IDIBC Chapter 81

A Fate Wrongly Defied

The door closed, and a tomb-like silence descended upon the room where only the two of them remained.

“I’m sorry, my son.”

Unbelievable words echoed in that space. Ricardo’s breath caught as he bolted upright from his seat.

“Please forgive me. For letting you go like that.”

At his father’s urgent words, sensing his son was about to leave, Ricardo stopped in his tracks. Hearing the repeated apologies—’I know it’s difficult, but please forgive me’—Ricardo closed his eyes. Unable to find words to respond, he shook his head slightly with his lips parted.

“No, it’s not that. You had no choice back then. Even I would have… I would have done the same.”

Ricardo managed to reply. He truly understood his father’s decision. Yet why did something hot rise from within his chest? Had he not actually understood? Had he wanted to receive an apology, just as Lienne had said?

“No. Even if there was no choice, I’m sorry. Even if I could turn back time, I would make the same decision, but please forgive me for that as well.”

Ricardo exhaled with difficulty, along with a sigh.

Even in the life before Ricardo received the oracle that he would become Emperor, the Duke of Rochester had sent him to Resotia for refuge. It was perhaps natural that an Emperor without the map of the labyrinth would fear the most powerful being in this world, born alongside the star of the saint.

The Duke at that time, even with the Temple’s help, had failed to protect Ricardo.

Ricardo had been kidnapped by Count Fennel, who acted on the Emperor’s orders, and because of that had to endure harsh years.

But all of this was from a life the Duke of Rochester could not remember. Yet he was saying it now. That even if he could turn back time, he would make the same decision.

Somehow, those words comforted Ricardo’s heart.

If the Duke had regretted the decision itself, Ricardo would have found it even harder to bear.

“No matter how dangerous I thought it was, I should have kept you by my side. I was foolish to believe the Temple’s words that sending you to Resotia was God’s will.”

Duke Rochester had believed the words of the Grand Priest Hadeima at the time. That the only way to safely protect Ricardo from the Emperor was to manifest Ricardo’s power as a Rochester.

Therefore, they must send him to Resotia, where the saintess and the Grand Temple were located, as quickly as possible—the Grand Priest’s face had been filled with deep reverence for God as he spoke.

“But please believe this one thing. I never sent you away because of that oracle that you might kill me. It was solely to protect you. To keep you alive and whole. Until you could manifest your power.”

Ricardo turned his head away. If he didn’t, he felt like he would plunge headfirst to the floor.

“In the Empire’s thousand-year history, fathers dying for their sons has been common. I believed in God’s command. That if I were to die by your hand, it would be because I died fighting to protect you.”

Eventually, Ricardo collapsed into a chair, clutching his head. The Duke simply watched his son without being able to breathe properly. To him, waiting like a criminal for judgment, every minute and second felt as long as eternity.

“What if that oracle was because of me?”

At that moment, when it felt like his heart was beating in his throat, unbelievable words came from his son.

“What… do you mean?”

“Exactly what I said. That oracle about killing my father and becoming Emperor…”

Ricardo couldn’t continue for a moment, as if his throat was constricted.

“If that oracle came about not from God, but because of me.”

The Duke’s brow furrowed repeatedly as he heard these incomprehensible words.

“If I carved out with my own hands the fate of killing my father, then could you, Duke, fully accept me?”

What was his son saying now? That the oracle did not originate from God?

“And if you knew this, could the Duchess, who loves you so dearly, still look me straight in the eye as she does now?”

“……”

“I was afraid. From the day I returned to Dermeier at the age of fifteen, there wasn’t a single day I didn’t tremble with fear. Every day I trembled, unable to sleep, worrying that the day might come when you and the Duchess would learn of this.”

“I cannot even begin to guess what you’re talking about.”

“I… turned back time. Ten years. To save that woman, Lienne. By joining hands with Stuart.”

Ricardo trembled all over yet laughed hollowly. It was the look of someone watching a house across the river turn completely to ash.

“You’re saying that this oracle came to you because you turned back time?”

Ricardo gazed at his father in silence for a moment. He had never even imagined that a day would come when he could reveal everything like this. What would happen now?

It felt as bleak and frightening as the day he returned to the Duke’s estate. His breath caught and his vision went dark.

So now all that remained was to be abandoned again?

“That’s right. An oracle that didn’t exist in my original life came into being.”

Ricardo stared blankly at his trembling hands.

“With these hands, I personally held a sword to Stuart’s throat and told him. To turn back time, or else not a single bloodline of Schneider would survive that night.”

Was that why? Because I threatened to kill all of that bloodline beloved by God, did God place this yoke upon me? He asked again and again. Before a God who remained silent throughout.

Yet Ricardo could not help but ask again.

This son who would cause your death, and by my own hands at that…

“Would you still forgive me?”

Ricardo’s eyes filled with pitch-black despair as he looked at his father, who gave no answer.

“Can you forgive me?”

“……”

“I resented you. I resented you again and again. Why did you send me to Resotia? Why did you abandon me twice? No matter what danger came, why didn’t you think to hold me in your arms and fight? If you had, then I… I…”

Ricardo couldn’t continue. If his father hadn’t sent him to Resotia, then he wouldn’t have met Lienne.

He couldn’t bring himself to say that, couldn’t even contemplate the slightest possibility of not having met her.

“Wouldn’t I not have to kill my father?”

Ricardo’s heart grew only more desolate as he looked at Duke Rochester’s shocked face.

The Duke found it difficult to sort through his confused mind as he tried to grasp the meaning of his son’s words. Though he couldn’t understand it precisely, Ricardo had loved Lienne, that wildflower-like child, in his previous life too, and unable to lose her, had turned back time.

Was he saying that an oracle that didn’t exist had come to his son who turned back time? How was that possible?

Even though he couldn’t fully comprehend it, the Duke’s heart crumbled.

How anxious must his son have been all this time because of this?

How much must his heart have ached from the guilt of having created the fate of killing his father with his own hands? Behind those countless blades he erected outwardly, how deeply must he have been cut?

Every minute and second must have been painful. Every day must have been consumed with loneliness.

Duke Rochester struggled to steady himself as he felt the ground beneath him collapse.

He couldn’t show himself crumbling before his son.

He slowly approached his son, who was still clutching his head, consumed by agony.

“My son.”

When he called out gently, Ricardo slowly looked up at him. With the expression of young Ricardo, just like the day he left home.

The Duke reached out his trembling hand and stroked his son’s head.

“Even a fate wrongly defied is still a fate.”

Ricardo could only gasp for breath at the Duke’s resolute voice.

“You speak truly insulting words to me and your mother.”

“……”

“If you carved out such a fate for yourself, then hasn’t that given me, as a father, something to do?”

At these unbelievable words, Ricardo finally broke down. Though he covered his face with both hands, he couldn’t hide the tears streaming through his fingers.

“Yes, I was right. My conviction was correct. If you truly turned back time and received such an oracle from God, then I exist here to protect you. For the fate of my son who will become Emperor.”

“……”

“This is an honor beyond belief.”

“Father.”

Ricardo called the Duke ‘father’ for the first time. Every time he had tried to utter the word father before, the contents of the oracle would pierce his heart like a knife.

“Ricardo, my son. Do not blame yourself. This is a command as your father.”

Duke Rochester, called ‘father’ by his son for the first time, felt his chest grow hot as well.

“Grant me the honor of dying while protecting you.”

When Ricardo could no longer bear the emotional turbulence and rose from his seat again, the Duke extended his long arms and pulled his son into his embrace. His chest, now grown thicker than his own torso, met his warmly.

Ricardo, who had seemed like he would never break, wept as if his heart had been torn out. The Duke carefully stroked his son.