Lord of the Truth

Hoom

After Aro, Flora, and the three guards left the hall, their voices could already be heard echoing in the corridors as they began debating the best ways to cooperate and divide their responsibilities.

Meanwhile, Theo quietly returned to his seat, lowering himself with deliberate calm, then rested both hands firmly on his thighs as if to anchor himself in the moment. He raised his eyes toward Robin, his tone softer now that they were alone. "What's wrong, Father?"

With the chamber emptied of others, Theo no longer felt bound by the formality of court etiquette. He knew all too well that Robin disliked being addressed as Your Majesty when no outsiders were present. To persist with such formality now would only earn his father's irritation, and Theo had no wish to build walls between them at a time like this.

"I inquired about Richard," Robin said after a short silence, his voice heavy, his gaze distant. "They told me his whereabouts are unknown. Is that true?"

"More or less," Theo replied with practiced calm, though his shoulders sagged slightly. "We know the starfield he currently roams, but we don't know his exact location within it."

"Star fields…" Robin muttered, his brows knitting together in frustration. "They can encompass hundreds of thousands of planets. Jura, Greenland, and Nihari, along with most of the S-class planets in Young Sector 99, are all contained within a single star field. A vague clue like that is hardly reassuring, Theo— it's as good as nothing." His tone carried both impatience and worry, emotions rarely revealed together in the emperor's words.

"This is the limit of what I can manage," Theo admitted, spreading his hands slightly as if to wash himself of guilt. "Your youngest son detests surveillance, and with that girl constantly at his side, his movements are even harder to trace. If you wish, we could drown that entire star field with Shadow Swords until we flush him out, but you know very well he would not take kindly to such a measure."

Then, softening his tone, Theo gestured toward Robin almost pleadingly. "There is another way. If you prefer, I could issue an emergency summons for him to return to Jura. Richard is still the crown prince, after all. He has not openly renounced his title, nor declared rebellion. If he hears the imperial call, there's a chance he will come back of his own accord."

"Will he return?" Robin narrowed his eyes, his suspicion clear.

"…He might," Theo admitted with a faint shrug. "I cannot see into his heart, nor do I know what schemes that girl whispers into his ear. But the advantage here is that this is a hypothesis easily tested. Shall we try it? A single summons, and we will know."

"You mean sending him an immediate, formal order that leaves him no choice but to return?" Robin looked away, his gaze drifting over the empty hall as if searching the shadows for an answer. After a long pause he shook his head. "No. If he comes back and finds no grave reason for it, he'll only grow resentful. I have only just begun repairing the bond between us. I will not risk tearing it apart again with a careless command."

"Father, is there something more?" Theo pressed, his brows knitting tighter. "Richard is not weak. At his peak, no force can subdue him. Even a World Cataclysm could not lay a hand on him—you know this better than anyone. He has wandered freely for three centuries, and in all that time you never once demanded news of him. Why now? What has changed?"

Robin closed his eyes for a moment, as though steadying himself. "I cannot explain it in terms you would accept… but…" He opened them again, his gaze sharp yet troubled. "I have a bad feeling about him."

"…!!" Theo's heart skipped, and his expression hardened immediately. He clenched his fists against his thighs and spoke with decisive resolve. "Then I will dispatch a full squad of Shadow Swords and a contingent of Imperial Guards to retrieve him at once. We cannot afford to gamble with your instincts."

His words left no room for doubt. Theo understood something very few dared to acknowledge openly: when his father spoke of a bad feeling, disaster always followed soon after. They had tested this truth too many times across countless years and battles. To ignore it was to invite ruin.

"There is no need," Robin said heavily, exhaling as if to release some of the tension in the air. "If we drag him back by force, we might only ensure his doom. It could turn out that my foreboding points not to the dangers lurking in that distant star field, but to a calamity waiting for him here, on our very soil. If so, then forcing him home would deliver him directly into its jaws. Causality warnings are never clear, never merciful… They twist upon themselves, leaving us to question whether interference protects or destroys."

This was not the first time such a thing had happened to Robin. He remembered it all too well.

During his war with the Great Serpent Empire, that gnawing, uneasy feeling had pushed him to expand his armies beyond reason, gathering more soldiers and resources than even his generals thought necessary. He stationed large portions of his might inside Nehari, tightening his grip on the region. Yet when the dust of that campaign finally settled, the truth emerged—the foreboding had not been about the Serpent Empire at all.

It had been warning him of the sudden invasion of Jura and Greenland, two regions he had left stripped of defenses because of that very bad omen! The irony still stung him to this day.

And now, as he weighed the idea of summoning Richard back by force, a new fear wormed its way into his heart. What if the warning is not about his absence, but about the consequences of my interference? What if it was connected to that mysterious girl at his side? If Robin summoned him abruptly, dragging him home under the banner of authority, he might kindle nothing but resentment in the boy's heart. Richard could grow to hate him, reject him forever—and perhaps that would be the true disaster the omen pointed to.

Robin exhaled heavily, then raised his hand and waved it twice, dismissing the idea aloud. "Maybe one day these signals will reveal their meaning. I can only hope… For now, just do your best to monitor his movements more closely. I want every step he takes shadowed from a distance. And prepare a squad capable of reaching him swiftly—if he truly falls into peril out there, we must be ready to intervene at once."

"…" Theo lowered his gaze and gave a solemn nod, already shifting in his mind the pieces of a strategy.

He had commanded armies, designed campaigns, and orchestrated defenses, but this task carried a unique weight: the crown prince of the empire must never be allowed to fall in foreign lands. To lose him would not simply be a personal tragedy—it would shake the very foundations of their realm.

Robin leaned forward slightly, his golden eyes narrowing. "You said you know the star field he's in. Tell me—how could you possibly be sure of something like that? Richard could step through any space portal and vanish into another starfield in mere minutes."

"That is true," Theo admitted, his tone quiet but confident, "but we have been tracking their behavior patterns for centuries, studying the echoes of their choices. In the beginning, the younger brother wandered without purpose. Richard would descend upon random planets, doing whatever whim seized him—sometimes lending a hand to construct cities, raising monuments and strengthening trade; other times unleashing destruction, leaving smoldering ruins in his wake. He was chaos incarnate. But all of that changed after that girl appeared at his side. Since then, their movements have carried a methodical rhythm."

He folded his hands, recalling the countless reports. "According to the data, they drift from one planet to the next with a peculiar consistency. They remain for exactly one week, no more, no less. In that time, they tour its landmarks, observe its most defining features, and then depart toward the nearest neighboring planet. It is almost ceremonial. You could say they are conducting a sightseeing tour across the starfield, walking through worlds as though leafing through the pages of a vast atlas. Once they exhaust its offerings, they move on to the next starfield entirely."

Robin's lips curved in a faint smile, half amusement, half curiosity. "…Sightseeing, is it? Hah. Tell me, Theo, am I on the verge of gaining a daughter-in-law, or what?"

"Perhaps," Theo replied with measured calm, though a flicker of uncertainty passed across his face. "We have not observed overt intimacy between them, nor have we seen them settle down openly on any planet during their stays. What they truly do during those seven days remains hidden from us. Still, it is possible—perhaps even likely—that the younger brother has found a partner of his own choosing. And to be frank, I do not believe she exerts a negative influence on him, even if she aids him in eluding our surveillance."

"Oh?" Robin raised his eyebrows, intrigued. "How can you be so sure?"

"Because before he met her, Richard was a storm without a tether. He destroyed six ruling systems across six distant regions, each collapse echoing like thunder across the cosmos. The last of those spirals ended with him clashing against a World Cataclysm who possessed the Gift of a Planet itself. The battle was immense, devastating, and nearly cost him his life—at least, according to the fragments of intelligence we managed to gather. Yet after he encountered that girl, such calamities ceased. We have seen no further cataclysmic rampages."

"…" Robin's head dipped in acknowledgment. That reckless chaos, that thirst for conflict—yes, that sounded exactly like Richard. It was the kind of madness only his younger son would embrace without hesitation.

"There is one more thing," Theo added after a pause. His voice lowered, heavy with significance. "They are no longer in the star field where they began their journey. We believe the shift was her doing. She must have sensed danger looming around them—or perhaps received information from some unknown source—and whisked Richard away just in time. They escaped the entire region."

"Hm?" Robin's expression hardened, his brows drawing together. "They fled from an entire star field? Fled from what, exactly? I was under the impression that Sector 101, sitting in the mid-belt, was a peaceful zone, kept under the iron rule of a Behemoth!"

"…That was the impression," Theo conceded grimly. "But from all the signals we've gathered, there is a high probability that a cosmic war is on the horizon—one that may ignite there sooner than anyone dares to believe."