Chapter 29

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter Title: The Breathless Child Searches for Dad 126

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힘숨찐 어린이가 아빠를 찾습니다 126화

Alexander carefully laid Tiye down on the bed.

As he tucked her in with the blanket, the child immediately curled up her body.

Beneath her tightly shut eyelids.

He could see her thick eyelashes quivering faintly.

'...She must be exhausted.'

In truth, what came to mind was the previous night when Valentis had confessed the true identity of the Death King to his three sons.

The first emotion he'd felt upon hearing it was concern.

"You're going to keep this from the Church? In other words, the moment they find out, all hell will break loose, right?"

"That's right, Father. Why go to such lengths to plan this? Forming unnecessary ties with a mercenary—it's far too risky."

The imperial family was prickly and unforgiving.

At its core were an emperor who acted on whims and an empress who whispered only sweet nothings in his ear.

Of course, even that imperial house found certain foes difficult to handle.

The Church, based on the Central Continent.

Helping the Death King could turn even them into enemies.

Just before the subspace incident erupted in the Weaponless Zone, the Church had already approached the Lumens using the Death King as an excuse.

'...'

The Church.

Especially the cardinals—they rarely stepped in personally for any matter.

Yet for some reason, lately they'd ordered Valentis to monitor the Death King.

As if they were desperate to find any pretext to get a close look at him.

At first, Valentis seemed to comply obediently with the Church's command.

But after returning from the Weaponless Zone, he suddenly started acting strangely.

"He was in possession of an unauthorized sacred artifact. He didn't seem to know its activation conditions. He even tried to manipulate my memories."

"Doesn't that change anything? My memories are intact in the end."

A sacred artifact possessed without permission by the Death King.

The perfect 'pretext' the Church sought—the Sanctity of Oblivion—and Valentis was pretending not to see it.

And it didn't stop there.

"Does the Church know about this?"

"No. They don't. And I plan to keep it that way."

He was now even willing to violate canon law to find ways to aid the Death King.

Not alone, but mobilizing the entire house.

"Let me say it again. This is madness."

Given the situation, it was only natural for Leonardo to object strongly.

Edmund and Alexander felt the same.

"Think of the house's duty! The Lumens serve the imperial family and the Church—we have no place meddling in personal affairs like this!"

"Personal affairs? What gives you the right to judge the weight of matters for the house?"

"...Father."

"I am the head of the Lumens. And I've already decided to help the Death King. What more is needed?"

But Valentis remained bullheaded to the very end.

To his sons, he appeared at first glance to be forcing his whims on them blindly.

Yet as the conversation deepened, the three princes realized it.

Who Valentis was seeing in the Death King—or rather, in the lone Astie.

"...You're thinking of Theseus."

"Yes."

That day, in the banquet hall after Valentis left.

The princes could only sigh in heavy silence.

Theseus Lumen.

The young brother dragged to the Church at age four, his magic sealed away.

For some reason, Astie shared many similarities with Theseus back then.

Having manifested magic and drawn the Church's scrutiny.

Separated from her parents, left utterly alone.

And finally,

"That child doesn't know how to show her pain. She only knows how to endure and hold on. She bottles it up until it tears at your heart, bearing it over and over."

Before leaving the banquet hall, Valentis's eyes had been bloodshot.

"Do you think it's normal for a child to suppress her own suffering?"

"... ."

"She's pitiable, heartbreaking. If the Lumens are truly the house that safeguards the Empire, we must help her. We can't make things worse and corner a child."

Valentis's eyes brimmed with deep regret throughout.

The three princes knew what he was recalling.

A not-so-distant yet hazy past—four years ago.

The day Theseus turned exactly sixteen.

Great magic stones erupted across the barren outskirts of the capital, sending the imperial family into chaos.

The day even the newly trained young Holy Knights were mobilized en masse to the front lines.

In that wasteland resembling a living hell, Theseus's magic—suppressed for twelve years—finally ran rampant.

The princes still remembered that day's scene vividly.

The flames of magic that seemed to devour the earth.

The screams of people, the terrifying scars etched wherever the waves brushed.

It was a catastrophe.

A great disaster that razed everything in its radius and nearly obliterated the capital's First Gate nearby.

But when it all ended, there were no deaths.

Because in the heart of the explosion, Eleonora had embraced the rampaging Theseus without a moment's hesitation.

She offset his magic with her own body.

And in the end, she crumbled to dust.

A hollow death, leaving not even a corpse behind.

Under the emperor's lead, cleanup began swiftly.

Theseus's rampage was classified top secret.

His name was erased from the Holy Knight Order records, and the explosion pinned on the great magic stones.

The fact that a 'defect' like Theseus had come from the Lumens could never leak out.

Time flowed mercilessly onward.

Reports were falsified to show Theseus had never participated in that siege.

Instead, rumors spread that his whereabouts were unknown.

All who remained in the Lumen house knew the truth.

After the imperial family, the Church had decided to wipe Theseus from the Lumens entirely.

Theseus vanished from the house without a sound one day.

Valentis searched, but never found his son.

Years passed like that, until the three princes and Valentis finally spotted Theseus again.

Theseus was no longer Theseus.

He had taken the nickname Eleonora had called him in life—"Tesetan"—as his new name and become a mercenary.

Before his long-lost brothers and father, Theseus's words were few.

"Announce that I am dead."

"...Theseus!"

"Say the fourth prince of the Lumens is dead. It's my final request."

The three princes never saw Theseus again after that.

He deliberately avoided Duke Lumen's estate.

In the end, they only caught glimpses through rumors.

His changed garb, frivolous speech, sun-darkened skin, and the barbaric killer's aura that emanated even at rest.

The Theseus of the rumors was, as he said, no longer the Lumens' fourth prince.

Meanwhile, Valentis crumbled.

"I regret it."

"Father... ."

"Back then. When Tesetan was seized in the estate's central courtyard. If I'd stopped them... would things have been different?"

"... ."

"If I'd abandoned everything to hold that child, fulfilled my role properly... stood as a father's shield for my young son without shame... ."

But even Eleonora, who might have held his hand, was gone from his side.

To survive, Valentis tried to forget Theseus.

Otherwise, regret and remorse tormented him daily.

And around that time.

Valentis's 'Saintly Vision Awakening' evolved one step further.

No longer just reading holy power and magic, it now let him sense others' emotions and pain.

So on the day he met Astie, Valentis thought.

Perhaps his power had grown for that very moment.

In the past, he had always blamed himself.

For not knowing Theseus's instability.

For failing to recognize his suffering.

But this time was different.

The moment Astie wiped her tears with a handkerchief, he'd seen the overflowing sadness and longing in her young heart.

'I don't want to look away anymore. I don't want to repeat that bone-deep regret... not twice.'

In the end, the three princes had no choice but to follow Valentis's will.

Because deep down, they were the same as him.

Harboring buried emotions like a fan tucked away in their hearts.

The next day.

Tiye opened her eyes in a drowsy, half-awake haze.

Morning sunlight streamed through the parted curtains.

"You're awake."

A gentle voice came from ahead.

Soon, she saw someone seated in an armchair.

Alexander set down the book he held on the side table and smiled warmly.

As if he'd kept watch by the sleeping Tiye's side all night.