By Zephyria 
Aska and I changed into comfortable clothes and grabbed our masks. The way they fit over our heads meant that as long as we didn’t speak, no one would recognize us.
“I’ll be quick, so wait here. If you come back and I’m not here, the fun is over for today.”
“Got it. Please stop nagging.”
After giving Aska a firm reminder, I left the lounge and entered the banquet hall.
Every noble and servant present was wearing a mask. Some people, even with just their eyes covered, seemed recognizable, while others, whose entire faces were hidden, were indistinguishable from one another.
I found an empty basket and quietly filled it with bread, snacks, and fruits before sneaking out of the banquet hall. When I returned to the lounge, Aska was still sitting on the sofa, just as he had been earlier.
“What did you bring?”
“Just some simple snacks.”
“Is there any meat?”
“I couldn’t pack any.”
I placed a mask on Aska’s head as he rummaged through the basket.
“I’m going out to the balcony; is that okay?”
Considering how he had been crawling up the wall like a lizard, I thought it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch, but I asked out of courtesy. As expected, Aska nodded without even looking at me.
“Come this way. Stop eating.”
“What is this?”
“Some….”
Before I could finish my sentence, Aska suddenly shoved something into my mouth. My lips collided with his hand, and I groaned, not even knowing what I had just chewed and swallowed.
“Can you jump over there?”
I pointed to a large tree closest to the balcony, and Aska, who had been watching the balloons behind the sofa, glanced over. Then, holding a balloon in one hand and the basket in the other, he suddenly leaped over the railing and jumped toward the tree.
“…….”
I was so dumbfounded that I couldn’t even speak. Aska, seeing my blank expression, set the basket down beside him and leaned forward, reaching out his hand to me.
“Why? Are you going to catch me?”
“……No. But… could you at least say something before you act? And be careful; stand straight.”
With a sigh, I climbed onto the balcony railing, and Aska pouted his lips as he moved sideways. He lightly jumped up and stood on the tree, grabbing the basket.
“Come down. Be careful.”
At my words, Aska landed on the ground without hesitation or any preparatory moves. The silence of his landing indicated that this was not his first time.
I came down as well, took Aska’s hand, and walked into the garden while asking, “Why did you bring the balloon?”
“Just because it’s pretty. Why was it there?”
“Well… oh, could it be that Asella left it there?”
Thinking back, I realized I might have told her to prepare it.
“When I was young, Asella blew up balloons for my birthday.”
Aska pulled out bread and fruit from the basket, munching on them as he listened to me.
“I wanted to show it to you, so I asked her to prepare it, but I completely forgot.”
“For me? Why? It’s not even my birthday.”
“What does your birthday have to do with it? But when is your birthday?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never really paid attention. Should I just say it’s today?”
Feeling it was a good idea, Aska looked up at me and smiled. However, I wasn’t too keen on that.
“Hmm. Let’s say it’s a month from today instead.”
“Why?”
“That way, I can receive proper congratulations. If we both have the same birthday, naturally, all the attention will be on me.”
As soon as I finished speaking, Aska suddenly stopped walking. Turning to me with a puzzled expression, he stared at me without blinking and lowered his voice.
“Someone is coming.”
I held my breath for a moment and focused on the surrounding sounds, but I couldn’t sense anything. However, I knew Aska was sensitive to various signs of presence, so I quietly asked, “Are they coming this way?”
“Yeah.”
“When do you think they’ll arrive?”
“Soon?”
I still couldn’t feel anything. But was there really someone coming this far? A guard, perhaps? I tilted my head in confusion, thinking it might be better to leave quickly.
But before I could say anything, Aska let go of my hand and jumped up, kicking off the ground with such speed that I could hear the wind rushing past him. I was no longer surprised, but the height he reached, far exceeding my own, left me in shock.
“…….”
I couldn’t close my mouth as I looked up at Aska perched on the tree. He gestured for me to hurry up from above.
It suddenly hit me that Aska was not human.
“Hurry up!”
His urging voice continued. Unfortunately, I was human and couldn’t leap to that height in one go. I ran around the tree and jumped toward the lowest branch, reaching out to grab it. After clinging to several branches, I finally made it to Aska’s side just as I began to hear footsteps approaching.
“What are you doing….”
Aska, who had been watching me climb the tree, seemed taken aback and started to say something, but I covered his mouth with my hand.
“…….”
“…….”
Aska, looking at me with a strange expression, nodded slightly. When I removed my hand, I could hear footsteps coming closer.
I quietly stared into the darkness before glancing at Aska. Perhaps it was because he was holding his breath in the shadows? Even though he was right next to me, I could hardly perceive him.
No wonder he could roam the castle unnoticed.
“……Are they coming this way?”
At that moment, I heard a voice from a distance. Looking in the direction of the sound, I saw two masked men glancing around as they approached.
Suddenly, a question arose in my mind. Why on earth did I have to hide?
“There’s no one here!”
“Speak quietly!”
It was the voice of a boy who hadn’t yet gone through puberty. One of them was someone I recognized immediately from earlier.
“Isn’t that the kid who was dancing earlier?”
It seemed Aska had caught on too.
“Anyway, it was just as I expected. I even asked for a dance on purpose earlier, but all they said was to show off your skills. Did you see that?”
“Wasn’t that just letting it slide?”
“Then why would they let me slide? According to my father, I should have been executed on the spot. Right?”
“Now that you mention it, it does seem like that….”
Benife roughly pulled off his mask and tossed it to the ground.
“That was just a scare tactic. Does it even make sense that he’s a god or whatever? I heard rumors that Prince Kyle was taken hostage during a war when he was young and tortured, and that his cries for help could be heard outside the castle.”
“The castle?”
“Before Gaulaprum fell… Anyway, that’s not the important part. If a royal was truly a god and that ruthless, would he have cried out for help? They say he was so broken from the torture that the Crown Prince barely managed to rescue him!”
His voice grew louder, perhaps out of excitement. I couldn’t understand why he was saying such things at someone else’s banquet. What would happen if we got caught like this? I could almost hear the Duke aging from here.
Separately, I was curious about the backstory, and while I was focused on that, I felt Aska’s gaze on me. He was looking at me with a bewildered expression.
‘Why?’
I mouthed the question, but Aska said nothing.
“Then if all this is a lie, why don’t the adults question it?”
The boy next to Benife mumbled as he took off his mask. I felt like I had seen him somewhere, but I couldn’t remember who he was.
“Maybe they’ve been brainwashed for so long?”
“Even so, it seems strange… Adults are much smarter than us….”
“I still don’t know the details. But one thing is clear: most of what adults say is a lie. Or it’s grossly exaggerated. It’s similar to how they say they’ll hit you with a switch if you don’t listen when you’re young.”
His voice was filled with conviction.
In the end, the situation I had been worried about became a reality. Mahir had said that as long as we could safely get through this transitional period, everything would be fine, but I always wondered if it was really that simple.
“Or it could be something the royal family made up.”
“No way….”
By the time Mahir becomes Emperor and rules Actan, most of the nobles will have changed generations. The forced reverence proportional to the size of the fear will disappear, leaving only suspicion and anger in its place.
Fear and violence are among the easiest ways to control people, but the backlash is equally significant. All of this was a problem that Mahir would have to bear.
How would those who had been oppressed for nearly a thousand years accept an Emperor who was no longer feared or uncomfortable? Some would be grateful for the Emperor’s mercy, while others would be disappointed in his weakness.
So even though I had told him not to try to change things radically and to take his time to change things slowly, Mahir’s resolve remained firm.
One reason the current system had been maintained was due to the frequent wars. In a situation where there was no palpable threat, he said it was something we would inevitably experience at least once. Mahir wanted to end all that chaos in the era when he would become Emperor.
That way, he could fully pass on a stable Actan to the next Emperor after going through the transitional period.
“I will never forgive you. To insult me like that.”
“I think it was a bit much… It was too much to make you dance like a lowly performer in front of so many people. But what on earth did you do to the Prince to deserve that?”
“There was just a misunderstanding… It’s not a big deal. It’s so annoying, really.”
I felt irritated by the sharp voice cutting through the myriad of thoughts swirling in my head.
Mahir always emphasized that one should maintain the dignity of royalty without resorting to fear and violence, but it seemed I had failed in that regard once again.
Was it a problem that I had jokingly told him to dance? Or was it the fact that I had mercilessly beaten him with a copper vase without any decorum? Or perhaps it was that I had been excessively lenient compared to the offense?
After all, I had even hidden his wrongdoing.
I still didn’t know how to make someone repent for their mistakes without resorting to fear and violence. So I had become a legendary fool who chose to make things ridiculous instead.
“…….”
As I reflected on myself and felt a wave of self-loathing, Aska suddenly swung his arm wide. A bright red apple arced around the tree on my right and struck Benife squarely on the back of his head.
Thud!
“Ahhh!”
The apple hit perfectly, shattering into pieces and scattering like a burst balloon.
“That crazy bastard….”
Turning my head, I saw Aska cursing with a ghostly expression.