By Zephyria 
But something was off. Although his face wasn’t clearly visible under the hood, I could tell his gaze wasn’t directed at me.
I naturally turned my head in the direction Mahir was looking. There stood someone else wearing a hood.
“……”
From a distance, the two of them stared at each other for a long time as if they had planned it, then turned away almost simultaneously. I watched Mahir’s back with a bewildered expression until he was out of sight, then belatedly came to my senses.
“Ugh, uh……”
Harold, with injuries all over his limbs, was barely conscious and only groaned. He was twitching intermittently, but it seemed like he would die if left alone.
As I was watching him struggle, I heard a commotion. I saw armed knights rushing in from the entrance I had used earlier.
Tariq sheathed his sword and quietly said to me,
“This way, please.”
I had so many questions about what was going on and how long he had been watching, but I kept my mouth shut for now. Before going to him, I picked up Harold’s wooden sword that had been tossed into a corner. And as I watched the rabble being restrained like criminals, I left the training ground.
For a brief moment, I imagined running away with Aska. But when I thought about it, I hadn’t done anything that wrong. I might have provoked him a bit, but the other guy tried to kill me first. Besides, he suggested a duel but didn’t even bother to tell me the rules properly.
The biggest problem was that he gave me a wooden sword while he had a specially made, sharpened wooden sword. It was so meticulously crafted that you couldn’t distinguish the difference with the naked eye. That meant he intended to deceive me from the start.
“Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?”
As I was thinking about that, swinging the wooden sword through the air, Tariq asked cautiously. Perhaps because my senses were still heightened, his voice sounded strangely loud.
It bothered and displeased me, but I nodded without showing it.
“Did that look like a duel to you?”
“It did not.”
So, a third party saw it the same way. Then Mahir must have seen it that way too, right?
Each time I swung my arm, the wooden sword made a whooshing sound. The sharp edge of my nerves seemed to calm down little by little with that sound. Belatedly, I looked down to check my appearance.
My clothes were torn here and there, and I was a mess. There was quite a bit of blood in places, but there were no wounds. It was a disaster because Mahir had a good eye and would naturally know that I had been cut by a sword.
Of course, I wasn’t planning on keeping it a secret until I died, but I wasn’t ready to tell him everything yet. And talk to Aska…….
No, but why isn’t Aska here yet? He said it would be over in an hour or two, right? Nothing serious could have happened, but I was starting to get annoyed because I couldn’t see him.
“Who was the one on the opposite side?”
I was just getting annoyed thinking about when he was coming, so I turned my attention elsewhere.
“It was the King, Your Majesty.”
“……What?”
All sorts of negative emotions vanished in an instant at the unexpected words. I asked again with a bewildered expression.
“Why? No, since when?”
“He has been there the whole time.”
Could he have come with Harold? He wouldn’t have known who I was, would he? There was no way he would have come all the way to the training ground just to hear that an Actan knight was dueling.
But how did Mahir come? Did they plan it together? Suddenly, I felt like I was the only fool.
“Since when has His Majesty been there?”
“He has been there the whole time.”
“……”
It was the same thing I had heard earlier. I wanted to ask something more, but we arrived at our destination. Inevitably, I had to go inside with a mind full of questions.
There, two people wearing robes were sitting facing each other. Needless to say, it was Mahir and the King. His expression was the same as usual, a gentle one that didn’t reveal what he was thinking.
I greeted Mahir first, then the King.
“Come and sit down.”
Judging by his expression, the King still didn’t seem to know who I was. But when Mahir reached out and had me sit next to him, a fleeting look of bewilderment crossed his face and quickly disappeared.
“Then let’s continue our conversation.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
The King opened his mouth without even looking at me, as if I wasn’t there.
“As I mentioned, I found it strange that you requested a duel with Sir Harold of all people, so I went to the scene. Sir Harold is……”
He stammered several times as if he hadn’t yet organized what he wanted to say. It was so nerve-wracking to watch how nervous he was.
“Sir Harold was a knight of Aegis, who was my brother.”
Ah, so he finally decided to confess. But he kept glancing at me and couldn’t speak properly. It was only natural that he was concerned about me, a person whose identity he didn’t know, since he had to reveal the kingdom’s flaws from now on.
Mahir must have sensed that too, but he didn’t introduce me until the end. Only then did I realize that Mahir was very upset.
The King opened his mouth with a thoughtful expression.
Aegis avoided marriage by putting forward a royal bastard and hid himself. And he dabbled in black magic to seize the throne, but in the process, his whereabouts were revealed due to an internal report and he was executed, that was the story.
It was an overly abbreviated account. Besides, he didn’t say anything curious or important. What the hell is black magic? Harold must have been the one who reported it internally.
Sure enough, the King mentioned Harold.
“Sir Harold was one of the internal informants. He played a decisive role in punishing the criminal, but like Aegis, Harold was also an anti-imperialist.”
Could it be that all those rabble in the training ground were people of the Princess? No wonder they hated me so much…….
“I haven’t been able to properly investigate that black magic yet, so I kept Sir Harold close by to keep an eye on him……”
“The conversation keeps going around in circles. I’m going to ask a few questions, and you should think carefully before answering from now on. Do you understand me?”
“……Yes, Your Majesty.”
Mahir slowly tapped the armrest of the sofa with his fingertips before opening his mouth.
“You knew that the Prince married a bastard, not the Princess, and yet you dared not to correct it and kept silent. What do you think about this?”
“Your Majesty, it’s a misunderstanding. I only learned the truth after……. after the Prince went missing…….”
If this is the case, shouldn’t I just wait outside? I feel like he can’t talk properly because of me. Or it would be much easier to talk if I revealed that I was actually that Prince.
Mahir also seemed angry, and I couldn’t interfere as I pleased, so I just kept my mouth shut and stared blankly at the tea on the table.
I’m thirsty, can I have a cup? I was feeling lethargic belatedly after all the craziness I had been through.
Ah, but when is Aska coming?
“I had to find out about the black magic before reporting to Your Majesty. I thought I could explain the situation in more detail and without misunderstandings. That’s why I dispatched a large-scale investigation team to the Rollai Mountains.”
I was starting to lose focus and was about to recall the soft, smooth feel of Aska’s butt. Suddenly, there was talk about the mountains, so I perked up my ears again.
“Does that mean the black magic is related to Magical creatures?”
“That’s right.”
Could it be that the royal family also knows that Aska isn’t human? This was another unexpected turn of events. Then that meant the Princess intentionally sent Aska, a Magical creature, to me.
I recalled the incident when Aska was kidnapped as a child. At that time, Aska, who wasn’t breathing in the secret passage of the Imperial Palace, became strange after drinking my blood for the first time.
He didn’t even know he was a Magical creature back then, but the Princess knew?
I thought she just brought a bastard from the slums to send in his place because she didn’t want to get married, but it didn’t seem like such a simple problem.
“While investigating Aegis’s possessions, I discovered a large number of Forbidden books describing black magic. The contents of the Ruins located in the Rollai Mountains were also included. And there was a part that was repeatedly described in many books……”
The King stopped talking and took a breath. Judging by his hesitation, it seemed like another moment to reveal something embarrassing that he was concerned about. He was taking so long that I wanted to grab him by the collar and shake him, but it was ambiguous for me to step in when Mahir was just standing still.
“About a certain being……. Well, it’s a part that still needs investigation, but.”
I thought he was finally going to say it, but the King hesitated again. Are you kidding me, really. I glanced at Mahir.
Please hurry him up and tell him to say it.
Perhaps sensing my gaze, Mahir opened his mouth.
“It’s alright, go ahead and say it.”
“I’m sorry. It’s such an impious story……. I only found out recently. I’m worried that Your Majesty might misunderstand…….”
“I said it’s alright.”
I had to do my best to suppress the urge to kick the table leg. On the other hand, I realized once again how Mahir was able to become Emperor. To become Emperor, you need at least that much patience and generosity.