Black Badger - Chapter 363



Only Noblemtl

363. Absolute Loyalty (2)

I didn’t move for a while.

Then, realizing that there was no way to avoid it, he answered.

“I’m sorry for disappointing you.”

Only then did the emperor relax his grip on his chin.

He looked down at me with a mask-like face.

“You’ve suddenly acquired eyes like a prince.”

I don’t think that’s a good thing at all.

“Kyle must have eyes like this too.”

“I have no face.”

“It can’t be helped. Now there is no magic left, no empire to rule, and no ring to prove legitimacy.”

The emperor took his hand away from his chin.

The hand that had been lifting my chin disappeared, but I couldn’t even think of lowering my head. I couldn’t even bring myself to move.

The owner of the hand put his hand on his knee and said.

“So much has changed. You seemed like you wouldn’t allow even a single hair, let alone a leaf vein, to touch me. Who would have imagined that you would be kneeling before me with a damaged leaf vein?”

Shame coursed through my body.

I bowed my head reflexively. After hearing those words, I didn’t have the confidence to look the emperor in the eye.

Fix your gaze on the Emperor’s feet.

The man left me to my knees and bow my head.

It was one of the methods he sometimes used.

Punishment with silence.

Fortunately, the silence wasn’t so long that it was painful.

“You must be keeping me alive because you have a wish.”

I looked up in horror.

“your majesty!”

“Even if you don’t think so, the leader who is giving you orders probably thinks so. I must be a threat to him. It would be easier to take what you need and then eliminate him.”

“I will make sure that something like that never happens.”

The emperor stretched the corners of his mouth.

It was a smile that I couldn’t figure out why I was smiling.

The man who had been smiling and hearing people say that his smile was ‘inhuman’ leaned his upper body back.

“It’s a strange thing. I risked my life to save you. As a result, I lost everything and ended up under the eyes of someone who only knows my voice.”

“Your Majesty, please believe me.”

“It’s a convenient loyalty that is only shown when necessary. That’s not a bad thing, is it?”

The man slowly got up from the bed.

I didn’t move. I just stared at my old master standing before my eyes.

Yesterday, Yoon told me. Even when there was a caste system, humans rebelled. Absolute loyalty to one’s bloodline is a mental illness. Don’t you realize something when you look at the elders’ minions?

The days of the emperor’s reign are over and you are now in the present.

The force of gravity is always on the decline.

The stairs to power are so greased that there is nothing to catch you when you fall.

I understood what he was trying to say.

But I found it difficult to live that way.

I never wanted to climb those stairs in the first place.

As the Emperor said, there is comfort in absolute loyalty.

“Hildebert.”

He called me.

“We still need each other, so unless something comes up, let’s postpone our past relationship.”

Those words strangely struck me as heartbreaking.

Was it because I hated myself for betraying my oath of loyalty, was it because I felt guilty toward the Emperor, or was it because I was sad that so much had changed?

What is certain is that the Emperor was a man who could eradicate even the seeds of rebellion.

He was never a soft being.

“Kiss my feet.”

This is the way of showing submission by someone who is not worthy of kissing the hand.

The manners required of a commoner when meeting the royal family. Or the manners required of warriors from a defeated army.

Although the scope of its use has expanded over time.

I understood what the Emperor meant, because it was always used in that sense in the palace.

Without saying a word, he placed both hands on the floor and bent down.

I kissed my partner’s bare feet.

“Unlike Kyle, you’ve always been obedient.”

The emperor’s laughter fell on the back of my head.

Both he and I knew that kissing had no real meaning.

But this is what he was telling me to do. If he wanted information after betraying my loyalty so ungratefully.

The Emperor graciously accepted my false loyalty.

“But since the old days, you’ve been changing the atmosphere when your subordinates got involved. This is what happens. Betrayal for the sake of your subordinates.”

“your majesty.”

“Since ancient times, whenever I ordered you to punish one of your knights, you would claim to have beaten the criminal yourself and then punished him. I know that this was a desperate attempt to avoid cutting off the criminal’s head. I would have advised you that what is broken is hard to mend, but you continued to commit petty acts of disloyalty. Knights who steal, knights who turn their backs on villagers or their families, knights who indulge in gambling or addictive herbs… .”

“I’m sorry.”

“I used to close my eyes to it, thinking it was just a young person’s vain blunder. The foolish idea that people can change.”

The emperor bowed.

As I carefully lifted my upper body, he grabbed my chin again. The Emperor lifted my chin more gently than before and looked down at me intently.

A being who has been an emperor since the moment I can remember.

“You are not fit to be the head of the clan.”

He whispered.

“I have too much affection for that. I get hurt every time I cut off things that should be cut off.”

Instead of answering, I looked up into clear, sky-blue eyes.

Then he whispered.

“Where is the ring?”

The emperor laughed for a long time.

“Fell into a dimensional war.”

He tucked my hair behind my ear.

“But it’s of no use now, isn’t it?”

yes.

Whether he was the Emperor himself or Jaeyeon, I could no longer give him my absolute loyalty.

So the Emperor wiped the expression from his face as he expressed his agreement in silence.

After taking the hand that was lingering on my ear away, he returns to his usual appearance and asks me for some warm tea.

That’s how the conversation ended that day.

We slept in the same cabin.

***

[flower.]

That’s what his aide, Scar Owen, said when he called.

[I would like him to check the related materials, but for security reasons, I cannot take them out of headquarters. I would like you to bring him to headquarters sometime. When headquarters is ready.]

I said yes as soon as I heard what I was expecting.

I’ll go out as soon as I’m ready.

He added that he would appreciate it if you could contact him a day in advance so that he could make preparations for going out. The Emperor was still staying in his cabin.

This was not Ye-Hyeon’s or my will, but the Emperor’s own will.

The day after I kissed the Emperor’s feet, I asked him to go out, but he refused my offer.

He said he was tired.

It was impossible to know whether it was an excuse or the truth. His chronic illness only had the symptom of ‘the body being so heavy that it was difficult to move’, so it was difficult to determine whether or not the symptoms had manifested.

I asked if he wanted to move, but that was also refused.

‘It’s not so bad being in a small space.’

He also made remarks that could not hide the fact that he was a member of the royal family.

‘It’s cozy.’

anyway….

Scar readily accepted my request. He said he had planned to do so anyway.

[And for the time being, report to me on that. The Commander-in-Chief is going to focus on finishing up the rare earth issue.]

“All right.”

[How is it after spending a little over a week? Do you have a feeling that it is real or not? I still feel uneasy because Jae-yeon’s whereabouts are still unknown.]

“I can’t say for sure yet. It’s a well-known fact that the Emperor was not able to use magic well due to his chronic illness, and that he used up everything he had left to activate Dimensional Movement. I can’t say for sure that it’s a repeat of the event simply because the current Emperor can’t use 3rd Circle magic.”

[Well, it’s not like there’s a rush to find out.]

“yes.”

[Ami and a few select people are looking into the matter regarding Bingryong. We will be able to depart as soon as this matter is concluded in some way.]

“thank you.”

[The solution to the Shu and Jin body problem is still there.]

“yes.”

I asked.

However, the emperor was not proficient in healing magic. It was only natural. Moreover, even if he was proficient, it would have been useless. Only a great magician could cure petrification, and the emperor was currently having difficulty using even 2nd circle magic, let alone 7th circle magic.

[How is your body?]

“it’s okay.”

[You would say so, right?]

The response that came back was that it was not surprising.

While I was smiling awkwardly, Scar spoke up.

[If possible, I would like you to come to headquarters before I bring the Emperor to headquarters.]

“Is that you?”

[Okay. I’d like you to check the flowers first.]

In that case, Kairos would have had to actually take care of the ceremony.

I didn’t even get to ask in detail about Kairos’ father.

After the call was over and I had no choice but to tell Kairos about Scar, the minister’s face brightened.

“That’s good. I was just talking about giving you a rest anyway.”

“It’s better than I thought. He sleeps most of the time.”

“You’ll be fine, won’t you? Even when he received the transfer only from you, you said it was fine.”

Hmm.

“Go and stay for a long time. No, I’ll be on duty for two days, so go to headquarters one day and rest the other day. How about going to my house or getting a hotel room?”

“One day is enough. I don’t have the confidence to rest at ease.”

Kairos did not force anything.

Then he simply told me to leave the cabin for a day and come back slowly. I could see his intention to use any means necessary to separate me from the Emperor.

It might not be a bad idea to go outside and get some fresh air.

If you breathe the outside air, something might turn out to be a turning point.

After saying thank you, I made an appointment to go to headquarters.

***

I arrived at headquarters three hours early to see the lab people.

I have to say hello to Martin and see the faces of the scientists.

With that in mind, I arrived at headquarters and ran into my seniors at Senabi.

They were seniors I didn’t know very well.

“What’s the password?”

The senior who approached me asked a question.

I glanced at five or six seniors who were getting up from their seats one by one.

“I’m currently on sick leave, but I stopped by for a bit because I had something to do.”

“When is the schedule?”

“It’s three hours later.”

“Really? Then give me some time.”

He asked politely and I couldn’t refuse.

There was no reason to refuse. I had a bad feeling, but I wasn’t bad enough at socializing to the point where I could refuse by saying, “Oh, no,” when my senior said in a calm tone, “Give me some time.”

As I nod, Badger, who had been talking to me, goes out of the cafe as if he had been waiting for me.

I walked down the hallway between him and the badgers following him.

A hallway with lots of people coming and going during working hours.

Since the picture was not particularly strange, few people paid attention to us.

I didn’t intend to make a fuss either.

I followed my senior who was walking silently.

The senior, who was walking briskly, grabbed the freight elevator.

I asked questions as I rode the elevator with my seniors.

“Where are you going?”

“Good place.”

He didn’t even look back at me.

“I haven’t bought you a meal yet.”

What about rice?

They entered a corner of the headquarters compound, inside a container where items were stored in the General Affairs Department.

I let out a small sigh as I stepped into the empty, gray container.

I expected it.

I didn’t know you would do this.

Unsurprisingly, the last senior to enter closed the container door.

I was surrounded by six badgers.

“Now you know what we’re going to say.”

The senior who had asked for time turned around and looked at me.

In his eyes, a rage that he had been trying to hide until now was burning. It was a feeling I knew well. I had seen it in the Empire and on Earth.

Even in the eyes of Ricardo and Jonathan.

Anger towards the one who caused the loss.

“If it were you, you would have acted like us.”

I understand.

But Sophia told me not to accept it.

So you should avoid it.

I thought as I looked at the senior who came up from behind and put his hands under my arms to block my retreat, the seniors standing on both sides, and Badger standing in front with his fist raised.

Even if you don’t attack, you won’t just get hit.

Since I made a promise….

bang!

The moment I captured the trajectory of the flying fist in my eyes, the container door opened.

I was so focused on my punch that I didn’t see who ran in.

I realized what had happened only after I knocked back the fist that was flying at me and punched the owner of the punch in the face.

Bam!

Clear impact sound.

Those inside the container were frozen.

I too opened my mouth and looked at the person who had barged in out of nowhere.

Then I rolled my eyes and looked at the faces of those standing outside the container door.

Men leaning lazily at the entrance.

“The quality is bad.”

“Get ready to write your statements~.”

“I’m going to go with Carl Dow, who has his arms crossed, and Ricardo Sordi, who has his arms crookedly resting on the door frame,” he said.

Meanwhile, the person who had been punching the person turned his head and looked at me.

Her short black hair curved in the air.

Cold eyes looking straight at me.

“I told you not to go around getting hit.”

Sophia Carlock said.