EpilogueThere was a lot of wandering.
The strong emotions that got carried along weren’t meant for the current Orba.
This was not the road he himself had expected to walk, but if he expected to obtain something after all this wandering, for someone who’d been forcefully manipulated this way, wasn’t it the means to take revenge with his own hands?
I…
Can’t you take up the sword for your own purposes if you didn’t hate someone? With those feelings in his heart, dressed in bra.s.s armour, he got down on his knees on top of the bright red carpet.
The imperial capital Solon - at the audience hall.
“You’ve decorated your first campaign with a brilliant victory, we are more pleased than anybody else, Gil.”
Courtiers sitting in a row to his left and right, the man sitting on the throne before him was the emperor of the Imperial Dynasty of Mephius, Guhl Mephius. His white hair and beard were both long and full of waves. Although he had deep wrinkles on his face, and deep eye sockets as if they were hollowed out, he was still fully shining with vitality.
“Gladly.”
“It seems you’ve used various ideas. But I’m truly pleased that Ryucown’s head has been severed by Mephian hands. This is more of a victory than we expected.”
“This was all because of Lord Fedom’s wisdom. General Oubary has also been of great a.s.sistance during my first campaign. It was also thanks to the soldiers and retainers by your guidance, father. I merely borrowed their strength.”
“Oh?”
The expression on Guhl’s face was unusually calm as he nodded. It looked like His Majesty was definitely pleased, and the senior statesmen made eye contact with each other showing satisfied looks. Earlier, although it seemed like he showed a much more severe att.i.tude towards his true son, all he wished for was his own child’s growth. There wasn’t a parent that didn’t love his child.
“As a result from our conference with Garbera, it’s decided we should once again put our attention on your marriage with Princess Vileena. Until then, she is a special guest of ours. But we can understand pa.s.sionate feelings, so keep your lovemaking to a low so it won’t cause any trouble.”
His smile showed he was making a joke.
Embarra.s.sed, Gil bowed his head and said, “I will.” It invited a laugh from the lined-up audience members.
Princess Vileena had been given a private room in the inner palace. Together with her attendant Theresia, she could expect a well-established way of life for now. Moreover, when they decided upon a new date for the marriage, Garbera would no doubt return the captured territory of Apta in the form of a ‘gift’. The Kingdom of Garbera wouldn’t be able to face Mephius properly anymore if they didn’t.
For many different reasons, Prince Gil’s accomplishments were grand.
The atmosphere in the hall had been calm from the beginning to the end, but at the final moment Guhl spoke these words,
“Even Ende won’t be able to make a move so easily. However, if this happened in Garbera, it could’ve happened anywhere. From now on, to keep the authority and strength within the Mephian Imperial Family, we will have to protect the peace within our country. Gil, you also bear this responsibility.”
He hadn’t forgotten to give the anti-imperial groups their fair warning.
“Onii-sama!”
Right after he came out of the audience hall, Ineli came up to him and offered her congratulations. Lifting the hem of her skirt, she gave him a curt bow, but Gil gave only an apathetic reply before turning his back to her again. The beautiful girl knitted her brows.
“That’s a cold att.i.tude you’re showing me. And that while all this time I’ve been counting the days, looking forward to your return. I’ve been worried about you these last few days, brother, and could hardly stomach dinner. And now you won’t even tell your cute little sister one story about your travels?”
“Ahh…” Gil forced a smile and made eye contact. “I have enough to tell, but can we do this some other time. I’m just a little tired.”
“Fine…”
With those words, Ineli left it at that, but not because she was worried about the prince, but because Gil had already avoided her gaze and turned his heels to walk away. She was unable to call out to him again, her pretty looks warping into scorn. But then she suddenly froze for a different reason.
That was because that one look the prince had given her.
It looked the same as the one from the masked warrior in the arena.
After that, Prince Gil went back to his private quarters in the inner palace. He had nothing planned up until tonight’s victory party. Like Ineli, there were some n.o.bles and militiamen who sought an audience to congratulate him personally, but he declined them all.
“Aahhh…”
The moment he arrived in his room he laid down on the bed, arms and legs spread wide.
“That’s quite unbecoming, your highness,” his page Dinn berated.
He had been given the task to continue taking care of the prince. Fedom had arranged for the chamberlains who had taken care of the prince thus far to be replaced with the glitter of gold. Naturally, he didn’t want the prince’s true ident.i.ty to come to light.
His entire body seemed to sink into the splendorous bed but, on the other hand, he couldn’t calm down. Besides, this room was much larger than the one he’d been lodged in along with dozens of sword-slaves. Being alone in a place like this, not knowing who was lurking where, he didn’t think he could rest his mind.
Orba jumped back up, although not because of Dinn’s words, and headed for the room’s large windows. Facing the verdurous garden outside, it looked out over Solon’s orderly townscape.
It starts here.
What kind of person could he become, and what could he accomplish? Up until now, he still hadn’t found an answer to the question his brother Roan posed on that starry night.
Would he wield his sword to chase after his childhood dream of a successful life, would he raise that sword to take revenge on those that had bereft him of everything, or would he find a way to pursue the people he’d lost.
All of it.
Indeed. Exactly because he didn’t know what to do, he only had to do all of it. These were the only means...o...b.. had available for himself. He couldn’t wish for a better position than an imperial prince.
He now stood among those that he once, in his childhood days, believed weren’t looking at the same things the common people were. If he embraced all the things he couldn’t reach before with both his arms, he might be able to discover something new.
And besides, he wanted to find out how far his own existence, and the power his existence held, would take him.
Of course, there were many obstacles. Fedom, and the question of where the real prince was, dealing with the Garberan princess, the anti-imperial faction, and—
“How can you have the nerves!? Keeping such a nonchalant act together!”
It was the first thing Gowen said after being invited to the prince’s room. Shique nodded and said,
“And during your audience. On one hand, you’re a former sword-slave disguised as the emperor’s son. But on the other hand…”
Orba stepped in and took over the conversation.
“It’s like an arch villain trying to manipulate the prince, right?”
Dinn gave a startled look.
Even though the one behind the a.s.sa.s.sination attempt on Prince Gil and Vileena was likely neither Garbera nor Mephius, Orba suspected that it might actually be Guhl Mephius himself.
Ende was the most suspicious actor in wanting to kill the two. However, their delegation had been especially invited and they never uttered a word that could’ve labelled them as suspects. There was no way to interrogate them in such a way that they could fabricate the ‘truth’.
On top of that, if the members of both royal families had been killed, it would have resulted in a joint attack with Garbera on Ende from both sides. Two countries that had been mutual enemies yesterday would become firm allies the next. It would’ve given even better results than marrying the prince and princess.
For Guhl, compared to the profit of dividing Ende’s lands with Garbera, the life of prince Gil - of the crown prince - wasn’t as valuable.
He was the emperor.
And after all of this, Orba had to face such a person as his ‘father’. Someone who, for him, was still the mysterious living symbol of this ‘kingdom’.
“This time, the a.s.sa.s.sination failed because Ryucown’s attack interfered with things. In fact, to the emperor, Ryucown’s subjugation seems even more convenient for a future with Garbera,” Shique said in a gloomy tone.
“But to some extent, I may have ended up someplace even worse than the gladiator ring,” spoken like an elder, Gowen said those significant words. “At least it hasn’t been something like a surprise attack. Even so, a parent and child sharing blood that kill each other is just sad.”
Orba didn’t reply and continued to look out of the window.
In this line of business, everything was a battle. If he couldn’t live without ending up victorious, then things weren’t all that much different than before.
Orba only ever chose the path of victory, or he wouldn’t have lived this long.
There were many heroes in this world. Among those running through a world of war, Gil Mephius hadn’t been the type to trouble or possibly entertain historians.
But, although he’d been belittled by his va.s.sals as the ‘foolish prince’, now, triggered by the marriage to Vileena of the Kingdom of Garbera, he had turned to wisdom in the blink of an eye and made a sudden transition into being called the ‘Dragon of Mephius’. It was the kind of tale that historians could weave into the imaginations of the people.
But none of them knew.
Gil Mephius’s true ident.i.ty.
The man known as the masked gladiator, soon after casting off the mask of an iron tiger, had acquired a new mask of flesh.
n.o.body knew.