Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 295: The Last Emperor & The Last KGB Officer (10)

Dragon Raja 3

“That’s a job we’d better not let the vice principal hear about. He’d definitely send his résumé to the Yamata no Orochi, requesting such a prestigious position.”

“My mother was already pregnant with me by then. When the ninjas learned that, they changed their plans. Instead of just killing my father and mother, they aimed to bring them both back to Japan. But my father refused. He and my mother fled in the night, planning to find a place to get rid of me.”

“Looks like you weren’t very popular with your parents even in the embryo stage.”

“In the inner three families, the birth of a child often costs the mother’s life. Half of the babies in the inner three families are monsters—fetuses that dragonize inside the womb, turning into oni. And they’re the fiercest kind. Women who carry oni die from childbirth. This fate is preordained for the breeding women. They live in luxurious houses, attended by dozens of maids, eating the finest beef and tuna, nourished with Korean ginseng. If they get angry, the maids are dragged out and killed. Behind all that respect, their job is to train their bodies by day, take aphrodisiacs by night, and become breeding machines. Once they carry an oni, they’re doomed to die,” Uesugi Koeru explained. “My father hated his bloodline because his younger brother was an oni. At seven months, the oni tore through my grandmother’s abdomen. My father was only seven years old at the time. Without a word, he grabbed an axe and killed his younger brother. From then on, he became a lunatic obsessed with Go, disgusted by the thought of children.”

“It’s surprising that he still agreed to have a child with your mother. He must have really loved her.”

“Yes, which is why he wanted to kill me. He didn’t even want to wait for my embryo to fully form, fearing I might harm my mother. Luckily, my mother insisted, and I survived that ordeal. But when my mother was about to give birth, the ninjas found them again. My father held a gun to his own head and negotiated with the ninjas. His condition was that he would return to Japan, but my mother and I would stay in France, and the clan had to swear to protect us.”

“He was willing to be separated from your mother?”

“I was just a mistake, you understand? In my father’s eyes, I should never have been born. If they kept having children, one day a snake-tailed fetus might crawl out of my mother’s womb. Women in the inner three families rarely live past 35. And once my father returned to Japan, he’d have to spend every day with breeding women. That would have been a horrific, insane life for my mother. So, he’d rather leave her in France than drag her back into that madness.”

Anjou nodded.

“The clan eventually agreed to my father’s terms because, in his depressive state, he really would’ve blown his brains out. Losing him would have been a huge loss for the clan. My father returned to Japan, my mother stayed in France to raise me, and the clan provided a generous amount of support. But my mother was an orphan who grew up in a convent school. As an unmarried woman with no support, raising a child alone was too hard. Eventually, she hid the fact that she had a child, returned to the Catholic Church, and took her final vows, becoming a lifelong nun. With the church’s support, I entered an orphanage and later a church school.”

“You call your father ‘old man,’ but when you talk about your mother, you call her ‘mom’ like a child. You must have loved your mother very much, right?”

“Of course. Back then, she was the only family I had. But I couldn’t tell anyone that she was my mother. I often went to church to pray, but I didn’t believe in religion at all. I just wanted to see her from afar. When she distributed the sacrament, she would pass by me and gently touch the top of my head, her hand trembling slightly. To see me more often, she requested to work at the church school, and every night before bed, she would tell Bible stories to the children. It felt amazing—a room filled with small beds, each with a child, their wide eyes fixed on her, while she sat under the lamp, narrating the stories in her beautiful voice. Secretly, all the children called her ‘Mom.’ They loved her, but I knew she was really only my mother,” Uesugi Koeru looked up at the rain-filled sky. “She was so pure, like an angel. Everywhere I went, I heard people talk about ‘Mother Charlotte,’ ‘Mother Charlotte’… it was like she was always there. I never felt lonely.”

“And what happened to your father after that?” Anjou asked.

“He stayed in Japan with many breeding women, working hard every day to produce offspring. Later, he died.”

“That’s a bit too simple of an explanation, isn’t it?”

“What more is there to say about a stud horse? His entire life was about breeding, breeding, and more breeding. But in the end, he never managed to produce an emperor.” Uesugi Koeru shrugged. “My awakening came one afternoon, without any prior warning. It was a disaster. I couldn’t control my power, and my Yanling exploded, turning three blocks into ruins. While I was lost in fear and anxiety, messengers from the family appeared before me, wearing ceremonial robes that made them look like they had stepped out of an ancient painting. They were there to welcome the new emperor. A steamship painted in bright red awaited at the port, ready to take me east to ascend the throne. I was overjoyed. All my life, I had felt like just another ordinary person, but now, here came people from an ancient eastern kingdom to tell me that I was their emperor. How could I not be eager? I couldn’t wait to see the kingdom that belonged to me. My mother was also pleased. She thought that this way, I could reunite with my father. But she didn’t want to accompany me.”

“After all those years of separation from the man she loved, she didn’t want to reunite with him?”

“She said she had already taken her vows, and her heart now belonged only to God. All the personal love she had in this world, she gave to me. Seeing me would be the same as seeing my father. The Charlotte Chen of the past no longer existed; now there was only Mother Charlotte.” Uesugi Koeru said softly. “At the time, I was naive enough to think I would only be traveling to the East for a few years and then come back to live with her. But when I boarded that ship, it was the start of a century-long separation.”

“Saying goodbye is always easier said than done,” Anjou sighed gently.

“When I arrived in Japan, I was given a grand reception by the family. Soon after, I underwent the god-sealing ceremony, which you can think of as the coronation of a black market emperor. At the time, I was a pure French youth, but the elders did everything they could to turn me into a Japanese. They taught me kendo, tea ceremony, and waka poetry. They arranged for a national treasure-level Noh master to perform just for me, and I met with monks to have formal discussions about Zen. I even had seven Japanese wives, or should I say breeding women. They wore heavy hairstyles, with their faces painted white. When I first met them, I couldn’t even tell them apart. My subordinates assured me they were the finest beauties Japan had to offer, true yamato nadeshiko, who would bring happiness to a man in power. But I always joked that their thin necks would be crushed under those enormous heads.”

“You don’t seem to have much love for them,” Anjou observed.

“I never acknowledged them as my wives in my heart. To me, they were just toys. I can’t even remember any of their full names now. I ordered them to let down their long hair and style it like French women, with big curls. I had them cut skirts that showed their thighs, and I brought them high heels from Paris. I missed Paris’s nightlife, so I made them dress like dancers from the Moulin Rouge, lining up to practice the cancan. I looked down on them, but I loved the feeling of being on top. I toyed with them, and they smiled back at me. That was something no French woman could ever give me.”

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