The entire Empire was steeped in grief.
The festive atmosphere of the tournament was just the other day, but with the death of Imperial Prince Ragna, the streets were now cloaked in sorrow.
Ragna was a beloved figure to many, which made the shock all the greater.
The funeral proceeded in a solemn atmosphere.
The official cause of death was listed as an accident.
It was said that he had been drinking on a high balcony, lost his footing, and fell. The first to discover him was a chamberlain, who immediately called for a priest, but Ragna had already passed.
"I heard you were close with my brother."
Ibarra spoke while looking down at Ragna's coffin.
Yuri was standing in the royal cemetery, located outside the Imperial Palace. It wasn't dark. With white walls, lamplights on every pillar, and gold-trimmed decorations, it felt more like being inside a temple.
"Ragna didn't like me, but I liked him. You know what's funny? The reason he hated me, and the reason I liked him, was the same. We were just too different. I suppose that's what happens with half-brothers."
Yuri simply listened, silently gazing at Ragna's coffin.
"Yuri Briol."
"Yes."
"Ragna was a fine man, wasn't he?"
Yuri looked at Ibarra.
In his wry smile, Yuri could see a tangle of emotions.
He merely nodded.
"Yes."
In his heart, he too suspected the Emperor, but those words—at least—were undeniably true.
Ragna was a fine man.
He wasn't perfect. He had his flaws. But he was admirable enough to outshine every one of them.
"He was a wonderful person."
"Yes, he was..."
Ibarra let out a sigh.
"I thought this guy would go after me. But he went ahead. Doesn't sit well with me."
He patted Yuri on the shoulder, then turned away.
Not only royalty but also those close to Ragna attended the funeral. Ibarra met each of them personally and offered his condolences.
Yuri looked up.
Behind the coffin, a massive door stood firmly closed.
Beyond it lay a vast chamber, one that no ordinary person could enter.
As with other royals, Ragna would be entombed there.
So this would be the last time.
Yuri approached the coffin and laid a hand on it. The royal guards standing nearby glanced at him but did not intervene.
Placing his forehead against the coffin, Yuri whispered softly enough for only the dead to hear.
"I will avenge you."
Suddenly, he recalled Ragna laughing in the grasslands.
Above that image passed the awkward expression of Ragna from his previous life.
Though they had met in different times and places, he had always been the same. He had never looked down on Yuri, the mere third prince of Briol. He had seen him not by his status, but as Yuri himself.
"On my honor."
Yuri spoke those words and gently tapped the coffin with his forehead.
To the burden of his own mission, Ragna's weight was now added.
It was a long and distant road.
But he would simply walk it.
With his eyes closed, Yuri said his final farewell to Ragna and rose. At some point, someone had come to stand beside him.
Ekaterina was standing still, her fingers resting lightly atop the coffin.
A deep shadow lay beneath her long lashes.
"Are you leaving?"
At first, he thought the question was addressed to Ragna, unable to fully grasp his death.
But then Ekaterina looked at him.
Yuri met her gaze, hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
"Yes."
The tournament was over. Ragna, who had been investigating the Imperial Court, was dead. There was nothing more Yuri could do within the Empire.
He had changed many things, but there were things he could not.
War would break out.
The one who killed Ragna would, just as in the previous life, plunge the entire continent into chaos. And as sorrow accumulated, that being would devour it and grow ever larger.
Before that happened, Yuri intended to do what he could.
"I see."
Ekaterina nodded and withdrew her hand from the coffin.
"By any chance…"
Just as she began to speak, someone approached.
"Yuri."
It was Katrina. She gave Ekaterina a nod of greeting and then spoke to Yuri.
"That something like this happened…"
Her eyes were swollen.
"It's truly heartbreaking."
Then Katrina took Ekaterina's arm, and Ekaterina wrapped her arms around Katrina's shoulder. Katrina let out a sigh.
"To think someone so healthy would fall just because of drinking—it's hard to believe."
Her eyes grew wet.
Yuri did not believe Ragna had simply fallen after drinking.
But he couldn't question the body or the cause of death. Doing so would draw the attention of the one who had killed Ragna.
Right now, Yuri had to be nothing more than a grieving comrade. No one could know that he had been a fellow seeker of hidden truths.
Yuri glanced to the side. Crown Prince Eugen was standing next to Ibarra, listening to him with an expressionless face.
"Yuri, when you return, please give my regards to Cedric."
Katrina said, dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief. Yuri nodded.
"Yes."
Then he glanced at Ekaterina.
Cedric and Katrina were not officially seeing each other. In other words, their relationship was secret.
But Ekaterina seemed to already know.
"Ekaterina knows."
"Yes."
"He was one of the few people she respected…"
As they spoke, the mortician presiding over the funeral opened his mouth.
"Only those of noble blood may remain for the rite. Please vacate the area."
Yuri had to leave.
As he exited the royal catacomb with the other nobles, he glanced back at the coffin one last time.
Then, by chance, he locked eyes with Eugen, who had turned to look back.
In that fleeting moment, Yuri felt something.
A sense of dread.
Without meaning to, his mana method activated. His vision entered the realm of the heart-soul.
The scene of the catacomb, filled with imperial bloodlines, appeared before him in an altered form.
The royal guards closed the door to the catacomb.
And in that instant, his vision returned to normal.
"Are you alright?"
A royal guard knight asked. Only then did Yuri nod and turn around.
His back was damp.
Perhaps it was already too late.
Recalling what he had just seen, Yuri quickly walked away.
The inside of the catacomb, as he had seen it—
was pitch black.
***
Yuri visited Ernando's workshop.
Outside the log cabin, Inariel was smoking a pipe.
The sight of a young boy puffing on a pipe strangely suited him.
"Are you alright?"
"Yes."
"Can't believe something like this happened…"
His long ears twitched with every puff of smoke.
"You're suspicious, aren't you?"
"Yes."
"Of course you are…"
Just then, Ernando stepped out of the log cabin.
"My condolences, Prince."
"It's fine."
"How was it?"
"I didn't see the body. Didn't notice anything particularly odd."
"Is there a chance it really was an accident…?"
"There's not."
"Yes."
"The fact that we couldn't reach him all this time is suspicious too. And the secret base is completely empty."
On his way to the Magic Tower, Yuri had stopped by the pawn shop where he used to meet Ragna. But unlike his last visit, it was completely deserted.
"Hmm..."
Inariel said.
"I thought it was coincidence, but maybe it was inevitable..."
Yuri and Ernando looked at him. Inariel hopped down from the tree stump he had been sitting on. Then, with his hands clasped behind his back, he spoke.
"I just came because I felt like it, and ended up getting caught up in this. I looked into black magic, and it's even more dangerous than I thought. If your theory is right, then the Imperial Prince died while investigating black magic."
"Yes."
"If the Empire, or worse, the Imperial Family, has been corrupted, it's a matter of grave importance."
Inariel picked up the staff he had laid on the ground.
"Half of the Ten Strong are either tied to the Empire or in friendly relations with it."
That was true.
The Empire didn't just have the Black Knight. Three of the Ten Strong, including the Black Knight, served directly under the Emperor, and two more were under his influence.
"If this power goes berserk, the entire continent will fall into chaos."
"Yes."
Yuri had seen it with his own eyes.
Like a dam bursting, the Empire's power had spread in all directions.
No one could stop the Black Army.
Thinking back on it now, they had been driven by the power of black magic.
Just like the orcs of Okua had been.
"Now that it's come to this, I'll try to find my own countermeasure. Yuri, how do you plan to stop it?"
"For now…"
Yuri pictured a map of the continent in his mind.
"Before I return to Briol, I plan to stop by Adelvine."
"Adelvine…"
There was only one thing there.
"Mariloz said she could use another parchment."
She had been interpreting a piece of parchment imbued with black magic in Balshad. But the sample was too limited.
If she had just one more parchment, she had said, the work would go much faster.
If the parchment could be deciphered, perhaps a counter-magic could be created to combat black magic.
"And you said the parchment was in Adelvine, didn't you, Sir Inariel?"
"Don't tell me…"
"If the guess is correct, Gert became a Death Knight because of that parchment."
Yuri believed that, just like in Okua, Gert too was in possession of a parchment.
"I'll retrieve it there."
At those words, Ernando and Inariel fell silent.
Yuri had just declared that he would take down one of the Ten Strong—Gert.
"You really are insane."
Inariel said.
"Let me say this in advance—I have no intention of getting involved in your fight."
"Understood."
Yuri nodded.
Inariel, after all, wasn't human, but an elf. He usually didn't concern himself with human affairs.
"Then how do you plan to take down Gert?"
"I'll do it the same way I've done everything until now."
"Gert is one of the Ten Strong."
"I know."
"Are you thinking of calling your father?"
"Of course not. I'll go in secret."
"Then what?"
Yuri had the memories of his previous life. And Gert had been defeated before Yuri's death.
After the death of Gert, who had been one of the Ten Strong, a new member had taken his place.
And Yuri knew who that new Ten Strong was.
"Isn't it strange to consider someone like Gert, a Death Knight, as one of the Ten Strong?"
"By that logic, what about that ogre bastard?"
"At least you can talk to him. But Gert just kills anything living. So…"
Yuri grinned.
"It's time a new Ten Strong rose."
Ernando's eyes widened.
"Your Highness."
"Hm?"
"I don't want that position. It just sounds like a hassle."
"What?"
"How embarrassing…"
"Not you."
"Who else could it be but me?"
Yuri shook his head.
In any case, he already knew the man well. He wasn't the type to back down from a dangerous fight. If asked, he would probably get excited and come along.
"There's a man who owes me a full-course meal. I think I'll finally cash it in."
Jose Aratur.
The Sword of Bursen, and one of the Ten Strong in Yuri's past life.
"Hmm…"
Ernando stroked his chin.
"In any case, it seems the time has come to leave the Imperial Capital."
"Yes."
"Your Highness, I won't be able to accompany you on this journey."
"Why not?"
"Because the situation is this serious. I'll stop by the main branch of the Magic Tower. I'll try asking for help."
"Ernando, thank you."
"It's nothing."
Yuri didn't know exactly where Ernando stood in the hierarchy of the magical world, but he had learned recently that Ernando was quite a remarkable mage.
Perhaps the Magic Tower might intervene.
"Then I'm short on mages now…"
Yuri looked at Inariel. He shook his head.
Ernando laughed.
"Your Highness, no need to worry."
"Hm?"
"There's someone we've barely seen for a while. He's just finished a long retreat."
"Don't tell me…"
Ernando clapped his hands.
At that, the door of the log cabin opened.
Someone was walking out.
"Let me introduce you. A newly reborn mage. Officially ranked—Novice Mage, Cory."
Yuri looked at Cory, stunned.
"No way…"
Though his steps were still wobbly, his body had grown significantly.
He had gone for magical training, so why were his clothes in tatters? And why was his body, visible through the rips, covered in muscle and scars?
He didn't look like a mage at all, but more like a martial artist returning from training in the mountains.
Cory clenched his fist and said,
"I, Cory, will accompany Your Highness in place of Sir Ernando!"
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