By Zephyria 
Side Story 5
“Haha, I see.” I have urgent business, so I’ll be going now.”
“I should get going too. Your Highness, I hope you have a pleasant banquet.”
The nobles surrounding them hurriedly left their seats. It seemed as if they were fleeing before the Prince deeply imprinted in his mind that they were the ones who insulted Lorentz at this gathering, and in reality, it wasn’t much different.
Even Viscount Armand de Laurent, who was watching the Prince’s every move and sweating profusely, politely said he had to go greet other guests before hastily leaving.
In an instant, the nobles disappeared like the tide receding, and before long, only Lorentz, Julian, and the Prince’s party remained.
The Prince hadn’t said anything remarkable, but the people who Lorentz couldn’t dare to handle were swept away in an instant. It was not something that could be compared to Lorentz’s clumsy skills. He seemed like someone very skilled in all of this.
“Where is the Montar Count family located?”
Pakirius, the Prince, suddenly asked. Lorentz made a flustered sound of “Uh…” but the answer came not from him but from the man standing behind the Prince.
“It is located in the northern part of the Empire. It takes about two or three days on horseback. Their specialty is vegetables from that region, but they are not very famous. They are a family of meritorious subjects who helped establish the Empire, but they have been a traditional noble family that has maintained its position for many years without much desire to advance to the central government or politics since their ancestors.”
The story about the Montar Count family, which came out like an encyclopedia, had no errors.
If Lorentz hadn’t been in front of him, the man, who seemed like he would have rattled off the poor financial situation of the family or the rumors about the unwanted second son, stopped there and closed his mouth.
“Thank you, Gerold.”
The Prince, who greeted the man standing behind him, smiled at Lorentz.
“It takes two or three days on horseback to get here, and you came all the way to the capital, so I’m sorry for making you go through something unpleasant.”
“Yes? Ah, no, it’s not!”
“No, I’m the one who should be sorry. The son of a family of meritorious subjects who helped establish the Empire came to the capital with good intentions, but I made him go through a rough time.”
He added with a smile, as if he still felt bad about kicking him out of the Imperial Palace that day. Watching his light purple eyes gently curve, Lorentz once again wore a dazed expression.
Although he was a newcomer noble, the gazes around him changed as the Prince, who was currently first in line to the throne, spoke to him and acted like he knew him.
Despite the fact that the gazes he had wanted were finally fixed on him, Lorentz had no time to enjoy them. He could only make a foolish expression as if his soul had been mortgaged to the smile of the brilliant person in front of him.
Lorentz chose to go to the capital, dreaming of somehow becoming a part of the social circles of the capital, where the landscape might be changing with the young Prince and the Hero at the center.
But the Prince was a heavenly being whom he would not have dared to meet if these kinds of coincidences hadn’t overlapped, and although he was skilled at handling nobles, he was more like a star that existed leisurely, one step away from them, rather than dominating them from above.
There was no fierce political strife, no cutthroat social circles, and no ruthless imperial family that only enjoyed power.
What about the aides standing by his side? Each of them seemed more capable than Lorentz, and weren’t they members of the Demon King subjugation party, who were hailed as heroes in the world? It was a position that someone like Lorentz, who was nothing special except for being a little smart, couldn’t dare to covet.
Lorentz wanted to ask his past self, who had believed only in the fact that ‘a commoner is an aide to the Prince!’ and was convinced that he was better because he was a noble, what kind of confidence he had. With each realization of reality, Lorentz’s fingers curled up several times.
Opportunity comes to those who are prepared, but that was wrong.
It was the prepared who seized the opportunity. And because Lorentz was not prepared, he could not seize anything, even though he had a connection with this young Prince.
“Then where are you staying now?”
Pakirius, the Prince, who had been asking Lorentz about various things, asked where the two were currently staying.
Lorentz, who had been wearing a dazed expression, hurriedly replied.
“Ah, it’s an inn located in the central square of the capital. It’s called Eddie’s Inn.”
“Aha?”
Pakirius, the Prince, burst into a small laugh along with an exclamation, as if something about that answer was funny. Watching Lorentz and Julian’s bewildered faces, Pakirius, the Prince, made a suggestion to the two of them without a care.
“I was planning to go there after the banquet ends, so why don’t we go together?”
“Yes?”
It was an absurd statement. He was planning to go there after the banquet ends? To Eddie’s Inn? What on earth did the Prince have to do with an inn in the capital?
As the two of them were truly unable to understand the relationship between the Prince in front of them and Eddie’s Inn and were wearing bewildered expressions, Pakirius, the Prince, nonchalantly revealed a shocking fact.
“Because I am the Owner of that inn, Eddie.”
* * *
Pakirius, the Prince.
The only sibling and only heir to the throne of the current Emperor, who has no children.
He gained fame as a hidden member of the imperial family, but he is more famous as a Hero and a lover of a man who is a hero and has received the title of Duke, although he started as a Baron.
Yes, he was someone who already had someone. Even though he couldn’t possibly not know that, and knowing that he would only get hurt if he bumped into him, Lorentz didn’t know what to do with the first fever he had ever experienced.
“Ah, like a friend with a servant? That’s similar to me, isn’t it? Ebon and Gerold have that kind of meaning to me.”
“I don’t think it’s similar at all.”
“Oh, come on, Gerold. Just say it’s a little bit right.”
On the way to Eddie’s Inn, riding together in the Prince’s personal carriage, Pakirius, the Prince, constantly talked to the two awkward men, taking care not to make them feel burdened.
Even that kindness made Lorentz lose his mind. At first, he was drawn to his appearance, but the more he saw him, the more he fell into his personality, which had a strange charm. He was someone who was too stimulating for Lorentz in many ways.
The carriage carrying the four people was big, spacious, and had an excellent ride. It seemed like a completely different kind of vehicle from the carriage that the two had come with Irena. Unlike Lorentz, who was awkward in such a nice carriage, Pakirius, the Prince, boarded the carriage as if it were natural.
That minor difference was the problem. Thanks to that, Lorentz was able to realize the reality that he had been constantly ignoring as time passed.
The carriage they had come in was also something that his younger sister had begged and begged his parents for as a birthday present. It was small, had no magical treatment, and they had barely managed to find a coachman.
Nevertheless, he had been excited like a child at the very fact that he was riding in a carriage with a servant and heading somewhere. It was as if he, too, had set foot in the glamorous world of the nobles of the capital.
But the person he seemed to have fallen in love with was someone who was too far apart from him, starting from these trivial things. He hadn’t met the man who was his lover yet, but he was someone who couldn’t even be compared to Lorentz, and the aides that the Prince brought with him were all overflowing with wit.
But what are you going to do in the capital of the Imperial Palace, where these kinds of people are overflowing? Are you going to ‘succeed’, Lorentz?
His face naturally grew hot.
Lorentz’s heart, which had not been broken by anything he had seen or experienced since arriving in the capital, was ironically broken the moment he met the kind Prince and fell in love. It was only after standing in front of the person he had fallen in love with that he realized that he was too pathetic.
Pakirius, the Prince, apologized for making Lorentz receive such treatment, and he still got angry and his head heated up whenever he thought of that moment, but Lorentz had no choice but to admit it.
The capital of the Empire was not so easygoing as to allow a newcomer noble, especially a second son without a title, to have a place.
Even if he had come to the capital during the time when the Demon King, who was truly chaos itself, had been resurrected, nothing would have changed.
He simply didn’t have the wealth, reputation, or clever plans to fill the gap with the spirit of a young man. The current trip to the capital was an act of throwing an egg at a rock, at least for now.
The reality painfully beat down on Lorentz, who had unintentionally realized the facts that he would have barely realized after a long time.
“Eddie, you’re here!”
However, the gloom that had come over him did not last long. As soon as the carriage arrived at Eddie’s Inn, the Owner of the inn, who always had a crooked smile on his face while Lorentz and Julian were staying at the inn, ran out and greeted Pakirius, the Prince, and then ran to the Prince’s aide with a bright face.