“By the way, Your Highness the Prince, today marks one month since you arrived in the Empire.”
“Has it already been that long?”
At Amber’s words, I checked the calendar. It was true.
“A whole month has already passed. Time really does fly.”
The first month at the Imperial Palace of the Empire had passed like an arrow.
I had thought I would live on thin ice, dragged here as a hostage from an enemy nation, holding my breath and never knowing when my head might be severed, but my daily life flowed surprisingly regularly and peacefully.
I had even developed my own schedule for meeting with the Imperial family members.
First Princess Victoria would come by every Monday around the end of lunch, drink tea and eat dessert with me, and chat for a couple of hours before leaving.
With Second Princess Chloe, I would meet at the library on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, read and discuss books until lunch, and receive dance lessons in the afternoon.
(I didn’t know if the two siblings had reached an agreement without my knowing, but for the time being, Chloe had decided to take charge of it.)
With the Emperor, every Wednesday afternoon, I would drink tea in a private greenhouse and converse on all manner of topics.
These days we mainly talked about problems regarding the Empire’s administration, and since in my past life I had been a public administration student who had even considered going to graduate school for it, it wasn’t particularly difficult.
Meeting these three was surprisingly not that difficult.
Because as long as I was moderately polite and spoke honestly, there were no major problems.
However, there was someone else with whom I spent far and away the longest time.
“Sit deeper! Push with your hips! Are you still resisting the pain? I told you to enjoy that feeling!”
“Kuaaack! Your Highness, I really can’t, hah!”
“No weak talk! One more! The Ian Sterling I know is a strong man!”
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evening, the Second Prince without fail put me through merciless weight training.
If it had only ended with the weights, I would have been fortunate, but afterward, he made me do mandatory cardio on top of it, and I truly felt like I would die.
“Hey now, walking fast isn’t cardio! Run!!!”
“Y-Your Highness! Doing cardio after leg workouts is—”
“—It helps with muscle recovery! Run!”
At first, I really felt like I would die, but they do say that humans are creatures of adaptation.
Stuffing myself daily with a meat-heavy diet cooked with the Empire’s highest-quality ingredients and being forced to exercise to the limit, my body had noticeably changed in just one month.
My stamina, which had always been steeped in shallow fatigue, improved beyond recognition, and when I undressed and looked in the mirror, fairly solid muscles had begun to settle nicely over my previously thin frame.
My shoulders had definitely broadened, and my chest and forearms had developed fairly hard curves to the touch.
My stomach had even begun to show the faint outline of abdominal muscles.
The thin, fluttery silk shirts from the Kingdom of Sterling that I had originally brought with me now stretched taut around my chest and shoulders.
Though some physical pain followed, honestly speaking, it was a fairly healthy and not unpleasant life as a hostage.
At least until today, Monday afternoon.
#
For our peaceful afternoon tea time, First Princess Victoria had come to my quarters without fail and was leaning deep into the sofa, holding a teacup.
“—So like I said. The Imperial cavalry is the strongest there is, but you can’t deploy cavalry in a siege battle, right? The Roland Kingdom knows that too, so they absolutely won’t try to fight us on open ground. They’re holed up in the walls between the mountain ranges like turtles, so what on earth are we supposed to do about it…”
“You must have a lot on your mind, Your Highness the Princess. Aren’t you departing for the campaign soon? You should have your plans somewhat figured out by then, after all.”
“Indeed. I suppose that once spring comes and the weather warms, and the southern regions are pacified, I’ll have to set out to subjugate the Roland Kingdom immediately, but I still don’t know what to do. His Late Majesty two Emperors ago, and His Late Majesty the previous Emperor as well—both ultimately failed to bring down the Roland Kingdom’s walls. If only cavalry could fly—ah, I’ve been talking so much that I’m getting thirsty.”
“Shall I pour you more tea, Your Highness?”
“Yes, please. The lemon tea is delici—”
Victoria’s voice, which had been chatting away, cut off abruptly the moment I reached for the teapot on the table to fill her empty cup.
“Your Highness? Why are you acting like this all of a sudden?”
“……?”
Victoria’s gaze was nailed to my forearms, my broadened shoulder line, and the tautly pulled buttons of my shirt, refusing to move.
“……Ian.”
“Yes, Your Highness. The tea is hot, so please be caref—”
“You. Lately, your body is a bit…… strange?”
Victoria’s brow furrowed very slightly.
“Did your clothes shrink? Your shoulders too, and your forearms…… Weren’t you twenty? Isn’t that an age for a…… late growth spurt?”
Mistakenly thinking that the First Princess had noticed the healthy changes in my body, I felt a secret swell of pride and lightly shrugged my shoulders.
“I’ve been exercising rather diligently these days. Perhaps because the Imperial Palace’s cuisine is so excellent, my muscles have been building up quite well. My stamina has improved significantly as well.”
“Exercise?”
“Ah, yes. Every other day, I train with His Highness the Second Prince in the underground training ground. Thanks to that, I’ve become very healt—”
The faint smile on Victoria’s face vanished in an instant.
She loudly clinked the teacup she was holding down onto its saucer.
At that cold reaction, my hand holding the teapot froze.
“……You’ve gotten thicker.”
Victoria’s violet eyes swept down over my hardened chest and thickened forearms.
Seeing killing intent flash across those trembling violet eyes for an instant, I suddenly felt chills racing down my spine, though I didn’t show it.
“……Your Highness?”
“Sorry, Ian. I have somewhere to be, so let’s end tea time here for today.”
Victoria sprang up from her seat and quietly left the room.
I stared blankly at the closed door without understanding what had happened.
‘What? I don’t think I said anything wrong.’
#
Shortly after, having changed my clothes, I headed to the gym to be on time.
With a towel around my neck and a change of clothes in a small basket, my steps were light.
They do say exercise becomes fun once you get into it, right?
‘Today is leg day~’
But before I even reached the corridor near the gym entrance, a deafening explosion rocked the underground.
*BOOM!*
“……?!”
For a moment I thought something had happened and pressed myself against the wall, but the next instant, seeing the Imperial Palace guards who should have been protecting the corridor fleeing in terror toward the opposite direction with pale faces, I intuited that something serious was occurring.
“What on earth is happening?”
“Y-Your Highness! I was just on my way to find you! R-Right now the First Princess is…… the Second Prince……!”
“What?!”
Rushing hurriedly to the gym entrance, I couldn’t close my mouth at the horrific scene before my eyes.
The massive steel door, deliberately designed to be heavy so as to serve as core and arm training when entering, had been crumpled like paper and sent flying out into the corridor, and the gym interior had been reduced to a complete wreck.
And in the center of that pale dust cloud, two monsters were fighting fiercely.
“Sister, are you sane!? Why are you going crazy here!”
“Shut up, you ignorant bastard whose skull is stuffed with muscle too!! Ian’s greatest charm was his delicate, fragile pretty-boy appeal! How dare you ruin that?!”
Victoria was swinging a longsword at her younger brother like a madwoman.
Whenever her sword aura grazed past, all the gym equipment that Arthur cherished was cleaved apart like tofu, cracking with sharp sounds.
Arthur evaded those fierce attacks with beast-like reflexes, grabbing shattered equipment and weight plates and throwing them at her like cannonballs.
Weight plates with enough force to crush any ordinary person with a mere graze were sliced through like tofu by Victoria, and she dodged them lightly as if dancing.
Every time the two collided, another part of the gym was being reduced to scorched earth.
“You ignorant sister!! You call Ian delicate? You’re only looking at his present and completely blind to his future! If you invest just two years—no, about one year—he can attain a beautiful physique, so why are you trying to stop that!”
“Shut up!! Before dirt fills these two eyes of mine, I will never bear witness to Ian becoming a muscle monster like you!!”
“Then I suppose I shall have to fill those useless eyes with dirt!”
*CLANG!!! CRASH!!!*
At the brutal clash between the two siblings, the magic lights on the gym ceiling shattered and fell in sparks.
Frozen by the doorway, I watched the situation blankly.
‘What did my body, my muscles do to make the Empire’s Princess and Prince fight each other to the death?’
Then, Arthur’s beast-like gaze, which had been about to pick up and throw a snapped barbell, turned toward me standing stupidly at the entrance.
“Oh! Ian!! You’ve come at just the right time!!”
Arthur brightened and pointed straight at me.
“Tell this stubborn crazy sister directly with your own mouth! You’re actually enjoying it too, aren’t you? Now you can’t stand not exercising with me, right?! Right?!”
No sooner had those words left his mouth than Victoria, too, glared at me from within the dust cloud with a fierce, bloodthirsty red gleam in her eyes, sword in hand.
“Ian Sterling, answer properly. This ignorant bastard dragged you here by force and coerced you into this crude behavior, didn’t he? I will blow him away right this instant and rescue you.”
“…….”
Under the suffocating, murderous pressure pouring from both sides, I could only stamp my feet in place.
‘I want to live long.’
I wanted to live like crazy.
But whichever side I chose, the end of my life as a hostage in the Empire seemed to hold nothing but a terrible death.
If I sided with Arthur, Victoria seemed likely to slit my throat; if I sided with Victoria, Arthur, overcome with betrayal, would obviously pick up a twenty-kilogram plate and crush me.
I was seriously contemplating whether foaming at the mouth and fainting right on the spot was the best option, my lips trembling, at exactly that moment—
“……So this was the commotion in the Imperial Palace underground during this busy time.”
From amidst the thickly rising dust and shattered debris, a low, calm voice mixed with exhaustion and irritation flowed out.
A man revealed himself together with the clicking sound of dress shoes cutting through the dust; at a glance, he possessed splendid blond hair identical to the current Emperor’s and cold violet eyes.
A man who resembled the Emperor to a frightening degree, but instead of a terrifying aura like the Emperor, exuded an atmosphere like that of a high-ranking government official.
Beneath his violet eyes he wore dark circles, and his eyes trembling slightly beyond thin gold-rimmed glasses made it clear that he was currently very angry.
‘……That person!’
The successor to the Empire whom I had heard spoken of only in passing by the Imperial family members—a severe workaholic and the true power behind the Empire’s administration.
Crown Prince Maximilian von Argenhaim.
He brushed the dust from his impeccably worn, top-quality formal suit and alternately cast a sharp gaze toward the two younger siblings who had created the disaster area.
“B-Brother! Sister Victoria is—!”
“O-Oppa?! No, it’s, Arthur this ignorant bastard……”
“Quiet.”
At that single quiet word, both fell silent, and the Crown Prince let out a deep sigh as he slowly turned his gaze.
His cold eyes, which had been surveying the ruined gym and the Imperial Palace’s inner walls cracked with deep fissures, slowly moved toward me standing frozen at the doorway.
“…….”
A strangely chilling smile spread across Maximilian’s lips as he adjusted his glasses.
“I’ve heard much about you. So you are Ian Sterling.”
“Your Highness the Crown Prince, I greet you for the first time.”
“Hmm……”
Having stared at me with a chilling gaze for a moment, he soon smiled thinly.
“Pleased to meet you, Prince Ian. This looks like it will be a rather long conversation; let us go to my office. After we roughly clean up this mess here, that is.”