Chapter 09
After separating from Annabella and returning, a strange smile lingered on Xabier’s lips.
She kept avoiding his gaze, saying she didn’t have the “color of the royal family”…
It felt like she was hiding something, but it didn’t matter since there was still plenty of time.
Xabier, who did not know how the palace servants looked at him, suddenly stopped and looked at his own hand.
Something is strange.
From head to toe, a warm energy rushed through him, but there was a strange sense of discomfort.
What is this unfamiliar but pleasant feeling?
While tilting his head, the moment he looked up again, he saw a very familiar face.
The Second Prince, with tear-filled eyes without realizing it, ran toward him.
‘Could it be possession?’
Barret Toston, the Second Prince’s secretary and the second administrator of Rabonne Palace, thought that while looking at Xabier.
Didn’t they say they brought a skilled medium to the Temble Ducal House territory?
Ah, but wasn’t he later exposed as a fraud and chased away?
He should probably go to the Holy Nation and get holy water.
“Are you alright, Barret? Are you hurt anywhere? Does your throat hurt? Can I take a look?”
No matter how urgent it was, cold water probably wouldn’t help.
The person he served kindly checked his body, but Barret only felt uncomfortable. Except for a little stiffness in his neck, he was fine. It seemed like he was about to scold him again for reading too much and causing neck pain.
“…It’s very cleanly attached.”
Barret, who was being touched by Xabier and swaying helplessly, became serious again. It sounded like he was checking whether Barret’s head had been separated.
His tear-filled voice proved this was not a joke.
Did he have a scary dream?
He had been strange since morning. The Second Prince, who ran out in his sleepwear, returned slowly and immediately looked like he was about to cry when he saw Barret’s face. Then he hugged Barret tightly with trembling hands. When asked why, where he had been, the answer was “sorry, I missed you so much.”
Yesterday, when I requested an audience, he didn’t even meet me, saying it was a servant’s dog’s birthday party?
But Barret’s condition really seemed serious.
The servants around them looked at each other strangely as Xabier refused to leave Barret’s side. What kind of rumors would spread between the Second Prince, who rejected a prince consort, and his close aide?
Barret closed his eyes tightly. It was terrifying to even think about.
Ah, this is not the time.
Today, he planned to have a proper conversation no matter what excuses came up. The Second Prince rarely did anything except play with young servant children, lie in the garden reading books, or suddenly play the viol. So his time was always hard to get.
Barret had prepared thoroughly to talk with Xabier. He even searched for listening artifacts or spies. And he found a sound-recording artifact under Xabier’s bed.
Looking at the small orb-like artifact, Barret thought Xabier might already know about it. After thinking, he decided to stop it for three days.
The people on Declen’s side, who likely installed it, would wonder why it stopped and what happened during that gap.
Let them suffer a bit.
He couldn’t openly ask about it. That would mean admitting he installed it secretly.
Anyway, Xabier didn’t seem like he was trying to doubt or defeat his older brother. Barret hoped that brother would feel some pressure.
Since “that incident,” Barret had done everything possible to bother Declen.
Declen always had a gentle smile and a soft attitude that made people lower their guard. But Barret wasn’t fooled. Sometimes, there was a beast-like gaze—like he could bite anyone beside him at any time. That was why Barret wanted Xabier to never fully trust him.
Today, at least I will get him to agree to study imperial politics.
Xabier would try to avoid it, but Barret was determined not to let him escape like yesterday.
But in that moment, Xabier suddenly ran out like the wind. Even knowing he was good at swordsmanship, Barret never imagined he could run that fast.
Ah, Second Prince… just how much are you hiding?
A servant approached Barret.
“Is something wrong with His Highness?”
“I don’t know. Did anyone follow him?”
“He disappeared like a shadow…”
“He left in sleepwear. He’ll come back soon.”
“Sleepwear?”
The servant gave him a look as if asking what he was doing. But how could he catch someone that fast? Barret sighed deeply, accepting a cup of tea the servant brought.
Eventually, Barret gave up and seated Xabier on the sofa.
“At least drink some tea and calm down.”
“What year is it?”
“Year 875 of the Barlem Calendar.”
Barret answered carefully. No matter how he thought about it, he seemed to be the one being overwhelmed, but Xabier’s eyes were filled with unreadable emotions.
What was more strange was that there was guilt in those emotions.
Was he really that sorry for lying yesterday?
No… those feelings seemed much deeper.
“Do you know Sion Perid?”
It was a familiar name. Barret let out a low sound of recognition.
“The new knight of the Temble Ducal House knight order? Lady Lydia said he was quite capable.”
Lydia was the commander of the Oried Knight Order under the Temble Ducal House.
She had recently praised a new recruit, saying he was promising.
“She even said if he wasn’t from a conquered nation, she would train him as a deputy and send him to the northern knights.”
It was rare for Lydia to praise subordinates, so Barret remembered it well.
“I’d like to meet Sion Perid.”
“I can arrange it, but why? How do you know him?”
Barret wondered. How did the Second Prince even know a rookie knight?
But Xabier only shrugged.
“Just. Don’t I need a knight order now?”
“…What?”
Barret made a dumb sound.
“Are you serious?”
Princes were not allowed to form private knight orders. Of course, there was the Eastern Knight Order guarding Rabonne Palace and personal guards. But forming a private knight order meant starting a conflict.
The Etharinta Empire followed primogeniture, but under certain conditions, other princes could still compete for the throne.
The legitimacy of the dragon bloodline and public support.
And Xabier had both.
