Shadowless Night

[It will be great if his origin is clear, but we should investigate him thoroughly.]

There is a high possibility that he is a commoner, so we should set aside ample time for his education, at least two or three years.

[Also, find the noble who will become the child’s parent from an area I have visited in the past. The child should have been born then.]

You can’t acknowledge children of commoners as members of the Imperial family. So, the child must be conceived from his relationship with a noblewoman when the Emperor inspected a territory on the outskirts of Illavenia.

[His name is… Yes, I like Ricardis. I was going to give it to the next child born. It is the name of a former Emperor of Illavenia who had a prosperous reign.]

Count Radwiell lowered his head.

[I accept your orders.]

The child will grow up and fight with Elpidio. The Emperor’s puppet, who will disappear on the day it runs out of use.

He is the property of the Imperial family. His fate of entering the Imperial family because of that strong power is also God’s arrangement.

Fertan soon found a child in the back alley of Goa. The child was like a little wild animal. He was one of those beggar children who picked through the trash. His skin was dry and didn’t look healthy. He was a mangy and ferocious vagrant.

However, the bright silver hair hidden beneath the dirt was beautiful, and the clear eyes looked full of vitality. He was the appropriate age, and his holy power was unusually high. As an orphan, there would be no problems with his family.

He entrusted the child to the family of Viscount Wingranate from a border territory. Viscount Wingranate was a greedy person, and when he heard that his daughter could become the queen, he accepted this absurd offer.

[Viscount Wingranate: Viscount of Winter Pomegranate]

The Viscount’s daughter, Milia, fell in love with a passing bard, and after she gave birth to a girl a year ago, her father imprisoned her in the household. If it became known that she was single and gave birth to a child of a lowly commoner, it would be a shame talked about for generations in the aristocratic society.

As a result of Viscount Wingranate hiding the matter, the household’s employees also said they did not know the child’s father. Thanks to his meticulousness, Milia was chosen to play the role of Ricardis’ parent. Her only flaw was that she had a daughter, but they could handle that. The key thing was Ricardis.

On the day Fertan brought Ricardis to Milia, he told her that she had to become the mother of this orphan boy, and he would take her to the Imperial Palace in a few years. Milia didn’t want this, and she was terrified.

But when Milia met Ricardis for the first time…

[Oh my, it would be nice for our Tia to have an older brother!]

And it was. The little girl in Milia’s arms with her mother’s silver hair cooed and waved her little arms.

Milia raised her hand and stroked Ricardis’s head. The boy allowed her to touch him, but his body stiffened as if frozen. It almost seemed like he was receiving a slap on the cheek.

The boy slowly retracted his thorns as if her gentleness had caused his defiant attitude to run out of steam. The boy, who had always seemed rebellious, softened under Milia’s touch. It was a strange thing.

Fertan went to see Ricardis every few months. The small, skinny child grew up quickly. His thin cheeks fattened, and his coarse, untidy hair became a beautiful silver that sparkled in the light. His slouched form transformed into one with a straight posture. All in all, no one could doubt his noble origins anymore.

The child, who didn’t know anything when Fertan brought him to the Wingranate family, seemed to have learned a lot about the situation surrounding him. The child was brilliant. It must have been due to his natural intelligence, but calluses and ink smudges on his fingers reflected his desperate efforts. He changed quickly in only a year.

But what was most surprising was how brightly the boy with short hair smiled while holding Milia’s daughter, Setistia. Clear blue eyes filled with love as Milia patted Ricardis’s head and grinned.

The boy no longer withdrew from her. He no longer feared the approaching hands. The young bud was growing gently in the sunlight of spring. How could one explain the reason for this? Simple: family.

The puppets collected for this absurd play gathered together and hugged each other.

Fertan went around the house, and from a distance, he watched Ricardis playing with his little sister in the flower garden. 

[Brother, Brother.] 

The girl babbled with her clumsy voice, making Ricardis laugh happily.

A charming silver-haired boy and girl in a small garden in the sunlight; wildflowers blooming all around, and a ladybug sitting on the children’s toys— it was peaceful a picture.

***

Princess Setistia is dead. It had been ten years since her recognition as a member of the Imperial family following her brother.

On the way back from the villa, dozens of groups attacked, and the carriage rolled down a cliff. A fragment of the carriage pierced the Princess’s abdomen, but she did not immediately die. Instead, she suffered for a long time. Ricardis, who had wished for the younger sister to live longer than him, was distressed.

The wooden shards that stabbed through the young Princess had been engraved with Ricardis’ sigil. The raiders would have thought that the person riding the carriage was the owner of the emblem. No one told this to Ricardis directly, but how could he not know?

Ricardis crouched for a long time in sorrow but soon rose again. He had one more person left to protect even if Setistia was gone. He didn’t even grant himself time to immerse fully in his grief, and it was hard to tell if that was a good or bad thing.

As far as Fertan had seen, Queen Milia was an intelligent, strong, and strange woman. She’s eccentric, but she tried to stand tall for her children, and she’s not discouraged even in the cruel Imperial court.

But after the death of Princess Setistia, Queen Milia went crazy. She no longer acted like a sane person. She had stood upright so as not to be broken by anything, only for this to break her in the most painful manner.

She wept all day and fainted, walked around Setistia’s room in the dark at night, suddenly ran out into the bushes, and more. She expressed the sadness that she couldn’t hide inside, but that was only a part of her feelings. Nobody knew when the passionate emotions embedded in her would fade away. 

As time passed, Milia’s devastation caused her health to decline. She was not hurt, maimed, or sick, but she was slowly dying. Ricardis continued to watch over Queen Milia.

Fertan visited Milia frequently. It was not because of guilt but because Milia had sent a letter requesting a visit. Fertan thought she had called him because she needed something to quell her anger at losing her child. But when Queen Milia saw Fertan, she was neither angry nor resentful. She just looked at him with her unfocused eyes.

Instead of cursing Fertan and wishing him ill, Queen Milia turned on Ricardis.

[You killed my child.]

She began pouring everything on him, whom she had cherished.

[If it weren’t for you!]

Rather than losing her mind, Fertan thought that the feelings she had held back had finally burst out. Perhaps she didn’t have the strength to hold back her words anymore.

Ricardis’ face was as rigid as a doll’s. He did not look like a living person, but his face moved a little each time he heard harsh words from her. His jaw muscles twitched, and his eyebrows furrowed.

He looked like he was in pain. However, Ricardis did not avoid the blade he faced, and most of all, he accepted it entirely. He probably realized that he was the only one who could let out what Milia kept caged inside.

Queen Milia was like a vessel made of thin glass with cracks running through it, and the things contained within were too heavy. So heavy and sharp, it hurt even herself. Ricardis hoped Milia would pour those things on him so she would one day empty and heal.

She didn’t always blame Ricardis. Sometimes she said she was sorry and held Ricardis’s hand and wept. 

[I’m sorry I’m so weak, Ricardis. I’m sorry for making you endure alone.] 

She gasped and cried until she was out of breath.

It was completely different from the blame she spewed before. Fertan still didn’t know what her true feelings were.

178 days after the death of Princess Setistia, Queen Milia left Ricardis. The cause of death was drowning. No one knew if she committed suicide or if she had accidentally fallen into the lake while walking with her weakened body.

Fertan went to see Ricardis. Maybe he missed Milia’s correspondence after being accustomed to it, but his footsteps naturally flowed to the Moonstone Castle.

Ricardis just sat still in his curtained room. He neither cried nor mourned, but he muttered as if he had gone mad. The room was dark, disarrayed, and cluttered.

Ricardis, who had been silent, suddenly spoke.

[Without me, Elpidio would have died.]

His nails clicked and scratched against each other, making an unpleasant sound.

[That’s why you found me.]

Fertan and the Emperor never once explained to Ricardis why he had to become a prince. However, years of fighting with Elpidio as a puppet of the Emperor was enough time to consider all the reasons.

T/N: So, after wiping tears and snots in Book 1 because of Rosaline’s death, in Book 2 we’ll be wiping snots because of Ricardis’ happy little family’s death ;_;

E/N: Bruh, imagine if Cinderella was a Shakespeare tragedy. That’s what Ricardis’ backstory is like.