33. Let’s Go, Towards Dethronement!
He didn’t know what his spirit was like, coming back to his bedroom. Esteban sat leaning against the sofa, tottering.
“Mabel is, Mabel is…”
The small and precious Mabel dropped Esteban into a pit of shock.
“…ha.”
Esteban groaned in pain, holding his head. A lot of thoughts came in all at once, and the overloaded head was about to burst.
‘I thought my daughter was an angel, but she’s a small devil.’
It was amazing how one could lift up and let go a person with just one word.
Even if he tried to wipe it clean from his head, Mabel’s voice remained like an afterimage, bothering Esteban.
‘Aidwen ith my gwuest.” (Aiden is my guest.)’
‘Thwo, ah’m gwoing to twake rethponsibility of Aidwen!’ (So, I’m going to take responsibility of Aiden!)
Sting-.
Once again, Esteban frowned from a headache.
“For God’s sake…”
Why did his heart feel this bitter, depressed and angry? He felt like crying at this rate.
Esteban pondered why.
Mabel had an easygoing personality.
Even if Esteban brought in all kinds of noble things in the world, he was agitated and would turn his head as if he was annoyed, even if his close associates and subjects tried all sorts of things.
It was so hard to see the cool Mabel’s smile.
Mabel’s favorite should be him, her father.
‘Just what happened with Devlin’s Devil?’
He immediately called in Lissandro, who was with him.
“Don’t miss out on what Devlin’s Devil and Mabel talked about.”
“From what point should I start the report? From how cute her Majesty was before we left?”
“If you talk nonsense, it’s confinement.”
When he heard ‘confinement,’ Lissandro’s playful expression died.
“I’ll report from the moment we entered the prison. Your Majesty.”
“Yes.”
The report Lissandro gave began in a stark atmosphere.
Esteban’s expression as he listened to the conversation between Mabel and Aiden became more and more horribly distorted.
“-that is all.”
“Mabel, she talked that much?”
“Yes. She was very fluent. Her Majesty is a genius without a doubt.”
���That’s obvious. Since she’s my daughter.”
However, that wasn’t the problem. Everyone already knew that Mabel was a genius.
Rather, the problem was that Mabel was interest in the boy named Aiden. This fact was unpleasant to Esteban.
“She only answered to my questions.”
“To me too.”
“That’s obvious for you.”
“…”
Esteban, who passed by Lissandro who looked at him as if he was dumbfounded, left the bedroom.
Lissandro was puzzled.
“Where are you going?”
“To meet ‘Aidwen.’”
“Ah…”
With a small sigh, Lissandro hid his sudden smile.
‘At the end, you’ll never show that to our little Emperor.’
Esteban pretended to be fine on on the front, but in the back, he was so small that it was funny and sad.
***
Aiden sat leaning against the corner of the prison where the mana stone shackles were scattered.
Unlike usual, his mind was too clear for him to get used to it.
‘Even though I might be far away from the baby Emperor, Veron’s influence isn’t making me crazy at all.’
Had he ever felt so comfortable even though he’s in prison?
He thought it was a good thing because he wouldn’t be able to get here from Devlin.
A basket came into Aiden’s eyes. It was a basket that Mabel left behind.
At that time, Mabel, who was going to leave in a her servant’s gentle embrace, looked back at Aiden as if she suddenly remembered something.
“Oh rwight!” (Oh right!)
“…?”
“Dwo you want to eat thith?”(Do you want to eat this?)
Aiden didn’t answer. Instead, he stared at the basket that looked bigger than Mabel’s small hands.
“Ith choco cwake. I wath gwoing to eat it, but ah’ll give it to you.” (It’s chococake. I was going to eat it, but I’ll give it to you.)
Mabel, whose cheeks went plump from her ‘hehe,’ placed the basket down in front of the bars, and hugged her servants again.
“Wait a lwittle. Ah’ll gwet you out. Okway?” (Wait a little. I’ll get you out. Okay?)
He didn’t like sweet foods very much. However, the thought of it being brought by those small hands made it difficult to leave it as it was.
Aiden called the guard.
“Hey. I want you to bring in that basket.”
“Hiik!”
The guard shuddered with fright. The guard’s eyes scattered over the traces of the disastrously scattered restraints on the floor.
It’s probably considerate to ask for a favor without destroying the bars.
The guard rattled open the door and placed the basket inside.
Only after the pitifully trembling guard closed the bars and gave some distance between them, did Aiden take the basket.
The basket was light. He lifted it up as if nothing was in it.
Aiden opened the basket thoughtless and became somewhat perplexed.
‘…what’s this?’
There was a chocolate cake. No, can you call this a chocolate cake?
It was very small. To the point where he can only take a bite.
But there was also a fork. Aiden could not deny that the piece of cake was originally a snack for the baby Emperor.
“Just how am I supposed to eat this…?”
He felt like he was stealing a child’s money.
Aiden couldn’t eat the cake. No one would.
A baby who was at the age of wanting to eat snacks left him a snack to eat, but how could he eat it?
It was them. A strange presence was captured in Aiden’s senses.
‘One. No, is it two?’
The move was so stealthy that it could not be felt unless one was vigilant.
“You’ve really released the restraints.”
It was Ermano’s stand-in-Emperor, Esteban, who appeared in the dark. He opened the cage without any qualms and entered.
“Well, I heard that you released the restraints and escaped on your own last time you were caught. I heard that a metal constraint was used with a lot more potential horsepower than before, but I see it didn’t matter.”
Esteban smirked and lifted a piece of the restraint from the floor.
He clenched his fists lightly, and the pieces fell apart in an instant.
“My soldiers seemed to have underestimated you. What a shame.”
“…”
“I heard you had a good conversation with my daughter, why are you keeping your mouth shut now?”
“Because I have no business with you.”
At Aiden’s answer, Esteban’s mouth hardened.
“That means you have business elsewhere.”
“…”
“Is it with Mabel?”
Again, Aiden remained silent. His reaction convinced Esteban.
“I even heard that you came to Ermano to get revenge on Veron Arthur Devlica. Mabel seems to believe it like an iron fist, but I don’t.”
Esteban lightly shook the remains off his hand and continued.
“There must be a reason why you’re here even when you have the ability to escape. What is it?”
“…”
“Beware. You are here because of my acquiescence.”
Their eyes met. Aiden realized he had been defeated in a short fight.
As he said, he needed permission from Esteban to stay.
No matter how hard the baby Emperor tried, he will be kicked out if Esteban did not allow him to.
Aiden finally decided to tell the truth.
“…I’m in the situation where Veron controls my mind. My actions are constrained and I lose my reason. I’ve killed people on the battlefield as long as I remember.”
“I see.”
“The other day when I was taken to Ermano, I encountered the baby Emperor. And at that time… I felt Veron’s dominance loosen.”
Not only to Esteban, but it was something Lissandro heard for the first time.
“It was the first time. My chaotic mind being clear. Since then, while carrying out Veron’s orders like a dog, I’ve been looking forward to coming to Ermano. That’s how I came here.”
“You mean Mabel undermines Veron’s rule?”
“Yeah.”
Although he didn’t believe it completely, it wasn’t an unconvincing story.
When Mabel, who went on her first walk and encountered Devlin’s Devil, he remembered the Devlin’s Devil losing his mind all of a sudden.
‘I don’t think he’s lying.’
Esteban scanned Aiden again. A boy around the same age as Oscar. He felt terrible that at that age, his hands were already stained with blood.
There was a new hostility towards Veron.
“One arm wasn’t enough as I thought.”
In the first place, he didn’t intend to be merciful to Veron since he touched Mabel.
“It looks like you’re okay even if Mabel is quite far away.”
“This much is fine. The closer the better.”
“You can’t get closer.”
Esteban cut him firmly. Whether he believed the boy’s words or not, he opposed to him getting close to Mabel.
“I will let you know about your treatment soon after I decide.”
“Okay.”
When Aiden nodded softly, Esteban turned around without hesitation. No, he was going to.
If only a strange basket hadn’t entered his vision.
“…what’s this?”
It was Lissandro who answered Esteban’s question.
“Her Majesty left a chocolate cake.”
“Mabel did…?”
“Yes. It came out as a snack, but she gave it to him.”
Mabel’s love for snacks was so famous that everyone in the Imperial Palace knew about it.
Mabel, who ate without being picky, waited for snack time with sparkling eyes.
You gave up on the snacks that you can only eat once a day.
Esteban’s eyes flared.
“…death penalty…”
“Your Majesty! We’ve spent a long time here. Let’s go! The little Majesty will be waiting for you!”
If you get hurt from Mabel, you should treat it with Mabel.
If there is a collision, the Imperial Palace will be devastated. Lissandro managed to stop the mishap from mollifying and appeased the burning Esteban.
‘I have kept peace at the Imperial Palace.’
Lissandro sighed deeply today too.
***
It’s time to go out with the animal friends today. I laid on down and looked up at the sky.
And I organized what I had to do right away in my head.
First. Get Aiden out of prison.
Second. Dismiss the accident.
Even if the first one was hard to do, I was at a really big loss for what to do for the second one.
Everyone laughed and went on about dismissing the accident, so I couldn’t think of a good method.
“Whath to dwo.” (What to do.)
Looking at the frustrating work, I was full of anxiety, and I wanted to overturn everything if I saw him being treated unfairly.
‘Euu. Now I really have to put up with it.’
But Duke Javier could not stand the installation.
Yes. Except for Duke Javier, let’s put up with the rest.
[What are you thinking about so much?]
The kitty curled its chin on my leg. I patted his back.
‘I don’t want to be Emperor.’
[You’re only the Emperor in name though?]
‘Want to die?’
[Or not.]
The kitty snapped its tail and turned its head, laying down. Such an unhelpful divine beast.
I was in agonizing again.
“Dethwonement, dethwonement…” (Dethronement, dethronement…)
What should I do to make everyone hate me.
Complain about the side dishes?
‘But the food is delicious. And what is the chef guilty of?’
Cry at the regular meetings?
‘They’re just going to say that I’m cute when I cry and then laugh again.’
Fight with Oscar?
‘He’ll probably say he was wrong.’
Should I hit the stand-in-Emperor?
‘This isn’t a bad method. I’ll keep it.’
Various ideas came to mind, but there was nothing particularly useful.
It was then.
“Waith.” (Wait.)
Come to think of it, my second birthday would be in about two months. I heard that this year’s birthday part was going to be a big one.
���Oho.”
A good idea suddenly came to mind.
In that way, everyone was sure to shout in unison that the Emperor, who was such a thug, should be dragged down immediately. (T/N: You’re two. No one is going to think that.)
‘It’ll work this time!’
Let’s go, towards dethronement!