Rose (9)
"I am in the presence of the supreme sun of the Empire."
A formal gesture of respect.
Within the precisely pronounced sentence lies a description of the man before her eyes.
Hair of a familiar hue flutters in the wind.
Green eyes, resembling leaves, gaze down quietly.
'Valkaros Lantana von Stauffen.'
Does he need so many appellations?
Emperor.
The sole sun of the Stauffen Empire.
The father of the unfortunate princesses and the one who confined the cursed rose on a remote star.
I was facing a cold heart.
'Why is this man...'
Why is he here?
A sudden appearance.
I was mulling over the question hanging at the end of the sentence while waiting for a response to my greeting.
Soon, the Emperor parted his lips with a calm resonance.
"Is it you? The new physician assigned to the Second Princess."
A voice devoid of any vitality.
A chill brushed past the neck.
Perhaps because of the meaningful tone.
Even though not much has been exchanged yet, I instinctively felt that he knew everything.
Otherwise, he couldn't be so calm.
'Did he know from the start...?'
I sighed softly to myself.
Originally, I wasn't supposed to be here.
Since the affairs concerning the rose were confidential matters personally suppressed by the Emperor, it wasn't a place where outsiders could freely enter.
Thus, access to the separate palace had been strictly controlled until now.
I managed to get in with Charlotte's help.
It felt like sneaking in secretly rather than following proper procedures.
'In a word.'
It was a situation where being caught would put me in a difficult position.
This is why I had been so cautious, but it seems I couldn't deceive the eyes of the sun.
Valkaros was already aware of my existence.
As I silently pondered, a middle-aged voice rang in my ears.
"You may stop and rise."
Words permitting me to unfold my bent knees.
I bowed my head once and slowly rose from my lowered posture.
Our gazes crossed lightly.
"Prince Snakus."
"Your Majesty."
"We seem to meet face to face for the first time."
"I didn't expect Your Majesty to recognize me. It is an everlasting honor for my family."
"When a guest finds their way to the house, shouldn't the owner properly welcome them? Even if they've come uninvited as an intruder."
"… As expected, you knew."
"Yes. I knew from the beginning."
As anticipated.
The Emperor seemed to have already grasped the situation.
Regardless of having followed the princess, it was still an intrusion into a forbidden area, so I was late in delivering my apology.
My expression remained serious without a hint of a smile.
"I have no excuse."
"No need to bow your head. You simply fulfilled the First Princess's request, didn't you? She often sought a physician to care for the Second Princess."
Even while mentioning his children, his tone was overly formal.
The excessively cold words only amplified the winter chill.
While feeling the icy atmosphere, the image of the Emperor from the original text briefly flashed in my mind.
'Well.'
He wasn't a character whose related story was elaborated in detail.
Just enough to infer about the Emperor through episodes involving the princesses.
It was a part that once returned as the main topic.
Valkaros.
A cold-hearted person who shows no affection towards anything in the world.
With a mind that only contains scales of pragmatism, he is a figure who abhors being swayed by trivial emotions.
To the point where his nickname in the original work was even "Cold Heart."
[Category: Freeboard]
[Title: No matter how I look, the rose part deems the Emperor the root of all evil]
Seriously, there's no scandal like this guy's.
He neglected his only blood daughters from childhood and rarely showed his face.
As if that wasn't enough, as soon as the Second Princess got sick, he immediately locked up an 8-year-old child.
Ultimately, the family was ruined.
The relationship between the once-close sisters was destroyed.
Elise fought her illness alone for over a decade, fell into various mental illnesses and self-harm addiction, and ultimately made an extreme choice before her lifespan even ended.
Charlotte's social skills deteriorated due to this trauma.
In the story
If the dean is the pinnacle of incompetence
This Emperor is the pinnacle of malice
[A complete bastard, indeed]
-> Even beasts cherish their young, don't they?
-> Reading the side stories stirs up disdain for the Emperor
[There’s a reason Judas destroyed the Empire]
-> Now even Karyu's supporters are popping out.
-> Destruction is more like 'normalization,' isn't it?
-> Big Judas
-> JOAT... Not that missed
[Dean vs Emperor]
-> It's a contest of unlikeable characters with no clear winner
-> Incompetent prophet vs disgraceful backstabber
-> Isn't incompetence slightly better?
-> Nah, the Emperor's better. Later on, he provides military support and various aids.
-> Meanwhile, Prophet Dol has nothing.
[Emperor meets Judas and becomes cute]
-> Smart
-> Why is the blame coming to me again
-> Damn... What is this fancy feeling... lol
-> You're bringing weird jokes again.
The player reviews weren't very positive, as far as I remember.
Although he didn't appear as a villain, he was indifferent to his relatives, the princesses, and even personally confined cursed Elise in a separate palace.
This was an aspect of the tragic story, so public opinion couldn't be favorable.
In a popularity vote that took place once, he proudly ranked at the bottom.
‘I disliked him too.’
Even back then, I didn't like him.
When I was producing a video for the Rose episode, I included several curses about him.
The term "Loathsome Emperor" was deeply ingrained.
But now...
"What's going on...?"
I couldn't hide my surprise.
There had been something bothering me since earlier. I belatedly found the reason for the strangeness.
My gaze was fixed on Valkaros, who stood across from me.
"I heard the news. They say there's an unusual sign of recovery?"
"Yes... that's correct."
"I just dropped by to check for a moment."
"..."
No.
There's no way this person would do that.
Thinking about how he was portrayed in the original story, it was an impossible thing.
Valkaros was entirely indifferent to the princesses.
It wasn't that he disliked them, wasn't interested, or anything like that—he genuinely treated them as if they didn't exist in his life.
To the point where you might think he forgot he even had children.
As I mentioned earlier, this wasn't something definitively known, but that's what was deduced through fragmented story parts.
Especially in Elise's recollections, similar comments were frequently scattered.
‘What kind of caprice is this?’
My mind was full of questions.
While I was making a puzzled expression, a middle-aged voice added a response.
The unchanged winter resonance seemed to have frost in it.
"No need to be so tense. It's truly just a visit without any intention."
"I'm sorry. I was just startled for a moment."
What had surprised me so much?
I didn't commit the rudeness of voicing that reason.
It was a question related to the existence that the royal family had to hide, an abandoned bloodline, the second princess.
I could only swallow my thoughts in quiet silence.
Perhaps he slightly sensed such an atmosphere, as Valkaros gently turned his head.
A moment of ensuing silence.
Whiiish-.
Only the blowing night breeze filled the void.
The emperor, who was frozen with dead eyes, soon spoke as if letting words slip away.
They were as sharp as a thorn.
"Recovery... I heard that curse is impossible to cure."
"That's true with conventional methods."
"Is it possible with unconventional ones?"
"It's difficult to say definitively. However, I can tell you we're in a stage of attempting."
"I should say that's quite daring. To use the princess of a nation as a test subject."
"..."
That is a point, but...
Shouldn't you be the last to say such a thing...?
Is he deliberately picking a fight? Otherwise, he wouldn't mention the Rose himself.
I struggle hard to keep my furrowed brow in check.
"My apologies."
"Well... it shouldn't matter."
He was a figure whose intentions were hard to grasp.
If compared to a person... well, should I say he's similar to Charlotte?
It oddly felt like he was alone in a different world.
"So."
Green eyes glanced this way.
Although they resembled the leaves of a rose, the color was withered, unlike hers.
"Can you truly do it? The treatment."
A question.
The answer I had to give was predetermined.
"I believe it's entirely possible."
"Such overflowing confidence."
"An incurable disease doesn't mean it can't be cured. It simply means a cure hasn't been discovered yet."
"It sounds like you're implying you hold that cure."
"You're free to interpret it that way. Only time will provide the answer."
"An intriguing proposition."
Valkaros nodded.
Perhaps his interest was piqued by the bold attitude, as a glint shone over his usually hollow pupils.
He was an adult who had frozen and shattered like that.
"Isn't this truly a dream-like notion?"
Is he still half-doubting?
Usually, he would dismiss it as nonsense, but hearing news of actual recovery seemed to have confused him.
His expression suggested he was pondering where to regard it as nonsense.
"I hope that boast is genuine."
"Pardon?"
"If it is, I could relinquish this empire entirely to you."
"That's quite a generous statement to be a joke."
"Do you think it's a joke?"
"..."
In the end, I could only close my mouth.
The real-life emperor I saw differed from the image and feeling I had known from my past life.
The overall atmosphere was just as I remembered.
But there were slight deviations in his reactions, attitude, and eyes.
’He hopes that the boast is genuine’, he says.
Almost as if he wishes a miracle would heal Elise's illness.
As if he desires the curse of the Rose to be lifted, that was how the sentences seemed to sound.
The you I know is not at all like that.
As I chew over the complicated tangle of thoughts, Valcaros, who was standing still, turns his back.
It seemed like he was going to leave.
"I suppose I should be going."
"Weren't you here to see Lady Elise?"
"I changed my mind."
"Perhaps we'll meet at another opportunity."
"Well... I hope we don't need to meet again."
"Excuse me?"
"I'm leaving."
Before the conversation could be concluded.
The Emperor is the first to leave.
Watching his retreating figure as he exits the garden, various idle thoughts wholly fill a paragraph of my mind.
I mutter inwardly as if to unravel those thoughts.
'I didn't expect this.'
Is there a backstory that I don't know?
The contents that were recorded beyond the Emperor, which were not disclosed in the original work.
I find myself inadvertently smiling.
"Ha."
It was indeed an interesting world.
Surely I thought I knew everything, but when I approached, something completely different awaited.
Things I do not know hide everywhere, waiting for me.
Such vibrancy in ignorance, how can I regard this world as false?
Every scent brushing the tip of my nose was sincere.
'However.'
On one hand, for that reason.
I could not treat everything recklessly.
When the moment of departure comes soon, I had to wither without leaving scars on the things I loved.
Just preserving only the scars cut by thorns on my fingertips.
I relish the lingering emotions for a moment, then start to walk away.
I was headed to my sleeping quarters.
'Before sleep... perhaps I should check on the situation.'
Elise, who had not been well for several days.
Recalling the words that the pain worsens every night, I quietly made my way to the room where the rose stayed.
If I freely cross the cool air.
Before long, my feet touch the front of the door at the end of the hallway.
"......"
A slightly open gap.
Faint light seeps through it.
A brightness that could be produced by only two or three candles.
Even though the time had already passed dawn, could the rose in the greenhouse not sleep?
I slowly open the closed door and enter the room.
"Haah, haah..."
Just as my foot steps on the soft carpet.
What reaches my ears is the sound of breathing.
Breaths intertwined with pained groans as if suffering.
"Ugh... Ugh."
The rose is not lying on the bed.
Just sitting in the middle of the room with her body curled up tight.
Her shoulders tremble following the rough breaths.
The red-haired girl seemed engrossed in something.
'This is.'
I had no choice but to harden my expression.
If the metallic scent skims past the tip of my nose, the red traces splattered on the floor catch my sight.
What subtly fills the room is none other than the scent of blood.
"......"
Dripping tears.
As if following the transparent droplets that fall, red spots originating from her wrist stain the carpet.
Through the cleanly cut wounds, roses bloom endlessly.
Despite already being smeared with red petals, the girl gestures as if unsatisfied.
Attached to her fingertips is a small knife stained with floral water.
The bandage carelessly undone lies stretched out long.
The fabric that was pure white just a few hours ago abandoned the concept of regeneration and was sullied with tears of violence.
At the end remains only a thirst for self-destruction.
"Hic... Ugh."
Scratch, scratch.
Roses piling wound upon wound as if in a trance.
The girl, unaware of another's presence, blankly coughs up only blood and tears.
There is no life in the blinking eyelids.
The green pupils reminiscent of leaves seem to wither black.
"Your Highness."
Though I quietly call out, the rose repeats self-harm while crying.
It seems other words do not reach her ears.
I approach close to the girl.
And then.
Embrace-!
I hug her frail body from behind.
At the same time, I silently grasp her deteriorating wrist.
"Ugh...! Ugh!"
Sudden restraint.
Though startled, she struggles, there is not a flicker of motion in the arms confining her.
I calm her while holding onto her warm body.
Bringing myself close to her white ear as if kissing it, I whisper words of comfort in a gentle voice repeatedly.
I do not forget to stroke her head with my hand.
"Shh... it's okay."
"Hic, ugh."
"Everything is okay. I'm here with you..."
In that manner.
The two of us take a break until the turbulent atmosphere subsides.
Melting into the lukewarm warmth.
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