Chapter 719: I Have A Name
From his position, Zeke could see that the former Crown Prince’s chest was heaving irregularly, clearly agitated. Zeke was afraid that the sudden change of his vitals could alert the others. He instantly shot up standing and put up both hands in surrender. "Alright, alright, don’t get angry. I don’t need you to answer my question. Just take it as we will never see eye to eye in this lifetime."
He glanced at the clock and saw that not even half of the allocated fifteen minutes had passed, but he clearly could not stay here any longer lest he accidentally angered this person to death. Zeke scratched his head, frustrated and helpless in equal measure.
"I will go soon and give you some piece of mind." Zeke finally got to the point and said the words he had originally prepared. "Don’t worry, this will be the last time we see each other. Are you happy? You will finally get rid of me."
There was a split second when Zeke saw the former Crown Prince’s chest stopped moving – whether it was due to extreme elation or shock or something else, he could not know for certain.
Zeke heaved out a drawn-out sigh. "Now that there’s no one but the two of us, I will be completely honest with you. The Imperial Palace will forever become a cage for me. I know that every time I say something like this, you will always take it as a provocation. But now that we’re in this kind of situation, let me repeat myself once again." The corner of Zeke’s lips stretched into a brazen smile. "From the start, I have never cared about the throne. Even if the royal assasination had not happened, I have long planned a way out for myself. I would fool the Imperial Father to think that I died in an accident and run away from the Capital Planet. I have even bought a dream house for myself."
"Brother..." he said softly. "The throne, the glory and everything else that comes with it – they have always been yours. I have never coveted it even for a second. I know it’s meaningless of me to say this and you may even think that I am a hypocrite, but I just want you to know this."
He fell silent for a few seconds before asking, his voice subdued. "Have you ever thought what our lives would be like if there was no Imperial Father?"
From the start, the enmity between them had taken root due to the King’s instigation. If... If that person did not exist, was it possible for him and the former Crown Prince to become real brothers?
Zeke snorted and shook his head. Forget it. What was the use of thinking about something that would never happen? Perhaps, that was just how destiny worked. Just like how humans were fated to die in the end, the two of them were fated to be enemies the moment Zeke was born in this world.