I brought up the tiger story to reverse the mood.
Tigers were a sedative that calmed William’s boiling chest, and for me, they were a kind of cheat key that allowed me to protect William.
William blinked his eyes. Even though he had turned fifteen, he still seemed to love tiger stories that much.
“Tiger?”
“Yes, whenever Your Highness acts like that, I feel like I’ve encountered a tiger.”
William, who understood immediately, burst into loud laughter.
“Hahaha, I got it. I’ll be careful now. To think Danny would fear me like a tiger. Roar!”
The way he raised his hands and went “roar!” was so cute that I laughed along with him. I never would have thought the seed of a tyrant could be this adorable.
The tyrant I knew had a cold, cruel image with no affection whatsoever…
Looking at William made my heart feel incredibly warm. William, who had been going “roar!” and chasing after my dodging shoulders for a while, suddenly stopped his actions and stared intently at me.
“If you tell me a story, I won’t eat you up!”
The moment I saw William’s smiling face, suddenly one part of my chest stung. It felt like only that part had been struck by electricity. Could this be what they call paternal love? Well, it made sense. I had practically raised William for almost five years now, so it was natural for paternal love to develop.
Or maybe it was just human instinct being weak to cute animals…
After hesitating for a moment, I smiled awkwardly and said,
“If the tiger lord asks for it, I must give it. Now then, shall I unpack my bag of stories? How about a whale story?”
“Wh… whale?”
William’s eyes sparkled at the new animal story.
“Yes. It’s an animal like a tiger that lives in the sea. Its body is as big as this castle, and it looks like this.”
I drew the shape of a whale with my finger on William’s palm.
“It tickles…”
“Come on, bear with it a little. It’s not a difficult animal to understand.”
“Alright. Draw it again.”
I drew the whale again. William nodded and then drew a whale on my palm in return. He seemed to understand roughly.
“It looks cute, doesn’t it?”
“Only its appearance is cute – its body is enormous! It’s so big it couldn’t even fit in the garden.”
William’s eyes widened.
“And they’re animals that travel in groups.”
“Wow…”
William exclaimed in admiration and pressed his body close to mine. The pheromones he unconsciously released entered my nostrils and struck my head with a ‘thud,’ but fortunately it was brief.
William, who had reached his mid-teens, didn’t release pheromones haphazardly like when he was young. So except for when he was occasionally very happy or so angry he couldn’t control himself, he was managing fairly well.
If William had released enough pheromones to make me struggle, it would have been intentional, but this time he had clearly failed to control himself because of the whale.
I found even William’s mistakes like this endearing.
***
“You’ve worked hard. Without the efforts of Count Waburn Putdy and the people of Putdy territory, we wouldn’t have been able to overcome the food shortage. I’ll personally speak to His Majesty about this matter and ensure you’re rewarded.”
Waburn grasped William’s hand and bent his waist at William’s words. Perhaps because of his good physique, rather than looking like he was groveling, it appeared as if he was courteously showing proper respect.
“You’re too kind with your words. All of this is thanks to Your Highness the Crown Prince’s blessing.”
While they exchanged farewells, the carriage was loaded full of lopeia.
The barley yield was smaller than I had expected, so I told the head chef of Putdy Castle how to make food using bran and instructed him to spread this knowledge widely. Rather than taking the barley directly, I judged it better to at least let the imperial citizens living in this region eat their fill.
Trading with lopeia would allow us to buy enough food for the imperial citizens to have surplus.
But someone who had been hovering around the lopeia carriage kept catching my eye irritatingly. He seemed to be a territorial resident, and with luggage slung over his shoulder, he looked as if he was about to leave this place immediately.
Just then, Waburn gestured toward him. As the man approached us, Waburn pointed to him and said,
“Your Highness, this man is Putdy’s most skilled blacksmith and craftsman. No one can match him in lopeia crafting, so taking him with you would be helpful in many ways.”
Waburn nudged the man.
“Gapa, what are you doing? Greet him properly!”
Then a low but rough voice came from the man called Gapa.
“Glory to the Stamili Empire…”
“Let’s worry about formalities later – what’s your name?”
“My name is Gapa Rapochi. Please call me Gapa.”
William, who was suspicious of people, looked Gapa up and down. Whether because of his fierce appearance and the blunt impression characteristic of those who do rough work, William’s expression had hardened considerably.
I was inwardly worried that William might not take Gapa with him. Though there were people who crafted gems in the Imperial Palace, they probably weren’t more skilled than a craftsman who had worked extensively with lopeia. Moreover, with the recommendation from Waburn, the lord of the origin territory…
“What do you think, Danny?”
I was startled by the sudden question and looked at William.
“Would it be better to take this man with us?”
Conscious of others’ eyes, I leaned close to William’s ear and lowered my voice.
“Your Highness, they say new wine goes in new wineskins – rather than entrusting this to the palace craftsmen stained with corruption, it would be better to bring a new craftsman.”
I said this thinking it would be good to use William’s suspiciousness in reverse if he was hesitating due to doubt. As expected, my thinking was correct, and William nodded.
“Good. You’ll come with us.”
“It’s an honor, Your Highness the Crown Prince.”
Though Gapa said it was an honor, his expression was full of dissatisfaction. I was somewhat uneasy because of Gapa’s expression, but right now the priority was to quickly establish a system for mass lopeia crafting and trade to feed the poor imperial citizens.
***
As soon as William arrived at the Imperial Palace, he roughly explained to the Emperor what had happened. The Emperor was greatly pleased and said he would entrust William with full authority over this matter. Then the nobles began to stir.
Their argument was that they should be wary of the Crown Prince’s power becoming too great.
That’s when Aren stepped forward.
He argued that while their claim wasn’t wrong, since the Crown Prince was the only Dominant Alpha to succeed His Majesty the Emperor, it would be better for the empire if his power was strong rather than weak.
With that statement, the nobles’ arguments were dismissed.
William had a massive warehouse built in the place closest to the Crown Prince’s Palace where lopeia could be stored, and had the 3rd Knight Order guard it.
The knights newly assigned to this duty grumbled as they guarded the warehouse.
“Must we do even this kind of work?”
“Warehouse guards… This is an insult to knights, Your Highness.”
I paced anxiously around William. Though he had been controlling himself well lately, William was still the seed of a tyrant. If he got angry at the knights’ words and decided to kill them all instead of negotiating, not only the 3rd Knight Order but the entire knight order would rise up in rebellion.
William frowned. My heart sank and I unconsciously gripped his hand tightly. William tapped my knuckles as if it was nothing and stepped forward before the knights.
“This warehouse is not just any warehouse.”
It was a voice I had never heard him use when we were alone together. A low, majestic voice with resonance… Literally the voice of a Dominant Alpha.
The knights who had been complaining stopped talking at William’s words and focused their attention on him.
“It’s a warehouse that stores lopeia.”
As if they didn’t understand the meaning contained in those words, the knights began murmuring again. William paid no attention and continued speaking.
“In these current times, lopeia is not just a gem but will become the food that sustains the lives of poor imperial citizens. So isn’t guarding this far more important work than escorting the imperial family or royalty? Without imperial citizens, there is no empire. So you must ensure His Majesty’s grace spreads widely throughout all corners of the empire.”
I looked at William speaking without hesitation with a proud heart.
When did that ill-tempered silver-haired brat grow up like this?
Tears welled up in my eyes at the sight of him speaking with dignity to the knights.
The knights nodded in agreement with William’s words. It seemed William had stimulated their chivalry. Instead of commanding, demanding obedience, and imposing punishments, he had succeeded in persuading them by appealing to their knightly spirit.
I was once again amazed looking at such a William.
Handsome, good voice, dignified in his actions, elegant, benevolent, good character… decent, loves the imperial citizens, good at negotiating! I’m not saying this because he’s my student, but William was a Crown Prince who lacked nothing.
William smiled brightly at me.
It was as if he was asking, “How was I?” I gave him a thumbs up and said,
“You were absolutely magnificent.”
“Good. Then call Gapa now. We have a lot of work to do!”
“Yes!”
I answered joyfully.
Though William’s reason for wanting to succeed in the lopeia trade was not so much for the imperial citizens but to avoid taking Ellawud Ridden as his companion Omega, so what if his motives were a bit impure! As long as the results were good, that’s what mattered.
***
Work progressed quickly and the workshop was completed in just one week. The workshop in the Imperial Palace was more like a smeltery than a workshop, so we judged it would be difficult to craft delicate lopeia there and decided to build a new one.
To borrow William’s expression, he gathered the useless craftsmen who acted as the imperial family’s footwipes and only wasted food to form a lopeia crafting team, and put Gapa in the leadership position.
Gapa always wore an irritated expression, but he did his best in educating the craftsmen and turning lopeia ore into gems.
Today too, I looked at Gapa supervising the craftsmen with an expression full of dissatisfaction and asked,
“Gapa, do you have some complaint?”
It was a question I threw out because his expression was consistently blunt and cold, making me feel like I was sitting on a bed of nails just leaving him alone.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
