The Sole Prince of the Fallen Kingdom-Chapter 30. Communication [2]

"Why me then, huh?" Zephy said, sitting up straight with a puff of frost from his nostrils. "Outta all people?"

His wings were producing an aurora that deduced the truth in Aiden's words.

"Because I need to tell you the tale about the Fall of the Everhart Kingdom and expect your help to fulfill a promise. To—"

As Aiden continued, his voice broke in rage, his fingernails tore through his skin, and as the blood ran down his palm, his crimson eyes glinted with bloodlust, "—Kill the Emperor Norbury."

The aurora shone green on Aiden's words, finding no lies in them.

"Tch. Sounds like a pain in the ass," Zephy muttered under his breath, releasing a sigh after seeing that much hatred and bloodlust in the eyes of a ten-year-old.

"...Alright, spit it out," Zephy said, lazily lying back again on the Serpent's corpse.

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"...and that's why I'd appreciate your agreeing to help me." Gradually, with occasional hiccups to keep his emotions bottled up, Aiden recapped the horrifying tale of the fall of the Kingdom of Everhart.

He felt goosebumps all over his body just remembering the scene when the castle collapsed.

When the frenzy of the maddened soldiers slaughtered the citizens.

When his mother pierced the heart of her husband.

When his father whispered his name in his final moments.

Every single memory made him dig his nails deeper into his skin.

The skill of [Perfect Memory]—that he thought he would be enthralled to have once it got unsealed—had become a curse that he couldn't throw away.

Even just recalling a glimpse of the tragedy had the entirety of it playing in his mind.

Every single thing down to the minutest detail. Vividly.

"That's... Is all of it true?" Zephy said, folding his wings in front.

"Yes, it unfortunately is," Aiden mumbled.

"Gods damn it all..." Zephy cursed, his voice containing a hint of rage.

Even if he hadn't seen the kingdom in more than nine centuries, just knowing that the country he had lived in the longest had been reduced to rubble made him feel a tinge of anger, for a moment, though it calmed down soon.

"So, what d'you want from me, exactly?" In a hoarse voice, Zephy continued.

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"To kill the Emperor—" Aiden's words got cut off by Zephy.

"The hell you mean by that? You want me to do the killin'? For what, some vengeance quest?" Zephy retorted, making his voice loud to suppress Aiden.

"N-No. That's not what I meant—" Aiden stuttered, frightened by Zephy's sudden change in tone.

He isn't alright in the head... Seeing Aiden's frequent change in behavior made Zephy slightly concerned.

"Ugh... Look, kid. I know you're hurtin', but hangin' onto it like this? It'll eat you from the inside out." Zephy tried to offer up advice, keeping Aiden's health and well-being as his top priority, but—

"NO! That won't happen at all!" Aiden declared, slamming every single gust of wind down to earth violently, causing the ground to split in various places.

"I only request you to teach me magic. I would do everything else by myself. However..." Aiden placed his left hand on his chest and continued,

"If you don't want to, I will do it on my own. No matter how long it takes. I'd ensure that Emperor Ludovic Delirio Norbury dies by my own hands."

His eyes brimming with determination, Aiden's words struck like lightning in Zephy's ears.

To Zephy, the kid in front of him was an anomaly—who, despite suffering constantly, was hell-bent on fulfilling his "promise" of taking revenge.

He was among the very few people Zephy couldn't seem to understand in his entire life of more than 1,000 years.

"...Why the hell you wanna kill him so bad? Have you ever even killed anyone before?" Zephy asked, his gruff voice curious now.

"No, I haven't killed anyone before, but I have to kill him!"

"And why?"

"Because Mo—"

The moment Aiden attempted to mention his deal with Mortivis and the happenings in the void, he lost his voice, his vision, his hearing, and every single one of his senses.

An unprecedented fear occupied his mind as he felt a dangerous tingling sensation near his vitals.

[Don't.]

A cold, ruthless voice resounded in his head as he came back to his senses.

...W-What was that?

Sweat ran down his back that didn't seem to freeze.

"Haah... Haah..."

His knees gave out as he supported himself on his hands, taking deep breaths rapidly to calm his pounding heart, which produced a smoky texture.

"What the—? Why'd you start gasping like a fish on dry land?" Zephy asked, concern slipping into his scratchy tone despite himself.

"It's—" Aiden tried to tell the truth, but his voice got stuck in his throat, refusing to come out.

What's happening?

"...It's nothing." Seeing Zephy waiting for his response with concern, Aiden pushed all of the weird yet terrifying ordeal to the side in his mind.

Still, his thoughts were racing at a speed that was giving him a headache.

"Alright..." Though Zephy had his doubts, he had no right to ask anything if the boy didn't want to say.

"So, back to what I asked. Why do you wanna kill him? We're talkin' 'bout a monster who can bring back the dead, command legions of abominations, and snap kingdoms in half like twigs. You think I'm kiddin'? Even at my peak, I'd think twice. And now?" He let out a sharp, bitter chuckle. "Now I'm just a bird on a corpse, barely moved in a thousand damn years."

He didn't want a child worsening his own suffering when he already didn't seem in the best mental state.

"...It doesn't matter to me if you could do it or not. All I know is that I must kill him." Though Aiden had some doubts, he knew that he couldn't chicken out.

There was one thing absolutely clear in his mind: he would bring back his father and Elsie, no matter what he had to go through.

"But why?" Zephy asked once again, losing all hope to the stubbornness of Aiden.

"Because—" Aiden attempted to think of an answer that would silence all of Zephy's questions, once and for all.

And he arrived at one.

"Because I want to."

Zephy's truth-deducing aurora broke into teal snowflakes the moment those words left Aiden's mouth.

Those words were accompanied by a jumble of emotions.

It was a lie, yet it was the truth.

He was forced to say it, yet he wasn't.

It was his will, yet it wasn't.

The emotions behind those words: desperation, self-hatred, guilt, acceptance, fear, determination, rage.

Every single one of them was so overwhelming that the aurora couldn't handle them.

...Heh. Kid's cracked, alright.

"...You wanted me to teach you magic, right? I'll make damn sure you're a walking disaster by the time you leave."

He has the blessings of two sovereigns, huh? Figures. Crazy attracts crazy, Zephyrix thought with a subtle smirk rising onto his beak.

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