The Tyrant Wants To Live Honestly

“Are you not willing to surrender, Sir Stefan?”

I had mercy on him.

The palace was already in my hands.
The place he is guarding is the last bastion, the Emperor’s Room with Ray.

The knights to help Stefan have already died or surrendered.

Stefan was an excellent knight, but it was impossible to face hundreds of soldiers alone in the absence of allies.

“…”

“In such a case, it would be better to answer wisely.”

I smiled at Stefan, who didn’t answer.

stupid.

Even though there was a way to live, I felt sorry for the stupidity of being ready to die.
But I had no intention of showing any more compassion to him.

“I really wanted to fight with you, but now is not the time to let go of such personal feelings.”

When I lifted my hand, the archers came forward.

Ray was still there.

The fight with Rey was my responsibility.

I knew very well that Ray was by no means an easy opponent.
Therefore, I do not make the mistake of being careless by taking a lot of time to ask Stefan.

At least until then, I was a person who could make cool and wise judgments to achieve what I wanted.

“May you have no regrets about your choices.”

At the same time as my command, dozens of arrows flew toward Stefan.
Since there was a limit to striking with a sword, arrows were lodged in Stefan’s limbs.

In the narrow hallway, not even outdoors, Stefan ran forward without dodging the arrow.

With arms and legs studded with arrows, he swung his sword at the archers.

“Ugh!”

“Aaaah!”

There was a flurry that opened the door of death, but Stefan, who was always silent, did not shed a single moan.

However, the blood on the corners of his tightly closed mouth informed his condition.

In line with the word “an indomitable will,” Stefan persistently confronted the soldiers.

But I didn’t like the word indomitable.

There was annihilation at the end of that unbreakable will.

“Even if you stop me here, what will you do with your body that will not last long.”

Anyway, Stefan won’t stop me.

I grabbed my sword and clicked my tongue.
And I blocked Stefan’s sword that crawled through me.

I was a little surprised that the power coming from the body with the arrows was stronger than I thought.

It wasn’t to the point of being overpowered.

I saw Stefan biting his chin tightly as if he was about to break a tooth, easily blocking Stefan’s sword.

Look, you already know you’re going to die.
I read death in his eyes.

He was afraid.
He wanted to run away from the pain of death.

The sharp arrowheads stuck in the arm holding the sword, and his legs stained red with blood were clasping him.

An extremely ordinary human who is afraid succumbs to great power and wants to avoid pain.

However, he only had greater courage and will than fear.
Even in the face of the fear of death and the pain that extinguishes the spark of life, he only valued something more to protect.

“It is… Nice to see.”

It’s better to be a roaring and exploding fire than to be a shabby, extinguished ember at the end of life.

With great joy, I cut off Stefan’s body.

The sword cut through his wide chest, blood spilling out, and his knees pounding to the floor.

Stefan looked at me kneeling.

Those black eyes pierced my brain like thorns.
An unspoken emotion that I’ve never encountered before.

I tried to interpret Stefan’s last will, but his eyes soon turned cold and stained with death.

Stefan knelt down like a stone statue.

“Sir, are you dead?”

Those around me were very frightened, and they were wary of the great Stefan, who knelt down.

His body stood upright, as if alive.

“Okay.
dead.”

His gaze at the last glance was so intense that I stared at his death for a moment.

Those eyes were neither fear nor resentment nor resignation.

I wanted to ask what he was trying to say, but he was already dead.

“Go”

I did not keep my feet tied to the end of Stefan.

I can’t stop contemplating what his will was.
There is no time to delay and hesitate in curiosity.

Because there is still one bigger fight left.

I took the warmth of countless lives and headed to Raymond’s room with the heated sword.

* * * 

And now, those eyes that wanted to leave an unspoken will were looking at me.

I stared into Stefan’s black eyes.

As expected, it wasn’t a good feeling to have a person who was once killed alive in front of me.

‘Can I get along well?’

I was already worried.

Stefan’s character was already well known.

He is blunt enough to feel disrespectful, too talkative, and his mouth is heavy and loyal.

Even though he was not gentle in appearance, if he kept his mouth shut, ordinary people would get scared and run away.

‘Still, I’m glad He didn’t have any words.’

At least nothing will provoke me like Ray.

I approached Stefan.

I’ve felt it for a long time, but seeing him now when I was a nine-year-old, I felt that he was taller.

Maybe 7 feet?

Due to his height and size, Stefan appeared to be in his mid-to-late twenties.
The 18-year-old was probably just beginning to establish himself in the Knights of Brightness.

‘It just came to me at a time when he had to build up His skills and climb up one by one.’

Still, if you were my escort, you would have settled down to a certain extent.

I felt a little sorry for him.

It would be a plausible career to be an escort knight for the princess, but it would be quite dissatisfying for a knight to come down to this distant province and support the nine-year-old princess.

The town where the detached palace is located is peaceful, so there will be no incidents that will help you improve your skills, and there will be no publicity.

“Thank you.”

I reached out to him, expressing my deepest condolences.

Because of the height difference, the expression of raising hands rather than reaching out was appropriate.

“….”

Stefan stood there staring at me bluntly, even though I asked for a handshake.

Yep, this was his biggest problem. 

That’s why we didn’t get along.

That’s why he could only go to the vice president with that skill.’

He came from a bad background, but he had no sociability, so he had the best skills among knights, but there was a limit to his advancement.

Even the positions of the head and the generals, appointed by the state above the vice-president.

Even though he had the ability to go up further, he couldn’t go up to the vice president until He died after becoming the vice president at the age of 20.

“knight, shake hands…”

Clara, who was watching from the side, said to Stefan very carefully.

Clara looked frightened by Stephan’s tall stature, broad shoulders, and scar on his face.

At Clara’s words, Stefan looked down at me bluntly and stretched out his hand.

But he didn’t hold my hand.

Hey, you didn’t mean to high-five?

But he didn’t seem to want to hold my hand again.

He was still arrogant, really.

‘It’s a cancellation that I’m glad I didn’t say anything.’

Contrary to Ray, staying with Stefan was frustrating, and the thought that I might explode.

* * *

I sat at my desk and held a quill.

I bit my lip and wrote the letters on the top line of the paper with my sullen hand.

Then I looked at the paper for a long time with a puzzled face.

[The bucket list of living a good life.]

I tried it once, but I thought it was a little too much, so I fluttered the tip of the quill pen with my small hand.

The reason I decided to write this embarrassing list was that, contrary to my promise to live a good life, life didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to.

Every time I bump into Ray, I become a bad person again, and every time I meet Theon, my promise breaks down.

But now there was no worry, no Theon, and no damn Carnan.

Wouldn’t it be possible to live a good life in this quiet detached palace?

‘Yeah, so I have to set my own standards to achieve my goals.’

Even in my previous life, I used to write down the things I needed to achieve my goals.

I straightened the pen again.

By the way… How do you live a good life?

I must have lived a good life  before I can live a good life.

I wrinkled my eyebrows and glared at only the white paper.

No one ever taught me how to be kind.

kindly…what is kind?

“Princess, what are you doing?”

Clara asked when I couldn’t write anything with my pen.

“Clara, what should I do to live a good life?”

Really, what should I do? Are you a good person if you don’t kill people?

“If you want to live a good life, you must first listen to your parents.”

Clara smiled and gave me some very boring but useless advice.

Listen to my parents? That’s not in my dictionary!

“Nothing like that.”

Clara approached me when I got serious.

“What are you doing? “Bucket list to be nice?”

Clara burst into laughter when she saw the bucket list I was working on.

Then Stefan sneaked up behind me and peeped at the list, perhaps curious.

“Why, why are you laughing?”

Being ashamed for no reason, I tried to cover the bucket list with my small hand, which had only a title.

My face was hot and burning.

I decided to live a good life, but the word “good” was somehow embarrassing.

“It’s cute to live a good life.
Why are you filling that out?”

Why are you asking the obvious? I want to live a good life!

Besides, it’s cute, so why don’t you make it cute with something like this?

It’s a phrase I’ve heard often since I was a child, but no matter how much I heard it, I couldn’t get used to it.

This is because, unlike the words pretty or beautiful, the word “cute” felt something like an artificial affection that couldn’t be afforded.

So, that kind of tickling and clunky feeling doesn’t suit me.
So I was extremely burdened with the word cute and hated it.

“Well, how about something like this? 

Give your father ten massages!”

“Clara is a good daughter.”

That’s all that comes out one after another.

Clara’s suggestion was like Ray’s cuteness.
In other words, it goes beyond very useless things and goes against my nerves.

The thought of giving a massage to Carnan was terrifying.

What are you going to do for me to give him a massage?

Oh, it will relieve some stress.
It’s my chance to strike the great Emperor, Carnan with my bare fists.

Moreover, that is not a good thing.
At least by my standards.

“You don’t like it? So how about smiling ten times a day?”

“smile ten times?”

“Come to think of it, I have never seen the princess smile properly.”

Clara said, fiddling with her chin.
I glanced at the mirror on one side of the room.
A nine-year-old girl with a blunt expression was reflected.

As a tyrant, I rarely smiled, which made people more afraid.

It wasn’t that I didn’t like to smile.
I just had nothing to smile about.
Even after becoming emperor, strangely enough, I had everything I wanted, but I couldn’t smile.

‘Clara’s words make sense.’

When I think of the image of a good person, I usually think of a person with a kind smile.

There’s no such thing as a good person with a bad face.

I looked in the mirror and gently raised the corners of my lips.
Embarrassed by the convulsive unnaturalness, I quickly lowered the corners of my lips before Clara and Stefan saw them.