Several hours passed since Kaito's morning walk through the royal gardens with Queen Fiore.
The palace was enormous. No matter how many corridors he explored, another grand hallway seemed to reveal itself just around the corner. Towering stained-glass windows painted the polished stone floors in brilliant, jewel-toned hues of sapphire and ruby, while elegant oil portraits of former monarchs lined the vaulted walls, their painted eyes seeming to track his every movement.
"…This place really is unbelievable," Kaito whispered to himself, adjusting his glasses.
He wandered at an unhurried pace, taking his time to admire the intricate marble statues and ancient, hand-woven tapestries that appeared far older than some entire nations back on Earth. Eventually, his footsteps led him to one of the palace's elevated outer corridors, a grand open-air walkway that overlooked the sprawling courtyard below.
A handful of royal guards stood watch at various posts along the railing. Kaito slowed his pace, his eyes sweeping over them. All of them... were women.
He frowned slightly, a lingering question finally bubbling to the surface of his mind. He noticed it ever since his very first day in Valeria. In the quiet farming hamlets, within the bustling city squares, along the military patrols, and here inside the royal keep—almost every single elf he had encountered was female.
Unable to ignore his curiosity any longer, Kaito approached a guard stationed near a wide stone balcony. By her appearance, she looked to be in her early twenties, her warm chestnut-brown hair pulled back into a neat, practical ponytail. Sharp, intelligent amber eyes met his as she immediately snapped her hand to her chest in a formal salute.
"Your Majesty," she greeted respectfully.
Kaito offered a polite, gentle smile. "Do you mind if I ask you a question?"
"Of course not, Sire. How may I serve you?"
"I've been wondering about something since I arrived..." He glanced around the empty corridor, keeping his voice low. "Why are there so few male elves here? I've barely seen any at all. I've met a small handful of young guards... and mostly elderly men in the outer villages. But that's about it."
The guard's professional demeanor immediately faltered and her posture stiffened. She hesitated, her lips parting as if to deflect, before letting out a slow, heavy sigh.
"It began centuries ago, My Lord," she said softly, her tone laced with an ancient, lingering grief.
Kaito listened carefully, stepping a bit closer.
"Our previous ruler… Lord Yami," she explained, her jaw tightening at the name. "He fell into a deep, unspeakable madness. He came to believe that no other man deserved to exist within the borders of Valeria."
Kaito's eyebrows knitted together in deep confusion. "He… what?"
"He ordered the systematic, brutal extermination of the entire male population," the guard revealed, her voice barely above a whisper. "He wished to be the sole man in all of Valeria. Lord Yami sought complete, unquestioned ownership over every woman in the realm."
Silence stretched between them, heavy and suffocating. Kaito felt a sudden, wave of anger begin to brew inside him.
"…That's…" His hands slowly clenched into tight, trembling fists at his sides. "…That's insane!"
The guard nodded quietly, looking out over the courtyard. "Countless families were torn apart in the dark ages that followed. Sons were dragged from their beds. Fathers, brothers, husbands… they simply disappeared into the night."
Kaito lowered his head, a cold disgust churning in his chest. "I can't believe someone entrusted with ruling a kingdom—with protecting people—could become so twisted." He paused, his mind racing through the fragments of lore he had picked up over the past few days. He thought back to his heavy conversations with Sage. "…I assumed a monster capable of something like that would have been the Thorn King."
The mere mention of the name made the guard flinch violently. Her breath hitched.
Kaito blinked, a strange spark of realization firing in his mind. Wait a second… Lord Yami… I've heard that name before…
Fragments of old, hushed conversations surfaced from his memory. The seven elf maidens. Their anxious, guarded expressions whenever history was brought up. A dark sorcerer. A ancient curse. Despair spreading silently across the neighboring realms.
His eyes widened slightly behind his lenses.
The guard looked up, her amber eyes guarded. "Sire?"
"Do you happen to know where Lord Yami is now?" he asked directly.
She shook her head. "The Seven Maidens continue to research his whereabouts to this day. And… they are also actively searching for another dangerous enemy."
Kaito tilted his head. "Another one?"
"Yes," she nodded soberly.
He folded his arms across his chest, leaning slightly against the stone railing. "Who?"
The guard immediately looked immensely uncomfortable, shifting her weight from foot to foot. "I'm afraid… that information is classified, Sire."
Kaito blinked. "…Classified?"
She bowed her head in a deeply apologetic gesture. "By direct order of Her Majesty, Queen Fiore."
Kaito's brow furrowed into a deep frown. "I'm the future king of this realm," he argued, a rare edge of authority creeping into his voice. "I don't understand why something as critical as a threat to the kingdom would be kept hidden from me."
"I am truly sorry, My Lord. I cannot say."
Kaito studied her face carefully, taking in the subtle panic in her eyes, the rigid set of her shoulders, and the way her gaze darted toward the library wing. A sudden, chilling realization clicked into place.
"…It's the Thorn King, isn't it?" he asked quietly. "Lord Yami and the Thorn King… they're connected."
The guard froze entirely solid. Her amber eyes blown wide with absolute shock. "H-How… how do you know that name?!"
Kaito didn't answer immediately. Instead, he tightened his crossed arms, his expression hardening. "So it is."
"Your Majesty…" She took a frantic step forward, her composure breaking. "Who told you about the Thorn King?!"
Kaito looked away toward the horizon, refusing to throw Sage or the others under the bus.
She frowned, stepping into his line of sight. "Please, Sire. I must know."
He met her gaze dead-on. "No."
The sheer, immovable firmness in his voice surprised even himself.
"I think all of you are hiding something massive from me," Kaito said, his lingering frustration finally breaking through his polite exterior. "And quite frankly… you don't have the right to hide something this important from the person you summoned to fix it."
The guard stared at him, completely struck dumb by the raw intensity in his brown eyes. Several long, agonizing seconds ticked by. Finally… her shoulders slumped, and she lowered her head in defeat.
"…You're right," she sighed deeply, rubbing her temples. "I'm sorry… you were never supposed to discover this so early in your trials."
Kaito's frustration began turning into deep unease. "…Discover what? Sage only told me that the Thorn King exists. She told me he is an enormous threat to Valeria and the neighboring realms."
The guard looked up, genuine surprise flashing across her features. "…Then… you don't actually know the whole truth."
Kaito slowly shook his head. "No. I don't, but I must know, so please tell me."
She looked nervously up and down the length of the corridor, ensuring no other guards or attendants were within earshot. Satisfied they were alone, she offered a solemn nod.
"…Come with me."
The restricted wing of the palace library was dead silent. Floating motes of dust danced lazily through the brilliant shafts of afternoon sunlight streaming through the high, arched windows.
The guard led Kaito deep into the restricted archives, far beyond the public shelves where he had found his history book earlier that morning. They navigated a maze of towering wooden bookcases containing ancient, chained grimoires until she finally stopped before a huge, dust-covered shelf that reached high toward the stone ceiling.
Reaching high above her head, she carefully extracted a thick, ancient leather-bound tome. A small cloud of dust exploded into the air, making her cough lightly into her sleeve.
She carried the heavy book over to a dark oak reading table in the center of the room. With a flick of her finger, she lit a nearby candle, its warm, flickering glow illuminating the faded black ink pressed into the yellowed parchment.
The guard slowly opened the book, her fingers delicately turning several brittle, whispering pages until she finally stopped near the middle. Without speaking a word, she pointed a trembling finger to a specific paragraph.
Kaito leaned closer, his eyes scanning the archaic script. He quietly began reading aloud to himself.
"'Lord Yami…'" he muttered. "'…later known throughout history as…'"
His voice caught in his throat.
"'…The Thorn King.'"
Absolute silence descended upon the library. Kaito's eyes widened behind his glasses.
"…What…?"
Panicking slightly, he hurriedly flipped to the next page, his eyes racing down the margin to the biographical details. As his eyes landed on the line detailing the monster's true nature, his breathing completely stopped.
"'Species…'"
The text seemed to burn itself into his retinas.
"'…Human.'"
The word echoed in his mind like a thunderclap, shattering his understanding of the world.
Kaito's eyes became impossibly wide. "No…"
Driven by a terrible, magnetic dread, he kept reading, his voice barely audible.
"'The only human currently living within Valeria. Former King of Valeria. Immortal. Banished by Queen Fiore centuries ago after embracing forbidden, corruptive magic… Over countless ages, he absorbed immeasurable quantities of dark energy… corrupting nature… spreading plague… destroying wildlife… and reducing the elven population year after year…'"
The vast, empty library suddenly felt suffocatingly small. The air starved out of Kaito's lungs. He stumbled backward, his heels catching on the carpet.
"No…" he breathed, his voice cracking. "No… this… this can't be real…"
He looked at the guard in absolute, horrified disbelief, his face as pale as chalk. "…A human? It was a human who did all of this?!" He gestured wildly toward the book. "My own race...?!"
His knees buckled beneath him. Before he could hit the floor, the guard reacted with lightning speed, stepping forward to catch his arm securely.
"My Lord!" she gasped, holding him steady. "Are you alright?!"
Kaito slowly shook his head, his vision blurring.
A single, hot tear escaped his eye, tracing a path down his cheek. Everything he had seen since arriving in this world flashed before his eyes in a blinding, painful cascade.
The ruined, ash-choked villages. The weeping, broken families holding their fallen loved ones. The terrified, starving children trapped in iron cages. The twisted, monstrous beasts roaming the forests. The dark, black thorns choking the life out of the pristine rivers.
It all traced back… to a human. A person from his own world.
His chest tightened painfully, a deep, agonizing weight crushing his ribs. "…Why?" he whispered, looking up at the guard with raw, vulnerable eyes. "Why didn't anyone tell me the truth?"
The guard looked genuinely heartbroken, her amber eyes softening with profound sympathy. "We wanted to," she confessed quietly, lowering her gaze to the floor. "But we were terrified."
She spoke softly, her voice carrying the painful weight of her entire race. "When the stars finally aligned… and the Summoning Ritual succeeded in bringing you here… we hoped…" Her voice trembled slightly. "…we prayed that perhaps another human would be different. We hoped a human might finally be the one to save us from the human who has been destroying our home for centuries."
She looked back at him, her eyes pleading for understanding. "We never intended to burden you with that terrible truth immediately upon your arrival. You've only just arrived in a world you're not used to and you deserve time to adjust… We didn't want to force the sin of our tormentor onto your shoulders, before you were ready to carry it."
Kaito stood frozen in the silent archive, his mind racing. Slowly… his ragged breathing began to steady.
He raised his sleeve and gently wiped away the tear from his cheek. He looked down at his trembling hands—the hands that had held Cherry as she bled, the hands that had unleashed a blinding green light to restore her life.
Out of all the people back on Earth… out of an entire world of strangers… they had brought him into their world.
"…A whole planet of people," Kaito whispered softly to the quiet room. "And I got summoned."
The guard nodded firmly, her posture straightening. "Yes, you did, My Lord."
Kaito looked back towards the ancient book resting beneath the warm candlelight. He thought of Queen Fiore's gentle smile in the garden, all seven of the elf maidens, and the kind strangers he met along the way.
"I've loved elves for as long as I can remember," Kaito said, his voice dropping an octave, losing every trace of its previous uncertainty. "I've admired everything they stand for. Their kindness. Their beauty. Their love for life."
He turned away from the book and looked the guard dead in the eye, a cold, blazing determination igniting within his soul.
"If another human really caused all of this suffering… then I'll be the human who puts an end to it." His eyes hardened into steel behind his lenses. "I don't care how strong that bastard is. I don't care how much dark magic he controls. I will not allow someone from my own race to continue destroying innocent lives."
The guard stared at him, her lips parting in awe. For the first time since they had met, a bright, genuine smile broke across her face.
"…Those words alone, My Lord, remind me precisely why Her Majesty placed her absolute faith in you."
Kaito offered a small, resolute nod. "…Thank you. For trusting me with the truth."
The guard carefully closed the ancient tome, returning it to its hidden shelf among the restricted archives.
Neither of them spoke a single word during the long walk back through the palace corridors. The silence between them was no longer filled with suspicion or hesitation, but a quiet, shared resolve.
When they finally reached the entrance to Kaito's guest chambers, the guard stopped and bowed deeply, her fist resting over her heart. "Please get some rest, Your Majesty."
Kaito looked back down the long, quiet hallway one last time, his reflection caught in the dark glass of the arched windows. The lingering hesitation in his eyes was gone, replaced by an unshakable purpose.
The Thorn King was no longer just some abstract, mythical monster from a fantasy realm. He was a human. A dark mirror of what a man could become when consumed by power.
And somehow… that made Kaito even more determined to tear him down.