Chapter 4
Chapter 4
“Nothing was wrong, so go out.”
“I saw the Fourth Prince being carried away by a knight. To say that’s ‘nothing’ is…….”
“When the Fourth Prince was being carried out, where were you bastards, and what were you doing?”
“…….”
At my words, they became mute as if they had swallowed honey.
They lowered their heads deeply, as if they couldn’t bring themselves to find anything to say, and I gestured for them to leave.
“This is a matter between me and the Fourth Prince. It’s not something you lot should meddle in. Now get out.”
I thought that much would be enough for them to understand. But the knight at the very front seemed unable to contain his emotions; he snapped his head up and tried to bark something out, only for the one beside him to discreetly grab his arm.
“…….”
I turned my head away, as if the ridiculous play unfolding before my eyes wasn’t even worth watching. You should be grateful I was the one who possessed him. If I were the real Leios, your heads would’ve already rolled.
They left the room with a brief salute, and I approached Parsi, who still hadn’t fully come to her senses.
“Your injuries?”
“I, I’m fine, but Your Highness…….”
“I’m not hurt either.”
When I raised both arms and spoke as if to show I was perfectly fine, Parsi let out a small, relieved smile. But soon, worry settled back onto her face.
“…Your Highness, this may be an impertinent thing to say.”
“Impertinent words are things you don’t say. I’ll pretend I didn’t hear it.”
At my words, Parsi lowered her head deeply with an apologetic expression.
Would it be okay?
I didn’t know either, damn it.
All kinds of thoughts surfaced in my head and clawed at my brain.
“Hoo.”
I threw myself onto the plush sofa and gestured to Parsi. She cautiously leaned against me and entrusted her slender body to mine.
“…You seem to have changed a bit, Your Highness.”
“I know.”
The change she was talking about and the change I felt were probably different things.
I tightened the arm wrapped around her waist, feeling the warm body heat coming from my left side.
Her voluptuous figure pressed against me without any filter. The trembling in my hands subsided, and my ragged breathing returned to normal.
…What the hell did I just do?
Ignoring the throbbing pain in my head, I closed my eyes. Then I organized the impact that what had just happened would have on what was to come, and arrived at a single conclusion.
I was fucked.
It wasn’t just tangled—it was hopelessly knotted. In the original work, whenever Leios was in the imperial palace, he merely put on the act of a bully who was strong against the weak and weak against the strong.
To those beneath him, he was a tyrant who committed atrocities at the whim of his mood, but to fellow princes and high-ranking nobles who posed a threat to him, he bowed his head and held his breath, afraid even of accidentally meeting their eyes.
That was why he survived, and that was why he succeeded.
“Am I lucky that I’m not the protagonist?”
Mimicking Leios’s self-mocking tone, I lifted my head and stared straight ahead.
[Status Window]
Name- Leios von Ribera
Race- Human
Religion- None
Titles
-Third Prince of the Ribera Empire
-Cursed Bastard
-Child of a Prostitute
Martial Arts
-Sword Expert (Intermediate / Inactive)
-4 Classes (Master / Inactive)
Skills
-Eye of Truth (A / Inactive)
-Super Recovery (A / Inactive)
*You are afflicted with the Curse of the Veil.
The status window that had manifested when I nearly died at the hands of August was still hovering before my eyes.
To put it simply, it was a status window so bare it was almost laughable.
There were no basic stats like strength or intelligence listed, and there wasn’t even any notable proficiency or supplementary explanation.
And for some reason, every single item under martial arts and skills was inactive. Judging from the few clues available, it was probably because of that Curse of the Veil written on the last line.
“Ah.”
A memory flashed through my mind like lightning. Until he left the imperial palace, Leios hadn’t spent his time meaninglessly.
Rather, he had driven himself harder than any of the other princes. But since there was no one who would teach him anything, he had no choice but to achieve everything through self-study.
He secretly learned swordsmanship by stealing glances at the knights while they trained, and secretly learned magic from the books in the archive.
Perhaps it was because he had talent, but he achieved no small amount.
The current emperor was known to be the strongest among all emperors in history. His firstborn, the First Prince, inherited that blood most strongly, possessed tremendous potential from a young age, and was able to grow in a way similar to the emperor.
But Leios, through his efforts alone, reached a realm that even surpassed that.
It was an achievement no royal in history had ever attained, but a stone that juts out is bound to be struck down.
In a situation where he was already being oppressed, it was impossible to even imagine what kind of checks and restraints would come if he stood out.
Because of that, Leios even took the disastrous step of wearing a cursed artifact himself to hide his power.
“This was it.”
A silver ring with no pattern whatsoever was fitted onto the ring finger of my left hand.
Named after the curse placed upon it, it was an artifact called ‘Veil’.
This relic, passed down since ancient times, possessed a curse capable of sealing mana, to the extent that it could even deceive the eyes of the powerhouses within the imperial palace.
It was an item he no longer used from the midpoint onward, after he had built his own faction, but there had been a scene in the side story volume where he endured excruciating pain while stroking the ring, so I was able to remember it.
Could I walk that same path?
For now, I had to survive in the imperial palace somehow.
I’d left August half-dead, so one way or another, a disturbance was bound to break out.
Starting from that, all kinds of trials and hardships would come crashing down on me. I wouldn’t be able to resolve things like this every single time.
If that was the case, then openly revealing my existence might not be such a bad option either. If I were attacked recklessly while under the spotlight, no one would know what kind of repercussions it might provoke.
“Phew…….”
Perhaps she had been completely drained from what had just happened, because Parsi was nestled in my arms, having fallen into a light sleep. Her slightly parted lips letting out soft breaths looked so cute that I wanted to let her stay like that a little longer, but if everything in the world went the way one wished, I wouldn’t have ended up inside a novel in the first place.
Knock knock.
A light knock echoed through the door.
“…Is this for real this time.”
I gently shook Parsi’s body, which had been in a light doze, to wake her. Then I stood up and straightened my disheveled appearance.
It seemed the first trial had arrived faster than I expected.
“Nars Order of Knights, Damian, greets the Third Prince Your Highness.”
Unlike the extras who had come to my room earlier, the owner of the knock was a supporting character with an actual role.
Damian of the Crimson Flame.
Glossy red hair flowed over his elegant formal uniform, asserting its presence.
The man, possessing a handsome appearance no less refined than Leios’s, bowed respectfully before me.
“The First Prince Your Highness has summoned you.”
Using the word ‘summon’ between fellow princes, how bold.
That alone was proof that the gap between him and me was unmistakable. I gave no response to those words and simply stared at Damian in silence.
‘He really is handsome.’
Well over one hundred eighty centimeters tall, with long, model-like limbs.
Even beneath the uniform, his body carried a firm, well-balanced build. He was exactly the kind of delicate-looking type women would like.
Damian originally served as the First Prince’s hands and feet. Though calling it that kindly, in harsher terms, he was basically a lackey.
Whether his weakness had been caught or not, no matter how dirty the orders were, he carried them out without complaint. At the very least, the air about him wasn’t something that could be called loyalty.
Anyway, a guy who’d had no presence suddenly skyrocketed in popularity in the mid-arc.
To begin with, his description—red hair, red eyes, and a handsome appearance—had already earned him some support. Then a fan illustration of absurdly high quality came out and completely captivated women’s hearts, and after that, he gained the support of countless female fans.
An absurd situation unfolded where a character with no screen time grew more popular by the day. I suggested adding him slightly into the story, and the author accepted it.
As a result, sales increased by one fifth, and it became another opportunity to realize just how important a character’s charm was.
“…Your Highness?”
As I was briefly lost in thought from the strange feeling of encountering a recognizable character for the first time, he called out to me with a puzzled expression.
“I heard it. My elder brother is looking for me.”
“He is waiting at the palace.”
As I replied with a light, fake cough, Damian bowed his head a little deeper and spoke to me. His tone was polite, but the force hidden within carried the color of coercion.
“I’d love to go right away, but unfortunately, I was injured in the commotion earlier.”
As I casually bantered and expressed my reluctance to go, Damian slipped a hand into his chest as if he’d expected this.
“This is a potion bestowed by the First Prince Your Highness.”
“…….”
So he’d even prepared for me to try and run, huh. If I backed off any further here, there was no telling what kind of backlash would come later.
Wasn’t it said that it’s better to take the beating first? No matter how bad it got, he wouldn’t kill me.
“Parsi, tidy up the room until I return.”
“…Understood.”
At my words, she bowed her head deeply. I draped the outer coat of the imperial ceremonial uniform that had been hanging on a chair over my shoulders, then gestured toward the exit with my chin at Damian.
“Let’s go.”
With an unconcerned expression, I followed behind Damian.
“…Wow.”
Stepping out of my palace and entering the First Prince’s palace made admiration spill out on its own. My palace had parts more splendid than buildings I’d seen in Europe, but compared to the First Prince’s palace, it was like comparing a thatched hut to a skyscraper.
The path was paved with pure white marble, and antique pillars engraved with geometric patterns one would only see in Europe lined the corridor in a long stretch.
Each decoration was beautiful enough to draw admiration, and they all looked valuable beyond anything one could easily see in a lifetime.
“……?”
As I kept letting out exclamations of awe, Damian looked at me with a slightly flustered expression.
Embarrassed by that, I waved my hand once as if it were nothing and closed my mouth, looking around instead.
The imperial palace’s decorations weren’t the only things worth seeing.
The gardens on both sides of the corridor were piled high with snow. Inside the palace, some kind of measure must have been taken, but the place we were standing now was a corridor completely open on both sides.
Yet, by some kind of magical harmony, not a single snowflake nor even a strand of wind managed to intrude inside.
As I walked on, losing track of time while witnessing a phenomenon I’d never seen in my life, we found ourselves before a massive door before I knew it.
“Your Highness, this is Damian. I have brought the Third Prince Your Highness.”
He carefully knocked on the door.
Creeeak.
The door opened, and guided by Damian, I stepped into the room.
“…….”
The sight that entered my eyes in that instant honestly overwhelmed me.
They said this wasn’t even the First Prince’s chamber, but merely one of the many reception rooms.
But what was this extravagance?
Diamonds of all colors were embedded everywhere, as if they were pebbles scattered along a roadside.
Beside them, dazzling jewels of unknown names asserted their presence, each one radiating an overwhelming splendor that couldn’t be ignored.
And at the center of it all stood someone who was probably only two years older than Leios, yet naturally dominated the space with his atmosphere and presence.
“Leios.”
A soft, beautiful voice called my name.
At that, I shook myself free from the daze imposed by the room’s splendor and looked at the man before me.