.
But the words wouldn’t come out.
Because if he asked that of a black fragment identical to himself and heard the answer “no,” it would only prove that he himself was a mutant for harboring such doubts.
The moment the black fragment embedded in Theodore’s collarbone was pulled out by Raziel’s black hand.
As if answering Raziel’s thoughts, Theodore spoke.
“I know I shouldn’t, but… I wanted to meet my son.”
A bitter lingering regret remained on Theodore’s face as he turned to ash and scattered away.
Raziel had thought that even his last words would reflect the will of the human who had awakened him.
Please take care of this country, create a nation without war, I hope it becomes a country where everyone can smile.
Given the aspects of being a wise ruler that Emperor Theodore and the black fragment had shown thus far, it wouldn’t have been strange at all if such trite pacifist words had flowed out.
But contrary to expectations, the shadow emperor’s last wishes were too modest.
“Son…?”
With Theodore’s fragment in his hand, Raziel stared at the black ashes scattering before his eyes. At that time, Raziel was so dizzy from his wavering vision that he felt vertigo.
It was only then that Raziel realized the shadow emperor had a son.
He wondered if the shadow emperor had given birth to a child in place of Emperor Theodore, but if so, it made no sense that it hadn’t been revealed until now.
If there had been a legitimate heir to succeed the throne, it would have been quite difficult to proceed with the coup for usurpation. Perhaps it might have faced considerable opposition and the coup itself might have been thwarted long ago. If Emperor Theodore had wanted peace, he would have chosen to suppress the coup as much as possible, even by putting forward his own son.
Moreover, Theodore had referred to “my son,” not “his son.”
“I wanted to meet my son.”
That became a clear answer to Raziel’s question.
‘I’ am not the shadow of a human, ‘I’ am just myself.
From the moment he realized that with certainty, his vision changed.
Vitality took root in Raziel’s eyes, which had seemed to view a dull world composed only of black and white, and he began to choose a path that gradually deviated from the human will that had been the foundation of everything.
Around that time.
The black fragment embedded in his collarbone warned him, spreading terrible pain.
That his lifespan did not have much left.
That was like a bolt from the blue for Raziel.
More frightening than the pain was the fact that his lifespan might suddenly end one day.
Just as he had begun to live according to his own will rather than someone else’s, why…
Trembling in the midst of bleak reality and fear, Raziel was able to absorb Levi’s fifth fragment, which had been sleeping in the pond in the Black Forest, just before his lifespan ran out.
After the pain and fear that had made his entire body tremble disappeared in an instant, what followed was a new memory that Levi had acquired.
Ion.
A small child with golden hair.
Having accumulated all the memories Levi had held until now by absorbing the last fragment, Raziel could immediately recognize who Ion was.
The human child, who possessed the power of life opposite to his original body, was clearly the child of the deposed Princess Claudia. It was natural since he had inherited the ability that she had possessed.
But the child didn’t emanate the aura of ‘curse’ that the power of life should have.
Raziel could tell that the deposed Princess Claudia had a relationship with the black fragment called Theodore and gave birth to the Holy One, offsetting the curse inherent in the power of life.
Raziel covered his mouth with both hands as a smile of ecstasy spread across his face.
What could be more effective in cutting off ‘fate’ than killing a child with the power of life and breaking the flow?
Returning from his reminiscence, Raziel sensed the energy of the power of life entering the imperial palace. He picked up the sword leaning against the side of the imperial throne, placed it on his knee, and closed his eyes quietly.
Soon after, he heard someone’s footsteps entering the hall.
“Raziel.”
At the end of Raziel’s gaze as he slowly opened his eyes was Ion Verdit, clearly revealing his killing intent.
A small smile appeared on Raziel’s lips.
