“What are you doing? You said you were hungry. Take a seat. The food will be ready soon.”
Seeing William smiling shamelessly after causing such a major incident made me sigh. As soon as I sat down, I worried about what I should address first.
Should I talk about Kalroy? Or should I first tell him to refrain from such words since they could cause misunderstandings in front of the attendants?
While I was pondering, William’s voice was heard.
“Are you still worried about Kalroy?”
“Ah, no. It’s not that… Your Highness, why did you do that?”
William sat casually in his chair and spoke nonchalantly.
“What did I do?”
“The sleeping arrangements mentioned in etiquette are not those sleeping arrangements. As a regular Omega, I…”
When I couldn’t finish my words and fumbled around, William leaned forward with his hands on the dining table. Our faces came close enough for our noses to touch. His eyes looking at me were full of mischief.
“So… what? It’s true that Danny and I slept in the same bed, isn’t it? So what’s the problem? Even Behern, who manages my behavior to ensure I don’t act against etiquette, let it slide without saying anything?”
Only then could I be certain.
William’s mention of a regular Omega’s sleeping arrangements in front of the attendants and Behern wasn’t because he didn’t know the meaning—it was already a planned action. Otherwise, he couldn’t be this brazen.
Shortly after, the attendants who had gone to prepare the meal returned with food. William, who was about to say something more, sat down as if nothing had happened and spread his napkin. I stared for a while at his cute appearance contrasted with his not-so-cute behavior.
“What are you doing? Hurry up and eat.”
As William pushed food toward me, the attendants’ faces grew increasingly stern. Even Behern, who had always been favorable toward me, was looking at me suspiciously with eyes that seemed to wonder what I had done to make His Highness the Prince act this way.
I gave Behern a wronged expression. I looked at him with sincerity, trying to convey that it wasn’t like that, that I didn’t know why His Highness the Prince was acting this way, but it definitely wasn’t what they thought. However, Behern just frowned and turned his gaze away, seeming to have no intention of understanding my wronged feelings.
I had no choice but to start eating. The soup was smooth and the bread was savory, but since I was sitting on pins and needles, I couldn’t swallow the food properly. William, seeming conscious of my state, said to Behern.
“I have something to discuss with Daniel, so everyone go out and come back later.”
“Yes, understood.”
Now only William and I remained. Of the two problems I needed to address, the sleeping arrangement issue would obviously lead to more teasing if I brought it up, so it seemed better to bring up the matter about Kalroy first.
I put down my spoon on the table and steeled myself.
“Your Highness, I hope you become a Crown Prince who receives the respect of the Empire’s citizens.”
At the mention of Crown Prince, William’s expression froze.
“I, I… have never coveted that position. Why are you suddenly saying such things?”
William asked as if he couldn’t understand.
“There are only Your Highness and I here, just the two of us. With things having come to this, what can’t we discuss?”
Having lived in the Imperial Palace for a long time, being careful with words would have become a habit, but from now on, both William and I needed to be a bit more honest. We couldn’t keep hiding our strength while being concerned about etiquette forever.
In the original work, the time when William became Emperor was before he even reached adulthood. Although he was ten years old now and had time remaining, the original work had already been twisted beyond recognition, and there was no telling how it might change again.
“So what do you want to talk about?”
“His Highness Crown Prince Kalroy would find it difficult to maintain his position, even if the wrongdoings weren’t directly committed by himself, wouldn’t he?”
William nodded silently.
“Then isn’t it a fact everyone knows that Your Highness will become the next Crown Prince? Though you say you have no ambition, Your Highness knows best how difficult the position of a Prince who couldn’t ascend to the Crown Prince’s seat is in the Empire.”
William frowned as if remembering the past. Every time his face, still covered with soft down, contorted with an expression full of story, my heart ached too.
“Right. It certainly was like that. So you hope I safely ascend to that position because you’re worried I might become dangerous?”
Faced with William’s question asked with the most innocent expression in the world, I grabbed hold of my conscience and nodded.
“Yes. I hope you become a wonderful Crown Prince who receives the respect of the Empire’s citizens.”
William was staring intently at me with a slightly flushed expression. Just a moment ago, when talking about sleeping arrangements, he seemed like a full-grown adult, but looking at him now with his reddened cheeks, he was unmistakably a ten-year-old child.
“So, Your Highness, may I make one difficult request?”
The atmosphere still wasn’t quite right for bringing up Kalroy, but there was no time.
The Emperor’s impatient nature meant that the punishment for Kalroy would be carried out much faster than I had expected. Not anticipating that the situation would change this quickly was my mistake. No, actually, the bigger mistake was having all my attention focused only on William, failing to consider that William’s success would mean Kalroy’s hardship. So I had to correct that.
“What request?”
“As I mentioned earlier, I hope Your Highness becomes a Crown Prince who receives the respect of the Empire’s citizens.”
William tilted his head with a puzzled expression. His silver-gray eyes seemed to sparkle for a moment, then William with narrowed eyes began questioning me.
“You keep talking about the respect of the Empire’s citizens—are you saying this because you think I lack the qualifications to become Crown Prince?”
William’s voice became sharp. He was definitely angry that I had touched his pride. I decided not to soothe his anger but to use it instead. This approach might work better on young William.
“How could I dare discuss Your Highness’s qualifications with my humble status? However, if you ascend to that position after killing or exiling your brother who shares the same blood, I fear the Empire’s citizens might think of Your Highness as a merciless Crown Prince. And it’s not just the Empire’s citizens. What’s truly frightening is that history won’t record the discrimination and hardships Your Highness endured as a Prince, but will simply record Your Highness as a heartless Prince who drove his older brother from the Crown Prince’s position and took that seat.”
After hearing my words, William was silent for a while. As if chewing over my words, William was tapping the table with his index finger. I deliberately acted distracted to give him time to think. When I had put a few pieces of bread in my mouth like that, William suddenly asked.
“What about you?”
“Pardon?”
“If I ask Aren to exile Kalroy and sit in the Crown Prince’s seat, would you also think of me as a heartless Crown Prince blinded by power?”
At this unexpected question, the bread I had just put in my mouth felt stuck in my throat.
Are you already trying to act like a tyrant?
“Cough cough!”
This body was so sensitive that my thoughts were immediately expressed outwardly. As I coughed, William graciously offered me the juice that was in front of him.
“You seem flustered.”
I gulped down the juice and barely managed to push the bread stuck in my throat down to my stomach. When my coughing stopped, William urged me for an answer.
“I don’t care how the Empire’s citizens think of me or what history records… I asked how you would think of me.”
His voice had thorns in it, as if he didn’t like that I had suddenly started coughing. Since I had intended to use his anger, I decided to maintain the attitude I had initially set, even if it was tiring for me.
However, I decided to speak a bit more gently and indirectly.
“I know that His Highness William is a warmer and more affectionate person than anyone else.”
William retorted sulkily.
“Nonsense! You know that’s not true. All the attendants who worked close to me, except for Behern, called me the seed of a tyrant.”
I recalled William’s world before coming here.
Before I came to this world, it seemed William had been faithfully following the original work’s ending of becoming a tyrant.
‘Even I’m only fine now because I’m attached to William’s side, but if it weren’t for that…’
I got chills thinking about the future of the Stamili Empire that was drawn before my eyes.
I answered with the most wronged expression I could muster.
“That’s what other people think. If I had thought of Your Highness as a heartless Prince blinded by power, I would have taken His Highness the Crown Prince’s hand when he extended it.”
William’s shoulders flinched. He was definitely shaken by my words.
“To be honest, though I’m only saying this now, when I first came here, Your Highness was a Prince who didn’t receive proper respect even from his attendants. So for someone lowly and weak like me, an Omega, whose hand would have been better to hold to preserve my life?”
“Ka, Kalroy…”
“That’s right. But still, I stayed by Your Highness’s side. Why do you think that is?”
William opened his mouth then suddenly frowned and closed it. His huffing appearance was like a child who had lost in a fight.
“You’re like a fox. More fox-like than the wicked Omega concubines.”
“Pardon? Suddenly?”
As if his anger hadn’t subsided, William got up from his chair and walked back and forth around the room, hitting his head with his small fists. It seemed his pride was hurt because he thought he had lost to me.
No matter how smart a ten-year-old child is, wouldn’t it be natural for him to lose when competing with me, who was already an adult and even knew the future?
William, who had been pacing, seemed to have organized his thoughts and sat down again.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
