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Chapter 6
“I need something certain right now. Something certain that can completely change the consciousness of the people.”
Yuri looked straight into Camille’s beautiful eyes and opened his mouth.
Camille took a sip of the fragrant tea and smiled softly at him.
“It will be your coming-of-age ceremony soon, Yuri.”
Yuri genuinely thought that Camille had eyes that seemed to pierce through his thoughts.
Ever since Camille became an adult and began to worship God in earnest, he couldn’t tell a lie in front of him. That was the reason Yuri came to him after struggling. He had to move the people of Nike if there were many enemies in the imperial palace. At the coming-of-age ceremony, it was necessary to make a strong impression that the next Nike would be Yuri himself.
“What do you want me to do, Brother?”
Camille asked Yuri with a smile like a painting on his face, as if it had been made by God with the best efforts.
“Please set a date, Camille. A date that will surely happen.”
Yuri looked at Camille eagerly.
The first thing he would do if he became Emperor was to find out who had blind Camille, and then dig out their two eyes. Camille, who was a priest, was unable to kill, so revenge was Yuri’s responsibility.
Some people were questionable, but a clear confession was needed. With a knife halfway through their throat, he was sure they would confess their evil deeds.
In order to do that, Yuri had to rise to the throne of the Emperor. If Pesis or Nadine became Emperor, it was obvious that Yuri would die.
No, even if Yuri ascended the throne, the situation would not be much different. The only difference between the one who dies and the one who lives.
There was only one logic of the Imperial Palace, which he had learned through his body since he was young.
Only the strong survive. If he doesn’t kill, he will be killed.
“Your star is getting stronger, Yuri.”
Camille’s low voice echoed through the room.
“That would be a good sign, brother.”
Yuri’s eyes lit up.
Camille put down the teacup, rose from his seat, and lifted his head toward the sky. His lips twitched unheard. Yuri held his breath behind him and looked at him.
After some time passed, Camille finally spoke quietly.
“… Your coming-of-age ceremony is the night after the rain festival, when the moon gets smaller and smaller and takes the shape of a goat’s horn.”
“I will obey the word of God.”
As soon as Camille could finish his words, Yuri knelt down on the floor and put his head on it. Yuri never doubted that God had chosen him.
Camille was always right. It will be this time as well. No, it had to.
After Yuri left the temple, Camille sighed softly.
“God, that child has lived a life of fighting against fate. But do you have to do it like this….”
That year, Nike’s dry season was particularly long.
The expansive territory centered on the capital, Granada, was noticeably drying up as the days passed. For the Nike people, who had suffered from drought for hundreds of years, ruling over water meant a powerful imperial power.
Each year, ministers and priests, including Camille, set the date of the rain festival based on historical records and the movement of the stars. This served as a signal to mark the beginning of the rainy season in most deserts.
However, even though ten days had passed since the grand rain festival was over, it was not raining in Nike.
“The news is that the rain is coming later than expected, so there is constant noise from the public. If this continues, there will be chaos in the country.”
“The resentment of the people, exhausted from the prolonged drought, is gradually increasing.”
At the policy meeting convened inside the imperial palace, Pesis’s expression wrinkled slightly as he listened to the ministers’ worried reports. Pesis put a smile on his face that pretended to be relaxed.
“It’s only been ten days. It doesn’t seem like a very wise decision to discuss the rise and fall of a nation with only ten days for us Nike people, who have survived on dry land for hundreds of years.”
“What do you mean ten days, Brother Pesis.”
An unwelcome voice was heard from the other side.
Pesis glanced at Yuri, who was sitting crookedly. Yuri snorted.
“For the last five years, it has always rained less than five days after the rain festival ended. Doesn’t Brother Pesis, who has been in charge of the rain festival, know it better than anyone else?”
“Statistics are just statistics. God will answer soon, so there is no need to worry.”
Pesis barely quelled the rage boiling in his chest.
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Yuri continued to speak with a sigh as if he had no intention of hiding his feelings.
“Is Brother’s Pesis’ effect gone now already? Hahaha.”
“Prince Yuri! What kind of statement!!”
“It’s a joke, ministers.”
Yuri shrugged his shoulders and raised the corners of his lips to a smile. He reached out over the long rectangular table. Pesis, who had been gazing at Yuri taking a bite out of a decorative red apple offered as a tribute, slowly opened his mouth.
“… no. Maybe Yuri is right.”
The eyes of the ministers were all at once on Pesis. At the very end, Emperor Nike, who was silent at the top, also set a sharp gaze on Pesis.
“It seems that changing the sacrifice in the end also made God angry. So, it’s not wrong to say that the effect is gone.”
Yuri, who had been chewing the apple without hesitation, suddenly stopped moving. His red eyebrows, the same color as his hair, curled upwards.
Pesis spoke in a polite, calm voice.
“After receiving God’s blessing and subjugating Constance, we did not sacrifice the vassal state, so it is natural for God to be angry.”
The ministers began to murmur.
Yuri stared at Pesis, who had a solemn expression on his face, with blazing eyes.
‘Is that all you were thinking, Pesis?’
In the end, the cunning Pesis was determined to blame the failure of the sacrifice in the rain festival on him. In fact, it was Pesis who directly suggested that the tradition of a country where living humans were sacrificed might provoke the antipathy of many colonies living in Nike.
Yuri chewed on his lower lip as he watched Pesis skillfully shifting the blame for it not raining to the sacrifice.
“Then things will be simple.”
Yuri opened his mouth with a cruel smile. Nike, who had been silent, looked at him and asked.
“Do you have any tricks, Yuri?”
“Isn’t it enough to kill the Princess of the imperial family of Constance as the original plan?”
As soon as he finished speaking, Yuri snorted and threw the half-eaten apple he left behind on the table.
It was the moment when the red fruit was about to roll over the rectangular table and fall on Pesis’ side.
Swish-
A small dagger flew and pierced the moving apple and the table at the same time.
It happened in an instant. Juice dripped from the fruit with Yuri’s knife and wet the table. The ministers stopped breathing at the same time, and Pesis couldn’t contain his anger and jumped up from his seat.
His well-groomed lips twisted in anger.
“What are you doing, Yuri!!”
“Are you surprised? I stopped unconsciously, wondering if the fruits I picked up from Constance might stain Brother Pesis’ clothes.”
An eerie smirk flowed from Yuri’s lips, who accurately aimed at the apple with the knife.
Pesis saw Yuri throwing the dagger towards him, and his hands were trembling. The ministers swallowed a gulp and wiped the cold sweat from their foreheads.
It was Yuri that had Nike’s character of a war-maniac. The ministers reminded themselves of Yuri’s cruel nature.
Despite the fact that he drew his knife in front of the Emperor, none of the ministers criticized him. Most of them thought that if they came into Yuri’s eyes, the knife might be pierced in their neck one day.
“I can’t believe you pulled out a knife in front of Nike. Are you out of your mind?
Pesis’ face contorted. He turned his head to look at Nike, who sat on the tabletop.
“Nike, give me a chance to punish my immature brother by cutting off Yuri’s wrist.”
Fear was vivid again in the eyes of the ministers.
Everyone knew that Nike was not the type of person who would be unable to issue such an order to his son. If that happened, they were worried that this place would become a bloody slaughter scene.
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As usual, Nike, touching his long beard, had an expression that they didn’t know what he was thinking.
“Yuri, when was your coming-of-age ceremony?”
Nike broke the silence with an expressionless face and asked Yuri.
“It’s five days away.”
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