Chapter 119
Despite being utterly overwhelmed, he wasn’t angry in the slightest. Instead, all he could do was smile with quiet satisfaction. He knew this place was now his own dream. The setting had shifted from Iora’s dream into Vigros’s, which meant that the one now witnessing his dreams and memories would be Iora.
Strength slowly drained from his body. Trapped within the body of his past self, Vigros gazed upon the vivid scene unfolding before him.
‘Ah, this place.’
It was his past.
Perhaps the moment that had become the deepest thorn lodged within him.
The moment he wished he could cut away.
Vigros recognized the child crying at the top of his lungs as himself. The little boy, who had secretly slipped inside, ran toward the place he had finally found, gasping for breath. His body, stiff with tension, ached all over. His heart pounded wildly, yet the joy of finally finding it overcame his fear and sent him rushing forward.
‘Mom!’
He was so heartbroken, so painfully desperate that his shoulders shook with sobs. Little by little, the dream drew him in. Vigros wept as though he had truly returned to that very moment, his shoulders trembling as tears streamed down his face.
Crying, he whispered.
‘Mom! Mom! I came…’
‘…My baby?’
The gaunt woman was Vigros’s mother. Her gentle green eyes were like a lush forest, and though disheveled unlike usual, her long ebony hair was still beautiful. With skin as pale as the branch of a white birch, she looked like a fairy.
‘Mom!’
‘Vigros?’
His mother, imprisoned in a place no human should ever be confined, clutched the iron bars with her pale hands. It was an enormous birdcage. Magnificent, yes, but a birdcage all the same. Perhaps she hadn’t even been given a sip of water; her voice, cracked with dryness, trembled pitifully.
‘My child… my child. Why… why are you here…?’
‘Mom. Let’s… let’s get out of here. Let’s leave. Everything’s going to be alright…’
‘Oh, my child. Why… why must they be so cruel? He… he never intended to forgive me from the very beginning!’
‘M-Mom? What’s wrong?’
‘Oh, my child… Whatever am I going to do with you…’
Back then, he hadn’t known. He hadn’t known why his mother had been reduced to such a state, imprisoned within the garden where no one in the Imperial Palace was permitted to enter.
Nor had he understood why his father, who had always been so steadfast, had never once appeared despite his mother’s plight.
‘Come here. Hurry, come here.’
Large tears welled up in his mother’s eyes and fell. In his panic, Vigros reached out his hand.
‘Vigros, my baby. Please, don’t do anything. Go back. My son. Mommy will be alright.’
‘It’s alright. There has to be some kind of misunderstanding. So let’s… let’s go back first, alright?’
‘My child! No!’
‘It’s alright… It’s alright, Mom!’
Without a moment’s hesitation, Vigros used his power.
That dreadful power that made anything he wished come true.
The moment his small hand touched it, the magical birdcage that had imprisoned a person so completely began to melt away. It slowly dissolved, scattering into the air until it vanished.
He had been certain.
Certain that he could save her.
Certain that there had to be some misunderstanding.
He had naturally believed they would return to the life they had before.
The Emperor had always been kind, and the Imperial Palace had never been a frightening place to him.
His mother was the Emperor’s cousin, and his father was the Emperor’s loyal knight and his most trusted duke.
His mother, having stepped out of the melted cage, pulled his exhausted body into a fierce embrace. Her arms were thin, yet they held astonishing strength. He looked up at her in confusion, but her gaze was not on her son.
She was staring straight ahead.
‘M-Mom? It hurts, Mom?’
‘…My child, listen carefully.’
‘Mom, why… why are you…’
‘You have to live. No matter how miserable it becomes, you must live. Never forget that. Your mother and father both love you. You must always remember that. It will be difficult, but no matter what happens, be proud of your power. Never think of it as something to fear or something that must be cast away.’
‘…Mom.’
‘It, too, is a part of who you are, and you are someone who has been blessed.’
Standing where she had turned to face, where her bloodshot eyes were fixed was the Emperor. He looked down at the mother and son with a merciless expression Vigros had never seen before.
‘I cherished you.’
‘I had no need for such cheap favor, Your Majesty—the kind you can toss aside like a doll.’
‘That sharp tongue of yours hasn’t changed.’
Beside the Emperor stood the young Crown Prince, Ovid.
Relief turned into despair in the blink of an eye.
Ovid raised a hand and pointed at them. The boy with whom he had once shared a fairly friendly relationship looked at them with eyes full of hatred and spoke.
‘Father. The traitors dared to attempt an escape.’
‘Indeed, my son. And what should be done with traitors?’
‘They must all be put to death. We must uproot their family tree, so that none would ever dare harbor such thoughts again.’
Traitors? It was a word he could not understand.
Vigros shook his head and looked at the Emperor. But the man who had always been so kind now seemed more frightening and terrifying than ever before.
Vigros flinched. Something had to be terribly wrong.
The Emperor raised a hand and stroked the hair of the Crown Prince standing beside him.
Then, in a calm voice, he said:
‘You tracked Vigros well. Well done, my son. Had it not been for you, we would never have caught them trying to help his mother escape.’
‘No. They are not worthy of forgiveness. Even after harming Mother… they show not the slightest sign of remorse!’
‘But, my son, you must learn to forgive them.’
‘But, Father!’
‘The House of Elrah is still of use to us. Today, you will accept your father’s decision.’
‘……’
The Crown Prince’s face was filled with displeasure. His gaze seethed with hatred.
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