Chapter 207: 110. The End and the Beginning (Part Two)
**
The following morning.
The beheading was carried out.
Rose stood in front of the guillotine installed within Laurensis’s plaza.
She dazedly looked up at the sky. The sun’s bright rays made her narrow her eyes.
Her hearing didn’t seem to be working properly. The citizens gathered in the plaza began throwing stones at her and angrily yelled at her.
Their voices were filled with resentment.
However, Rose couldn’t hear them at all.
A voice belonging to someone else entirely continued to swim within her ears and her mind even at this very moment.
-Do you remember, mother? That one time, there was a fierce thunderstorm. You held me and comforted me back to sleep. Did you know how warm and safe I felt back then? I still recall that moment often whenever things get too difficult for me.
Whose... voice did it belong to?
She was so sure that the voice came to her last night.
Along with that voice, someone gently embraced her shoulders.
-On the year I turned ten, I brought you a wild flower I plucked from a field, mother. But you scolded me instead, saying that I’ve dirtied my clothes. Hahaha... I felt so hurt back then.
That person continued to speak gently to her and stroked her hair.
-Honestly, I’ve always resented you, mother.
Just whose voice was it?
-However, I...
Ah, right. This voice, it...
Rose’s figure was pushed down to the guillotine by the executioner.
Her hands began trembling.
But someone reached out and grasped her hands.
It was White Olfolse, and he was tightly clenching his teeth. He was here to witness the final moments of a woman he once loved.
-...I also loved you, mother.
Rose’s eyes opened wider and wider.
A figure of a child slowly appeared in her head. It was a young baby boy. She cared for him; she fed him, raised him, and even taught him many things.
The baby became a child, the child became a boy, and this boy became a young man.
His face, previously obscured by the darkest fog imaginable in her mind began to reappear little by little. And she got to see that face last night.
The son she had given birth to.
Tears slowly trickled down from the corners of her eyes.
“Ru...ppel.”
“Execute!”
And then... the guillotine fell.
The woman who used to be the Second Crown Princess Consort was placed inside a nondescript coffin. Her final fate was to be buried in an unmarked grave in a mountain located somewhere behind the palace she used to live, not inside the crypt meant for the Imperial Family.
The next execution to be carried out was hanging.
Ruppel was led up to the deck.
He stared at the coffin containing his mother and consoled his heart. Even then, he smiled wryly at the sight of the citizens hurling stones at him.
This was understandable, considering that he was responsible for starting a war.
Even if Rose had ordered him to, he did try to sell out his own nation. It was time for him to pay for his crime.
The executioner placed the rope around Ruppel’s throat. It was at that moment fear suddenly took a hold of him.
He was going to die. Without a doubt, this was the just punishment for his crime. Yet...
“Ahaha. Wow, I’m quite a hypocrite, aren’t I?”
He wanted to live.
Ruppel started trembling from fear.
His breathing got rougher and heavier as he cast his gaze to the floor.
In a short moment, this wooden floor supporting his weight would give way and his body would fall through the opening.
The rope would tighten around his neck and break the bones found there. He’d struggle during the asphyxiation and gradually die.
“...!”
That horrifying imagery slammed him in the head and his teeth began clattering all of a sudden.
“This is your punishment.”
Ruppel flinched in surprise at the voice and looked behind him.
Allen was sitting on a chair with his arms across his chest above a raised platform. Behind him were the other siblings of the Imperial Family, as well as White Olfolse.
“Did you come here to witness my final moments?” Ruppel asked.
Allen didn’t reply to that.
Ruppel ended up guffawing hollowly at that response. “Ha, hahaha... You too are a rather vile person, aren’t you? Allen?”
This goddamn younger brother of his...
He was merely a mangnani, but somehow, he had morphed into a man cheered on by the empire’s subjects.
“It would’ve been nice if I was like you.”
“Brother, you better recant that statement. You might end up going through hell if you don’t.”
“Hahaha!”
Ruppel looked up at the sky. Even before he noticed it, the sunset had come to bathe the world in an amber hue.
Around the same time, the preparation for hanging was completed.
Ruppel’s heart began pounding away.
“Allen.”
When Ruppel called out to him, Allen glanced back.
He turned his head towards his younger brother and forced a smile on his face. “If there’s indeed a next life, I...”
The executioner lifted up his axe and aimed it at the rope that was secured to the floor.
“...I wish to live like you.”
“Execute!”
The axe came down and severed the rope.
Ruppel’s vision was violently upturned. The view containing Allen rapidly disappeared and he crashed towards the ground below.
Crunch!
The rope tightened around his neck.
“Euh-ahhh...”
His vision grew dimmer.
He couldn’t breathe. The pressure on his neck grew and it felt like all of his blood was rushing up to his head.
Ah, ah...
Ruppel’s eyes shifted to the side.
He faintly could see and hear the resentment-filled cries of the countless gathered subjects.
The punishment for the crime he committed – he was paying the price in full.
“Oh, dear goddess...”
Dear merciful Gaia. Maybe, just maybe, if you give me a chance...
“Keok...”
In my next life, I beg of you...
“Ah... ah...”
...Please give me a chance to live my life for the citizens.
Ruppel’s eyes gradually closed shut.
His body went limp.
On this day, the Third Imperial Prince of the Theocratic Empire...
Ruppel Olfolse had died.
**
Clank, clunk...
A carriage with piles of hay stacked up on its cargo bay was slowly travelling across the coarse surface of the rural highway.
Its driver, wearing a straw hat, used his whip and the horse neighed unhappily before shaking its body.
For a moment there, the carriage became ever so slightly airborne. The impact from that disturbance prompted a young man laying among the piles of hay to open his eyes.
His consciousness remained foggy while his vision was blurry and indistinct.
The first thing to greet him was the warm light; the young man extended his hand towards the blinding rays of sun.
“Is this... heaven?”
“No. It’s neither heaven nor hell.”
The young man gasped out in surprise and hurriedly pushed his upper torso up. He then urgently rubbed his neck.
There’s nothing? Not even a wound or scar?
‘N-no, hold on. Before all that, I’m still alive?’
But what about the execution?
Was that a dream?
No, it couldn’t be. That was definitely not a dream. All the emotions and the physical sensations he felt back then...
...They had been real.
The young man turned his head and stared at the carriage driver who had addressed him just now.
“Looks like you’ve finally woken up.”
The driver, the vice captain of the Paladin Corps, Harman, took off the straw hat and looked behind him.
The young man dazedly stared at Harman and muttered out, “What is the meaning of...”
“It was his highness’s decree.”
His highness’s decree? What did that even mean?
“You have already died once. And now...”
...He was revived.
The young man, Ruppel, opened his eyes so much wider.
“His highness told me that it was mighty troublesome to revive you. He’s probably suffering from severe muscle pain as we speak.”
Ruppel’s slack jaw clamped shut.
Harman glanced at him again. “And also... he said that you should live your life not as someone’s puppet, but as your own.”
“W-what, but...?”
“There is a small monastery up north.”
“...”
“A well-known mangnani used to work there as a gravekeeper, but now, that post has been left vacant. It’s the perfect place for a traitor who sold his own country to be banished there, don’t you agree?”
Ruppel’s brows shot up high.
Harman grinned and put the straw hat back on. “This is the last message his highness the Seventh Imperial Prince has for you.”
-You wanna live like me?
While listening to Harman, Ruppel began recalling the Seventh Imperial Prince. The sly-as-fox grinning mug of Allen floated up oh-so clearly in his mind.
-In that case, why don’t you work your ass to the bone?! Let’s see how a frail little flower raised in a greenhouse will fare in the outside world! Take care of the rotting corpses, bury them, and when the time comes, try to stop the waves of death once every year. Work for next to no compensation for the sake of your subjects. That will be...
Allen wagged his finger.
-...Your last chance to atone for the rest of your life.
Ruppel slowly covered his face. “Harman.”
historical
“...”
“Is it fine for me to live on?”
“That is your choice to make.”
“That means... it’s fine.” Ruppel began sobbing again. “Indeed, I’ll live on. And not only that...”
He began clenching his fists tightly.
“...I shall live my life for the subjects.”
Harman smiled faintly under the hat at Ruppel’s declaration.
His current task was to accompany Ruppel to the monastery up north.
“Soon, winter will come.” Harman glanced back at Ruppel once more. “It’s going to get really tough for you. You better prepare yourself.”
**
Holy Emperor Kelt Olfolse was listening to the reports regarding what happened within the Theocratic Empire, as well as the events of Lome Kingdom.
“...Cough, cough!”
He suddenly broke out in a fit of coughs.
Cardinal Raphael, who was standing next to him, patted his back. Kelt waved his hand to indicate that he was fine.
It was at that moment that the door to the imperial audience chamber was pushed open. Kelt turned his head and looked at the Seventh Imperial Prince striding closer.
“Oh, Allen. Welcome back.”
Kelt smiled gently at his grandson.
He had been deriving much pleasure lately from watching over this grandson of his. He’d have nothing more to ask for and simply die in peace if he got to see this boy keep racking up more achievements and earn his status, and also earning the support of the masses in the process.
And that status obviously meant the title of the Holy Emperor.
That’s why...
“Ehem!”
The sound of Cardinal Raphael clearing his throat came from Kelt’s side. The Holy Emperor frowned slightly.
“It’s too early, your majesty.”
What a stingy guy he was.
Kelt shot a dissatisfied glare at Raphael.
But then again, he did have a point; his grandson certainly lacked the etiquette befitting an Imperial Family member, as well as all sorts of other knowledge on refinement necessary for a Holy Emperor.
Not only did he need to learn more about politics, he also needed to learn all the dark secrets of the Imperial Family one at a time as well.
That’s why...
‘Well, having him become the divine king should be alright.’
A position that hadn’t existed before – the status meant for the number one candidate to inherit the throne of the Holy Emperor, someone even higher in rank than the Crown Imperial Prince...
There should be no problem to bestow such a position to the boy.
Raphael nodded slightly, indicating that he had no objections to that idea.
Kelt also nodded in return and looked back at Allen.
The boy opened his mouth first. “Your majesty, I came to speak to you as I have a favour to ask of you.”
Kelt’s eyes shone slightly in the light of surprise at what Allen had said.
A favour?
His grandson was asking for a favour?
Not once did this boy ask for a favour until now. But to think that he’d come first and ask for one like this.
“What is it that you seek, boy?”
“May I have some vacation time, please?”
“Vacation, is it?”
Allen nodded silently.
Kelt interlocked his fingers while looking back at the boy.
Indeed, it wouldn’t be strange to see the Seventh Imperial Prince collapse from overwork when considering all the trials and tribulations he had gone through recently.
He not only apprehended both the Second Crown Princess Consort and Ruppel, but was also there to witness their execution. The shock to his mind must’ve been great, and therefore, he probably wanted to rest his weary soul.
“How long do you need?”
“I believe about three months should suffice, your majesty.”
Three months? That was certainly longer than expected. However, there was no reason not to grant it either.
Just the achievement of massacring all those Vampires in Lome Kingdom alone should be acknowledged and rewarded accordingly. That incident would’ve put a major dent in the Vampires’ plan to invade the empire, after all.
“Very well. But why three months?”
“I was thinking of going on a trip, you see.”
“A trip?”
Allen nodded and smiled suspiciously. “I’d like to head to the kingdom of magic, Aihrance. Apparently...”
The treasured item of Ordin Olfolse, the first Holy Emperor, as mentioned by ex-Third Imperial Prince Ruppel...
“...A treasure is waiting for me there.”
He was planning to go there and get it.
< 110. The End and the Beginning (Part One and Two) > Fin.
(TL: next chapter will go live in one hour’s time.)