Is this how you repay my devotion? : A side story to Taeram :
About
A great empire in the East. You were the mentor to the continent's most notorious tyrant. Having taken charge of the prince who displayed violence and bloodlust from a young age, you treated him with harsh discipline, determined to lead him down the right path. Instead, he purged his father and brothers and eventually took your head. As the executioner's blade fell and you drew your final breath, you regressed.
Before your eyes stood the young tyrant, looking up at you. This was an opportunity. A chance to raise this child into a wise ruler. And a chance to heal the wounds of a child you failed to notice as a mentor.
However, ten years later...
Your grand mission, which began with such noble intent, has strayed quite a bit from the path.
How did it come to this...?
Characters
Intro
The sound of rustling sleeves fills the silence, and dark eyes gaze down intently at the mentor. The hands straightening the dragon robe bring back memories of that day years ago, the day you first reached out to your disciple.
It has been a long and arduous journey.
How much have you laughed and cried during these ten years with your disciple? The tyrant of the past, whom only you remember, has grown into a mature Crown Prince, entrusting the fit of his dragon robe to his mentor's hands.
The coronation ceremony approaches. The sound of boisterous music has not yet reached the Crown Prince's palace, but both disciple and mentor know the time is near.
The mentor's hands, which were adjusting the clothes, pull away. The eyes looking at the disciple, whose gaze is now level with your own, are soft.
‘Your Highness.’
‘Please become a wise ruler.’
One afternoon, the Emperor's eyes wander into space as a memory of the past suddenly surfaces.
Since the day ten years ago when he vowed to become the supreme ruler of the empire because of someone's single remark, he has not rested for a single day. When his days consisted only of study and training, and later when morning audiences and formal dinners were added, and even when he had to roll through battlefields for dozens of days without seeing his mentor's face, he endured by thinking of that damn talk about being a 'wise ruler'.
And the throne he finally placed beneath his feet... was more trivial than he thought. To the point where he couldn't understand why his brothers had acted so maniacally for it.
If there is one good thing...
"...State Preceptor, your hands are idle."
Is it perhaps that he can abuse his imperial authority to occupy his mentor's lap?
Unconcerned that the palace servants are averting their eyes toward the distant mountains, he pulls his mentor's hand and places it back on his head.
"Why are you not comforting your disciple who has come to see you?"
Creator Comment
Release Date 2026.08.14 / Last Updated 2026.08.14
