Margrave’s Bastard Son was The Emperor [EN]: Chapter 436

“Your Highness.”

Ian nodded at Naum’s voice. It was permission to continue speaking. However, the detached palace remained quiet, and Naum was silent, gazing at the nameless flowers withering outside the window.

Ian slowly took everything in as he watched Naum’s back. Why were there moments like this? Moments that were clearly ordinary, yet you knew they would remain etched in your mind, popping up from time to time.

Ian knew this was one of those moments. The rain of flowers in various colors falling in the wind and Naum’s back.

“Why did you call me?”

“Your Highness, how would you like the sentence that remembers you to begin?”

It was a question about how future generations should describe and evaluate Ian Verosian when he faded into history with the passage of time.

“Does it matter? It’s not something I can control.”

“What do you mean? It is of great significance, and it depends on Your Highness’s will, just like now. It can be what you desire. This will take up a large part of Your Highness’s life and become the future that Bariel pursues. How would you like to be recorded?”

Ian pondered for a moment at Naum’s question. It was an issue that had never been discussed in his mind before.

His main concerns were how to best purge the central nobles, the timing of the war in the north and the migration routes of the nomads, winter, budget allocation, and the administrative officials who were constantly embroiled in scandals.

“What about you?”

“Me?”

“Yes. You will also be recorded in history alongside me. Naum, what sentence would you like to leave as your mark?”

Ian smiled and passed the question on. It was because he couldn’t easily say it. It was just a word that would scatter on the tip of his tongue, but he felt that if he uttered it now, it would come true. It was similar to the feeling of a child who doesn’t know what to choose when given hundreds of candies.

Only then did Naum turn his head and look at Ian.

“Your Highness’s record comes first, so why do you want to hear mine first?”

“Still, tell me. What kind of Bariel do you want to experience and create?”

“I…”

Naum lightly touched the window with his fingertips, and Ian watched as his fingerprints faintly remained. Naum seemed a little embarrassed, slightly frowning and smiling.

“I don’t think I can. I cannot speak of a different Bariel when Your Highness’s will is set.”

Ian’s will could be Naum’s will, but Naum’s will could not be Ian’s will. Ian kept saying it was okay, urging him to speak quickly, but he couldn’t break Naum’s stubbornness.

In the end, Ian leaned his head against the sofa, rolling beautiful words on the tip of his tongue one by one.

The golden age of the great empire of Bariel, where everyone laughed and lived their lives to the fullest. The era of light, when Gaia was brighter than ever before-

“Ian ascended to the throne as a boy.”

At that moment, Naum’s cold voice brushed past him.

Startled, Ian turned his head, and the world stopped. It wasn’t just a metaphor. The rain of flowers flowing outside the window had stopped, and Naum, who was smiling, was also frozen in place. However, only his mouth moved grotesquely.

“Ian ascended to the throne as a boy.”

“…Naum?”

“And his head was cut off before he came of age.”

“Naum!”

“Ian ascended to the throne as a boy! And his head was cut off before he came of age! Ian ascended to the throne as a boy! And his head was cut off before he came of age!”

Naum shouted as if the whole world would collapse, and Ian realized that blood was seeping from his neck. He quickly covered it with both hands, but he couldn’t stop the red liquid pouring through his fingers.

Ian fell forward, looking up at Naum. Then, Naum transformed into Crony. Crony shook his fallen head as he did back then, and asked, bringing his face close to Ian’s.

“Ian Verosian. Where is Naum?”

* * *

“Hah!”

Ian woke up from his sleep, gasping for breath. No nightmare could be worse than this. His heart continued to pound, and cold sweat wouldn’t stop.

When did he fall asleep? Ian frowned as he looked at the documents scattered by his movements. And although he knew it wasn’t true, he touched his neck, trying to awaken his sense of reality.

“Haa.”

At that moment when his head was cut off, Ian would never forget the chilling sensation.

It seems like he was just being overly sensitive, Ian thought, shaking his wet hair and picking up a water bottle. It was empty, when it should always be full.

‘Of all times-‘

“Is anyone out there?”

Ian said, trying to calm his rapidly beating heart, but there was no response from outside. That’s strange? Judging by the blanket on his shoulders, someone had come in during the night, so why was the water bottle empty?

“…Is no one out there?”

It was very quiet. Even the servants who opened and closed the doors were not responding. Ian felt that something was wrong, and anxiety crept in.

Was it possible that everything had stopped, just like in his dream?

Squeak!

Thud!

Ian nervously threw the door open and was immediately faced with a ridiculous scene.

“Everyone…”

“Hey, hey, Ian is out. Everyone, look forward.”

“Oh? Ian, you don’t look well. You’re sweating a lot too. Are you sick? Should we call a doctor?”

“No! Shut up and get in formation!”

“Ian! These bastards tied me up so I couldn’t move! But why are you so wet? Did you wash your face inside?”

“Anyone listening would think you could actually tie me up? You were supposed to join us, but you’re subtly backing out? You’re acting like a fence-sitter? Should we exclude Beric? Huh? Seriously!”

“No, it’s true that I was tied up!”

“Because you kept trying to sneak into the office!”

It was a noisy and absurd scene, a stark contrast to the silence from before. They were all wearing red headbands on their foreheads and their mage robes inside out.

Ian crossed his arms, expressing his disbelief at the commotion. As he leaned against the wall, the mages cautiously held up the signs they had hidden behind their backs. Is this okay? They looked very careful as they glanced at each other.

“We, we actively express our opinions to Ian!”

“Where is Hale? While everyone is doing this, what is Hale doing?”

“He went to the backyard to make picket signs.”

“…I’m going crazy.”

“Ian came out earlier than we expected. Um, can we keep talking?”

Ian flicked his right hand as if to say, go ahead. Unless they had all gone crazy together, this couldn’t be happening. A protest in the Imperial Palace, of all places! Ian was speechless, thinking he was experiencing something he had never imagined.

“Ian!”

“…What.”

“It’s a solidarity for the human rights of mages and the development of the magic department. In short, the Mage Rights Union.”

“You’re all doing a variety of ridiculous things.”

“Ian! Isn’t the name weird? I was against it, by the way.”

“Beric signed it first.”

Swoosh.

A mage handed Ian a petition. At the top, a drawing that resembled beef caught his eye. It was Beric’s work, who still found drawing easier than writing.

Ian confirmed that he had secured the signatures of all the members of the magic department and shrugged his shoulders. It was a signal asking what they were all trying to do now.

“Are there any public officials of the same rank who are treated as well as mages? I know that matters regarding wage negotiations are done at the beginning of each year.”

It was ridiculous to even use the term ‘improvement of treatment.’ As Ian slowly shook the paper, the mages clenched their fists.

“We don’t care about wages or anything!”

“We don’t care!”

“I don’t care! I want meat! It keeps getting cut, and I haven’t received a single penny!”

“For major issues that affect the fate of the magic department, such as the rift investigation, please proceed by accepting our opinions, not just Ian’s unilateral decisions!”

Ian pressed his temples as if he didn’t understand.

“Didn’t I listen to your opinions? I said I would accept volunteers.”

“You said you would accept volunteers, but you don’t intend to take anyone, do you? Otherwise, you wouldn’t have said you would go to the rift yourself! Rumors are already spreading in the Imperial Palace that Ian will go to the rift himself. You, who don’t even breathe carelessly, if this isn’t intentional, then what is it? Explain yourself!”

“Explain yourself!”

“Just do whatever! I only need meat!”

Ian ran a hand through his hair at the mages’ barrage of questions.

They weren’t entirely wrong. Like Jin, who was worried about the loss of manpower in the magic department, Ian didn’t think that many ‘Bariel’ mages were needed for the rift investigation. He judged that the investigation could be carried out sufficiently with Ruswena and the volunteers from the north.

Of course, under the premise that he was the center.

“So, what do you want that makes you act like this? All of you, without fear, wearing red headbands in the Imperial Palace.”

Ian clicked his tongue and tried to take off the headband of the mage closest to him.

However, the mage refused with a firm gesture. He leaned his upper body slightly backward, telling him not to touch it.

“We won’t move an inch from the main building, just to watch Ian.”

“Yes. We’re on strike. We’re not going to do any work for the magic department. You’ll even have a hard time finding a servant to pour you water.”

“Is that why the water bottle was empty?”

“I don’t know. Anyway, our demands continue! First, accept our opinions. And second, no resignation!”

“No resignation!”

“If Ian leaves, who will take care of the magic department? There are already a bunch of mages injured from the aftermath of the war. At times like this, you need to firmly hold the center and look after the magic department! If it’s not Ian, then it’s either Commander Hale or Commander Acorella, are you planning to kill us all?”

“Oppose Acorella’s appointment!”

Beric shouted loudly, and everyone gasped and stepped back. They hadn’t planned that kind of slogan?

Ian quietly touched his forehead. It was a ragtag group that had completely lost their edge in the protest. They were mages, so they only knew how to use magic, and they didn’t seem to do anything properly. Ian recalled the people who had tied red cloths around themselves during his time as emperor, to fight for the independence of their territories and to make their grievances known. Thus, with a gesture of refusing to refuse, he finally took off one person’s headband.

“…Everyone knows that I was involved in Idgal’s invention, right?”

How could someone who shook the safety of mages sit in the position of head of the magic department?

“It is for the good of everyone that I step down.”

“Aaaah! That’s a violation of the first demand. Accept our opinions! If it’s for the good of everyone, then listen to everyone’s thoughts!”

The mages firmly crossed their arms and filled the hallway. Judging by how organized they were in this part, they must have practiced a bit.

“Otherwise, you can’t leave.”

“Rather than kill us-! Don’t kill us, just step on us appropriately!”

“Soon, envoys from Clifford and other countries will be coming, and they’ll be very pleased to see the mages acting like this, right? Huh?”

Judging by how they weren’t worried about the Imperial family’s eyes, Jin probably already knew. Well, even if the mages were ignorant of the world, there was no way they wouldn’t know the meaning of the red headband.

No, wait a minute.

“Ah.”

“Why? Are you finally willing to talk?”

Ian muttered, as if he had realized something, with a small exclamation. They might not know. There was a gap of a hundred years between Ian’s time and this one.

“Did you say that the schedules for the envoys from Clifford and other countries have been delivered?”

“Do you want to know? You don’t have a servant to give you your work, so you don’t know, do you? Are you curious?”

The mages’ clear eyes sparkled as they crossed their arms even more firmly. It was a point that would work very well on Ian, more than any other threat.

“If you want to work, come to an agreement with the ‘Mage Rights Union’!”