Ch.151For Elise (5)

“Balkaros was in agony.

‘Balkaros Lantana von Staufen.’

This was his duty.

From the moment he was born with the Staufen name, it had been placed upon his frail shoulders.

That’s why Balkaros couldn’t help but hesitate at the threshold of choice.

Which path he should choose.

‘I…’

The peace of the Empire?

Or the life of his daughter?

A cruel dilemma.

Balkaros struggled to make a decision.

Too many shadows held his ankles.

What was right?

Could simply saying it was for his love be an excuse?

Could that shallow justification permit suicide?

‘I don’t know.’

Is it right to sacrifice the greater for the lesser?

But what if that lesser is everything to you?

Could one truly choose the greater without hesitation?

‘Just…’

Which choice befits the virtue of a monarch?

Conversely, which choice befits the role of a father?

What is a monarch in the first place?

And what is a father?

What should be judged as right or wrong?

After making that judgment, which should be chosen—the right or the wrong?

Balkaros sank deeper into the tangled questions at every moment.

-Balkaros.

A chain of conflicts.

Even amid such turmoil, if there was someone who pushed him forward, it was her again.

-Even if I’m gone… please take care of the children.

-I was happy to love you.

Her voice.

A confession so shy it was sad.

The dying words of a falling petal.

Balkaros simply couldn’t break his promise to the Empress.

After losing his beloved, he had neither the strength to endure the sorrow nor the confidence to live on.

That’s why Balkaros was thoroughly a coward.

‘It doesn’t matter.’

Yes.

It didn’t matter.

Even if he was a coward.

Even if his choice was nothing but an escape.

He only prayed that Elise would live.

-What is a monarch?

-How should the sun rightfully shine?

Balkaros wasn’t bound by such words.

Instead, he wrapped the chain of sin around his neck.

By abandoning his rightful duty.

By turning his back on the Empire.

He chose the path of becoming the worst emperor.

That was the man’s damned original sin.

-God.

-Do not forgive your sun.

-I have lost my light.

The Emperor prepared the ritual.

He informed only a few trusted confidants of the truth, ensuring not even the smallest piece of information leaked to others.

Balkaros took the Rose’s curse into himself with a few incantations.

Though he was concerned about the emotional loss that would come as a side effect.

He believed that even without him, Sharlotte would take good care of her sister.

Even knowing the end would be destruction.

“……”

Just before performing the ritual.

Balkaros embraced the deeply sleeping Rose and offered one last prayer to her fragile warmth.

With tears streaming down.

“My beloved child.”

Please.

“May you find happiness with me as your fertilizer.”

Afterward.

The Emperor took a step from which he could never return.

***

Time passed, and ten years went by.

Days that withered one by one.

Elise had already turned seventeen, and the curse was gradually reaching its critical point.

Balkaros’s emotions had long been lost due to the effects of the spell.

Nothing remained within him anymore.

Only the hollow cross-section of his heart flickered.

The Emperor had become an emotionless object pursuing rationality.

‘I still don’t understand.’

Therefore.

Balkaros could hardly understand his past self.

After forgetting emotions accumulated over a long time.

Why he had made such a sacrifice.

Why he continued to protect the Rose afterward.

He had even forgotten his original goal.

‘Why did I choose the Second Princess?’

If weighing the Empire against the Second Princess, choosing the former would be rational.

Why had he made such a foolish choice?

The memories of that time were the most mysterious unknown to the Emperor.

The reason he could continue protecting the Rose despite this was thanks to the instructions left by his past self.

Balkaros always kept that memo close to his heart.

[Instructions Regarding the Second Princess]

Balkaros from ten years ago.

He worried that his emotionless self might ruin everything.

Therefore, before sharing the curse, he wrote down several rules and tasks that needed to be handled.

He even placed a constraint on his heart to prevent himself from breaking or revealing these rules.

Thanks to this, the Emperor had no choice but to continue protecting the Rose even after losing his emotions.

Even without feeling a shred of affection.

‘Hmm.’

Confining the Rose was also part of the instructions.

Curse sharing.

This spell kept the body’s mana in a sensitive state, making it easily influenced by others’ mana.

If this process repeated, there was concern that the spell might develop problems or strain the individual’s body.

Balkaros was fine as he was a healthy adult receiving the curse.

But for Elise, who was just a seven-year-old girl transferring the curse, it was too dangerous a burden.

Therefore, the Rose needed to be thoroughly isolated from her surroundings.

This was also why the Emperor didn’t place people in the separate palace.

As a result, Elise had to stay alone in that abandoned place for ten years.

‘The instructions said “protect” rather than confine… well, I suppose this much interpretation is acceptable.’

Fortunately.

Because Sharlotte was by Elise’s side, and later a maid named Tanya arrived.

She was able to endure those terribly lonely times.

Balkaros only watched from afar.

“Cough…!”

As days passed like this.

Though the Emperor didn’t show it outwardly, the curse seeping into him was becoming increasingly evident.

Not much time remained until he completely took the disease from the Rose.

By now, he couldn’t function in daily life without applying pain-relieving magic throughout his body.

Yet Balkaros calmly accepted his choice.

[Instructions Regarding the Second Princess]

-The “Curse sharing” must not be discovered by anyone.

-At least until the Second Princess fully recovers, one must fulfill the role and duties of the Emperor.

-In other words, one must act.

Such aspects were recorded in the instructions.

The Emperor continued his daily life by layering magic to the point of straining his body.

‘Is it almost over?’

The finish line was finally in sight.

The cursed spell that had lasted so damn long was coming to an end.

Although after everything was over, he was destined to die within a year.

Anyway, he could accomplish his past goal.

Balkaros quietly waited.

That’s when it happened.

-Your Majesty.

-Someone has entered the Rose’s palace.

Sharlotte brought someone to Elise.

He was about to dismiss it as another quack, but hearing news of actual improvement piqued his interest.

The Emperor immediately sought him out.

-I stand before the supreme sun of the Empire.

He was an interesting boy.

From what he heard, the boy seemed skilled and confident in his ability to treat the disease.

Balkaros decided to watch and see what he was planning.

And a few days later.

-I will take the Second Princess from the separate palace to the Academy.

-I hope Your Majesty will grant permission.

A bold request arrived.

The Emperor pondered for a moment.

After deliberating, Balkaros eventually nodded.

As the curse transfer was nearing its end, he had been thinking it was time to end the Rose’s confinement.

This seemed like a good opportunity.

Besides.

‘Gaston Gallimar.’

That old man was also at the Academy.

The old man who had somehow revealed information from the archives that even the Emperor himself didn’t know.

It was an intriguing place in many ways, so he permitted the Rose’s departure.

Since Sharlotte would accompany her, there was no need to worry about safety.

And so.

Balkaros remained alone in the palace.

With less than a year of life remaining.

‘Now… all that’s left is to wait for death.’

The Emperor who had fulfilled his calling.

Balkaros was a dead man waiting for his heart to finally stop, following his already dead emotions.

After the children left in autumn.

After spending winter alone.

Just before spring approached.

“Your Majesty.”

The boy he thought he would never see again came to visit.

Along with his two daughters.

***

Back to the present.

The Emperor seated on the left looks down.

“It was you, Your Majesty.”

“……”

“Your Majesty… took your daughter’s curse.”

The boy looking up at him speaks.

His already dead emotions feel nothing.

A coldly dead heart, a festering interior, a body now just days away from death.

Balkaros was already like a doll without a heart.

But.

-Balkaros.

-I was happy to love you.

Because there was one unchanging memory.

That he must protect the children.

Though he had long forgotten the reason, he had never forgotten his goal.

He had lived the rest of his life according to that purpose.

“Your Majesty.”

A call expecting an answer.

Since there were no instructions prepared for this situation, he thought it might be fine to respond as he pleased.

Below the high sun, three pairs of eyes were looking up at him.

Dazed blue eyes.

Surprised green eyes.

And.

Somehow sad-looking white eyes.

After briefly exchanging glances, the Emperor nodded.

“Your words are correct.”

Balkaros had never once acted for the Empire.

Today, he felt a strange thirst from that sentence.

He couldn’t understand why.

A faint pain pricked his lungs.

[Instructions Regarding the Second Princess]

-I fear losing my emotions.

-I’m afraid I’ll forget that there was a goal despite this messy beginning.

-Therefore, before starting the instructions, I want to write this down first.

-Even if I forget other instructions, this must never be forgotten.

-Because it proves that I am still their father.

The content written at the beginning of the instructions.

Balkaros recalls the sentence that followed and opens his mouth.

“Everything.”

All for my beloved daughter.

“I took the Second Princess’s curse.”

Yes.

For Elise.”