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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 66
Chapter Title: The Regent's Plan
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In the Eastern Continent, the Penterin Empire had long been home to four powerful Beastman families.
The first was the Penterin imperial family of the Golden and White Tigers. The second was the Atasix family of brown bears. The third was the Iteloz family of black wolves. The fourth was the Skoten family of green anacondas.
Among these four great Beastman families, the strongest, the Penterins, became the imperial family, while the others guarded the throne and protected the Penterin Empire.
However, the Iteloz grand ducal family, known as the third strongest and rulers of the North, recently engaged in a brutal struggle for succession.
The outcome was tragic.
Sixty-two years ago, the bloodline of the Iteloz grand ducal family was severed.
With the Grand Duke of the Black Wolves, protector of the vast North, gone, the Penterin Emperor had to make a decision.
He intended to designate one of the wolf vassal families protecting the Iteloz grand duchy as the new grand ducal family.
But the wolf Beastmen did not readily agree.
It was a trait of the wolves.
Once an alpha, always an alpha.
They could not accept anyone other than the mighty black wolves of Iteloz as their leader.
The heads of the wolf Beastman families bowed before the Emperor and pleaded.
They asked the Emperor to wait while they searched for a surviving collateral branch of the Iteloz family, just in case, and nearly sixty years passed.
Then, three years ago.
A miracle occurred.
Incredibly, it was not a collateral branch of the Iteloz family that appeared, but a direct descendant.
He was the eldest son of the youngest child who had secretly fled the Iteloz succession war.
The handsome and robust twenty-year-old man’s name was Vein Iteloz.
He had inherited the very symbols of the Iteloz grand ducal family of black wolves.
He had the same pale violet hair as a viola flower and ruby-red eyes, and he strongly resembled his beautiful Iteloz ancestors.
More importantly, he possessed the supernatural ability of the black wolves.
‘They said the young Grand Duke’s supernatural ability is the strongest in Iteloz history. This is good. The Penterin Emperor will have a strong ally, even in a war against the Dark Divine Beast.’
Jetar nodded, reassured that Penterin’s national defense had grown even stronger.
But then he grew melancholic again, his shoulders slumping.
His mood swings were like…
“Am I going through menopause…?”
Just seeing cherry blossom petals fall in the wind made him feel like crying.
Jetar’s eyes stung, and he rubbed their inner corners.
“What will I do when our princess leaves soon?”
He hugged the princess’s growth diary to his chest, on the verge of tears.
“…Wait. When the princess goes to the Penterin Empire, I can just go with her, can’t I?”
An ingenious idea struck Regent Jetar, and his face brightened considerably.
Excited for the first time in a while, even his skin seemed to tighten, blooming like a fresh summer flower full of moisture.
“Perfect.”
The gears in Jetar’s mind spun as he hatched his scheme.
That was it.
In a few years, Emperor Ekiel would turn eighteen and officially come of age.
Then he would no longer have to play this tedious role of a scarecrow regent and guard the imperial palace.
To be honest, Jetar had thought for several years now that the empire no longer needed a regent.
His Majesty the Emperor’s influence and abilities had already far surpassed those of any adult mage.
He was just too young.
And he had only kept his position as regent and godfather because of the late Emperor’s will.
‘Rather than stay by the side of a grown emperor, I want to watch the still-young princess grow up.’
Jetar’s eyes burned with desire.
In any case, he had already decided in his heart to follow Princess Jusielia when she returned to her homeland.
His official purpose for staying would be as an archmage for friendly international exchange.
Then, he planned to somehow settle down in the Penterin Empire for good.
He grinned slyly.
‘Well, from the Penterin Empire’s perspective, wouldn’t it be a good thing to have a genius archmage like me staying there?’
Of course, the Rilberg Empire would try to stop and oppose him, but he didn’t care.
Jetar was now seriously considering immigrating to the Penterin Empire.
‘How much life do I have left, anyway? This old man is going to do whatever he wants!’
He had completely forgotten that a master who had reached the pinnacle among archmages also had a greatly extended lifespan.
No, he had deliberately erased it from his mind as he meticulously laid out his happy immigration plans.
‘There, I’ll complete one hundred volumes of the princess’s growth diary. Then I’ll look for a nice Beastman lady. There might be a woman like the princess, right? They say Beastmen age slower than humans. Maybe I’ll find a partner similar to me?!’
Excited, Jetar’s eyes now glinted with something akin to madness.
Then, if he found someone compatible, he would marry her and spend the rest of his life there.
In the princess’s country!
Jetar chuckled foolishly.
His mood lifted, he took a stack of files from the corner of his desk and began to review them, ready to perform his few remaining duties as regent.
“Ah!”
Then, as if he had forgotten something, he slapped his forehead, opened a drawer, took out a blank sheet of paper, and picked up a fountain pen.
“No matter how busy I am, I can’t skip this. I have to do it before starting my work.”
He wrote with sincerity, his elegant script flowing across the page.
After finishing with his name and signature, Jetar summoned an attendant.
“Deliver this to His Majesty the Emperor.”
“Yes, Your Excellency.”
The attendant replied, taking the Regent’s letter on a silver tray.
“Make sure you deliver it properly.”
“Yes, Your Excellency.”
The expressionless attendant responded calmly, then carried the letter on the silver tray directly to the Emperor’s office in the imperial palace.
It was always the same routine.
The office of the Rilberg Emperor.
The attendant received permission and entered.
It was a spacious room, dazzling platinum sunlight pouring through an open window. Someone stood before a large desk, gazing outside.
“Your Majesty.”
The attendant bowed.
At that, the emperor—tall as a young man, but with a face that still held a boyish air—turned to look at the attendant.
“It is from the Regent.”
“…He’s certainly persistent.”
Ekiel’s scarlet eyes glared at Regent Jetar’s letter on the silver tray held by the attendant.
As Ekiel, who had been leaning against the desk, turned to approach the attendant, his fine black hair swayed.
“How cliché.”
After reading Regent Jetar’s letter, Ekiel tore it up, piece by piece, with all his strength and placed the scraps back on the silver tray.
It was the daily letter of resignation he submitted.
“Tell him his resignation is rejected today as well, due to a lack of creativity in his reasons for resigning.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
The attendant replied with perfect composure to Ekiel’s indifferent command, rose, and departed.
Just how many years had this been going on?
Ekiel sighed and checked the time.
‘Ah, it’s time to go to the training grounds.’
Ekiel’s crumpled expression smoothed out, and a gentle smile soon appeared on his face.
It was, after all, his morning date with Jusi, which always made his heart race.
***
*Thump, thump, thump, thump.*
The situation was a little different for the trainee who always arrived at the training grounds first to run a hundred laps.
She had grown a lot, but her cute and adorable appearance remained the same.
‘Damn it, I want to escape.’
As the years passed, her thoughts had grown cruder.
But escaping the tenacious Ekiel or skipping training was impossible.
For the past five years, Ekiel had not missed this morning training even once.
Jusi thought as she ran.
‘Ha. Being an emperor must be a more leisurely job than I thought.’
Both her father, Ritain, and Ekiel.
How much free time must they have to be so obsessed with something?
The two emperors in this world.
One was a doting fool.
The other was a crazy drill instructor bent on properly raising a single trainee.
‘They’re both exhausting.’
Jusi was already eight years old.
At the normal growth rate for a tiger Beastman, she should have already reached her adult size, but Jusi was only about three times larger than she had been as a white tiger cub.
Still, Jusi was satisfied with this much.
It was remarkable progress compared to when she had given up, thinking her body might not grow at all.
‘My body really did grow after I did what Ekiel told me to. Physical conditioning and supernatural ability training.’
That was why Jusi had endured Ekiel’s harsh training methods without complaint for five years.
