A Guest in the Third Prince's Palace (2)
From the communication crystal came Aurel’s voice, crisp and slightly astonished.
“You’ve already reached the imperial palace? That was faster than expected.”
Kaiden leaned his head back, the motion sending ripples across the bathwater.
“It seems that way. I didn’t exactly hurry.”
“By the way, must you always open communications while half-naked?”
Aurel’s face twisted into a grimace, teeth flashing.
“I have zero desire to stare at my lord’s bare body. If you’re so inclined to show it off, kindly reserve the privilege for the women who throw themselves at Your Majesty.”
“The only person I actually want to show my naked body to is you, Aurel. How terribly disappointing…”
“Sexual harassment is a punishable offense under Adamanth law.”
Kaiden gave a low chuckle at the sight of his subordinate behaving as though he might suffer a fit at any moment.
“You act as if this is new. You saw it constantly during the war, didn’t you?”
“Precisely because I saw it constantly, I no longer wish to see it.”
“How fussy you are.”
“Enough with the teasing, if you please.”
Aurel’s expression shifted at once into perfect seriousness.
“So. What is the atmosphere like inside the empire?”
At his subordinate’s question, Kaiden gave an easy shrug.
“Hard to say. Neither particularly good nor particularly bad.”
He stirred the bathwater with one hand, the gesture utterly casual.
“The eyes watching me weren’t as hostile as I expected. They even assigned me a room with its own bath.”
“What if they had laced that water with poison?”
“If they had…”
Kaiden offered the crystal a disarmingly bright smile.
“Every human in this place would already be dead.”
A heavy silence settled over the wide bathhouse.
Aurel spoke again, his face deliberately grave.
“You do realize that would create a catastrophe, yes? We are not yet prepared for a full-scale war against the empire…”
“Aurel, your problem is that you’re serious about everything.”
Kaiden drooped his brows as though wounded.
“Can’t I even make a joke?”
“The problem is that when Your Majesty says such things, they do not sound like jokes.”
The King of Adamanth was a man capable of facing an army alone. He possessed a body with near-immunity to most toxins and a regenerative power far beyond that of ordinary humans, allowing him to recover from serious wounds in a mere day or two. When someone like that spoke of killing, tension was inevitable.
Aurel exhaled a long, weary sigh.
Still watching his lord—who continued to splash water about with one hand as if it were the most important task in the world—he asked, “Are both His Highness the Third Prince and Her Highness the First Princess well?”
Instead of answering, Kaiden’s hand stilled in the water.
A single droplet clinging to his lowered lashes fell with a soft plip.
“Why do you say nothing?”
Aurel stared at his silent lord with open bewilderment.
“You cannot possibly have failed to meet them, can you?”
“My quarters are inside the Third Prince’s Palace. There is no way I could avoid meeting them.”
“Then kindly give me a proper report.”
Aurel’s tone edged toward exasperation as he pressed his lord.
“Are they both well? How did they seem?”
“How did they seem, you ask.”
Kaiden’s expression remained indifferent.
“They still look rather naïve. The princess is so small I nearly walked right past her without noticing.”
It was a lie.
The moment he had stepped into the hall, Kaiden had recognized the princess at first glance. She was the living image of a face he could never forget.
“…They both take greatly after their mother.”
“You mean they resemble Princess Edith?”
“Yes. It’s as if they were stamped from the exact same mold. Aside from their eye color, they are practically identical to my sister Edith.”
“Good heavens.”
Aurel smiled awkwardly and scratched his cheek.
“It is welcome news that the princess takes after Princess Edith, but for the prince to resemble her so closely as well…”
He clicked his tongue, as though the mere thought brought him a headache.
“If a boy inherited that beauty, he will break countless women’s hearts once he grows up.”
It was often said that men rise through women and fall through women. If too many women gathered around the boy, he would suffer for it. The Third Prince’s future did not appear destined for calm waters—unless he happened to meet a woman of strong character early in life.
“But was he truly as ragged as the rumors claimed?”
The empire’s Third Prince, Edwin, was widely said to have already been written out of the imperial power struggle. Yet not only had he attended the recent imperial hunting competition, his victory had thrown the empire’s political landscape into turmoil.
“The rumor that he resembled a stray dog seems false. The emperor himself introduced him to me as his own son.”
“Hmm. That is indeed a relief.”
Aurel stroked his smooth, beardless chin and grinned.
“We cannot tolerate Your Majesty’s only niece and nephew being mistreated.”
The man who had founded Adamanth—Kaiden Ram.
To the world he was known as the Knight King of common birth who had toppled the corrupt Lionel royal house and established a new dynasty. The truth, however, was somewhat different.
The filthy bastard born between the King of Lionel and a barbarian slave dancer.
Kaiden’s lips curved into a bitter smile as he recalled the tag that had clung to him since childhood.
Had he been born to an ordinary family, he might have become a knight loyal to the Lionel throne. But fate had dictated even his choices.
“How dare you! A vermin who doesn’t even recognize the grace of being taken in!”
The image of his half-brother screaming from behind the throne rose clearly in his mind. Those eyes burning with hatred as they glared at him.
“Strange. I have no memory of ever being taken in by you, brother.”
Kaiden had severed the head of his half-brother, the King of Lionel, and claimed the throne. Not as a brother of shared blood, but purely as a usurper.
“It must stir fresh feelings.”
Beyond the communication screen, Aurel’s voice carried open congratulations.
“Are they not the only ones still living who share blood with Your Majesty?”
Edith, the Third Consort and Edwin’s mother, had been Kaiden’s half-sister. She was the only person in the Lionel royal castle who had ever treated him like a human being while he lived like a slave.
To the young, twisted Kaiden she had always said the same thing:
Since we bear the same surname, we are family. No matter where you are, never forget that, Kaiden.
She had been a woman of truly naïve conviction. Perhaps that was why she had not seemed overly saddened when she was married off to the empire as though she were being sold.
Kaiden recalled the way she had smiled as she climbed into the carriage.
Don’t cry, Kaiden. If you miss your sister, come visit anytime.
She had only ever spoken carefree words. She must have known how impossible it would be for a king’s bastard to visit the imperial consort of the empire whenever he wished.
No matter how far apart we are, the fact that we are family will never change.
She had been wrong.
Even blood relatives could become worse than strangers, and once out of sight, even the closest bonds could turn into nothing more than distant acquaintances. Just as Edith had been completely forgotten in Lionel after being taken to the imperial palace.
“What nonsense.”
Kaiden glared at Aurel through the screen and lifted one corner of his mouth in a crooked smile.
“I have not yet acknowledged those children as my niece and nephew.”
“But—”
“Enough idle chatter.”
The young King of Adamanth raised a hand, cutting off his subordinate before he could drag the topic out any further.
“What of the matter I ordered you to investigate?”
At his lord’s words, Aurel lifted an eyebrow as though resigned.
“The cause behind the sudden surge in monster numbers that Your Majesty commanded me to examine has not yet been clearly identified. However!”
He broke off and walked toward the wall behind him. Upon it hung a massive map of the continent, covered in a chaotic web of colored dots and tiny arrows.
Colored dots and migration arrows tangle across the map like a spiderweb of invasion.
Converging Origin Point:Holy Kingdom of Leon
“By backtracking the migration routes of pack monsters such as orcs, ogres, and lycans, we arrived at a rather interesting conclusion.”
Aurel pointed at one spot with a long finger.
“They all came from the same place.”
When Kaiden saw the location, his brow furrowed deeply.
“Are you serious?”
“When have I ever joked about such matters?”
“…Right now I was really hoping you would say it was a joke.”
The place Aurel’s finger indicated on the enormous continental map was far too unexpected. It was a land that should have had nothing whatsoever to do with monsters.
“The Holy Kingdom of Leon.”
The sacred nation ruled by the Holy Emperor—the Holy Kingdom of Leon.
From the beginning, magic and holy power had been complete opposites. Yet monsters were appearing in a land overflowing with sacred energy.
If the reason for the sudden increase in monster numbers lies with the Holy Kingdom, matters will become even more troublesome.
The Holy Kingdom of Leon was the sole neutral nation on the continent, governed by the Holy Emperor. Only priests, paladins who wielded holy power, and their devout followers lived there. They usually maintained gentle, peaceful attitudes in accordance with their teachings of divine mercy. But when their faith was threatened, they transformed completely.
“I would rather fight monsters every day of the year. That would be far easier on the stomach.”
Kaiden swept his wet hair back and frowned.
“So, Aurel. Are you telling me the Holy Kingdom stands behind the monster outbreaks? That the Holy Emperor has become their leader?”