Chapter 97: Rose (9)

"I greet the Empire's supreme sun."

Respect shown with a polite gesture.

Between the clearly enunciated sentences were words describing the man before his eyes.

Hair of a familiar color swayed in the wind.

Green eyes like leaves quietly looked down at him.

'Balkaros Lantana von Staufen.'

How many modifiers would be needed?

Emperor.

The sole sun of the Staufen Empire.

The birth father of the unfortunate princesses, and the very person who confined the cursed rose to a lonely star.

I was standing before a cold heart.

'Why is this person?'

Why was he here?

A sudden appearance.

While chewing over the question hanging at the end of the sentence, I was waiting for a response to my greeting.

Soon the Emperor parted his lips with a gentle resonance.

"So it's you. The new primary physician assigned to the Second Princess."

A voice not holding even a trace of vitality.

Only cold wind brushed against the throat.

Perhaps because of the meaningful tone.

Though not much had been exchanged yet, I sensed that he knew everything.

Otherwise, he couldn't be this composed.

'From the beginning... he was aware?'

I sighed quietly inside.

Originally, I wasn't supposed to be here.

As matters concerning the rose were confidential information covered by the Emperor himself, it wasn't a space outsiders could freely enter.

Therefore, entry to the detached palace had been strictly controlled until now.

Though I had managed to enter with Charlotte's help.

Even this felt more like sneaking through rather than following proper procedures.

'In other words.'

It was a position that would become troublesome if discovered.

I had been careful for this reason, but it seemed the sun's eyes couldn't be deceived.

Balkaros was already aware of my existence.

As I was turning thoughts in my head along with silence, the middle-aged man's voice rang in my ear.

"You may rise."

Words saying I could straighten my kneeling knee.

I bowed my head once, then slowly raised my lowered body.

Our gazes crossed lightly.

"Young Lord Snakers."

"Your Majesty."

"This seems to be our first time meeting face to face."

"I didn't expect you to recognize me. I'll consider it an honor that will remain long in my family's history."

"Shouldn't a host properly welcome a guest who has visited his house? Even if that guest might be an uninvited visitor."

"...So you did know."

"Yes. I knew from the beginning."

Sure enough.

The Emperor seemed to have already finished grasping the situation.

Though I had followed the princess, it was still an intrusion into a forbidden area, so I belatedly added words of apology.

My lips were solemn without even a trace of smile.

"I am ashamed."

"No need to bow your head. You merely responded to the First Princess's request, didn't you? She often brought doctors to look after the Second Princess."

Princess, or 'she.'

Though he was clearly referring to his children, the terms were unbearably stiff.

The excessively cold tone added to the winter.

As I felt the ice-like air.

The Emperor's appearance from the original work briefly came to mind.

'Well.'

He wasn't a character whose related story was explained in detail.

It was more like guessing about the Emperor's character through episodes involving the princesses.

It was once a main plot point.

Balkaros.

A cold-blooded person who gave affection to nothing in the world.

He was someone who only had scales weighing practical benefits in his head, and extremely despised being swayed by personal emotions.

No wonder even his nickname in the original work was 'Cold Heart.'

[Category: Free Board]

[Title: No matter how you look at it, the Emperor is the root of all evil in the Rose Part]

There's no one more hateable than this bastard

Neglected his only flesh and blood daughters from childhood

Never showed his face easily

And if that wasn't enough, when the 2nd Princess fell ill, he immediately threw an 8-year-old child into confinement

In the end the family fell apart

The good relationship between sisters was ruined

Elise spent over 10 years battling illness alone, fell into various mental illnesses and self-harm addiction, and ultimately died by extreme choice before her lifespan was even up

Charlotte was left with trauma and decreased sociability

In the story

If the Dean is the top of incompetence

This Emperor bastard is the top of hateability

[He really is a bastard incarnate]

-> Even beasts care for their offspring

-> Reading the side story makes my hatred for the Emperor boil

[There's a reason Yuda destroyed the Empire]

-> Now we even have Kyaru supporters popping up

-> Destruction? You mean 'normalization'?

-> Great Yuda

-> JOAT... Not particularly missed

[Dean vs Emperor]

-> A battle of unlikeable characters where superiority can't be determined

-> Incompetent Prophet vs Hateful Supreme Authority ㄷㄷ

-> Isn't incompetence better at least?

-> No no, the Emperor is better. Later he provides military support and helps in various ways.

-> Meanwhile our Prophet has nothing

[Emperor becomes cute after meeting Yuda]

-> Ji Ye-ah

-> Why are the arrows coming at me again

-> Holy shit.. what's with this coolness.. lol

-> Here comes another weird joke

I remember the evaluation among players wasn't very good.

Though he wasn't exactly a villain character, he was not only neglectfully indifferent to his own flesh and blood princesses, but even went as far as confining the cursed Elise to the detached palace.

As this acted as one axis of the tragic story, public opinion couldn't be good.

He even proudly recorded low ranks in popularity polls held at one time.

'I disliked him too.'

Even I didn't like him at first.

When creating videos for the Rose episode, I included curses about him several times.

The term 'Hateful Emperor' was deeply embedded.

But now.

'What is this...?'

I couldn't help but be bewildered.

The part that had been bothering me since earlier. I belatedly found the reason for that sense of incongruity.

My gaze fixed on Balkaros standing opposite me.

"I heard the news. They say there are signs of recovery, unusually?"

"Yes... that's right."

"I stopped by to check briefly."

"......"

No.

This person couldn't possibly be like this?

Considering his portrayal in the original work, this was impossible.

Balkaros had been completely indifferent to the princesses.

It wasn't like he hated them or wasn't interested - rather, he purely treated them as if they didn't exist in his life.

To the point where one might wonder if he had forgotten he even had children.

As I mentioned earlier, though it wasn't precisely known, based on fragments throughout the story progression, that's how it seemed.

Especially in Elise's flashbacks, similar mentions were frequently scattered.

'What kind of whim is this?'

Question marks filled my head.

As I wore a puzzled expression for a moment, the middle-aged man's continuing voice added an answer.

His unchangingly winter-like resonance seemed to be coated in frost.

"No need to be so tense. This truly is a visit without any intention."

"I apologize. I was just momentarily surprised."

What was I so surprised about?

I didn't commit the rudeness of putting that reason into words.

It was a question involving the Second Princess, who was a shame the Imperial Family had to hide, existence no different from discarded blood.

I only swallowed my inner thoughts with silence held tight.

Perhaps vaguely reading such an atmosphere, Balkaros slightly turned his head.

A brief following silence.

Whoosh-.

Only the night wind erased the blank.

The Emperor, frozen with lifeless eyes, soon passed words as if letting them flow.

They were sharp as an awl.

"Recovery... I heard that the curse was impossible to cure."

"With ordinary methods, yes."

"Are you saying it's possible with extraordinary methods?"

"It's difficult to say for certain. However, I can say that we are at the stage of attempting."

"Should I say you have amazing nerve? To use a country's princess as an experimental subject."

"......"

Well, that's true but.

Shouldn't you at least be the one not saying that...?

Was he deliberately trying to pick a fight? Otherwise why would he mention the rose with his own mouth?

I struggled to maintain my furrowing brow.

"I apologize."

"Well... it doesn't matter."

He was a difficult person to understand.

As a person... yes, perhaps similar to Charlotte's type.

He gave a strangely otherworldly feeling.

"So."

Green eyes glancing this way.

Though resembling rose leaves, unlike hers, the color had withered.

"Can you really do it? The treatment."

A question.

My answer was already decided.

"I see sufficient possibilities."

"Huh... overflowing confidence."

"An incurable disease doesn't refer to one that can never be cured. It's just that the solution for treatment hasn't been discovered yet."

"It sounds as if you have such a solution in your hands."

"You may take it as you wish. Only the near future will answer with results."

"An interesting proposal."

Balkaros nodded.

Perhaps interested in the bold attitude, light flashed over his characteristically empty pupils.

He was an adult frozen and shattered over and over.

"Doesn't it sound like a dream?"

Was he still half in doubt?

Normally he would have dismissed it as nonsense, but hearing news of actual recovery seemed to confuse him.

An expression as if wondering from where to take it as nonsense.

"...I hope that bravado is real."

"Pardon?"

"If so, I could even hand this empire over to you completely."

"That's too generous to be a joke, Your Majesty."

"You think it's a joke?"

"......"

I had no choice but to close my mouth.

The Emperor I was actually seeing was different from the image and feeling I had known since my previous life.

The overall atmosphere was just as I remembered.

But there were slight deviations in his reactions, attitude, and gaze.

'Hoping the bravado is real...'

Doesn't it sound like a sentence hoping for a miracle to cure Elise's illness?

Like hoping for the rose's curse to be lifted.

The you I knew wasn't at all the kind of person to do that.

As I chewed over these complexly tangled thoughts, Balkaros, who had been standing quietly, turned his back.

It seemed he was about to leave.

"I should be going now."

"Weren't you here to see Her Highness Elise?"

"I changed my mind."

"I shall see you when the next opportunity arises."

"Well... I'd prefer not to meet again if possible."

"Pardon?"

"I'm leaving."

Before the conversation could properly conclude.

The Emperor left first.

Watching his back as he exited the garden, various stray thoughts completely filled a paragraph of my inner mind.

I muttered such contents to myself as if unraveling them.

'I didn't expect this.'

Could there be a backstory I don't know?

Contents recorded beyond the Emperor, not revealed in the original work.

I found myself smiling unknowingly.

"Ha."

It was indeed an interesting world.

Though I thought I knew everything, when actually approaching, something completely different was waiting.

Unknown things wait for me, hidden everywhere.

When ignorance is so full of vitality, how could I regard this world as false?

Every scent brushing my nose was sincere.

'However.'

On the other hand, because of that.

I couldn't treat everything carelessly.

When the moment to leave comes before long, I would have to wither without leaving scars on the things I loved.

Only keeping scars from thorns at my fingertips.

After briefly savoring the lingering feeling, I took steps just like that.

It was the path to bed.

'Before sleeping... should I check on her condition?'

Elise, who hadn't been well for the past few days.

Remembering how she said the pain worsened at night, I moved quiet steps toward the rose's room.

As I freely crossed through the cool air.

Before long, my feet reached the door at the corridor's end.

"......"

A slightly opened gap.

Faint light leaked through it.

A brightness that could come from just two or three candles.

Though time was already past dawn, could the greenhouse rose not fall asleep?

I slowly opened the closed door and entered the room.

"Haa, haa..."

Just as I stepped on the soft carpet.

What reached my ears was breathing.

Breathing mixed with pitiful moans, as if suffering in pain.

"Ugh... urk."

The rose wasn't lying in bed.

She was just sitting collapsed in the middle of the room, her body tightly curled up.

Shoulders twitching with rough breaths.

The red-haired girl seemed absorbed in something.

'This.'

I couldn't help but freeze my expression.

As a fishy smell brushed my nose, red traces fallen on the floor caught my sight.

What faintly filled the room was none other than the scent of blood.

"...Hnn."

Tears dripped down.

As if following the transparently falling drops, red spots originating from her wrist stained the carpet.

Roses bloomed countless times through wounds that seemed cleanly cut.

Though already drenched in red petals, the girl moved her hand as if unsatisfied.

At her fingertips hung a pocket knife soaked with flower water.

Swish-.

The bandages loosened at will and stretched long.

The fabric that had been pure white until hours ago had forgotten the concept of regeneration, and was now soiled with violent wetness.

What remained at the end was only a thirst for self-destruction.

"Huk... ugh."

Scratch, scratch-.

The rose adding wound upon wound while out of her senses.

The girl was just vomiting blood and tears blankly, not even recognizing others' presence.

No vitality existed in her blinking eyelids.

Green pupils like leaves seemed to be withering black.

"Your Highness."

Though I threw out a low call, the rose continued self-harm while crying.

It seemed no other words reached her ears.

I approached the girl.

And then.

Grab-!

I embraced her delicate body from behind.

Simultaneously, I silently grasped her wrist that was becoming a mess.

"Ugh...! Urk!"

Sudden restraint.

Though she struggled as if surprised by it, there wasn't even slight wavering in the arms restraining the girl.

I calmed her while holding the warm temperature in my embrace.

Drawing close as if kissing her snow-white ear, I whispered reassurance several times in a calm voice.

I didn't forget to stroke her head with my hand.

"Shh... it's alright."

"Hic, ugh."

"Everything's alright. Because I'm by your side..."

Like that.

The two of us took a rest for a while until the intense atmosphere settled.

Melting into the lukewarm warmth.