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Side Story Chapter 8

Then did that mean that he’d fainted? In that case, he couldn’t have embarrassed himself more than he already had. He had definitely been sparring—no, was Cain just using the sparring as an excuse to beat him up?

‘Ha…’ Kireua chuckled bitterly.

In his dream, Kireua could see everything from outside of his body—it had been the same when the young Kireua was going through the same experience.

It sounded like someone was getting beaten with a bat. In actuality, a red-haired man was using his bare fists to lay into a young Kireua, who clutched a spear that was taller than him. No matter how much time passed or the background changed, it was the same. The young Kireua became bigger—an adult—and yet he was still beaten down. Kireua actually had gone through all of that in the past.

‘…I was really cocky.’

The red-haired man was none other than the Knight of Red Flame. Everything happened when he was young, so the memories had faded. However, he still could feel how much pain he had been through.

On the day Kireua had arrived at the Thran Kingdom with only a spear, he was able to meet the Knight of Red Flame in, surprisingly, less than a day. Ulabis met Kireua right after he heard that Kireua was Joshua Sanders’s son. The problem had occurred a little later.

* * *

“What? You want to fight me?” Ulabis dumbfoundedly repeated.

“Yes, I need to defeat you with this spear, sir.”

“Hold on. Back up a little. So you’re saying that you’ll beat me using that spear?”

“Are you scared?” Kireua asked provokingly.

“What? Scared? Hehehe, you little shrew.”

* * *

If Kireua thought about it now, he really had been out of his mind. Ulabis, the Flame Emperor, Kireua’s teacher, was already one of the great Nine Absolutes on the continent at the time. Although Kireua only found out later, Ulabis had already gained the authority of the Flame Dragon Spirit by the time Kireua first met him. Kairan the red dragon was the strongest creature in history, and the great dragon had become a god after his death. Later, he made a contract with Kireua’s teacher, who was a great match with him. As a result, the Flame Emperor was known as one of the three strongest Stars, along with the Combat Emperor.

Anyhow, Kireua had been beaten within an inch of his life every day for a whole month.

* * *

Ulabis frowned. “Are you really Joshua’s son?”

“…Ugh.”

“Even if I consider your age, you’re weaker than I expected.” Ulabis tilted his head. “By the way, do you realize that you and the spear are a bad match?”

“I’m… still growing up, so nothing is decided for certain until I become an adult.”

“I’m not just talking about physical problems. Hmm, I’m not sure how to explain this. Judging from your state, I think Joshua would have already explained enough.” Ulabis scratched the back of his head for a long moment “Forget it. By the look of it, you seem to be talented in swords. Why don’t you become my student?”

“No, I don’t want to.”

Ulabis raised an eyebrow. “Can you at least pretend to think about it for a moment? I know I’m not your father, but I’m also quite a celebrity on the continent.”

“I only want the best to be my teacher. You lost to him before, Knight of Red Flame.”

“…You little bastard.” Ulabis smiled crookedly.

* * *

On that day, Kireua was beaten half to death again and again. After a year, Kireua had finally given up; he realized deep in his bones what the others meant when they said that he and spears weren’t a good match. Of course, he hadn’t gotten lost in despair given that he had already wasted a year.

In fact, he had tried excruciatingly hard. Just like Ulabis had said, Kireua was fortunate enough to be talented in swordcraft and had become a Master later. He’d even been told that becoming a Master at his age was an amazing achievement that only the Emperor of Avalon could do. Even Ulabis hadn’t been able to become a Master at twenty, but…

‘…I wasn’t even able to cut Sir Cain’s sleeve,’Kireua thought bitterly. His heart became heavy. He felt like his every effort was meaningless, but then he belatedly remembered what Cain had told him earlier: flows and surviving life-or-death crises. Although Kireua wasn’t sure what those two had to do with each other, he instinctively grasped it little by little as he continued to contemplate.

His eyes ached so hard that it felt like someone burned them or that they were going to pop out of his skull right now. However, Kireua didn’t stop; he had already gone through a similar process before, after all.

“…Huh?”

At some point, the world around him looked different. The young Kireua and Ulabis were gone. After everything disappeared, Kireua could only see the white horizon, except…

“...What is that?”

A black dot marred the white space. It appeared right before Kireua in a flash.

-You can see me?

“It ca-can talk?” Kireua mumbled in disbelief.

-Huh? You really can see me.

“Wh-Who are you?”

-No, you’re the polar opposite of me. Why would the child with the flame aura be able to see me?

The thing just said what it wanted to say, then it shook in the air. How in the world was Kireua supposed to describe this moment?

Kireua’s eyebrow rose. “You aren’t… a coal lump.”

It had too much fur to be called a coal lump. It was as big as Kireua’s fist and looked like a black cotton ball, but he instinctively knew that something special would happen to him if he touched it.

-Do you want to touch me?

“Touch…?” Kireua blankly repeated.

-You want to know who I am right? So do I, to be honest.

Kireua frowned. “What…?”

-Some people entered my domain before, but none of them recognized me right away like you did.

“Does that mean… I can find out what is going on if I touch you?” Kireua asked.

-Yup. As you can see, I don’t have eyes, so I just sense energies.

Kireua’s answer had been decided from the start since holding back his curiosity wasn’t his strongest suit, but…

-Don’t worry. Nothing bad will happen to you.

“Yo-You can read my mind?”

-No way. It’s just obvious what humans think since they’re uselessly skeptical. Well, they do kill fellow humans to get what they want….

It wasn’t wrong. Although Kireua had no way of finding out if this coal lump was speaking the truth, he could tell for certain that the lump wasn’t lying.

‘In that case…’

Kireua came to a decision and slowly reached his hand out to the black cotton ball. The identity of this creature had actually been driving him insane too.

***

After the end of their spar, Cain moved the unconscious Kireua to his room and then immediately went to visit Charle’s room.

He tapped on the door.

“Your Majesty, it’s me,” Cain said.

“Yes~! Come in.”

When Cain opened the thick wooden door, he could see a familiar sight once again.

“Have you finished talking with Kireua?” Charles asked.

“Yes, I have, but I’m sorry to interrupt your rest again when you need every rest you can take.”

“Don’t mention it.” Charles shook her head, chuckling.

“So I’ll cut to the point. Lady Sersiarin asked me to deliver you a message, so if you’re okay, I would like to deliver it to you now.”

Charles’s eyes widened, but she nodded. “What did… Sersiarin say?”

“She suggested asking the three queen consorts for their opinions on the heir to the throne.”

Charles had definitely not expected that.

“Pardon? Th-that means…?”

“Yes, we need a new emperor.”

Charles’s jaw dropped slightly.

“The longer the throne is empty, the more active the rebels will become. We need to put a stop to it.”

“...What did the other queen consorts say?”

“They all agreed due to the severity of the situation.”

“Mmm…” Charles murmured.

Sersiarin’s proposal had a point. It had already been ten years since the Emperor had gone missing—long enough for mountains and rivers to change. Anything could happen in ten years. Since the civil war had gone on for two years already, they had to come to a decision.

“I agree, but I feel like we made the right decision a little late. Anyhow, who do you think should be the next heir, Sir Cain?”

“If you’re asking for my opinion… I would say His Highness the First Prince for sure.”

“…I guess so,” Charles quietly mumbled. She nodded. “Even in my eyes, that boy is an exact replica of His Majesty, so it would be for the best.”

“The other two queen consorts actually said that it doesn’t matter who inherits the throne since either of the princes are both competent enough to become His Majesty’s heir.”

“Huh?” Charles tilted her head. “Is that true?”

“Yes, but I beg to differ. Of course, I and the others would support the crown prince with everything we have, but we need to be careful in choosing the heir. Their ability, level of influence, background… unless we consider everything before making the choice, history will repeat itself.”

“…We do need to avoid that.” Charles nodded.

“The chance of it happening is already increasing. Over the past ten years when His Majesty was around, they never dared to even think about starting a rebellion.” Cain slowly went down to one knee. “Your Majesty, I’m certain that Avalon will be able to become peaceful again like it did before. We’ll need to do a better job than the Brittens for the citizens, won’t we?”

“Of course.” Charles smiled.

“The next part is the problem.”

Charles tilted her head in confusion.

“Festering wounds will start to ooze, so we need to excise the wound for the sake of the next emperor in order to make his reign easier—although I’m not sure who it will be.”

“…We need a ruler with charisma and absolute power like His Majesty or Emperor Marcus. This war is the chance for the heir to prove themself and stop the rebels from scheming again.”

“Yes, that’s right.” Cain nodded.

“In that case, I definitely think Selim Sanders, the First Prince, is the right man for the job.”

Charles was a woman who kept her private and public lives separate, and that was why Cain could be honest with her. But…

“…Until this morning, I thought so too…” Cain trailed off.

Contrary to Charles’s expectations, Cain pondered for a moment before he raised his right hand. For some reason, his sleeve was cut and the end of it was dangling in the air.

“Hmm…?”

“Why don’t we wait and see how things turn out? We successfully subdued the rebels for now, and this isn’t a decision we can make in a hurry.”

“Then why don’t you give me your arm? I’ll stitch it up in no time.” Charles offered.

“No, I can’t bother you with such a trivial task, Your Majesty. Besides…” Cain trailed off for a moment and then smiled. “Thanks to this, I feel quite good today.”

“Pardon…?” Charles had no idea what Cain was talking about.

“His Highness Kireua must have tried really hard over the past ten years.”

“Kireua? Why are you suddenly mentioning him…?”

Cain quietly shook his head. “Nothing. Anyhow, why don’t we put a pause on choosing the heir for a little while? Things seem to be taking an interesting turn.”