Chapter 95
To see the best ending for Johan Root in <Danguwon>, Charlotte absolutely had to win the Athena Island hunting tournament.
A commoner like Charlotte needed more than 500 fame points to become crown princess, and to get that she had to win this tournament so her face would be minted on the silver coin. In other words, every subject of the empire had to learn the face of Champion Charlotte.
There had even been a line in that episode:
<Last year, during the hunting tournament, His Majesty the Emperor was encouraging the participants when assassins attacked, and the tournament was suspended.
By bad luck, two great calamities struck the forest, so all S-rank transcendents went to suppress them.
We lost the assassins that day. So this year, the Emperor will not inspect the tournament and will stay at the summer palace the whole time.>
That year Charlotte had brought a small, cute waterfowl egg as game to cheer up the Emperor, and the Emperor, moved by her kindness, declared her the winner.
After receiving the laurel, Charlotte used her wish ticket like this:
<My wish is for His Majesty the Emperor to have eternal health.>
The Emperor was even more touched by her pure heart. This anecdote spread widely and made her the crown princess.
From that episode I learned what sort of game would guarantee victory at this year’s hunting tournament.
‘I have to catch those four assassins. That’s how I’ll secure the crown.’
Of course I wouldn’t be the one to take the crown — the winner this time should be Karl.
‘If I become the winner, Father will only grow more suspicious. It’s not my time to be revealed yet.’
The laurel, the honor — I could do without them. What I needed was the wish ticket. I planned to use that wish ticket to make Karl a slave in my retinue.
And there was another objective… the “prize” of this year’s hunting tournament.
“Yaaah!”
The mountain slope grew steeper. Karl was probably only now arriving at the agreed location.
Earlier, after some trick Sion had pulled, the Karl I met again had lost almost all his intimidating presence. I’d been surprised, but there were more important things, so I urged Karl repeatedly.
“Karl, meet me at Tartaros Cliff. That’s where you’ll fight the Emperor’s assassins. Kill them and win the Emperor’s favor.”
When the Emperor shouted in the forest, the startled assassin would drag him to where? To Tartaros Cliff.
‘But I must arrive there before Karl.’
I had already told that bastard many times to stay put if he met the Emperor…but he was the type who could start doing weird things after meeting the Emperor.
‘Like the time he changed the plan because he thought I had committed suicide.’
He might suddenly decide to kill the Emperor.
We were almost at Tartaros Cliff.
‘Time to check Karl’s aversion.’
[ ‘Karl’ does not exist within a 20-Quezeta range. ]
[ Aversion cannot be checked. ]
‘Thank goodness.’
I wasn’t shouting to check the aversion out of curiosity about Karl’s zero-day aversion.
I was checking whether he was within 20 Quezeta range.
As we neared the cliff, seeing no other aversion notifications made me relax.
‘Good. I must have arrived first.’
But the sight at the cliff the moment we arrived exceeded my expectations.
[ ‘Karl’ has entered the 20-Quezeta range. ]
[ Checking aversion. ]
[ Aversion: 0 ]
‘Damn.’
The Emperor had been struck by a poisoned arrow and was bleeding heavily, unconscious.
The four masked men, the assassins, lay with their necks and bodies already separated — Karl had torn them apart with his bare hands.
That part was perfect —
The problem was that Karl was standing at the cliff’s edge, holding the Emperor by the scruff of his neck with one hand.
‘Karl has defied my orders again.’
I couldn’t help being angry. Had he disobeyed me again? I’d already let him slide twice — now again?
I braced the shotgun, aimed at Karl’s side, and fired.
Bang!
Karl, who was holding the Emperor, stopped moving.
“…….”
I had worried he might ignore me and drop the Emperor, but he looked toward me, gripping the Emperor firmly.
Anger made speech hard. I had a pretty good idea of his motive.
‘The Emperor was the one who demoted the Fenrir clan to third-class citizens.’
I knew the Emperor was also a target for Karl’s vengeance. Even if the Emperor died first, it wouldn’t necessarily stop the destruction of the empire.
‘I warned you last time! Don’t ever disobey my orders again!’
I asked in a low voice.
“……What was my order, Karl?”
“You ordered me to kill all the Emperor’s assassins and win the Emperor’s favor.”
“Good… you understood my order very precisely.”
But Karl still held the Emperor in midair without letting go. The Emperor slumped, a grotesque sight of blood trickling out.
“I’m not going to kill him. I don’t intend to put him down here either. I’m just keeping him here so his blood will drain quickly.”
He said it as calmly as if talking about needing to dry laundry faster.
“So I have never once disobeyed your order.”
“Then follow this separate order: save the Emperor, Karl.”
Karl’s red eyes stared at me.
“Jonmyeong.”
In the end he obeyed my words and laid the Emperor on the ground. I gave the prostrate Emperor some herbs and asked the crucial question.
“Does the Emperor know you did this?”
“He will only remember that he was rescued. I lost consciousness the moment I killed the four assassins.”
I swallowed my anger. First priority was to restore the Emperor’s breath.
‘…I never thought he would refuse my orders.’
At this rate, before I set the stage, he might, on his own, kill the count with his hands.
“Did you not think that if the Emperor dies like this, you could be accused of murder? A runaway slave was found on this island. You have motive.”
“I don’t care. If the revenge for Fenrir is completed, that’s enough. I place the will of the Fenrir clan above my life.”
The anger that had been boiling cooled into something cold at those words.
‘This is the last warning. If he doesn’t change this time, Karl is discarded.’
It was time to make a decision.
Three strikes were enough. I would not be betrayed by mere chess pieces again.
Watching the Emperor’s breath return, Karl felt disappointed. His master’s orders had been to kill the Emperor’s assassins and gain the Emperor’s favor, but there had been no explicit order to save the Emperor.
He had tried to take advantage of that gap and kill the Emperor.
‘I should have moved faster.’
That was when Odette grabbed her own cheeks with both hands and pulled them.
“You’re not the type to not understand the intent of my order, are you? There was clearly an implication to save the Emperor.”
Odette’s teal eyes looked at him.
‘Again.’
Both his mother and father had been uneasy around him, but Odette treated him without fuss.
Even members of the Fenrir clan had been uncomfortable and fearful of Karl.
‘Even the children in the shelter avoided me.’
He didn’t feel much about their aversion. But he did find Odette strange.
She calmly cupped and pulled his cheeks and hugged him — comforting him as if there was nothing different.
Karl felt more comfortable alone. After all, he wasn’t the type who would expect to be understood in return.
Karl could not understand other people either — they were weak, slow, and dull, and his perspective differed.
“You clearly understood the purpose of my order, but you tried to exploit its loophole?”
So, every time this woman looked him square in the eye like this, Karl felt unfamiliar and baffled.
‘How can someone so weak be not afraid of me?’
It was true that the imprint prevented Karl from using the Fenrir clan’s full physical might. Even if he could only use ordinary human strength, killing a woman would be nothing.
This woman looked plainly frail and thin—
‘Is her fear center broken or something?’
At that moment, noticing Karl’s lack of focus,
“Focus.”
—she said, pulling Karl close to her face.
In a resolute voice she said,
“Karl, do you think the revenge for the Fenrir kingdom ends by killing only the Emperor? Don’t you get it? What you want is the complete destruction of the empire, right?”
Karl’s red eyes widened.
