Chapter 38
You Disrespectful Brat
That day was the second day of the hunting festival regularly held by Klaud's father, Emperor Alexei.
The monster hunting festival, held for a week, was held to catch monsters and wild beasts that encroached on the north little by little in winter.
The scale was quite large, and it was a nationally important event, so the Emperor and Empress had to attend, making it a place where major nobles turned out in full force to prove their loyalty.
If one proved how many monsters or wild beasts that attacked the people while rummaging through dangerous forests and valleys were caught, a huge reward followed.
Depending on the occasion, one could obtain not only gold but also quite fertile imperial land, so the heat of the hunting festival was great every year.
"Father!"
Emperor Alexei, pierced by a vicious-looking monster hunting arrow, was carried back to the Imperial Palace without even being able to pull it out. Klaud watched his father groan in a cold sweat among the doctors who had flocked from all over the country.
"Your Highness."
Marquis Lev gripped his nephew's shoulder tightly and swallowed a groan.
"The Empress..."
Klaud stared at Marquis Lev as he bowed his head and cried like a child.
"Empress Eleonore... has passed away."
If the Emperor was the one who commanded the hunting festival, the Empress was the one who waited for the participants and was active in the banquet hall at the entrance.
His mother had been sharing refreshments with the attending noble ladies, young ladies, and young masters when she was poisoned and died while being transported to the palace.
"Grand Duke Igor, Your Highness' uncle, will be in charge of state affairs for the time being, so don't worry and get some sleep."
Klaud stayed by his father's side with his eyes wide open after hearing the news of his mother's death.
State affairs were not important to a 14-year-old boy. Someone else could do that job.
But guarding his father's side was different.
"How can I sleep?"
He couldn't send his father away like his mother, who had passed away without even leaving a last will to Henna or Apollyni.
Klaud stayed by his father's side as he groaned in agony.
Every time he couldn't overcome the pouring sleep and dozed off, he woke up dreaming that his father was dying.
Whenever that happened, he was horrified and put his ear to his exhausted father's chest before shedding tears and feeling relieved.
"Don't worry, Klaud. Your uncle is here."
His uncle, who had only shown his face after a week of such days, said so.
Klaud only nodded without saying anything. He had no room in his mind.
"...You disrespectful brat."
And he was surprised by his uncle's voice, which was colder than usual, and raised his head.
It wasn't the voice of his uncle, who always laughed kindly.
That night.
In the Emperor's bedroom, surrounded by court physicians and doctors from all over the country.
Emperor Alexei Euphris, who had been a wise ruler, ended his short life.
"The hunting festival is over, right? But why aren't Mother and Father coming?"
"Go to sleep, Apollyni. I'll sing you a lullaby."
"I can't even go outside. It's so frustrating, Brother."
"...I'll show you the garden tomorrow."
The death of the Emperor and Empress was kept a secret from Apollyni, who was only 10 years old.
Klaud left Apollyni in the Princess's Palace and held the funeral with his uncle, whose eyes had changed.
His uncle, Igor, told Klaud to rest for a while at the Rockenhardt's red brick Mansion, as if giving him a vacation.
At the red brick Mansion, he put Apollyni, who still didn't know anything, to sleep, and smiled so hard that it seemed like he would break at Margaret, the nanny, whose eyes were full of worry.
The young Klaud finally returned to his bedroom and collapsed.
He grabbed the rocking chair that his father had made himself and his mother had trimmed herself, and cried bitterly.
The treasure of Euphris that the empire loved.
It was the night less than a week before Klaud Euphris was scheduled to ascend the throne at the young age of 14, following formal procedures.
The snow that had been falling fiercely since the body was laid to rest was piled up in the garden, and a blizzard so fierce that it chilled his heart, which had suddenly developed a large hole, was pounding on the window.
A wave called rebels swept over the Imperial Palace of the capital, Cielo.
And that wave swept over the red brick Mansion where Klaud was recovering.
The warmth disappeared from the face of Margaret, the nanny, who was making warm cocoa for him.
"Your Highness, Your Highness, hurry!"
Klaud, who had already cried until he was on the verge of exhaustion, saw the blurry face of his nanny through his swollen eyes.
Despair. The moment he realized that such an emotion had arisen on Margaret's face, who was like another mother to him, he was instantly terrified.
"Nanny—."
Margaret quickly threw on a cloak and carried him on her back.
Margaret, who lifted Klaud's body, which was too much for a middle-aged woman, with superhuman strength, desperately left the Mansion, hoping that Marquis Lev would hear the news and find them.
The Mansion was already being quickly engulfed by the fire that had started from the east Annex. The snow did not put out the fire, and the blizzard hastened the curse-like flames.
"Brother—! Take me with you!"
At the faint voice, Klaud wriggled his limp body on his nanny's back.
Apollyni's voice was heard from the window of the brightly lit west Annex in the distance.
"Princess!"
"Nanny! Please escape quickly! We'll take care of this!"
Margaret bit her lips, which had become rough enough to bleed, and carried Klaud, who was weakly chanting Apollyni's name, on her back again.
Klaud, who will inherit the throne, is what they are aiming for.
"Brother! Take me with you! Don't abandon me!"
"We will somehow escort the Princess. We have contacted Marquis Lev, so reinforcements will arrive!"
Arrows began to pour down from somewhere.
"Brother! Nanny! Please don't abandon me!"
Margaret ran to the back gate with the help of the few remaining guards, with a heart that was shedding tears of blood.
"Brother! O..."
Klaud finally lost his mind, which he had barely been holding on to, with the nanny's sobbing voice and Apollyni's faint voice.
Klaud, who was hit in the face with cold water, woke up with a start as if falling from a cliff.
A dark room.
A snowy night.
Everything was the same as before he went to sleep. It was like he had a terrible nightmare.
Before he could come to his senses, his knees were roughly forced to the ground, and he discovered a very familiar face rolling on the floor in front of him.
"Klaud Euphris."
He couldn't breathe for a moment.
Klaud looked at his nanny's dead face without even closing his eyes, and only after a long time did he raise his head.
The one casting a huge shadow was his uncle.
Grand Duke Igor Euphris, who ruled the north.
...He was smiling.
"I've been waiting for this day."
The cold west Annex.
The place where he was, was the west Annex where he had grown up and where Apollyni had shouted not to abandon him.
Klaud felt a chill run down his spine as he looked at the horribly burned interior.
"Apollyni..."
"Your father. Alexei Euphris took everything I loved."
None of what his uncle was muttering entered Klaud's head.
His gaze, filled with despair, searched quickly and persistently for Apollyni's traces.
"Everything Alexei Euphris loved will die."
Klaud couldn't bear to look at the man in front of him and stared again at the nanny's lifeless eyes.
The nanny must have died protecting him.
His whole body trembled with anger and fear.
The place where Apollyni was, was all burned down. Apollyni is not here.
"Are you looking for Apollyni? That child is dead. She begged me to save her and died miserably. I thought about letting her live because she was a girl, but I hate noisy things."
He felt an intense murderous intent, but at the same time, he felt his body and soul crushed by the intense momentum that was pressing down on him.
The pain of his soul being torn apart clawed at his stomach.
He quickly raised his bloodshot eyes and stared at the black sword that his uncle was holding like a treasure.
Crimson blood was dripping from the tip of the sword, soaking the carpet.
"Of the things Alexei loved, now only you and this Mansion remain. The Mansion is burning and you are..."
Of the things that the late Emperor Alexei loved, the last remaining things were this Mansion and Klaud Euphris.
The Mansion was already burning, and the beautiful prince, called the treasure of Euphris, would soon be torn apart.
By that sword that killed Apollyni.
It was his turn to be stabbed.
"The treasure of Euphris. Alexei's treasure. What about Klaud Euphris? Will you beg me? If you beg well, I might spare you."
Instead of answering, Klaud raised his bloodshot eyes and glared at his uncle.
"...You disrespectful brat."
Without even trying to resist.
Klaud's arms were roughly tied up by heavily armed knights.
Grand Duke Igor Euphris cut down his nephew without a moment's hesitation.
The sword, cutting through the air, split the young body in half with a surge of black energy.
It was a one-sided and brutal murder scene.
Yuan wrapped his trembling arms around himself.
"I remember it clearly."
Henna, who was younger than Yuan, continued to speak more calmly than expected.
"I saw the face of the master, who never bowed down, through the gap in the floor where I was hiding."
Henna was trying to recall that day with a frown.
After seeing the Princess, who had run away and eventually met her death in front of the west Annex, Henna's parents hurriedly tore up the wooden floor, hid Henna inside, and died fighting against Grand Duke Igor.
Yuan unknowingly held Henna's hand tightly. Not even knowing that he was trembling more.
"Surely that sword split His Highness in half."
Henna clearly saw it that day.
The moment the long shadow of the sword touched Klaud.
"His Highness's body was not split. However, the black energy surging from that sword entered His Highness as if it was being sucked in..."
"That's how you became who you are now."
Yuan closed his eyes tightly, imagining the terrible sight he didn't even want to imagine.
Henna began to pour out her memories like someone possessed.
"The mad Emperor who saw that looked like his eyes were about to pop out. He held that damn black sword and stared at it for a long time, then looked at Prince Klaud, who had turned as black as if his whole body had been burned, and laughed even more grotesquely. He said, 'If there is a life worse than death, this is it! The treasure of Euphris has become a Crow!'"
