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Chapter 03 …
“What did Kanis Riventi even do wrong that you’re this desperate to catch him? You could just leave him alone. Does the Imperial family really have to go this far?”
“I have no idea what you mean. I simply cannot leave a small child alone in such dangerous lands and walk away. As a respectable adult.”
He had literally just called him a “hostage” with his own mouth, and now he was spouting nonsense without even blinking.
As expected of Imperial bastards!
Beside them, aide Jehel clicked her tongue and muttered,
“Now you’ve gone and made even that person’s child hate you…”
At Michael’s razor-sharp glare, Jehel immediately tucked in her tail and stepped into the room.
“Then, child of the Tower Master, I’ll gather your things.”
“Hey, I never said I was going to the Imperial Palace.”
Michael cut him off as though the idea were absurd.
“Putting everything else aside, I cannot leave a child alone indefinitely in a filthy place with poor security like this. We’ve also confirmed that there was no guardian with you since last night.”
“……”
To be fair, Kanis had been planning to find a proxy himself once he woke up.
Someone who wouldn’t find it strange that he was a child, and who had enough competence to carry out orders without issue…
Kanis’s gaze slowly drifted toward Michael.
Unsatisfactory as it was… for now, maybe this was an emergency substitute?
“Besides, if the Tower Master truly hasn’t returned since last night, then perhaps some sort of circumstance has arisen—”
Jehel suddenly clapped her hands as though remembering something.
“Wait, didn’t you say earlier your mother was dead?! …Didn’t you say she was dead?”
“It was a lie.”
Before Kanis could even answer, Michael dismissed it flatly.
Kanis looked up at Michael.
“It was a lie.”
Without even looking at Kanis, he repeated himself.
Kanis merely shrugged at Jehel, who was staring at him.
Well, think whatever you want.
After glancing around, Jehel picked up only the hooded cloak Kanis had left by the bedside and cheerfully said,
“Then shall we head to the Imperial Palace?”
“Before that.”
Michael placed a hand atop Kanis’s head and asked,
“What is your name?”
“Kani—”
Kanis nearly bit his tongue off. Michael and Jehel were both staring at him.
“Ka… Kan… na.”
“Kakanna? Kanna?”
“…Kanna.”
Michael let out a low sigh, then held out his hand toward Kanis.
“Very well, Kanna. Let’s get along from now on. At least until the Tower Master appears.”
Kanis stared suspiciously at the offered hand, then slowly formed a mischievous, bratty expression.
“I just thought of something else I can prove.”
“……”
“Kanis Riventi hates Crown Prince Michael.”
He had said it purely to be irritating.
“I know.”
Michael said it calmly, then used that same outstretched hand to firmly press down on Kanis’s head before withdrawing it.
That reaction was more composed than expected.
So saying he liked him, and the marriage proposal too… those really hadn’t been genuine after all.
For some reason, that irritated Kanis.
Grumpily fixing his mussed hair, Kanis followed Michael downstairs.
It happened at dawn that same day.
The chief attendant rushed across the main palace and entered the Emperor’s bedchamber.
“Your Majesty.”
“……”
“Y-Your Majesty.”
The chief attendant, pale-faced from the sudden duty of waking the Emperor from deep sleep, nevertheless wore the expression of someone steeled for suffering beyond imagination.
If I do not wake him now, I will suffer even more later!
The chief attendant squeezed his eyes shut and raised his voice.
“Your Majesty! Have you awakened?!”
“…Hrng?”
The Emperor awoke with somewhat less dignity than befitted his station.
“W-What is it? Has war broken out? Why this commotion?”
“His Highness the Crown Prince has sent an urgent letter.”
“…What, did he finally succeed in his proposal?”
Otherwise, why would you dare wake me at this ungodly hour?
The chief attendant bowed deeply, carefully choosing his words.
“Tower Master Kanis Riventi… has, upon answering the call of the World Tree, passed from this world.”
“…What?”
The aging Emperor’s hearing had grown poor in recent years.
But the chief attendant knew perfectly well that wasn’t why he had asked.
He was pretending not to hear because he had to.
The chief attendant threw himself flat to the floor, forehead pressed down.
“Your Majesty… now, in this world, Kanis Riventi is…”
“I cannot simply believe that fool’s words without question.”
The Emperor sucked in a sharp breath and forced himself upright from bed. The chief attendant hurried to support his arm.
“I shall go meet the Tower Master at once, so tell them to prepare immediately!”
“Your Majesty, at least stabilize yourself first—”
“The Crown Prince! Has the Crown Prince returned to the palace?!”
“N-No, he has not. According to the letter, he says he will not return for some time…”
“This wretched boy sends something this important by letter alone, and where in blazes has he gone?!”
At that moment, the doors burst open again, and an Imperial guard came rushing in frantically.
“Your Majesty!”
Seeing the guard’s face twisted with panic, the Emperor looked ready to faint before even hearing the news.
The chief attendant wiped sweat from his brow and demanded,
“And what now?”
“Your Majesty! The magic formation… the capital’s defensive barrier cast by the Tower Master…”
“Report properly!”
The guard dropped to his knees.
“Y-Your Majesty! The barrier is disappearing!”
The Emperor’s pale white face slowly began turning purple.
“All Imperial mages are trying to stop it, but they cannot! The barrier protecting the capital for three hundred years—the great symbol of the Empire! Ngh!”
The guard practically coughed blood as he shouted, while the Emperor staggered toward the window. The curtains were violently thrown open.
The great dome-shaped shield that had covered the entire capital was fading from the sky itself.
Under the grace of the World Tree, that barrier had symbolized how Tower Master Kanis Riventi protected the Empire—
And now, it was losing power, cracking apart, and vanishing.
Why… why must this happen during my reign…?
The Emperor was struck by severe vertigo.
“…How long until it completely dissolves?”
“At most by today… at fastest, within five hours…”
“……”
In the end, the Emperor lightly fainted.
“That cannot be… The Tower Master cannot possibly be dead…”
Those were the final words he muttered before losing consciousness.
And then, approximately seven hours later, at noon—
“Wait. Stop the carriage.”
Michael abruptly ordered the carriage to halt.
“Your Highness, we’re nearly at the capital gates. Why?”
Despite Jehel’s question, Michael gave no explanation and immediately stepped outside.
“What is it?”
Kanis, who had been dying from motion sickness, had long since become one with the sofa.
He couldn’t have cared less whether Michael left or not.
But aide Jehel pulled back the curtain and looked outside.
“Did something happen…? Huh?”
Jehel’s mouth fell open.
Even Kanis, who had until then refused to separate from the sofa, sensed something strange.
Slowly sitting up, he clenched his tiny hand.
This feeling is…
Some large-scale magic was just undone.
Barrier magic continuously consumes mana after casting; it’s a sustained spell.
Since Kanis’s mana had been sealed, there was naturally not enough available mana left, so it had been released.
At this scale… which barrier was that again? Not one of the biggest, but…
Just as Kanis was about to think harder, Jehel grabbed both his shoulders.
“Kanna. Stay here.”
Her expression was grim.
“What happened?”
“…I don’t know exactly yet. But whatever it is, don’t come out. Understood?”
Then Jehel, too, exited the carriage.
Kanis stood on the sofa and peered out the window.
“Ah.”
And through that window, he immediately understood what large-scale magic had just been undone.
The defensive barrier over the entire capital had vanished without a trace.
Kanis opened the carriage door and stepped outside.
A short distance away, Michael and Jehel stood together.
It was a spell he had cast long ago because one weak-hearted Emperor had whined endlessly about it, so even if that barrier disappeared, it wasn’t exactly an immediate catastrophe…
Approaching without much thought, Kanis suddenly stopped.
Michael was wearing an expression Kanis had never seen before.
He looked utterly speechless, simply staring endlessly at the capital skyline.
“Your Highness… surely something really has happened to the Tower Master… Then that letter truly wasn’t a lie…”
As Jehel trailed off, Michael’s face became completely expressionless.
He was clearly suppressing something.
Michael turned around.
“Your Highness.”
“We need to go to the capital.”
He took several long strides, then abruptly stopped.
Because his eyes had met Kanis, who had come out of the carriage.
A thin crack formed in that expressionless face.
“Kanna, the Tower Master…”
Michael stopped himself and sharply turned his head away.
“Never mind. I won’t ask. Get back in the carriage. It’s cold.”
Kanis was slightly bewildered.
What exactly is this atmosphere?
No, seriously, it’s not like the barrier disappearing is that big of a deal…
“……”
Kanis silently stared at Michael’s back as he climbed back into the carriage.
Imperial bastards really do worry too much.
And the moment they entered the capital, Kanis was forced to revise that thought.
Not Imperial bastards.
The people of the capital were the ones who worried too much.
