Chapter 99 : Chapter 99

Chapter 99 - Main

Everything was perfect.

It was like that when he was young.

“Excellent, Your Highness. You are a very fast learner.”

“It’s thanks to the Administrative Grand Officer’s good teaching. Hahat.”

He devoted himself to his studies with Administrative Grand Officer Charles, one of the nation’s foremost intellectuals, as his teacher.

He learned history, learned mathematics, accumulated knowledge, and studied the art of kingship.

“Your Highness. A good monarch does not require separate qualities or talents. Just with this mind. And with this heart.”

Tak tak.

The Administrative Grand Officer’s fist tapped the chest above the heart.

“Please understand the hearts of the kingdom’s people, and embrace not only the people of the capital you see, but also the people of the distant domains and the soldiers on the boundary line.”

“Okay. I’ll keep that in mind.”

He said he understood, but it was still a difficult concept for a ten-year-old child.

Charles smiled and spoke gently.

“Even if it doesn’t fully sink in now, you will feel it someday. Because you are a warm person, Your Highness.”

A person who was more of a father than his own father.

Administrative Grand Officer Charles was such a person.

Instead of his busy father, he would give him piggyback rides, play with him, and teach him.

If he was curious about something, even if it was a shepherd’s work, he would not laugh and would cheer him on.

Then his younger brothers were born.

“First Prince. Starting today, the Second Prince and the Third Prince will also be studying the art of kingship.”

“…Why?”

Perhaps for the first time.

He questioned his teacher’s words.

“I’m going to be the king. Why are my younger brothers learning the art of kingship?”

Charles wore his characteristic flexible smile.

“First Prince. The art of kingship is not simply for the monarch alone. It is what is necessary for a leader, someone who leads.”

“Such a leader is─”

“Also.”

His mouth was shut.

The official, who now had wrinkles starting to form around his eyes, bowed his waist.

“The king has entrusted me with the education of all the princes. I cannot show favoritism, and so I cannot provide different education.”

His shoulders trembled.

His head quickly translated the teacher’s words.

They were clearly speaking the same language, but it was a word that should not be taken at face value.

The First Prince scoffed.

“Ha. Father is also getting attached to those who won’t amount to anything.”

These things that can barely even run, what? The art of kingship?

“Administrative Grand Officer. It would be more beneficial to just teach the royal family’s dogs how to offer a paw.”

“I am only doing as I am commanded. I am sorry, Your Highness.”

“Fine. Do as you please.”

From that day on, classes were held together or separately.

Since there was a difference in progress, the number of class days was slightly more for the younger brothers.

The Second Prince. The younger brother was quiet and always did his homework if he had any.

Even with a glance, his determination to accomplish something seemed great.

But his efficiency was average, and the results were average or only slightly better.

“Administrative Grand Officer. I told you it wouldn't work. Fill up the reduced class days again.”

“I am sorry. I must follow the order. Also, the Third Prince is also showing interest in his studies.”

“Hmph. How much can he do.”

The Third Prince, moving his pen with his tadpole-like hands.

He peered at the tip of that pen.

“…What is this. This is advanced philosophy. Is he reading this now?”

“Is it just reading? The Third Prince is writing down his own answers. And that is truly….”

Admiration crept onto Charles’s face.

It was a face that the First Prince, who had seen him the longest here, had never seen before.

“I couldn’t think of anything other than the word ‘amazing’. How can he have such insight at such a young age─”

“…Wait. Literature is important, but we can’t leave out martial arts.”

“Of course. The Second Prince entered the royal family’s curse class last month, and the Third Prince will start tomorrow.”

“I will observe as well. To show a demonstration, there’s no reason not to, right?”

“It would be my honor. The younger brother princes will also be able to look up to and learn from their older brother.”

“Hmph. Of course.”

At that time, he had puffed out his chest.

But it didn’t take even a few weeks, a few days, for that chest to deflate.

The Julsin royal family’s method of magic operation.

The royal family’s succession curse text, Krawl.

The royal family’s advanced swordsmanship, which required the application of those two.

The Third Prince, holding only a useless wooden sword, broke through with unstoppable force.

“Keuk…!”

The memory of when he was first hit by the tip of that wooden sword was still vivid.

Everyone was surprised.

The one who was hit.

And the one who did the hitting.

Only their teacher, who had taught them, remained silent.

After that, it was a series of defeats.

He couldn’t win a single thing, and people’s attention and affection shifted to the youngest.

The Second Prince didn’t care, but the eldest brother couldn't.

“I am not interested in the throne. I believe it should naturally go to my older brother.”

When the youngest, who had already grown up so much, showed such humility in front of people.

This side would become enraged, and veins would pop out on his neck and temples.

He would throw, break, and shatter any object he could get his hands on.

But what was most unbearable to see was.

“Third Prince. The next class is military science. I have summoned the Military Affairs Grand Officer, so today’s education will be with him.”

“That sounds fun. I want to do it quickly.”

The Administrative Grand Officer, attached to the side of the Third Prince, who everyone was interested in, wouldn’t leave him alone.

That sight was hard to watch with his eyes open.

He hated it. He hated everything.

I wish I was the only one in this world.

I wish my younger brothers would disappear.

He thought that.

But those thoughts did not stop developing.

They developed to the point where they could be put into action right away and pushed him from behind.

“…The Second Prince has passed away.”

One day, Charles reported.

It was a day when one of his younger brothers died in a mysterious accident.

He had only ordered his underlings, hidden them, and given them money.

And a perfectly fine prince had died.

Was this the world?

That was the world.

“Was it this easy….”

Administrative Grand Officer Charles had not taught him this.

Why was that?

“Why did he keep shouting about things like heart, leaving the real power alone?”

He couldn't understand.

The true power contained in this status.

He wielded that true power and dealt with the thorn in his side, the Third Prince.

This was even easier.

Because accidents always happen on the front lines of battle.

He lived his whole life revering such power.

And at some point, something like the crystallization of that power came to him.

“A pleasure to meet you. I am Kian, an elder of Millesdusk.”

He was an incredible person.

A great intellectual and a strong man.

“I need a place to rest for a while, and I have come to see if you could spare a small place in the Krawl border forest.”

He slapped his knee.

This is the one. I must secure this person.

He had to hold onto such a strong person and bring him in as an ally to move forward.

A true sailboat.

A favorable wind had come to the sailboat.

That favorable wind would not leave but stay, and it would advance faster than any other boat.

But he had forgotten for a moment.

“All preparations are complete.”

That a person with true power never lives with just gentle thoughts.

“Are you ready to be reborn?”

***

“…Yes? Prime Minister. More importantly, what are these?”

A small but much taller altar than him.

It looked sufficient to place one person on it, and bones were piled up around it.

Yin energy rose in the gloomy and sinister atmosphere.

“What do you mean? It is the moment of rebirth. The preparations for it. If you don’t believe me, shall I show you?”

Jjeoeoeok─

A group of marrows that shot up from the ground wrapped around the Military Affairs Grand Officer’s legs.

“Y-Your Majesty…!! Run─”

“That majesty of yours has kicked away that chance time and time again.”

Ttak─

He snapped his fingers.

The ground was so soft that the old official’s body was sucked down, down like into a swamp.

“Kkeueueuk…!!”

The earth, soaked in Yin energy, was as cold as ice.

Such earth crumbled and poured into his open mouth.

Now that he was entering the earth faster than the former king who had died first.

The thing that had been pulling him down like gravity lifted his body.

“Kkeo-eoeo….”

Something that spewed the cold of the undead from its open mouth.

Neither a monster nor a human.

Just something artificially made with a human as the main ingredient.

It opened its chest.

It opened its chest like a mouth and set its ribs like teeth.

The work it did was simple.

Kwadeudeudeuk─!!

It chews a person, minces them, and fills its empty interior.

“Ah….”

It was such a grotesque sight that he didn't even notice the blood splattering on his face.

“It is a corpse filled with Yin energy instead of a sorcerer’s magic. It eats the living and makes that living being its official host.”

But it was impossible for a human to use Yin energy like magic.

So he buried it in the Yin energy-filled ground and waited.

Then something like that popped out and fired the signal to bring down Eclipse.

Ttudududuk─

The body that immediately showed what it had eaten.

Another face protruded from the body of the one who had spread its ribs wide like a flower.

It was the Military Affairs Grand Officer’s.

And there was still plenty of room in this.

“Y-you bastard…!!”

He shot the royal family’s curse, Krawl.

A pierce of incredible speed.

A technique that gathered magic into a single point and pierced, one that could break through even if a knightly order stacked their shields.

“That’s still just a curse.”

Chiiik─

The royal curse couldn't even pierce a single piece of flesh.

“H-heuaak…!! Heuaaaak!!”

The First Prince stumbled backward and, even as he fell, kept flailing his hands.

Curse. Curse. Curse.

He pierced and pierced without end.

But it was meaningless.

Kian stood with his hands behind his back and did not flinch.

“Opening the gates of hell and letting something out, I thought the Scripture of the Dark Wheel would catch the scent faster than expected and it would be difficult.”

Deobseok─

He grabbed the thin ankle of the prince who had fallen on the cold earthen floor.

“Heueuk…!! Let, let go!”

“So I devised another method.”

Deudeudeudeuk─

He grabbed the ankle and dragged him as he was.

He carefully dragged him to the altar prepared for only one person.

“Create a subject connected to the altar, so that it becomes the altar itself. It’s better to create a moving altar, literally.”

“P-please…!!”

While he begged, his arms were spread to the left and right, and his body came up onto the altar.

It was like a fish on a cutting board, but this was strictly a coronation ceremony.

A coronation ceremony to place the crown.

“Your Majesty will then go to Krawl, which is in the midst of mourning.”

“E-Elder Kian, please…! I will do anything you ask…!!”

“Every time you move, you will scatter Yin energy like an altar. The capital will become like a demonic realm, and Your Majesty will become infinitely close to a demon.”

Right now, the ribs and teeth were closer than the crown.

The open chest approached his head and embraced it.

And was placed on his head like a crown.

“─!!”

A voice could no longer be heard.

Just a loud buzzing noise.

“You said you would do anything I asked. Didn’t you say you wanted to leave your name in history like that? Be eaten quietly.”

The thing that had grown bigger after eating the Military Affairs Grand Officer.

It lifted the captured arms and slowly put him in.

As if knowing it was a precious prey.

It chewed him up thoroughly without spilling a single drop of blood.

By the time it had cleanly savored him down to the tip of his little toe.

The monster that had eaten three people grew three heads, and the First Prince’s head extended from its left shoulder.

Its size and the power it possessed increased dramatically.

“Though it’s a sorcerer, it didn’t just eat a person, its power has multiplied. The increase in power is at a tremendous level.”

I was just going to use it once and be done with it.

But maybe it’s worth researching.

Then I should give it a name.

What should it be?

He looked at the First Prince for a moment, rested his chin on his hand, and after contemplating, he nodded.

“Main will be fitting.”

A demon-like person.

It was truly a fitting name.

One of the Main’s three heads kept gesturing somewhere with its eyes.

It was the First Prince.

And Kian knew that direction well.

The capital Krawl. The royal castle. The place where the crown and scepter were.

“Even in this state, you still want to become king that much.”

An obsession that could only be laughed at.

The desires he had harbored in life became even stronger.

The one with the most bloated ego among the bodies he had eaten.

The First Prince’s desire was moving the Main’s body.

Kian nodded.

“Yes. Go ahead and run wild as you please. But you mustn’t drag it on for too long. This is merely a rehearsal for the stage called Eclipse.”

The Main, for whom the name ‘person’ was now a misnomer, dashed out like a beast.

With every step it took and every breath it exhaled, the land and air changed their form.

Violently. And coldly.

It changed its exterior and interior.

And not long after, in the capital where that breath would arrive.

Someone with skin paler than the Main waited for that breath.

Tip: Tap/click the left or right side of the screen to go to previous/next chapter.