Nero walked along the lengthy corridor.
Compared to when he was six years old, it felt as if time had completely stopped here; even the tiny cracks on the walls remained unchanged.
As he reached the end of the corridor, his view suddenly opened up.
The magnificent circular dome soared high, almost touching the clouds, adorned with breathtaking murals of beautiful gods in flowing robes, raising cups in unison.
Looking up from below could cause a dizzying sensation, as if the gods from the heavens were grandly descending upon the earth.
Below the corridor was an equally grand circular plaza. Intricate and densely patterned floor tiles radiated from the high central circular altar, intertwining and flowing towards the massive floor-to-ceiling windows at the plaza’s edge.
The sunlight that the entire Temple could not receive poured in here unabashedly, outlining the back of a white-haired, white-robed figure on the altar in a soft golden halo.
Nero gazed at the figure for a long time, then lifted the hem of his robe and stepped down the first step.
As he descended, the temple servants, standing like ghosts around the altar, began to chant a distant, indistinct hymn.
These temple servants, once born, would never leave the altar. As Nero focused his gaze, he noticed that their faces under the hoods had their eyes and ears sewn shut. Only their noses could breathe, and their mouths could sing.
At the same time, warm spring water started to flow from the eyes of countless angel sculptures around the plaza.
The water, carrying fragrant petals, quickly soaked Nero’s feet.
Nero walked through the holy water, continuing down the steps.
As the legitimate prince of the empire, he was, of course, brought to participate in Temple ceremonies as a child. He had once sat on the shoulders of a young White Wolf Knight, holding onto two metal ears, watching the legendary Holy Son from afar.
Saint Louis always stood quietly at the front of the royal barge, participating in the parade beside the Emperor. Compared to the imposing and magnificently dressed Kaises Emperor, the Holy Son’s presence was like a handful of snow on the peak of Mount Olympus, a piece of moonlight left behind by the moon goddess Selene on earth.
The Holy Son possessed an almost inhuman beauty, enough to cleanse everything. Even the most renowned court painters of the Empire couldn’t capture his visage on a blank canvas. His long white hair cascaded to his ankles, just as the bards sang, “The tears of the gods fell on Olympus, melting into the purest snow waterfall.”
Even six-year-old Nero, upon first seeing Saint Louis, felt a buzzing in his head, and all the surrounding noise faded, leaving only the ethereal hymn singing in the depths of his soul.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
But soon, he came back to his senses.
Yc atf sbecu Qtlaf Qbio Bcluta’r rtbeivfgr, tf ibbxfv jgbecv. Ktf ragffar kfgf oliifv klat qfbqif mjiilcu bea atf Lbis Vbc’r cjwf, wjcs rb bnfgktfiwfv klat fwbalbc atja atfs kfqa ecmbcagbiijyis jcv ojlcafv.
Qtfc tf ibbxfv yjmx ja atf Lbis Vbc bc atf gbsji yjguf, atf Lbis Vbc kjr jirb ibbxlcu vbkc klat ubivfc fsfr, byrfgnlcu atf cfjgis vfilglber obiibkfgr yfibk. Lbkfnfg, tlr ujhf ragemx atf sbecu Rfgb jr ragjcufis vfajmtfv.
——It always reminded him of the blank eye sockets of the god statues on the temple pillars.
The young White Wolf Knight, however, was completely mesmerized. Little Nero twisted his hips, wanting to go down and buy some candy, but the White Wolf Knight, holding onto his small leg in a daze, wouldn’t let him down no matter how hard he tried.
Frustrated, Little Nero banged his head against the wolf helmet: “Big dumb wolf! Big dumb wolf!”
The young White Wolf Knight snapped back to reality and quickly set him down: “I’m very, very sorry, Little Highness…”
“You’re my White Wolf, but today all you do is look at the Holy Son and ignore me!” Little Nero, who had just lost his baby teeth, spoke with a lisp, but that didn’t stop him from angrily accusing, “If you keep this up, I’ll get rid of you!”
The young White Wolf Knight panicked and knelt down on the spot: “Your Highness, please…”
“Sigh. Forgive him, my dear little brother.”
A pair of hands lifted Nero up. Little Nero looked up to see his Third Sister with silver hair and blue eyes smiling at him.
“Not everyone is like Kaises, naturally able to resist the Holy Son’s mental power.”
“Wait, is that something we can say now?” Another silver-haired head popped out from the nearby motorboat. The twelve-year-old Fourth Prince of the empire, clinging to the cabin window, looked horrified. “Aren’t we supposed to wait until Nero starts his theology lessons?”
“Theology lessons?” The Third Princess laughed, pinching Little Nero’s chubby cheek, “With his record of skipping classes every day, it’s hard to say if he’ll even finish basic grammar this year. Isn’t that right, you little troublemaker?”
“By the way, what did you say you wanted to buy at the festival last time?” The Fourth Prince remembered something, “A holographic star map or an antique Earth violin, what was it?”
“Candy!”
Nero, with his cheek pinched, shouted.
But because he spoke with a lisp, the Fourth Prince deliberately leaned in closer and asked, “What’s that? A Sukar-86 mecha?”
“Candy—!”
Nero shouted louder into his ear.
The Fourth Prince nodded: “Alright, got it.”
Turning to his own White Wolf Knight, he said, “Go get Nero that mecha, buy the most expensive one.”
Little Nero punched him in the face.
The Fourth Prince’s White Wolf Knight, seeing his prince’s distorted face, hesitated: “Your Highness, should I… still buy it?”
“Did you sneak off to the market? I’ve been looking for you all for a long time. Why didn’t you take your brother with you?”
Another motorboat stopped beside them.
As the door opened, the Second Prince of the empire, with the same beautiful silver hair, leisurely stepped off the boat.
Unlike his younger brothers, who were always rolling around in the courtyard, the fifteen-year-old Second Prince, Elianor Augustus Kaises, had already begun participating in royal diplomatic activities.
His silver hair was neatly combed back, revealing his extraordinarily handsome features and smooth forehead, with a refined monocle on his left eye. When he smiled, he looked like a silver-haired fox full of cunning schemes.
The Fourth Prince retorted, “Of course we didn’t bring you! You’d just tattle to our eldest sister!”
The Second Prince blinked and said nothing, slowly curling his lips into a smile.
The Fourth Prince sensed something bad: “…Damn.”
“Brother, where’s your royal decorum?”
As a cold female voice sounded, the three youngest siblings immediately froze. The imperial Eldest Princess stood behind them in her heavy Eutite armor, her expression stern and cold.
“I’ll count to three. Immediately, all of you, return to the Temple. Fulfill your duties as members of the royal family.”
She hadn’t even started counting before the Third Princess and Fourth Prince abandoned their little brother, pulling their own White Wolf Knights and bolting towards their motorboat.
“Should we take him?” The Second Prince pointed at Little Nero.
The Eldest Princess looked down, coldly surveying Nero.
Facing the female war deity, who was beginning to make a name for herself on the battlefield, Nero felt like a kitten trembling with fear. He clung to the leg of the young White Wolf Knight, looking up at her with tearful red eyes.
The young White Wolf Knight silently took a half-step forward, shielding Nero behind him.
“…Forget it. He’s still young, let him play for a few more years.”
The Eldest Princess sighed almost imperceptibly and turned to board the motorboat.
“If Uncle Rupert asks, just say we haven’t seen Nero.”
The Second Prince was about to leave but then turned back, crouching in front of Nero.
He reached out and grasped at the air behind Nero’s head, then held his hand out in front of him:
“Little guy, guess what’s inside. If you guess right, it’s yours.”
To be honest, Nero actually hated his Second Brother. When he was very young, the Second Prince had once caught a toad and put it in his bed, scaring him so much that he ran around the Solar Palace, embarrassing himself in front of the ministers.
Although his brother had apologized and coaxed him for a long time afterward, as a very principled Kaises, Nero decided to remember this forever and never speak to his brother again.
Nero turned his little head away.
The Second Prince smiled helplessly: “Sigh. How old will you have to be to forgive your brother?”
He opened his hand with a wry smile.
A beautiful candy lay quietly in his palm.
and now theyre all gone…
my god I cried so much reading this chapter, poor Nero
😭😭😭 all so beautiful souls. But was the madness really the madness everyone thought?
🥺
this flashback just saddens me… ༎ຶ‿༎ຶ