“The swordsmanship I was said to be so skilled in, the sharp famous sword—none of it helped at all. I was a human who only knew how to kill something, not how to save it… It was only then that I realized. Just how powerless and selfish I had been!”
The once calm voice was now riding the waves of emotion, repeating faint tremors. The middle-aged man’s lips, confessing his sins, vibrated slightly.
“I didn’t abdicate the throne. I just shoved it onto my younger sibling because it was annoying and hard… That child lived trapped in the imperial palace for a lifetime and died. Didn’t my sibling have dreams too? If I had fulfilled my responsibilities, couldn’t I have let them enjoy a freer life?”
“That’s something we can’t know, isn’t it?”
“I know!”
Even to my impulsive consolation, the Sword Duke couldn’t easily shake off his regrets. If he were a child who didn’t need to worry about dignity or the like, he might be writhing in agony right about now.
Death.
The sense of powerlessness felt in its face was probably more excruciating than imagined. If it was an illness that even the imperial family of the empire couldn’t cure, it must surely be a matter of lifespan. No matter how great a human was, they couldn’t…