Two Hearts

Adrian Capre Arnevus never wanted to be Emperor.

He preferred the sound of leaves rustling in the wind over the performances of imperial musicians. He was happier serving as a temporary perch for a small bird than wearing gold rings on his fingers. The waxing and waning of the moon, the various colors of flowers that bloomed in their season, animals living in the moment without greed… he loved such things.

The crown, a golden frame adorned with all sorts of jewels, was too heavy for him. Every night, he would massage his overworked neck and think: I don’t want to be Emperor. This seat is not mine.

Indeed, the throne did not belong to him. He had a younger brother who was clever and strong. Unlike Adrian’s eyes, which appeared brown at a glance, his brother’s eyes were a vivid red. Their father had said with pride, “Aidan. This child will lead the empire’s revival.” He had thought the same.

“Why did he have to die?”

“It was an accident.”

Kallios, who hadn’t even been born twenty-five years ago when Aidan died, replied as if he had witnessed it. Adrian gazed into the distance with eyes full of resignation and resentment. Kallios sat upright and remained silent.

After spending a long time reminiscing about the past or dwelling on “what-ifs,” the Emperor resumed the lesson. His voice was dry as he spoke of the secrets of the Arnevus Imperial Family. His father, who had withered away from the grief of losing Aidan, had been the same way. He had died shortly after reluctantly fulfilling his final duty.

After explaining everything about the Dragon’s Blessing, he rubbed his eyes. He was tired. Was it because he had spoken more than usual? No, that wasn’t why he was exhausted. He had been perpetually worn out since the day he became Crown Prince twenty-five years ago in a simplified ceremony. It was because the crown was heavy.

“Let’s stop here.”

“Yes.”

Kallios answered like an obedient child and stood up. Adrian leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. He was so tired. The twenty-five years he had spent merely enduring were too long. He heard the sound of a sharply honed sword being drawn. He let out a long breath.

Kallios gripped the Dragon Bloodstone he had extracted from the Emperor’s heart. Befitting a man born with a meager blessing, the stone was small. It was insufficient to suppress the power raging inside Kaian’s body. He looked at the man who died looking as if he were simply sleeping with a gouged chest, then turned away. Though it was below expectations, he had gained what he needed, and time was short. He had no leisure to worry about a hollow corpse. He rubbed the blood from his soles onto the carpet and left the room.

The Emperor’s Dragon Bloodstone was small and weak. Even with just a small infusion of aura, it crumbled in his hand. Kallios walked through the complex secret passage leading from the Emperor’s room, lost in thought.

Adrian had not been a good Emperor, nor a good father. But he was a fairly useful medium for the blessing. As proof, Kaian had inherited a blessing strong enough to rival the founding Emperor’s, and Sierra’s was also quite strong. Kallios stopped briefly before the path leading to the Princess’s Palace. He needed more Dragon Bloodstone. Something sturdier and larger than the Emperor’s.

Kaian won’t like it. He will be sad.

Kallios thought: Does that matter? Kaian had said he didn’t want to be at peace. He desperately wanted to live. So, Kallios decided to save Kaian. If he used Sierra’s heart, Kaian could live. For about… two more years.

But Kaian would be sad.

People who feel sadness shed tears.

The thought of Kaian’s tears irritated him. Even though it was just an imagination, he wanted to immediately destroy whatever made Kaian cry. But what could Kallios do if Kaian wept for a dead Sierra? This was a very important matter.

He walked past the path to the Princess’s Palace. There were four beings in this Imperial Fortress who possessed the Dragon’s Blessing. The Emperor was dead, Sierra could not be killed, and Kaian was dying.

That left one.

Kallios had developed a new habit. He would gently press his palm against the place where his heart beat. There was only one heart beating beneath the flesh and bone, but he could feel two pulsations. The one beating strongly and steadily was Kallios’s own; the one that was small and weak, requiring focus to hear, was… Kaian’s. Whether it was because Kallios’s Dragon Bloodstone was doing its job, the faint sound that seemed ready to extinguish at any moment grew clearer over time. Kallios liked checking those changes, which were difficult to notice unless one paid attention every day.

He had learned the name of the emotion he often felt while flipping through pages by the sleeping Kaian’s side.

It was something on the opposite side of the emotion he felt when looking down at Kaian’s fever-flushed face.

Relief and anxiety.

Those were not things Kallios absolutely needed to live as “Kallios Capre Arnevus.” However, Kallios liked his newly realized emotions.

The Kaian Capre Arnevus that Kallios had seen was a static person. He didn’t dislike living confined in a narrow room that could be crossed in thirty steps. He was satisfied with the scenery seen through the window and knowing the world through preserved text. Seeing him leaning back in a chair with a teacup in front of him, he looked perfectly at ease, so it was likely true.

Whenever Kallios was by his side, he would often flip through pages of a book he hadn’t finished. It was because he felt trapped in the static atmosphere Kaian created. He liked the turning pages, yet felt a sense of regret.

The desire to stay like this forever and the impulse to break it coexisted.

Kallios turned his head. The commander of the 4th Knight Order, who had been explaining the results of a newly introduced training method, stopped talking. Kallios closed his eyes tightly and opened them. The emotion brought by a chilling sensation was so intense that briefly blocking his vision wasn’t enough to calm it. Habitually, his left hand went to his chest. The small, weak heart… was still beating properly.

Even though they were neither in the spire nor by Kallios’s side.

It was always difficult to read the mood of the expressionless Emperor. The commander gripped the papers he was holding with an uncomfortable expression. Kallios pulled a pocket watch from his pocket.

“The rest of the report in writing…”

“Wait.”

The commander thought Kallios had pulled out the watch to check his next schedule. However, what Kallios checked was not the time, but the direction. After confirming which way he was facing, Kallios scanned the map of Caprejena on the wall of the commander’s office.

Northeast. Towards the Abbas Mountains.

Kallios recalled the content of the late Emperor’s lessons.

He had said that in the Abbas Mountains of the Northeast, there were ruins of the Dragon God Capre. It was a place that tested adult members of the Imperial family and their close associates, providing the “appropriate help” needed. He heard that once peace became chronic, it was no longer used as there was no reason to send the Imperial family to such dangerous terrain.

Just as I did, you will likely never have to go. He didn’t care back then, nor did he care now, about the reason why the late Emperor, who usually only said what was necessary, added that one extra comment… but thanks to those words, he was able to quickly recall the existence of the ruins. Kallios decided to plant the flowering trees the late Emperor liked next to his grave.

He ordered the additional deployment of two knight orders to suppress the monster wave in the Abbas Mountains and declared he would lead the campaign personally. The commander asked “Pardon?” with a dazed expression, but then scrambled out in a panic at the order to finish preparations within two hours.

As soon as he left, Kallios also stepped outside. His hands trembled with an emotion that could be either anger or fear. He pressed his chest again. He gripped the fabric as if he were going to tear it. He saw a black-haired knight running from afar. It was Isaac, who was crying.

“Your Majesty! His Highness the Grand Duke!”

Isaac shouted as soon as he spotted Kallios.

Kallios wanted to kill Isaac, but he held back. There were things he needed to hear, and if he struck off Isaac’s head now, Kaian would surely be sad. Unaware of whether his head was about to fall, Isaac held out what he was carrying while sobbing. It was the brilliantly white… Great Seal of Aphelion.

He left the aftermath to Ilios. Marquis Ilios Inferno, a capable imperial physician and Sierra’s maternal uncle, accepted readily. While he had declined several times during the conquest of Aphelion, this time he didn’t say much. The look in his eyes, as if he were looking at someone commendable, was unpleasant, but Kallios didn’t ask why. Ilios provided an answer to the question Kallios hadn’t bothered to voice.

“I am relieved that you seem to care about the country, nonetheless.”

Kallios turned away without responding. Kaian liked this world. If so, Kallios had to protect the world he liked. It was cumbersome and annoying, but not a difficult task. It had been that way until this situation arose.

Kallios decided to kill Lamierre Weaver.

Combining the Great Seal made from the Water Dragon’s heart, Lamierre Weaver who possessed the power of the Water Dragon, the Dragon Ruins, and the situation witnessed by Isaac Ipsent led to that conclusion. Lamierre Weaver had summoned Kaian using the Water Dragon’s heart as a medium. Of course, it wouldn’t have been intentional. It must have been an accident caused by a coincidence of timing, location, and a desperate wish. Regardless, he decided to kill him.

Kallios still remembered the moment half of the heart he had been carefully keeping in the spire vanished.

During that very brief moment, Kallios was… nothing.

He had become nothing.

The reason he was able to fill his hollow heart was because he could hear the heartbeat again. In the place where there had been nothing, a wildfire-like rage flared up. It resembled despair and shared the same pulse as fear.

Kallios decided to kill Lamierre Weaver.

The moment he saw the collapsed, blocked cave and the ogre corpse with only its feet sticking out of the rock crevice, he vowed once more. He would not let him die peacefully. It couldn’t be helped even if Kaian were to be sad. He could feel him right ahead, yet the path was blocked. This, too, likely wasn’t intended by Lamierre Weaver.

But if he didn’t kill him, how was he supposed to resolve this bleak and suffocating feeling?

It took exactly two days to open the cave entrance.

As soon as a gap large enough for a person to enter appeared, Kallios forced himself inside. That half over there was calling for the other half. Kallios. He heard a voice he shouldn’t be able to hear. Kallios. Even without seeing him, he knew he was crying. He wanted to shatter and destroy everything that made him cry.

However, even if he hadn’t called, Kallios would have done this. He felt as if he would die right now if he didn’t press together the hearts that had been separated for too long.

Kaian and Lamierre dashed through the path they had walked for a long time in an instant.

At the end of the path was a cavern. The door to the ruins was… open. It was a door that only opened when Imperial blood was offered at the altar.

After smashing the altar stained with dried blood, Kallios entered the open door.

The interior of the ruins was beautiful. A clear blue sky, hills covered in all sorts of grass and flowers, and a pure white temple built upon them. Was it a real space existing somewhere on the continent, or a space created by magic? It didn’t matter to Kallios either way. He entered the temple without hesitation.

Pure white pillars that hadn’t faded over the long years, murals and delicate carvings depicting the encounter between the Dragon God and the founding Emperor Kaian. It wasn’t much different from what the late Emperor had described.

But there was no time to appreciate it. Kaian was calling for Kallios.

Kallios.

Was it because he was inside the ruins? He could feel even more.

Grit. Kallios ground his teeth and coated the sword he held—still in its scabbard—with red aura.

The Kallios that Kaian was calling for… was not himself. Exactly what kind of test was he undergoing to be calling out “Kallios” so desperately and sadly?

Fortunately, this place was not the world Kaian loved.

Kallios.

The sound of him calling for someone other than himself continued. Gritting his teeth, Kallios began to tear down the temple.