Chapter 3 : The Axis of Evil (2)
An afternoon with a cool breeze and the damp scent of autumn blowing in.
I still hadn't escaped the 7th Prince's body.
Nothing much had happened in the meantime.
There was one time I'd spent an entire day just in bed, wondering if I might return to my original world if I fell asleep and woke up again, but that wasn't really enough to be called an incident.
Other than that, I was adapting to this world surprisingly well.
In truth, it wasn't all that different from the time I'd spent in the real world.
Just not thinking about anything other than safely surviving that one day.
If I had to find a difference, it would be that this time, death truly had its maw wide open right next to me.
Considering that, I was doing well, to a degree that even I found suspicious.
For me, who had read the [Dark Header] series over 100 times, the developments of this world were as obvious as looking at my own palm, so I didn't feel particularly antsy, and there was still a year left before the original story began.
If my body didn't return to normal during that time…… there wasn't really much I could do anyway.
I still spent my days acting as the 7th Prince, and no one particularly interfered with me.
Occasionally, the suspicious gaze of that child named Anna would land on me, but since the kid would tremble like an aspen tree and lower her eyes if I just glanced at her, no strange rumors spread.
Still, it would be troublesome if she went around blabbing to other people that I was strange, like last time.
Knock knock.
It was a cautious knocking sound that pulled me, who had been blankly drumming on the desk, back to reality.
“What is it?”
“Your Highness, we have prepared your meal.”
I put down the book I'd been reading to gather information and answer.
“Come in.”
3 maids entered, pushing a silver tray.
As it happened, Anna was pushing the wheels, stuck to the tray like sugar syrup reduced in a pot.
That kid is the problem.
The only kid who muttered I was strange at the laundry area and paid attention to my change.
I sat with my legs crossed and watched the maids prepare the meal.
The maids couldn't even lift their heads and, sweating coldly, they ladled small portions of food onto the plates.
When setting down the porcelain teapot filled with hot tea, they even made a slight clattering sound and then diligently watched my reaction.
This reaction from the servants played a big part in my not getting caught for possessing the 7th Prince's body.
Because everyone feared the 7th Prince's temper, which was worse than a beast's.
In the novel, Ran was the most looked-down-upon figure among the Imperiality and he had a personality where he took out his resulting inferiority complex on those who were of lower status and easy targets.
'Taking it out' mostly meant violence, murder if it was severe, or just irritation if it was light.
In a word, he was trash.
Perhaps because he had pulled so much f*cking crap before, the servants were busy bowing their heads deeply and begging for forgiveness even if I just sat still and watched.
Pressuring innocent people didn't feel great, but thanks to that, no one noticed the change in me.
And I had also been acting as the 7th Prince from the novel pretty diligently.
Because what I wanted right now was to stay quiet for the time being and return to my original body before the novel's main plot began.
I also had to be careful to consider the flow of the original story.
But that child had sensed something.
I remembered her saying that it was strange I wasn't throwing plates at people lately.
Was the source of the trouble that I'd just thrown teacups on the floor a few times, since I couldn't bring myself to throw them at people?
Would it be okay to just leave her be?
If she kept appealing to the other servants that I was strange, like before, a problem could arise.
Knock knock knock.
As I was contemplating what to do about Anna, a rough knocking sound suddenly rang out.
Immediately after, someone burst the door open and entered without my permission.
“Your Highness, it is Sein. I have entered despite the discourtesy.”
The lanky, thin man apologized with an expression that said he wasn't being discourteous at all.
He bowed his head deeply in greeting, but the face he lifted held a glimmer of contempt for me.
It was the man who had chased me out when I became a crow on the first day.
***
Sein.
The 7th Prince's adjutant.
Fascinated by the first appearance of a character mentioned in the novel, I studied him closely.
Neatly slicked-back light brown hair, hollow cheeks, small glasses perched on the bridge of his nose, and finally, a thin body that looked to be about 190 [cm].
Unlike his appearance, which seemed scholarly at a glance, his practical skills are terrible.
He is a distant relative of the current Empress, and a character who despises the original 7th Prince, who fears the Empress.
In truth, the very fact that he works here means the Empress doesn't care about him at all, but the foolish Ran in the novel doesn't know this and believes Sein's words when he brings up the Empress.
-Since Your Highness is so foolish, I do not know what I should say to Her Majesty, the Empress.
When he said this, the 7th Prince would mostly shut his mouth.
After being put in his place by Sein, the prince would throw more hysterics at his subordinates.
Sein especially liked seeing the prince show such an undignified and unsightly appearance.
Because he knows he can't be treated carelessly.
That must be why he's standing there with such a relaxed expression in front of the prince.
I slowly opened my mouth.
“What is it?”
“I heard the news that you were unwell this past week. I have never heard that the noble Imperiality could be indisposed, so I, your humble servant, was very worried. Your Highness. However, I have come because there are important duties that Your Highness must handle. You may not understand as you are still young, but it is a very urgent matter.”
He ostentatiously placed the bundle of papers he'd brought next to the table where the meal was clearly laid out, and continued speaking.
“Please sign them at once.”
At the end of his long speech, he twitched the glasses on the bridge of his nose once.
Of course, it was all long-winded nonsense.
First of all, the 7th Prince is so stupid and incompetent that he isn't entrusted with urgent work.
They're just documents that come for appearances' sake.
At most, they are utterly useless matters like what to change the horse feed in the stables to.
The only right thing that man said was probably that it was his first time seeing a member of the Imperial family sick.
The Imperial family doesn't really get sick.
They don't fall ill easily.
That is their given setting in the novel.
The 7th Prince's body is also sturdier than an ordinary person's, in its own way, but compared to his siblings, he's practically a normal person.
That must have been a part that the inferiority-complex-ridden 7th Prince didn't want to be touched.
There's no way Sein didn't know that.
If it had been the 7th Prince, he either would have been too stupid to understand, or even if he understood, he would have just trembled.
Of course, since I wasn't the 7th Prince, I just felt a business-like feeling about what to do with him.
As I stared at him without any particular word, he must have thought I was holding back my anger, as a sneer spread across his thin face.
“Do you have something to say to me?”
He asked, not hiding his ridicule.
“Or perhaps, something to say to others?”
He said so and glanced sideways at the maids, who had moved off to the side and been trembling for a while.
As if to say, 'Go on and do it, if you're going to.'
It seemed like a good opportunity to clear up Anna's suspicious misunderstanding.
***
That stupid 7th Prince bastard.
Sein walked, mentally tearing into the 7th Prince who hadn't come out of his room for a whole week.
For a week now, the prince's condition had been strange.
The bastard wasn't listening to him.
Even though he was a moron who, despite showing his dislike, would sign what he was told to sign, and, despite being humiliated, would listen obediently.
In the first place, it was absurd that something that wasn't even like Imperiality was occupying that position.
The Imperial family is the divine race.
As if the entire world existed for them, all things revolved around the Imperial family.
The beautiful golden hair, which only the Imperial family could have, was the object of everyone's envy.
Sein, too, had grown up hearing about the Imperial family since he was young, and had been educated that the Imperial family must be served and revered.
Furthermore, he was even a distant relative of the Empress.
Though he was so very distant, it was ambiguous to even call him a relative.
The pride that came from being an existence close to the Imperial family, and the regret that he had just missed forming a bond with them, had made him nurture the dream of working in the Imperial Palace.
However, he, who had no special talent in either academics or martial arts, was only barely able to obtain this position after offering a bribe behind the scenes.
The Imperiality he got to see after going that far was, literally, the incarnation of gods and the symbol of nobility.
Their life in the Imperial Palace looked luxurious and beautiful, as if modeled after the world of the gods.
And all of it seemed perfectly just.
Except for that 7th Prince he served.
Sein could not forget the day he first saw this ill-tempered, black-haired prince.
He was stupid, shabby, and vulgar.
He had gone in to give him a report, and his cheek had even gotten scratched because the prince threw a bundle of documents.
That kind of thing is Imperiality ?
The 7th Prince, who looked even more stupid than himself, lived enjoying everything he could, just because he was Imperial .
Even if he was like dust among the other Imperialities , the nobles couldn't treat him carelessly because of the name 'Imperial', and they pretended not to see his atrocities.
Even if he didn't live as luxuriously as the other Imperials, he was living a life that looked like it had never known money worries.
It was different from him, the third son of a poor count's family, who had to go around begging for money.
What was so great about that half-witted bastard?
Sein couldn't control his boiling anger and jealousy.
Living as a limb of the Imperial family, which he had dreamed of, was not like this.
He had poured so much money into it, but the position he'd ended up with was just the role of taking care of an abandoned prince.
But it was after he had already overextended himself to gather money and offer the bribe.
He couldn't quit the job now, so he had no choice but to endure working under the prince.
-You……. Is it true you're a relative of Her Majesty, the Empress?
Until the stupid prince asked that.
Sein read the fear, slight curiosity, and hope reflected in his eyes.
Ah, this prince may be stupid, but it seems he's useful.
After that, it was smooth sailing.
The stupid prince signed what he was told to sign and wrote what he was told to write.
Even when he embezzled the budget coming to the prince's palace, the bastard knew nothing.
When his patience seemed to hit rock bottom, if Sein mentioned the Empress every now and then, he would quiet down at once.
And he would take out that stress on the maids or servants.
Sein liked seeing that ugly sight.
Although he was a half-wit, there was a sense of superiority in knowing an Imperial couldn't touch him carelessly, but above all, his trashy behavior gave Sein justification.
The thought that, as expected, trash like that deserves to be treated this way, put his mind at ease.
Every day was a road to success.
But then.
A week ago, the prince had apparently given an order not to let anyone into his room.
No matter how much he told them to announce that the adjutant had arrived, the servants and maids just repeated the same words.
In truth, if the prince said so, it was correct that there was nothing Sein could do.
No matter how half-witted an Imperial he was, if he gave an order, Sein was in a position where he had to follow it, unless he was really the Empress's dear relative.
As that filthy fact was newly brought to mind, Sein's buried inferiority complex burst out.
It couldn't be like this.
He had to always be the ugly, stupid prince.
Because of the money he'd pulled, trusting that he would be able to embezzle the prince's palace funds, he was also starting to need the prince's signature on the fabricated documents.
“Is His Highness the Prince still holed up in his room?!”
He could no longer bear it and pressed a passing maid.
“R-…… Right now, he is in his room having a meal.”
The maid, terrified by his bloodshot eyes, spat out only the minimal information and ran away.
A meal…… He's having a meal, he says.
If he's having a meal in his room, there must be maids around.
This is even better.
Today, I'll humiliate him in front of the servants.
Then that stupid prince will again be unable to control his anger and tremble, but he won't be able to say a peep to me.
He might even grab the maids next to him and kill them on the spot.
Could there be any sight uglier than that?
Sein, without even knowing what expression he was making, knocked and immediately burst into the room.
The prince was sitting in his chair in an arrogant posture.
“Your Highness, it is Sein. I have entered despite the discourtesy.”
Sein, excited at the thought of humiliating the prince in front of the servants, did not notice that the prince, who was tilting his head and looking at him, was staring back with a perfect deadpan, neither frowning nor intimidated.