Chapter 40: Evil Strikes
“It’s been a week since the black dragon incident. He still hasn’t stirred.”
In a room at a certain estate, the golden-haired knight Iris watched over a man’s sleeping form.
“Crow...”
Crow Titus had only just been knighted. And yet, the raven-haired youth had been the one to end the sudden threat of the dark dragon Nidhogg, Blight of the Heavens. If he hadn’t done so, the beast might’ve laid waste to the entire nation.
“You’ve done well, Crow. Word of your deeds is spreading across all of Lemuria. You’re a hero to this country,” Iris said softly.
Despite her words of gentle praise, her face remained drained of color.
The price Crow had paid for victory was too great. His bones were broken, his flesh torn, his veins split, his organs ruptured. And with his left arm severed, he was past the point of no return.
That he was alive at all was a miracle.
Though he still drew shallow breaths, there was no guarantee the next one wouldn’t be his last.
“Oh, Crow! Crow!” Iris lamented, shedding tears for the hundredth time.
According to the doctor, the damage to his organs was too severe. He’d estimated that Crow had a week left to live, if that.
And that had been a week ago.
The doctor’s estimate had, cruelly enough, been accurate. Just moments ago, Crow’s breathing had begun to sound labored.
“Oh,” she murmured, clasping his hand. His pulse was faint. “Crow, please don’t die! Don’t leave me!”
Yet despite her reluctance to admit it, she knew the flame of his life was about to be extinguished.
Iris had felled countless aetherborn. Her familiarity with taking lives meant she could sense his impending demise.
“Crow, you saved me! I, who had always longed to be a knight, who became a knight, was on the verge of losing sight of it all, thanks to the whims of the corrupt nobility and royalty! My spirit was dying, and it was you who saved it!”
Her hand tightened around his.
Iris could never forget what he’d done for her that day. Like a hero from a tale, he had sprung forth and rescued her from her distress.
Affording no mercy to any evil that would disturb the peace, risking his life and fighting to the limit, Crow was Iris’s beacon of hope.
Together, she believed, they could have carved a path to a wonderful future.
And if this was going to be the end, if he was going to leave this world...
“If you die, Crow, let me join you!”
Yes, she would go with him.
But there was someone there to keep her in check.
“Do not be foolish, Iris. What good would it do for you to die as well?” A young voice rang out, admonishing the knight for her impulsive decision.
Iris turned to look behind her. “Eldia, my mentor...”
Before her stood the empress dowager, looking as youthful as ever in her white dress. Once upon a time, she had wielded Iris’s aethereal arm, Excalibur. Her present form was a result of her overwhelming compatibility with the holy sword, which prevented her from aging.
“The girl who fought for Crow’s sake, Tiana, has been sent to House Alithlai’s care. Her condition is quite stable. She should wake soon.”
There was one person other than Crow who was to be commended for her actions during the incident with the black dragon—and that was Tiana von Alithlai. After Crow had defeated the dragon, it was she who had kept the raven-haired swordsman’s mysterious assailants at bay, despite being a low-ranking knight.
And so Iris was grateful to her from the bottom of her heart.
“I...I see. That’s wonderful news indeed. I owe her a great deal.” Iris was choked with tears as she spoke. “But Crow, he’s—”
“Maintain your composure, Iris,” the empress cut in, embracing the tearful blonde knight. Eldia felt more responsible for Crow’s condition than anyone else. “What happened was my son’s doing. Zilsonia sent Crow after the menacing dragon that arose in our nation, and had the secret order of assassins, the Masquerade, tail him as a backup plan.” When Crow had squared off against the dragon, the emperor’s mother had suspected just such a ploy. She’d told Iris, who’d then rushed to the site of the battle, barely making it in time to save Crow and Tiana from certain death.
Eldia was also the owner of the estate in which Crow slept now.
“Granted, the emperor didn’t know that the dragon in question was Nidhogg. Crow has accomplished a truly remarkable feat.” Originally, the Blight of the Heavens had been sealed away, in a location known only to the royal family. How could it have been released? This had to be a conspiracy, Eldia posited.
“My mentor, what should I do now?” Iris lamented.
“We can but pray for Crow’s recovery. And no matter what happens, you should not think of following him in death. Am I clear?”
“Y-Yes!”
Together, they held Crow’s hand and hoped for a miracle.
How could this have happened to such a promising youth? Turned into a bloody mess, deprived of one of his limbs, and then—to top it all off—set upon by assassins?
It was unbearably horrific.
“Crow...!”
“Young Crow...”
The two knights pleaded with the heavens.
It didn’t matter if he could never fight again. Please, they begged. Spare him his life.
But it wasn’t salvation that arrived for Crow.
“Is Crow Titus here?!” a voice suddenly rang out.
What came was, in fact, another trial.
“Who are you?!” Eldia demanded, turning at the sound.
There stood a group of raggedy men, clutching the estate’s maids to their chests.
“What is this?!” the empress exclaimed.
“W-We’re sorry, mistress! These people appeared suddenly— Eek!”
One of the men pressed a knife to the maid’s throat. A thin line of blood trickled down her pale skin. “Shut up!” the man commanded before turning to Iris and the empress. “And you two, you know the drill, yeah? Try anything funny, and you can kiss these girls goodbye.”
The two female knights stood frozen in their tracks. Something didn’t compute. How had these interlopers taken all the maids in the estate hostage without making a single sound?
And that wasn’t all.
“They have aethereal arms of their own. And high-quality ones too,” Eldia murmured with certainty. With so many powerful weapons, there was no telling what might happen. “So high-quality, in fact, that vulgar thugs such as yourselves should not own them. Who gave them to you?”
“It’s none of your business, you loli hag!” one of the men said. “We have only one demand. We want the life of that sleeping bastard over there, Crow Titus.”
As one, the men readied their arms—including weapons with immensely destructive powers.
“You think we’ll let you lay a finger on him?!” Iris exclaimed, shocked by their demands, not to mention the dissonance between the fine weapons they wielded and their shabby appearances. There was no reason for a group of unknown thugs to be after Crow’s life. And there was no way they could own weapons of a sort so heavily controlled by the state.
Which could only mean...
“You bastards are the emperor’s pawns, aren’t you?!” Iris exclaimed in explosive anger.
The second she drew her blade, however, the men pointed their own blades at the captive maids. The hostages’ screams echoed throughout the estate, giving Iris pause and slowing her movements.
“Now! Get him!” one of the men commanded.
“What?!”
The thugs all advanced at once, their blades about to reach Crow, when—
“IN YOUR DREAMS.”
Dark aether gushed forth from Crow’s entire body!
Chapter 41: A New Power
“Wha—? Crow?!” Iris watched, bewildered, as the dark aether began to flow from the young man just as his assailants attacked.
Then something even stranger happened. The aether took the shape of countless black arms and seized the men’s weapons!
“Gah! What the hell?!”
“Whoa! Nobody said he could do this shit!”
“Let me go, damn you!”
As the ruffians struggled to free themselves, the captive maids slipped away. And amid the echoing cries of the evildoers, a faint voice rose from within the swirling storm of darkness:
“My desire...is to be...”
Iris’s eyes widened in recognition. There was no mistaking it—this was the voice of the man she loved!
“The Condemner of All Evil, for the sake of others! Shouldering every burden, every responsibility!” he exclaimed passionately.
A knight’s vow.
For his country, his friends, his people—he would slaughter all evil, surpass all obstacles. Thus did the Condemner swear!
“Oh, Crow!”
“My dear young man!”
Iris and Eldia—two women who had taken up the sword in the name of justice—were trembling. His resounding oath burned hot in their hearts.
“Peace... Hope... I’d do anything for that!”
In the overflowing darkness, they all shivered and froze—the women out of emotion, the villainous brutes out of fear! Faced with the absolute determination and fervor of those words, not one of them so much as blinked.
“I hereby declare that...”
As the dark aether reached a critical mass, the figure of a knight emerged as if from a cocoon of darkness!
“I, Crow Titus, wish to someday sever all that is evil! For freedom and peace!”
Thus did the bringer of judgment make his second coming. At the heart of the crackling blackness stood Crow, the Condemner. He should’ve been severely injured. He should’ve been missing an arm. However, the strange aether, lodged in his injuries like a flame, turned to flesh and blood, replacing what he had lost.
“Oh, Crow!” Iris exclaimed, in tears at his miraculous revival.
The young man exuded a presence that made it seem as though he could’ve stood side by side with the knights in her childhood tales, overcoming all hardships. A hero, born in the modern age!
Buuut...
What the hell?! What’s with these scary-looking dudes? And Iris?! And a tiny loli?!!!
Our modern-age hero (actually just the pointedly ordinary Crow) was confused, you see.
After all, he’d been sleeping like a log, and then Muramasa had told him to shout out his desires—and the next thing he knew, he’d woken up and found himself in this situation.
Huh? Huh?! These clearly evil dudes are glaring right at me! This can’t be good! Uh, I should probably protect the loli!
Standing before the mysterious white-haired girl (actually seventy-year-old Eldia), Crow shielded her with his own body.
And then he put on a stupidly sharp face and spoke in a stupidly sharp tone.
“Never fear. I will protect you!”
“Huh?! ♡”
And that’s how, in a single moment, Empress Dowager Eldia was doomed.
See, from her point of view, this was a dream come true. A cool, passionate, righteous, and gorgeous man—the embodiment of all her ideals—stood protecting her like a scene straight out of a story. Suddenly, she was being treated like a heroine! And she was swooning over it!
Except, of course, while she thought he was a righteous man (based on hearsay and the series of oaths he’d just made), he wasn’t actually like that at all.
What Crow had said was “My desire is to be the Condemner of All Evil, for the sake of others! Shouldering every burden, every responsibility! Peace. Hope. I’d do anything for that! I hereby declare that I, Crow Titus, wish to someday sever all that is evil! For freedom and peace!”
What he had thought, however, was “My desire...? Well, honestly, all I want is to be hella popular with the ladies and take it easy! I’ve been the Condemner of All Evil for the sake of others all this time! Shouldering every burden, every responsibility! I’m sick of it! I wanna move on already and live in peace!!! My hope...is to have a big tiddy wife who takes, like, super good care of me, and also gives me money! I’d do anything for that! Um, except fighting! I hereby declare that I, Crow Titus, wish to someday sever all ties with you, you demonic embodiment of all that is evil! I wish for my freedom and peace back!”
The shallow bastard! He just wanted peace for himself! All they’d heard had been him articulating bits and pieces of his garbage desires! Just the buzzing of an insect who wanted to get rid of his yandere girlfriend (Muramasa) and find himself a sugar mama he could bang without a care in the world!
Unaware of any of this, Iris and Eldia’s maiden brains were in full overdrive, and the ruffians were desperately trying to get away—all over someone who was barely worthy of being called scum.
What they saw as a hero rising from the depths of hell was, in reality, just a slug crawling out of a drain. Gross, and definitely not worth cowering before.
Still, Crow’s acting skills and the mystique in his face were top-notch.
Fully aware of the abilities of the demonic sword flowing from his soul to his mind, he glared sharply at his enemies.
“Come, Muramasa! Show me your new power!”
Instantly, the jet-black blade was in Crow’s right hand. His left arm, grown anew, emanated dark aether. Truly, he looked like a hero reborn from the ashes, awakened to an extraordinary power.
As everyone around him trembled (for no reason), Crow raised his left arm. “I invoke ‘Forbidden Art: Wicked Soul Summoning’!” he shouted.
He’d just come up with that name, by the way.
Once again, dark aether began to overflow from his left arm. In a moment, it took shape, transforming into a group of trolls, aetherborn he had once slain.
The demonic army roared. They looked exactly like the real thing, except that their bodies were tinted black. With ragged breaths and murderous eyes like those of angry beasts, they turned to the thugs.
“Wh-What?! Where did these things come from?!” one of the ruffians shouted, as the group of men fell into a panic.
They’d had no idea this could happen! Their client—under the emperor’s orders—had told them this was the simple assassination of a man on the verge of death. So what the hell was this?!
“This is Muramasa’s new power,” Crow announced, black blade in hand. “It can now cause souls to manifest for a time.” Cool, right?!
His left arm regenerating, the summoning of the troll horde—all was the work of the recently awakened Muramasa. Crow’s soul, to which the blade was bound, could recreate his own missing body parts and organs with aether. Not only that, he could also summon fragments of the souls of aetherborn the sword had consumed, temporarily bringing them back to life.
These revived beasts obeyed Crow’s every command—not because they were under his thrall, but because they were simply terrified of Crow and Muramasa, who had once killed them so violently.
“Now go, my aetherborn! Destroy this evil! Cleanse it!”
With a mighty roar, the trolls attacked in unison, swinging their powerful arms and mowing down the thugs. Some still tried to resist, using their aethereal arms, but—
“It’s futile,” said Crow, the man who controlled the aetherborn horde, unfazed. His sword flashed over and over, and the thugs fell one after another, their bodies instantly dismembered.
And the resurrected hero (actually just controlled by a cursed sword), with a look of (pseudo-)dignity on his face, boldly declared:
“Embrace your doom, vile fiends!”
While internally screaming that his muscles were really sore, of course.
He obliterated every last one of his enemies.
“He’s a hero!” Iris said.
“He’s a hero!” Eldia said.
“He’s too strong for us!” the enemies said.
“Wahhh!” Crow said. What a turd.
Chapter 42: The Mentor, the Teacher, and Crow
After taking care of the evil-looking dudes, I stood there, in awe of the strange white-haired loli’s true identity.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, young man. My name is Eldia von Lemuria. I am the emperor’s mother.”
“Pardon?” I’m sorry, what?! She’s, like, a kid!
She had to be joking, right?
But when I looked at Iris and made a face like “Can you believe this shit?” she shook her head at me, looking quite serious.
Wait, it’s not a joke?!
“It’s hard to believe, I understand, but much to my shame, it is true,” the young girl said, holding out her left hand. She wore a ring with the royal family’s crest on her ring finger. “So as you can see, I am Eldia, wife to the late emperor.”
“Oh, I see...” Whaaaaaaaat?!
An actual royal! In the flesh! And, like, the most important of them all too!
Oh crap! Uh, how am I supposed to talk to royalty? Wait, did I disrespect her earlier?!
“Your Majesty, I was not aware of your identity. I apologize for my lack of manners.”
“Oh, no need for formalities. You can call me Eldia.”
“Uh, Empress Eldia—?”
“No, just Eldia. And there’s no need to mind your manners.”
What do you mean, I don’t need to mind my manners?! What’s with her?! Is this a trap?!
Disobeying her orders and minding my manners would’ve been treason.
Not minding my manners would’ve been disrespectful.
Damned if I did and damned if I didn’t!
I’d gotten revived, then some thugs had tried to kick my ass a moment later, and five minutes after that, I got caught in some weird catch-22!
“Now, now, my mentor, you’re putting Crow on the spot.” My angel, Iris, chided the empress.
She chided the empress!
Iris had also called her “mentor,” which meant she must’ve been Eldia’s disciple, right? What a beautiful pair!
“I’m sorry, Crow. See, my mentor here may be royalty, but she’s quite the tomboy. Try not to think ill of her.”
“No, I don’t mind, Iris. I can appreciate someone who prefers acting casually to formality.”
As I said this, Empress Eldia grinned widely. “Oh? Ohh?”
Wh-What?!
“My, young Crow, you don’t call her ‘Lady’ Iris?”
“Huh? Oh, yes, she asked me not to.” Which this person also did, come to think of it...
“Oh dear! Iris, your tactics are the same as mine! This can only mean one thing!”
What? Tactics? What tactics? What does that mean?
As I tilted my head in confusion, Empress Eldia smacked Iris on the side of her chest.
And instead of getting angry, Iris went beet red. “W-Well, I can’t deny that,” she mumbled.
I had no idea what they were going on about, but at least they seemed to have a good relationship!
“Oh, my apologies for ignoring you, young Crow. But if you can be so casual with Iris, why, you can be casual with me too, no?”
I attempted to protest. “B-But Your Majesty, you’re royalty! I couldn’t possibly—”
“Don’t worry, young man. My marriage to the previous emperor was half forced, and political in nature. I may have raised and breastfed two children, but I’m still a maiden at heart.”
What’s she going on about?!
“As proof of my sincerity, I give you this,” she said, removing the ring from her finger and offering it to me.
No thanks!
What the hell? Was this some kind of prank by the royal family? I was, like, the most commoner of all commoners. My mind couldn’t keep up!
“Now, my mentor, shall we speak of serious matters?” Iris cut in, clearing her throat and picking the empress up, then setting her aside like one might do to a pet cat.
“This is a serious matter!” Eldia protested.
“Shut up, loli granny!” Iris snapped. “Now, Crow, allow me to briefly explain our current situation,” she continued, her tone turning solemn.
She then told me about what had happened during my slumber.
First off, I’d been asleep for a week straight.
And I’d been on the verge of multiple organ failure, just like Muramasa had said.
On top of that, Tiana, who had protected me, was doing fine.
Though she had incurred severe injuries, she’d been treated with a powerful potion known as an “elixir,” which only the royal family had access to. Once her life-threatening wounds had fully healed, she’d been left in the care of her mother.
They’d used an elixir on me as well, apparently, but all that had done was keep me alive for a week.
Iris said all of my organs and bones had been damaged. My ass must’ve been kicked really hard!
“And lastly, about the black dragon you defeated, Nidhogg, Blight of the Heavens... Well, the plan is for you to receive a commendation from the emperor himself. But I’m sure you’ve already put two and two together, haven’t you?” Iris asked.
I nodded.
A newbie like me should never have been sent to face off against a dragon alone, of course.
After the dragon was dead, a group of mystery masked men had attacked me.
And then a bunch of thugs wielding aethereal arms had come after me.
It all came together into one grim picture.
“It’s Emperor Zilsonia who wants you dead.”
“How dare that boy try to harm his future daddy?!”
—Eldia
Chapter 43: Congrats, Crow! It’s a Boy!
“I’ll keep an eye out for any other assassins the emperor might send,” Iris said. “Please, my mentor, tell Crow about him.”
With that, Iris left the room, sword in hand. Her blonde hair trailing behind her gave her such a dignified look. She’d been so dependable since the moment we met! I loved her.
“Now, young Crow,” the empress began, once we were alone. “Let us speak of the emperor, the man after your life.” Her long eyelashes drooped sadly. “Why did Zilsonia, my son, try to kill you, you may ask? Well, he resents commoners who show excellence.”
Um, I’m not excellent, but go off, I guess?
“My son, Zilsonia, you see, was quite the talented child. Everyone around him expected him to achieve great things. Fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately—my husband and I had no other children. Until age ten, everyone believed Zilsonia was to be the next emperor.”
“Until age ten?” I echoed, tilting my head at her words.
He’d had no siblings. He’d been talented. Seemed obvious to me he’d become the next emperor.
“Well...” she began, in response to my question. “Around that time, I learned of my husband’s infidelity. He had sired a child with one of our maids.”
“Oh, I see.” Sounds like a bit of a pickle, I thought. Even someone like me, a commoner far removed from that world, could imagine the problems that had to have caused for those involved.
“As you can imagine, the palace was in an uproar. Some of our vassals even went so far as to suggest that the child should be killed to prevent the seeds of chaos from taking root. It was a difficult time.” Empress Eldia sighed.
She might’ve looked like a seven-year-old, but this story was pretty serious. And she’d mentioned being half forced into a political marriage to boot. She looked so young, but she’d led quite the difficult life.
“In the end, the maid’s child was raised at the palace, as the second in line to the throne. There was opposition, to be sure, but Zilsonia, in the eye of the storm, said he would accept the boy as a younger brother. The two became playmates and were often together after the boy was taken in.”
“I see.” Wow! How nice of Emperor Zilsonia to have just accepted a potential rival like that!
Once it became known the boy was the child of the emperor, there would have been problems even if he’d lived as a commoner. Taking him into the palace was the best course of action. And he’d have a good older brother too.
“Empress Eldia...” I began.
“Just Eldia, please. And remember to not mind your manners.”
I know! You don’t have to remind me!
“So then, Eldia. Why did Emperor Zilsonia grow to resent commoners?”
“It’s quite simple, really,” she explained, straining to get the words out. “The second prince was simply far too excellent.”
Apparently, this second prince—just one year younger than Zilsonia—had caught up to his older brother’s academic knowledge about a year after being taken in. Not only that, he’d had talent in the military arts and had surpassed his older brother in only three months. To add insult to injury, he’d been a beautiful child, adored as an angel in his youth. And once he’d grown up, he’d become a handsome, golden-haired man, fascinating the upper-class ladies.
Wow, having a total superhuman for a younger brother must’ve been hard to deal with.
“And the rest isn’t difficult to imagine. The expectations of those around them began to shift onto his younger brother, and Zilsonia was completely overshadowed,” she went on. “Which isn’t to say he was mediocre by any means, but with such formidable competition, he didn’t stand a chance. Over time, his personality began to warp.”
“So,” I pondered, “he began to resent others like his younger brother? Commoners who excel?”
The empress nodded at my words. “He’s now become a bitter old man,” she lamented, clearly distraught by her son’s fate.
Oh, so that’s what it is. It made sense. The emperor hated his younger brother, and his attempts to have me killed had happened because of some sort of displaced hatred for his sibling.
Maybe it wasn’t appropriate for me to feel this way, having been on the verge of death because of him and all, but I could sympathize with his feelings. Even if he was a bastard and undeserving of forgiveness.
“I understand,” I remarked. “I don’t plan on forgiving him, but I’ll consider him a pitiful scoundrel instead.”
“Oh, thank you! You’re far too kind!” Eldia exclaimed, seeming a little relieved by my response.
Wow, what a jerk! Making his pretty, petite mother sad!
“I assume it would be difficult to make the emperor change his ways?” I asked.
“My apologies,” the empress said. “I tried to put an end to his schemes once I found out, and repeatedly admonished him not to do it, but...he didn’t listen to me, in the end.”
“An unfortunate situation for you to be in,” I concluded. “Incidentally, Eldia, is the former emperor still alive? Perhaps if the reprimand came from him, there would be more of a political pressure for the emperor to not do anything.”
Meaning, I wanted his daddy to scold him.
Eldia shook her head, however. “Unfortunately, my late husband has already passed. I think the same thing often. Zilsonia was fond of his father, so if the former emperor was still alive, he could certainly scold the emperor.”
I see. So he’s dead. That doesn’t work, then.
The empress’s face fell again. It was hard to sit by and watch a girl who looked no older than seven seem like she was about to cry.
All righty then. As the master of empathy, my personal motto is to always be nice to little girls.
Time to lighten the mood with a joke!
“How about this, then, Eldia?” I said, taking a ring out of my pocket—the same ring with the royal crest that she’d given me earlier as a joke.
I then slipped it onto my left ring finger.
“Y-Young man?!” she exclaimed.
A perfect fit! I’d thought since a little girl had been wearing it, it’d be too tight, but oh well.
And then, gesturing at my now ringed finger, I offered Eldia a small smile.
“I’ll reprimand the emperor as his substitute father. That would help him be a good boy again, don’t you think?”
Eldia was stunned.
Ha! How’s that?! Imagine someone as young as me playing the role of angry father, yelling at the emperor about how foolish he is! He’d probably start foaming at the mouth!
Funny, right?
I expected her to laugh, but—
“C-C-Crow! You know what this means, yes?!”
“Huh?”
“You’ll be as a father to him. You’ll scold him. You know what that means, don’t you?!” she asked, creeping closer to me for some reason. A tear trickled down her worried face.
What was that about?
“P-Please, Crow! I’m at my limit!” she exclaimed, as though she were hanging by a thread to avoid falling straight into hell.
She took my ringed hand in her small ones and clasped it tightly.
“Please, do help me scold that foolish son of mine!”
“Oh, of course...” Wait, what? You can’t be serious!
And thus it was decided that, in a few days, I was to scold a son (Eldia’s, specifically) who I’d never met.
Whaaaaaat?!
A few days later...
Eldia said, “Mommy will be marrying this man. ♡”
Zilsonia, who had been trying to kill said man—a man who, incidentally, now wore a ring with the royal crest and stood before him—said, “Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!”