The rain that marked autumn had ended began to fall.
The Pope refused to go out because of his chronic illness. But David was different; he showed no signs of nervousness when the Emperor called him into a secret room.
Fabian was sitting on the throne in a locked secret room, waiting for him, with his sword around his waist.
“I see you, Your Majesty.”
David gave an example with an elegant gesture. He looked so fine even though Fabian was ready to kill him right away.
“You’ve found me…..later than I expected …..” His tranquil purple eyes stared at Fabian.
Fabian still had doubts about David. So, for now, he couldn’t act rashly. Fabian wouldn’t hesitate if it were him before. But now, he had many things to consider.
“Don’t you dare to read my mind!”
There were so many hidden meanings behind Fabian’s resolute words.
“No matter how cunning and wicked you are, I know that you can’t use your power now.”
David recalled the figure of Emperors in the past from Fabian’s appearance as he guessed accurately.
“Your Majesty, the Emperor, is always right. Always….. during this long history.”
“You’re talking as if you’ve witnessed it.”
“Time is relative.”
David showed a faint smile. Fabian also wouldn’t be surprised if David had lived an eternal life. In a sense, he was someone who could control demons.
“Don’t even think about trying to deceive me. Even if you’re a God, I can tear you apart and kill you without hesitation.”
David felt the sincerity in Fabian’s black eyes and low voice. His ancestors’ thirst for slaughter and violence still lingered in his blood. If David was an ordinary human being, he might have collapsed right now.
“I don’t mean to deceive you. I mean it. And I never intended to harm this Empire.”
David’s casual remarks made Fabian’s lips twisted. It was a sneer at his unbelievable words. But David continued to spoke as if he had expected such a cold response.
“I’m not Your Majesty’s enemy. As proof, I will tell you about who I am, who you’ve often vaguely guessed.”
David knew already that Fabian must have been somewhat close to the truth about him.
Fabian also had assumed David would make such a guess. However, Fabian was hard to believe when he revealed his true identity so easily.
“You must have investigated many things, including my whereabouts as the guardian of the tower.”
Fabian shut his mouth.
“The history of this Empire today begins from a tower. The guardian of the tower exists to balance the human world after a man came to the tower to seal his bloodlust madness.”
“I told you not to deceive me.”
” That man is the ancestor of the imperial family who’s also Your Majesty’s ancestor. And I’m the descendant of the man who guarded the tower at that time. This is not a legend nor a lie. It’s the history and the fate of this continent. That’s why now I’m standing in front of you.”
David spoke in a hushed voice, but Fabian’s eye didn’t shake.
“A guardian…If you’re such a great person, you must know what I want to do.”
“No matter what the truth is, you will still try to kill me. I already felt it from outside the door,” David said. He seemed indifferent to talk about his life.
“Are you confident you won’t die in my hands?”
“When I die, the guardian of this world’s balance will also disappear. This world doesn’t want that, so maybe …… I won’t die in your hands.”
Fabian spat out a low laugh, “You seem to be under delusion and mistaken for something. I didn’t approach you. I called you in. And I don’t want to stain this place with blood.”
“If my death is predestined, I am ready to accept it at any time.”
David was insensitive to human emotions. So he didn’t feel the slightest fear of the human Emperor before his eyes.
Over the years, he had only one thing he was afraid of the imbalance of the world.
“Really?”
Fabian lifted his body from the throne, and his sword touched David’s neck at an invisible speed. Before he felt pain, a drop of blood had formed on his sharp blade.
“Seeing you’re red blood, it looks like you are also a human being.”
“The guardians are basically human. However, we live an eternal life until our mission is fulfilled.”
David’s voice didn’t waver a bit even though the knife sliced open his neck.
Although Fabian himself wasn’t an ordinary person, he couldn’t let his guard down as his opponent this time was also not an ordinary human.
“I’ll say you’re great that you’re not afraid of me……But you tried to kill my child.”
Fabian was barely able to resist the urge to slit his throat, but David just stared at him with his purple eyes without denying it, “…Yes. I did.”
Fabian nodded with his perfectly convinced eyes, “So, is there any more reason why I shouldn’t kill you?”
David was called to come into this room, and meeting Fabian alone was already a sign.
He purposely chose a day when Evelyn was busy and met David privately. If all his suspicions were correct, he was determined to confront the Vatican by taking David’s life first.
“Aside from the tower’s guardian, is there another reason?”
David’s eyes caught a glimpse at him. Fabian’s cold eyes shook with hankering now.
Was it also because a life that wasn’t meant to exist was already born?
“Then I’ll ask you the opposite. If your child’s existence is the cause of the entire continent’s destruction …. is there a reason for that child to live?”
“How dare you…”
“Even though he’s a life that shouldn’t exist. Should your child still be alive?”
Fabian slashed his sword deeper into David’s neck, and fresh blood flowed again through the blade. “What did he do?” Fabian asked David, who was looking at him with calm eyes.
But David was sure he had something else in mind. That’s why Fabian couldn’t behead his head right away.
“I asked you what he did.”
But, Fabian’s patience had its limits.
“Are you worried about the fate of this continent? If anything happens to my son, I will destroy this continent with my own hands, and I’ll find that damn tower and sink it into the ground covered in blood. Of course, I’ll let you live until then so you can see. Because I’m very generous.”
The sharp voice of threats deafened David’s ears. Fabian had calculated, if he were a tower’s guardian, David wouldn’t do something reckless since he was afraid to break the balance.
“Do you know, the Imperial Emperor is never wrong? Whether it’s ruling this continent peacefully or making this continent a battlefield to vent my anger, everything will be justified. In the first place, if I kill half of the humans outside the Empire…..Wouldn’t the balance that you so exalted be broken?”
David’s eyes trembled slightly for the first time. Being a guardian was a fate he couldn’t escape.
Apart from that, there were other reasons. David was a person who also returned to the past after witnessing Fabian’s massacre after Evelyn’s death. In other words, he had already seen the hell-scene that Fabian was talking about.
“The Emperor never changes.”
There’s a bitterness in David’s voice. He recalled Fabian’s black eyes, which were stained with blood. Even David had done everything he could to stop that frightening sight.
“Don’t you believe what I said?”
“No, I believe. Rather… I already know. The countdown to the destruction of the Continent starts when you begin the massacre. Once you’re overwhelmed by madness, the blood of your ancestors will awaken, and you cannot stop.”
Fabian frowned at his words.
“I can’t kill a human as well as the ability to stop you.”
“My child. You tried to kill my child.”
After a long sigh, David shook his head as Fabian’s sword was still threatening his neck, “Right now, this world is on the wrong trajectory by mistake. So …… There’s a life that shouldn’t exist.”
Sadly, Fabian seemed to know who David was referring to.
“Yes, your child is a child who shouldn’t exist in the original world. He’s a life that was born into this world and died without even seeing the sunshine.”
“The original world……don’t blur my argument with that nonsense.”
“In the end, everything will go according to fate. Even if I die here, in your hands, I can’t stop fate.”
“There is no such thing as a fate for a child to die.” Fabian glared at him. But David didn’t avoid his eyes.
“I think there’s. If you’re a helpless murderer…… Your Majesty, your intuition must have exceeded human beings, so why are you pretending not to know.”
As he said, Fabian had the same intuition as a sixth sense passed down from generation to generation of Emperors. And right now, he was trying to ignore what his instincts shouted.
David’s words were like scattered pieces, so he would get some terrifying results if he set them in order. But Fabian didn’t want to admit it.
“My child is innocent.”
“That’s right. That child didn’t do anything wrong…..It’s Your Majesty; It’s because of you that your child must die.”
From David’s mouth came a calm and bizarre reply. Remarks that he didn’t want to believe stuck in Fabian’s ear.
His hand holding the sword shuddered hard at one point, but Fabian managed to overcome his confusion and threw the sword away.
“I won’t kill you here easily. I won’t be fooled by you either.” Fabian roared low.
“Who’s out there!”
As he shouted out loud, Serus and the Black Hawk Knights who had been waiting came into the room.
“Your Majesty, what’s going on?”
“The Vatican Paladin tried to assassinate me.”
As Fabian calmly made his prearranged statement. David didn’t resist at all when Serus approached him, making him knelt on the floor and tied him up.
“This will be a big problem,” said Serus.
Fabian nodded, “Tell the Pope about this. This incident must be handled according to imperial law.”
“Yes, Your Majesty, I’ll also ask the Elders for help. We have to interrogate and find out what his intentions are before he’s executed.”
This was part of Fabian’s plan. Coincidentally, the Senate elders were at the Imperial Palace because of Adrian’s matters.
Fabian tried to uncover the truth by using the wisdom and power of their sacred relics that had been passed down from generation to generation. Then he decided to cut David’s neck as soon as it was cleared up.
“Let’s wait and see who you are and the truth of all your words.”
Fabian’s voice towards David sounded cold.
“Your sin for daring to hurt my child, you will never see the sunshine again with sanity.”
After he had succeeded in suppressing the Pope’s power and discarded Duke Metis, now, David was also already in his hands without a hitch.
“There’s a dungeon in this palace. I’ve never even gotten to the bottom of it. “
It was a terrible place. That bunker was so bad that it hadn’t been recorded in history. The Emperors used it as a torture chamber for their political enemies. They made them confessed and told their secrets by tormenting their mental health.
“I…….”
“Don’t talk nonsense anymore.”
David looked at Fabian in silence. He could only remember what he saw within the eyes of the person before him—the black eyes full of madness. And endless screams of life and despair inside it.
“I’m not on anyone’s side.”
Buuk!
At the end of his speech, David passed out after Fabian couldn’t stand it and kicked him in the stomach.
“Your Majesty…You said we shouldn’t kill him.”
“I haven’t killed him yet.”
Serus secretly quivered at Fabian’s reply and immediately ordered the Knights to take David away as he was afraid that if left like this, Fabian would accidentally kill him.
Only
“But once he confesses all of his guts, I’m going to tear him to death with this hand.”
“Yes, I believe you will.”
Serum could see, Fabian must have killed David dozens of times in his mind. So he felt that his decision to take David out was the right thing to do.
The rest of the role would now be assisted by the Elders.
The Duel of the Truth* was about to begin.
Nobody could lie in the battle, and nobody could last with a sane mind.
( *Chapter 81 )
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