Chapter 5
Holed up in his room, Sungjin continued to perform light exercises. As he grew more and more accustomed to his new life, the rumor that the scumbag prince had become a little strange started spreading throughout the palaces. Endless screaming, cursing, and the sound of things breaking had filled the Pearl Palace in the past, but for days now, the place had been as calm as the windless sea. At first, people had thought that the prince had yet to recover from his illness and simply had not had enough energy to return to his vicious ways, but eventually, they had caught on to the change.
“I hear he never complains about his food anymore. He used to knock over his table almost daily.”
“He used to yell for snacks constantly, but he doesn’t even want snacks anymore. He’s eating less, even.”
Slowly, the palace grew agitated.
The empress’s prying eyes could no longer keep the staff members’ mouths shut. As the peace drew out, mouths started to talk away from watchful eyes.
“Why is he so calm all of a sudden? It’s making me anxious. Something bad is about to happen.”
“His memory isn’t back yet, is it? People don’t change so easily. Once he fully recovers, he’ll be back to his belligerent self.”
“I don’t know. They say he’s a changed man entirely. The fever was so high and lasted so long, I’m sure it messed up his head somehow.”
“Shh! ‘Messed up his head?’ Someone will hear you.”
And every single one of those rumors was collected by the eyes and ears densely planted throughout the palaces and reported to the head chamberlain.
“It certainly is a strange thing.” Head Chamberlain Louis cupped his chin and fell into thought.
“Cases like these where a high fever or serious wound changes someone’s personality entirely aren’t so rare,” the servant added.
Louis silently shook his head. There was no doubt that the change in Prince Morres was an amazing and welcome one. But the head chamberlain was less bothered by the prince’s change itself than he was by the holy emperor’s response.
The head chamberlain had served the holy emperor by his side every single day since his coronation, so he knew how devoted the emperor had been to managing Pearl Palace. The emperor had picked out the staff for Pearl Palace himself and strictly restricted visitors. He handled the ledger separately, and he had even personally gone through the applications for the residing knight guards.
So, it was strange that, despite the rumors of Prince Morres’ sudden change, the emperor had been quietly watching, never uttering a word about the matter. The unexpected fever had clearly been the trigger for the change, but was it too far-fetched to think that the fever had been the work of his emperor?
“Well, Prince Morres is scheduled to have an audience with the emperor soon.”
Rubbing his clean-shaven chin, the head chamberlain resolved to pay the prince a visit before the audience and take a closer look himself.
* * *
“I hope you slept well, Your Highness.”
“Yes, I slept fine.”
After Edith, the residing doctor of the Pearl Palace was the one person Sungjin faced the most. This elderly doctor called Ninias was quite disheveled for a doctor of a holy palace. Every time he opened his mouth, Sungjin smelled alcohol on his breath. His red nose seemed to indicate an addiction, even. This shabby old man examined Sungjin twice a day, in the morning and at night, but everything he did seemed sloppy somehow. His eyes, either dull from drunkenness or far-sighted from old age, carelessly glossed over Sungjin’s face as the old man nodded. Sungjin wasn’t convinced that he was checking anything at all. He had a harsh tremor in his hands with which he felt the pulse, but his shaky fingers barely found their way to the artery on Sungjin’s wrist.
“Good. Very good.”
What was good? Was this doctor trustworthy?
Sungjin looked back at Edith with suspicion. She sighed and said, “Doctor Ninias is usually in charge of looking after the residing knights of the Pearl Palace. You used to have your own doctors, but…”
According to Edith, it hadn’t been too long ago when more respectable palace doctors had been working as Morres’ personal doctors. They had been the elites of the Laiora School, one of the most esteemed schools of medicine in the holy empire. However, once they failed to cure the prince’s fever, they had lost the favor of the holy emperor and were demoted to more trivial stations. Edith said that they were probably doing the rounds in the slums now, dealing with the plague.
What? Then why don’t they send new personal doctors? How is this any way to treat a prince who almost died?
Doctor Ninias suddenly let out a low chuckle, interrupting Edith’s explanation.
“Isn’t that just the perfect job for them? That damn Laiora School is always blabbing about how they’re fighting the plague at the front lines.”
The doctor’s sudden mocking made Sungjin and Edith’s eyes go wide. The doctor flinched as if he hadn’t meant to say that out loud. He hastily tried to backpedal.
“Uh, of course, I’m a great admirer of the time-honored teachings of the Laiora School. After all, it’s the only school recognized by the Holy Assembly of Delcross. Of course, of course!”
But even without the demon king’s commentary, it was obvious from the doctor’s sour face that all his talk about being a “great admirer” was bullsh*t. It didn’t seem personal, though. He seemed hostile to the entire school itself.
Naturally, Sungjin asked, “So, Doctor Ninias. Which school of medicine do you belong to?”
The doctor stared dumbly at Sungjin for a moment. His previously dull eyes were now truly seeing Sungjin for the first time.
After a moment of silence, Ninias slowly shook his head. “Pardon me, Your Highness, but I’m just a simple pharmacist who learned this and that from wherever I roamed. I was lucky to have caught the eyes of His Majesty and been given such a stable job in my old age, but I have never been officially associated with a school.”
“Anyway, I don’t think you need these daily checkups anymore, Your Highness. You have completely recovered from the fever.” The doctor stood up as he hastily gathered his tools. “Please make sure to eat well. You are free to pursue outdoor exercises, so just focus on building up your strength again. And…”
“And?”
“Your body’s aura activation is below average. I believe it will help with your recovery to devote yourself to aura practice.”
The doctor was clearly new to looking after Morres, as he seemed to know next to nothing about the scumbag third prince. Morres’ previous personal doctors would never have dared to add those last words.
As soon as the old man had uttered the word “aura,” Edith’s eyes twinkled as they looked back at Sungjin. Was she expecting him to throw something? When Sungjin did nothing but look back at her, she whispered with a dejected expression, “My only joy…”
Edith, you’re not some dog after a frisbee. Why are you finding joy in something like that?
Even if it hadn’t been for the doctor’s recommendation, Sungjin himself had been thinking of managing his diet and exercising outside.
“Edith, can you tell the kitchen to hold back on sauces from now on? And ask them to serve plenty of salad. No sauce. And if I don’t eat a certain dish, don’t bring that one in again.”
He wasn’t about to ask for a low-sodium, low-carb, high-protein diet. It would be better to pick and choose what he wanted from what they served him. Sungjin wondered how developed this world’s knowledge of nutrition was. At a glance, they seemed to be somewhere between the Middle Ages and the modern era.
Edith couldn’t hide her confusion at the strange order.
Sungjin made circles with his arms, warming them up. He said, “Oh, and I want to visit the training ground. Will you take me there?”
* * *
The training ground of the Pearl Palace had originally been built to serve as Morres’ personal sword-fighting classroom. Of course, he had quickly abandoned sword fighting, so it had sat unused for a while, but the administrative manager had continued its upkeep for the sake of the empress.
At some point, the training ground had become the private training ground of the Pearl Palace’s residing knight guards in place of the faraway training grounds that were specifically for the knights. And now, every knight halted their training and gathered at a corner of the training ground, glaring. The fat third prince had appeared all of a sudden and was taking up the whole training ground by himself when it wasn’t very spacious to begin with. The prince was going round and round the entire training ground at a pace that wasn’t quite running and wasn’t quite walking.
What the f*ck has gotten into that scumbag?
The prince panted as he lugged his hefty body around, and the knights watched with obvious hostility. Though the maids were tightly wound around the empress’s fingers, the Imperial Order of Knights was comparatively free from her influence. They had often been impudent toward the prince and some knights were shooting glares of disgust at the prince even now.
But Sungjin had set his goal and was charging directly toward it. He was going to train his body and learn to wield aura. The knights’ hateful stares were of no concern to him. He struggled for a few laps around the training ground, then he went back inside the Pearl Palace, wiping away his sweat with his sleeves and without giving so much as a glance toward the knights.
What had just happened? The knights looked at each other, belatedly confused. They’d acted hostile enough for the prince to throw a tantrum about greeting him with proper respect, but that scumbag had merely exercised quietly and disappeared as if they hadn’t been there at all. The dumbfounded knights stood around for a while, then returned to their private training, but they were all thinking the same thing.
As I live and breathe.
They had all considered the event a one-time whim of the prince’s, but the next day and the day after that, the knights saw Morres appear around the same time to circle the training ground.
“Ugh! Ha! Gak! Ha!”
I can’t believe how weak this body is. Sungjin frowned, panting gracelessly. He’d planned on a few days of light exercise, and then with enough muscle to support his own weight, he’d delve into serious cardio, but… This is already serious cardio!
He’d merely walked briskly around the training ground a few times, but his lungs were already about to burst, and his heart was drumming up a storm. His entire body was drenched in sweat as if he’d been in the rain. How was he going to grow stronger and learn how to wield aura at this rate? He was getting pretty annoyed.
The knights whispering in the corner with disapproving faces were bugging him, and the sweat that soaked his hair was now streaming into his eyes, stinging them. He was rubbing his eyes impatiently when a dry towel suddenly appeared before him. He took it and raised his head to see a genteel old man looking at him with a smile.
Who is he?
The man stood with a few servants behind him. His white hair showed that he was quite old, but his posture was perfectly upright and his tidy attire was not a hair out of place. The old man met Sungjin’s eyes and took a step back. He raised his right hand to his chest and bowed his head politely.
“Your Highness.”
It was a picture-perfect display of respect. The servants behind him followed suit, bowing at their waists. Sungjin stared dumbly, not knowing how to respond. The old man grew a little flustered.
“Oh… I’d heard that you were without your memory since the fever, but I failed to accommodate you. My deepest apologies, Your Highness.”
He retained an utmost courteousness even toward the young prince, and his manners were ingrained in his body. Sungjin was very impressed. He wiped away his sweat with the towel.
The old man smiled again, then bowed his head slightly and said, “I am Louis Peltre, the head chamberlain of the holy palaces. I serve as an assistant to the holy emperor.”
All of a sudden, Sungjin was face to face with the right hand of the final boss. His mouth stiffened up at once, but the old man didn’t notice this. He took his towel back and said cheerfully, “You only just recovered from your illness. Is such intense training necessary?”
“You know, I just wanted some exercise.”
“Such gallantry from the young prince must be good for the morale of the Pearl Palace’s knights. You are indeed the joy of the imperial family, the great bliss of Delcross.”
Sungjin looked around, embarrassed.
Uh, hey, old man? Can you tone it down with the ass-kissing? Can’t you see those knights glaring at us? They’re about to shoot lasers out of their eyes.
The demon king clicked his tongue.
He was right. The head chamberlain looked delighted as if Sungjin were his pride of a grandson.
Sungjin avoided his eyes and coughed dryly. “Uh, ahem. Louis. So, wh-what are you doing here?” he stuttered, not used to talking down to the elderly. The head chamberlain didn’t seem to mind, however.
“The holy emperor has been worried sick ever since you caught the fever, Your Highness. He put aside his political responsibilities to visit the Pearl Palace. Eventually, he turned down priest healers and employed his own immense holy power to finally quell that terrible fever.”
“Uh, yeah. That’s what I heard.”
He hadn’t, but he would play along for now.
“To the great elation of all, you rose healthy from your sickbed, but the emperor’s worry did not easily subside. He asked God to carefully look after your symptoms before you would take an audience with him.”
“Oh, well, that’s nice of him.”
“Since you are still in recovery, Your Highness, the emperor offered to once again visit you at the Pearl Palace himself, if you so desire.”
Huh? Excuse me? Visit me?
Louis noticed Sungjin’s confusion and quickly added an explanation. “Ah, you must have forgotten about the regular audiences. The emperor has always taken tea with each of his children at least once a week.”
The ruler of an entire empire has time to do all that? This was terrible news. Sungjin had wanted to avoid the emperor as much as possible.
“As you know, His Majesty is dedicated to caring for his children. Unless there are unavoidable changes in schedule, such as a grand celebration for the empire, these audiences have never been postponed. Though, in your case, Prince Morres…”
Though what?
“You’ve often canceled on the day of the audience. For some reason, you would send word of illness whenever it came time to have an audience with His Majesty… So, recently, His Majesty has been asking for your availability ahead of time before visiting the Pearl Palace himself. He has ordered me to ask you if you’d like him to come to you again, Your Highness.”
Morres, you crazy bastard! He regularly rejected an audience with the holy emperor? Was this guy out of his mind?
Sungjin broke out in a cold sweat.
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