Chapter 135-136

Chapter 135 – We Separated!!

"Heal… You are now my absolute, sole successor."

He declared with a stern expression.

"Me… As the king of Sanfaris?"

I could hardly believe my ears.

Ever since I had been born, the idea of being king had not occurred to me.

I knew that I was powerless, and that no one in the palace had any expectations for me.

Regardless, it was not something that I could accept. I had a responsibility here to protect the residents of this island.

However, I couldn't help but ask him.

"I cannot accept that… But, will you tell me why you chose me?"

"There is only one reason. You have the most power out of all my children."

"Power…"

So that was what he thought after seeing my magic and the growth of this island.

And then Erevan opened his mouth.

"Tsk. You drove Heal to a place like this. It's rather late to be saying that you misjudged him, eh?"

"I have never misjudged Heal's power. This island was given to Heal so that he could grow."

"Grow… Do you really expect us to believe that? Regardless, the Chief ain't going with you."

Erevan moved between us and glared at my father.

"He will. Heal is going to inherit the kingdom."

"The Chief said he won't go. Haven't you heard?"

"It is against reason. A child must succeed their parents. It is the law of nature. I will take him by force if I have to."

"How dare you! …Wha-!"

Erevan's body suddenly started to shudder violently.

I had cast Shield on him, but I could see that father's eyes were glaring with rage.

I suddenly felt that my own body had been frozen. But I averted my eyes and somehow managed to free myself.

Erevan would not be subjugated either. He raised his voice, stopped his shaking, and raised his fist.

"I won't lose to the likes of you!!"

"Erevan, stop!!"

I shouted, and cast the strongest Shield I possibly could around him.

Father looked a little surprised, but he then thrust out his own fist.

"Oh? You can still move in front of me… Hmph!"

When Erevan and my father's fists met, shock waves erupted around them like some kind of hurricane.

Father's robe was blown away, and his bare torso was exposed.

I had never seen him like this before. He had a strong, muscular physique that did not seem to fit his old age.

He was large enough to match even Erevan, who was always so proud of his muscles.

"Not bad… Are you really an old man?"

"You have courage, I will give you that. However…"

Father grunted, and Erevan went flying into the air.

But Erevan managed to catch himself as he fell.

"What!!"

"It doesn't matter how many of you there are. You cannot stop me."

Father glared at him again, and Erevan was unable to move.

Seeing this, father started to walk towards me.

However, spider webs suddenly shot towards him from every direction.

Taran and the other Cave Spiders had unleashed their webs at him.

"Taran! Good work!! Haines, now!"

"Aye! Consider it done!!"

Ashton and Haines carried their restraining tools as they fell on him.

And thanks to their brilliant teamwork, they were able to quickly bind his hands and feet.

However, it took just one murmur of his voice for the webs, shackles, and the Kobolds to be blasted into the air.

It was all I could do to keep casting Shield on everyone. I didn't know if it was because of his spirit, but my body felt heavy.

From what I could see, it seemed like he had no intention of killing the island residents. While he sent them flying, he had not destroyed their limbs as he had done to Oren.

So he was just after me. If necessary, I could use the Teleportation Stone to escape… But it would be difficult to grab one now.

That's when it happened. Rienna spread out her arms and stood between me and my father.

"Please…listen to me, father of Lord Heal. We need Lord Heal on this island. Please don't take him away from us."

This sudden appeal caused him to stop in his tracks.

"Hmm. Indeed, it seems that the residents here are very fond of Heal. However, know this. While Heal will be leaving this place, you will remain under his rule."

"It makes no difference to us. We would be saying goodbye."

"…The kingdom needs Heal. Now get out of my way."

"No, I will not. Never."

Rienna replied unwaveringly. While father was glaring at her, somehow, Rienna did not shake or go flying into the air.

"What… Even my spirit is unable to make you move. Could it be that your crest is… Hmm, perhaps I should withdraw."

"Wh-what did you say about me?"

Father stared hard at Rienna. Then he turned away as if he had noticed something.

He was now looking at an angry, hairy, old man. Mappa. He was holding the robe that father had been wearing.

While everyone else had been unable to approach him, Mappa alone had gotten close.

"To think someone was able to escape my notice like this. The people of this island never cease to amaze me."

Though, I wasn't surprised that father had missed Mappa.

I couldn't count the number of times Mappa had appeared out of nowhere and startled us.

Father accepted the robe. It was clear that he was puzzled by Mappa's stange attitude.

"I thank you… By the way, why are you so offended?"

Mappa pointed at his beard and at his body as if trying to explain something.

I watched this and interpreted it for him.

"I think…he's saying that you have a similar physique and clothes… No, he's mad that your beard is bigger…I think."

Father's white beard was longer and fuller than Mappa's. And perhaps father exposing his torso had been the last straw.

"Hmm… That is regrettable indeed. I am sorry."

"You're going to apologize for that…"

I muttered as father put on his robe again.

Once he was finished dressing, he turned to me and said,

"If I cannot make you obey me by force…then it cannot be helped. I will have to make someone else my successor."

"Then I am…"

"You have built your own country, have you not? From now on, we will be equals in standing."

I was no longer a lord over Sanfaris territory, but the head of a separate country. He was acknowledging this.

And if we were equals, that meant this relationship between king and lord was over.

"…We might be enemies, or we might be allies."

"Indeed. However, you are still the founder of a new house that derives from the royal family. And as family, we should try and avoid any conflict when possible. This bloodline must not end."

"…Why can't you just be decent and suggest we form an alliance, if we are family? Why are you always like this?"

He was always harsh and would never indulge anyone. And I had always hated him.

He answered.

"Heal… The path of a king is a lonely one. The more you gain, the deeper that loneliness will become."

He probably considered that a warning. And I understood what he was trying to say.

However, part of this had to do with Sanfaris's tradition of deciding a person's worth based on their crest.

Perhaps I and my brothers could have gotten along, if such a tradition had not existed. Maybe Oren wouldn't have become the person he was now.

I wanted to say all of this to him. However, he turned away from me.

"As this land is not mine, I must leave at once. While I do not know if we will be allies, I shall discuss the matter with Balpas, and we will decide how to negotiate with this country in the future."

So saying, father repaired the ship and boarded it.

That's when the stunned Balpas suddenly turned to me and shouted.

"Heal! Let's form an alliance! We will be your friends forever!"

He said immediately. Though his expression was very stiff.

"To think someone was able to escape my notice like this. The people of this island never cease to amaze me."

Though, I wasn't surprised that father had missed Mappa.

I couldn't count the number of times Mappa had appeared out of nowhere and startled us.

Father accepted the robe. It was clear that he was puzzled by Mappa's stange attitude.

"I thank you… By the way, why are you so offended?"

Mappa pointed at his beard and at his body as if trying to explain something.

I watched this and interpreted it for him.

"I think…he's saying that you have a similar physique and clothes… No, he's mad that your beard is bigger…I think."

Father's white beard was longer and fuller than Mappa's. And perhaps father exposing his torso had been the last straw.

"Hmm… That is regrettable indeed. I am sorry."

"You're going to apologize for that…"

I muttered as father put on his robe again.

Once he was finished dressing, he turned to me and said,

"If I cannot make you obey me by force…then it cannot be helped. I will have to make someone else my successor."

"Then I am…"

"You have built your own country, have you not? From now on, we will be equals in standing."

I was no longer a lord over Sanfaris territory, but the head of a separate country. He was acknowledging this.

And if we were equals, that meant this relationship between king and lord was over.

"…We might be enemies, or we might be allies."

"Indeed. However, you are still the founder of a new house that derives from the royal family. And as family, we should try and avoid any conflict when possible. This bloodline must not end."

"…Why can't you just be decent and suggest we form an alliance, if we are family? Why are you always like this?"

He was always harsh and would never indulge anyone. And I had always hated him.

He answered.

"Heal… The path of a king is a lonely one. The more you gain, the deeper that loneliness will become."

He probably considered that a warning. And I understood what he was trying to say.

However, part of this had to do with Sanfaris's tradition of deciding a person's worth based on their crest.

Perhaps I and my brothers could have gotten along, if such a tradition had not existed. Maybe Oren wouldn't have become the person he was now.

I wanted to say all of this to him. However, he turned away from me.

"As this land is not mine, I must leave at once. While I do not know if we will be allies, I shall discuss the matter with Balpas, and we will decide how to negotiate with this country in the future."

So saying, father repaired the ship and boarded it.

That's when the stunned Balpas suddenly turned to me and shouted.

"Heal! Let's form an alliance! We will be your friends forever!"

He said immediately. Though his expression was very stiff.

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Chapter 136 – We made a pact!

After our father had left, Balpas and I sat down at a table in the storage house and talked.

Of course, there was the fear that my father was still plotting something, and so I had Baris monitor him.

However, according to Shiel's reports, he had yet to do anything that was suspicious.

When I followed his magic energy, I saw that he appeared to be flying around the ship and swinging his arms. I suppose he was holding a hammer…

"In any case, for now we will sign an anti-war and trade agreement. …Alright?"

"Huh? Uh, yes."

I nodded at Balpas's words.

I had become distracted by my father's movements and wasn't paying much attention to Balpas.

Balpas stopped his writing and looked at me with a worried expression.

"…Is it unacceptable to you then? If you have other conditions, I will listen to them. As much as I am able to, anyway."

"No, brother. The conditions you laid out earlier are acceptable to me."

In fact, there weren't any conditions for the anti-war agreement.

However, it took much more time to discuss the trading agreement.

This was because monsters were forbidden from walking around the city in Sanfaris.

And while I was told that secret trade often occurred in the countryside, Balpas declared that the idea of making such transactions legal and public would likely be met with strong opposition from both commoners and nobles.

And I didn't want to send anyone to Sanfaris, where they would be subject to such hostilities.

So for now, it was decided that even if a Sheorl ship was to dock at Sanfaris, only the human crew would disembark. Of course, Sheorl residents were able to change their appearance with Ryukin, so in a way, anyone could disembark if they wanted.

Furthermore, if a Sanfaris ship came here, they would only have access to one district, just as we had always intended. We could not allow them to enter the cave, after all.

And of course, they would have to obey our laws during their stay.

As such interactions between nations continued, perhaps Sanfaris would eventually lift their ban on monsters entering the city. That was my hope, anyway.

Balpas let out a sigh of relief.

"I see…thank heavens."

"I'm glad that everything went smoothly."

"Well, if you ignore Oren, I suppose it was quite smooth. By the way, considering the terms we just agreed on, you are allowed to judge Oren here. As he has committed murder on your land. What will you do?"

"Elto is taking care of Oren now. As for me, my mind hasn't changed. I want him to confess his crimes in the royal capital…"

From what I had seen, he was being kept in a corner of the storage house, where he continued to scream madly. He had apparently attempted to take his own life, so Elto was watching him carefully.

Oren now had the body of a monster, and he had lost both arms and a leg. Perhaps this appearance had plunged him into despair.

Balpas answered.

"…Then we will take him for now. I'll have reports of the investigation sent to your merchants. Well, it should only take a few months to be complete."

"…Thank you."

"What? You don't seem very happy."

"Well…he was my younger brother."

"Huh. I didn't think you saw him that way… But I suppose it's hard to not feel a little pity for him now. He will likely never be seen again. Not in the palace or the city."

As I said before, monsters were not allowed to walk in public in Sanfaris. And of course, Oren was a monster now. But even if the law were to be changed, I doubted Oren would be able to tolerate the looks he would get.

"Besides, I doubt we'll be allowed to say that it's Oren. We might say that it's the monster that killed him, and have a public trial… The one thing father will now allow is a scandal that will lead to blame being put on the royal family."

Like Balpas said, Oren was a prince.

If the whole truth was told to citizens, it would put the royal family in a bad light.

Father would not tolerate anything that injured the family's prestige.

On the other hand, he had also branded Oren as being completely useless.

And since his appearance had changed, it would be easy for my father to deny that he was part of the family at all. So it was possible that he would put Oren on trial in public.

Years ago, Oren had tormented Lopez and displayed him in the palace.

Now, it might be his turn to be made a spectacle…

It wasn't what I had wished. However, I knew that I could only feel that way because I wasn't one of his victims.

"I suppose we'll have to discuss his punishment for those murders at a later date. Well, don't worry. I promise you that his victims and their families will be compensated properly. Of course, nothing can make up for a lost life… Uh, did I say something wrong?"

Balpas asked as he studied my face.

Perhaps he had seen the surprise there. He didn't really sound like the Balpas that I knew.

"No. It's just that…now that I think about it, we haven't really talked like this before."

"And you're surprised to see that I can be rather respectable, is that it? 'Oh, so he's not just a self-indulged, drunken womanizer!'"

"I wouldn't go that far. In fact, I was more surprised by your crest."

"But you have me beat when it comes to surprising crests… Still, why do you think father did something so…roundabout?"

Balpas muttered with a mystified expression.

Indeed, it was difficult to tell what his intentions were.

Had he wanted to investigate Sheorl in person, surely there was a better way.

There was no doubt in my mind that he was wrong to have sent Oren.

So had he wanted to conquer Sheorl…? No. There would have been a fleet waiting nearby if that had been the case. Besides, I doubted he would try to conquer us without investigating first.

Then there must be some other purpose.

From the conversation I had with him, the only thing I knew was that for a while he had been searching for a successor.

But up until now, he had not spoken on that subject even once.

And then there was this talk about how he sent me to this island so that I could grow.

If this was true, that meant that father knew that my crest would show its power here.

But if that were the case, wouldn't he have sent me to caves much earlier…?

Or perhaps it was something different. Maybe he just wanted to place me in an unfortunate situation at a young age, and see how my personality would change?

I was practically the opposite of Oren. He had all the power from the beginning. He was spoiled and grew up to be a cruel person who did not understand the pain of others.

But kings often needed to be cruel. Perhaps my father had purposely raised Oren to be cold and proud.

And then had him fight his opposite…

Balpas might have been thinking about the same thing, as he then muttered.

"You and Oren… Perhaps he was testing you two. To see who was more fitting to be his successor."

As for the results…father had chosen me.

That didn't make me happy at all… Even if I ignored my treatment as a child, Oren should have been educated better. Of course, as the king of Sanfaris, he would not have been able to spend much time with Oren. Besides, there were over ten of us.

"But if that's the case, your rejection and Oren turning into that… You could say that his plan is a great failure. Our other brothers are either inferior to Oren in terms of magic, or have battle-type crests. To be honest, we are all weaker than the old Oren and you as you are now."

Balpas grimaced and then chuckled.

However, father might have been considering Balpas as a successor as well.

From the beginning, Balpas had tried to avoid clashing with me directly. He often tried to arbitrate between Oren and me. In a way, he was a well-balanced person.

Besides, he was the only one who had a crest that allowed him to act in secrecy. I felt surely father would see that he had enough of the right qualities to make a king.

Regardless, I would have to ask father about it… How much did he know about my crest, and his reasoning for sending me here.

It was with such thoughts in my mind, that Balpas and I continued to draw out the agreement.