Chapter 71: I Want to Be a Hero (3) |
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"That was a fruitful conversation. Have a good night, Lord Yulian."
The light of the communicator went out.
Prince Edmund stared at the darkened crystal orb for a while.
On the dining table, a half-empty soup bowl and breadcrumbs remained.
The after-dinner tea had long gone cold.
The night in the Annex Palace was silent.
It was a brief moment of peace that could only be enjoyed after the baby had finally fallen asleep.
Prince Edmund was accustomed to such stillness.
The kind of quiet where you hold your breath, unable to relax your guard.
The prince suddenly found himself comparing childcare to war and gave a bitter smile.
'Is this my new battlefield?'
It's not a bad battlefield.
If only I could sleep more peacefully, I would have no other wish.
However, according to Yulian's advice, this too would only last a few more months.
Still, they say I'll be able to get some 'sleep' once he's over a year old.
Edmund took a sip of the cold tea.
Just then, his adjutant, who was standing by the door, spoke up.
"Your Highness."
Carlos Richter.
The prince's adjutant, and a comrade-in-arms who had his back on the battlefield.
And he was the current Chief Staff Officer under the Chief of Personnel.
For reference, he also occasionally served as the coachman to urgently fetch Yulian.
"May I say something?"
"Speak freely."
"Forgive my impertinence, but what Lord Nihilrit said at the end troubles me a little."
"Which part?"
"Did his Lordship not say so himself? That what he can do is not stop black magic, but only track it."
The prince listened to his adjutant and nodded.
Indeed.
Right after I proposed a Defense Lecture on black magic, Yulian politely declined the offer.
— "I am confident in pursuing or dealing with an incident after it has occurred. However, that is a far cry from defense or prevention. Despite that, are you alright with calling it a Defense Class?"
Richter continued.
"Of course, I don't doubt his Lordship's abilities. He proved them with this incident. However, the name is defense, but what he'll actually be teaching is countermeasures. I worry it might cause some confusion."
"Are you suggesting we change the name?"
"I apologize, but yes, Your Highness."
Edmund nodded.
"Your words have merit. The title is important. It sets the direction for the future."
"Then..."
"That is why I have no intention of changing it."
Edmund said firmly.
At this, Richter fell silent.
The prince smiled at his adjutant's expression.
"Aren't you going to ask why?"
"Because there's no way to change Your Highness's intention once you've made up your mind. I learned that during the Fortress Assault."
"That's disappointing. I'd prefer a spirited loyal subject who would challenge my orders and try to retreat like back then."
"..."
The adjutant stared at the prince with a sour expression.
The prince waved a hand at him.
"Still, it seems I must convince you this time as well if you're to charge with me. Richter."
"Yes."
"Why do you think black sorcerers are so rampant?"
The adjutant thought for a moment before answering.
"Because tracking them is difficult, and our defense system against it is inadequate."
Black magic is impossible to defend against.
A fireball or a sniper's shot can be blocked with a shield.
But black magic is not like that.
It is secretive and, above all, invisible.
Since you don't know when, where, or how it will strike, countermeasures are next to impossible.
On top of that, since its trajectory is not visible, even tracking it after being hit is difficult.
"Furthermore, aren't there cases where it's not black magic, but a misunderstanding or simple misfortune?"
There are other reasons as well.
In nature, fire doesn't appear without reason. People don't freeze for no reason, nor are they cut in half.
But black magic is indistinguishable from nature.
A person could fall ill from a Curse of Pestilence, but they could also have just gotten sick due to bad luck.
When you consider all these things, tracking black magic often becomes nearly impossible.
That is the point Richter was making.
"Correct. But that's a technical answer."
However, this was not the answer the prince wanted.
Edmund leaned back in his chair.
"What I'm asking is more fundamental. Why is the Empire so helpless before black magic? Lack of technique? Insufficient budget? Of course, these are problems that must be solved someday. But they are not the fundamental answer."
Of course, these were also problems.
But, the moment I heard that Yulian tracked a black sorcerer in a single day, and how he did it.
The prince focused on the fundamental cause.
"The most fundamental problem is resignation."
"..."
"When someone is attacked by a black sorcerer, everyone says the same things. 'They can't be caught anyway,' 'Even if we track them, they'll have already fled,' 'There's no way to stop it.' And what do they do next?"
Edmund's fingers tapped slowly on the dining table.
"They give up, or they handle the case half-heartedly, already planning to give up."
Richter listened without a word.
"This academy incident is the same. Do you think the principal and vice-principal responded complacently because they were lazy?"
"...Wasn't it concluded to be negligence of duty?"
"It was negligence of duty. But we must understand where that negligence came from."
Edmund turned his head to look at his adjutant.
It was a familiar look.
On the Southern Front, at a moment when everyone had given up.
They were the eyes of the passionate man who had shouted that he alone must recapture the strategic point lost by their ancestors 200 years ago.
The apprentice knight who had berated them, asking why they couldn't shake off the helplessness of that time now that the fever that had held them back was gone.
That was the adjutant's first memory of the prince.
"What if a demonkin had invaded the academy? What if the students had been devoured by a demonic beast? Would the principal still have responded so complacently?"
"He never would have."
Richter shook his head.
"He would have immediately assumed combat readiness and requested emergency support from the knight order."
"Right. No one reacts complacently to demonkin or demonic beasts. Because there are countermeasures. Because everyone knows they can be tracked, caught, and killed. And because there is hope."
Countermeasures against demonkin and demonic beasts have been established over a thousand years.
Nevertheless, there are times when security is breached.
But even when such things happen, everyone responds swiftly.
It's partly because they know the methods well, but also because they know there is hope if they hurry.
Edmund pushed the empty soup bowl aside and said.
"But black magic is different. It can't be tracked, they've already fled by the time you try to catch them, and there's no proper way to stop it. There have even been cases where the truth was revealed to be not black magic, but simple misfortune. It's been like that for decades, for centuries."
The prince let out a deep sigh.
"And during that long time, people must have learned. That it's pointless to even try."
"Your Highness. Are you saying the principal's negligence wasn't entirely his fault?"
"Ah, don't misunderstand. I'm not defending that man."
The prince waved his hand.
"It was individual negligence. Even if the world made him that way, that fact does not justify his irresponsibility.
However, what I'm trying to say is that if we continue to blame the individual for the reasons they became irresponsible, the incidents will keep repeating."
Richter nodded.
It was a nod of understanding.
Edmund saw his reaction and paused for a moment.
And when he spoke again, Richter noticed a change in the prince's voice.
"...It hasn't been long since I began to think this way."
He suddenly placed his hands on the desk and covered his face with his palms.
"When Vi lost our first child, I personally traveled the entire Empire trying to find the cause."
Richter held his breath.
The Imperial Princess Consort's miscarriage.
It was a story that couldn't be carelessly spoken of even in the Royal Court.
It was the same for Richter.
Even though they had trusted each other with their lives on the battlefield, this was one topic he had never brought up first.
But tonight, the prince himself opened that door.
"When we lost the second, I called for a healer. We kept healers by our side even before conceiving the third child."
Edmund's voice was low and flat.
But that very flatness hinted at the weight of what was suppressed beneath.
"After losing the third child, rumors began to circulate. That we, the married couple, were under a curse of infertility."
Richter couldn't bring himself to meet his eyes and lowered his head.
But Edmund's recollection continued.
"Do you remember how the Imperial Court dealt with it then?"
"...An investigation team was formed."
"The result?"
"..."
"As you know, the investigation team was disbanded in a month with no results."
This was an incident involving the War Hero of the South, a prince whose influence was among the strongest of the known imperial family members.
"Do you know what's even more ridiculous? I myself half-believed the rumors and investigated with passion."
Edmund let out a bitter laugh.
"Think about it, Richter. The other members of the imperial family are secluded in the palace. I am the only one who goes to the frontline and stands before the people as the Chief of Personnel. Being in a position to decide the appointments of numerous nobles, I must have earned my fair share of grudges."
Edmund looked down at his empty teacup.
"What better target could there be?"
Richter could not answer.
"I thought I was being rational. But how can you find the person who cast a curse if no one cast it?"
In the end, without a single clue, the investigation team was disbanded after a month.
It was from then.
That the prince began to fall into lethargy.
"From then on, I just drank. What did it matter if it was a curse or not?"
And with him, those around him also fell into lethargy.
"Everyone fell into lethargy. Since it was inexplicable, they blamed it on black magic, yet they didn't even think to look for the black sorcerer. No one had the will to solve it."
At the time, the prince's feelings were close to desperation.
After separating from his wife, he had planned to just defend the Southern Front and live out the rest of his life there.
To him, a miracle came.
"Then I met Lord Yulian. With a single pill, his Lordship solved all our problems."
But Yulian was different from those people.
He didn't give up, nor did he turn a blind eye to ignorance.
He didn't rule out the possibility of black magic, and after confirming it wasn't, he went on to solve it.
"He alone was free. He wasn't captured by lethargy. While everyone else decided the answer was 'a curse' and only asked questions to fit that answer, he was charging forward alone. Just like the me of the past."
Edmund said.
"That's when I realized. Our greatest enemy is not the black sorcerers. It's stopping our thoughts in the face of black magic. Giving up on finding the cause. That resignation and lethargy are the very weapons the black sorcerers use."
Edmund looked at Richter.
"That's why I have no intention of changing the course's name."
Richter's eyes trembled.
"Knowing the countermeasures will lead to defense. The mere fact that they can be tracked will make the black sorcerers falter, and people will no longer bow their heads."
Edmund declared.
"Therefore, Black Magic Defense. That name is correct."
Richter stood there without a word.
The prince's gaze turned toward the corridor leading to the baby's room.
"It's okay if we can't eradicate all the black sorcerers right now. It's okay if it doesn't end in my generation."
Edmund said.
"To Aster. And to Aster's child. If I can just pass down a world where they don't have to bow their heads before black magic, that's enough for me."
The prince stared for a while at the room where his baby was sleeping.
A long silence fell.
Only the sound of the candle crackling could be heard.
At last, Edmund averted his gaze from the corridor and spoke.
"...Of course, it won't be easy."
The earlier passion in his voice had subsided.
"The backlash from the House of Nobles will be severe. Not only are we using the budget to create a new course, but we plan to teach black magic as part of the official curriculum. Since the Great Sage destroyed the Magic Tower of Black Magic, black magic has been a taboo in this Empire. What do you think they'll say if we try to bring it into the legitimate world?"
Edmund counted on his fingers.
"We'll also have to consider backlash from religious circles. They'll probably ask if we're promoting heresy."
Richter listened without a word.
"There will be those who scoff that it's meaningless. Asking what a single course can change about a problem that hasn't been solved for hundreds of years. That such pretense ruins the Empire. At best, cynicism; at worst, ridicule. There were voices like that even before we recaptured the Southern Fortress."
Edmund gave a bitter smile.
"And."
He took a breath, pausing for a beat.
"The black sorcerers aren't going to just stand by."
The prince's eyes narrowed.
"These are people who have operated comfortably in the darkness until now. If someone steps up to shine a torch on that darkness ... they'll try to cut off the hand holding the torch first. Including mine."
Edmund said calmly.
His calmness was similar to his expression on the battlefield when he was told he had to stand at the forefront.
It was a composure that suggested he didn't care, even though he knew he might die.
Edmund shrugged.
"Still, I'm the kind of person who only knows how to charge forward."
Richter was speechless for a while.
The candle on the dining table flickered.
In the stillness of the Annex Palace, Richter was recalling a distant memory.
On the retreating Southern Front, this man had constantly spoken of their ancestors' fortress, lost 200 years ago, beyond the horizon.
In the end, the strategic point was recaptured, and Richter had not left this man's side since that day.
And now.
The prince was saying he would charge once more.
"What will you do, Richter? If you really want, I'll let you pull out of this."
At this, the adjutant gave a bitter smile.
"Your Highness."
"Speak."
"My life is one I should have lost in the Fortress Siege that day anyway."
A moment passed.
The corners of Edmund's mouth slowly turned up.
"...Good."
The prince held out his empty teacup.
"Then bring me another cup of tea before the charge. To be honest, I was too thirsty back then."
"Yes, Your Highness."
The moment Richter lifted the teapot.
From somewhere in the Annex Palace, the faint whining of a baby could be heard.
Edmund's expression changed in an instant.
He pricked up his ears, listening toward the corridor.
Even when he heard the wingbeats of an approaching insectoid demonic beast, he hadn't looked that frightened.
"...Is he awake?"
—Uuungh!
"Darn it. Is it colic again? I need to get the peppermint oil."
Grumbling, the prince rose from the dining table.
The adjutant silently followed his superior.
