The Star Of Annihilation

The Star of Annihilation

Chapter 34 – Lazarus (3)

Written by : eleven

* * *

Whooooo~
It was dark out as Mathilde looked from the balcony of the new home they were given by the First Prince.

It was located next to the Imperial Palace, and still had a very high viewpoint that overlooked the rest of the Capital.

The fog didn’t do much to let the bright moonlight shine against her face.

Mathilde was worried. She had a very complex set of emotions that she did not know what to do with, and if anything… She was more worried about her son.

These days, she didn’t even know what was going on with Roy. Her son had become so different from other children and even herself, that it became harder and harder to ignore the suspicions that she had arising within her head.

“My son…”

Mathilde murmured to herself as she thought.

Both her and Roy had green eyes originally. Now, that had changed with Roy’s irises becoming blood red.

‘Please. Please…. Please don’t become like him!’

Mathilde sincerely pleased as she closed her eyes tightly and clasped her hands in a prayer.

She pleaded that Roy would not become like ‘that man’.

“Mom?”

“…!”

Suddenly, Mathilde was woken up out of her praying and quickly trying to recollect herself.

Roy had come out to the balcony, dressed in a fine linen tunic and embroidered pants.

He truly looked the part of a young noble heir living in the capital. This was all due to the several presents that Desmond had given them to integrate into society.

‘He..Hello dear, you scared me for a moment.”

“Sorry mom, I just didn’t see you anywhere and wanted to make sure that everything was alright.”

It was times like these that made Mathilde wonder what was going on with Roy. He still had that look and tone of endearment whenever it came to speaking to her, but to almost anybody else he looked indifferent, cold, and even angry at times.

But within all of these emotions, the one that remained constant that Mathilde was worried about, was that she saw a very bleak and hurt look inside of Roy. A sense of loss. He had not had this since she had raised him, but about two years ago, Roy had changed.

‘What could possibly happen to my boy to make him look at me like that?’

It was saddening to see, even for Mathilde.

“I’m alright, I was just happy to see the new sight of the Capital.”

“It’s truly much different than back in the village isn’t it?”

Roy replied as he stepped closer to his mother and looked at the starry night sky.

“It really is…”

Mathilde held herself back as she hesitated whether or not she would be able to ever ask Roy what was going on.

Roy noticed this. Something definitely seemed to be troubling his mother these days.

“Hey mom?”

“Ah yes..!”

“Are you sure you’re alright?”

“Well …”

Mathilde bit her lip as complicated emotions stirred in her eyes.

“It’s just… it feels all too surreal.”

“Like a dream?”

“Something like that, dear.”

Mathilde shook her head slightly.

“I just want you to know that if there’s anything troubling you these days, your mother is always here for you.”

“…..”

Roy fell silent.

He had been ignorant.

No matter how much he was trying to progress and train to grow stronger for the future, he had completely neglected his duties in the present.

In fact, Roy didn’t even solidify his own resolve.

What was he living his second life for? Revenge was a given, but what else? He had protected his mother from the complete destruction and massacre of their village, but there was nothing that guaranteed their survival.

In fact, if Ifrit had not been summoned and saved them, it was highly likely that they would have still at least lost an archmage or two; possibly even lost due to the unexpected polymorph magic Argenta had shown.

“One day….”

“Hm?”

“One day mom, I’ll tell you everything. I can’t say or do much now, but I promise you this…. One day I will tell you everything without hiding anything.”

Roy spoke as he lowered his head in guilt and shame.

Mathilde saw this and didn’t know what to say. However, if there was one thing she knew she had to do, it was that in moments like these, she needed to love her son back with all of her heart until he was ready.

Slip.

Roy felt a warm touch embrace him from behind.

Mathilde hugged Roy from behind and rubbed his head gently.

“Don’t worry honey. I’ll be there when that happens. And most importantly, just know I love you.”

Mathilde smiled blissfully as Roy couldn’t turn his head or body.

He trembled faintly.

He didn’t let it show, but teardrops started to roll from his eyes.

Moving forwards, he would have to do his best. Only his best to protect his mother and friends might not be enough. If that was the case, he’d have to go even farther than his best.

Roy resolved himself as he wiped the tears from his eyes and lay in his mother’s embrace, feeling the cool, night breeze bush against their skin.

* * *

Navarro Ismenian sighed as he descended down the staircase.

This staircase was a staircase that was not on any of the blueprints within the Imperial Palace, yet the location he was heading down towards, was certainly inside of it.

Nobody but the former Emperors and current Emperor of the Empire, knew of it.

As Navarro reached the end of the staircase, a set of two silver doors were made clear.

Creaaaaak!


The two doors creaked loudly as Navarro pushed them open.

Beyond the two silver doors, was a small room with a silver mirror inside of it.

There was a Royal Treasury and even a personal artifact room that was known to be located within the Palace, but this small room was neither.

Navarro stepped forwards and looked into the mirror as he took a small needle from his pockets and pricked his finger.

Sptttt.

The skin split open slightly and blood trickled from his index finger.

Navarro, wordlessly touched the mirror with his bloody finger.

Whooosh!

The surroundings started to distort and Navarro found himself in a blurry and foggy location.

It was the artifact of the Imperial Family that allowed them to glimpse into the future.

* * *

Through the hazy fog, Navarro floated like a ghost as he watched scenes pass by him.

There were people fighting, Dragons ravaging and destroying territory after territory.

Not much had changed from the last time he had glimpsed into it.

However, there were scenes this time of humans fighting against large hordes of beings that looked like dragons; albeit weaker.

Among the humans that were fighting, there were some familiar faces amongst them that were not present before.

‘Looks like they didn’t change the overall outcome much.’

As the blurry scenes came to an end, the last scene revealed the planet exploding completely but did not show how it happened.

Nonetheless, it really didn’t change much.

Whoosh-


Navarro was brought back into the room with the mirror and blinked slowly.

“It wasn’t enough…. Tsk-”

Navarro Ismenian was a very cautious Emperor who did not take sides easily, nor was he a tyrant.

However, while this made him have the impression of being weak in some people’s eyes, Navarro Ismenian truly did care for his Empire.

The most disturbing of images that he had seen in the future, were the images of his second son, Howard, becoming the Emperor and leading the country to ruin.

‘I don’t understand. I am sure that I want Desmond to become the Emperor, so why is Howard still succeeding the throne?’

Navarro truly did favor his first son for the throne over the other two. He truly felt disgraced with the actions of the other two, and had put escorts to keep tabs on them from time to time, so he knew their personalities better than they had expected him to.

Shaking his head from side-to-side in bitterness, Navarro turned around and left through the silver doors.

Tatata-


All that could be heard were the silent steps of a lonely and tired ruler.

* * *

Roy pondered the next day, about the magic Tubel had cast on Illidia Portaz and her daughter, Amelia.

‘Memory erasing magic? How is that possible? What’s the spell model used for something like that?’

He was in awe of the mental forms of magic he had only heard of that people of the White Magic Tower were able to use.

Such spells were amazing for day-to-day life and were auxiliary based spells that aligned with the White Tower’s research.

The White Tower was the magic tower that researched magic of life and the body. It was the Magic Tower that was deeply intertwined with the body and was something Roy envied quite a bit.

“Are you ready to go?”

“Yep.”

Roy replied as his master, Lucius, arrived at the front of the house that Roy and his mother were given by the first prince.

“Let’s stop by the smithy first then? I’m sure you wanted to use that favor of the Emperor sometime before leaving, so let’s get there first.”

“Sounds good.”

Roy was covered in light leather armor with a plethora of clothes and food supplies stocked up inside of his spatial pocket.

The request Roy had given to the Emperor, was to be recommended to a capable blacksmith.

The automata that was sitting in his spatial pocket, was something that definitely had high-quality material and would surely be of use to him. In fact, if it was made of mithril, like Roy had assumed, it would be possible to get equipment that only swordmasters and archmages of the Empire were able to use.

“After that, are you sure you want to go through with this?”

“Yeah, i need to do this. If we don’t who knows if more monsters like that thing we saw in Kerto village will come back.”

Roy replied, recalling Argenta.

That fight was brutal for even Lucius, and he got goosebumps just thinking of the fact there might be other powerful beasts like the Dragons out there.

Though, unlike Lucius who was only speculating, Roy knew for a fact that there were several more Dragons.

The past had already started to change, and Roy needed to be prepared for it in full, so he was able to buy himself two years to train with Lucius and travel, before coming back to the Empire.

‘Looks like I’ll be able to collect some other things along the way then.’

Roy clenched his fist with excitement.

Several different people in the past had looted these dungeons that Roy wanted to get to. But if things were continuing the way they were, he would be able to travel with Lucius and get to these places before anybody else.

“Alright then, let’s go. I know the way to the smithy that the Emperor recommended to you.”

Lucius turned around and roused his ki.

Thuduk!

Lucius kicked the ground as Roy immediately cast basic enhancement spells on his body to keep up.

Across his face, was a wide grin.

Chapter 34 – Fin