"Whoever the opponent is, no matter what dark past they hold, I will embrace them."
I declared.
"No matter what darkness or ugliness they committed in the past. As long as they look in the same direction under my banner, I will strive to converse with, understand, and embrace them."
I continued speaking to the emperor, who was silently watching me.
"But that does not mean granting them absolution."
"...And?"
"I will remember clearly. Their darkness, their ugliness, their faults. Just as they are."
The emperor frowned as if he didn't quite understand.
"'Remember'?"
"For example, Father."
I gazed steadily at the emperor.
"Father, you are now looking in the same direction as I am. You are my supporter, my helper, and my benefactor."
The emperor gestured for me to continue.
I smirked, curling up the corners of my mouth.
"But Father, in the name of protecting the empire, you have killed countless people. Even within the empire. You have slaughtered, offered sacrifices, and burned people without batting an eye for your goals."
"...Indeed. So what?"
After taking a breath.
I broached the main point.
"I will record all that history, and I will make it public."
"...What?"
"I will inscribe the names of the innocent people you killed in the history books, one by one."
The emperor gave me a bewildered look. I was unflinching.
"The atrocities you committed. The brutal tyranny in the name of protecting the empire."
"..."
"I will record it all without embellishment. As long as human history continues, even a thousand years from now, ten thousand years from now... the world will remember clearly."
I whispered softly.
"As long as human history continues, you will be criticized. This is the punishment you will receive."
"...Ha. How absurd."
The emperor scoffed.
"Such a thing is no punishment at all!"
"..."
"Leaving my atrocities in history and having future generations throw stones at my grave? Is that all? I will spend the rest of my life on the throne, living comfortably without any guilt. What kind of punishment is that to me personally?"
"Indeed. Perhaps this is the weakest punishment."
I narrowed my eyes.
"But it is also the strongest punishment."
The emperor gritted his teeth silently.
"You..."
"It's not just Father."
I raised my voice.
"I will unearth and reveal all the hidden and concealed atrocities of every previous emperor and all neighboring countries. Not the neatly edited history as it is now, but the shameful and uncomfortable truths, in broad daylight, for the whole world to see."
As my intentions became clearer, the emperor clenched his one remaining fist and trembled.
"You're going to expose the flaws of your father and the ancestors for generations, staining this country's reputation with your own hands? Is that your goal?"
"Yes."
"You are the next emperor. You will ultimately have to bear all those flaws! The entire world will curse you, and they will demand retribution for past grievances."
"I am prepared for it."
"Such foolishness, like a naïve child who knows nothing of the world and politics! No, to advocate such a futile ideal knowing full well, it's sheer madness!"
The emperor pointed a finger at me.
"For an emperor to reveal his own weaknesses and beg to be stabbed! The whole world will come at you with swords drawn. You and this country will be torn apart and destroyed!"
I nodded.
"If this country is one that deserves destruction just by acknowledging past wrongdoings, then it should be destroyed."
"What..."
I did not back down, and a clear emotion flashed across the emperor's face.
It was fear.
The realization that the son he intended to hand the throne to was genuinely—a madman who, if it meant upholding his beliefs, could destroy his own country. Such fear.
"I will acknowledge all the wrongs this country has committed. If there are apologies to be made, I will apologize; if there is compensation to be given, I will compensate. And then I will move forward. No."
I smiled brightly.
"Only then will a truly new era begin."
"Ash...!"
"This is my vision of an emperor."
I will embrace them.
Whoever the opponent is, no matter what wrong they have committed, as long as they look in the same direction under my banner. If there is a willingness to understand and communicate with each other. I will embrace them.
But, however.
That does not mean issuing an absolution.
I will explicitly state all of their wrongdoings and sins. I will never settle their sins on their behalf.
Forgiveness, revenge, neither of these are my roles. I am not a god. Such matters are not for me to handle.
I will simply remember.
I will never forget, and I will continue to write and carry on.
History.
Because I believe that continuity is the most powerful weapon that humans can wield in a human world.
'This is the fundamental principle I will lay down as an emperor.'
I face it directly.
From the world, from the past, from the future.
I do not avert my eyes. I do not turn away. I do not conceal.
I will embrace them, along with their pain. If necessary, I will mete out punishment without compromise.
To rectify the twisted history of this empire that has massacred its citizens, trampled neighboring countries, and burned other races like kindling, and the world that has condoned such barbarity.
This must be done first to move on to the next stage... Only then can we genuinely move forward to the next era with the people of this country, the people of other countries, and even those of different races.
To that end, I intend to reflect deeply on all the wrongs and atrocities committed by this country.
'...Well, it's not like I'm just going to stand there and take the hits.'
While it's true that the Everblack Empire, as the world's leading hegemonic nation, has committed the most atrocities, other countries have not been innocent either.
Nor have other races.
When the empire's wrongs are uncovered, the intertwined wrongdoings of other countries will inevitably come to light as well.
In the reckoning, there will be mutual wrongs that can be mitigated, and even if there are final dues to be paid, they can be settled with future cooperative agreements and treaties.
'The focus of my point is not on such petty political matters.'
What the emperor fears is not the calculable financial losses of such reckoning.
Prestige.
The loss of the grandeur of the Everblack Empire, which has dominated the world with its power as the continent's hegemon.
The emperor is concerned because my declaration of revealing weaknesses to the world even before taking the throne seems like political suicide.
"How much effort have I put into making you an emperor without flaws..."
The strength left the emperor's voice.
"And now you want to be an emperor who exposes your own weaknesses and asks to be stoned... a scarred emperor?"
"Yes."
"Admit all those wrongs? All that ugly past, all that darkness, and bear it all... this country... you?"
"Yes."
I affirmed.
"I will not hide. Even if it is painful, I will face it."
"..."
"I will face the darkness of the people I love. The ugliness of the country I must govern. The history stained with the disgrace of this world—I will embrace it all and look straight at it."
The emperor looked at me with trembling eyes. I nodded.
"The continuing history of humankind, both its bright and dark sides. All of it."
Silence flowed.
After a long pause, the emperor, standing by the window with the afternoon sunlight at his back, finally spoke after catching his breath.
"I tried to cut off the world covered in dust and soot and feed only on the edible parts."
His voice was old and weary.
"Yet you want to stuff the entire world into your mouth, even if it gives you indigestion, and try to digest it all... I cannot tell if you are broad-minded or simply reckless."
"..."
"You know better than anyone else how weak your ideals are. The world is far more cruel than you think, and everyone is waiting to tear you apart like wolves."
The emperor shook his head.
"No matter how pure and clean a flag you carry, the moment you cross the battlefield, that flag will be smeared with blood and ashes. You must already know this well."
"..."
"Yes, you must be aware of it yet still wish to tread that path."
As I stood resolutely, the emperor let out a long sigh.
"History belongs to the victors. It can never be whole. If you have seen the historical records left in the empire, you would know there is hardly anything that disparages the empire. All of it praises the imperial family and extols their achievements."
"..."
"You seek to write history from an impartial perspective, but in the end, you are the son of the emperor. You were born with everything. The history you seek to write anew will inevitably be from the victor's perspective."
"I understand. But I can still strive to be fair."
Perfection does not exist.
But the effort to reach for perfection does.
"As it happens, I have the perfect candidate for this."
"Candidate...?"
The emperor raised his eyebrows in surprise. I continued.
"The only imperial soldier who defied Father. The one who made the Empire officially acknowledge the massacre committed by the imperial army for the first time."
My former thunder mage, who served as the captain of the 2nd Battalion of the Imperial Mage Corps.
"Jupiter. She has an adopted daughter."
"...Jupiter Junior, you mean."
"Yes. Junior is an imperial, but she is also from the Camilla Kingdom. She lost her family and hometown to the Empire's bombing but grew up as an imperial citizen. She is still grappling with her identity."
I knew that Junior had a deep interest in history and that she kept a diary, documenting her life every day.
Perhaps it was because she had a terminal illness, or maybe for other reasons.
I had always intended for her to lead this project from the beginning.
"We will establish a foundation with her at the center, gathering scholars from around the world to examine the world's history from as neutral a perspective as possible. The first project will be the history of the fallen Camilla Kingdom."
And it would also be the history of the Empire's invasion of the Camilla Kingdom.
"A foundation that cross-checks events from different perspectives and records the most neutral truths possible without any embellishment. The name of this foundation."
Taking the name of the first officer in the Empire's history who defied the emperor...
"I will name it the 'Jupiter Foundation'."
"..."
"After overcoming the global crisis of the monster invasion, to move forward together into a new era. This will be the first undertaking I pursue as emperor: the world history compilation and historian training project."
Perhaps dizzy from my non-teabagging teabagging, the emperor tightly closed his eyes.
"So, Father. Consider this a warning. I will tarnish the face of every previous emperor. As I have repeatedly stated, you are no exception."
"..."
"If you cannot bear such a future, then dethrone me from the crown prince position immediately. Or, pray that I die in one of the remaining ten defensive battles."
At that, the emperor let out a truly deep sigh, as if the ground were collapsing beneath him.
"How could I do that, you damned son..."
The emperor muttered weakly, wiping his face repeatedly with his only remaining hand.
"...Before you were born, I received a prophecy from the Guardian Tree of Everblack. Half of it is sure to come true."
Shaking his head, the emperor lamented.
"I can only pray the other half does too..."
I was curious about the content of that prophecy, but I decided not to ask.
It didn't matter.
I had already resolved to walk the path I had chosen, in the way I wanted.
'Well, that's all for later.'
Despite my lofty ideals mixed with arrogance, this was all for after surviving the final battle with the last remaining monster.
But if, when this winter ends, the world does not end, and I live to become emperor... many things that will surprise the world will unfold.
After coming back from the brink of death, is there anything I cannot do?
'Even to realize the exciting ancestor-insulting troll show of the true rogue crown prince...'
I want to win the upcoming battles against the monsters.
No, I absolutely will.