#10
When I had possessed this body, naturally I needed to act somewhat like the previous Ersen.
I couldn’t imitate that personality since I had to act fragile and kind, but I couldn’t miss these kinds of honorifics.
So I approached him while practicing day and night the honorifics that I’d never used in my life and didn’t feel natural on my tongue…
“Hyung-nim. Please don’t do that. What those people did wrong isn’t hyung-nim’s fault, so why do you feel responsible?”
Just as written in Ersen’s diary, he didn’t push me away.
He made many expressions like frowning and ignoring me or treating me coldly, but sometimes he treated me pleasantly, and he didn’t tell me to get lost like the Archduke or Theodore did.
I was deeply grateful for that.
Even though he was someone who wouldn’t tell me anything I actually needed to know.
I interpreted his behavior as being somewhat attached to Ersen.
So I said to him what I had always wanted to say while reading the original work.
“Hyung-nim, please value yourself a little more.”
“Haha, why should I? For whose benefit?”
The answer that came back then was colder than ever.
No, it would be right to describe it as chilling.
“Hey, Ersen.”
That was the first time he called me by name without using honorifics.
“That’s enough. If you go any further, I think I won’t be able to hold back and will swing my sword.”
Even his sneering face was tinged with killing intent.
Unlike him, who would usually smile indifferently and let things pass.
From then on, he began laying hands on me.
Things like pushing me away painfully when our hands touched, or grabbing my shoulder painfully and pulling me away when I approached the protagonists including Sercil.
Just the threat of violence from a Sword Master was enough to easily frighten me.
I was too scared to dare ask.
Why he rejected Ersen to this extent.
Whether I had done something so wrong. When I was calling him hyung-nim, not some other title, wasn’t it okay to worry about such a person?
If he didn’t like even that, then why did he…
“Why should I explain anything to you?”
But the last time I saw him before dying, he said:
“There’s no reason to play along with that disgusting act of pretending not to know.”
He wouldn’t believe me even if I said I really didn’t know what he was talking about.
Now I think I understand.
Actually, whether I knew or didn’t know wasn’t important.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t believe me.
He didn’t need to make an effort to believe me.
I now know that he doesn’t want to be involved with anything that has half-demon blood flowing through it.
To the extent that he finds himself disgusting…
On top of that, since it was Eris who left the ‘Binding Curse’ that placed the clan’s shackles on him, he must have found me, her son, disgusting to look at.
‘I must resemble Eris quite a bit.’
A corner of my chest stung a little, so I lowered my eyes.
They say everyone is born to be loved, but I seemed to have been born to be hated, both in my previous life and now.
‘Is that fate?’
The word fate, which I used to curse as nonsensical, now feels simply accepted.
It feels as natural as the fact that the Earth rotates.
“…Is there honey buried in our palace or something?”
“Excuse me?”
As I hummed while organizing my mood and expression, the Head Servant walking like a shadow beside me reacted.
“Otherwise, there’s no way guests would suddenly flock here like this. Right?”
Since he seemed unsure what to answer, I opened the door without listening to his response.
“…I’ve prepared tea inside.”
“Yeah.”
I almost said thank you but barely stopped myself.
I need to get my act together.
As I entered, the reception room with moonlight gently streaming in welcomed me, unlike when I saw it during the day.
Actually, it’s a bit embarrassing to call it a reception room since it’s such a shabby space, but it’s still the best-maintained place in this palace.
‘It’s not a space for me. That’s why I didn’t come here often. But why does it feel so unfamiliar?’
Even though it’s the same place, how can the atmosphere change so much just because the person inside has changed?
“Oh, it’s been a while?”
I looked at the man lying half-sprawled in a relaxed position on the long sofa, slowly waving his hand in greeting. Unlike the Archduke’s neat and perfect smile, his smile looked mischievous.
Fortunately, I wasn’t as nervous as I had been before seeing the Archduke. Because I had prepared myself mentally to some extent on the way here.
But I couldn’t help being momentarily speechless.
“Hmm?”
I remember him stabbing a knife into his own neck before my eyes.
Regardless of whether I was watching or not, he said it would be better to die holding the clan’s heart than to ask me to break the binding curse.
He didn’t believe my words that I wished for his happiness until the moment he died.
“Your Highness? Ersen-nim? Hmm. Why are you so spaced out?”
When did he approach? I finally came to my senses at his hand frantically waving before my eyes.
I naturally raised the corners of my mouth and looked up at him.
“Hyung-nim. No… I didn’t expect you to be lying there so comfortably like it’s your own home?”
“Your Highness, there’s a barb in your words?”
He grinned and walked lazily back to sprawl on that sofa again.
I followed him and sat cat-like on the opposite side, speaking mischievously.
“Well, it’s hyung-nim’s first time coming to my palace. But you looked strangely familiar with it. Is that adaptability your nature?”
“It’s effort, effort. …Well, it’s not like I came because I wanted to. This place smells too strong…”
“Smell?”
Marcus lightly curved his silver-gray eyes and chuckled.
I tilted my head and asked.
“Strong? Unbearably so?”
“Yeah. But cleaning won’t help, so let’s give up.”
He probably means it smells like half-demons or something.
“Hmm.”
I pretended to think deeply while propping my chin, then smiled strangely.
And to him who was observing me with raised eyebrows—it was quite a blatant stare—I said:
“Then hyung-nim, shall I give you perfume as a gift this time?”
“Hmm?”
“It’s very fragrant.”
“Sorry, but I don’t deal with perfume.”
“Ahaha, it’s not real perfume, but information that’s worth that much. Father seems to be hosting a gathering soon. How about you attending?”
His biological father, an elder of the half-demon clan, will visit the temple tomorrow.
Several influential half-demon figures who don’t get along with the temple will have a secret meeting with the High Priest.
Since it happens two days before the Foundation Day service, it was accurate. There’s probably no one who knows this information, which is why his expression is like that now.
“…You.”
His voice was menacing as he threw away the formal speech he had been maintaining, if only ceremonially.
He’s under a binding curse from the half-demons and often has to move according to their commands. Though he can refuse orders to some extent because he’s resisting the curse with his Sword Master power. Even someone like him couldn’t know such secret news.
But if 2nd Prince Ersen knows such information?
It means he’s either that close to the half-demons, or has personal routes to find out such information.
He looked at me with cold eyes, then asked in an emotionless voice:
“What do you want.”
“To attend together with me.”
“When?”
“Tomorrow. Ah, don’t be so stiff, hyung-nim. It won’t be that dangerous. If it were dangerous, I wouldn’t take the Archduke there…”
As I muttered like a little devil while swinging my feet, he slowly changed his posture.
Still sitting sprawled in a relaxed position, he pulled his chin in and looked down at me oppressively.
“You’re going to take my friend hostage?”
“Hostage? What scary talk.”
Tomorrow the Archduke will accompany me to where the half-demon meeting is held.
I never proposed it to the Archduke, but we agreed to go to the temple together tomorrow.
In fact, he probably knows that the Archduke wouldn’t listen even if hyung-nim tried to stop him.
‘He must have already eavesdropped, so it’s already decided.’
Though the Archduke doesn’t know that the meeting place is the temple.
“It’s just an appeal that it’s not dangerous.”
“…Hmm. I don’t know what you’re aiming for, but if that’s the case.”
A moment later, he replied like that while slowly raising the corners of his mouth.
As if it was very interesting.
And he spoke as if something had just occurred to him.
“By the way, Your Highness. You’ve changed somehow since I last saw you.”
His muttering, meant to be heard as he stroked his chin, was filled with interest.
Even while despising me so much, if something seemed interesting, he would poke at it first—that was just like him.
“Changed? What does hyung-nim even know about me?”
When I snorted playfully, he readily nodded.
“That’s true.”
He seemed to have just given up on using formal speech.
It’s probably because I’m not getting angry.
‘Anyway, in less than a year I’ll be stripped of succession rights and become a real bug who’s only a prince in title. What’s the point of hearing honorifics?’
Since I know he hates speaking formally to me, it would be good to naturally ease it with this opportunity.
‘It wasn’t proper formal speech to begin with anyway.’
Thinking that, I smiled wickedly.
Staring at me like that, he said calmly:
“If it’s a trap, you’ll die by my hand. Is that okay, Your Highness?”
“I don’t set traps like that, hyung-nim.”
This time he snorted.
I just smiled quietly at that, then said casually:
“Ah, I’m thinking of hanging out intensely with some half-demons after the meeting. What about hyung-nim… wait outside?”
“…?”
His eyes twitched.
And he looked seriously into my eyes.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
