Lizabeth Asein. The daughter of Archduke Asein, a man with significant influence on the current continental political climate.
She gave birth to the Third Prince Morres after an encounter before the Emperor ascended to the throne and has ambitiously ascended to the position of the First Queen. It is unclear whether she aspires to the Empress’s seat, but it is known to the Demon King that she has tirelessly endeavored to make Morres the Crown Prince.
Seongjin harbored a few suspicions about her.
First, she clearly wants to hide a certain past and considers it fortunate that Morres does not remember it.
She didn’t seem to interfere much in whatever her son did, which was odd considering how much she wanted to make Morres the Crown Prince.
Seongjin was speculating that the reason why Masain was especially wary of her might be related to this.
Second, there is a suspicion that it was actually Lizabeth, the 1st Queen, who had sponsored various organizations in the past under Morres’ name.
Leaving aside the question of why those particular suspicious organizations, the issue is whether it is possible for someone else to have secretly sponsored them for such a long time under the guise of the prince.
It would become clearer after asking Jonathan, who is reportedly getting better, about the sponsorship of the gathering of the black prophets.
Third, there is a possibility that she has been consistently emotionally abusive to young Morres in the past.
The fact that Seongjin, in his dream, saw an unknown Second Prince Logan suggests that Seongjin is indeed seeing Morres’ past. Although it was only a brief moment of sympathy, what Seongjin felt then was that the 1st Queen’s verbal abuse had not been just for a day or two but had continued for quite some time.
Could there be some connection between the sudden downfall of Morres, who seemed like a relatively normal child, into a complete reprobate?
“Heh, are you a son requesting an investigation of his own mother?”
Dasha wore a meaningful smile.
Her expression somehow reminded Seongjin of a junior colleague who looked forward to a messy family drama, and he waved his hands dismissively.
“I would ask her myself, but I don’t have my past memories, and it feels somewhat wrong to keep asking her.”
“Hmm…”
Dasha nodded understandingly at his excuse.
“The Queen is the daughter of Archduke Asein. Around her, there is always a sharp rivalry between the agents of Archduke Asein and the Delcross informants. It’s not easy to approach her carelessly, nor is it easy to gather information. The fact that you are investigating her could very well reach the ears of Archduke Asein and His Majesty.”
Could it be difficult, after all?
While he was contemplating this, Dasha clenched her fist in the air, her vibrant turquoise eyes sparkling as if stars were about to spill out.
“What a gratifying task this is! Just leave it to me. I will uncover everything about Her Highness, more secretly than anyone else. From all her past connections and behaviors to how many pieces of meat she ate in a day and how many times she went to the restroom—I’ll confess it all in detail!”
Hey, that’s a crime. Are you considering that I’m the son of the person you’re planning to stalk?
Please respect the privacy of the person you’re investigating.
“Then I shall take my leave, Your Highness. Please take good care of yourself!”
With lighter steps than when she arrived, she tiptoed across the terrace and, like a ghost, disappeared beyond the Pearl Palace garden.
Seongjin blankly stared out the window where she had vanished.
I’ve felt it before, but she really is an exceptionally ambitious person.
[Why don’t you ask her to investigate your father as well? I’d like to see the reaction.]
The Demon King seemed genuinely curious.
Eh, I’m not curious. I can clearly see a future where Dasha and I both get smacked by that gentleman.
Seongjin got up from the bed and stretched. It was somewhat awkward timing to go back to sleep, so he considered meditating instead.
Though he had almost died or become disabled, he felt energized all over his body, as if he had become even healthier thanks to the divine healing.
‘…Huh?’
He realized something was odd not long after he began meditating.
The energies in his center, which had been depleted, were already fully restored, and as he focused a bit more, the surrounding energies began to gather and automatically form the 6th layer!
‘……?’
Well, he had been close to reaching the 6th layer recently anyway. With that thought, he immersed himself back in meditation and the energies continued to flow into his danjeon. The activity of the energies was abnormally high.
Before he knew it, the flow that had been rushing in haphazardly almost reached the 7th layer before finally slowing down.
At that point, Seongjin was so flustered that his concentration completely scattered.
‘What’s this…?’
Sweat cooled on his brow. It scared him how quickly his energy layers had increased in just one day.
It couldn’t be that his body would burst like that wooden sword, could it?
Fortunately, a quick check confirmed his body was relatively stable. A considerable amount of energy surpassing the 6.5 layers was circulating throughout his body, constantly infusing him with vitality.
What could be the cause? Was it related to the fact that his energies had been completely depleted once?
Or could it be… that man had done something?
The thought crossed Seongjin’s mind and he chuckled to himself. It was funny how he’d come to think of the divine immediately when something strange happened, as if he’d already become one of the people from the Delcross Imperial Palace.
No longer in the mood to meditate, he simply lay down in bed. Contrary to his expectation that he wouldn’t be able to sleep easily after having slept profoundly before, Seongjin didn’t dream at all and slept soundly until morning.
The next morning, as usual at the time when the birds cried in the Pearl Palace, Seongjin woke up. Rubbing his eyes in a daze, he heard a knock at the door and Edith entered with a fresh jug of water, followed by Masain walking into the room.
“Did you cough, Your Highness?”
Seongjin flinched for a moment, cautiously gauging the other’s expression. Despite Sir Masain’s dissuasion the previous day, Seongjin was aware that he had recklessly fought against the beast too excessively.
After once dying and being revived at the Diggory estate, it seemed that recently Sir Masain had become overly sensitive to Seongjin’s safety. Seongjin wondered how he would be nagged today.
However, contrary to Seongjin’s worries, Sir Masain’s face appeared more relaxed than he had anticipated.
No, not just relaxed, there was a certain enlightened aura about him.
“At least your heart hasn’t stopped, that in itself is something to be thankful for.”
Ah, that’s right, there was that time before when he had been completely out of it, and they had to perform CPR.
“The more I fret, the more I realize that nothing changes, Your Highness.”
Sir Masain said calmly, looking out towards the garden beyond the window.
As if he had let go of everything, his eyes gazed into the verdant garden, seemingly filled with a distant melancholy.
“I dare not presume to stop you, Prince. I no longer have many expectations of you. Just, please do not suddenly die on me again.”
“Uh…”
“Then I, Sir Masain, will do whatever it takes to present you before His Majesty. Yes, if only that happens, everything will be resolved. Hahaha.”
“…….”
His hollow laughter echoed through the cool morning air, the only sound in the silence.
Seongjin was more frightened now than when Sir Masain was openly angry.
Sir Masain, I’ve done wrong!
That morning, Seongjin attempted to find out the cause of the sudden increase in his aura during their aura training session. However, Sir Masain spoke with a determined face.
“I do not wish to repeat twice what state you were in yesterday, Your Highness. Do not even think about leaving the bed today, just rest quietly and regain your strength.”
He didn’t even have a chance to go to the training grounds. There had been a constant stream of visitors to Pearl Palace throughout the morning.
Amelia was the first to visit him. She had run there from her training, and unusually for her, she was not in a dress but in a casual shirt and slender pants.
Surprisingly, she seemed to be quite angry, more than anyone else. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyebrows sharply raised, and even this look was exceedingly charming.
With a non-threatening demeanor, Amelia fumed at Seongjin.
“Morres! Why don’t you know how to take care of yourself? You must stop this habit of just recklessly diving into dangerous places! Do you know how that makes the people who watch from the side feel?”
“…Yes?”
When did I ever again dive into danger?
Is this really something you could call a habit?
Seongjin blinked in astonishment, only managing to flutter his eyes when Amelia approached and firmly grasped his hand, staring intently into his eyes. Even her clear gray eyes were moist with tears.
“Never again, never again must you do something so frightening! Do you understand?”
“Uh…….”
Though he was flustered, Seongjin acquiesced with a nod because Amelia’s hand, which he was holding, was trembling slightly.
“Sure.”
“Really?”
“Yes, of course.”
“You’re promising me!”
“Yes, I promise….”
Seongjin answered reluctantly again.
Only after Amelia received several firm assurances did she finally return to the Rose Labyrinth with peace of mind.
The next visitors to seek Seongjin were the twins, Herna and Gades. It happened to be the day of their audience with the Holy Emperor, and they had entered the palace to play chess.
You guys know well that the Holy Emperor dislikes chess, so why do you insist on pestering him like that?
“Morres!”
“Morres!”
The identical twins, beautiful as dolls, ran towards him. Unlike Amelia, their faces were clearly full of joy.
They grabbed Morres’ arms on either side of the bed and stretched while beaming with smiles.
“What on earth did you do, Morres!”
“Nobody could have predicted it, Morres!”
And they nodded at each other as they caught each other’s eyes.
“Only Morres could do something like that.”
“Morres is none other than Morres indeed.”
What, are you agreeing among yourselves again on something only you guys know? Such mischievous little rascals!
I also have something to confront you about today.
“Why didn’t you tell me about the Monkey Tower in advance?”
“What does that kind of thing matter now?”
“Yeah, that kind of thing isn’t important anymore.”
What did you say, you rascals?
Seongjin frowned, and the twins, hugging his arms from both sides, stared intently into his face.
“Well done, Morres. Thanks to you, the situation was resolved with much less damage than expected.”
“Well done, Morres. You completely ruined that guy’s long-time efforts.”
Suddenly, Seongjin realized that his previous suspicion was true.
Despite knowing that someone was planting monster eggs and creating the gray plague, the Holy Emperor had deliberately chosen not to take any action.
“Who is that guy? Why has Father known all along and yet…”
To Seongjin’s question, the twins answered with slightly gloomy faces.
“We know, but originally, it’s something that we’re not supposed to know.”
“It’s not that we can’t do it, but that we shouldn’t do it.”
What does that mean? Seongjin blinked in confusion.
“There are several important restrictions that have come into place for Holy Father.”
“Thanks to that brazen old man who dumped all that on Imperial Father.”
Herna and Gades pouted their lips and rubbed their faces against Seongjin’s sleeve. It was still a conversation filled with unknowns.
“Still, thanks to Morres, we’ve been able to breathe a sigh of relief.”
“It’s really good that Morres came to our aid.”
“……”
They were earnestly trying to explain something, but the core of the story was skillfully avoided. Seongjin was gradually becoming accustomed to the twins’ way of speaking.
The two of them loitered around the bed for a while, and then, saying they were going to visit Amelia, they left the Pearl Palace.
After that, the morning passed in a flash with constant visits from Commander Bruno and the resident knights.
And then lunchtime. It was curious that there was no news from Queen Lizabeth, who seemed like she would have come rushing immediately, but an unexpected visitor arrived for Seongjin.
That is, the entire staff of the Pearl Palace was suddenly wrapped in tension.
[Eek!]
The devil crumpled to one side of his head, startled out of his wits.
That sudden change was so dramatic that even Seongjin, who had been rolling around in bed, could feel it clearly. As he was wondering what was going on, there was a knock, and Edith’s voice came through, tense with anxiety.
“Your Highness. His Majesty the Holy Emperor has arrived.”
…What?
Before he could even be surprised, the door opened, and the Emperor, with his usual cold expression, strode in. It seemed he had come directly to the Pearl Palace after finishing his morning administrative duties.
Hiccup.
Seeing his cool eyes, Seongjin hiccupped involuntarily.
