From the heights of Dun Scaith, Emrys silently observed Ulster.
The wind gently moved his white hair as his steel-colored eyes swept across the lands stretching out before him.
He was now forty-two years old.
Yet his appearance showed absolutely no sign of it.
His body had stopped aging after reaching physical maturity, leaving him with the appearance of a man in his mid-twenties. An adult face, more defined features than in the past, a physique forged through decades of training, but not a single visible trace of the years that had passed.
Only his eyes truly allowed anyone to guess how much time he had lived.
He was no longer the young boy who had once arrived in this world without knowing what awaited him.
And Ulster was no longer the makeshift refuge he had built for a few thousand people.
Emrys spent a few seconds contemplating the landscape.
Then he slightly turned his gaze away.
Everything was working.
That was probably what surprised him the most.
He had always tended to think that once he left a place, something would inevitably end up going wrong.
But Ulster had proven him wrong.
The kingdom had become stable enough to continue existing without him having to intervene in every single problem.
And this realization made him understand something.
He could leave.
Not immediately.
There were still a few things he had to take care of.
But he could genuinely start considering leaving Ulster.
The thought did not make him particularly sad.
He loved this place.
He loved the people who lived there.
But he had always known that he couldn't remain here forever.
His mother was still somewhere out there.
And despite all these years, he refused to abandon his search.
And it wasn't as if he would truly be saying goodbye to Ulster.
After all, Ulster was literally inside his soul, and he could return whenever he wanted.
Leaving meant something different to him.
It meant no longer interfering.
He would leave the responsibility of protecting the population and ensuring their well-being to someone else.
Emrys placed his hands on the cold stone of the parapet.
He thought for a few moments.
He now had to find the right person to replace him.
That thought almost immediately led him to one person.
Rou.
Emrys smiled faintly.
He didn't even need to think for long.
For years, Rou had been considered by pretty much everyone to be the vice king of Ulster.
This title had never officially been established by Emrys.
It had simply imposed itself over time.
Whenever the inhabitants needed someone, they turned to Rou.
Whenever a decision had to be made in Emrys's absence, Rou handled it.
And whenever Ulster needed to be represented, he was naturally one of the first people the inhabitants turned to.
Emrys had never particularly encouraged it.
But he had never had any reason to oppose it either.
Rou knew Ulster.
He knew its inhabitants.
He knew how it worked.
And above all, he had grown up with them.
"That should work."
Emrys thought for a few more seconds.
After all, he himself had remained at the head of the kingdom for long enough that his responsibilities could be transferred without difficulty.
And if someone had to be capable of maintaining Ulster after his departure, Rou was probably the best choice.
Rou had become the strongest person in Ulster after him. Even stronger than the Higher Demons or the goddesses present there.
Whether administratively or martially, he had everything needed to become Ulster's future ruler.
Or so he thought.
His expression became slightly more serious.
A strange sensation had just crossed his mind.
He remembered certain situations where something had not quite seemed right.
Nothing significant enough to catch his attention at the time.
An emotional reaction that disappeared too quickly.
A tension he could barely perceive.
Anger that seemed to fade almost instantly.
Several times, his Observation Haki had given him the impression that something was slipping past him.
At first, he had attributed it to his own perception.
Even at his current level, his Haki was not a perfect ability.
Human emotions were not fixed things.
They could change in an instant.
A person could be angry and then regain their composure.
A person could be afraid and then manage to overcome it.
A person could feel hatred without necessarily allowing it to show.
Nothing unusual.
At least, that was what Emrys had thought.
But now that he thought about it...
It had happened too many times.
Emrys narrowed his eyes slightly.
He remembered another training session.
Rou had just lost a fight against him.
Emrys had sensed frustration.
Then, almost immediately, that frustration had disappeared.
At the time, he had thought Rou had simply managed to calm himself down.
Another time, he had sensed worry from one of the others.
Then that sensation had disappeared before Emrys could even determine exactly what it meant.
There had been other occasions as well.
Always the same little anomalies.
Never significant enough to make him draw a conclusion.
But when put together...
It was starting to get really strange.
Emrys remained silent.
"Wait..."
He straightened slightly.
His gaze became distant.
It wasn't simply that they had learned to control their emotions.
Anyone could learn to control their reactions with enough discipline.
What he had observed was different.
They had learned to prevent their emotions from producing the fluctuations Emrys could normally perceive with his Haki.
In other words...
They had learned to fool him.
Emrys remained motionless.
Then a small smile appeared on his face.
"...You've gotten pretty good, you brats."
He couldn't deny that it impressed him.
After more than twenty years spent training alongside him, they had eventually come to understand part of how he worked.
They knew that he could perceive people's auras and, consequently, their emotions, their power and, to a lesser extent, even read their thoughts.
They knew that he could detect changes in their mental state.
And they had found a way to limit what he could perceive.
It wasn't a spectacular technique.
It wasn't a supernatural ability.
It was simply an extreme mastery of themselves.
They had learned not to let their emotions betray them.
Emrys was even somewhat proud of them.
He knew how difficult that could be.
But that satisfaction was quickly replaced by other sensations.
Curiosity.
And suspicion.
But why?
Why had they felt the need to go that far?
Emrys frowned slightly.
He could understand a fighter seeking to master their emotions so they wouldn't lose their composure.
It was even a good thing.
But taking it far enough to fool Observation Haki itself...
That required more.
They had to know what Emrys could perceive.
They had to understand how he perceived emotions.
And above all, they needed a reason to want to hide something from him, as well as an enormous will to do so.
Emrys slowly crossed his arms.
"What pushed you to do this?"
The question remained unanswered.
Obviously.
He wasn't actually talking to them.
He was simply thinking aloud.
His gaze returned to Ulster.
The kingdom continued to live peacefully.
Nothing seemed different.
And yet, something about this new understanding bothered him.
He searched through his memories.
He tried to remember exactly when their behavior had begun to change.
But the more he thought about it, the blurrier the boundary became.
They had evolved gradually.
Year after year.
It was therefore difficult to determine when this mastery had truly begun.
Emrys sighed.
He wasn't going to start suspecting everyone simply because he had realized they had improved their emotional control.
That would be absurd.
He knew perfectly well that his Haki could be fooled.
He himself had spent enough time studying other people's abilities to know that no power was absolutely infallible.
And yet...
There was something that continued to bother him.
An intuition.
Nothing concrete.
Nothing he could explain.
Simply a small anomaly in his reasoning.
Emrys remained silent.
Then he shook his head slightly.
"I'm overthinking this."
He turned away from the landscape.
He still had many things to do before he could leave.
The matter of Ulster had to be handled properly.
Even though Rou was already considered its vice king, Emrys didn't want to simply disappear and leave all the responsibilities to him without making any arrangements.
He would have to talk to him.
See how he envisioned things.
And above all, make sure the population would accept the transition without any problems.
That shouldn't be difficult.
After all, Rou was already deeply integrated into the kingdom's administration.
Emrys slowly descended the steps of Dun Scaith.
He walked through several corridors before stepping outside the castle.
Outside, Ulster continued its usual life.
Some inhabitants greeted him when they saw him.
"Your Majesty!"
Emrys simply raised a hand in response.
He had long since stopped wasting his time explaining that he wasn't a king.
He knew they wouldn't listen.
He continued on his way.
The farther he went, the more that strange feeling returned.
He couldn't quite put his finger on it.
It wasn't a threat.
Not exactly.
His Haki wasn't warning him of any particular danger.
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
And yet...
He stopped.
Emrys looked around.
The wind.
The voices of the inhabitants.
The distant sounds of construction.
Everything was normal.
Perfectly normal.
He shut down his senses for a few seconds and focused on Unlimited Blade Works.
Not only that, he extended his Observation Haki until it completely covered the kingdom.
The headache caused by the flood of information should have been terrible, but Emrys had long since learned how to filter the information he received.
But there was nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
No particularly strong hostility.
No murderous intent.
No immediate threat.
Emrys opened his eyes again.
He remained motionless for a few seconds.
This feeling made no sense.
There was no reason for him to have it.
And yet, it was there.
An unpleasant sensation.
As if something he couldn't yet see was right in front of him.
He didn't like it.
Not at all.
Emrys looked at Ulster one last time.
He would have liked to believe it was simply fatigue.
Or perhaps that strange distrust he had developed over the years from living in a world where disasters could appear without warning.
But his instincts insisted otherwise.
Something was wrong.
He remained silent for a moment before murmuring:
"...I have a bad feeling about this."