Kara no Teikoku : The Empty Empire
written and illustrated by Naoe Kita
translation by ryuuen yanagi




Chapter Four: Our Time




--page 128

Ririka: "Rose is always getting hurt, isn't he... did Idea get hurt this much
all the time, too?"

Rose: "........"

Count: "Let's see..."


--page 129

Count: "I'd expect Idea got hurt, but... how should I put it..." (Don't move.)
"He healed quickly. Aside from considerably large wounds, his nature was such that
it was like he could heal instantaneously without medical treatment." Miss Ririka,
for wounds, that herb over there is quite effective.

Rose: "Eehh?"

Ririka: Okay~

Rose: "But, Count! I'm a clone of Idea, so I should have the same body, but that
doesn't happen with me! What's going on?"

Count: "Uuuuuum... well...."



--page 130

Rose: "What kind of person was Idea?"

Count: "Let's see... He was a mysterious person. In all things."

Kirii: "Even more than Rose, huh! He was so nice, Idea was! Really!"

Kiara: "Kiara loved Idea, too~ *heart*"

Rose: "Kirii, Kiara..."


--page 131

Rose: "I see..." Idea...

Kirii: Are your wounds okay?

Kiara: Don't they hurt?

Rose: Idea... what kind kind of person was he, really? Now that I think about it,
I've never really asked about Idea, have I... and there's so many people here who
were around Idea...

Kid: "Idea?"


--page 132

Kid: "To put it in one word: 'strong'."

Rose: "Eh."

Kid: "I was really strong, you know. But I still got this, you know? But that's
because my hand slipped~~ DAMMIT, even just remembering it pisses me off! Why the
hell did he go and die, that asshole~~~ Hurry and get big, Rose."

Rose: "........"

Ayako: "Idea, hmm?"


--page 133

Ayako: "Well, Idea.... Wasn't he quite a player?"

Rose: A player...?

Ayako: "He was really charming. He was quite the idol among the girls during the
era of his reign." (And maybe the men, too.) "I mean, Idea really got around. I
really like Idea's face, too. I liked Idea so much that Kid got obsessed with him."

Kid: Oi?


--page 134

Iriya: "Idea-sama? Well, let me see... he was a perfect individual. When one
was allowed to be around him, there was nothing that was impossible. It felt like
everything around him had a precious meaning. If he hadn't been like that, I'm
sure that he wouldn't have been able to unite the world and tidy up the problem
nobody could solve in a such a short time."

Rose: "Hmmmmmm."


--page 135

Ririka: "Idea? I told you, I didn't know him."

Rose: "Yeah, but you at least heard rumors about him, right?" He was famous.

Ririka: "Well, only that he was a weirdo out to take over the world." I wasn't
interested.

Take over the world, she says... (sweat)

Ririka: "Wouldn't it be faster to ask this stuff to Eiri?"

Rose: "Eh."


--page 136

Ririka: "You've been told that Eiri was Idea's closest friend, right?"

Rose: "Yeah, but..."

Ririka: "Aaaaah, I know! You're scared!"

Rose: "Ugh!"

Ririka: "You're scared of asking about Idea to Eiri who knows all about Idea!
Geeee......."

Rose: "I'm not scared......!"

Ririka: "Well then, let's go ask Eiri~~~"

Rose: "Yeah! I'll go ask him!"
Ririka: Let's go~ let's go~

Ririka: "Eiri~~~~~~~~~~!"


--page 137

Eiri: "You say you want to know about Idea?"

Rose: "Yeah."

Eiri: "......... I see."

Rose: *heartbeat heartbeat heartbeat*

Eiri: "Let me see.... .........to put it into one word..."

Rose: "In one word?"


--page 138

Eiri: "I HATED HIS GUTS."

Rose: "Eh? EEHH?!? WHY?!"

Ririka: "Why?"

Eiri: "No reason...? I just felt that way when I first met him. I thought
I didn't like him."


--page 139

Rose: "What an unexpected answer...." (But somehow I feel better.....)

Ririka: "But now you like him best of all, right? Hey, Eiri, when did you first
meet Idea?"

*heartbeat*

*glance*


--page 140

Rose: "I'm going back to my room~~~"

Ririka: "Wait, Rose...?"

*receding footsteps*

[I wonder why I get so nervous...?]

Are words from people who were familiar with him this dangerous....?

It seems like if I know, I'll get caught in Idea's illusion again.

Especially with the person who knew him best.


--page 141

Eiri's words are powerful.

Eiri: "Rose-kun is going around asking about Idea?"

Iriya: "Yes. We didn't talk about anything important, though."

Eiri: "I see."

Ayako: "Rose is changing, isn't he. If I were Rose, I wouldn't want to ask
about the past. It would kinda feel like asking a current boyfriend about his
old girlfriends. If it were me, I wouldn't want to ask."

Count: "Well, I'm sure you don't want to go asking about Kid's love life, anyhow."
Kid: You bastard....

Count: "Well, anyway....


--page 142

Count: "But Idea is kind of like the parent who gave Rose life. I think it would
be best if he finally knew the truth, but..."

Eiri: "........."

Even though inside the mirror, Idea is there
Even though we have the same body
He's so far away


--page 143

I'm still
scared

of Idea

*knock knock knock*


--page 144

Eiri: "Can I come in?"

Rose: "Eiri~~~~ ......... Whaddaya want? It's the middle of the night."

Eiri: "I came to tell you about Idea."

Rose: "! T.... that's okay! I don't want to hear!!"


-page 145

Eiri: "It was eight years ago, when I was ten years old."

Rose: "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!"

Ririka: "What are you doing Eiri, telling ghost stories?"

Rose: "Ten years old!?"

Eiri: "That's right. That's when I first met Idea."


--page 146

It was a time

when the world was still far away.

Eiri: (Ah, a bird.) "!"


--page 147

"I was in a government-sponsored institution called 'A.S.'. It was like an
elite training-grounds. They gathered children with high IQs and made them
undergo mind-training to create geniuses."

Eiri: "............"

"I was particularly gifted, so in that year I had nothing left to learn there.
I had already earned a doctorate in medicine and linguistics, but I wanted to
learn more, so it became such that I was going to be an assistant to the place
of a professor of genetic engineering, which I had an interest in."


--page 148

"However......"

Eiri: "Adopt me? The professor is going to adopt me?"

dean: "That's right. Well you see, Eiri-kun, about that... Their professor....
Well, even though you're a boy genius, it's not like they can put a ten-year-old
boy to work.... it would be different if it were your true guardian taking the
responsibility, but..."

Eiri: (What a mess.)

dean: "Even though A.S. is your guardian, we still have to follow the laws of
the country. So rather than send you to that poverty-ridden.... er, no, that
university research center, we..... there's this research center instead!!"

Eiri: "It's okay. I'll go as an adopted child." But.....

dean: "Eh?!"

Eiri: "It's better than paperwork, so I don't mind. But it will probably happen
after we meet, I'm sure." (I'm also happy to be getting free of A.S., but...)

dean: "Ah, ah I see! But look, we have all these, and some others~~"

Eiri: "If you'll excuse me."

dean: "AH~~~~~ Eiri-kun~~~~"


--page 149

I thought of it as getting away from the dean who thought of me as a cash-cow, but
I also wanted to learn more.

Eiri: I've already repaid them the cost of my learning ten-fold, so...

I felt that if I could learn, I would be able to capture something

What did I want?

For this body that had dried up.....

Eriko: "Hey, hey, Eric, did you hear that the boy genius is coming today?!
I've been left in charge of it!! Because I'm an assistant, he says! I respect
the man, but why is it that I _ALWAYS_ get stuck with this stuff for being
a woman!?" There's also the fact that I'm the youngest, but....

Eric: "Yeah, but I heard he's also got doctorates in Medicine and Linguistics."

Eriko: "Eh..!"


--page 150

Eriko: "Geeehhh, but he's ten years old!" I'm 20 and I don't have those...

Eric: I'm 27 and I don't have them... "He was raised in A.S.. It's said their
other name is the Human Market. Anyway, wanna conduct a genetic experiment with
real genes?"

Eriko: "Shut up~ Who'd want your inferior genes!"

Eric: What a thing to say~ I've just got blonde hair and blue eyes~

Eiri: "Excuse me... I was told to come this way, but....."


--page 151

Eriko: "Ah, we heard, you're Eiri-kun aren't you." (Ugh, I hate kids.) "Ah,
pleased to meet you. I'm Professor Ridgeway's assistant, my name is Eriko. Our
names are similar, aren't they. E-i-ri and E-ri-ko; let's be friends, okay?"

Eiri: "......."

Eriko: "Eh?"

Eiri: "Yeah, it's a pleasure to meet you. Professor Ludwig Ridgeway's paper made
a great impression on me. I'm also bad with the regeneration of destroyed DNA, but
I'll be helping out. Genetic engineering is a self-study subject, and we're both
amateurs, so I guess we're both in the same position."

Eriko: "Ha... yeah...?"

Eiri: "So, which way to the professor?"


--page 152

Eriko: "WHAT THE HELL IS WITH THAT BRAT~~~~~?! I thought he'd be humble since he's
the professor's adopted kid, but~~~"

Eric: "Eriko-chan, you're spoiled for being pretty." Scary~~

Eiri: "Hello Professor Ridgeway. I was told to come here, but...."


--page 153

Eiri: (Huh? It's open.) "Pardon me."

*BANG!!*

Eriko: "What, what?"

Eric: "It came from the Professor's lab."

Eiri: "Wha-!"


--page 154

Eiri: "What was that?!" *gasp* *cough cough*

on the hat: "Welcome Eiri-kun"

Ridgeway: "It seems I made a mistake with the fireworks~"

Eiri: "..............."

Ridgeway: "I made them so we could greet your arrival with loud cracker
cries, but..."

Eiri: "Isn't that a bit dangerous? You have all these chemicals....."


--page 155

Eiri: "AAH! A FIRE!!"

Ridgeway: "Ooooh?! Water!!"

Eiri: "Water, but... Hn?"

Ridgeway: "The buckets are over here!"

Eiri: "There's a fire extinguisher! Professor, there are chemicals that are
dangerous to mix with water, so you should use--"

Ridgeway: "OOOF!"

Eiri: "Eh?"


--page 156

*SPLASH~!*

Ridgeway: "I'm sorry, it seems I threw too much.."

Eiri: "............"

I never heard Professor Ridgeway was such a weirdo!

Eiri: "Professor. This may be a bit premature, but I'd like to ask you about--"

Ridgeway: "Here."


--page 157

Ridgeway: "There, isn't this rare? It's amber."

Eiri: He's not listening...

Ridgeway: "There's a lizard inside, look." Pretty, isn't it? "And this one has a bee
from eighty million years ago inside. That one is an example of an extinct species,
but... And this one has a fossil--"

Eiri: "WA~"


--page 158

Eiri: "MY HEAD IS A NATIONAL TREASURE!" And I sprained my leg!

Eriko: "Professor, did something happen?"

Ridgeway: "I'm sorry, I'm just a senile old man, so can you forgive me?"

Eiri: (He might have been apologizing for choosing me...)

Ridgeway: "Ah, Eriko-sa~n, can you treat this boy's wounds?"

Eiri: "I'm fine, I can do it myself."

Eriko: (Ah, he has a medical degree, that's right.) "Even I can do something
like this."


--page 159

Eriko: "Come on, let me see your leg."

Eiri: "If I say I'm okay then I'm okay! Don't touch me!"

Eriko: "What the hell was that~?"

Ridgeway: "........"


--page 160

Ridgeway: "He's still a child, isn't he...." Ho ho ho

Eriko: "Professor! YOU please be adult! What's with this room!! I'm going to end
up doing the cleaning again!!"

Ridgeway: "No, um.... I'll do it."

Eriko: "No, I'll do it!! Professor, think of your health."

Ridgeway: "............."

Eriko: "Next time, too. Even if you hadn't gone and adopted him, we'd still have
his brain."


--page 161

Eriko: "I heard that he was in great demand with the large corporations as a boy
genius from A.S., but..."

Ridgeway: "Ooooh? I'd expect I do want the Eiri boy's brain, but that's not all
there is to it, Eriko-san."

Eriko: "Eh?"

Ridgeway: "I'm much looking forward to it."

I wasn't supposed to come to a place like this.


--page 162

What was I expecting?

Eiri: "Ow!"

Doesn't everyone in the end just have a use for my brain?

woman: Eiri, I'm sorry.
Eiri: It's alright, mother. I'll be alright.


--page 163

I'll be alright. I can handle things like this.

I've been fighting ever since then, right?

I'm fine all by myself.

Eiri: "Who's there?! Leave me alone!!"


--page 164

-no text-


--page 165

-no text-


--page 166

Eiri: "That was..... the first time Idea and I met."





Chapter Four - Our Time - FIN
don't take the translations, please!
I'd hate to have to send Bloody after you. >:D