Epilogue

Emperor Frick Henestrosa

At the final years of the Kingdom of Hartford, he suddenly appeared in Youg Hannotes, which was governed by Frontier Count Lloyd, and distinguished himself as an adventurer.

Veteran knights couldn’t compete with him when he wielded sword, and he could easily destroy even a group of monsters when he used magic.

Following the subjugation of Abyss Walkers, which was discovered for the first time in 20 years since the Great Invasion, Frontier Count Lloyd betrothed him to his daughter, Noelia, who was also his master in magic, and gave him the title of Viscount Feladd, appointing him as his successor, and so he officially became the son-in-law of Hero Lloyd.

The territory of Feladd conferred upon him alongside the enormous hole, prospered as the sub-capital of the empire that he would later found. It is said that the people who lived there were called ‘Foreigners’ and they offered technological level that far outstrip the state-of-the-art technology at the time, supporting Emperor Frick in his unification.

He had grown from a mere adventurer to an emperor of a great empire, but he was so popular with the general public that books depicting the first-half of his life has been continued to be published.

Just that, the first-half of his life was completely wrapped in mystery, and due to that, various anecdotes have been disseminated to the society.

There’s the supposition that he was the illegitimate son of the last king of the Kingdom of Hartford, Rodrick.

There’s the supposition that he was someone who came from another world.

There’s the supposition that he was a strengthened human created from the heritage of the magic civilization era.

There’s the supposition that he was the childhood friend of Sword Master Alfine.

And many more. All kinds of supposition have been made and disseminated to the society.

Now, before I, the writer, describe what I have inferred by looking through the books stored in the Imperial Vault and gathering fragmentary information from them, I think it’s better to talk about the Rougrit family that is treated the same as the Imperial Henestrosa family.

The Rougrit family is a family started by Al Rougrit, who was said to be the last sword master of the Kingdom of Hartford.

He also appeared like a comet at the final years of the Kingdom of Hartford, and was a swordsman recognized by Frontier Count Lloyd.

During his adventurer days, he met Emperor Frick who was called the Crimson Magic Swordsman at the time, and the two got along well, admiring each other for their mastery in the sword.

Later on, Emperor Frick, who had succeeded Frontier Count Lloyd and was worried about the turmoil that had spread in the Kingdom of Hartford, visited him, who was practicing the sword while helping people in need, and recruited him as the commander of the Royal Guard Knight Order, making him Emperor Frick closest aide.

It was stated in a record that Empress Noelia was also close to him. When the war broke, she even personally made a request to him to take personal care of Emperor Frick, showing her trust in him.

Al Rougrit, who had become the commander of the Royal Guard Knight Order, had been single for the rest of his life, and his family adopted the child picked up by Emperor Frick during the war.

However, a description left in the dairy of Maribel Tolash, the head maid of the Rougrit family, caught my interest.

[Al-sama wasn’t in a good condition, yet he still went to the battlefield. With such a horrible morning sickness*, he should have stayed in bed. I have to tell it Frick-sama as soon as possible.]

The original copy has already disappeared and completely lost, and only those lines are left in the Al Rougrit’s Tales Compilation book, so the context can only be guessed, but it seems to be one of the strong evidences that reinforce the deep-rooted supposition that Al Rougrit was a woman.

The reason why the deep-rooted supposition that he was a woman exist is because many swordsmen at that time left writings that said the way Al Rougrit wielded the sword was similar to Alfine, who had left her name in history as the third sword master of Hartford, although there was difference between them which was that the former wielded short swords while latter wielded a sword.

If Al Rougrit=Alfine, the exceptional treatment of the Rougrit family, of which I will be explaining later, will be understandable.

Just that, the supposition that it was a mistake in writing and that it actually meant ‘arrow wound’ instead of ‘morning sickness’ was prominent among researchers.

And due to his exceptionally well treatment of Al Rougrit, even the suspicion that Emperor Frick was a gay has been disseminated to the present day.

Well then, let’s put that suspicion aside and talk about why the Rougrit family is treated exceptionally.

It is quite normal for the Henestrosa family, the imperial family, to have the right to succeed to the throne, but despite being the commander of the Royal Guard Knight Order, the eldest son of the Rougrit family, who is only a vassal, has been given the right to succeed to the throne for generations.

An emperor from the Rougrit family has not appeared as of yet, but such a treatment is normally unthinkable.

Therefore, as the writer, I would like to strongly support the supposition that Al Rougrit was a woman.

If Rougrit family’s head maid Maribel’s description is ‘morning sickness’, it would be evidence that she gave birth in the battlefield, and it is highly likely that the child picked up by Emperor Frick and adopted by Al Rougrit was the child born between the two of them.

I deemed that it is because they have the blood of Emperor Frick and the permission of Empress Noelia that the eldest sons of the Rougrit family have been given the right to succeed to the throne

As evidence to support that, I will quote a portion of the letter of Meila Stockhausen, who served as Al Rougrit’s consultant for a long time.

[To my dearest Al, a lot of troubles are still ongoing, but leave the matter of that child to me. I already had an audience with Empress Noelia and told her everything about the situation. No worries.]

The original copy of this letter was lost during the turbulent period, and the only one copied in the recorded anecdotes of Al Rougrit still exists.

However, if the circumstances behind the dispatchment of Meila, who served as Al Rougrit’s consultant and had a high degree of his trust, to Empress Noelia was about ‘lineage problem’, then the content of that letter, which has been a source of controversy for many years, would be understandable.

I can’t help but think that the Rougrit family is treated the same way as the imperial family because the blood of Emperor Frick runs in them.

In order to reinforce this speculation, I also tried to read through the materials on Empress Noelia’s side.

I had the special library in a corner of the Imperial Library that was tightly secured to be opened and found a description regarding it in the materials that I found.

The description that I was interested in was in a memorandum written by Suzana Demistra, the first head maid of the imperial family.

She was a maid who had taken personal care of Empress Noelia since she was a child, and even after becoming the wife of Meiss Demistra, who served as a knight captain under Frontier Count Lloyd, the father-in-law of Emperor Frick, she still bore the heavy responsibility of being the head maid.

The original copy of her memorandum, which she allegedly wrote in her final years, is stored in the innermost part of the special library.

There is this description in it.

[The biggest decision that Noelia-sama had ever made in her life was to allow His Majesty Frick to welcome Sword Master Al Rougrit-dono as his vassal. Their ties had originally snapped. Yet, Noelia-sama made the decision reconnect them because, from the bottom of her heart, she wished for the best for the two of them.]

Also, there is this description in the same memorandum.

[The child adopted by Al Rougrit-dono is a boy with black eyes and black hair. It is truly the case of like father like son, he bears a resemblance of His Majesty Frick in his youth.]

There is a strange point with this description.

It’s because Emperor Frick had red hair and red eyes.

Then, why did the head maid Suzana write down that the black-eyed and black-haired child bore a resemblance of Emperor Frick when he was young?

Here, one supposition about the birth of Emperor Frick greatly came to the forefront.

Yes, it is about him being the childhood friend of Sword Master Alfine, the adventurer Finn, who died at a young age.

The testimony that the adventurer Finn was a young man with black eyes and black hair like the Third Sword Master Alfine is left in a passage in the history of the Kingdom of Hartford, which is said to have been compiled in the early years of the empire.

By connecting the two points, the testimony of the head maid Suzana and the Al Rougrit = Sword Master Alfine, the writer believed that that this young adventurer Finn was the mystery first-half of Emperor Frick’s life.

I inferred that Sword Master Alfine and the adventurer Finn changed their names to Al and Frick respectively at the final years of the kingdom, and after each of them had a new life, they met again and had a child.

If I ask researchers whether this inference is correct or not, I will probably be laughed at, but I’m sure that that is the case.

It is a rule that the childhood name of the eldest son of the Henestrosa family is Al and the eldest daughter is Alfine, the childhood name of the eldest son of the Rougrit family is Finn, and the eldest daughter is Noelia.

However, since they are childhood names, the children will be given official name when they are of age, but the childhood name will remain as their middle name in the official one.

These rules were made by Emperor Frick, and the two families have kept these rules to this day.

Those who have the names ‘Finn’, ‘Alfine’, ‘Al’, and ‘Noelia’ in their official names are written down in the imperial family as those who inherit the blood of Emperor Frick, and the males are given the right to succeed the throne.

With this point, the writer who will ascend the throne from now on wishes to end the controversy over the controversy over relationship between Emperor Frick, Empress Noelia, and Al Rougrit and the first half of Emperor Frick’s life that has continued since the establishment of the empire.

Writer, Johann Al Henestrosa, the eight emperor of the Freams Empire.

After writing the journal article following the mystery of Emperor Frick, which I had been researching for many years, I become immersed in satisfaction.

I honestly don’t know whether it is correct or right off the mark.

However, I have always been extremely curious about the strange relationship between my Henestrosa family and the Rougrit family from a long time ago, and there were even times when I wanted to throw out my responsibilities and became a scholar.

But that wish simply can’t come true.

Tomorrow, I will officially become the emperor, following the steps of my deceased father.

Before that, I wanted to leave it in the form of a journal article.

“Your Majesty Johann, are you still busy with writing? It’s about that isn’t it? The mystery of Emperor Frick?”

The owner of the voice calling out to me is Ashley Finn Rougrit, the eldest son of the Rougrit family.

He too, along with me, will receive the imperial command of the commander the Imperial Guard Knight Order tomorrow.

“Ahh, I’m very interested in the relationship between my family and your Rougrit family, you see. But from tomorrow onwards, I’ll have to fulfill my duties as an emperor, so I figured I’ll finish it by the end of today.” (Johann)

“If I remember correctly, the topic is about my family inheriting the blood of Emperor Frick, isn’t it?” (Ashley)

“Ahh, that’s right. That’s the conclusion I came to. That said, you and I are brothers in reality anyway.” (Johann)

“In-law that is. Is Older Sister healthy? Is she still troubling you with her selfishness?” (Ashley)

“I’ve gotten used to Noelia… I mean, Alesia’s selfishness. We’re childhood friends, after all. You know that too.” (Johann)

“If you call Older Sister by her childhood name, she’ll get angry, you know. After all, she’s grown up being told off by our parents that she is defiling Empress Noelia’s honorable name.” (Ashley)

“Ah, right. I’ll be more careful.” (Johann)

Tomorrow, I will be ascending the throne with Alesia Noelia Rougrit, the eldest daughter of the Rougrit family as my spouse.

Although I have been with her since we were children and we are bosom buddies, I must admit that she is an unusual lady in many ways.

However, because I will be treading a difficult path ahead, I have been secretly hoping that she will become my partner since she is a strong young woman.

“By the way, will the article be published? Although you wrote it before you ascend the throne, I think scholars will faint if they were to read it…” (Ashley)

“I’m sure they will. While I’m happy with what I wrote, I think this article will have to go to the special library inside the Imperial Library.” (Johann)

“It’s a shame. I think it is a very interesting take on the mystery. Oh right, why don’t you try asking it to the magic sword Dayle who will be unsealed during the coronation tomorrow? Her magic power was exhausted and she has been sealed since, but if you ask her when she is unsealed, I think she can answer this question.” (Ashley)

“Ask the magic sword Dayle, huh… But no one has been able to wake her up since Emperor Frick passed away.” (Johann)

If I can do that, the mystery will be solved at once.

That being said while I’m interested in solving the mystery about the matter of the right to succeed to the throne, more than that, I hope that the magic sword Dayle, who was said to be Emperor Frick’s partner, will be able to lend me her strength in this difficult time.