<strong>Chapter 106</strong>


    Trantor: <strong>wuttisyun</strong>


    Vulcanus represented the Temple of cksmiths. They were responsible for making anything in the Empire and they lived peacefully in their blessednds.


    Theirnd was located in a huge mountain range. The deep valleys were a fortress delivered from the heavens. It was hard to find and hence difficult to visit.


    Vulcanus granted his powers to those born with the passion for creating and the talent of dexterity. Not only were they the one who built the Imperial pce, but most other famous sites in the Empire were also built by them and not a single famous artifact did not go through their hands.


    They were outstanding craftsmen who were well-versed in a wide variety of metals and could smelt high-purity ores.


    Fleon’s mother, Ioneste Nere Vulcanus.


    At an early age, she had already made a name for herself as a craftsman.


    None of those under Vulcanus were without admiration for her craft. Her name would be praised and shown admiration for over a pint of beer. She was a free-spirited and cheerful person, much like an incarnation of Vulcanus. She was also loved across her blessednds as the heir to her temple.


    One day, the emperor of the Empire came to visit their blessednds.


    <i>“Marry me and be one of the flowers in my pce.”</i>


    That was the moment the Emperor robbed her of her life. Back when was the sole heir to her temple.


    <i>“That’s not possible. Your Majesty! You’re trampling upon our blessednd!”</i>


    <i>“Out of the way, High Temr!” </i>(1)


    The intruder, who barged into the blessednds with his army, called the noble heir to the saidnd his flower.


    Legions of hundreds of temrs and the amount of divinity they were exuding soared to the skies and were close to engulfing thends.


    Eventually, Ioste herself had to kneel before him.


    <i>“This girl will go! Please save the people of my blessednds!”</i>


    She never thought the time woulde when she had to throw her hammer away. But the moment her brother died, she had no choice.


    It was better for everyone if she sacrificed herself than to let everyone else die.


    The emperor snatched the hammer of the great cksmith before cing a beautiful golden crown upon her head.


    The life she had led like a galloping wolf lost its light forever the day the Emperor arrived.


    Her deprivations started from that day.


    It was only natural to marry the man who had robbed her of her life.


    Ioste had two sons. And they were twins.


    <i>“My queen, they’re twins! And they’re both healthy boys!”</i>


    The woman had looked down at her children with an expression too calm and unimpressed for a mother who had just given birth.


    <i>“I can’t believe they’re twins.”</i>


    One had ck hair and golden eyes with features closely resembling the emperor.


    The other had gray hair with blue eyes. The colours of her father and her dead brother.


    <i>“This child looks like my brother.”</i>


    Her brother was a quiet craftsman. He was a friendly man who embraced everybody quietly and calmly, standing out amongst the other temrs who were as passionate as fire. And finally, it was his tenderness that made him try to stop the emperor from taking his sister and get himself killed as a result.


    Unfortunately, Ioste feltpelled to love this child even though he was the child of the man she had hated so much.


    She had named the child ‘Fleon ché’. Because she wanted him to be as sweet as her own brother one day.


    On the other hand, she was scared.


    She was enjoying the joy the life, that she made and held in her hands. It was humiliating to grow out her hair and wear dresses she had never worn before whilst in the hands of such ruthless people.


    She had tried to understand. In order to not have any regrets, she had taken a leap of faith.


    She was brought to a strangend and married the man who had killed her brother before being abandoned.


    However, regardless of her decision, life in the Imperial pce was suffocatingly difficult. She could not even hold her hammer. Because her hand was ruined.


    The woman’s hand was in a terrible state.


    Though the scars had vanished, her skin had been bleached to force the white skin to reveal itself from underneath her tan. The muscles she had developed from hammering had deteriorated.


    Time had taken away her traits of a cksmith.


    Ioste did not exist here.


    She was merely the 5th ornament adorning the emperor. She was confident in her nobility. But to her this was not nobility.


    She could remember the smell of unsmelted iron, the furnace, the sounds of metal scraping against each other and the exhration she felt as she took a breath of that hot air.


    Ioste had withered from the inside. But that was something no one knew. It was because she had deteriorated quietly and slowly. Even Eupitea, her closest friend who followed her here and the head maid of her pce could not tell.


    And at that point in her life, the 5th Prince was born with golden eyes. Proof that he inherited the name of the highest god.


    “I congratte you, my queen! Your son has inherited [The Power of the Lords]!”


    That only made Ioste feel awful.


    She could not separate the 5th prince and the emperor who took her life away from her.


    ‘I’m sorry.’


    And time passed like that. She did not go to see the 5th Prince.


    “My queen, the 5th Prince has arrived.”


    She thought it would be best if he never had to understand why she did not love him and refused to see him.


    “What did you say?”


    The woman who was once the greatest temr of cksmiths and the sole heir to the high temr had abandoned her title of the 5th Queen to protest against that fact that her life was stolen.


    “I only have one son though?”


    She became the 6th Queen.


    The child, who very much resembled the emperor and even had his powers, could not call Ioste his mother. The 5th Prince who had been abandoned by his mother was Fleon’s older twin.


    The 24 gods that descended following their lord.


    And amongst them there were 12 considered to be the most powerful.


    Other than the gods who have died, most of the nobles who were temrs leading the Empire were temrs of one of the 12 gods.


    Vulcanus was the 9th most powerful.


    As the original heir to Vulcanus, the 6th Queen Ioste dly made her child who had not once stepped into the blessednds as the heir.


    The pce was left in turmoil at the news. It was ridiculous.


    <i>“How can a boy with no divinity be the high temr?”</i>


    But even amidst the controversies and the fuss, Ioste remained nonchnt.


    ‘Did he say flower?’


    The emperor had proposed to her just like that.


    ‘I have no intentions on being some nt.’


    In any case, though she was the heir to her blessednds, she could not return. This was the only thing Ioste could do after her life had been trampled upon.


    The current high temr and all the temrs below him had respected her decision. How could they not when it was the same woman who had sacrificed herself to save everybody in their blessednds?


    “This is not right. Your Imperial Highness, please grant the 5th Prince the title of the heir.”


    “Please return, Your Highness, the 2nd Prince.”


    The power of Vulcanus should have been granted to the 5th Prince, the one with the ‘Power of the Lords’. That was what the emperor wanted when he came to visit the 5th Prince.


    However, the authority to appoint an heir was within the temple’s jurisdiction in which even the emperor could not encroach. So Ioste proudly handed everything over to the 6th Prince Fleon.


    He was now the person recognised as the unorthodox sessor of the 9th most powerful god out of the 12 — Vulcanus, the God who protects the veins.


    That modifier allowed Fleon to behave as he pleased even though he was not a temr.


    People ridiculed him for being fortunate. He was not even a temr but he was born with every advantage he could possibly get.


    ***


    “Today’s no good too?”


    At the look of great impatience, the pce maid lowered her head further.


    The 5th Prince clenched his fist before sighing and smiling to himself. He rubbed his face under his sses. He bit his lips. The sound he let out sounded like an animal’s cry.


    ‘Brother…’


    Little Fleon hid from behind and watched. His brother’s ck hair fluttered gently. His tiny shoulders were trembling.


    “Rex.”


    “Yes.”


    “… We’re heading back.”


    Fleon clenched his jaw.


    It was only a year after he did he understand why his mother did not want to meet his brother.


    Fleon was as gentle as amb before his mother. He believed that everything positive about him was all due to her. So he had repeatedly turned his back around and pretended not to know the 5th Prince.


    ‘Mother must have her reasons.’


    His mother was the only one who understood him and acted like a pir to Fleon.


    “Rex, mother won’t see my brother, will she?”


    “Yes. As always.”


    “… Alright.”


    In face of his conflicting values, he chose to turn a blind eye to that one person.


    He needed to fill in the missing space that the one person left.


    Time passed like that.


    <i>“Brother, we are going to be that child’s shield one day.”</i>


    ‘Now I’m not going to leave anything behind and protect what I can.”


    If the cksmiths under Vulcanus had their hammers to craft, his was that of numerous rules and elegantly executed etiquette.


    The girl who had fled to the eastern estates to escape the gue had finally returned. Finally, the red-roofed pce woulde to life.


    The world he had started for three people was nowplete.


    “If you don’t like the banquet that much, why didn’t you leave?”


    For Ashley, Fleon learned patience.


    “I can’t.”


    People had tried to undermine her and fretted about her background. She had borne witness to greed.


    The more he faced malice, the whiter her innocence became and the lovelier she got. His younger sister who did not know of the world yet. And hopefully she stayed that way for a long time.


    “Do you know hwabyung?” (2)


    “What’s that?”


    It might have been his selfish love for her on her part.


    “It’s something you get after holding something in for too long.”


    Rex had been sent from the blessednds of Vulcanus. He was an outstanding temr. He had been recognised for his skills in making weapons from a young age especially his delicate control over fire.


    “If you hadn’t gone to the banquet in the first ce, you could have had a good life till you turn 18, right?”


    “That’s not possible.”


    “Is that because of the princess?”


    “… That’s right.”


    He had followed Dane’s suggestion diligently.


    ‘At least he’s a lot smarter than I am.’


    He believed that Dane would produce better results.


    “You both really cherish the princess a lot.”


    Rex gazed upon his master.


    <i>“My grandson’s life is in danger.”</i>


    When he first saw Fleon as a child and noticed how much resemnce he bore to the current head temr, Rex was amazed by how genes worked.


    ‘No, he looks more like Flezion.’


    Fleon resembled his dead uncle. A man Rex was quite familiar with.


    T/N:


    (1): I have no idea what I used before but I’ll be using High Temr to refer to the head of temples from now on


    (2): This is a pretty culturally heavy word so I’ll have quora exin it to you. https://.quora/What-does-Hwabyeong-%ED%99%94%EB%B3%91-mean-in-English