Chapter 263

Some time after the Pilgrims’ War ended.

The Holy Empire’s three-day reign ended, and victory once again fell to the Shadow Lord, as it always had. The Third Empire had fallen before, the Holy Empire had fallen, and countless other enemies had ultimately knelt before the Lord of Pitch-Black.

The Shadow Lord still volunteered to be the watcher of kings, and now no one on the continent dared defy Dale.

An irresistible force and terror. The ‘Black Prince’ had been such before, and nothing changed after he took the name of the Jet-Black Prince.

The Grand Duchy of Saxony. It was neither the sole empire nor the sole monarch on earth. Yet the Shadow Monarch’s presence carried weight incomparable to any imperial emperor.

Many things regained order and returned to their rightful places. But some did not.

The Saxon Grand Duchy’s chamber.

As the wife of the Count of Jet Black, Charlotte sat perched on the bed. In her hand was a glass of white wine.

“……There’s no battlefield where you couldn’t protect me.”

Sipping white wine, Charlotte smiled resignedly. She recalled the story Dale had told her that day after revealing the truth.

“Whenever war broke out, you were always on the winning side.”

“I suppose so.”

Dale smiled bitterly. Charlotte did not smile.

“This world has already become your empire. And you became its emperor.”

“……”

“I’m just a princess favored by the emperor.”

“That’s not true.”

“No.”

Dale shook his head. Charlotte shook hers too.

“I believed I was a sword wielded for you. But nothing changed after that day, when I was targeted by thieves in the back alley. From the start, I was protected within the fence you erected, and what I did must have seemed like nothing more than childish play to you.”

“Charlotte…”

“A princess playing knight—utterly naive. That was me. It’s been that way until now, and it always will be.”

Before Dale could continue, Charlotte sighed in resignation.

“But I still like you.”

“……”

“No matter how much I want to hate you, I just can’t. So, staying here as a princess in a cage doesn’t seem so bad after all. I can even play knight and protect my lord sometimes.”

“You’re very drunk.”

“You’ll become a puppet who knows nothing, moving only as you dance. You’ll be very happy, won’t you?”

Charlotte chuckled cheerfully. Dale couldn’t say a word.

“Just like you’ve done to me all this time. Yeah, nothing will change. Right?”

Saying that, Charlotte took another sip of wine. It was a white wine with a faint golden hue.

“I like it, Dale.”

Charlotte said. Their lips met, and the wine’s fragrance flowed in. It was incredibly sweet.

Leaving Charlotte asleep, drunk, behind him, Dale crossed the courtyard of the Saxon ducal palace.

The night sky was incredibly dark. Occasionally, faintly twinkling starlight could be seen.

Dale lowered his head.

In the pouring moonlight, his shadow lay thick beneath his feet.

The shadow was incredibly black and dark.

─ Brother.

Just then, a voice called out. Turning his head, Shuv was standing there.

─ Humans are truly adorable creatures.

The girl with goat horns smiled as if delighted. Tentacles wriggled beneath the hem of her jet-black dress.

─ I like humans. That’s why I don’t wish for the world of humans to vanish from this earth.

Shub said. Her voice was profoundly meaningful.

─ And what I am about to say now is the final truth I shall reveal to the Lord of Truth and Shadow.

“The final truth…?”

That phrase again.

─ You see, this land never belonged to humans from the very beginning.

“What do you mean?”

─ And the true rulers of this planet will soon awaken.

“Who are they?”

─ Entities you know very well, brother.

Shub said cheerfully.

For a moment, I couldn’t grasp his words. Yet, deep within my subconscious, I felt I understood their meaning vaguely.

─ They will awaken from their slumber and move to drive out the conquerors of this planet. For them, it will be a just war to repel the invaders and reclaim their own star.

“…We are the invaders?”

─ They seized this planet while they were asleep. They didn’t retreat willingly even after they awoke. What else could you call that but an invasion?

Shub chuckled.

─ Their struggle was justified from the start. And nothing has changed now.

The meaning of Shuv’s words—referring to them, and that they would awaken—was not difficult to grasp.

“Didn’t the monsters vanish along with the destruction of the old world?”

─ Not all of them vanished. They merely slumber in the deepest depths of the world.

Shub shook his head and said.

─ They, and their king, will rise.

The nightmare of the past, which he had tried so hard to turn away from, came back to life in his mind.

The past battle existing within Dale’s memory. He thought it was over. But it was not over yet.

─ As the king of humans and the ruler of conquerors, it is time to face the king of monsters and make a decision.

“What decision?”

─ Whether to return the land rightfully theirs, or to stand against the rulers of this land as a conqueror.

“…Wasn’t this fight to save the world from the very beginning?”

Hearing Shub’s words, Dale laughed at the unexpected truth.

─ After all, it was their side fighting to save the world from the very beginning.

“Then why are you on the humans’ side?”

─ Well, humans are just more fun.

Shuv laughed coldly. For a moment, a chilling sensation swept over him, as if he were glimpsing an unfathomable abyss in her expression.

─ Survival knows no right or wrong. A starving swarm of locusts harbors no malice either. It’s just that the humans of this planet were perpetrators from the start, not victims, and the Sovereign of Truth had a duty to reveal the truth. That’s why I told them. That’s all.

“……”

As always, the brutally harsh truth popped out as if it were nothing.

Upon hearing those words, Dale remained silent.

He had thought that one day, suddenly, a gate opened and invaders from another world appeared. It wasn’t so.

The truth Shub had revealed. The invaders were not them, but humans.

And when they awoke, the Shadow Lord had to make decisions as the king of humans.

From the very beginning, all of this had unfolded within a single world. There was no otherworld.

“Where should I go to find the answer?”

After realizing this, Dale asked again.

─ To the deepest place in the world.

Shub replied.

Hearing this, the king of men did not hesitate.

It was time to embark on the final journey. And it was a mission he alone must undertake.

After that day, the Shadow Lord vanished without a word.

Some time later, a ship entered the Dead Sea archipelago ruled by Barbarossa the Drowning Duke, and the man was among those aboard.

Only then could he understand the true nature of the power he possessed.

Rough reefs filled the surroundings, and the pungent smell of salt stung his nose. Seagulls cawed in the distance.

At the same time, an utterly gloomy aura shrouding the entire archipelago could be felt.

The end of the world.

The Shadow Lord had finally reached the end of his journey, and it was time to confront the final truth.

The pouring sunlight was exceptionally bright.

“Hmm, where were we?”

The noble lady spoke, and the children scrambled to speak up.

“The king of humans went to see the ‘King of Monsters’ at the edge of the world!”

“Hmm, that’s right.”

Each child bore a faint fragment of a mana circle etched into their heart. It was not uncommon for children from noble families to enroll in the Blue Magic Tower, hoping they possessed magical talent and would never use it for destruction.

And the Blue Magic Tower’s master, ‘Rize’, quietly smiled at the young mages.

Feeling the eight circles etched into their hearts flicker.

Few know the true nature of the Blue Magic Tower, a tower of deceit and intrigue.

Moreover, few know that Rize, now reborn as a blue-clad shadowy figure, once had a time when she was an innocent and naive girl.

She recalled the image her brother had shown when they embarked on their first journey together. An overwhelmingly cruel and utterly overwhelming presence, unimaginable to her at the time.

‘I hope that when you become a person of power in the future, you will think about how to use that power.’

How could she ever forget those words?

Rize now possessed power. As an 8th-circle blue mage, she was witnessing the very scene her brother had once seen.

“Yes, that’s how my brother set sail for the Four Seas Archipelago.”

Rize continued. Everyone knew the story’s ending.

Yet the children listened intently to Rize’s tale, utterly captivated.

“To protect this world, to defeat the king of monsters.”

──The heroic tale of the hero and warrior who defended the world to the very end against the threat of monsters seeking to conquer this world.

That was the form the story took in this world.

As the ruler of the Tower of Lies and Intrigue, the blue-clad mastermind ‘Rize’ did not hesitate to cloak the truth as needed.

Not everyone needs to know the truth. Especially when that truth is unbearable and cruel.

But her brother, the Lord of Truth and Shadow, was different. That man faced the truth about himself and the world until the very end, and accepted it.

The burdens he carried—even she, now, could scarcely imagine them.

“And there, in the Dead Sea archipelago, my brother encountered a subordinate loyal to the king of monsters. Does anyone know that subordinate’s name?”

Riza asked, and a child raised their hand and shouted.

“Drowned Pirate Barbarossa!”

A man’s heart beat within the obsidian box.

“Take your heart.”

Dale spoke before the King of the Dead Sea Archipelago, the Drowning King. The man, looking like a drowned rat, tilted his head as if intrigued.

“Why are you giving it back?”

“Because, for all of us, it holds no meaning beyond this.”

“I suppose so.”

The drowned man laughed as if he were enjoying himself.

“This land is not ours. From this planet’s perspective, and in the eyes of its rulers, we are nothing but invaders and parasites. We are evil.”

“A swarm of locusts devouring crops isn’t done out of malice.”

Dale smiled bitterly.

“They too are merely struggling to survive. We are no different.”

He knew the truth, yet nothing would change.

“As the king of humans, I have a duty to protect them. And I will gladly fight to do so.”

“How utterly foolish.”

The Drowning King sneered, and simultaneously, the scenery of the deep sea enveloped the entire area.