Chapter 96

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Kwanach sent away all the Kingsguard and moved quietly by himself. Taking advantage of a late night, he arrived at the cell where Jaxor was locked up.

The guard guarding the front of the cell greeted Kwanach with surprise.

“Your Majesty, there is no escort here. What brings you…….”

“I’ll be watching the prisoner personally, so you don’t have to worry.”

He was an old guard, as he was in charge of a big shot named Jaxor, and he quickly realized Kwanach’s intentions. Kwanach wanted him to retreat because there were things that needed to be done in secret.

After the guard handed Kwanach the key to the cell, he bowed and retreated. Kwanach opened the cell door with a look of indifference, but with a slight confusion on his face.

The door opened and a tickling smell wafted from within. He placed the lamp he had brought in the corner, and light spread into the otherwise pitch black room.

Then a black shape was lounging on a cot that was snugly attached to the wall. It was Jaxor, who had fallen into a shallow sleep.

“Who is it ……?”

Dreamily, Jaxor let out a ripped voice.

He looked shabby. One arm that’s been cut off and empty, and it was damaged because it didn’t wash for a long time and he couldn’t eat properly.

It was a face that at one time was called handsome. But that glorious figure was no longer seen. It was he who had given up everything.

Kwanach was bitter in the mouth. Besides his betrayal and anger toward his longtime best friend, a faint feeling of pity disturbed his heart at the same time.

However, he could not allow himself to forgive those who were driven by emotion to rebel against him.

Kwanach quickly calmed his emotions and stood before Jaxor. The prisoner and the emperor faced each other.

“Wake up.”

Jaxor, who had noticed a step late, examined Kwanach and gave a small, empty laugh. Staggering up from the bed, Jaxor greeted the emperor with an arrogantly exaggerated gesture.

“What brings His Majesty out here at this late hour?”

Kwanach spoke in a voice loud enough to fill the room with echoes.

“I see you still have some spirit left in you to joke around.”

“Well, how much longer until the day I die? I must live positively. 

Isn’t that why the emperor visited me so secretly? You’re going to end it.”

Kwanach neither denied nor affirmed.

“I heard from the guards. They say the whole continent is buzzing. White battle or something. I guess the Empress’s performance was quite impressive”

“She has always been amazing.”

Jaxor, who would have sarcastically snapped back, was quiet. He stared at Kwanach with an even calmer look in his eyes.

“Yes, I guess it’s only clear that I made the wrong choice.”

Jaxor’s bitter voice echoed through the room.

“Do you regret it?”

“Regret doesn’t change anything, does it?”

“You’ve come too far.”

“So why are you here alone?”

“……I kept thinking about what to do with you.”

Kwanach made an official statement about what Roman and Diaquit had done, but Jaxor’s name was left out.

There were quite a few people who witnessed firsthand Jaxor’s attack on Kwanach at the border, but they were all covered up by the imperial order to keep it a military secret as far as Jaxor was concerned.

Various reasons were laid out for not disclosing that Jaxor was involved in the conspiracy.

First, Jaxor was the first contributor who had led the revolution along with Kwanach. If the wrongdoings of such a person were known to the whole nation, public sentiment would be thrown into confusion.

The fact that the leader of the revolution had been complicit in treason to restore the previous dynasty was a source of rumors that jeopardized the current imperial power. The fall of Jaxor’s honor, in other words, was a blemish on the principles of the imperial revolution.

But it was not only for political reasons. It was also Kwanach’s last consideration for his longtime best friend. In a sense, Jaxor was also a victim of Roman’s deception.

Kwanach’s firm voice shook the air.

“The fact that you committed treason will be covered up. Externally, it will be announced that you died of illness.”

Jaxor’s face, which had been forcing itself to be nonchalant, twisted.

“Why?”

“It’s a courtesy to the founder of the country, a kind of last affection for a good friend. I don’t want your name to remain as a traitor in history, either.”

For Kwanach, it was an exceptionally limited punishment. He has always had no mercy for traitors. It had to be even more so on the battlefield, where the command system was critical.

The influence of Usphere was also a major factor in Kwanach’s decision. He was learning that there was not only blood and violence in this world, but also conciliation and forgiveness.

“Jaxor, you have two choices.”

“…….”

“Either you will be banished far from the Imperial Palace, hiding your position and name, or you will die here at my hands.”

“Ha.”

Jaxor suddenly stumbled and sat on the edge of the bed as if his legs had lost strength. The unexpected choices made him laugh.

It was something that he knew the former Kwanach would never have spat out. Until now, he had believed that such a change in Kwanach was poison, a weakness that would weaken the empire.

But now that he had heard the story of the White Battle, which concluded everything in peace, Jaxor’s thinking changed a little.

Maybe Kwanach has not become weaker, but has become more relaxed enough to forgive his opponents.

The look in Kwanach’s eyes as he ran around the battlefield was always urgent, like someone who was being chased by something. Eyes that had no fear of death at all. It was an eagerness to win what he wanted, even if it meant burning his own life.

Jaxor became so intoxicated by the overwhelming intensity of it all that he began to follow Kwanach. Now Kwanach seemed much calmer and more stable than in those days. Was this change really only a bad thing?

Jaxor muttered.

“I tried to kill you, and you forgive me?”

“You have lived your whole life holding a sword, and now your arm was cut off. Haven’t you atoned for your crime to some extent?”

“…….”

“The choice is yours.”

Silence reigned for a moment. Jaxor let out a low sigh of laughter. In fact, his answer had been set from the moment he heard Kwanach’s suggestion.

“I think you already know what my answer is. What is the point of giving me choices?”

Kwanach said monotonously, moving only one eyebrow.

“How can there be no meaning? It is to let you know that I sincerely considered you a brother.”

That was why Jaxor was given the last courtesy treatment.

Jaxor’s face gradually became distorted. His breath was short and his eyes were red. There was contrition all over his face.

He should not have been tempted by Roman. Jaxor knew it in his heart. What did it matter if they shared blood? His own true brother was not Roman, but Kwanach, who had been with him since childhood.

He was swayed by shallow tricks and betrayed his friend who had been with him all his life, and tarnished the meaning of the revolution they had accomplished together.

He didn’t realize until everything went awry. It was a belated and meaningless realization.

Jaxor said, sweeping down his face with only one hand left.

“I don’t want to survive on pity.”

It was a death that he had already decided since the moment he had attempted the betrayal.

“This is a traitor’s end. Let’s deal with it our way, my friend.”

Jaxor smiled faintly. But as he stood up in bed, his legs trembled with anxiety.

The end of disobedience in a slave society was death. When he led the revolutionary army through the battlefields, the only thing that awaited traitors was merciless execution.

“I even lost one of my arms, and had no intention of holding on to a suffering life. I can’t even use a sword, and I don’t have the confidence to live. You know me. I have a lot of pride.”

“…….”

“You said that the loss of my arm atoned to some extent for my sins. No, I don’t think so. I’ve committed a sin too great to sustain life even in poverty. No matter how much I didn’t know Roman’s true intentions. I don’t want to live with that guilt.”

“Are you sure ……?”

No one could be completely resolute in the face of death.

Jaxor felt nervous and anxious, but still nodded his head, not bending to his will.

If it was Kwanach’s consideration that gave Jaxor a choice, it was Jaxor’s consideration that expressed his willingness to atone for his sins in death without hesitation. He was determined to take responsibility for the betrayal he committed.

Kwanach closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them and said.

“I will not stop you if that is your wish.”

“I’m touched. It wouldn’t be strange to be beheaded right in the square.”

“Roman will soon be.”

“Then how will I die?”

“Any way you want.”

“I would be honored if my best friend killed me himself. If possible, it would be right now. I don’t want to be trapped here any longer.”

Kwanach silently pulled a dagger from his chest pocket. Jaxor relaxed from his entire body and meekly closed both eyes.

A lifetime passed quickly in Jaxor’s mind. The days of his childhood when he had nothing and just rolled around miserably. The image of Kwanach, the man who instigated a large group of slave soldiers to ignite a rebellion. It was him who stood by his side.

A new country was built and slavery disappeared, but Jaxor was still confined to his birth. A real family suddenly appeared. Moreover, the whisper that he was not a slave, but actually of royal blood, was too sweet.

He swallowed it, knowing it was harmful to his body.

Jaxor closed eyes tightly. Still, he felt fortunate that the end was not miserable and lonely.

In the previous life, Jaxor had died a more miserable death. It was around the time the war broke out between Diaquit and Roman’s collaboration. When Jaxor learned one step late of the experiment that Roman was making, he rebelled against it.

Roman was angry with his brother, who was constantly revolting. He was also worried that the experiment might leak out.

In the end, Roman killed Jaxor. Then he faked Jaxor’s death as if he had died on the battlefield and ended up alone.

He would die early in this life as well, but it was at the end of a choice he made of his own volition. A death a little more resolute and honorable.

Jaxor murmured as he felt the tip of the knife approaching him.

“For the sun of Radon.”

Puck! The blade in Kwanach’s hand stabbed Jaxor precisely in the vital spot. Allowing him to die quickly and painlessly to the maximum.

Kwanach silently embraced the body of his crumbling brother and best friend.

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*I’m not crying……