Chapter 32
“Your Highness! It’s nothing. I’m sorry for the disturbance.”
A guard who knew the crown prince’s volatile temper hid Khalid behind him and apologized.
He didn’t know whose son this nobleman insisting on seeing His Majesty was, but if he annoyed the crown prince, it was clear that the guards who were squabbling with him would share the consequences.
“Jeremy! It’s me.”
But Khalid — whom the guard had tried so hard to hide — insolently and cheerfully called the crown prince’s name, and the guard’s effort went for nothing.
‘We’re done for. We’re all dead.’
The faces of the escort knights who had been watching nervously but with interest paled at this point. The guards, needless to say, were even whiter.
Would His Highness the famously foul-tempered Crown Prince tear this mad young nobleman apart, hang him, or what? How badly would the blow bounce back onto them? While the guard desperately tried to calculate the damage, the crown prince reached his hand out from the carriage.
Were they going to cut him down themselves? But Khalid quickly grabbed his hand and waved it around.
“It’s been a while.”
“It has indeed. Please — let this man through.”
The crown prince forced a twisted smile and ordered the guards.
“Y-yes? A-acknowledged!” the guard stammered, bowing hastily.
The crown prince said that and, without inviting Khalid into the carriage, strode off ahead.
“You used to be cuter.”
Khalid watched the crown prince’s carriage recede with a wistful look.
‘Did I make a huge mistake?’
The guards could not even muster the nerve to ask who Khalid really was; bewildered, they had no choice but to let him pass.
“Who on earth was that just now?” Shirei asked. The crown prince responded indifferently.
“My teacher?”
“…Excuse me?”
If the man deserved to be called the crown prince’s teacher, Shirei would naturally have known him. But the man was a stranger, and he didn’t look much older than the crown prince.
“He’s someone like that.”
Jeremy answered irritably when Shirei pressed further.
‘Again with this crap.’
Shirei kept his questions to himself; it was clear Jeremy would get annoyed if pushed.
There was more to why the crown prince, Jeremy, hadn’t let Khalid into the carriage than a personal dislike: he’d been busy lately conspiring with his favorite, Shirei, inside the carriage.
“By the way, I heard a rumor — the woman you’re going to marry. They say she’s pretty.”
“Oh. You mean Dalia.”
“Yes. I mean, she’s only from a viscount family — a country girl from the southern lands. How beautiful could she possibly be?”
Though he said that, Jeremy was clearly intrigued; he’d even obtained a portrait of Dalia.
Shirei watched him flap the portrait around and, inwardly cursing, outwardly smiled ingratiatingly and chimed in.
“Of course. Who says someone from the countryside who comes to the capital can’t rival the noble ladies? I think you’ll appreciate a different kind of charm.”
“Hmm. When can it be arranged?”
“With the various procedures, it’ll be difficult to arrange even within this year. For now, other women—”
At Shirei’s answer, Jeremy’s previously relaxed mask dropped; he glared at Shirei as if he’d eat him.
“What? That late?”
“Sorry. I need to make sure there are no problems… but the Viscount Bourbon keeps postponing the wedding for reasons I can’t understand.”
“What reasons? It’s your marriage — I can pull some strings.”
“The viscount said first that his daughter was ill and wanted to delay; then he said he had business on the estate. Lately he’s been asking for money first, making excuse after excuse. It seems like lies. Something’s wrong.”
Jeremy clicked his tongue in displeasure.
Even as crown prince, there was no reason a respectable noble family would refuse to marry off their daughter; if a little time was needed, what could he do? He couldn’t force them, and if the postponement was within reason, there was nothing to be done.
“No matter where she runs in this country — it’s a small pond. Still, if it’s delayed too long tell me. I’ll see what I can do.”
“Yes. Thank you for your concern.”
“Besides, don’t you have other options? Are you going to cling to just that one? Seems too complacent.”
“……”
Shirei had been about to say that there was an alternative, but Jeremy had interrupted. He swallowed his anger in private and smiled serenely in front of the prince.
“Yes, I’ll prepare a selection of suitable women soon.”
“I know my tastes are particular, so I won’t say more.”
“Of course. Pure blood might be difficult right now, but I’ll prepare a gentle, well-bred lady with some noble blood.”
“Hmm. Don’t bother telling me — Shirei, handle it.”
Jeremy relaxed again, leaning his back against the carriage and gazing out the window.
Watching his side profile, humming a little tune, Shirei fought the rising nausea. He was trash, but the crown prince was worse.
‘I don’t care if the country falls apart, so long as I can use it while it lasts.’
“Oh, and Shirei — prepare some cash I can spend right away.”
“…Are we short on budget?”
Jeremy made an affronted face at Shirei’s question.
“What are you saying? I donated all the funds allocated to me. Publicly, through righteous procedures. Should I be dipping into the treasury for my private use? I have you.”
In other words: don’t make excuses, just give me the allowance.
Shirei nodded with a smile at Jeremy, who shamelessly demanded money, but mouthed a hundred curses inwardly.
‘Bastard.’
“What did you just say?”
“Nothing. It’s an honor that Your Highness will use it meaningfully.”
“Ha. Thanks, I guess.”
Thanks to Jeremy’s clearance, Khalid passed through the castle gate without further fuss and, after a few more skirmishes, stood in front of the throne hall.
A heavy door opened before him, and the frail king came out to personally greet him.
“Welcome, Lord Khalid.”
“Very well. You needn’t stand on ceremony.”
Being back in this space made Khalid slip unconsciously into the old palace way of speaking; the king looked at him with trembling eyes.
The sleek, humanized scales of the dragon were unchanged from the last time the king had seen him over a decade ago — the same as when the king had faced him in his own boyhood.
Khalid, seated before the king’s audience seat, tapped the thick armrest with his fingers. Seeing his discomfort, the king swallowed.
“If you came to urge us to open the ‘Gate,’ we’re doing our utmost through the temple. But the priests with sacred power are nearly extinct; even if we squeeze all the power out of them, I can’t promise when it will be enough—”
“That’s not why I came.”
“Then forgive me — what brings you all the way here? The monsters you requested before were, thanks to you, fully exterminated as far as we could confirm.”
“Information about where I live has leaked out.”
Contrary to what was widely believed, his bases changed from time to time, and there were several. But the masked assailant who attacked him on the night he first met Dalia had come knowing exactly where he was resting.
And the sword that had been prepared precisely to exploit his weakness. If Dalia hadn’t rescued him, he would have been taken completely by surprise and might have been killed.
“The only ones who could have told where I stay are here — the Estair royal household.”
Khalid’s voice dropped low as he pressed the king. He watched the king’s ashen, panicked face, waiting for an answer.
He had moved his residence, but for Dalia’s safety he had to resolve this before anything else.
“We will thoroughly interrogate those involved. We’ll put in all-new staff, of course—”
“Fine. But even if you do that, how can you guarantee the information won’t leak again?”
The thought of harm reaching her made his head throb.
“So you intend to hide yourself completely? But by covenant, Lord Khalid is to remain bound to the royal house, is he not?”
“Yes. That ‘Gate’ was a condition. Tell me honestly: in your generation — no, in Jeremy’s generation — do you think that Gate can be opened?”
“……”
The king made a choking sound and fell silent. With the sacred power — the source to open the Gate — seemingly near exhaustion in this land, there was no telling when it would be completed.
“Very well. I’ve thought of a method. On the way from the main gate here, many humans blocked my path. Now, the ones who would threaten me and those around me are humans; wouldn’t it be most efficient to counter humans with humans?”
With his ability, he could have shifted space straight to the royal audience at the first hint of trouble. But seeing countless humans repeatedly step in his way had inspired an idea.
“Eh? But what meaning would our protection have for you and your demi-humans?”
Even though Khalid had been attacked, he didn’t truly expect to be killed by human hands. At worst he would have suffered injuries that required a brief recovery. Khalid shook his head at the king’s question.
“What you must protect are not me or the demi-humans, but intact humans.”
“Excuse me?”
