Those who have worked out probably know this well, but after pushing yourself hard, which part of your body hurts the most when you wake up the next morning?
The answer is your abs.
Because every tiny movement, every single breath, brings pain with it.
Chest and leg workouts are awful too, but the pain the day after your abs have been worked to the absolute limit is truly beyond imagination.
It hurts so much that if you take a deep breath or even cough just a little, you have to clutch your stomach and roll around groaning.
“…Save me.”
If I could have, I would have spent the entire day lying in my quarters, but today was the day I had promised to meet Second Imperial Princess Chloe at the library.
Squeezing out every last bit of strength I had, I staggered toward the library with Amber’s help.
The walk from my quarters to the library was nothing but a series of ordeals.
Even straightening my upper body was difficult, so I had no choice but to walk hunched over like a shrimp, and after walking for only a short while, I had to stop and rest again and again.
‘…Oh my, isn’t that the hostage brought from the south?’
‘He seemed to be doing well, but he must have been tortured… Poor thing.’
I heard the palace attendants passing by whispering as they looked at my pale face and bizarrely stooped gait, but I didn’t even have the energy to make excuses.
Well, bodybuilding is basically forcibly tearing and expanding your muscles, so it is a kind of torture… In fact, weren’t they right?
‘…Does this place not have something like the Geneva Convention? Torturing prisoners…’
Of course, there was no way it did.
But in a world that has smartphones, why is there so much it doesn’t have?
#
Today’s reading meeting was held in the library.
The participants were Second Imperial Princess Chloe and me, Ian, the fake prince.
Today’s book was Frankenstein.
It was the story of Dr. Victor Frankenstein, a man of genius intellect, who gathered together pieces of corpses to create a grotesque living being, only for his life to be ruined in all sorts of ways.
I had already read it once in my previous life, but reading it in this life felt different in its own way.
“…Should I look through it one more time until she gets here?”
I reached out to read it once more before Chloe arrived, but the dreadful muscle pain immediately froze my body, so I gave up.
“Prince Ian, we meet again.”
A moment later, a familiar, gentle voice reached my ears.
When I turned my head, Second Imperial Princess Chloe was standing there with a graceful smile, holding a book in her arms, accompanied by a faint scent of roses.
“Ah, Your Highness… You’ve arriv—ugh!”
Just as I tried to stand and greet her properly, a sharp pain spread through my entire abdomen as I forced it to straighten.
My body flinched reflexively and, still bent like a shrimp, collapsed back into the chair.
“Ghh… haa…”
Without realizing it, my face twisted violently as I swallowed a rough breath.
I clutched my stomach, trying somehow to endure the pain, but the throbbing agony left me no choice but to bite my lip.
At that moment, Chloe’s expression, as she looked at me, turned cold and stiff for an instant.
“……”
The curious and affectionate smile that had been lingering on her lips just moments ago was nowhere to be seen.
A heavy, chilly air pressed down on the corner of the library.
“…Prince Ian.”
Chloe quietly sat down across from me and asked in a low, sunken voice.
“Please tell me honestly. Who did this?”
“…Pardon?”
“Surely no one in this imperial palace has been physically abusing you?”
“Pardon? Ah, abuse? No. It isn’t anything like that.”
“You don’t need to hide it. You are in pain with every breath, and your body is so damaged that you cannot even straighten your back properly in front of me.”
Chloe’s violet eyes gleamed sharply.
“No matter how much you may be a hostage from a defeated nation, you are still royalty. Whoever it may be, to lay a hand so recklessly on the body of one who bears noble blue blood could be regarded as an insult to the imperial family itself. Please tell me what arrogant person reduced you to that state.”
There was something chilling in Chloe’s tone, as if she would immediately find the culprit who had abused me and either feed them poison or hang them by the neck.
I hurriedly waved both hands and explained.
Because if I didn’t clear up this misunderstanding quickly, I felt something bad might happen to the Second Imperial Prince.
“W-Well, His Highness Second Imperial Prince Arthur takes me down underground once every two days and…”
“Brother Arthur does…? My second brother isn’t the sort of person who would…”
“Yes, he takes me down underground and makes me exercise like a madman.”
“Ah.”
“Right now it feels like my stomach is tearing apart every time I breathe. If I cough, I’m on the verge of bursting into tears with it, and walking all the way here was so hard…!”
With a tearful face, I continued as though pouring out my grievances.
“I’ve never been in this much pain in my life. It hurts so, so much…!”
Chloe, who had been quietly listening to my desperate complaints, blinked her round eyes for a moment—
“Pfft…! Ahahahaha!”
Then, as if she could no longer hold it in, she covered her mouth with her book and burst into peals of laughter.
With even tears forming at the corners of her eyes, she laughed aloud for quite some time before barely managing to catch her breath.
All while having no idea how I felt, unable to laugh along because my stomach hurt.
“Ah, haha…! I’m sorry, Prince. I thought some truly awful person had been tormenting or torturing you horribly.”
“…To me, it is honestly dreadful enough to be no different from torture.”
“Hehe, I made a serious misunderstanding. Brother Arthur may very well be making you suffer quite a bit through physical exertion, but he is absolutely not a bad person.”
Having wiped away her laughter, Chloe comforted me kindly as she spoke.
“He may look as ignorant as a brown bear on the outside, but unexpectedly, he has a sensitive side that knows how to be considerate of others. Especially when it comes to the body, he can accurately grasp where a person’s limits are, so he won’t push you so hard that you get injured or broken. You don’t need to worry too much.”
“…Really?”
“Of course. Don’t you feel like your body has become healthier over the past few days?”
“…I do sleep deeply.”
“See! For someone brought here as a hostage to sleep deeply, that wouldn’t be possible if he hadn’t made you exercise like that.”
‘To be honest, I slept deeply from the very first day I was brought here.’
If I had to make an excuse, it was because the imperial bed was genuinely insanely soft, so the moment I lay down, sleep came pouring over me.
It was definitely not because I was weak…
Well, whatever the case, Chloe’s words gave me a strange sense of relief.
At the very least, it meant the Second Imperial Prince had no intention of killing me or crippling me.
“I do not know what you, as a detained hostage from a defeated nation, may think of our imperial family, Prince…”
Chloe gently stroked the cover of the book in her arms and showed me a calm, benevolent smile.
The warm afternoon sunlight streaming through the library window scattered over her silver hair.
“They are all good people.”
“…Pardon?”
“His Imperial Majesty may appear blunt on the outside, like someone without blood or tears, but in truth, he is a deep and warm person. He cherishes the empire and its subjects as though they were his own body. My eldest brother, the Crown Prince, and my second brother Arthur both have different dispositions, but they are both very kind and good people. So you need not be too afraid of life in the imperial palace.”
“That is a relief.”
“And even if that were not the case… you are already acting in a way that has won the hearts of most of the imperial family, aren’t you? It is truly enjoyable to be with you, Prince.”
“Haha, I’m glad you think so. I also enjoy being with you, Your Highness.”
At Chloe’s words, I felt reassured and nodded appropriately.
Well, after directly dealing with them for a few days, the members of the imperial family, though strong in personality and rather unusual, did not seem like baselessly cruel villains.
Just as I began to have the complacent thought that perhaps this place might be more livable than expected—
“But.”
The gentle smile lingering on Chloe’s lips vanished as if it had been a lie.
The warm air of the library froze in an instant.
Chloe stared at me with an expression as cold and emotionless as frost, with not even a single handful of warmth remaining.
The atmosphere changed so bizarrely that it was hard to believe she was the same person who had been laughing brightly just moments ago.
In her empty violet eyes, staring straight at me, clear hatred, contempt, and a thick hostility she did not even intend to hide coiled like a snake.
Chloe parted her red lips and whispered dryly in an icy voice.
“There is exactly one bad person. Be careful of that person.”
“Pardon?”
“Sister Victoria is truly, truly a bad person.”
After finishing her words, Chloe looked at me expressionlessly for a moment, then returned to that clear, innocent face she had been wearing before.