After killing his own father, Kain never remained the same.
Soon after Kron died, Kain did his best to clear up any confusion and fabricated a story that said his father died from an old wound he got when he fought the beasts.
The civilians ate that story up like a freshly baked cake. After that, Kain took the throne as the emperor of Xandria.
The empire felt saddened over their old emperor's death, but Kain's succession brought joy to all of them.
While the empire rejoiced, Kain couldn't feel the same himself. The death… no, murder of his father had left a deep scar in him.
He would randomly wake up at night, the nightmares of his father's death still haunting him even when he woke up.
Every night, the nightmare came, followed by a screaming shout of his father's voice that called him a bastard as he had died.
Kain would wake up, full of sweat in the middle of the night, scaring the empress who would also wake up.
His hands shook with fear, the same hands that killed his father. Even when the empress tried to console him it was alright, he couldn't accept it. After all, she had no idea what he had done to protect himself and the empire.
As the nightmares continued, he didn't feel safe for him to stay around his family. So, he made a separate bed-chamber for himself and slept there alone.
He had already harmed one of his family, what if he harmed more? Thinking so, he stopped visiting his wives and children.
He separated himself from his family so that he never lost himself like how he did against his father. It was a defensive instinct that had kicked into him from all the sword training he had gone through.
Still, he couldn't guarantee that he would never repeat it again, especially since even to this day, the thought of his father's death kept on haunting him.
And now, his father was somehow back to haunt him through his own sun.
Ning listened to the tale of the broken man who kept it all bottled up, never revealing what he knew and felt to anyone. Letting the weight of what he knew to sink him deeper and deeper onto his own void.
This was not what he had expected of the Emperor to be like. He expected a valiant man like in the stories, but he was instead a lonely man, being trampled by his own memories.
"You don't have to say anything else," Ning said, not wanting to let the man suffer the thoughts anymore.
"Was that why you wanted the gem? To increase your Aether rank?" Ning asked.
"Yes," the first prince said. "Grandfather wrote that he got strong enough to defeat his brothers using the Aether gems, so I believed I could do the same as well."
The Emperor took deep breaths to calm himself. Ning wasn't sure if he heard what his son said or not, but he decided to continue with his questioning.
"Did you not care about the Empire's tradition? As far as I know, your grandfather had blonde hair, which you do not," Ning asked. While he himself didn't care much for the tradition, he also didn't want to speak against it since it was something that had been going on in this Empire since before he came here.
"I did," the first prince said. "However, I had plans for that situation as well."
The Emperor looked at him too this time. He wanted to know what his son's plan was to become an Emperor despite not holding the blonde hair.
"You're not going to say you will dye your hair, are you?" Ning jokingly asked.
"No," the prince said. "I was going to kill all 3 of the successors. When they died, I would be the only one remaining that would become the Emperor for sure."
Things just got a lot serious. Ning could visibly see how fast the Emperor's facial expression was changing.
"You were going to kill your own brothers and sister?" the Emperor got angry at his son. He didn't waste a second and slapped his son in the face.
This was perhaps the first time in a long time since he had even touched his own children, and the first thing he did was hit him.
However, Ning was surprised to see the Emperor was fine, at least for now, and not floored on the ground like the broken man he was.
"You dared to even think of killing our brothers and sisters?" the Emperor asked angrily.
When he did, a certain thought entered Ning's mind. His eyes narrowed and a serious look appeared on his face.
"Were you only planning on doing this… or did you already put it into motion?" Ning asked.
"I have already tried multiple times and failed," the Prince said.
"What?" the Emperor cried out. "Yo-You! You were the one behind the attack?"
"Yes," the prince said.
"Attack? What attack?" Ning asked. It didn't seem like the two of them were speaking about the same thing he was thinking of, which was the incident on the train.
"The attack on the palace 10 years ago, where my 7th wife died, where Elizabeth ran away from, where… my other wives and children were in some ways harmed," the Emperor said with anger rising from within him. "That was you?"
"Yes," the prince answered.
"You… how did you get in contact with the Shadow Pavillion? What payment did you give them to dare attack the Royal family of Xandria?" the Emperor asked.
"I learned that one of the guards was a member and contacted the organization through them. It didn't take very long to get a reply back saying they will help me with the task," the prince spoke.
"As for payment, I made them a promise."
The Emperor's eyes narrowed, his fury still visible in those eyes. "What promise?" he asked.
"If I became the Emperor, I would give them 200 Kilos of Aether ores."
