Chapter 29
Today, Elonia had a meal with Artius for the first time.
There was no way Artius would ask to have a meal together first, so Elonia had invited him.
Elonia awkwardly entered the dining hall, but she had worried for nothing.
The lazy tyrant was being pestered by Aaron and greeted Elonia with a startled look.
“Oh, you’re here. Elonia.”
“Yes.”
Elonia answered briefly and sat across from Artius.
Even though it was their first meal together, there was considerable distance because the table was so long and large.
Elonia examined Artius’s appearance.
‘What the hell? Why does he still look like he hasn’t even gotten a bloody nose?’
Elonia was now glowing after resting thoroughly, but Artius still looked haggard in comparison.
Well, he wouldn’t lose his title as the continent’s most handsome man anyway.
“Then, Your Majesty, that matter—”
“Leave for a bit. Do you intend to disturb even this rare mealtime?”
“Just answer this and eat, please.”
What Aaron was talking about was Dolce’s punishment.
The letter from Heilan had arrived a long time ago.
The content was that they would fully entrust Dolce’s punishment to Ravanta.
‘Of course, even Felix must have considered Dolce an eyesore.’
It was Artius who hadn’t done his job, but Aaron looked quite aggrieved as he was the one being scolded for bringing it up again.
Elonia spoke indifferently.
“Don’t mind me and take care of your business.”
“Elonia.”
“I apologize, Princess.”
Aaron’s face brightened.
Aaron thought it was a waste to spend several days’ worth of food expenses for that trash Dolce. Even that was just stale bread on the verge of getting moldy, but even such food waste was too good to put in Dolce’s mouth.
Artius eventually sighed, glanced at Elonia, and carefully asked,
“…Elonia. Is there any punishment you would like to see imposed on Prince Dolce?”
Of course, you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.
Artius hastily added.
Elonia could immediately tell why he was doing that.
It must be because when she was still a baby, that bastard had shown her an execution scene without even asking for her opinion.
Compared to then, he had improved, but it was none of Elonia’s business.
Still, since he had asked, she answered.
“Do as you please. But don’t kill him yet.”
Because if he’s still not dead, I’ll go kill him myself.
She swallowed the rest.
Honestly, she was still afraid of Dolce.
But when she woke up from her sleep, for some reason, Artius had changed, and the voice of unknown identity had told her that the most important thing was herself.
With that change, Elonia felt like she could do anything.
Of course, it was probably just temporary confidence.
At her words to do as he pleased, Artius annoyingly looked at Elonia with eyes asking if it was really okay.
When Elonia didn’t give Artius the slightest bit of attention, Artius finally nodded.
“…I see.”
Artius gestured for Aaron to come closer.
He was trying to whisper so that Elonia wouldn’t hear.
Elonia imagined what kind of punishment Artius would impose.
‘Maybe castration or flogging before killing him.’
No matter what happened, as long as he was alive, it was fine.
Artius whispered into Aaron’s ear.
Despite his efforts, Elonia could hear everything.
“Cut off the useless parts first and throw them into that bastard’s mouth. Sprinkle salt on the wounds and twenty lashes of flogging. Elonia said not to kill him yet, so control it well so he doesn’t die.”
“…I think he’ll die in the process.”
Aaron managed to blurt out, catching his fleeing sense.
Elonia felt the same way.
As expected of people who had crossed swords for 5 years, their minds were in sync only in these matters.
* * *
On the day Artius decided on Dolce’s punishment.
There was a visitor who quietly visited the underground dungeon.
Making footstep sounds, the small child entered the deepest part of the underground dungeon.
As soon as the child slightly lifted the hood and showed his face, the guards opened the door to the room where Dolce was imprisoned.
The child kicked the bloody and sprawled Dolce with his foot, roughly waking him up.
“Urgh!”
“Wake up, Prince Dolce.”
“Y-you bastard…!”
Dolce sputtered and then came to his senses, shouting at the child in a lisping voice.
How dare a mere duke’s son kick the second prince of Heilan!
With Dolce’s current state, he couldn’t be a threat to the child, so the child seemed to act boldly.
The child drew a gentle arc with his unusually red lips and said,
“A message from His Majesty King Felix.”
“…What? My brother?”
“King Felix deeply regrets the unsavory incident Prince Dolce committed against Ravanta’s princess. All decisions regarding Prince Dolce’s punishment will be left to Ravanta’s will. …This is the opinion of His Majesty King Felix.”
“Ha…!”
Dolce couldn’t close his mouth in disbelief.
With his face bruised and distorted, he shouted as if wronged.
“That can’t be. How could my brother do this to me!”
“It’s the truth. Accept it.”
“No, no way! That emperor bastard forced a false confession out of me!”
“My, my. No matter how hateful Ravanta is, the empire is still an empire. Watch your words.”
False confession?
Is there even a truth serum that forces false confessions?
The child almost looked down on Dolce with a disgusted expression.
But there was something he was curious about, so he barely maintained a smiling face.
Since the princess had woken up, the emperor would soon think about this bastard’s punishment, and this stupid prince would be dead by tomorrow.
‘I have to interrogate him before then.’
The child had been at the scene of Dolce’s assault, but he was among those who had rushed over belatedly after noticing the commotion, so he couldn’t clearly know the situation, and there was something that had been bothering him.
The child asked,
“Prince. Was it really Prince Alberich who assaulted you?”
It had been questionable from the beginning.
Dolce’s injuries were definitely from being beaten.
But it was strange that Dolce had crashed into the building and cracked the outer wall.
Lucid Academy was a place that nurtured numerous young talents.
Since they were young and couldn’t control their strength, there were occasionally children who casually destroyed buildings, so the buildings of Lucid Academy were incomparably sturdy and solid beyond what ordinary people could imagine.
Nevertheless, there were still children who sometimes cracked the outer walls of buildings, but it was impossible for Alberich.
‘Prince Alberich doesn’t have that level of skill yet.’
It was true that Alberich was incomparably strong for his age.
That was why everyone at the academy had unanimously said that Alberich had assaulted Dolce.
But in the child’s view, it wasn’t Alberich’s doing.
‘Moreover, if it were him, he would have aimed for the body rather than the face.’
Other than cracking his spine from crashing into the wall, Dolce’s face had been attacked intensely and mercilessly.
Alberich was born a knight, raised as a knight, and would become a knight.
There was no way Alberich would have inflicted such cute and cruel wounds.
At the sudden question, Dolce’s face contorted viciously.
“Ha, why should I answer that to you? You think I’d tell a cheeky brat like you?”
Although Dolce had lost consciousness from the pain, he clearly remembered that the princess had beaten him up at that time.
However, he couldn’t tell the truth.
‘How can I say I was beaten unconscious by a little wench out of embarrassment!’
He couldn’t say it even if his mouth was torn.
That brat already looked down on him so much.
It was less embarrassing to say he had been beaten by Alberich.
As if expecting that, the child raised his eyebrows and began to persuade Dolce.
“You never know. If His Majesty Felix fully grasps the truth, he might change his mind and spare you, Prince.”
“…!”
The child smiled prettily with his red lips.
As the child expected, Dolce’s thoughts changed when he saw hope.
‘I might be able to live.’
Dolce knew the situation he was in.
If his death was already decided, he had no intention of letting that impudent bastard know a single thing.
But if he could only live…
“Really, will he really let me live?”
“Of course. If you tell the truth, His Majesty Felix will surely change his mind.”
Gulp.
Dolce swallowed.
Right, living comes first.
Isn’t it only possible to take revenge on that impudent princess wench after surviving?
“The one who attacked me…”
“The one who attacked you?”
“The one who attacked me… was the princess.”
Dolce gritted his teeth as if humiliated.
At that, the child asked with an interested face,
“Oh? Is that so?”
“…Yes, I clearly remember! That little wench dared to kick me!”
“As I thought.”
The child lifted the corners of his mouth, as if his prediction was correct.
“Hurry and tell my brother! The one who beat me was the princess! And tell him to quickly get me out of this prison!”
Dolce shouted, grasping at the thread of hope.
But what he heard was the child’s snicker flowing out.
“That’s not possible.”
“…What?”
Dolce doubted his ears.
What did that little brat just say to him?
And did he dare mock him?
The child didn’t even try to hide his mocking face and brightly reported,
“I said it’s not possible. There’s no way His Majesty Felix would take a risk for the mere Prince Dolce.”
“What do you mean…”
“Rather, telling you in advance that he won’t save you is His Majesty Felix’s last consideration for you, Prince.”
“Consideration, what kind of— Ugh.”
The child suddenly approached and grabbed Dolce’s hair. Dolce could only stupidly take the sudden and rough attack.
The child giggled and whispered sweetly into Dolce’s ear with his red eyes shining as much as his lips.
“It means there’s no one to help you, so abandon hope early and obediently return to God’s side.”
“Urgh…!”
The child roughly threw Dolce’s hair as if throwing away trash.
With his beautiful face slightly revealed as his hood was removed, the child smiled like an angel.
“Your trashy life was still a life, so you’ve worked hard living until now, Prince Dolce. You won’t be able to sleep peacefully, so I can’t wish for your happiness in the afterlife. Then, may the blessing of the Calamity God be with you.”
The child left the dungeon feeling refreshed.
Through the bars, Dolce shouted and made a scene.
“Hey, wait! You impudent, how dare you! Stop! I’m a prince of Heilan!”
Dolce’s struggling didn’t last long. It was because the knights had knocked him unconscious by hitting his neck.
The child sent a gaze of sincere contempt through the bars, but that gaze didn’t linger for long.
The further he got from Dolce, the child’s face became dry again.
‘It’s a bit unexpected that the owner of that trace was the princess.’
Moreover, for the princess to be a mage skilled enough to damage Lucid Academy’s building at that age and even deceive the professors’ eyes.
Lucious recalled the situation at that time.
The traces of magic remained very faintly as if someone had deliberately erased them.
It wasn’t a big problem.
Just that much was enough to trick ordinary people.
But while the professors’ eyes could be deceived, the child’s eyes could not be.
Divine power and mana were opposite existences.
The child was particularly sensitive to that presence.
At first, he had snickered because the hypothesis he had established was too absurd, but when it was revealed to be true, he couldn’t be more surprised.
But that emotion didn’t last long.
‘Well, my curiosity is resolved. It wasn’t particularly useful information though.’
The fact that Ravanta’s princess might become a great mage in the future was information that would gradually become known after the princess entered Lucid Academy.
As he was about to casually brush it off, the child recalled Felix’s monologue.
“There’s not even a decent thing to use as a sacrifice.”
The child stopped walking.
Should he report it?
That he had found a usable sacrifice in Ravanta?
‘…But my mission isn’t to find a sacrifice.’
But not reporting it was also not an option since Heilan was currently desperate to find a sacrifice.
As the child was racking his brain, that’s when it happened.
“Sir Lucious. Why are you stopped there?”
“…Ah, Brother.”
On the opposite side of the underground dungeon corridor, a man wearing a hood just like the child-Lucious appeared.
Lucious hastily fixed his posture.
“It’s nothing. I was just momentarily…”
“Momentarily?”
The man’s eyes shone brightly, and Lucious explained with a smiling face.
“…Momentarily, I wanted to hear the voice of God.”
“God, huh.”
The man stared intently at Lucious’s red eyes.
Then he smiled benevolently.
“As expected of you, Sir Lucious. Come, let’s go. I have a carriage waiting.”
“Thank you, Brother.”
Lucious inwardly sighed in relief.
‘Right, if I hastily report without certainty, I’ll lose trust instead.’
Gambling wasn’t Lucious’s hobby.
Moreover, if Cheron, who had left first, knew he was doing this, she would be disappointed.
That was the last thing Lucious wanted.
Lucious leisurely left the underground dungeon with the man following him.