A Father's Heart

My daughter, reunited with me across a hundred years, was blind.

It felt like taking a hammer blow to the skull.

“……I apologize for startling you.”

Lisera moved to lower the veil back over her face.

“Don’t cover it.”

The words came out reflexively, even through the shock.

I could not let my precious daughter feel hurt.

“Forgive me. The first time I’ve had the honor of seeing Her Highness’s face, and it’s so beautiful that this humble man could hardly breathe. Would you allow me to continue admiring it?”

“It must be uncomfortable to look at…… Are you certain?”

“My heart is pounding so hard I can barely stand it. Is this what love is?”

I improvised something vaguely appropriate, and Lisera smiled as she lowered the veil fully.

A look of understanding and grace.

……I knew.

She recognized the sound I had made — that cry of shock.

She knew I was scrambling to cover.

This child already understood.

And she was letting me save face. Pretending to be convinced.

Just like when she used to look up at me from the empty space beneath my desk.

When I worked late and finally noticed her there, apologetic — and she would smile and say she had been happy just watching me.

“Can you keep this secret?”

“I swear it.”

I answered as my mind raced.

When I had been alive, Lisera had been a bright, healthy child.

There had been no signs of vision loss.

Cataracts in a hundred years? Retinal detachment?

No — even if she had contracted something, it should have been treatable.

Celestial medicine was hard to come by, but she was still a princess.

“……Is that why you want to meet Alicia?”

“Yes. It’s a rare hereditary disease…… one that only affects half-elves.”

I stared at Lisera.

At my daughter, whose eyes looked at nothing.

“Is that true?”

“……Pardon?”

“Is that really true, Princess Lisera?”

Before Lisera could answer, the handmaid snapped in fury.

“How dare you! Are you interrogating Her Highness?”

“Quiet.”

I fixed the handmaid with a glare and hit her with Roar.

A reflexive command.

“Shut your mouth and stand back.”

I used it again — the handmaid’s face went pale as her breath caught.

Once I had silenced her, I turned back to Lisera.

“Is that true, Your Highness?”

“……Yes. It is.”

“……”

I closed my eyes.

Decided.

“Understood. Then I’ll arrange it as quickly as possible.”

“I’m grateful, but may I know a specific date? I need to plan the rest of my itinerary.”

“Tomorrow, no, within three days. I’ll have something set up. For today……”

I spoke evenly.

“You must be exhausted from the long journey. Please rest. I’ll give you the entire west wing.”

“Thank you. I’ll make sure not to shame Librata’s hospitality with any poor conduct.”

“Not at all. If you find yourself at loose ends, please feel free to visit me in the east wing…… I would be honored.”

So much I wanted to say. So much I wanted to ask.

But I held it back for now.

“Let’s go, Melius.”

After everything was settled.

I took Melius with me and made the rounds.

Meeting with the count and Roderic to put full security measures in place.

The west wing would be the princess’s quarters — I pulled every staff member out to prepare for any contingency.

Meanwhile, I reinforced Alicia’s security.

“I bought us three days, so the elves will hold off for today at least. Still, stay sharp just in case.”

“……”

Once the inspection was complete, I brought Melius back to the annex.

For a truly private conversation, somewhere the elves couldn’t overhear.

But standing in front of the annex was a dark elf — Heinkel.

Heinkel spotted me and gave a short bow.

“It seemed like things would get complicated if the elves saw me, so I’ve been keeping out of sight.”

“Come inside.”

“Pardon? Shouldn’t I ask Melius first?”

“It’s fine. You’ll have something to say.”

With that, I brought both Melius and Heinkel into the annex sitting room.

Melius had kept his mouth shut the entire time.

I stared him down.

Heinkel was hesitating.

“Heinkel.”

“Yes?”

“Did you know?”

“About the Fourth Princess?”

I spoke calmly.

“If you’d rather not say, don’t.”

“I apologize. But I truly didn’t know. Actually, let me be more honest.”

“……”

“Those above me, the Queen, may know. But I was never given that information. I was simply told to gather intel if I ever came across the Fourth Princess.”

“More detail.”

“The Fourth Princess has very little public activity. I was told to investigate why.”

“What’s your guess?”

Heinkel spoke carefully.

“I thought there might be something wrong with her health. Perhaps she was frail.”

“That’s all?”

“……She was wearing a veil, so I suspected facial scarring or burns.”

“Are you calling me an idiot right now?”

I looked up at the ceiling.

Absurd.

“When the princess moved, handmaids were right in front and behind her. Her gait was unnaturally slow. Do you think a field agent wouldn’t catch the meaning?”

“……”

People who lose their sight develop heightened hearing.

All the more so for someone with elven blood, who already had sharp ears.

Lisera was following the sound of her handmaids’ footsteps.

The document copy I had handed her, the handmaid had taken it away immediately.

There were holes everywhere. No way Heinkel missed them.

“There are celestial healing medicines. A princess not being able to access them doesn’t make sense. Does it?”

“……I’m a field agent. Making judgments on my own authority isn’t permitted.”

“Fine. Got it. Melius.”

I turned to Melius.

He stared at me, expressionless.

“You knew she was like that, didn’t you?”

“I knew.”

“What happened? She should be able to get treatment.”

“You heard the explanation. A rare hereditary disease unique to half-elves. She’s been traveling to meet half-elves to find a solution.”

“You’re really going to keep lying? Then what about the deal between Crocell and the elves?”

“The princess’s blindness is a major flaw. A secret that must not be revealed.”

“You’re asking for this right now…”

“It’s a lie.”

Heinkel’s voice.

Hands on his knees, Heinkel spoke in a trembling voice.

“Melius is lying right now.”

“Dark elf, don’t say anything more. A field agent has no right to speak on such matters.”

“Screw that.”

Heinkel said it firmly and turned to me.

“Among the children of the first emperor, Sirik Karakas, one has a grave problem. It’s something that weighs on the entire clan.”

Heinkel forced the words out.

“The fourth daughter of Sirik Karakas, the Fourth Princess, is infertile.”

“What?”

“The Fourth Princess is a half-elf. Half-elves cannot bear children.”

“What are you……”

Half-elves end with the first generation.

Isn’t that obvious?

It’s obvious.

“……”

A chill ran through me.

The fear I had felt from the moment I saw Lisera.

I understood what it was.

“You crazy bastards.”

“……”

Even as I glared, Melius kept his eyes shut.

The deal between Marquis Crocell and the elves.

Marquis Crocell saying the empire was rotten.

Alicia receiving annual examinations from the elves.

Roderic, the eldest son, still unbetrothed ‘just in case.’

And Lisera, who had lost her sight.

Vision loss — treatable with celestial medicine — yet kept hidden.

Everything connected.

“……You tried to make Lisera able to have children? And the vision loss is a side effect?”

Human experimentation.

Nothing else explained it.

Heinkel spoke rapidly.

“Humans may not think about it, but all the non-human clans do. The second emperor hasn’t appeared in the hundred years since the first died — but someday, one will. And when that happens……”

“They’ll marry that second emperor to one of the first emperor’s children.”

The youngest, me, had been betrothed. But the eldest, Roderic, had been left unattached.

Just in case. Just in case someone became emperor.

To leave a seat open.

“Yes! Exactly! Male or female, it doesn’t matter, even siblings, even a child and parent if it comes to it. As long as they can be joined. That’s all it takes!”

“Then legitimacy is established.”

For the non-human races, I, Sirik, had died only a hundred years ago. That wasn’t so distant a memory.

Even young Melius had seen me from afar.

My name, my bloodline, still carried enormous weight among them.

“Right. That’s why they gave patronage. That was the whole point of the twelve-house race.”

If the next emperor came from among the humans, they would marry them to someone of my bloodline.

A union everyone could politically accept.

And if they had a child — the third emperor.

“But Lisera can’t have children. No matter how the twelve-house race ends, the elves can never win.”

Because she was a half-elf.

No matter what, it would be impossible.

“That’s right. The elves were automatically disqualified. They tried to change that. They created half-elves. No, they produced them! To change Lisera’s constitution, they made experimental subjects!”

“……”

“You can’t just create them in random households. Things could go wrong. Karakas is a rough place. They needed a safe enclosure, somewhere with the power to suppress secrets. So they planted them in noble families…… They planted the eggs.”

Brood parasitism.

Alicia hadn’t been born from a simple affair.

The elves had created her for experimental purposes.

The elves, normally so slow to act, had responded this quickly to the Crocell incident — to recover Alicia!

“……These lunatics have lost their minds.”

The absurdity left me speechless.

A thousand thoughts ran through my head.

What did the mother do? Does Lisera know and cooperate with this?

Melius spoke quietly.

“……The elders called it constitutional improvement.”

“Does that make any sense?”

A hundred concessions — no, ten thousand concessions — fine, let’s say it does.

Earth had infertility clinics, didn’t it?

But Lisera had lost her sight.

This was absolutely not a normal method.

“It’s a disaster. They’re insane.”

I shook my head.

A hundred-year gap.

I had thought things were running decently well without an emperor.

But I was wrong.

All kinds of madness had taken root in my absence, and this was one of them.

Heinkel said quietly.

“……I’ll cooperate, Young Master Rigen.”

“What?”

“You’re going to resolve this, aren’t you? I’ll help.”

Heinkel was resolute.

I frowned.

“Just saying this much puts you in danger. Go any deeper and you’ll lose your head for certain.”

“……Those above already know everything.”

Heinkel ground his teeth.

“If I can guess this much, they must already know. The Queen must know…… and she’s letting it happen.”

“……”

“To use this information at the right moment. Holding it back for the perfect opportunity. To bring down the elves.”

Human experimentation.

With the Seven Sin God incident, imperial law banned it outright.

Human experimentation on the emperor’s daughter?

If this became public, the elves would take a catastrophic hit.

Accountability for the entire clan.

Heinkel said firmly.

“That can’t be allowed. I won’t accept it.”

“……”

“I’ve never met His Majesty the Emperor in person. But I’ve lived thinking of myself as the emperor’s eyes, as his eyes and ears in the empire. Gathering intelligence, striking and withdrawing, I told myself it was necessary work for the empire, that I was His Majesty’s proud extension.”

Heinkel shook his head.

“But after His Majesty passed…… the Queen changed. No, the dark elves changed. We’ve turned our backs on the security of the empire that all of humanity fought together to build. We pursue only the glory of the dark elves.”

“……”

“Bring down the elves? Satisfying, maybe. But those forty million elves are also citizens of the empire. This could destabilize the empire itself. It’s an incredibly dangerous path.”

Heinkel pleaded.

“Give me orders and I’ll follow them.”

“……What makes you willing to stake your life on me?”

Heinkel had just thrown his life away.

Revealing classified information to me without clearance, offering cooperation.

Other dark elves would come to kill him as a traitor.

Heinkel grinned.

“You protected us completely from Marquis Crocell. That made me think I could trust you.”

“Did it?”

“……Oh, and the sandwiches were delicious.”

“Amelia’s sandwiches are good.”

“Worth dying for, aren’t they?”

Heinkel’s resolve.

I nodded.

“Right. Thank you.”

“Were the sandwiches really that good?”

Melius asked blankly.

I glared at him, but Melius didn’t care.

“If they’re really that good, I’ll cooperate too. Give me one.”

“What makes you think I’d trust you……”

“I was exiled to this backwater for opposing the elders.”

A brief statement.

When Lisera had started to lift her veil, Melius had genuinely tried to stop her.

I clicked my tongue.

“If you don’t have clothes, you wrap yourself in rags. Damn it, always short on people.”

“What are you going to do?”

“What else? War.”

My daughter was shocked by my reaction and apologized to me instead.

“That child lied.”

They say a parent’s heart means letting yourself be fooled by your child’s lies?

I couldn’t press her any further.

So I would clear out everything around her.

“Hey, Melius. Tell me everything you know, starting now.”

“And then?”

“Organize the intelligence, prepare to strike the elves……”

After becoming emperor, I hadn’t killed people casually.

Even serious criminals, I just sent them to the quarries to dig stone for life.

Not out of mercy.

In this era, people were labor. Keeping criminals alive and extracting work from them was more efficient.

But this required a warning.

A clear warning written in blood.

“I’m burying all of them.”

They dared to lay hands on my daughter.