***

Suddenly, when I came to my senses, a black and white world unfolded before my eyes.

And then, a familiar voice suddenly echoed in my head.

“I quite like it.”

I turned to him, startled.

‘Parmes?’

I was in the cave just a moment ago, why am I here now?

This was the grand throne room of the imperial palace.

But… why is everything in black and white?

Parmes Aslet, with his beautiful silver hair, rose from the imperial throne as he looked at me.

“Uncle…”

As I opened my mouth with a welcoming voice, I suddenly flinched at the sight of something in his hand.

It was because he was holding a sword.

The sword, which seemed to be an imperial craftwork, was incredibly ornate, with red blood staining its blade.

Parmes was approaching me wearing the Emperor’s armor and holding it… His gaze was strange.

What’s with that chilling bloodlust?

He was walking towards me with a fierce expression as if looking at a stranger.

“…Uncle?”

I stepped back, but Parmes’ adult stride was faster than mine, and I closed my eyes tightly in fear.

There was a cruel sound of something being sliced.

And then a chilling sound of something like a log falling with a thud.

But I felt no pain and slowly opened my eyes.

“….”

Parmes, who had been in front of me, was gone.

No, he hadn’t disappeared.

I looked at my hand in shock.

I could see a semi-transparent hand.

Then, that just now…?!

When I turned around, I had to cover my mouth with my hand to stifle a scream at the horrific scene that unfolded.

Parmes, who had passed through the semi-transparent me, had cut down someone who was standing behind me.

That someone was wearing servant’s clothes, and it was a face I had seen in the imperial palace before.

“It cuts well, better than the previous sword.”

Parmes, turning his gaze from the servant who had died without even screaming, twisted his lips into a chilling smile.

“It pleases me every time I test it.”

His face was still radiantly beautiful, but the aura flowing from him was eerie, as if possessed by something, making my whole body shiver.

“What do you think, Crown Prince?”

As Parmes moved his lips, a boy appeared from somewhere and walked over.

I could only freeze in shock at the sight of Briton.

The Briton before my eyes was, well, not the Briton I knew.

He was as tall as Parmes, and his protruding Adam’s apple and broad shoulders, signs that he was past puberty, made him unfamiliar to me.

The appearance of a beautiful young man that the extremely handsome boy Briton might become, perhaps eighteen or nineteen…?

He was as handsome and cool as I had imagined.

“It is an excellent sword, as Your Majesty said.”

His voice was also much deeper, incomparable to his current youthful voice.

‘So this is what adult Briton looks like.’

I placed my hand on my chest, feeling my heart pounding with anxiety and unease.

“Kill the one who made this sword.”

A cold voice flowed from between Parmes’ lips.

Didn’t he just say he liked the sword…?

“I might get annoyed if he makes a better sword for someone else…”

“I will obey your command, Your Majesty.”

Briton’s blue eyes were shining darkly.

There was no hesitation in that dry voice.

I went over the conversation between the father and son once again.

Parmes killed a servant with the sword. Seeing that he didn’t mention any wrongdoing by the servant, it seems he just wanted to test the performance of the newly acquired sword.

First chill.

Secondly, he ordered to kill the sword maker.

The reason being that he might make a better sword for someone else.

Second chill.

What?! Are they psychopathic father and son?

“Also, there’s been an uprising in the Luchern region due to famine. How should we handle it?”

“How annoying. Send Duke Guermont to sweep it away.”

“Understood, Your Majesty.”

Parmes and Briton, looking completely insensitive and cruel, why have they become like this?

I looked at them alternately while hugging my shivering shoulders.

‘These are not the two people I knew. Then perhaps…’

I belatedly realized that their current appearance was that of the tyrant Parmes and his son Briton whom I had read about in the book.

That’s right. The Emperor Parmes in the original story was such a cruel tyrant, who valued human lives less than flies.

It’s clearly the same face, but how can the impression be so different?

And then, a sound reached my ears.

It didn’t sound like it was coming from a person’s throat, but rather like a voice trapped in something, buzzing.

“It seems that changing Your Highness’s fate at the cost of my life has turned into poison instead… It must be my fault for going against the natural order.”

A small sphere of light rose from somewhere.

The sphere of light was speaking in a sad voice.

And as I heard that voice, my heart sank.

‘This feeling…’

I looked up at the sphere of light.

It was still floating pitifully beside Parmes, and like these two, it didn’t seem to see me.

“I will offer my shattered soul as a sacrifice to the timeline, to intervene in Your Highness’s fate once again.”

The sound coming from the sphere of light was not heard by Parmes.

‘…Dad.’

I slowly began to move my feet towards the sphere.

That’s definitely Dad’s voice.

Although I had never heard it before, I could instinctively tell.

Heisen Macerne Mylar, my dad and the Great Elementalist who gave his life for Parmes.

And somehow, I felt that I would never hear this voice again, which I had heard for the first time.

“I will send that child to Your Highness. From now on, it will be that child’s role… Please protect that child and the empire we dreamed of together, Your Highness.”

“Dad!”

I called out to the sphere of light.

The sphere began to shine brilliantly, just like the ‘Breath of the Goddess’ had shone, and at some point, it shattered into pieces.

Suddenly, the black and white scenery came to a complete stop.

“Dad!!!”

I screamed towards the shattering sphere, but it was hard to even reach out my hand against the overwhelming force, and space began to warp as if gravity was distorting.

With a feeling of being urgently sucked into something, everything went dark before my eyes.

“Huff!! Huff! Huff!!”

My breath came out roughly, like someone who had just come up from being underwater.

“Little one, little one! Come to your senses!”

I opened my eyes and, panting heavily, looked at the person shaking me.

It was the staff member who had entered this cave with me earlier.

“…I.”

“You suddenly started muttering to yourself as if you couldn’t hear anything. While emitting light from your body. Are you… feeling sick somewhere?!”

“No, just now…”

A vision? Or a memory of the past?

What should I call it?

The ‘Breath of the Goddess’ stone that I had held had also lost its light, as if its regeneration process was complete.

The light that had surrounded my body had also disappeared.

But I could feel a definite change.

An unfamiliar yet familiar power was surging through my body.

Is this the elemental power that Father bestowed upon me through the stone?

And am I… some chosen being that Father sacrificed his soul to send forth to save the world?

While I was lost in thought, a loud noise was heard.

Rumble-

“Huh?”

For a moment I thought it was thunder outside the cave, but it wasn’t.

“…An earthquake!”

As the staff member got up in surprise and looked around, I could still feel it remaining inside me.

Boom crash-

“It’s an earthquake! Let’s get out!”

The staff member grabbed my hand tightly and started running towards the cave exit.

The ceiling of the artificial cave began to make cracking sounds, spewing out small sand and pebbles.

It was only about 100 meters from the cave entrance.

When I couldn’t run fast enough, the staff member picked me up and started running.

But 5 seconds before reaching the entrance, the entrance side collapsed, and a cloud of dust rushed in.

The staff member curled up, shielding me, and I also closed my eyes tightly, praying for this situation to pass safely.