The information had arrived at the exact moment the negotiations were wrapping up.

But it was also right before the people in charge on both sides gathered in one place and stamped their seals.

That was obvious misfortune for the Third Imperial Prince's side, but not for me.

"Stop all negotiations and watch the situation!"

I immediately overturned the negotiating table.

"Have we not already finished discussing everything! There is no such law in this world!"

The Empire's envoys sprang to their feet at once and protested.

"The Empire has already shown the utmost sincerity possible in order to set its relationship with your country right! And now you act like this at the very end! This is not proper!"

"His Highness the Prince regarded the kingdom as a brother and therefore decided to make concessions on many points. This is no different from deceiving his goodwill and good faith!"

They expressed stronger displeasure than ever before and pressured me.

Of course, none of it would make the slightest dent.

Leaving aside whether the Empire and the kingdom were even in a relationship where they could speak of good faith, the ones with fire at their feet were those bastards, yet the sight of them still putting on airs was truly pathetic.

I openly sneered at the Empire's negotiating delegation.

"Do not forget that the Empire is not proposing peace because it fears the kingdom."

One of the Empire's envoys trembled with humiliation and began threatening me.

"Oh? Then keep going."

"W-what do you mean..."

"The war."

The Empire's envoys, who had been whining nonstop, shut their mouths as if by agreement.

"... Is there something you desire, perhaps?"

The Empire's representative, who had taken one step back and been watching the situation, asked me with a sigh.

"The ones who desire something would be you."

So I answered that it was the Empire that desired something, and that it was also the Empire that had to decide what it would trade to obtain what it desired.

"We will return."

The Empire's representative bowed politely and rose from his seat.

It seemed he had realized there was nothing more to gain by wearing out his mouth.

"If you're coming back anyway, make sure to pack your bundle as full as possible. You won't have time to waste going back and forth."

"I will keep that in mind."

The delegation left the citadel.

Even while they were gone, the Azure Sky Knights who had gone to scout the imperial mainland returned one after another and brought news.

They said the nobles who had followed the First Imperial Prince had gone over en masse to the Fifth Imperial Prince's side.

They said the Empire's western region had long since fallen into the Fifth Imperial Prince's hands.

According to rumor, the Fifth Imperial Prince was currently expanding his power at an unbelievable speed.

At its foundation was the power of the Magic Tower.

The Magic Tower was not some simple social club for Mages.

Nor was it a half-baked group that gathered and dispersed temporarily for worldly profit.

One of the groups that had existed longer than any other in this world.

That was the Magic Tower.

The mysteries, supernatural abilities, and wealth they had passed down over generations must have far surpassed those of any ordinary force.

I had no choice but to think differently about the Empire's civil war, which I had expected would end quickly.

"They say the Magic Tower is releasing an enormous amount of funds to recruit mercenaries."

"They say the mercenaries recruited so far alone already amount to as many as twenty-odd legions."

Indeed, every piece of information the Azure Sky Knights brought pointed to the civil war deepening.

"The Fire Dragon, our kingdom and Dotrin, and now even the Magic Tower. Is this generation's Empire cursed or something?"

I had predicted the chaos that would soon arrive, but its form was so different from what I had imagined that I was almost bewildered.

But it was not a bad situation.

The more chaotic the Empire became, the more the kingdom benefited.

I was merely curious.

Just what method had the Fifth Imperial Prince used to win over those Mage bastards with their heavy asses?

Mages were not people who actively involved themselves in worldly affairs unrelated to the mysteries they pursued.

At that, an Azure Sky Knight told me of rumors circulating within the Empire about discord between the Imperial House and the Tower Master.

In other words, the Tower Master, dissatisfied that the Emperor had coercively conscripted Mages during the previous Dotrin subjugation war, had personally stepped forward to keep the Imperial House in check.

He said there were even those who claimed that the Fifth Imperial Prince had not won over the Magic Tower, but rather that the Magic Tower had won over the Fifth Imperial Prince and caused the civil war.

It was a far more plausible reason than the Tower Master and the Mages suddenly going mad as a group and developing a lust for power.

But in practical terms, I did not consider the rumors highly likely to be true.

Unlike the Third Imperial Prince bastard, whose greed had risen all the way to his chin, the Fifth Imperial Prince was not stupid enough to leave a precedent of the Magic Tower intervening in the Imperial House's affairs in this manner.

There was probably some other deal beneath the surface.

The problem was that, for now, I could not know what that was.

"Continue to bring me information. Even if it is some absurd ghost story, report it all to me without filtering anything."

As someone who had nearly missed a golden opportunity and concluded half-baked end-of-war negotiations by making one wrong move, I was in a situation where even a single piece of information mattered.

So I asked him not to omit even the smallest piece of information and to tell me everything.

At my words, the Azure Sky Knight, who was just about to leave, looked back at me as if he had only now remembered something.

"The justification the Fifth Imperial Prince put forward when raising troops is somewhat strange. He proclaimed that, as one of Bourgogne's bloodline, he had raised troops of his own accord to correct the Imperial House's wrongs, and in the process, he apparently defined the current Emperor as an evil man walking an inhuman path and criticized him bitterly."

That was unexpected as well.

I had naturally assumed that his justification for raising troops was that he could not stand by and watch that trash-like Third Imperial Prince bastard become Emperor and ruin the Empire.

It was not.

"Of course, he did not leave out mention of the Third Imperial Prince's qualities. But they say his tone in condemning the current Emperor was far stronger. The main point was apparently that all the calamities that have befallen the Empire are the current Emperor's responsibility."

From the standpoint of someone raising a rebellion, harping on the current ruler's moral flaws was not particularly strange.

All the more so now, when calamity had repeatedly struck the Empire.

It could be made to mean whatever one wanted.

There was no better situation for biting and tearing at a monarch's lack of virtue.

If that had been all, I would have simply listened and let it pass.

"He said the current Emperor's reign itself defies Heaven, and that his own raising of troops follows Heaven."

I could not do that.

"He said the Emperor's reign itself defies Heaven?"

"Yes. He said that as long as the current Emperor endures, calamity will never cease in the world. He said he raised troops to set that right."

It felt strangely unpleasant.

The Azure Sky Knight said a few more things with a look that suggested it was nothing important, then left.

Even after he left, I could not shake off the uneasy feeling.

It felt as if I had missed something important.

But because I could not tell what that something was, the stifling frustration only grew stronger.

In that situation, the delegation sent by the Third Imperial Prince arrived at the citadel again.

Naturally, my tone and attitude became sharp.

The delegation watched my mood and was desperate to finish the negotiations somehow.

I treated them coldly from beginning to end.

It was only natural that the negotiations made no progress.

"Your Highness. Please leave the negotiations to us and rest now."

It reached the point where even the staff officers stepped forward and asked me to leave, saying I had intimidated them enough.

But I was not here to intimidate the delegation.

After the anxious delegation fidgeted and returned several times, a thought suddenly occurred to me.

This was the Empire's affair, and the Imperial House of Bourgogne's affair.

Rather than agonize over it alone, it would be better to ask the person involved.

As it happened, not far away, there was a member of Bourgogne's bloodline who could be called a person involved.

"Tell the prince. I want to meet him in person."

Not long after I said that to the delegation, one of the prince's close aides came as a messenger.

"His Highness the Prince has accepted the proposal."

Perhaps he thought it would be better for the highest decision-makers to meet for the sake of concluding the negotiations quickly, for even the Third Imperial Prince, who lived drunk on his own greatness, did not refuse the meeting.

And so a meeting between the people in charge on both sides was decided.

The location was the wasteland between the Silver Lion Citadel and the fortress of the Empire's 41st Legion.

The legions of both sides stood facing each other with the border between them.

I looked at the Imperial Army in the distance.

The Third Imperial Prince was there, surrounded by imperial knights.

Even from afar, he looked to be in an extremely foul mood.

In a situation where he had to return to the mainland as quickly as possible, I had caught him by the ankle, and he seemed furious to the top of his head.

"You damned bastards! Because you could not handle your work properly, even I have been inconvenienced! Useless fools!"

He was so hysterical that the sound of the Third Imperial Prince throwing a tantrum could be heard from far away.

Before the meeting, the imperial knights and nobles broke into a sweat trying to calm the Third Imperial Prince, creating a rare spectacle.

I watched the scene from a distance.

The Third Imperial Prince's conduct as he kicked nobles in the ass or spat curses was truly unsightly.

He looked unqualified to inherit even a small house, let alone the Empire.

That was how it looked to me, and that was how it looked to others.

That was how it looked to anyone.

Would the Emperor have seen it differently?

Then why had the Emperor stood by and let that Third Imperial Prince grow into the strongest claimant to the imperial throne?

If he was the Emperor, he surely could not have been unaware.

That the moment the Third Imperial Prince inherited the throne, the thousand-year Empire would collapse without leaving so much as a foundation stone behind.

If he wished, he could have cut off the sprout, and if he wished, he could have protected a competent imperial prince and firmly established the line of succession.

The Emperor had simply left the Third Imperial Prince alone.

As if he did not care who inherited the imperial throne.

It was something I simply could not understand.

As questions continued to lead to more questions, the Third Imperial Prince came forward with a group of knights.

"Your Highness."

The knights watching this told me it was my turn to step forward.

"Let's go."

With the one-eyed cavalry captain and the Black Lancers at the front, I headed toward the clearing where the Third Imperial Prince was waiting.

"I regarded you as a brother and conceded many things. Do not test my patience any further."

At the negotiation table prepared in the middle of the wide-open clearing, the Third Imperial Prince sat down, raised his head, and greeted me arrogantly.

Instead of answering, I flopped down in my seat and looked at the Third Imperial Prince provocatively.

At my attitude, the Third Imperial Prince's face turned red.

But since he was the one in need, he could not go so far as to throw a fit and instead growled at me.

"I will accept all the conditions you want. If you ask me to hand over citadels, I will hand them over, and if you ask me to hand over land, I will hand it over. But do not be overly greedy. Make sure I do not later decide that what I bestowed on you was a waste and feel inclined to take it back."

The ridiculous brotherhood act had already ended long ago.

The Third Imperial Prince was openly hostile toward me.

I, too, had no intention of playing along with his act anymore.

"Let me ask one thing."

The Third Imperial Prince ground his teeth.

He was truly enraged that the Crown Prince of some weak nation dared to hold his head high before him.

"Ask. But if you try to waste time with useless nonsense even after hearing the answer, I will endure no more."

I gave a perfunctory nod and asked the Third Imperial Prince.

"What exactly is the Emperor thinking?"

At my blunt question, the Third Imperial Prince's eyes bulged at once, and he jabbed a finger at me.

"You bastard! He is His Majesty the Emperor of the Empire! He is not someone a prince from some frontier backwater may refer to carelessly!"

"If you want to go see that great Emperor of yours, you had better answer my question."

"Grrr!"

The Third Imperial Prince thrashed about as if having a fit.

Regardless, I waited leisurely.

After all, the one pressed for time was not me but the Third Imperial Prince.

After I waited a while, the Third Imperial Prince, who had barely managed to calm his anger, asked me.

"I cannot understand the intent of your question. What do you mean, what are His Majesty the Emperor's intentions?"

"I mean the Empire is falling apart, so why is he still not moving?"

The Third Imperial Prince snorted.

"Do not look down on the Empire. The Empire is still strong. This petty disturbance cannot affect even the slightest bit of the Empire's long history and underlying strength."

"That is why I am asking why he is not using that great underlying strength."

"It seems this current commotion looks quite large to a prince of some small backwater country. But you must know this. The moment His Majesty the Emperor moves, the current disturbance will subside as if it had never existed."

Like an idiot, the Third Imperial Prince failed to understand the intent of my question and continued to deliver a long-winded speech about the Empire's greatness.

"It seems my question is difficult for you. So I am asking why that great His Majesty the Emperor stayed silent and let things reach this point. If the Emperor had wanted, it would have been no trouble to name one of the imperial princes as his successor and place him on the throne."

The Third Imperial Prince, who belatedly understood my question, snorted.

"It is the matter of deciding the Emperor of a vast empire. The Empire is not so easy that it would allow an unqualified person to ascend the throne."

For a bastard who was himself the very model of an unqualified person, his words flowed very smoothly.

The Third Imperial Prince rattled on about some theory of survival of the fittest, which he must have picked up from somewhere.

"The belief of our Imperial House of Bourgogne is that one who is truly outstanding will ultimately reach a lofty place no matter what storms arise. Until now, that belief has never once betrayed Bourgogne's bloodline."

The only one who did not know there was a very high possibility this would become the first history of that belief being betrayed was the person concerned.

"A prince of a weak nation that has maintained its house by worshiping the principle of primogeniture would not understand. That there exists in this world a royal bloodline ordained by Heaven."

At this point, I intended to end my unproductive conversation with the Third Imperial Prince.

I did.

I certainly did.

But I could not.

"There are countless kings in the world."

At the one sentence the Third Imperial Prince uttered arrogantly, my heart shuddered.

"But among them, only Bourgogne is the true king."

At the words of an idiotic imperial prince who had not attained a damn shred of status, everything around me trembled uneasily.

I opened my eyes wide and looked at the Third Imperial Prince bastard.

There was nothing special anywhere on the face of the arrogant, irritable imperial prince.

But I knew.

It was not a mistake.

The trembling of everything around me and the beating of my heart that I had felt just now.

It was surely a ripple scattered into the world by karma and will so deep and profound that its origin could not be known.

Though because it had borrowed the mouth of an insignificant being, the karma and status contained within had vanished without a trace.

It was certainly a Poem of Martial Deeds concerning [Myth].

"That is the phrase referring to the Imperial House of Bourgogne, which has supported the thousand-year Empire."

The Third Imperial Prince babbled with an arrogant face.

Without even knowing what had just happened.