The next day.
Confined as I was, I sat shut inside the room where I had originally been staying, staring blankly out the window at the ash-gray sky.
At least my mind was at ease. Since my identity had already been exposed, there was no chance of being caught a second time.
Instead, the thought of how I was supposed to succeed in an expedition against the Kingdom of Laurent—something even the Empire had failed to accomplish for two hundred years—left me staring into darkness.
‘I wonder if I’d have died without all these stray thoughts if they’d just executed me now…’
“Your Highness… no, Sir Ian. You have a visitor.”
The knight’s form of address from beyond the door had turned cold.
They had treated me as a prince before, but now I was no longer one.
The door opened, and the person who walked into the room was, unexpectedly, the Empire’s crown prince, Maximilien.
“…Your Highness.”
I hurriedly rose from my seat and bowed with proper courtesy.
The fact that he had once favored me, calling me prime minister material, now felt like nothing but a bitter mockery.
Maximilien looked down at me, prostrate on the floor, with cool eyes for a moment, then jerked his chin toward the door.
“Get up. It’s stifling in here, so let’s go out and walk for a bit.”
“But I am currently being detained by imperial command…”
“Enough. Follow me.”
Maximilien began walking ahead, and I cautiously followed behind him.
When we reached the main gate of the detached palace, the guards standing watch at the entrance panicked and crossed their spears to block the way.
“Your Imperial Highness! Forgive us, but this man is a felon being held by His Majesty’s orders! If you let him outside without permission…!”
“Move.”
Maximilien waved his hand dismissively, as if annoyed.
“I’m taking him out for a while by the authority of the crown prince. Do you have a problem with that?”
“B-but His Majesty the Emperor…”
“I’ll report it to Father afterward. Step aside. Or, if you prefer, you may wait here while I go and obtain Father’s permission. However, in that case, you will be held responsible for wasting my time. What will you do?”
“U-understood! Open the way!”
At the crown prince’s threat, the guards hurriedly withdrew their spears and stepped aside.
#
We left the imperial palace and walked quietly along the broad riverside that cut through the center of the capital.
On the winter riverbank, where the cold wind blew fiercely, there were few people about.
Maximilien, who had only walked ahead in silence for a long while, finally stopped when we reached an embankment path devoid of people.
He slowly turned around, then, without the slightest warning, raised his leg and roughly kicked me in the pit of the stomach.
“Gah…!”
At the breath-stopping pain, I tumbled backward and clutched my stomach.
For a moment I couldn’t breathe, and tears sprang to my eyes.
Maximilien looked down expressionlessly at me as I writhed on the ground in pain, then tapped the dirt from the toe of his shoe against the ground and said,
“That settles the matter of you deceiving me. I am not a man who holds grudges for long. I’ve forgiven you with this, so let’s simply never mention again the matter of you daring to swindle me and deceive the imperial family. For now, at least I have forgiven you.”
“Cough, cough…”
I hacked and barely managed to raise my upper body.
“…I am sorry for deceiving you, Your Highness. I committed treason with no excuse…”
“Shut up. I just told you never to mention it again. Do you want to be kicked one more time?”
“…No, Your Highness.”
Maximilien snorted and looked out at the river.
“Whatever the case, there were political complications in making use of a prince, so it was a bit troublesome… If things go on like this, it’s actually better for me.”
“…What do you mean?”
“Ian Harper. Do you happen to know where the officials grinding themselves to dust under me in the crown prince’s office come from?”
“Well… since they are all so capable, I assumed most of them were from the Empire’s distinguished noble houses…”
At my cautious answer, Maximilien gave a small laugh.
“Half right and half wrong. About half of them are, as you said, young masters from old and lofty noble families, rotten or otherwise. But the other half includes men from low-ranking knightly stock with no proper roots, and even true commoners who came up from farming.”
“…Commoners work in the crown prince’s office?”
“They do. The most remarkable fellow rolling around under me is a man named Alex. He used to live like a beggar in the slums over there at the edge of the capital, picking up scraps of garbage to eat. By chance, he found an old civil service examination book lying on the ground, read it dozens of times until it was worn ragged, taught himself, and in the end passed the exam at the top. And now he has clawed his way up to become one of the core working staff of my crown prince’s office.”
Maximilien patted my shoulder and met my eyes.
“If someone has ability, I don’t particularly care about the bloodline or status of the person I’m going to work to the bone beneath my feet. Whether it’s the noble first prince of Sterling, a vulgar beggar from the slums, or the second son of some rural baron’s family… if he has the ability to carry out his duties and keep the Empire running, that is enough. You are still a member of the crown prince’s office.”
At his plain declaration, my frozen heart began to pound madly.
The crown prince had not abandoned me.
He still valued the ability and usefulness hidden beneath the shell of a fake.
“However, that does not mean you are entirely without sin for deceiving Father and daring to deceive me. So, for the moment, I cannot immediately return you to the crown prince’s office.”
“…”
“Therefore, following Father’s command, you will succeed in the expedition against the Kingdom of Laurent no matter what, by any means necessary.”
Maximilien’s eyes flashed fearsomely.
“Only then will I be able to keep you by my side and work you again, won’t I?”
“…Your Highness.”
Biting down hard on my trembling lips, I knelt on the ground and bowed my head deeply.
“Succeed, no matter what. As for the price of your insolent crime, I’ll let you repay it with overtime and all-nighters, working you like a dog once I become the next emperor.”
Maximilien smiled in satisfaction and roughly ruffled my hair once.
“Now, that’s enough gloomy talk. Let’s eat something before we go back. Have you heard of Prince Nguyen?”
#
The place the crown prince took me was Prince Nguyen’s rice noodle shop, located in a back alley of the capital.
When we opened the door of the small restaurant and went inside, Prince Nguyen, who had been boiling broth in front of a steaming pot, widened his eyes.
“It’s been a while. Two bowls of rice noodles and one bun cha. Leave the cilantro out of mine and add a bit more meat.”
“I greet Your Imperial Highness. But this man is…”
“I brought him here to buy the fake prince a meal.”
When he saw my haggard appearance as I entered with the crown prince, he seemed greatly startled at first, but then, perhaps recalling the rumors about me that must have spread far and wide, he let out a deep sigh.
“…You’ve been through a great deal.”
Prince Nguyen approached me with sorrowful eyes, as if he understood everything, and silently patted my shoulder.
Then he went into the kitchen and brought out two warm bowls of rice noodles, one piled high with cilantro and the other with a mountain of meat.
“Please eat while it’s warm. I put plenty of things on top, so it should settle your stomach a little.”
A warm, humble bowl of noodles, steam curling up from it, was placed before me.
The moment I faced that unconditional comfort and kind treatment, something inside me snapped.
“Ugh… sob.”
Unable even to think of picking up my chopsticks, I burst into the tears I had been holding back in front of the bowl of noodles.
Once the tears broke free, they poured out uncontrollably, and I began to sob aloud like a child.
They were tears mingled with the guilt of having lived as a fake, the terror of not knowing when I would die, and my apology and gratitude toward those who had not given up on me.
“…”
Crown Prince Maximilien looked silently at me for a moment as I cried my eyes out, then simply slurped down his own portion of noodles and said indifferently,
“The noodles are getting cold. Hurry up and eat.”
“Sniff… Yes, yes, Your Highness…”
With my face a mess of tears and snot, I hurriedly picked up my chopsticks and shoveled the noodles into my mouth.
My throat was too tight for them to go down properly, but the rich meat broth and the scent of cilantro mixed with my tears and flooded into my mouth.
‘It’s delicious…’
Even as my tears refused to stop, that warm mouthful of noodles was the most wretched, heartrendingly delicious meal of my life.
I had never known that a meal eaten while alive could taste so good.
‘I have to survive.’
Somehow, I had to survive, eat even one more meal as delicious as this, and remain alive for even a single second longer.
Together with the hot broth, the will to live that I had given up on for so long began to bloom once more within my chest.