~Chapter 31~
“‘Survivors,’ you say! How am I supposed to believe such ridiculous things?!”
Vincent answered quietly,
“The Lion King, Ryan, is living proof. His ancestor, long ago, ate the body of Katerba, the King of Delmon. His descendants have done the same ever since.”
Vincent added in a low tone,
“Katerba is incredibly rare. You might never see one in your life. It’s the most evolved creature in nature. If you met one alive, you’d have to risk your life to fight it. But if you survived by eating its corpse, your magic power would increase.”
“Those crazy people! Did they do that because they had nothing else to eat?!”
“The Kansha clan has always been madmen. When the Lion King was still in his mother’s belly, his grandfather risked his life to catch a baby Katerba and fed it, alive, to his daughter—the Lion King’s mother.”
The emperor was horrified. He’d heard that pregnant women ate healthy things for the baby, but chewing and swallowing a monster king’s baby? It left him speechless.
“That’s how they evolved. Their mutation is shown by their red eyes and hair as red as blood. That’s why they’re called the ‘Red Lions.’”
“Even so, they’ll die if you stab them!”
“No, they won’t. The sword will probably break first.”
It was true they didn’t die easily. Vincent’s comment about the sword breaking was just a joke, but Purka couldn’t tell.
“Even if you stab their vital points dozens of times, those monsters survive. Their regeneration is amazing—even deadly wounds heal in a few days. Maybe if you cut off their head completely and burn the body, they’d die. But otherwise…”
Vincent brushed his hair back, as if he was tired of explaining this.
“Honestly, Your Majesty, if you meet the Lion King or his son, you might end up with your neck broken on the spot.”
“You… you—!”
“For a predator who has gone beyond human limits, even Your Majesty is nothing but a rabbit. Whether it’s an ordinary rabbit or a king of rabbits, to a lion, it’s just a meal. Why would he care?”
Purka’s lips trembled with rage and humiliation.
“Vincent, you—!”
But Dr. Vincent replied calmly,
“Yes, Your Majesty?”
and went on,
“They’re not human. They’re superior in battle, body, and intelligence… Their survival strategies are beyond anything humans can manage. Your Majesty, as an ordinary human, could never beat them.”
Vincent wore a polite smile as he spoke his harsh words.
Even as a favored doctor, both he and the emperor knew he was being rude.
But for Vincent, this was normal. He knew the emperor couldn’t do anything about it.
‘He’s just the king of livestock. Is there really any difference between a king and an emperor?’
For someone like Vincent, who had surpassed human limits physically, mentally, and magically, human titles meant nothing. He bowed to the emperor only for appearance’s sake, to use him for his own goals.
Emperor Purka glared at Vincent with such hate, it felt like he might cough up blood.
“You… you! You look down on me because my mother was a maid, don’t you?!”
He was the illegitimate son of a maid, later adopted by the Empress Dowager. That was Purka’s deepest wound.
Back then, Empress Dowager Ekaterina had crushed Purka’s pride.
She poured wine on him and slapped his face, right after he knelt and begged to be adopted as her son.
“Those dirty eyes… You look just like your mother. Every time I see those lifeless, shameless eyes, I feel sick.”
When she was empress, Ekaterina despised Prince Purka.
But she never actually tormented him. She already had two proud sons and a lovely youngest daughter.
But then, disaster struck. Both of her sons died, one after another—the crown prince in a riding accident, the second prince from illness.
All she had left was her daughter, Princess Terezia, the only legitimate heir.
“Purka, do you think someone like you—without ability or ambition—can ever be emperor? If you sit on the throne, how long do you think you’ll last? When my sons were alive, you couldn’t even look me in the eye, and now you want to succeed my husband?”
After that, Ekaterina kept insulting and mocking Purka.
She despised his dead black eyes. She was sure that if only he had died instead, the Bastia Empire and the royal family would have had a brighter future.
But the throne couldn’t stay empty forever.
So in the end, Ekaterina had no choice but to adopt Purka as her son.
“I know you didn’t kill my sons, Purka. You don’t have the courage, brains, or boldness to do it—you’re just a weak coward.”
Even after becoming emperor, Purka never forgot Ekaterina’s words.
He’d hidden his claws to reach the throne, but the fear she taught him meant he could never stand up to her.
Ekaterina knew this, and always sneered at him.
“Let me predict something… Purka, you’ll become emperor just because you were lucky enough to be born from a lowly maid. But you’ll never really be a king.”
“N-No, I could never—”
“The only reason I let a useless person like you live is because you’re my husband’s son. I can’t let my daughter inherit this cursed throne.”
After that, Ekaterina never saw Purka again.
Even after Purka’s own son and legitimate heir, Zeros, was born, Ekaterina’s contempt didn’t stop.
On her deathbed, Empress Dowager Ekaterina gave her final words.
“You’re not my son. I only let you inherit the throne because I was empress and had no choice. Maybe I was wrong to insult you for your low birth.”
While Purka wept, Ekaterina gave him one last blow.
She knew how much he longed for her approval.
“It’s true—you’re weak and useless. The empire will collapse before your bloodline ever secures the throne. You’ll never handle the mess my husband left behind.”
She managed a thin smile as she died, happy to see Purka—who had always craved her recognition—swallowed by despair.
“I hear you’re trying to chase immortality, just like your father. It’s always the weakest men who want to live forever. They don’t know how to live inside the fate given to them.”
Seeing Purka trembling with rage, Ekaterina let out a dry laugh.
“You’ll go down in history as a stinking piece of trash. Those empty eyes are just like your mother’s, and your act of selling the empire to demons because you’re afraid to die—that’s just like your father. That devil let my husband die and killed both my sons.”
Purka could only weep in silence, then suddenly laughed out loud.
“You’re just senile, saying such things before you die! Empress Dowager, at least know the truth before you die! Dr. Vincent is not a devil…! He’s a wise man—a great sage who will bring Bastia prosperity and revival!”
“You poor fool… You’re completely under his spell. That devil has lived for a very long time, but you don’t know it. His clever tongue seduced the previous emperor, killed my sons, and now he hides in the palace, untouched.”
Her two sons had died because of Dr. Vincent’s experiments.
But Vincent was never punished. He stood above the law—even above the emperor.
The story about the crown prince dying in a fall and the second prince dying of illness was all a lie.
They put the dead crown prince on a horse and used a magic string to move him, making it look like he was alive. The second prince was slowly poisoned, so it looked like he died from sickness.
“That devil tricked my husband with his tongue. There is no way to live forever in the Elixur! The only one who ever went beyond the limits of alchemy and found the truth of the gods is that devil. An ordinary human like you will never live forever!”
“You’re about to die, so why do you keep talking like this?”
Ekaterina scoffed.
“I can say this because I’m about to die.”
“Nothing in this world lasts forever. Even the soul gets old, and the body heads for death. But since the body ages faster than the soul, with the right tricks, you can appear to live forever.”
“……”
“The crown prince was smart and healthy, so the previous emperor wanted to put his own soul and memory in his son’s body. But the experiment failed, and the crown prince died in pain.”
“I’m not like my father. I won’t fail. Never, never…!”
“The second prince also died, crying in pain as he went cold. But Terezia wasn’t used as a test subject—maybe the previous emperor didn’t want a girl’s body, or maybe the devil just liked Terezia and spared her.”
Ekaterina looked at Emperor Purka with faded eyes.
“You survived only because you were an illegitimate child with a maid’s blood… I always believed that.”
Ekaterina let out a weak laugh as she neared death.
“Now I see I was wrong… That devil just needed a fool who could become emperor. Someone who wouldn’t even realize he was just a puppet.”
