Chapter 1. Kill the Empress
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The day Roselyn decided to engrave with Tamon, she immediately wrote a letter to Anna.
Anna’s character would make an extreme choice with the idea of remaining alone, even if she had all kinds of gold and silver treasures.
“Oh, I should have hurried a little more.”
“I should have tried to help as many people as I could, instead of letting death eat away at me, unready for this life.”
“I feel like an idiot.”
“I can’t believe I can’t think of the people I left behind because I feel lost…”
Roselyn gazed across the sea, blaming herself.
She asked for the fastest and most secretive mailman through Tamon.
But even with the fastest delivery, the letter would barely make it from Amor to Tanatos, let alone Noem on the southeastern edge of Tanatos.
“Anna, let’s find out.”‘
No matter how urgent it was, she couldn’t send it with her name on it.
In case the letter was lost or clandestine, Roselyn used the pseudonyms and ciphers that they both liked to use when they were children.
For example, Anna was the young lady of the Pink Rose Forest, and Roselyn was the farmer of the carrot farm.
And sometimes Cain would interrupt, but Cain was a hedge of thorns.
She couldn’t quite remember how they came up with those names.
But they were children, and they laughed at each other, saying that the names suit each other beautifully.
The memory of that time always shone brilliantly in Roselyn’s eyes, like a jewel that never lost its light.
It was a beautiful memory that she would take with her even in death.
She averted her gaze from staring at the sea and looked at the white paper that had filled the black letters.
The letter was sent to Mahan.
“Please, I need her to still be there.”
Roselyn quickly wrote the letter.
“And next is….”
Roselyn took out another piece of paper. This time it wasn’t a letter that was written, but a detailed description of Tanatos’ power structure.
The most important people were those who would be helpful to her.
The Sunset family had disappeared, and now there were two pillars left in the empire.
One was the Duke of Gertium, the imperial Beacon, and the other was the Marquis of Helio, the governor of the northwestern region.
As befits his nickname as the Beacon, Duke Gertium was blindly loyal to the imperial family of Tanatos. Even after succeeding generations, the family style did not change.
The former Duke Gertium cut off one of his ears as a sign that he exclusively listened to the words of the Emperor.
Many noblemen approached Gertium, but his eyes and ears were directed only to the imperial family.
This loyalty without conditions was closer to faith than to a special cordial relationship.
They gave up thinking and making decisions for themselves and just followed the orders of the masters they served.
The previous master was notable for this, and the current master was not so different from his father when it came to loyalty.
Except for one, three years ago.
“Henrik Alpatio.”
He disobeyed the Emperor’s order to seek interest.
Roselyn wrote up Henrik with great effort.
He wasn’t that great a person. He was a mediocre provincial self-made man with no great achievements.
He was just a childhood teacher of Perso Gertium.
Even though he was Duke Gertium’s teacher, he did not have tremendous skills.
However, through interest, Duke Gertium laid the foundation for his swordsmanship skills.
He was Gertium’s teacher for exactly five years, from the age of eight to thirteen.
There were many other masters besides Henrik at the time, but Gertium especially followed him.
A father even cut off one of his own ears on the emperor’s orders.
The successive deaths of his brothers, who had been taking care of the emperor on his father’s orders.
A mother in depression after losing her children one after another.
For Perso, who was the youngest, that period must have been very difficult, lonely and vague.
It must have been more cruel, as the martial arts were not easy.
Henrik was the only person who opened his heart to him during that time.
The master who went out to the fields with him, read books with him, and took care of him when he was sick.
Henrik was Perso Gertium’s mentor, father, brother, and hiding place.
So…Perso Gertium’s weakness was Henrik Alpatio. Interest was needed to pocket the imperial guard dog. However, Perso also knew that Henrik was his weakness, so he thoroughly protected him.
Roselyn didn’t even know where he was anymore, but she already knew someone who might be able to contact him.
Gary Rotrega, known as one of Henrik’s best friends.
He was Anna’s father and Roselyn’s father’s best friend.
Gary had always been well-connected and approachable. It was said that there was not a nobleman in the 38 provinces of the wide continent of Tanatos who did not know him.
Among the ten people who were considered to be particularly close to him, Henrik was among them.
“Anna…”
Roselyn left this task to Anna.
She (Roselyn) was a heartless best friend who had suddenly left Anna a job before the shock wore off.
However, she knew Anna would accept her request at all costs.
It was often said that Tanatos was rotten, but it was still a country that had held out for a thousand years.
A power that has held on for a thousand years was never going to fall easily.
“…… However, the higher something is piled, the more easily it will collapse if the foundation is shaken.”
It was a country where gold comes out like water. It was a world like a fairy tale where the world was covered in white.
All the people in the world did not know how ugly and dirty things were piled up under that white snow.
And at the top of all that filth was their emperor.
There was Gillotti Tanatos.
He and his lover Natasha Roanti would deceive the world with their well-dressed faces.
“…… you thought I didn’t know.”
Roselyn pretended not to know.
Roselyn looked at the sharp tip of the pen.
Ink oozed out of the nib touching the paper like blood.
The pitch-black ink turned to bright red blood, and in the ink were her father and mother and brother, who were dying luridly.
There were the soldiers who protected her, the nobles who supported her, and the friends who were devoted to her.
“Yes, I’ll not die in vain.”
“I will live to see their decline, their suffering, and their fall.”
“And when their bodies piled up, I will die on top of the pile of bodies with a face brighter and more joyful than anyone else.”
“Phew.”
At that moment, a corner of her chest burned, and Roselyn looked down in surprise. She looked down and saw the area just above where her heart was was red, and there was a strange pattern on it.
“What is this?”
It was a strange pattern, like a name, like a star.
She took the mirror and looked at it carefully.
The letters were clearly written ‘Tamon’. (*oh my god)
“……. Is this a stigma of the engrave?”
Roselyn looked at the stigma on her chest with a stiff face and sighed lowly.
She couldn’t believe she was stigmatized.
It was the power of the God who desired it.
The ability was….
This ability can be offset with holy things.
But not all holy things could do that. This was because each person had a different ability.
The holy relic of the Sunset family, with its power of protection, was the most powerful shield against the imperial’s power of death.
Of course, that powerful shield was also lost due to the tyranny of Gillotti…
‘Did I mention that Gillotti jumped out directly with his sword and cut off my head?’
It was also Gillotti who cut out the warm heart of Roselyn’s mother, who was like home to Roselyn.
The brutal man had babbled such things without a care in the world before her who was struggling with torture.
Words like how he had killed her parents, and in what manner.
Roselyn clenched her teeth. Her jaw went numb from all the strength she’d put into clenching.
“I have to take away his ability.”
The power of the gods, the most powerful basis on which Tanatos could claim the throne, had to be destroyed.
“No, I want to make sure that there would be no other power in Tanatos.”
She knew that the strength was weakening a lot over hundreds of years. Being weak means that she could make it disappear someday.
If possible, Roselyn wanted to speed up the period further.
“But how……..?”
As for the powers and holy relics, it was strictly a secret.
It was even more of a secret because of the many wars that had been fought over the holy relics.
The chain that had been passed down as a family heirloom from the Sunset family, the golden cup that was said to be kept in the Lumosha royal family, and the flute from the Temple of Amor.
They were places where no one could take them without permission.
“Divine power can only be destroyed by divine power.”
It was like the certificate of the Great Temple that was used to make the contract between Roselyn and Tamon.
Fragments of God with the power to stand up to monsters in the gap comparable to the talented.
Roselyn raised her head. She was getting more and more impatient.
“We need to collect the treasures.” (Holy relics)
Of course, tracking down all six treasures and collecting them were all difficult.
However, Roselyn knew someone who could help her find the treasures.
Keton Hartz, who possessed the gift of prophecy.
“We must find him.”