Chapter 150: The Hour of Judgnt
Just before the confrontation with Calix.
Aurel Caracal, Emperor of the Niboria Empire, sat alone in the empty great hall. The ceremonial sword had gone unpolished for so long that rust had set in, and the oil in the candle stands had dried up completely.
The wrinkles around his eyes were deeply carved.
'I have protected this empire.'
He steadied his breathing and recalled his youth. The days when he had, as crown prince, defeated his rivals, suppressed the pushback of the nobles, and fought war after war to erge victorious. Hundreds of reports had poured into the imperial palace, and tens of thousands of lives had moved at his command.
'Had it not been for this body, the north would have long since crumbled.'
Today would be no different.
He would read the truth the other was concealing and restore the empire's order once more. Caracal genuinely believed this.
But the mont he ca face to face with Calix, he knew sothing had gone wrong.
"……What have you co here to record, you?"
The instant the question left his lips, a faint tremor rippled through Emperor Caracal's eyes.
His irises split into fine threads, and his breathing and heartbeat separated into distinct layers. The first-generation Neural Accelerator embedded in his eye socket—Balder Dominion—reached deep into the other man's mind.
It was the sovereign's authority, gifted to him long ago by a mage.
And then, in the silence, an invisible wave lapped at Calix's consciousness. A tallic noise crept into the edges of his thoughts. The pressure to submit felt as though it were bearing down from inside his temples.
At that mont, a fierce energy surged from within Calix. He too was a user of a first-generation Neural Accelerator—Balder Valefor. Two forces of the sa kind yet different nature collided violently.
A soundless ignition. A transparent lattice spread across his entire mind, cutting the invading wavelength at precise angles. The nullification was over in an instant. No echo remained, no whisper.
The Emperor's bronze-colored eyes trembled finely. The power reversed, and blood began to seep beneath his eyelids. A single red drop soon trickled down the bridge of his nose.
"……Why can I see nothing?"
He asked again without even wiping away the blood.
Calix regarded the old man in silence. He had felt the attempt to control his mind, yet answered in a composed voice.
"There is no reason to show you anything."
"……."
A crack had ford from the very start. Even though this was no Master-ranked fighter, the Bloodline Ability had not worked. The Emperor tried to fix his gaze on those standing beside Calix, but even that was cut cleanly away by the chaotic mana.
At that, Caracal straightened his upper body instead. His gaunt fra looked as though it might collapse at any mont, yet his asured movents carried a certain residual dignity.
Now he spoke as a sovereign.
"I will grant you warti regency rights. Obey my command."
The attendant who had opened the doors to the great hall moved quickly. He approached, holding the Emperor's seal and the written order. But Calix, Royce, and Gregor alike—not one of them opened their lips.
That brief silence tore apart what little authority remained.
Calix turned away without interest. He did not so much as glance at the docunt, let alone lay a finger on it. Instead, he looked around the empty interior and felt, in full, the fall of one man.
The space he lived in told him far more than a hundred words ever could.
Soon, the persuasion continued.
"I hear you made a pact with Count Bermak of the southeast. I will place the Southern Army under your command."
"……."
"I will also hand over the imperial ledgers. Governance is the practice of systems, and what is not recorded is illusion. Without them, there can be no next victory."
Paradoxically, Calix saw in those words nothing but ugliness. Concealing suppressed rage behind a facade of composure. Grasping for any ans to survive the crisis, he was using what was not even his as a bargaining chip.
Had the man always been this pathetic?
He holds a lofty title, yet there is nothing inside. He acts as though he holds the world entire, yet nothing remains. And so Calix felt toward him neither respect nor hatred.
In that instant, the corner of the Emperor's mouth quivered faintly. He had read the emotion within the young man's gaze—pity. It was an unbearable humiliation.
Grk.
"If you will not accept this—"
Caracal cleared his throat once and spoke.
"I will ban the Kriya Order and bind you under the laws of the Niboria Empire. You are all traitors! Any who defy my command shall be put to the sword!!"
At last, his patience had scraped the bottom. The veins on his forehead stood out sharply, and the tendons in the hand gripping the chair's armrest bulged.
Even so, Calix's reply was brief.
"Are there hands left to carry it out?"
He still speaks with formal courtesy, yet there is no warmth in it.
The Emperor regained his senses belatedly. He ca to understand that his proposals had not been particularly effective. He had fallen, much like in his days as crown prince, to the position of soone who had to make 'deals'.
But it was still all right.
One last card remained.
"……This one got carried away. I had forgotten that you are surrounded by disloyal ones. Have you perhaps received a better offer than this?"
Caracal slowly reached toward his crown. The scent of leather rose from the cloth lining its interior. The previous Emperor had called it the fragrance of power.
"Think carefully. The Emperor is one appointed by the gods. The empire was born upon that promise, and no one can be made an exception."
"……."
"How could a re rcenary ever engrave words worthy of history?"
At that, Calix looked directly at the Emperor for the first ti.
"……We have already pressed our insignia in the blood of our comrades."
The atmosphere in the great hall solidified in an instant. The old man's breathing grew uneven. It was less the motion of soone angered than of soone trembling in the cold.
He had swallowed his pride and extended his hand a second ti, only to be refused on the spot.
The crack widened further. The Emperor's lips went dry. Even as he drew ragged breaths, he did not forget to confirm it one more ti.
"Is that your answer? Must you truly see the end to be satisfied?!"
Calix did not deny it.
"The end has already passed."
The air inside grew colder still.
Gregor nodded with a contented expression, and Royce assented in silence. At so point, his counsel had ceased to be needed any longer.
By now the Emperor's face had twisted greatly, and soon crossed the threshold of his limit.
"……Remove him."
The command was short and clear, yet the great hall was silent. Not a sound crossed over from beyond the threshold. The palace guards kept their eyes downcast and their ears shut.
"I said remove that man!!"
His voice cracked like glass shattering. This ti, it was closer to a wail. And still, not one person moved. Rather, when Royce placed a hand on his scabbard, the lone attendant pleaded for rcy with his eyes.
One of the Emperor's eye sockets blazed with bronze light. The Neural Accelerator in the eye socket pulsed with light, but it soon flickered weakly and went out.
Woom—.
Calix's mana dominated the entire space. Darkness, chaos, divinity—all of it. That savage and absolute power would not tolerate the petty tricks of a re old man.
Urk!
"Your Majesty!"
The power reversed, and his nose began bleeding again; a red stream ran down to the underside of his jaw.
The young man spoke quietly.
"No one is being removed today."
The matter was decided. He had seen the Emperor's true face, and ca to know that the sovereign's authority had utterly vanished.
Calix turned away.
"Let us go."
At that mont, Gregor suddenly let fall a remark that seed to co from nowhere.
"There was an old dog where I lived as a child."
"……?"
"He wasn't particularly large, but the force of his spirit was no ordinary thing. His tail stood perfectly vertical, and even animals much bigger than him could not dare et his eyes. But, as you well know, my friend, nothing lasts forever. He grew old, and he knew his life was coming to its end."
Their footsteps halted briefly. Even the Emperor, who had been irritably wiping the blood from his face, looked toward him.
"One day, he slipped away beyond the back paths of the village and left without a trace. When I followed to see where he had gone, I found him curled beneath the trunk of a tree in the forest. When his ti had co, he had returned to the place where he had grown up beside his mother."
"Gregor, that story—?"
"Whether man or beast, when the ti cos, one must know how to let go. Otherwise you end up making a worse show of it than a dog. You won't manage to take a single thing with you in the end, and yet to be so full of nothing but greed…… tsk tsk."
It was not difficult to tell who the words were directed at. At the very least, the Emperor himself knew with absolute certainty.
Gnk—
His back molars locked together, a vessel burst, and his eyes flooded with red.
"You, you lowly—"
But the body gave way before the curses could be unleashed. A full mouthful of blood ca pouring from his lips. His loyal attendant let out a silent scream and rushed toward him.
Gregor scratched his head with an untroubled expression.
"Well, I was simply talking to myself……."
"……."
Royce asked on their behalf instead.
"Are we leaving him just like this?"
"Yes."
Calix answered imdiately. There was no hesitation in his resolute voice.
"He is already a dead man."
A short while later, the doors closed, and in the wide hall only the Emperor and the attendant remained.
Clang—
The crown slipped from his head and rolled across the floor. Aurel Caracal staggered and leaned his back against the throne. The front of his robes was soaked through with blood, yet the wound in his heart was far greater.
He raised his hand as though trying to grasp at sothing, but between his fingers, nothing could be caught. Now there was but one person left to issue commands to, and but one person left to carry them out.
Only one choice remained as well.
***
Several days later, the Allied Forces encampnt.
Around a large oval table, high-ranking nobles, knight commanders, and Order priests had gathered. Calix sat at its center.
"This settles things roughly, then."
"Such is the nature of an army, is it not? Everyone must look in one direction and move together."
Marquis Ashapel, Count Lugar, Duke Akron, and others. Even with the highest-ranking nobles present, the atmosphere was relaxed.
At that mont, Duke Akron rose from his seat and spoke.
"Then, as of today, I hereby declare that the Niboria Empire has joined the Allied Forces. Calix Ashapel is put forward as Supre Commander. Any who do not agree, please step forward."
There were none who objected, and the administrative officer beside him transferred it all to paper. The Emperor's na was written at the very top, but all those gathered here understood.
This was not an imperial decree—it was the result of an agreent.
Calix signed the docunt shortly after. Beneath it, the nas of the high-ranking nobles were lined up in succession, and the mage Yelayen appeared as a witness. At the very end, Sier Lagrin pressed the Order's seal to finish it.
"As Kriya wills."
While the priests murmured, the nobles exchanged glances with one another.
"Niboria has been bound into one again."
"Now we must advance to the east. It is only a matter of ti before we reclaim the Holy Empire."
Countless dealings had been made below the surface over this ti, but with today, all the confusion had co to an end.
It was precisely then.
The tent curtain was thrown aside and a knight ca bursting in. His face was ashen, and the shock was plain to see.
"His Majesty…… Just now, in the imperial palace……!"
He could not easily continue his words.
But it was not sothing that could be brushed past.
The news that Emperor Caracal had taken his own life. He had driven a dagger through his eye, destroyed the first-generation Neural Accelerator, and departed.
Silence descended. Suppressed sighs passed among the nobles. There were, however, no voices of mourning. Every one of those seated around the table understood.
That the imperial house was now nothing more than an empty shell.
The empire's commands would be issued from this very place, and executed through Calix's hand.
And that night, black banners were hung from the imperial palace. Even after the funeral concluded, no banner signifying the next Emperor was raised.
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