Ch.346Meeting (2)

When Victor was a Knight of the Sun, the Nariakira family—the former imperial household—was an extremely uncomfortable presence. They served the same entity as he did, yet they had cultivated a far more powerful influence. If he were to fall out of their favor, the end of his adventure would have been a foregone conclusion.

When Victor was an Apostle of the Sun, the former imperial household was merely a pitiful existence. Despite maintaining their title for 1,200 years, they had erased “adventure” as an option for their family. As a result, they no longer received the Sun’s favor, and their connection to the Sun had gradually weakened over more than 1,000 years. Now they had reached a point where even hearing the divine voice was difficult. To him as an Apostle of the Sun, they were truly a bloodline worthy only of pity.

Now that he had become the God of the Sun, Victor found the former imperial household to be a truly troublesome existence.

There was no justification to deploy armies to exterminate them, no crimes they had committed to warrant punishment, and they had spread their roots too deeply to be driven out.

The survival instinct of the Nariakira family—as if the strongest human instinct of “survival” had been directly embedded in them—was something that even he as a god couldn’t help but admire. While it is the way of the world that what rises must also fall, they must have their own pride in having preserved the title of imperial descendants for 1,200 years.

And as if to prove this, they had now sent an envoy to Victor. With snow accumulated on her head, she quietly brushed it off and bowed her head before Victor and Raisha.

“It is an honor to meet you, Master of Fervor and Lady of Mercy.”

“Sit down, descendant of the Imperial Family. You have come all this way surely because you want something from me.”

Victor brought a chair over using telekinesis.

In fact, it was the mark he had received that still remained, but in truth, a being of Victor’s caliber could perform telekinesis without much difficulty even without the mark.

“…Thank you.”

Sayuri’s eyes wavered momentarily at the physical phenomenon he had created, but soon she sat in the chair and looked up at the two beings.

“So, what is it that you want from me? Have you fallen on hard times because you can no longer sell orichalcon?”

“No, Your Majesty. Our family wishes to ask something more fundamental.”

“Then what is it?”

“The survival of the Nariakira family. Can you guarantee it?”

“…Asking for a guarantee of survival… That doesn’t sound like something that should come from a distinguished family that carries the imperial bloodline. Are you aware of this?”

“It is precisely because we carry the imperial bloodline that we are powerless before those who wish to sever it. The one who becomes the founding emperor of a new empire must necessarily uproot the corruption of the old regime. I speak thinking that it may now be our family’s turn.”

Sayuri spoke carefully, yet with certainty.

There would still be flying fleets that had come with her under her family’s command, but that was all mere speculation. Simply put, they could all have been mercenaries.

“If you think your turn has come, why not take your own lives? Do you wish to leave me as a perpetrator of unjustified massacre?”

“Just as Your Majesty protects this domain, we too have common people who cling to our family’s prestige to survive. Tens of thousands of farmers offer their crops to our family, which cannot grow a single thing to eat. Would their lives improve if we were to take our own?”

“Are you trying to bargain with human lives before a god? How amusing. The empire collapsed because of your family’s tyranny. Remember that you survived because your blood had become so diluted that you could no longer claim the throne as your own, and because of humanity’s mercy, which no longer had the strength to fight. For the past 1,200 years, haven’t you merely fattened yourselves by distributing orichalcon, and then sponsored various organizations to avoid being attacked?”

Another family might have argued, “What else should we have done? We did everything! We provided welfare for our subordinates, created jobs, and even supplied excellent specialty products! We did everything!”

But they were the imperial family, once rulers of the 13 continents. If they tried to take credit for things that even an ordinary wealthy family could do, that would be unconscionable.

“What have you done for these 13 continents all this time? Do you expect to survive after merely launching rockets and playing with money in Imperial Center, the heart city of Centrum? If you had abandoned the name of imperial descendants yourselves and tried to live as an ordinary wealthy family, I would have left you alone. But you sold your own blood and became complacent in the present.”

“…That is correct.”

“You had many options. There must have been dozens of ways to at least reestablish governance over Centrum, yet you chose nothing, and no one embarked on an adventure. Do you still wish to live?”

“…Yes. We wish to live. We wish to live bearing the name of Nariakira. So command us. What would quell your anger and allow us to avoid the Sun’s wrath? I have come not as a mere messenger of the family but as a plenipotentiary ambassador. What I convey becomes the family’s decision. May the Sun impose appropriate punishment on these unworthy descendants.”

As Sayuri spoke thus, Victor’s gaze softened again.

He could understand. Whether man or woman, they couldn’t risk dangerous endeavors for fear of ending their bloodline, and since everyone would know they were imperial descendants, they would face tremendous opposition if they tried to step into politics or economics.

But 1,200 years—in that unfathomably long time, anything should have been possible, so this was not about granting them absolution.

During that time, they had done nothing for the continent, and while their former subjects struggled to survive alone in a fragmented world, becoming destitute and swayed by fanatical ideologies, they had made no intervention.

Isn’t it said that a bystander is worse than a perpetrator? Because those who should never have stood by did nothing, this world became a place ruled by violence and lawlessness.

“The Sun speaks to the representative of Nariakira.”

“I hear your words.”

“You shall establish a foundation in your name and dedicate yourselves to the welfare and justice of the world. I will impose upon you the duty to purify this world that you have burned. This is the will of the Sun. Give food to the hungry, teach letters to the illiterate, and provide books to those who wish to learn technology, imparting wisdom. Through this, the pain of the world that you ignored shall be washed away. This is my ultimate punishment for those who bear the name of a dead empire.”

“I humbly accept.”

The punishment ended reasonably.

In truth, he couldn’t impose too severe a punishment because the situation surrounding the Nariakira family was too unique.

Being a distant branch with diluted blood, they couldn’t have been directly involved in the tyranny and collapse of the empire. Yet they couldn’t be treated as ordinary people because their imperial identity was strong enough to allow communication with the Sun. And while they had made money, they also had human hearts, so they had fulfilled their minimum duty by donating to welfare organizations and such.

However, their blood defined them, and their identity bound them. If they wished to continue bearing the name of Nariakira, they had to face punishment for the world having experienced a kind of apocalypse known as the Age of Solar Eclipse.

If they had received a 1,200-year suspended sentence, wasn’t it time to serve the actual sentence?

The problem was that punishment is ultimately imposed by a superior upon an inferior. Since there was no entity explicitly authorized to punish the Nariakira family, who were nominally imperial, no one could condemn them.

Even if the Victorian Empire were established and tried to punish them with the authority of the Second Empire, it would be impossible to shake off the feeling of pinning the crimes of a dead empire on them.

But with the appearance of Victor, the God of the Sun, the possibility opened for them to receive punishment from the Sun, the foundation of the imperial household. This time, they did not miss what might be their last chance.

This was both a punishment and a mercy for them.

Their name would be remembered and recorded in history, but never as an imperial name.

“Now go, descendants of the ancient empire. If the day comes when we meet again, that will be the day when a new sun rises.”

“May the Sun be eternal.”

She said this as she rose from her seat.

Thus the meeting ended, and the Sky Warden prepared to depart from the ground and set course for the Library.