Chapter 1

“Jonathan, do you know why I was able to survive?”

Above Jonathan and the Emperor Aaron, something like a transparent wall of water spread out.

The aura of ‘defense,’ the ability that had protected their family, was beautiful and breathtaking.

It refracted light into five colors, and Jonathan couldn’t help but wonder if fairy wings shone in such hues, couldn’t help but feel a longing for it.

“I can’t imagine any emperor other than Father. Brother is truly wonderful too, but this kind of ability belongs to Father alone.”

Even as he spoke, Jonathan thought of Udonan, the previous emperor.

Before Jonathan’s father Aaron ascended to the throne, Udonan Anlas Argento had ruled the Izril Empire.

The tyrant Udonan, who had risen on rivers of blood, had desperately wanted to k*ll Aaron, who was not of his bloodline yet possessed aura.

But he couldn’t k*ll him, they said, because of Aaron’s defensive ability.

“Jonathan, do you remember meeting someone recently?”

“What? Oh, yes.”

Jonathan immediately understood who his father meant.

An old woman sat in the empress’s private prayer room, dressed nothing like the nobles Jonathan usually encountered.

Jonathan and the old woman had met alone in the room.

The old woman couldn’t see, so she had felt Jonathan’s face with her hands.

She had even been moved to the point of tears, for reasons Jonathan couldn’t understand.

“You must have learned something then too…… You kept what she told you from the empress as well?”

“Yes.”

“Tell me. What did she say?”

Jonathan hesitated.

The memory of that time made him a little uncomfortable.

｢I can’t see, so I don’t know your ability precisely, young master.｣

The old woman had clearly spoken as though Jonathan had some kind of ability.

｢But I can help your ability come to light.｣

She wasn’t a priest, just an ordinary old woman from the countryside. Her pronunciation wasn’t particularly refined, and she didn’t give off any sense of pressure.

｢But the most important thing is your own heart, young master. Do you want to manifest your ability?｣

Jonathan was the second prince of the Izril Empire. Not being the eldest, he was in a position where he could enjoy a comfortable degree of power with less responsibility.

He’d been perfectly content with that……

｢Do I need to use an ability?｣

Jonathan asked how this old woman intended to manifest an ability he himself didn’t know he had, and whether that ability was something he needed right now.

｢That’s for you to decide.｣

｢I don’t know what ability I have, but I do want to know all the abilities I possess.｣

The moment Jonathan finished answering, the old woman touched his forehead.

｢I am a star-seeker, so I can help manifest your ability. Even without seeing, I can touch and feel.｣

That was when Jonathan remembered an unfamiliar word.

Star-seeker.

｢It’s done. You’ll be able to use that ability now, young master.｣

Jonathan himself hadn’t felt any different, but the old woman said it with a smile.

“Jonathan, what did the old woman say to you?”

His father’s voice brought Jonathan back to the present.

“Did Brother Samuel meet that old woman?”

“He did.”

“Did he manifest?”

“No.”

Aaron’s face held no expression. That made Jonathan a little uneasy.

“Jonathan, it’s not Samuel’s ability I want to know about. It’s yours.”

Jonathan knew it wasn’t simply a matter of wanting to know.

‘If he finds out I have an ability, he’ll want to make me his successor instead.’

But Jonathan had never once thought he would become emperor.

He’d grown up hearing that he must help his brother and make the Empire prosper, and that was how he’d been raised.

He’d learned statecraft to support his brother, not to become emperor himself……

But Brother hadn’t manifested aura, apparently.

‘If I say here that I’ve become something……’

An inexplicable anxiety became fear and washed over Jonathan.

Aaron read Jonathan’s hesitation in that moment.

“Show me.”

“I actually…… don’t even know what’s changed……”

Jonathan made excuses, stumbling over his words.

“My son.”

“!”

“Show me.”

He’d never been looked at with this kind of expectation before.

Brother Samuel was more than capable, and as the second son, Jonathan had never needed to put himself forward in order to stay clear of pointless struggles over the throne.

“I, I don’t know.”

“You already know.”

“I really don’t!”

Couldn’t she have at least told him what kind of ability it was! He truly knew nothing, had no idea what to do or how……

Jonathan just wanted to hide.

“Ha!”

His father’s strange expression.

“Yes, yes. This is my son.”

“?”

What was this? He couldn’t see a beautiful barrier like his father’s around himself.

Jonathan looked at his own hands.

“!”

They were gone.

He was clearly moving, but he couldn’t see his own chest or his own legs.

He couldn’t even see himself.

‘Wh, what is this?’

It made his skin crawl.

“I, I don’t want this!”

The moment he cried out, his form slowly, as though it were a lie, began to reappear.

“Knowing how to hide your body like this, it must be the ability of concealment.”

A brilliant smile spread across Aaron’s face. He met Jonathan’s eyes.

“You have it. Aura.”

Jonathan couldn’t move, like a mouse caught by a snake.

Aaron’s ability was only defense, so there was no way he was being controlled or brainwashed, yet Jonathan couldn’t budge.

“Jonathan, concealment can demonstrate abilities beyond even manipulation.”

Aaron began to explain to Jonathan kindly.

“The manipulation that Prince Anlas possesses is limited to only one person at a time.”

Prince Anlas was the bloodline of the previous emperor Udonan Anlas Argento, the one the papacy was backing as the next emperor. He’d recently manifested aura.

“Furthermore, manipulation can’t be used on aura users or star-seekers. It’s a truly fortunate arrangement by Elohim.”

Aaron stroked Jonathan’s cheek.

“But concealment is different. If you wish it, our entire family can be invisible to others’ eyes.”

‘My ability is that powerful?’

“There’s no way to find you unless one is a star-seeker. What a remarkable ability.”

“Oh……”

“And the star-seekers were massacred by the previous emperor Udonan, leaving only that old woman. It’s safe to say that soon no one will be able to see through your ability.”

“You said we can only know for certain if someone is an aura user once they come of age. I’m not even of age yet……”

“Those kinds of things were just to buy time. Because Samuel was not an aura user.”

What?

“But there’s no need for that anymore. You’re an aura user. In that case, there’s no reason to let someone like Prince Anlas take the throne.”

“I have no interest in the throne……”

Jonathan said it with a dazed expression, stumbling over his words.

“Jonathan.”

Aaron had wiped the smile from his face entirely.

“Yes, Father.”

“Do you intend to let them all die?”

“What?”

“Your refusal to sit on the throne doesn’t simply mean avoiding the throne itself.”

Aaron gripped Jonathan’s shoulders firmly.

“It was the previous emperor Udonan who killed countless aura users and star-seekers. So you avoiding the throne is the same as throwing you, your brother, your sister, and your mother to their deaths at the hands of Prince Anlas, in whose veins flows Udonan’s cruel blood.”

Aaron looked at Jonathan with cold eyes.

Jonathan couldn’t say a word.

He was too clever to claim he knew nothing of politics.

He’d spent his whole life in the Imperial Palace as a small-scale politician, so he understood perfectly well what Aaron was saying.

“It would be better for you to move before he strikes the palace.”

Strike whom? Did striking mean killing?

“No. For now, it might be better to hide your ability and roam freely.”

Aaron stroked Jonathan’s cheek with the expression of someone handling a priceless treasure.

“But at the critical moment, you’ll have to make a decision.”

Aaron’s words were like a prophecy, and Jonathan was only fourteen years old when he manifested his aura.

* * *

Four years after manifesting his aura, Jonathan eliminated Prince Anlas.

It was a fairly clean finish.

Jonathan had agonized over it for a long time. Whether it was right to act first and k*ll Prince Anlas when he hadn’t yet caused any harm.

While he agonized like that, he didn’t realize Prince Anlas was tightening his grip around his family’s throats.

Only after his father was killed by Prince Anlas despite his defensive ability, and the rest of his family nearly lost as well, did he understand.

As long as Prince Anlas lived, there would be no era of peace for his family.

Prince Anlas was dead, so now he was the only one with aura.

And no one would know this fact.

Even the blind old woman who had manifested his ability had died of old age.

Having decided to hide his ability for life, no one would be able to push him toward becoming emperor.

Besides, in the eyes of ordinary people, Samuel would appear a far better emperor.

Then that was enough.

Jonathan could be perfectly content with that.

He’d protect the family that remained and do whatever it took for his brother’s reign.

* * *