episode_0008

Well, if Lucas was being careless like earlier, I might not know, but facing him head-on like this, no matter how many times I try, I won’t be able to shoot Lucas in the head.

It’s not a matter of a few times, but maybe hundreds or thousands of attempts, I might hit him once.

…But for the development of the main story, this guy had to stay alive. He played a fairly important role in the original work as a counteracting character.

So, in order to anticipate what’s to come a little bit, I have to turn back time and keep this guy alive, even though I’ve been struggling to kill him. What a pointless endeavor.

And besides, even though I sometimes find this guy annoying and really want to kill him, he’s not a truly hateful opponent. I didn’t have any special affection for the male character in the original game, but that doesn’t mean I hated him to the point of disgust.

Strictly speaking, I had a hand in creating this situation.

Moreover, the Emperor plays a role in indirectly helping the protagonist until the middle. He mainly helps through the Emperor’s children, and Lucas was one of them.

Maybe I’ll become one of them too. Right now, it’s not Claire but me in that position.

In the original work, Claire doesn’t enter the academy from the beginning. She starts off as an outsider to the academy, gradually getting involved with the protagonist and later infiltrating as a transfer student after the story progresses.

In reality, she was a spy for the Emperor.

I’m not sure if I’ll have to step into that role as Claire in the current situation.

At least, in my opinion, I was very different from Claire in terms of personality.

While Claire was a complex character who acted like a mischievous demon on the surface but turned into a very sharp and harsh character when her true identity was revealed, the character I built under the Emperor was a ‘calm and expressionless character in any situation.’

It couldn’t be helped.

I dreamed of becoming a voice actor early on and attended a voice acting academy, but I didn’t have a great talent for acting. So, instead of making various facial expressions and showing appropriate reactions to situations, I chose to maintain a consistent atmosphere with no reaction, no expression.

And with my ‘almost predicting the future’ reaction speed and this atmosphere, it matched very well, and combined with my ability to start knowing the situation by turning back time, it fit even better.

“Oh, Sylvia. And Lucas.”

Walking briskly in my robes while ignoring Lucas who was scratching his stomach next to me, a person was approaching from afar.

Unlike Lucas, who was wandering around the palace like a headless chicken without even bothering to manage his appearance as the ‘Emperor’s son,’ this person, with his shining golden hair neatly parted in a precise 2:8 ratio, even making sure not a single eyebrow hair was out of place, was also one of the ‘Emperor’s children.’

His face showed a flicker of surprise when he looked at me, and it was clear that his expression when he looked at Lucas was not due to mood swings. This person just really liked things to be neat. In comparison, Lucas looked a bit messy.

By the way, he may look like a nobleman, but he’s not a real noble. Among the Emperor’s children, there’s only one person who is truly of royal blood, his daughter. The rest are all street urchins.

I don’t know why all these street urchins are so damn talented.

“Lucas, please, can’t you at least button up properly when you’re walking around the palace?”

“Huh?”

And of course, Lucas doesn’t particularly like that person. That’s just the nature of their relationship.

“Who do you think you are to talk to me like that? Trying to be my older brother?”

“I was born a few months before you.”

And Key is taller.

In the current situation, saying something like this would only further provoke Lucas’s temper.

“Hey, Jayden.”

Lucas walks towards Jayden with a seemingly annoyed expression.

…But that expression was clearly acting.

Every time he meets Jayden, he… no, Lucas, who picks fights, but the reason is not simply because he doesn’t like him.

Jayden is already the strongest knight in the empire.

Lucas will become the Empire’s top swordsman someday.

The strongest knight and the top swordsman. It’s a bit questionable if the two can coexist, but Jayden gained his reputation on the battlefield, while Lucas will gain his reputation after mastering the sword.

So, the meaning behind those titles can be subtly different.

If Jayden is a soldier who almost worships the emperor and follows his orders to the death, then Lucas is a crazy man who harbors ambitions to become the strongest being in the world, beyond the emperor.

He also loves to fight. If I had challenged him seriously, he might have welcomed it.

…But I let my guard down earlier and got shot in the head before I could even do that.

“I’ve told you before, haven’t I? If you want to command me, you have to defeat me with your sword first. If you can prove that you are stronger than me, I will even obey the command to drink your urine.”

“…Sigh.”

Jayden let out a deep sigh with a somewhat exaggerated gesture, wiped his face, and then pointed his hand at me in a very artistic sequence of movements.

“Look at Silvia over there. Every movement of her body exudes elegance! Even when you swing your fake sword, she elegantly avoids all your attacks with noble restraint and beautiful movements. And what’s more? Even when she greets the king, she does so with graceful movements that are not suitable for her age. Look at yourself, you only resemble half of your younger sister!”

All of that is the result of hundreds or thousands of practices.

Well, to the people here, it might look like it was ‘always like that from the beginning.’

…And this was also a relationship that was very different from the original work.

Regardless of the fact that I am here instead of Claire, Claire did not get along well with Jayden. Jayden, who likes people who dress neatly and have noble manners, found Claire’s attire to be too ‘vulgar.’

Of course, I have no intention of dressing like that, and it doesn’t suit my image at all.

But that was a very appealing factor to Jayden.

Thanks to that, I became the ‘little sister’ that Jayden cherished the most.

…To the point where, if I ever started dating someone, he openly declared that he would go and check out the guy first.

Why do you care about that, you crazy person?

Ah, of course, this person was originally a bit of a comic relief character, so it wasn’t a completely incomprehensible reaction.

“…”

Ah, the triumphant expression that Lucas had just a while ago now looked truly distorted.

Yeah, it’s a bit… ridiculous, even to a crazy person. To find a two-year-old beautiful or something.

Of course, Jayden had no such intention, he just genuinely thought that way.

But still, couldn’t he have chosen a word other than ‘elegant’?

“Come on, come on, Silvia. Let’s go.”

A moment ago, Lucas, who had been speaking in a completely thuggish voice, suddenly spoke in a very caring older brother-like tone.

“That pervert over there.”

“Pervert? What nonsense is that!”

Jayden followed Lucas, grabbing his shoulder and turning his body slightly to protest vehemently.

*

The term “Children of the Emperor” is a word that, in normal circumstances, has no use other than its literal meaning.

But in this game… no, now it is used as a common noun within the country.

Commoners may not know, but among the nobles, it is used as a word similar to the Emperor’s organization.

And it was true.

I don’t know how they were gathered, but the humans the Emperor referred to as “sons and daughters” were all individuals who transcended the boundaries of humanity in specific fields.

… I was one of them.

“Oh, everyone’s here?”

Lucas opened the door to the real world and entered, speaking with a fatherly tone when addressing us.

Arthur III.

The avatar of “Pangryphon.”

The Emperor who established the most powerful authority in the history of the Azeran Empire.

Ambitious to dominate the world, he was truly an antagonist seeking “world domination.”

And the two people kneeling before him were also one of those “Children of the Emperor.”

The man with long black hair flowing down his back had a delicate appearance, but despite that, he was a very powerful martial artist. Even though he looked like that, if he took off his robe, he had a body with lean muscles that made you wonder if there was any body fat.

He was popular among female users who played the game due to his limited words and half-and-half face.

By the way, Lucas was also one of the popular characters.

Jayden was not.

And the woman sitting next to him, with a somewhat gloomy appearance, was a character who was elevated to the role of Claire’s mentor in the original work. Of course, she was called “unni” in terms of their relationship.

A woman who wielded a whip-like sword. By the way, at the beginning of the original work, she was already deceased. It was not revealed how she died, and she only appeared as the original owner of Claire’s weapon.

She was said to have taught Claire many things, and her bad personality was passed down to Claire, making her a character that Claire either liked or disliked.

… No, in fact, that was just the setting, and it was actually the author’s mistake, but… well, it’s meaningless to dwell on that here.

By the way, I wonder what kind of swordsmanship Claire, who has talent in swordsmanship, will learn in Gracis. If she is not blind, Marquis Gracis will definitely teach Claire swordsmanship and send her to the academy.

The real daughter of the Empress was not here. Well, the sense of inferiority felt towards the “Children of the Emperor” in the original work was a kind of character trait. Overcoming that sense of inferiority was also part of the character’s story.

I wonder if I will also start feeling inferior.

“Have you been well, Your Majesty?”

“Mm.”

As I knelt in the posture I had practiced hundreds of times and said that, the Emperor nodded with a pleased expression.

I ignored Jayden’s sound of being moved from behind.

“Have you been well too?”

I almost died from the sword swung by the brother-like figure.

I couldn’t say the same words.

“Yes, I have been training as usual.”

“Excellent. It is important not to be complacent despite knowing one’s own abilities. Your age is now sufficient, so I will assign you a mission soon. Do not worry too much. The mission is something you can handle with your abilities.”

The tone was truly like that of a kind father, but the mission was clearly going to involve killing someone.

It was probably to kill someone from the noble clan or something similar. In the original work, it was mentioned that the emperor had secretly killed nobles, with the number in the double digits.

There is hesitation. But it is difficult to blame the emperor with just hesitation.

“I will be waiting.”

And at the point where such a mission is entrusted to a twelve-year-old child, this gentleman was indeed an antagonist.

The fact that Amaklair’s personality had become twisted was probably also partly due to the emperor.

“I have completed the mission and returned, father.”

The person most affected by the title ‘Emperor’s Child’ was Jayden.

The reason for his unpopularity also lies here. He was a character who only looked at the emperor thoroughly without any depth.

“Yes, he did not die. But he must have understood your words very accurately.”

“Good.”

Is this something that would come out of the mouth of the empire’s top ‘knight’?

“Lucas.”

“I have resolved it.”

Jayden glanced at the nonchalant Ruth, but the emperor paid no attention.

“Excellent. I am pleased that my children are doing their job so well. Please continue to do so in the future.”

The emperor smiled kindly.

… And I am convinced that even that smile is genuine. The children, the word ‘father.’ This emperor is sincere in everything he does.

And that’s why, this person is truly the real villain.

That’s what I thought.