# 118
“Can you face him?”
“I can.”
“Don’t get hurt. The other party will lose all rationality and attack like crazy.”
“In combat, whoever keeps his mind has the advantage.”
“…Oh, right?”
Before they approached Halt, Dearyn and Sirius had already ended their short meeting with mutual whispers.
“Then Halt, to me...is nothing.”
“…”
It was like an obvious brag, but it was the kind of thing Sirius would brag about, so she turned a blind eye to it.
If something bad happens, there are palace guards spread throughout the hall, and the other guests as well, they will not allow a bloody quarrel to take place in front of the Emperor without intervening.
Dearyn tried to think as positive as possible and quietly approached from behind Halt.
"Mr. Halt... wake up."
She muttered softly as she placed her hand on his back.
It was the same spell she had previously used on Sirius, so it wasn't difficult to perform. It was even much easier to lift the entire spell.
“…!”
Halt's back suddenly shook.
“Oh, ooooo…”
A moan like the roar of a monster came out of his mouth.
Sirius himself, when he regained his bound memories, was bedridden for days.
As for Halt, his memories were not repressed for long. It was only recently withdrawn. So the reaction may not be too violent.
...but.
“Aah, aah!”
Halt was, by nature, more sensitive than Sirius. Even after he “calmed down,” he barely stopped attacking birds or stones flying around him. So, now that the chains were loose, his response was bound to be severe.
As Dearyn had predicted, Halt began to become agitated as soon as the memories came back to him, and his tense senses exploded violently.
“Ahhh, ahhh!”
He grabbed his head with both hands and let out crazy screams, as if he wanted to pull out his hair. Then he began to tear his clothes from his tightness, taking them off one by one, and finally he started rolling madly on the ground.
The sight of his strange madness made the audience automatically step back in fear.
The sight of a member of the Eighth Division losing control was too terrifying for the high nobles who had never been close to war.
"W-what is this? What's going on?"
“He's totally gone crazy!”
“So suddenly?”
People were whispering in shock, and no one even dared to run away, perhaps because they did not expect him to attack them.
“Did they bring him crazy at all?”
“How does someone like that fight?”
Since they had never experienced a war, they naturally could not imagine what was happening in it. They were completely confused.
Then Shalott came forward again and cried out loudly:
“All the members of the Eighth Division were fighting in an almost insane state! They kidnapped children, and raised them from a young age to be like this!”
She did not mention the name of the perpetrator directly, but it was as if she was clearly pointing her finger at him.
After she thought she was a loser, and then a new opportunity presented itself, she seemed to lose her balance to the point where she no longer cared about style or appearances.
As if a child was complaining to adults, she screamed randomly.
Even Dayaren, her ally, was embarrassed by her sudden action.
'Even if she was in a hurry... to drop her dignity like this?'
Others seemed to feel the same way.
No one said it openly, but everyone knew that this was an unspoken conflict between the Second Prince and the Third Prince.
The conditions for this struggle were also to maintain sophistication and balance. Whoever loses his temper first loses.
Some of them began to wonder if someone should drag Shalott out of the arena, when...
“How did you know that?”
The Emperor said suddenly, after he had been watching quietly while turning his cup between his fingers.
“I was there at the beginning of the war! I saw it all!”
“...Ah, that's right.”
“I saw it with my own eyes. I was there. They kidnapped the children, beat them, starved them...!”
She was screaming and crying.
Given the age of the Third Prince, it makes sense that Shalott was on the battlefield at the beginning of the war or immediately after its end, and then entered the Imperial Palace carrying the Emperor's child.
Whatever happened between her and them after that, what she said was not a lie from a temporal standpoint.
And the audience, in their heads, were making the same calculations.
“Is it possible that the Second Prince did all that?”
“So, the Eighth Division wasn’t that noble.”
"But, what about this Sirius? He doesn't look crazy."
During all of this, Halt kept rolling on the ground in shock.
But as Dayaren expected, since the period of amnesia was short, the pain was also short. What remained now were his extremely tense temper and his hostile response to any kind of provocation.
"W-what is that? His looks!"
“Ah!”
Although most of the audience were terrified by Halt's looks, some of them showed instinctive rejection and annoyance, which was not lost on Halt.
“Aaaaaaa!”
He shouted angrily and attacked them.
But he found Sirius standing in his way.
The two had no weapons, but when Sirius blocked Halt's hand strike with his arm, or blocked a kick with his leg, the resulting sound was more menacing than any weapon.
The speed of their attacks and defenses was beyond the ability of the human eye to catch up.
“What… what is this?”
It didn't look like a human fight at all.
Although Sirius brilliantly repelled attacks, he was human. With each exchange, traces of wounds began to appear on their bodies.
Boom!
In the end, Halt took a direct hit from Sirius' fist, knocking him to the ground and rendering him unable to move.
“Huh... huh...”
Sirius' breathing also became heavy and ragged.
Halt has never been an easy opponent to take on. However, what he said earlier was true—one who attacks brutally according to instinct is easier to confront than an enemy who acts rationally.
Sirius rose sluggishly with a groan.
“……This, was the way the members of the Eighth Division fought, Your Majesty the Emperor.”
He said, staring directly at the Emperor.
The hall was silent as if a mouse had passed through it. Everyone was in shock at what had just happened.
Neither the Second Prince nor Shalott could speak.
They had many excuses and justifications, but the Emperor was staring at Sirius.
He granted the Emperor the privilege of looking directly at him—a silent monologue. So no one dared to speak.
The Emperor looked at Sirius' face for a long time without blinking.
During this, Sirius calmed his heavy, turbulent breathing.
There was a strange silence between them, charged with incomprehensible tension.
“Members of the Eighth Squad, then...”
The Emperor said as he touched the edge of the cup with his fingertips, as if contemplating something profound.
What was he thinking? Nobody knows. They had no choice but to wait and accept what was said.
“Hmm...”
The Emperor took a long time to think.
It was a stifling and unsettling time.
As people stared alternately between the Emperor and Sirius, something strange began to appear before their eyes.
“…?”
The Emperor and Ceres.
Although they both had dark hair and eyes, their features were remarkably similar.
"What is this? What does this mean?"
“Could it be…?”
The resemblance was impossible to ignore. It seemed that their dark color was not natural.
Sirius' hair and eye color now seemed to be artificially painted black.
Using magic to change hair color was common among nobles. Yes, this color must be the result of some magic.
This means…
At a time when whispers began to spread among those present like wildfire, the Emperor finally spoke.
“How can I believe that what you say is true?”
As soon as he said that, a wide smile spread across the Second Prince's face.
If the ruling depends on proving the truth of what was said, the balance will easily tip towards him.
It would be very easy to turn the matter around by saying that what happened was just a fight between two deranged people, or that the other party used crazy tricks that made the members of the Eighth Division crazy. There are a thousand ready excuses.
It was clear that the Emperor was on his side.
This filled him with confidence, and he stood tall, as if he was challenging everyone.
"I haven't heard exactly who you are yet. You haven't formally introduced yourself, have you?"
It was as if he was mocking the audacity of an unknown intruder who had infiltrated this place and caused chaos.
Indeed, by court standards, that was a clear insult.
But only Deyarin was able to read between the lines.
Just as the others began to notice something strange about the resemblance, the Emperor must have noticed it as well from the first moment he saw Sirius.
Dayarin did not waste the opportunity granted by the Emperor.
Softly, she ran her fingertips over Sirius' hair.
The transformation was...instantaneous.
The artificial blackness disappeared, and the sparkling golden hair returned to its natural place. And his eyes? The colors of the spectrum were clearly reflected in them under the lights of the hall.
"Oh...oh! Aah!"
Screams of astonishment came from every corner of the hall.
Evidence that cannot be denied. A clear sign of the imperial family.
And that person, who carries it, resembles the Emperor almost identically.
Sirius looked up at the Emperor.
Those eyes, like twins of the emperor's eyes, remained motionless, as if they were two mirrors of one soul.
Then he introduced himself calmly:
“I am the first prince of the empire, Kyrindias.”
No matter how many doubts there are, hearing the truth confirms the shock.
People started moving and fidgeting, their faces filled with astonishment.
As for the second prince, his face turned completely pale, as if he was about to lose consciousness.
Shalott, and the Third Prince as well, froze in their places, unable to understand what was happening.
Only the Emperor, of all of them, smiled as if he found all of this interesting.
With a similar slight smile, Sirius bowed politely to him.
“It has been a long time since we met, Your Majesty the Emperor.”
The First Prince returned to the arena.
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