When I turned to look where the sound came from, a familiar face was standing there. It was the attendant who had informed me about the dining hall situation when I first came down to the restaurant.
“It’s been a while.”
The attendant smiled warmly and reached out his hand, then hesitated and withdrew it.
“Ah, I can’t just shake hands carelessly now, can I? Since you’re a Regular Omega. Please keep it secret from His Highness.”
“Yes. I’ll do that.”
“Right! I can’t speak informally anymore either. I’m sorry. Please forgive my rudeness.”
“It’s fine. I’m much younger anyway.”
At my words, the attendant broke into a broad smile, then hesitated for a moment. Even after our greeting was finished, he didn’t leave and just stood there fidgeting, so it seemed like he had something to say to me.
“Do you have something you want to say?”
He pulled out a piece of bread from inside his coat and held it out to me.
“This—I was saving it to eat, but please have it.”
I wasn’t hungry, but I was grateful for his consideration in sharing what he had when he probably didn’t have enough food for himself either. Still, I couldn’t just take bread from a hungry attendant.
“No, it’s okay. I’m not hungry.”
The attendant muttered with a dejected expression.
“Now that your position has risen, I suppose you don’t want things given by someone like me.”
The attendant’s hurt face resembled the faces I used to see when begging for work at the market before I entered the palace. Remembering those times, I couldn’t bring myself to refuse and took a bite. Since it was freshly baked bread, it was savory and delicious. Just as my throat was about to feel blocked, he somehow produced a drink and gave it to me, which I accepted and drank.
And a little while later, my head gradually became foggy and it became difficult even to stand.
…I’ve been had.
When would I ever realize that the world I’m living in has changed, and that the people here aren’t all kind and pure like the students I used to teach? I need to bring William his snacks… If I don’t go on time, he’ll worry a lot… Who did this to me? Will William be able to fall asleep tonight without a bedtime story?
Even as my consciousness was fading, I was thinking only of William.
***
“Are you coming to your senses now?”
I opened my eyes at the domineering voice. The drug’s effects hadn’t worn off yet, so I couldn’t regain my senses immediately and remained in a dazed state for a while before turning my head. A familiar figure came into my blurry vision. A firm jaw, tightly pressed lips, dark circles that had settled deeply as if he hadn’t slept, sad eyes, an expression as if he had lost the world—it was Rob, the knight.
“H-how are you…!”
I couldn’t believe that Rob, Kalroy’s knight who should be in prison, had kidnapped me. As I stared at him in a dazed state, Rob covered his face with both hands as if in anguish and let out a sigh.
I was the one who had been kidnapped, but he seemed to be suffering more as he clutched at his hair. Watching him made me even more confused.
I didn’t know why Rob was here, for what reason he had kidnapped me, or why he, who had always shown such a confident demeanor, was making such an anguished expression.
If it were Rob, he would have brought me to the Crown Prince’s Palace… but the scenery I saw was unfamiliar.
Where is this place? Is this really the Crown Prince’s Palace?
Rob, who had removed his hands from his face, slowly opened his mouth.
“His Highness said so. That you told him it would be better for His Highness if I forgave you.”
Only after hearing Rob’s words did I get a sense of what had happened. Right after telling Kalroy to release Rob, I had been busy running away from Kalroy, so I had momentarily forgotten about saying such a thing. But it seemed Kalroy had actually freed Rob as I had said.
Not knowing what to say, I just quietly looked at Rob’s face, and he continued speaking.
“I don’t know what you were aiming for when you said that, but don’t misunderstand—just because you said that doesn’t mean I completely trust you.”
“Just looking at how you kidnapped me, I more than understand that you don’t trust me, Sir Knight. What I’m curious about is why someone who just got out of prison not long ago would kidnap me.”
Rob’s expression became distorted. Seeing that expression, I could tell that he hadn’t kidnapped me of his own volition. Then that meant Kalroy had ordered it…
I looked around trying to find Kalroy. However, I couldn’t find Kalroy anywhere in the room.
Thinking I had to somehow escape from here, I looked around. This place was an enclosed room, and Rob was a knight who was much larger than me and even armed, which made me hesitate a bit, but thinking of William who would be waiting for me, I couldn’t just stay here.
“Did His Highness the Crown Prince order you to kidnap me again? As you know, I am currently in the position of Prince William’s Regular Omega. Even if he is His Highness the Crown Prince, he cannot take me away at will.”
Rob stood up from his seat. Thinking he might draw his sword at any moment, I shrank back, but nothing happened. When I opened my eyes a moment later, I was shocked by what was happening before my eyes.
An Imperial Knight, and Rob at that, who was responsible for guarding the Crown Prince at close range, was kneeling before me. I blinked, doubting my eyes. But Rob remained motionless in that position.
Belatedly coming to my senses, I got up from the bed and approached Knight Rob.
“Why are you suddenly doing this? Please get up. This doesn’t follow proper protocol.”
Rob placed his hands on the ground and bowed his head. Without telling me why he was doing this, he only acted more incomprehensibly, causing me to freeze in place.
“Rob Esher, Knight of the Stamili Empire. Abandoning even a knight’s dignity and pride, I humbly request this of you.”
Desperation oozed from his posture and attitude. Even without hearing the specific content of his request, I felt I could guess what it was.
In Rob’s words, I couldn’t find the servile atmosphere of the sycophants who had countless times entered and left William’s room. It was that much more weighty and straightforward.
“Please, I beg you to look after His Highness Kalroy.”
It was a simple statement, but with those few words, a fact I had momentarily forgotten came back to me.
While I was executing plans I had made solely for William, Kalroy had learned of his mother’s affair, and as if that weren’t enough, he would have had to watch his mother die on the scaffold in the end.
It was hard to even imagine what his young heart must have felt.
Although William had experienced his loss at an even younger age, the magnitude of grief from losing a mother probably isn’t proportional to age.
I had quickly forgotten my resolution not to easily trust the people living in this world since they weren’t the students I taught, and I found myself sympathizing with Knight Rob. Although we were in an adversarial relationship, I felt sorry for Kalroy, who had been sacrificed due to the adults’ greed.
“Where is His Highness the Crown Prince now?”
Rob raised his head. Seeing him up close, his eyes were bloodshot red.
“Are you accepting my request?”
“However, please let me sleep in my own room. I don’t want to hasten my death by doing something improper.”
Rob stood up and nodded.
***
I thought Kalroy would be anxiously pacing around his room as I had seen before. So on the way here, I had pondered how to calm him down. However, when I actually went and saw Kalroy, his appearance was completely contrary to my expectations.
In the span of a few weeks, Kalroy’s appearance had completely changed.
His emaciated body, unfocused pupils, skin that looked rough at first glance, and chapped lips were closer to those of a corpse than a living person.
I could imagine how shocking his mother’s unexpected affair and her subsequent death must have been to him. What pained me more than Kalroy’s appearance was that in this spacious Crown Prince’s room, there were no attendants properly taking care of the Crown Prince. No, there were attendants, but they all alike showed no interest in the Crown Prince who had fallen from power. They were merely decorating the Crown Prince’s room like mannequins.
I had to bite my lips to contain my rising anger. Ordinary people say that the weak are kind, but at least in this world, the weak were people who could treat others carelessly in order to survive themselves, or to gain more wealth and power. Even if that target was a young and vulnerable child.
Seeing the Crown Prince in a dazed state, unable to even lie properly on the bed with his hair disheveled, I saw William’s image overlapping with his. Unable to just stand by and watch, I found myself unconsciously walking toward Kalroy.
I didn’t even think about the protocol that I shouldn’t approach the Crown Prince because I was William’s Regular Omega, or the protocol that I shouldn’t dare approach the Crown Prince because of my humble status. Right now, the person before me wasn’t the Empire’s Crown Prince or William’s enemy, but just a weak and young creature who had lost its mother.
When the distance became close enough for our bodies to touch, Kalroy raised his unfocused eyes to look at me. The moment our eyes met, his pupils seemed to shine… but it was only for a moment. Soon Kalroy turned his head away and buried his face between his knees.
“Your Highness, it’s me. Daniel Lambert, I have come.”
I called out in a voice that was choked and didn’t come out well, but Kalroy didn’t even stir. A wounded child wouldn’t easily open their heart, so it would take time.
By our country’s age calculation, Kalroy was just a middle school student. Thinking that made my heart sink even more.
So I decided not to try talking to him anymore. In times like this, even forcing someone to speak could be violence.
I put my fingers between the tangled strands of hair and combed through them. The soft blonde hair came loose beautifully between my fingers. How long had this pretty hair been neglected for it to get to this state?
Knight Rob just stood in a corner of the room, watching us.
After I had been stroking his hair for quite a while, Kalroy raised his head. I smiled faintly at him.
“I wish I could just die quickly… No, I wish I could just go somewhere, anywhere…”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
