#62: The Crown Princess's Man (21) — Flower of the Red Moon: The Fallen Princess

“Do you want to die? Have you forgotten where this is?

“Try it if you can. If I were afraid, do you think I’d come here? Huh?”

Ignoring Raiden’s fierce glare, Kaiston walked to the sofa and plopped down as he pleased.

“Bring me some tea at least. Your hospitality is a mess, Raiden.”

“You’re insane.”

“You won’t get far with conversation like that. You know I’m crude with my words.”

Raiden gritted his teeth and summoned a servant to bring tea. Kaiston sniffed the cup handed to him, then took an antidote potion from his breast and dropped a single drop in. The pale green tea clouded once, then returned to its original color.

“I’ll enjoy it.”

Raiden watched, stupefied, as Kaiston calmly sipped the detoxified tea.

“Why on earth did you come here?”

“You were the one who invited me, weren’t you?”

“You came on a dare just because I invited you?”

“Raiden.”

Kaiston smiled.

“As long as I don’t give up my life on my own, you can’t kill me by any means.”

“Confident, aren’t you.”

“You know your place.”

Raiden, watching him with cold blue eyes, continued, “If you blindly trust only your personal power, you’ll lose everything.”

“My power is more than that. You should know that by now.”

“…Right. The Grand General has liked you since long ago anyway.”

Raiden clicked his tongue and impatiently ran his hand through his hair.

“Backed by ten thousand Sinal troops, the Red Moon Knights, and even the military. Are you truly planning to challenge the throne?”

“I only need the Crown Princess.”

Raiden glared at him in disbelief at Kaiston’s answer.

“Don’t pull that trick.”

“You may not believe me, but it’s true. I proposed without even knowing she was the Crown Princess.”

“Ha, damn.”

“I told you not to swear.”

Raiden silently glared. His clear, sharp violet eyes had always been so straightforward that they irritated him.

“Then proclaim me Emperor. I’ll let you have that little woman.”

“Well. Before that, there’s something I’d like to ask you.”

“What is it?”

Kaiston looked at him seriously, without a smile.

“You kept sending assassins, knowing full well they’d die easily in my hands. Didn’t you pity them?”

“What did you think I said earlier? A master feels no such emotions when using his property.”

“They’re people like us. They’re royalty of this Empire blessed by God. Aren’t you afraid of God? Don’t you feel any guilt?”

“God?”

Raiden scoffed.

“Blessing, my foot. If God was truly watching with open eyes, would the world be like this? Those who live well pollute everything; that’s reality. God abandoned this world long ago, leaving only a few who can muster that petty sacred power.”

“Raiden. You may not see it, but many still risk their lives to protect the weak. They care for orphans and widows out of pity, and even when starving they do not turn away travelers. How can you be so sure there is no God? Those who act against their nature to do good prove that God lives.”

“So what? What do they gain from living that way? They only get poorer and suffer more. It’s self-comfort and hypocrisy.”

Kaiston shook his head.

“You judge them foolish without taking a single step to understand them. Surface prosperity alone doesn’t decide happiness. Those I’ve seen looked content enough. Raiden, you’ve lacked nothing except the throne. Are you happy now?”

Raiden narrowed his eyes and glared at Kaiston.

“What are you trying to say?”

“Answer me. Are you happy now? Or will you be happy once you grasp the throne?”

Raiden frowned at Kaiston’s question.

“Save that idle talk.”

“If you don’t even know how to be happy yourself, how can you make millions of people happy?”

“Rule and govern; that’s enough. There’s no obligation to take responsibility for the mental state of your possessions.”

“Raiden. How long will you keep calling them your possessions? A life you easily spent was priceless to someone. If you sacrificed them for your cause, isn’t it only right to feel at least some regret and gratitude? Even if you deny God, that’s the minimum duty of a human.”

“The Emperor is not human. He is the supreme being who rules this world in the absence of God. If he invests his heart in everything like an ordinary person, he can do nothing. He would become a fool who frets over ants and cannot move a step.”

“How can a human become something not human? The you I see is just a human.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I was chosen to be Emperor from the start.”

“Who chose you? You said there is no God.”

Kaiston continued with a smile.

“Don’t do that, Raiden. Don’t try so hard to be non-human. You were a decent fellow once; somehow you’ve broken. The old you would have suited the throne much more. Where did you learn that strange idea that an emperor must abandon the human heart?”

“I realized it by watching your fall, Kaiston.”

“What?”

“Even if you loved the people and treated them like children, do they even remember you and your parents? Did they try to save you? Were there those who even bothered to collect the bodies when the protectors died? They celebrated that they could live comfortably at the cost of the imperial family. When the Empire’s hundred-thousand army came, they opened the gates wide instead of making a last stand.”

“Because Father ordered it so. They already knew what the Emperor wanted.”

“If that’s so, at least you should’ve saved your parents somehow. If you decided to stay, you should’ve gotten them away by any means. You should’ve bought at least that much time. Your people did not even do the bare minimum for their king.”

“They have their own lives. I would have been grateful if they had protected us, but I can’t force that. My family and I respect their choices. That’s how the Baras imperial family has ruled the people. The King of Baras protects those who follow him without expecting payment. It was so at the beginning and so at the end.”

“And that way proved to be wrong. The kingdom left no name behind, and all records of the Baras imperial family will vanish from the continent.”

“So what? Even if records of the Baras family disappear, it doesn’t mean the lives of the people we cared for are ruined. Our role ended when their lives were preserved. The Emperor kept his promise; that’s enough.”

Raiden was left speechless by Kaiston’s answer. After a long while, he blurted out.

“…I can’t reason with you at all.”

“I can’t understand either. Why my life became the reason you turned cruel. Are you trying to say you ended up like this because you couldn’t stand living like me?”

Raiden didn’t answer. He stood up abruptly, strode to the doorway, and threw the reception room door open.

“Go.”

“I still have things to say.”

“I don’t want to look at your face for even a second right now. Leave while I’m willing to let you.”

Kaiston clicked his tongue and stood up.

“Did you take something? You’re suddenly acting crazy.”

Kaiston walked to the doorway, stood before Raiden, and he slammed the door shut.

“Come to the place I named at noon tomorrow. If you don’t, I’ll tell the papers that you poisoned the tea.”

“You crazy, fucking lunatic.”

“Watch your swearing.”

When Kaiston opened the reception door and came out, Saik and Kamel looked at him as if they had a mouthful to say.

“For now, go.”

Kaiston strode off first. This time there was no blocking or ambush; they boarded the carriage and left the Lornuz Ducal Manor smoothly.

“What on earth is this? Did you know Raiden?”

Saik asked with a serious expression.

“I didn’t know either, but apparently I did.”

“……?”

“He was a friend I spent a season with when we were kids.”

“Friend…?”

“Yes.”

“You had a friend?”

Kaiston snorted at Saik’s amazed question.

“You think I had no friends? Well, not many, but I did.”

There had always been almost no one who treated him like a friend despite knowing who he was. That’s why, even after so many years, he still remembered that boy.

“But weren’t there curses exchanged?”

“Yeah. He picked up such useless things.”

He used to blush even at rough words, let alone curses.

“Do you get along at least?”

“No, not at all. He became very dangerous. Supposedly all because of me.”

“Were you that influential on each other?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think so, but I can’t be sure since I haven’t been in his shoes. Does living the opposite of me make someone like that?”

Saik and Kamel looked at each other at Kaiston’s words.

“Come to think of it, there’s some truth to that.”

“Am I his wrong-answer notebook, then?”

Feeling a little bitter, Kaiston looked out the window. Darkness had fallen and the Lornuz Ducal Manor was no longer in sight.

“Yes. He is something of a wrong answer.”

It was a life with no redeeming points. Except for these recent bright days, it had been a complete mess, hardly a life you could call okay.

‘But not like you, Raiden. You’re ruining other people’s lives too. I have no choice but to stop you. Even if I must oppose you, forcibly block you, I must make you stop. Precisely because it’s you. And all the more because it’s you.’

Kaiston sighed softly, reflecting on a bond he thought had ended. How should he have lived?

If there’s a wrong answer, there must be a right one. There surely was.

Upon arriving at the Crunel Ducal Manor, Kaiston was both delighted and startled by Liris’s appearance. Seeing him, she burst into tears with a face clearly full of anger.

After taking Liris to her room, Kaiston didn’t soothe her; he just watched her cry.

“Why are you just… sob… watching?”

Wiping tears with the back of her hand, Liris asked brusquely.

“Because you’re pretty when you cry.”

“…What did you say?”

“Why are you so pretty even when you cry?”

Liris, startled, hit his chest hard with her fist.

“You worried me sick! Is that all you have to say?”

“I didn’t do anything to worry you.”

“You went to the Lornuz Ducal Manor! With only two knights!”

Kaiston cupped Liris’s cheeks in both hands.

“You still don’t know me. You shouldn’t worry over something as trivial as this.”