IYAMD 182

Jaha’s jaw dropped at the sight of the children dressed in their finest.

The children wore matching white outfits, short-sleeved shirts and shorts, chosen with the summer heat in mind.

Perhaps because they were twins, they always insisted on dressing identically, and today their outfits appeared to have been coordinated based on Helios’s preference for their outdoor activities.

The children looked adorable in their woven straw hats and clothes accented with blue ribbons. They were holding hands and had their favorite rabbit plushies – which they’d been carrying around everywhere lately – under their arms as they approached.

“Are we leaving right now?”

“Where to?”

Then, upon seeing that the two adults were still in their everyday clothes, the twins looked at each other with pouty expressions.

“You haven’t even changed your clothes yet…”

Helios grumbled, his lower lip quivering as if he were about to cry. Lotis also frowned at the two men.

Amused by how adorable they were, Marsilia and Jaha burst into laughter at the same time. The two of them each picked up the children closest to them, rocked them gently, and rubbed their lips against their cheeks.

“We might as well just go like this.”

Their schedule didn’t allow them to go ​Read on​far. Jaha also had no intention of dressing up, so he agreed and coddled Lotis, who was in his arms.

“The servants should be ready, so we can leave right away.”

Marsilia gestured with his chin toward the servant who had entered with the children and was waiting nearby.

“Tell the children’s escorts to meet us at the eastern lakeside. Remind them not to forget the picnic basket. Let them know we are heading out first.”

Marsilia led the way toward the balcony, and Jaha followed close behind.

“Your Majesty…? Surely you don’t mean…”

The two of them jumped from the balcony with the children still in their arms and ran across the imperial palace. The garden trees blurred past them. Startled by the sudden speed, the children could only gape in wonder as they clung tightly to the necks of the men carrying them.

Every time they vaulted over hedges high and low, gasps of awe escaped from their wide-open mouths.

“Whoa!”

Since it was early morning, few officials had arrived at the palace yet, leaving only the towering garden trees to obstruct their path.

The occasional palace servants they passed didn’t even have time to offer a proper greeting to the imperial couple; they could only stare at their figures like dogs left gaping after a bird had flown.

Not long after they arrived at the lakeside, the children, their faces flushed red with excitement, screamed at the top of their lungs. They sounded just like two crows.

The two put the children down and rubbed their stinging ears. Their hearing was sensitive to begin with, but it was to the point where their ears were ringing from the chil[unauthorized copy]dren shouting so loudly right in their ears.

“Heli, did you see that? Did you see? Papa Jaha flew right over!”

“Uh-huh! He whoosh over the trees!”

Perhaps due to the difference between a boy and a girl, Helios’s speech was slightly clumsy and lisping, unlike Lotis, who spoke clearly despite being the same age.

The twins differed not only in their speech but also in their personalities. One could say Lotis was a bit more clever, while Helios was more easygoing and gentle.

As Jaha watched them with mixed emotions, both children clutched their rabbit plushies to their chests and looked up at him.

“Papa, Lotis wants to learn that too.”

“Heli too, Heli too! Teach me how to go whoosh!”

Hmm. Jaha looked somewhat perplexed and cast a glance at Marsilia. Since one of them would eventually become the Emperor of Arhen, shouldn’t they be learning the empire’s swordsmanship instead?

Amused by Jaha’s predicament, Marsilia simply grinned. He even crossed his arms, making it perfectly clear he had no intention of helping him.

Jaha gave up on seeking assistance from him and lowered himself to meet the children’s gaze. He knelt on one knee, and placed his hands on the shoulders of the children standing side by side.

“Hmm…”

How should he put this? Moments like this made Jaha resent his own clumsiness with words. He always found it difficult to explain things in simple terms that children could understand.

“Papa can’t teach you martial arts.”

For one thing, Jaha’s sect passed down its martial arts strictly through oral tradition. Even if a manual existed, it wouldn’t be easy for children who didn’t know the script of the Eastern Continent to learn it.

Furthermore, Jaha lacked the skill to translate the teachings into the language of the Western Continent. Reciting the martial mnemonics without understanding their meaning wouldn’t generate inner energy, and even if he tried to translate and explain the cultivation methods, there was no guarantee they could truly master the core.

Nor did he have any desire to force the children to learn the Eastern Continent’s language. Jaha had already left that place behind and made a home for himself here in the Western Continent.

Marsilia often mentioned traveling the Eastern Continent together once he abdicated the throne, but… would such a day ever come?

Jaha saw no need to burden them with the language of a distant continent they might never even visit. It wasn’t as if there was frequent interaction between the two lands. He figured teaching them a few short words or simple greetings every now and then would be more than enough.

So, even if the children wished to learn his martial arts, Jaha had neither the means nor the intention to teach them.

“Why?”

As the two chimed together like little chicks, Jaha was busy organizing his thoughts. His explanation dragged out as he fumbled for the right words.

“To learn it… you have to start by learning the language of the Eastern Continent. Besides… Papa only ever learned from his own master, so I’m not very good at teaching.”

Helios rolled his round eyes around before stomping his feet, a brilliant idea had just occurred to him.

“Then what about Papa’s master?”

He thought they could simply learn from Jaha’s master. Jaha found the boy’s resourcefulness endearing, yet he felt melancholic at the memory of his late master.

When Lotis began praising Helios that it was an excellent idea, Marsilia finally stepped in. He picked up the excited children and admonished them in a mock-stern tone.

“I told you not to trouble Papa Jaha.”

Instead of answering Marsilia, Helios looked at Jaha.

“Papa, are you troubled? Why?”

The children were at an age where they found joy in discovering new things. As the two began chirping in unison again, Marsilia turned around to shield Jaha from their onslaught.

“You shouldn’t ask someone if they’re troubled when they already are. It only troubles them more.”

As if they could possibly understand that. Just as he feared, the children failed to grasp Marsilia’s logic and immediately bombarded him with more “whys.”

Jaha occasionally thought that both he and Marsilia were severely lacking in parental aptitude.

He himself had left home at a young age and lived separated from his parents, while Marsilia had lost his own parents during his childhood.

The thought struck him with particular force whenever Marsilia, who was arguably better suited for parenthood than he was, said such nonsense.

Is it alright to raise them like this? Should we hire a tutor now, as others suggest?

Yet, his desire to let them grow up simply as children was equally strong. He felt it would be heartbreaking to see them already adopting precocious manners and mastering the formal speech of the nobility.

Perhaps it was because even now, after growing accustomed to aristocratic culture, he could not entirely shake off the negative impression he had initially formed.

Losing his sister to an Arhen noble played a part, but it was also because he still vividly remembered how they used to whisper behind the back of the struggling emperor.

Jaha still found it difficult to understand. Why had that man poured his life so diligently into serving those who cared nothing for the sacrifices made to support them?

He had asked several times and received just as many answers, yet he still couldn’t comprehend it.

‘Think of it as raising a child, Jaha. The empire is mine, and its people are like my own children. So even if they grow up and act a little rebellious, I embrace them. I discipline them from time to time, so they know where to draw the line. There’s no need to worry so much. If you look at the nobles as children throwing tantrums, you might even find them a little endearing.’

No matter how many times he heard that, the nobles only ever looked like useless adults to Jaha. While Marsilia, educated as royalty since childhood, might see them differently, to Jaha, who was born and raised a commoner, they were nothing short of profligate and irresponsible.

Though things had changed slightly after the emperor explicitly declared at their imperial wedding that he would show no leniency, their sluggish and decadent habits remained the same.

Nevertheless, he couldn’t help but sigh when he saw the man laughed it off.

There were times when he wanted to wipe them all out completely. Yet, that man was an emperor who wished to protect the entire empire, including them.

As long as he lived as his partner, Jaha was bound to protect everything the emperor sought to safeguard.

But if things were as Marsilia said, a parent had the right to take up the switch. Instead of Marsilia playing the role of the strictly benevolent father, it wasn’t a bad idea for Jaha to take on the villainous role as the stern one.

In fact, Jaha had been doing exactly that for the past three years. It was his duty to hold the real power over monster extermination and to keep the nobles whispering behind Marsilia’s back in check.

Marsilia likely didn’t fully realize why Jaha kept roaming outside while leaving him seated in the imperial palace.

That it was the result of Jaha’s struggle to secure power in his own way after failing to adapt to the typical aristocratic discourse. It was a strategy he had devised to stand above others through his own martial might, rather than relying on the title of empress that Marsilia had granted him.

Jaha had no intention of revealing this to him. Telling him would only burden the man with guilt.

He didn’t want him to change because of this, either. Even if Marsilia lived like an easygoing grandfather chuckling at his spoiled grandchildren, Jaha preferred things exactly as they were now.

Because the emperor who drew his sword to stand in front of them, blocking whatever nonsense they spewed behind his back, was the very man he had fallen in love with.