#28
If that was the case, then that very astuteness would be both a reason to be wary of him and a reason to trust him.
If he was someone who used his own astuteness as a weapon rather than curses, honestly, wouldn’t he be quite useful?
Skyle put all emotions aside and raised the Prince’s usefulness by another level.
Though the Prince’s usefulness was already positioned at the highest level with just his nullification ability.
That’s when it happened.
“Huh, Your Highness Theodore? Why does your face look like that?”
“What? What’s wrong?”
Seeing the Crown Prince’s face that came out belatedly, Sercil and Marcus asked in surprise.
And rightly so, because his expression was very strange.
As if he had seen some alien creature.
“Did something happen inside?”
Skyle asked emotionlessly.
Theodore hesitated as if he had discovered them belatedly—Skyle’s eyes narrowed slightly—then opened his mouth.
“It’s the first time I’ve seen a human refer to himself as an object.”
“…Excuse me?”
“Did he receive shadow training somewhere?”
Nobles’ shadows were raised as consumables.
The only thing one could naturally associate with the word “object” was something like that.
But the Prince had been a Prince since birth.
“Who would raise a Prince as a shadow…”
Skyle stopped mid-reply.
If it were possible, then it would be…
At that moment, one word came to everyone’s minds.
‘Eris.’
A brief silence flowed.
So, it wasn’t just abuse?
“…I’m feeling a bit nauseous.”
Marcus muttered.
* * *
When was it?
It must have been about a year after I possessed this body.
Back then, I thought I had somewhat adapted to this world’s atmosphere and my situation.
Unlike the acrid air I had breathed for over twenty years in my previous life, this air was clear but strangely suffocating like back then.
The water, food, and fragrances of this place that were clearly pure but kept making my stomach churn…
And even the situation surrounding Prince Ersen.
Though it seemed far from the situation I wanted in many ways, I thought that since I had adapted, I just needed to do better from now on.
‘It was all a delusion.’
The original story’s events had already progressed quite a bit during that one year.
Not only had I moved hastily and led those events in a worse direction for the protagonists, but I also failed to maintain my own reputation.
Perhaps it was because I was acting.
Yes, how foolishly. This is reality. Who would think sincerely of someone who doesn’t approach them sincerely?
‘It was self-consolation.’
I knew that such hollow thoughts didn’t suit my situation.
Even if I had approached them as myself without acting, I already vaguely knew back then that their reactions wouldn’t have been different.
But I had to think that way.
If I couldn’t even reflect, only a worse future would be waiting.
So I started reflecting, and decided to do it thoroughly if I was going to do it.
“May I go to the library?”
If it were like before when I was acting, I would have just gone without asking.
But now I knew that asking permission for even trivial actions was actually less suspicious.
So after pondering who to ask, I chose him.
“Is there a book you’re looking for?”
Archduke Skyle smiled kindly with his usual angelic and genial appearance.
He didn’t immediately give permission, but he didn’t just smile and pass by like Marcus hyung, nor did he threaten to uncover my intentions like Crown Prince Theodore.
I swallowed my saliva and carefully opened my mouth to answer the person I relied on and liked most.
“I, I want to study…”
I don’t know why those words were so difficult.
Was I embarrassed? Or did it feel like I was saying something I shouldn’t?
It might have been both, or maybe I was just scared.
It felt like kicks would come flying from somewhere at any moment. Just like what the family who disowned me in my previous life did to me when I said exactly the same words.
But he didn’t scold me, and no kicks came flying.
He smiled quietly while observing me with cold eyes, then turned around cleanly.
And said.
“I’ll guide you.”
By then, I could at least understand that those words meant ‘read only the books I take out for you in the place I guide you to, then come out immediately.’
But regardless of his true intentions, it didn’t matter.
He was so warm that as I followed behind him, I had to swallow something that kept rising in my throat several times.
So warm…
“The basics of learning are observation and memorization. Observe everything you see in detail, and whether you understand it or not, memorize it first.”
“W-wait a moment. You’re speaking too fast.”
“…Do you really need to… Ha, never mind. Do as you please.”
I could see how he thought of me.
Whether he thought I was pretending not to know while knowing, or that I was scheming to observe him or keep myself tied to his side.
In any case, I knew it wasn’t in a good direction.
But the words he let slip, not a single one was carelessly spoken.
Even while thinking I was toying with him…
Maybe he acted that way to not give his enemy any leverage. No, he definitely did.
Still, I really liked that.
Though I struggled to maintain moist eyes while acting, I was originally someone who didn’t cry easily.
But strangely, when I was with him, I would often feel like crying out of nowhere.
Since I couldn’t dare attach the word “love” to that feeling, I convinced myself several times that it was “admiration.”
Ah, but.
In the end, it was love.
The love of a delusional fool who didn’t know their place.
…The sound is fading away.
“…”
When I opened my eyes, an antique ceiling greeted me.
In that old memory, the voice of the person who had planted knowledge in me still remained in my ears.
Though it didn’t sound like it was coming from a dream, I felt like I was hearing his voice.
The feeling of wanting to cry like back then…
“Are you awake, Your Highness?”
My eyelids twitched.
‘Marcus hyung?’
I didn’t sense his presence.
‘Ah, right, hyung’s unique ability was stealth.’
Though I don’t know why he was using that ability right beside me while I slept.
As soon as I realized his presence, I blinked several times and shook off the remnants of the dream.
…Perhaps because it was a feeling I had once desperately torn away.
Even though it was a memory that left very deep traces in my heart, it wasn’t that difficult.
“Hyung-nim.”
Pretending to be still drowsy, I called Marcus hyung in a drawn-out manner.
The gaze that had been observing me inconspicuously narrowed slightly.
He naturally approached slowly, then sat on the edge of the bed where I was lying.
“What?”
A calmer voice than expected came back, so I glanced at him.
Since he was sitting beside my legs, I could see his mysterious face, shadowed by the bed curtains, from the front.
“Am I imprisoned by any chance?”
“What nonsense, Your Highness.”
“No, I thought I’d wake up in my palace when I came to…”
Strength was slowly starting to return.
I slowly sat up my drooping body. Then I sat casually, covering my bare feet with both hands, and grinned as if showing off.
“But I woke up here. So I wondered if this was my prison.”
Marcus hyung, who had been sitting leaning against the bed post, smiled while raising one corner of his mouth.
And while staring intently at my face, he answered in a low voice.
“Really now. Why would Your Highness go to prison? Did you do something prison-worthy?”
“Hmm.”
When I obviously rolled my eyes to avoid answering, he narrowed his eyes and hardened his expression.
I grinned as if it was a joke.
“No way. If I had, my heart would have gone boom, right?”
“…Your Highness…”
“Yeah?”
“…Never mind. The contract with Theodore is a secret, so don’t go around talking about it so openly.”
“Ah, is that why you were waiting for me to wake up, hyung?”
“As expected, you catch on quickly.”
Hyung answered with a face that somehow seemed to say otherwise. I tilted my head, then smiled slightly before nodding.
“If that’s what you want, gladly.”
Then suddenly, he asked.
“But Your Highness.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“In my memory, Consort Eris didn’t have that kind of speech pattern.”
“Huh? Really?”
When I tilted my head and smiled suspiciously, Marcus made a strange expression.
He continued.
“Among the half-demons, there are some people who remember that woman. There are also humans who left records.”
“And?”
“…As expected, you knew. Well, anyway. If you didn’t copy that human’s speech pattern, where did you learn that unpleasant way of speaking?”
That was a question that also included the fact that Ersen hadn’t been like this when he occasionally encountered him before I possessed this body.
I blinked, then let out a subtle laugh.
“Oh, is my speech pattern unpleasant, hyung? That’s disappointing.”
“Don’t joke around. That’s definitely not how palace people talk.”
“Come on, hyung. Since when have you been so interested in me?”
“It’s not like it would be strange now.”
True, while handling the High Priest matter together this time, we had become more intimate than before, at least on the surface.
He had deliberately acted that way.
While the Archduke was in the picture of me approaching more, Marcus hyung wasn’t like that.
He had to show a more relaxed appearance than before to monitor me.
So as he said, such questions weren’t entirely out of place.
“That’s true…”
I unconsciously managed my expression while recalling before my regression.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
