Chapter 6
An Audience with the holy Emperor
Some man had come out of nowhere, introduced himself as the head chamberlain, and told Sungjin that he would have a meeting with the final boss soon. Moreover, according to the chamberlain, this scumbag extraordinaire had made a habit of defying the final boss. Sungjin grew dizzy.
“Your Highness?”
“Uh, ahem. Yes. I mean— I…” He was so flustered that his eyes wouldn’t focus and his tongue felt heavy in his mouth. Sungjin was desperate not to further offend the man who might be the final boss. He managed to put together a passable sentence. “Tell him that I’ll, I’ll pay him a visit myself this time. And thank him… Thank him for his consideration.”
He didn’t think it was right to make the holy emperor come and go as it suited him. He would have liked to know how the original Morres had spoken or if what he had said was at all up to the standards of courtesy in this world, but the demon king, who usually couldn’t be shut up if he tried, stayed as silent as a rock now.
Thankfully, Sungjin’s answer seemed to please the head chamberlain.
“Your maturity is sure to make His Majesty proud, Your Highness. I’ll try my best to make sure nothing is lacking from the audience! I’ll send someone to the Pearl Palace with a message soon. Take care.” Louis made a graceful gesture to show his courtesy again, then left the training ground, as composed as ever.
But Sungjin’s eyes had grown sharp from his long years on the battlefield. Despite the head chamberlain’s efforts to keep his mouth even, Sungjin caught his cheeks tremble as he barely resisted a smile. What could I possibly have done for him to be so happy? The more he lived this life, the more he realized just how much of a scumbag Morres had been.
For a while, Sungjin watched the head chamberlain and his entourage walk lightly away, and then he sighed and turned around. The unexpected encounter had made him rest for longer than he had intended. Sungjin pulled himself together and started his way around the training ground again. He had to do at least a few more laps than yesterday in order to feel like he was improving. But his firm resolution soon crumbled as he became completely out of breath before he had even made it halfway through the first lap.
The knights had gathered in little groups in the corner of the training ground, wary of the head chamberlain, and now they didn’t try to hide their discomfort when the prince’s walk resumed. They had thought that he would give up and leave soon. A few stomped out of the training ground, and the rest plopped down on the ground and acted as if they were polishing their gear as they shot irreverent glances at Sungjin from time to time.
Sungjin had paid no attention to their rude attitude so far, but the persistent hostility was getting to him. Though it would be a chore, he would have to bring all the knights into line at some point.
Sungjin panted as he circled the training ground for who knows how long. He had grown so out of breath that he coughed and staggered ahead until finally, he took a few wobbly steps before he fell to the ground.
Cough! Cough!
“Gak, ugh.” Sungjin huffed and puffed. His vision seemed to be spinning.
Damn, am I dying?
Even when he had survived for a week on stolen naps at the Paju frontline fighting monsters, it had not been this hard.
Huh?
Sungjin’s brain was too low on oxygen for him to understand at first. Now that he thought about it, the demon king had gone strangely quiet for some time.
I probably should, right? Anyway, what have you been doing? Why didn’t you get some information out of the head chamberlain? You were so quiet, I thought you’d finally been obliterated.
Sungjin had expected the demon king to snap back at that, but for some reason, he didn’t get much of a reaction.
Sungjin cocked his head. Resistant to soul scanning? You’ve never mentioned that before. Is the head chamberlain a clergyman or something?
According to the demon king, scanning someone’s soul was like talking to them while they were asleep. Unless it was an emergency or a high-stress situation, souls were usually half-asleep, defenseless. When the demon king shot intense thought waves toward a half-asleep soul, related memories floated up from the subconscious to the surface as scattered thoughts. This handy power had its limits too. First, the demon king couldn’t read memories straight from Sungjin’s soul. He wasn’t sure of the reason either.
What did you say, you little punk?
The demon king also could not handle souls with holy power or strong willpower. The soul of someone with strong willpower was resistant to thought waves just like a soul in a highly stressful situation. And as for souls that possessed holy power, the moment the demon king tried to contact them, his own soul would be snuffed out of existence.
Despite all of this, the demon king had tried his best to get as much information as possible. He had to prepare to be dragged to the most powerful clergyman on the continent and await his punishment. Was the holy emperor really going to recognize the human from another world and the dregs of the demonic world possessing his son’s body?
So what did you find?
It’d been easy for Sungjin himself to recognize the head chamberlain’s years of experience at a glance.
You couldn’t trust it? You couldn’t trust the information of the head chamberlain, who serves the holy emperor right by his side?
Sungjin’s question seemed to agitate the demon king. If he had a physical form, he would have been sighing.
Fanaticism? It’s that bad?
Sungjin blinked. Omniscient and omnipotent?
Sungjin stayed silent.
What kind of thought process is that? He doesn’t believe in a god, but he believes in God’s Emissary?
Sungjin sat up. His breathing had calmed before he knew it. The gentle breeze quickly cooled his overheated body, giving him goosebumps. This isn’t simply about having strong holy power.
God’s Emissary. Sungjin had always practically been an atheist, so he’d never thought that there could be such a thing as an omniscient, omnipotent emissary of god. But the chamberlain’s subconscious, unwavering faith suggested that something really was special about the holy emperor. For example, what if the holy emperor had the power to scan souls like the demon king did? Those around him would think that he were omniscient. Whatever the case, one thing was certain.
I think it’s highly likely that we’ll get caught. Do you have any ideas for what to do?
That’s just a temporary solution. The chamberlain said that when Morres refused to meet him for long enough, the emperor started visiting the Pearl Palace himself. What if he does that again?
Maybe if we had some time to prepare, but at this level of fitness? Not a chance. And this body is going to draw attention wherever we go.
All they could do was face it head-on. As he felt the demon king’s soul tremble inside his head, Sungjin strained to push down his own swelling anxiety.
* * *
It wasn’t even evening yet when the Main Palace sent a servant to let Sungjin know of the audience time. It went without saying that the Pearl Palace was in an uproar. It had been such a long time since the fat prince had had an official outing!
Empress Consort Lizabeth had heard the news. Early in the morning of the audience, she barged into the palace with a long line of maids from the Ruby Palace. Soon, the entirety of the Pearl Palace buzzed under the command of the empress consort. Sungjin had planned to spend all morning at the training ground, as the audience was in the afternoon, but before he could even step foot outside his room, he was intercepted by a group of determined maids.
“Huh?”
With a puzzled look on his face, he was dragged to the bath and washed clean. To his dismay, his personal maid was there, watching him the whole time! He struggled, kicking and protesting, but Edith poured fragrant oil over his head with a stern face.
“Calm down, Your Highness. The sooner we finish this, the sooner you can have snacks. You want snacks, don’t you?”
Do you think you’re bathing a cat right now? Sungjin glared at her in disbelief.
She tilted her head sideways. “Hmm. That used to do the trick.”
Sungjin was speechless. So that had been how Edith endured a scumbag like Morres alone. She’d been treating him like an animal who couldn’t understand her at all.
“Just get out. I can bathe myself!”
“I did all kinds of things to take care of you when you were sick. What are you embarrassed about all of a sudden?”
Was this woman serious?
Edith realized that Sungjin wasn’t going to budge at all, and her face fell. “Come on, Your Highness. Please, just cooperate. Do you know how much the empress consort is going to grill me if the preparation is even a little lacking?”
Since the empress consort’s visits had recently become frequent, even this tough maid was starting to get stressed out.
“And did those Ruby Palace maids come all the way to the Pearl Palace for a takeover? It’s not even their palace.” Edith chuckled ominously as if she were thinking, I could knock them out with a single punch. It was especially scary coming from an aura user.
Intimidated by Edith’s threatening air, Sungjin finished the bath quickly and came out of the room only to be met by a long line of the empress consort’s maids, each holding very elaborate beauty equipment. Next thing he knew, he was in the middle of chaos as the maids trimmed his hair, nails, and brows.
“Oh, look at your beautiful hair. It’s just like the empress consort’s!”
“My, look how much weight you’ve lost. Your jawline is much more defined now!”
Enough, you liars. I thought this was just a simple audience! What’s all this about? He was being pulled one way and pinched another. It was absolute mayhem.
By the time the maids were done, Sungjin was in tatters as if he’d toiled through a storm. He thought that he could finally get some peace, but the preparations hadn’t ended just yet. A procession of maids with arms full of clothes and accessories stretched from the far end of his room out into the hallway. Sungjin grew pale.
Hey, can’t you do something about this? How long do I have to endure this?
The demon king, who normally would’ve choked from laughing at Sungjin’s predicament, was a bit off.
Sungjin stayed silent.
To his relief, Empress Consort Lizabeth had refined tastes. For a while, Sungjin had been worried as clothes with nothing but frills came and went, but in the end, he looked quite presentable, even from his contemporary Earthling point of view. The dark navy suit, embroidered in silver threads, seemed simple. But the more Sungjin looked, the more he realized how much money, craftsmanship, and time had been poured into his outfit.
The maids hadn’t been completely dishonest when they’d told him that he had lost weight. His clothes fit so loosely that the maids busied themselves with tailoring the clothes to fit him. Of course, however much they groomed him, he felt that his physique didn’t suit its pretty packaging.
Sungjin sighed privately, but the empress consort seemed very pleased with his look.
“Oh, Morres. How gallant you look!”
The maids met this with their own hollow compliments.
“You’re the picture of valiance, Your Highness!”
“The dark fabric really accentuates your lovely hair, Your Highness.”
“And what of the cuffs and brooch? They pair perfectly with your jewel-like gray eyes.”
“Your beauty is enough to steal anyone’s heart!”
Oh, come on. That one’s really reaching.
* * *
The Main Palace sent a carriage just in time. The head chamberlain had kept his promise to make sure nothing was lacking for the audience. He was more meticulous than Sungjin had imagined. Once Edith helped him up into the carriage, two knight guards tailed him on horses.
So this fancy thing is a palace carriage, huh? It feels so different from riding a car.
Shut up.
But the demon king’s silence didn’t last long after they left the Pearl Palace. He shivered and called out to Sungjin.
Sungjin, who’d been comfortably sprawled out, became anxious and sat up straight.
What? Why?
Sungjin hesitated.
He lifted one end of the curtain and saw the vast panorama of the palace garden. He couldn’t even see where the green grass ended. Dividing the lawn was the palace road, which stretched wide enough for three carriages to race down at once. At the end of that road, he saw the white radiance of the majestic Main Palace. A crowd of people was densely filling up the large garden in front of the Main Palace. The knights were on guard, the nobles were chatting in little groups, and clerks paced hastily with piles of paperwork under their arms. Finally, countless priests were dressed up in splendid white ceremonial garb.
Whoa. Okay, this is a little…
The people in white seemed to make up over half the crowd. The white uniforms, from plain robes to elaborate gowns embroidered in gold, all bore the crest of the Great God: the sun and a sword. All of a sudden, it hit Sungjin that this was a den of clergymen.
Sungjin stayed silent. The demon king’s fussing made Sungjin nervous too. He gulped, suddenly fearing that all of those clergymen would recognize him at once and rush at him, accusing him of being an evil spirit that possessed the prince’s body.
Just as the demon king lamented, the carriage came to a stop. They had arrived at the entrance to the Main Palace, the holy emperor’s residence.
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