Chapter 230 – Completion (1)

Chapter 230 – Completion (1)

‘Gerard.’

It was Gerard Gain.

Juan’s eldest son and the assassin who he had been searching for a long time was sitting on the throne on his behalf. After waiting for decades for Juan to arrive, Gerard finally faced Juan once again.

Juan had imagined the situation where he would encounter Gerard again countless times. However, this was nothing like he had imagined. There was no way that Juan could imagine Gerard attaching his own body’s parts to Juan’s corpse and waiting for him within it.

Juan wanted to scream, but he couldn’t move even a single inch.

Gerard roared and refused to let go of Juan’s arm—it was as if he would break it.

“Give me... the Crown!”

Juan had a hard time understanding this situation. In Juan’s memory, Gerard was a knight who tried his best to be noble despite being imperfect.

But now, he couldn’t understand why Gerard was standing in front of him looking like a monster.

Then, it suddenly occurred to Juan that Dane might have ruined Gerard.

“I trusted you! I trusted you, but this is what I get?!” Gerard shouted desperately.

Juan couldn’t understand Gerard’s words.

‘What did he believe in me for? In fact, I am the one who believed in him and was betrayed.’

Juan lit up his flames in his best attempt to hold out against Gerard. The white flames around him burned in a rough and unstable manner. Nevertheless, the flames slowly spread toward Gerard.

The jewels planted in Gerard’s eyes dropped to the floor and his faint, gray-colored eyes were revealed. Those eyes were burning fiercely with rage.

“I believed that you might be the real emperor! I desperately wanted you to be who I believed you to be!”

Gerard’s anger and despair that was being poured out surged in as if to crush Juan.

Upon facing Gerard’s despair, Juan realized that he wasn’t fully ruined yet.

Just like he himself said, Gerard wasn’t as weak as Dane thought him to be. Gerard was only disappointed in Juan. But Juan couldn’t figure out what it was that he was disappointed about.

Gerard stood up and pressed down upon Juan as if to attack him. The gold foil and jewelry that had decorated the body broke down and scattered away as the body stood up for the first time in decades. Gerard’s muscles were completely dried up, looking pathetic, and he was only composed of skin and bones.

Amidst the scattered gold dust, Gerard grabbed Juan’s arm and pressed down on him. At the same time, Gerard’s furious roar pushed away the flames released by Juan in an instant.

“It was the last stage! You betrayed my beliefs when everything was about to finally end! How could you give up on your identity as the emperor! How!?”

‘Ah... was that it?’

Juan remembered Sina and Haild, who must be standing behind him—he also sensed the trace of the power of the Crack left on Haild’s eye.

That eye belonged to Gerard.

Only then did Juan realize that until now, Gerard had been watching Juan’s each and every move through Haild’s eyes.

And the last thing Gerard had seen was Juan giving up on being the emperor, because of a single woman.

‘So don’t call me the emperor anymore. I am neither an emperor nor the god of humans. I’m nothing more than a selfish idiot.’

Juan had given up on his responsibility to all humans.

“You are not the emperor! There is no way you could ever be the emperor! His Majesty is not such a weak man like you!”

For Gerard, Juan announcing that he was not the emperor anymore looked no different from the appearance of a monster.

After all, the emperor was a man who was fair and just, someone who only raised his sword for the sake of justice.

Gerard could willingly offer his own neck to the emperor if that were what it took to undo all of his mistakes. However, the man standing in front of him had the power of the Crown, yet abandoned his responsibility to humanity.

“Because of just a single human being!”

Gerard’s roar was loud enough to shake the entire red fortress.

Juan felt the pain of his skin being peeled off as too much of his power was being sucked into Gerard. The entire Crown was being moved, and this immense pain made Juan feel as if his soul was being torn apart.

“It’s not just a single human being.”

However, Juan couldn’t help but answer, despite the terrible pain he was in.

Meanwhile, Gerard clicked his tongue upon seeing Haild’s confusion.

“Did you think that you could win against just anyone as long as you had Elkiehl? Neither do you know magic, nor is your swordsmanship any good. You have no intrinsic ability, no regenerative ability, no nothing. I don’t even need to mention your lack of practical experience. Honestly, it’s a little disappointing that hardly anything has changed from the time when I last taught you.”

Haild coughed up blood. Based on his wound, he figured that had been kicked by Gerard. He had used neither the Baltic Sword nor magic.

Haild looked at Gerard with confused eyes—he still couldn’t understand what had happened.

“But the fact that you are my son remains unchanged,” Gerard said, sighing.

At that moment, Gerard appeared behind Haild in an instant—Haild couldn’t even see him moving. The only thing that Haild was able to see was a brief flash.

Then, Gerard stepped on Haild’s hand, causing Haild to helplessly drop Elkiehl from his hand. At the same time, the sound of bones being broken rang out

Gerard picked up Elkiehl from the floor.

“I’ll take back what belongs to me.”

“You...”

Then, Gerard touched the back of Haild’s hand with his finger. For a moment, Haild felt a numbing pain, and then his broken wrist bone quickly began to stick together on its own. Even the internal injuries caused by Gerard’s kick from earlier were healed in an instant.

“I believe that you won’t do anything reckless now, since you must have realized that you’re still quite lacking.”

Haild was still glaring at Gerard. In the face of this gaze, Gerard took a step away from Haild with a heartbroken expression.

Then, in the next moment, Gerard was once again sitting on the throne with his hand placed on his forehead.

“All right, forget it. I wouldn’t have anything to say even if you wanted to kill me. My sins are heavy and indelible, so you can try to kill me as much as you want. But you saw what this man was trying to do earlier as well, didn’t you? Didn’t you also get angry enough to draw out Elkiehl?” Gerard asked Haild while looking at Juan who was still lying on the floor.

Haild hesitated but soon approached Juan to support him. Juan’s breaths were weak, and Haild could sense that Juan’s strength was now incomparably weaker than before. Blood was still flowing out of the wound caused by Elkiehl, even though it should have already been healed on its own.

“Is that your excuse for betraying your own father?” Haild derided.

“If you have to choose between the birth of a monster that can fiddle with the lives of all humanity and betraying me, then you should betray me—just like I did.”

It was then.

“Was that why?” Juan, who was drooping and shedding blood, suddenly opened his mouth.

Haild and Gerard’s eyes turned to Juan at the same time.

Juan opened his mouth, muttering while drooping helplessly.

“Are you saying that you stabbed me because I’m a monster?”

“It wasn’t you I stabbed!” Gerard shouted. “It was His Majesty who I stabbed! The sins I committed against him are irrevocable, but the responsibility cannot be abandoned! His Majesty has passed away, and you have proven yourself to be the monster through your own mouth! You are nothing more than a monster!’

Juan stared at Gerard for a moment.

Gerard felt an unknown weight from Juan’s silent gaze.

‘I don’t understand... this doesn’t make sense.’

Juan had already lost most of the power of the Crown and had barely enough power to sustain his own life.

On the other hand, Gerard had successfully seized the power of Mananen McLeir, the Crown, and even had Elkiehl. Gerard’s current strength exceeded the emperor’s from his heyday.

Even so, he couldn’t understand why Juan was looking at him with such eyes.

At that moment, Juan once again opened his mouth.

“I am neither an emperor nor a monster.”

Right now, he could speak with more conviction than ever.

“I am Juan Calberg Kennosis.”

However, at that moment, a man’s voice denying Juan’s words rang out.

“No. Sorry to break it to you, but you’re wrong. I’m sorry that I couldn’t tell you about it when I first met you.”

Haild quickly turned toward the voice.

A little boy was walking into the hall of the Red Citadel while dragging a cane. Haild could immediately identify who he was.

‘Dane Dormund.’

The magician grinned as he passed by them and looked down on Haild and Juan.

“Your real name that was given to you by Aruntal is Qzatquizail Calberg Kennosis. That’s what you were named in the beginning.”