The Emperor stood tall and walked down the throne towards his son. He lifted his son using his Aether and looked at his crying face.
"Is it true?" he asked with a serious face. The prince, still with his snot-ridden face and teary eyes, only kept crying.
"Felix, Answer my question," the Emperor shouted, but the prince only kept on crying.
"Let me help a bit," Ning said and walked towards the Emperor. The guards immediately put their spears in front of Ning to block him, but with a casual push, he pushed them away.
The Emperor himself got cautious as he was still not sure what Ning's plans were.
Ning reached the prince and placed his hands on the prince.
"What are you doing?" the Emperor got ready to attack in case Ning did something to his son, but Ning stepped back from him before the Emperor reacted.
The Emperor looked back on his son and wondered what was happening.
"Go ahead, ask him anything you want. He will answer everything," Ning said.
The Emperor looked at Ning curiously. "What did you do to my son?" he asked.
"Don't worry. It's easily reversible. Besides, if I wanted to hurt your son, I wouldn't have dragged him all the way here in front of you. So you can safely assume that I have no intention of harming your son… yet," Ning said.
The Emperor didn't know what to say, but it was indeed true that despite all the pain his son seemed to have suffered, he wasn't truly hurt at all.
So, he turned around and started asking his questions.
"Were you the one behind the plan to get yourself kidnapped?" The Emperor asked.
"Y-yes," the prince answered.
The Emperor took a deep breath to control his anger, but he still showed it a little on his face.
"Why did you do that? Why did you put yourself and the civilians in such danger? Was it for the gems?" he asked.
"Yes," the Prince answered.
The Emperor stopped when he got the answer. He seemed hesitant to ask the next question that was running in his mind. He didn't want it to be true.
"Why… do you want the gems?" the Emperor asked as his heart started beating faster and faster, very anxious for the answer.
"To become stronger. I want to grow as an Aether user and be strong enough to take the throne for myself," the prince said.
There it was, the answer he had been so anxious not to hear, and yet his son spoke of it so easily.
Ning looked at the Emperor's surprised face and nodded to himself. 'He should have seen it coming. Not giving your first son the throne would certainly cause some problems,' Ning thought.
However, that was not the reason the Emperor was so surprised.
"How… how did you know that eating the Aether Beast's gem would give increase your Aether rank?" the Emperor asked.
"From a book," the prince said.
"You… got that knowledge from a book?" the Emperor asked suspiciously. "Where did you get the book?"
"Grandfather handed it to me in private during my 15th birthday. It was his diary he wrote since he was little. He told me to keep the book a secret," the Prince said.
The Emperor lost his footing as he stumbled to the ground. His son who he was holding up also fell to the ground.
"Your highness," the guards screamed and ran up to him to help him up.
The emperor was breathing heavily, his pupils dilated a bit more than normal. His arms twitched, especially his right hand which basically started shaking.
The emperor used his left arm to grab his other arm to hold it down. The guards picked up the emperor and placed him on the seat closest to them.
They brought out water from their storage and had the emperor drink it.
"Are you okay?" Ning asked, looking a little concerned.
"No," the Emperor said, a little bit of shakiness in his voice. "I'm not okay."
Ning looked at the prince and back at the Emperor before asking, "what's this about the diary?"
"That… that diary… it must hold the truth behind my father's legacy," the Emperor said.
"The truth about Emperor Kron?" Ning's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Is there something in there that you do not want the rest of the public to know?"
"I… I…" The Emperor tried to calm himself for a bit. "I can't let the world know the truth. It's my burden to keep."
"Tell me what you've been hiding about your father," Ning asked. When he saw that the Emperor didn't want to speak about it, he said, "You can say it, or I will make your son say."
"No!" the Emperor cried out suddenly. "I… I will say it." The emperor sent out his two guards, despite their urges not to.
And then, the Emperor started telling a story of a time long past.
* * * *
Kain Xanders was born about 10 years after his father had won the war against the Aether Beast and brought peace to the land of Xandria.
They called him a Hero more times than they did an Emperor. Kron was happy to know how much his people loved him, and Kain loved to see his father being praised like that.
"I want to become strong like father someday," he thought to himself since childhood.
Kain was a single child of the emperor, but fortunately, he had come to acquire the blonde hair of his father, making him the sole rightful heir to the throne.
He remembered his father's feats throughout his life. Master in sword art at the age of 20. A master in politics at the age of 30, and perhaps the youngest person in the history of Xandria to become an Emperor, only at the young age of 37.
And he had done it despite being really mediocre as an Aether user. This was one of the reasons why his father sympathized with the non-aether users and made it illegal for them to be discriminated against.
As Kain grew older, his views of his father stayed the same, but… he could sense, and sometimes even see changes in his father.
