Prologue – The Child Asks About His Father, But It’s Difficult to Answer

“Mom, why don’t I have a dad?”

At last, the moment had come. At six years old, it was only natural for a child to ask such a question.

Ethea tried to calm her trembling chest from nervousness and forced a smile. Then she looked at her son, Gin.

His body was small, fitting for a six-year-old, but in terms of intelligence, he was so clever that one could believe he was twice his age. He had black hair like Ethea, but his eyes were golden, just like his father’s.

Golden eyes are a characteristic of the imperial descendants.

Why do only imperial descendants have golden eyes? The story goes back to before the founding of the empire.

There was once an era of darkness, when monsters ran rampant across the continent. The hero Drenai Hilus accidentally discovered a metal called Orodium.

This metal, a beautiful crystal radiating dazzling gold, contained a spirit of exorcism. The spirit admired Drenai’s powerful physique.

The hero needed strength to defeat monsters, and the spirit needed a strong body—so they were a perfect match.

In the end, they made a contract to use each other. Thanks to this, Drenai gained the power to defeat monsters, and the spirit of Orodium was able to dwell in Drenai’s body, enjoying all five senses far more than ordinary humans.

Afterward, Drenai built the largest empire on the continent and named it Hilus.

At the founding, he dedicated all honor to the spirit of Orodium. The spirit also promised to help Drenai’s descendants whenever the empire faced crisis.

To prove this, all imperial descendants since then were born with Orodium-colored—golden—eyes. They possessed, to varying degrees, the power to defeat monsters, and the citizens feared and revered them.

Nowadays, after so much time has passed, monsters are rarely seen, and even those with golden eyes may not necessarily be good at defeating them. Still, golden eyes symbolize authority, power, and a mysterious existence.

Ethea’s child is also an imperial descendant. It’s a secret to outsiders, but it’s an undeniable truth.

Because of this, Ethea had to hide her child’s striking eye color. So she spent a large sum to fit lenses on his eyes.

The lenses were comfortable enough that the child didn’t even notice, and as long as they were changed once a year, there were no issues. If she changed them while he slept, she could avoid difficult questions. Thanks to the lenses, the child could have teal eyes like Ethea.

The child resembled his father not only in his eyes but in other ways too. He had the same relaxed attitude and wit, able to joke in any situation, and even a sturdy constitution that let him sleep through winter without a blanket and not catch a cold. It was as if he was a copy of his father.

But this child, Gin, did not know about his father’s existence. Ethea had never told him, not even once.

“Mom, don’t just smile. Hm? Where is my dad?”

“Haha…….”

“Mom?”

“Alright. Yes, it’s time to tell you.”

Ethea had always known this day would come. She had imagined this moment countless times. From here, many questions would surely follow.

Mom, who is my dad? What kind of person is he, and how did you meet him? Why doesn’t he come to see me?

But she couldn’t answer those questions truthfully.

‘Your father is the Emperor of this empire, a terrifying man who killed nineteen siblings. The reason he met me and had you was because of a truly absurd incident. It’s a long story, but after causing that incident, your father ran away from us and thoroughly ignored us. So let’s ignore him too, my dear. It’s best to just live as we have.’

She couldn’t say such things to her child, could she?

“Yes. Please tell me, Mom.”

But the child eagerly awaited the story from his mother’s lips, his teal lenses sparkling.

“Well, Gin…….”

Ethea reached back in her memory.

To the time before she met the child’s father.