By Zephyria 
“Prince……?”
The King rolled his eyes and glanced at me. His eyes, full of confusion, gradually began to change to astonishment as he began to understand the meaning of the words.
I was considering just playing dead, but it was completely ruined. Perhaps Mahir had noticed and made a preemptive move.
Feeling awkward, I took off my mask and met the King’s eyes. He was horrified, even though he couldn’t possibly know my face. I thought about pretending to be surprised too, to ease the atmosphere, but I just gave up.
I had already been caught brawling with Harold like a street thug, so I couldn’t act without dignity any longer. Although it seemed like it was already too late.
“Due to unavoidable circumstances, I have been concealing my identity, so I am late in greeting you. It is a pleasure to meet you for the first time.”
The King still looked shocked, but he hurriedly composed himself and forced the corners of his lips up.
“I heard you were missing……. It is a pleasure to meet you as well.”
I also tried to force the corners of my lips up. To meet my in-laws in this beggar-like state. And on our first meeting, too…….
Of course, Aska might as well have cut ties with his family, and I didn’t recognize them either, but I still had feelings about it.
I sighed deeply inwardly. This is all Harold’s fault. If that bastard hadn’t acted so petty in the first place, I wouldn’t have gotten so worked up. At first, I didn’t even intend to kill him; I was just going to beat him up a bit.
While I was thinking about that, I suddenly felt that the silence was getting too long. The King still looked confused, and Harold was prostrate on the floor, unable to lift his head. Mahir just stared at the King without even blinking.
In the end, I was the only one who could break this silence.
“I heard the circumstances from the Queen Consort and knew roughly what happened. Seeing Sir Harold reminded me of what happened back then, and I seemed to have lost my reason for a moment.”
“I would have been upset too. Are you injured……?”
“I treated it roughly before coming, so you don’t have to worry about that.”
At my words, the King nodded heavily with a face full of worry.
I wanted to ask about that sorcery, but I couldn’t easily ask because of Harold. If I wasn’t going to kill him anyway, shouldn’t I just let him go? Judging from the fact that he hasn’t said anything so far, it doesn’t seem like he has any particular use. And it didn’t seem like Mahir would question him any further.
I stared at the back of Harold’s head and opened my mouth.
“Raise your head.”
At my words, his back visibly flinched. Harold slowly raised his waist and looked at me on his knees. His bloodshot eyes were full of confusion, just like the King’s.
Looking at his face, I wanted to hit him again, but I restrained myself.
“Don’t let me see you in private from now on. I might make a mistake. Do you understand?”
“I will keep that in mind.”
“Take your wooden sword and leave.”
I brought it all the way here, intending to present it as evidence if he said anything, but now it was no longer needed. Harold bowed his head deeply, took his wooden sword, and left the room.
As soon as he left, the King spoke to Mahir, who had been silent all along.
“Sir Harold will be punished according to the law. Thank you for your mercy.”
“I only healed him; the mercy was given by the Prince, not me.”
“T-thank you.”
The King thanked me as well. But I couldn’t say anything in response. Did healing him mean that I shouldn’t kill him? So I just let him go? No, was I allowed to kill him?
“Sir Harold has broken his knight’s oath, so he will be punished according to the law.”
The King added again, seeing my subtle expression. Well, he must have seen everything about the prank on the wooden sword, so it would be difficult to avoid punishment. Usually, a knight would value honor more than life, but judging from Harold’s behavior, he probably thought he was lucky to be alive.
Anyway, whether he kills him or lets him live is up to the King, so I didn’t want to worry about it anymore. If he breaks the warning and appears before me again, I’ll deal with it then.
“Whatever the Prince Consort’s origins, he is already a member of the Imperial Family.”
Mahir opened his mouth at that moment. From the beginning, the King had no intention of exercising his rights over the marriage, and he answered immediately.
“That is correct.”
“I’m glad you understand. Then hand over all the materials related to sorcery and the Princess without exception as soon as possible. There must not be a single omission.”
At the almost commanding words, the King closed his mouth in surprise. I hadn’t expected this either. Well, this was the right way to handle it.
It was a bit ambiguous because Aska was a Magical creature, but in any case, this was no different from openly investigating the Imperial Family.
But the King couldn’t just let this issue pass, and he said firmly.
“Your Majesty, I am sorry, but this is not an issue that can be decided so easily. The things related to sorcery are trivial, and most of the materials are closely related to the kingdom’s secrets. Please understand the situation.”
“Denied.”
The King’s expression quickly hardened at Mahir’s short answer. Even his tone changed. In fact, it was right to speak informally, but Mahir sometimes used honorifics to old vassals as a sign of respect, and he was a bit arbitrary. Anyway, the semi-formal speech had been Mahir’s way of respecting the King.
That meant there would be no further compromise on this issue.
“If you want to test the depth of my patience, keep resisting. Then your country will have to repay the sin of the Princess daring to try to kill the Prince.”
The words, which were no different from a notice, meant that there were no more options.
¸.•¨•¸.•¨•¸.•¨•¸
After the slightly threatening conversation ended, Mahir and I returned to our residence. It seemed like the conversation had gone well, but Mahir’s atmosphere was strangely heavy.
Judging from long history, I knew that messing with Mahir in that state would only hurt me. I tried to be as quiet as possible and stayed still.
If I got caught in the crossfire…….
“Kyle.”
I didn’t think it would happen, but it did. I asked back as innocently and kindly as possible.
“Yes?”
He looked at me and sighed. For some reason, he seemed angrier than when we reunited. To be honest, I expected to be scolded a lot back then, but Mahir’s mind is hard to understand.
“You didn’t do this after you got a little older, so why are you doing this again?”
What was he talking about? There were so many things I could guess that I couldn’t pinpoint just one. I frowned in thought and made an excuse for now.
“I didn’t intend to do that from the beginning, but he kept fighting unfairly. You didn’t see the wooden sword I brought earlier in detail, did you? The blade was on it so that it couldn’t be distinguished with the naked eye, and only on certain parts. That means he made it with the intention of using it for that purpose…….”
“Why do you fight so recklessly?”
Ah, that’s what he was talking about.
It was obvious that I shouldn’t tell him the truth, that I just wanted to beat him with my fists. Aska didn’t like it either, and I knew for sure that this wasn’t right, but I couldn’t control myself this time.
As Mahir said, it was better when I was in the Imperial Palace. I meditated and drank a bowl of tea that was good for calming anger to calm my mind and body.
Now, Aska is my meditation and my medicinal tea, so I couldn’t stand it when Harold touched such a treasure. If I lost it or it disappeared, I couldn’t find it again anywhere, and I couldn’t get a new one.
“Do I still have to tell you this? How can you play with people like that just because you’re angry?”
“I didn’t play with him…….”
I had been lying down for five years, so my body was very stiff. I tried my best because I thought I would get hit if I let my guard down even a little, but did it look like that?
I felt a little wronged and muttered, and Mahir’s voice rose slightly.
“What would you have done if Tarik hadn’t come? Were you going to break both of his arms? If you treat an opponent who has already lost the will to fight like that, what is it if not playing with him?”
“…….”
To be exact, I wasn’t trying to break them, I was trying to pull them out, but I had to keep this a secret until I died. Anyway, I couldn’t make any more excuses because it was a bit too much on my part.
Only then did I realize why Mahir had even called a healing Wizard to heal Harold. It wasn’t because he was worried about Harold’s safety, but because of me.
“Until what age do I have to teach you not to kill people carelessly? How old are you this year?”
I couldn’t open my mouth easily. It wasn’t because I didn’t know my age. It was embarrassing to say that I was twenty-four after doing this.
“But how did you get there, Brother?”
So I just changed the subject. Mahir sighed and decided to let it go, perhaps because of my obvious effort.
“You’re not the type to bother with sparring for any ordinary reason, are you? I didn’t understand it from the first time I heard it. I thought there must be some other reason, and the moment you said diplomatic issue, Aska came to mind.”
Diplomatic issue? Ah, was he talking about the time when he told me not to get hurt because there might be a diplomatic issue before the fight?
I asked with a dubious expression.
“Why?”
“The reason why you would bother to spar with the King’s guard knight.”
Was that Aska? It was so accurate that I had nothing to say.
“The King can’t not know about Aska’s existence either. Didn’t you say you directly executed the Princess? I already heard that fact from an informant. But the reason why he’s been quiet until now is probably because he didn’t want to stir up trouble. He couldn’t be sure how much I knew either.”
Mahir slowly tapped the armrest of the sofa with his fingertips and said.
“It’s a lie that he was going to investigate the sorcery in detail and then inform us. He probably wanted it to be buried as it is more than anyone else.”
“That’s true. I didn’t believe that either.”
“The King must have been very uneasy because the Emperor’s guard specifically pointed out the person who had been the Princess’s guard as his sparring partner.”
That meant he expected the King to come there. I frowned and grumbled.
“I thought you came out because you were worried about me.”
“What’s so pretty about you?”
Mahir, who was unusually agitated, frowned as well.