By Zephyria 
※ This chapter contains descriptions of violence, murder, and other elements that may be disturbing. Please keep this in mind while reading.
Recovery was strangely fast.
In my eyes, I had wasted two years, but even this was said to be a miraculous speed.
“…So, the pirates all set sail into the stormy sea. They drink lukewarm rum like water… Kyle, that’s not how you’re supposed to drink alcohol. Drinking it like water… Is this really a book meant for children?”
The First Prince, who was sitting next to me reading, sighed and looked up. Behind him, a bear-like man answered stiffly.
“I inquired as you ordered, and it seems to be the best-selling fairy tale among the commoners these days.”
“That’s absurd. Pirate heroes who drink alcohol like water and engage in plunder? And why is the language so vulgar… Sh… Wh…? Sh*t? Ha.”
“Pfft.”
The First Prince became greatly agitated while reading the fairy tale Sakira had left behind. I was astonished by the words coming from his refined and dignified mouth, my eyes widening. It was awkward, as if he was uttering the words for the first time.
The man standing behind him also seemed amused, covering his mouth and making a strange noise for a moment, but quickly regained his expressionless face and asked.
“Shall I bring another book?”
“Yes, that would be better. Kyle, how about reading something else instead of this? There are many more interesting and beneficial books for you.”
“…….”
The First Prince looked at me with pleading, troubled eyes, making my mouth itch. When I didn’t answer, he closed his eyes tightly with an almost tearful expression.
“Alright, fine. I’ll read it…….”
After that, words that even I had never heard before came out of the First Prince’s mouth several times. He read the text as if he were being tortured, with a pained expression, and eventually handed the book over to the man behind him.
The First Prince collapsed onto the sofa in defeat, and the man spoke in a deep, resonant voice without hesitation.
“Intoxicated with the joy of victory, the pirates docked at a nearby island. They all went into the alley with the red lanterns and saw women with voluptuous breasts and slender waists…….”
“Tarik!”
The First Prince, who had been slumped over, jumped up and shouted loudly. The man quickly straightened his back and shoulders, stood straight in place, and tucked in his chin.
“I apologize.”
“Why would you read even that part!”
“I will correct it.”
The two made a fuss for a while, and eventually the First Prince began reading the book again. But he hadn’t read even a few lines when a knock was heard.
I knew instinctively that he had to leave now. Sure enough, the First Prince closed the book, placed it by my head, and said.
“I might not be able to come for quite a while starting tomorrow. Just because we won the battle doesn’t mean it’s over. We have to gather the survivors and rebuild the base…….”
I was bewildered by the sudden speech. I soon realized that the First Prince was explaining to me in detail why he had to leave.
“I’ll probably have to go back and forth for several years. It might take months at a time. I’m just going to be away for a long time, but I’m not leaving you alone. Do you understand?”
“…….”
“You must make it your top priority to eat on time and recover your health. I’ve asked Asella to take good care of you. Asella will be able to read fairy tales much better than I can.”
The First Prince stroked my head, repeating excuses, requests, and the fact that I was not alone for a long time. Only after another knock did he finally get up.
“You can write me letters if you get bored.”
With those words, the First Prince left the room. In the room that had become quiet in an instant, I opened the book.
In fact, I had already read it several times and knew the contents by heart. I had read it more than five times since Sakira was deeply moved by this book and made a fuss about becoming a pirate.
“…….”
When I tried to read the book again, I suddenly felt nauseous and closed it again.
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Talim was always crowded with people. The funniest thing about it was that there were always seven guards attached to my side.
Wherever I went, whatever I did, even when I took a bath, they waited just a few steps away.
At first, I thought the First Prince had sent so many people to monitor me. But in fact, I already knew that he was kind and gentle. I realized long ago that it was an act of concern, not surveillance.
“…….”
When I recalled this obvious fact, I suddenly felt nauseous again. I felt dizzy even though I had only thought about it without saying anything out loud.
Anyway, I didn’t like being followed around, so I ordered the guards to come only when I called them.
The daily routine was always boring and ordinary. I spent my time getting checked, taking medicine, eating, and exercising to recover my strength.
Perhaps because it was hospital food, the food was so bland that I asked them to season it strongly. At first, Asella was worried, but what could she do when I gave her an order like I did to the guards? She had to listen.
As I was living like that, the First Prince entered the Imperial Castle. He said it might take quite a while this time, but he returned exactly on my birthday the following year.
The Emperor’s health had deteriorated rapidly recently, so the Crown Prince Installation Ceremony was held quickly. Considering the First Prince’s actions so far, he was more than qualified to be the Crown Prince.
However, perhaps because of his opposite tendencies from the Emperor, factions began to form. But since there were no other children of the Emperor to put forward, it was not much of a threat. It was just a matter of constantly nitpicking when holding meetings or enacting laws.
It was ridiculous that those who couldn’t say a word even when the Emperor undressed women during meetings were now yelling at the Crown Prince, who was trying to abolish the slave system.
“Why is the soup so salty?”
The Crown Prince, who was so busy that he no longer had time to read me books, often came to Talim to nag.
“Even if your sense of taste has dulled, continuing to eat like this will harm your health.”
Because the food was so bland, I naturally started snacking. It seemed that the word had finally reached his ears that I wasn’t eating meals because I was eating a lot of sweet and salty snacks.
“Kyle!”
I ran away from the Crown Prince while eating snacks. I even picked up the dropped ones and ate them, and ended up writing a letter of apology when I was caught.
As more time passed, rumors began to spread that the Emperor might die. His condition was that serious. I didn’t know the details, but I could tell just by looking at the Crown Prince’s face, which was getting darker day by day.
“I’ll have to be away for about a month. Danali is stable now, and I’m planning to call all the vassals who were in the fortress. Nadia misses you a lot.”
Nadia was the Crown Princess, whom he had a Political Marriage with when he was young. I wondered why I hadn’t seen her, but she had been there all along. Well, it would have been uncomfortable to leave a precious person in the Imperial Castle, which was like the belly of a demon.
No matter how much vassals swore allegiance, you never knew what they might be plotting behind your back. It was more comfortable to entrust it to people you trusted, so he must have been putting it off as much as possible before bringing them along.
In the past, one of the Crown Prince’s vassals had even tried to poison me on his own, so how could he easily trust people?
Anyway, at the same time as he was installed as Crown Prince, he received the Jihad, which was like a symbol of the Crown Prince, so they would all be living there now.
He left the Imperial Capital again, and I was now able to eat snacks in peace. But even though I wanted to eat them so much when he was nagging me, I didn’t feel good even when I actually ate them.
“Don’t follow me.”
I threw the snack I was eating on the floor and ordered Garam, my guard. Now that I didn’t get out of breath much even when I ran, I ran along the garden for a long time.
I still hadn’t given a name to the bird that the Crown Prince had given me as a gift. Taking care of the feed every day was also Asella’s job. I had asked him to name it for me, but I didn’t know what had happened.
I only went to see it very occasionally, but it still seemed to remember me. Its gaze followed me whenever I moved, and when I put it on my shoulder, it was so docile and its feathers were so soft that I didn’t think I would ever call it by a name.
I should probably stop going there soon.
As I was making a decision that I had been putting off, I suddenly heard a commotion. This was in front of Sa Dillin, so I hesitated a bit, but the screams were getting louder and louder, so I eventually went inside.
“How dare you do this!”
“No! That’s not it!”
“Where did you learn to lie! You filthy rat!”
There were several people in the corner of the garden with the lush green grass. Two knights, three Servants, one gardener, and one stableman. A total of seven people.
No, since two of the Servants seemed to be already dead, there were five people.
Whack!
“Aaaagh!”
Whack!
“Aaaaaagh!”
Every time the knight swung the black leather whip, ear-splitting screams spread in all directions. I couldn’t help but be puzzled as I watched the blood splattering in the air and the pieces of flesh falling to the ground.
Before I could even think, my body moved first. I squeezed between the knight and the stableman and grabbed the whip that was cutting through the air. Because it was long, even though I grabbed it at the exact moment, it wrapped around my forearm like a snake and caused a wound.
Blood dripped to the floor, and I felt the pain belatedly. I carefully examined the whip I was holding. I wondered why so much flesh was falling off in chunks with just one whip, but it turned out that small iron pieces were attached to the leather. So, the flesh burst and fell off the moment it was hit, which was why there was so much blood.
“What…….”
I raised my head at the surprised voice. His eyes were full of confusion. He probably already knew that I wasn’t an ordinary Servant child. Even so, the fact that he was still stuttering meant that he didn’t know I was a prince.
I quietly looked at the black-haired knight and then turned my head. The blonde knight, who had been snickering next to him, also seemed greatly embarrassed.
Why does he look so familiar?
I looked back and forth between the two and suddenly remembered a scene.
I put down the whip I was holding and reached out my hand, which was dripping with blood, and grabbed the black-haired knight’s hand. I slowly made him let go of the whip from his hand with both hands, and then stared at his white, soft back of the hand. His knuckles weren’t very thick, and he had no scars. There weren’t many calluses on his palm either.
“Ah……. Your Highness!”
Everyone who was there, including the knight whose hand I was holding, knelt down, belatedly realizing who I was.
“What brings you here…….”
I heard some mumbling, but I didn’t pay attention and continued to observe his hand. I examined his fingers, the back of his hand, and his palm, and finally looked at his nails.
His hands were so well-maintained, but only his fingertips were discolored black. The nails themselves were also uneven, and it seemed that many had broken and fallen off and then grown back.
After confirming everything I was curious about, I looked at the knight. Now that he was kneeling, my eye level was finally a bit right. It was even clearer when I looked at him up close.
“What is your name?”
“Aurenis.”
“You don’t seem to be an Actan. Why are you wielding the whip so dangerously?”
“That’s……. They dared not manage my horse properly…….”
“Was that a sin worthy of death?”
Aurenis closed his mouth at my question. I couldn’t tell what kind of expression I was making right now. I was trying to suppress the emotions boiling inside me, so I had no time to think about anything else.
“My steed was bestowed upon me by Your Majesty the Emperor.”
“By Your Majesty?”
“Yes. Originally, there was a dedicated Servant, but due to circumstances, I temporarily entrusted it to them. But this happened…….”
I was afraid that vulgar words would come out if I let my guard down even a little, so I tried to imitate the Crown Prince’s tone as much as possible. Perhaps that’s why Aurenis relaxed and babbled like a tattling child.
“They dared to treat the precious steed that His Majesty bestowed upon me in this way, so they deserve to die a hundred times over.”
I blankly looked at him, then turned my head and asked the stableman, who had deep wounds where pieces of flesh had fallen off.
“What exactly did you do?”
The stableman barely raised his body, which seemed difficult to move, bowed his head, and sobbed.
“The sun…….”
“Confess properly to His Highness!”
Suddenly, the blonde knight, who had been kneeling quietly next to him, shouted. I was startled and shrugged my shoulders, and he hurriedly bowed his head.
“I apologize.”
“Don’t shout, it’s noisy.”
“Yes, I apologize…….”
“The sun, what?”
The stableman opened his mouth again at my question.
“The sun was strong……. I didn’t……. I couldn’t, couldn’t check…….”
“So, you’re saying you left the horse standing in the sun all the time?”
I asked, half in disbelief, and the stableman answered with difficulty that it was true. He was constantly trembling in pain with his head bowed. A sticky mixture of tears and saliva-mixed blood continued to drip down to the floor.
I quietly watched that, then raised my head and looked at the sky.
The intense sunlight was so dazzling that I automatically frowned.
“The sun is strong.”
As I muttered to myself, the stableman’s groans grew louder. I couldn’t tell if he was crying in pain or wailing in repentance for his sins. If not, he might be vomiting blood out of resentment.
“How long?”
“2, 20 minutes…….”
I let go of Aurenis’s hand, which I had been gently holding. Then, I gestured with one hand for the gardener to come over. He crawled on his knees and prostrated himself in front of me again. I grabbed his shoulders, raised his upper body, and stared at him quietly.
Various gardening tools were stuck in the clothes with many pockets to store them. I found a small hand ax next to his thigh. I took it and held it in my hand, and with the other hand, I grabbed Aurenis’s hair and tilted his head back.
“Your, Your Highness?”
I swung the hand ax straight down towards his exposed nape. Flesh split and blood splattered with a cracking sound. I couldn’t cut it in one go, so I swung the ax at his nape several times as if chopping wood.
It took longer than I thought because the bones didn’t cut well, but eventually his head fell off. His body fell to the side, and I grabbed the severed head and turned my head.
The blonde knight was looking at me with a blank face, then made a strange noise and collapsed. I casually threw the head I was holding towards the fallen body and beckoned with my finger.
“I have something to ask you, so come here.”
“We, we! We were directly given the title by His Majesty……!”
“If you don’t come before I count to three, you’ll die with your head cut off too. One.”
Before the word “two” could come out of my mouth, the knight crawled over on his knees. I grabbed his hair in the same way, tilted his head back, and asked.
“I can understand the stableman, but why are two Servants dead?”
“Your, Your Highness……. We are His Majesty’s direct……. direct knights! This is against the Imperial family’s laws…….”
“Did you kill them?”
“Please, call His Majesty! His Majesty……!”
I could tell just by looking at this guy up close. I didn’t hesitate and swung my arm.