I fell deep in thought after the daemon girl left.
Most of the information that she told me was something that I already expected. However, the last part was slightly unexpected.
The Carmell Family, huh.
The fact that Princess E'Athar told me to be careful of them tells me a lot.
It was enough for me to connect several dots that I had not connected yet.
It looks like tomorrow will be much more interesting than I thought.
…
On the day of the emperor's birthday, the entire capital was lively.
As a famous holiday in the empire, the Emperor's Birthday was a day of festivities for the people living in the city.
Today, the city was filled with decorations and stalls, with people celebrating happily in the streets.
The noble district was just as lively.
Even though nobles were not like commoners and they did not plan to go out to celebrate in the streets, they were going to celebrate in their own way.
Many of them were getting ready to depart to the palace.
Every minute, noble carriages could be seen going in the direction of the palace.
From the lowliest baron until the strongest earl was going to the palace to celebrate the birthday of the ruler of this nation and participate in the emperor's banquet.
The surroundings of the palace were filled with soldiers. Practitioners ranging from fifth-layer soldiers to twelfth-layer powerhouses were patrolling the streets, searching for the slightest sign of instability.
Today was the emperor's birthday, so nothing could go wrong.
The emperor's birthday banquet was scheduled to start one hour after noon, so I arrived at the palace exactly at noon.
Louise, Mia, Headmistress Evelyn, and Daisy came with me.
Louise came as Dina's aide; Headmistress Evelyn came representing the Imperial Institute; and Daisy came as my personal servant.
Personal servants were not allowed to go inside the banquet though, so she had to wait for me outside.
As for Mia… Her situation was a bit more complicated.
She came here uninvited.
In fact, she came here as my partner.
Of course, she did not have any intention to become my lover or anything like that. Instead, she asked me to bring her to the palace.
Her intention was to come to see if she could make an appeal to the emperor.
After all, Mia is part of the Hera family, just like Christine. She planned to come to the banquet and see if she could ask the emperor for mercy to her family.
I knew that it was useless, but I did not stop her. It was not as though I could tell her about what was going to happen today.
We went directly towards the banquet hall. On the way, some nobles greeted me amiably. The number of nobles that greeted me was bigger than usual.
It was probably due to my recent achievement in Fort Mist. Otherwise, most nobles would not bother to greet me after taking into account my relationship with my father.
Just when we were about to enter the banquet hall, we met someone unexpected.
I could see a young man stopping abruptly in front of me. He frowned briefly when he saw my face, but he then put on a small smile and greeted me.
"Little brother, you are here."
He was my eldest brother, Alan Quintin.
I returned his greeting with a smile just as hypocritical as his. "Greetings, Eldest Brother. I see that you did not come alone."
Alan nodded and looked at the people behind him.
Just like me, Alan did not come alone.
Three people were following him. Al Riea, the young master of the Riea family and Louise's brother; Christine Hera, Alan's former fiancée; and Albert Carmell, the young master of the Carmell Family.
Of the three, Al snorted when he saw me, and Christine lowered her head with a slightly nervous expression. Only the young master of the Carmell Family greeted me normally.
"Prince Claus."
"How are you, Mr. Albert?" I nodded at the young man and looked at my brother again. "It was a pleasure to meet you, brother. Let's talk later, I don't have time to lose here."
I could see Alan's eyelids twitching slightly.
Well, It was normal considering that I just insinuated that it was a loss of time to talk to him.
However, he surprisingly stayed silent.
Most likely, he did not want to cause a commotion right now. Not when he was about to become the emperor (or he thought so).
Instead, it was Al who spoke up.
"Don't be cocky, Claus! You are nothing more than the child of a servant!"
"Al!" Louise scolded her brother. However, Al just sneered with a disdainful expression.
"Shut up, woman. A traitor like you doesn't have any right to talk to me that way!"
Louise's wrinkled her brows and her expression turned dark. But before she could speak, a voice came from behind us.
"Young master Al, how do you dare to call my mother a servant!?"
Al shuddered. Looking behind us, he saw my sister coming over with an ice-cold glare.
Dina's glare was incredibly ice-cold sharp. So much that it seemed like it was going to cut Al into two. After seeing that gaze, Al could not help but take several steps back.
But when he realized it, his face turned red in shame and anger.
"… I was only saying the truth! Your mother was nothing more than a servant that seduced the emperor!"
"You…" Dina was incensed. She could not tolerate that.
Even if her mother was a servant when the emperor raped her, she was also a noble. Al did not have any right to call her a servant.
Seeing the rage on her face, I grabbed her hand.
'Calm down.' I told to her with my gaze.
Dina looked at me and took a deep breath before glaring at Al again.
At the same time, I looked at Al with a slight smile on my face.
"Al, if you dare to mention my mother again, I don't mind making you kneel right now."
Al shuddered immediately.
"Brother, I don't think that is appropriate," Alan said immediately, "Today is father's birthday. And Al is a noble."
However, I just grinned and shrugged.
"Really? I think so as well. So, brother-in-law." I said while looking at Al. "Please don't test the truth of my words."
Al's face turned completely pale.
Seeing my smile triggered the seed of fear in his mind. His body turned weak, and cold sweat started to run down his back.
Alan frowned in displeasure when he saw that.
"… Al, stop shaming me. And you, brother, I will have a good chat with you tomorrow."
Hehe, really?
It looks like you are planning to kill me as soon as you become the emperor.
I sneered inwardly in my mind.
Alan's group left after that. Once they left, I greeted my sister with a smile.
Dina was happy about seeing me, however, she also seemed slightly nervous about what was about to happen today. It was almost unnoticeable, but I, as her brother, noticed it easily.
With a gentle expression on my face, I grabbed her hand and put my forehead against hers.
"Don't worry, everything will be alright."
Dina nodded softly and blushed.
"… Hey, we are in public. And my fiancée is here."
I chuckled when I heard that.
Right, I did not mention it, but a red-haired man was following Dina.
That man was 'Clark', Dina's fiancée.
He is a clone that I created just for today. That way, nobody will suspect that Clark and I are the same people.
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Clark," I extended my hand to 'Clark.'
"Prince Claus, I have heard a lot about you."
Dina, Louise, Daisy, and Headmistress Evelyn, who knew the truth about the situation, rolled their eyes when they saw 'our' exchange. Only Mia looked at our interaction curiously.
I looked at my clone and smirked. Then, I looked at the girls behind me with a grin on my face.
"Let's go. Today's banquet is about to start."
....
P4TRFE0N: patr-eon.com/aidnovels