Chapter 72
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 72
The banquet was winding down. Before I realized it, the crowd had thinned by half.
Martina Diva was nowhere to be seen in the hall anymore. I took a breath and glanced around. No one was paying me any attention.
Looks like a good time to slip out.
I pushed off the wall and looked toward one side of the hall—where the noisiest crowd had gathered.
Jupe.
Jupe and his followers were clustered together. He was working the room, mingling with various nobles as if to flaunt his influence.
Ilay?
Jupe was talking with Ilay. Ever the sociable one, Ilay kept a gentle smile plastered on his face even while cornered by Jupe.
Our eyes met.
Help me, Luka.
Ilay mouthed the words quickly. It seemed Jupe had him trapped.
From Jupe's point of view, he probably wanted to win over Ilay—the prime candidate to become the next Family Head of Kartika.
What do I do.
I'd wanted to avoid speaking to Jupe as much as possible tonight. But I couldn't just leave Ilay stranded either.
I walked over to Jupe's group. Their eyes fixed on me.
"Ilay, there you are. Do you have a moment?"
At my call, Jupe furrowed his brow.
"Luka, can't you see we're in the middle of a conversation? How rude."
"I know it's rude, but it concerns Imperial Guard business. It's urgent and important."
"Business? During a banquet?"
Jupe glared at me, demanding an explanation.
"I cannot disclose the details to an outsider who isn't part of the Imperial Guard."
I spoke calmly. This was exactly why I hated dealing with Jupe. He tried to pick a fight over every little thing. I barely suppressed the urge to knock his front teeth out.
"What kind of important mission could a mere cadet possibly—"
Jupe caught himself mid-sentence, realizing his slip. He seemed to have forgotten what this banquet was even celebrating.
"There are plenty of important missions. Tracking down a class-one wanted criminal, for instance. Security and confidentiality are the foundation of Imperial Guard operations, brother."
"I—I know that. Ilay, then, until next time..."
Jupe released Ilay and walked off.
Ilay let out a sigh of relief once he was gone.
"Thanks, you saved me, Luka. Your brother's quite persistent."
"It's partly your fault. You keep smiling and playing along, so of course he clings to you."
"The urgent business was a lie, right?"
"Did you actually think it was real? You should head out too. The banquet's over."
I said, already walking toward the exit.
"Aren't you curious what Jupe and I were talking about?"
"Probably something trivial. Don't care."
I meant it. Besides, I could already guess the gist of it.
"He was asking whether you had any weaknesses. Be careful. Looks like he's planning to keep you in check—aggressively."
Ilay wasn't saying this out of genuine concern, either. He'd clearly measured Jupe's caliber after just a few exchanges. Jupe was a true "young master," in the worst sense of the word.
Out of courtesy, I saw Ilay off before returning to the banquet hall. I still had to report to Heilas before leaving.
"You did quite well today, son. Go get some rest."
Heilas offered a brief word of praise.
The high-ranking officials and generals standing beside him whispered among themselves. Their gazes flicked toward me for a moment.
Their eyes were dry, almost inorganic. Every one of them was such a formidable figure that I couldn't pull up their information even with my Watcher Authority.
These were the people who ran the Empire. No—monsters might be the more accurate word.
* * *
After slipping out of the banquet hall, I made my way down the corridor.
I'd been quenching my thirst with alcohol all night, and my senses felt strangely off.
How unpleasant.
I couldn't understand people who enjoyed this. Why would anyone deliberately impair their own physical and cognitive functions?
Grumbling to myself, I stared at the wall.
The imperial banquet hall the Custoria family had rented was located in one of the Imperial Palace's annexes. Because of that, portraits of past emperors hung at intervals along the corridor.
The paintings of the first Emperor, Dino Cracia, in particular, stretched out in a long, sequential series.
Dino Cracia.
I stopped in front of a full-body portrait. It depicted the first Emperor holding his sword aloft. A halo painted in luminescent pigment glowed around him, enveloping his figure.
I shifted my gaze to the next painting—the first Emperor holding a flag, surrounded by a throng of followers. It seemed to symbolize the founding era of the Empire.
Step, step.
I walked on, taking in the artwork. They depicted grotesquely rendered alien species and the Emperor's valiant struggle against them.
...How holy. How sacred.
The achievements and records of other emperors were displayed as well, but none carried the same majesty as the first.
The current Emperor, Yuri Cracia.
I stopped before the portrait of the reigning Emperor. Every emperor throughout history bore a striking resemblance to the first, almost as though they were his clones. Yuri Cracia was no exception.
Simply resembling Dino Cracia lent them an air of majesty. That was how deeply the first Emperor was revered as the father of the Empire.
Tap.
The sound of footsteps clicking against the marble floor echoed. I lifted my head and looked toward the end of the corridor.
"Are you the star of tonight's banquet? Lucaus Custoria?"
It was a clear, refreshing voice—androgynous and beautiful, making it hard to tell whether the speaker was male or female.
And it wasn't just the voice. I watched the figure emerge from the shadows of the corridor. Straight, neatly trimmed purple hair fell to the nape of his neck. His features were both handsome and pretty, blurring the line between genders.
But looking closely, he was definitely a boy.
Whir.
My cybernetic prosthetic eye activated. I tried to pull up his information—but not a single shred of data appeared.
Judging by his appearance, the boy looked to be around my age. I reached a conclusion almost instantly.
"...I greet the descendant of the founders."
I dropped to one knee, keeping my head bowed as I spoke.
"Oh? Quick-witted, aren't you? No wonder you managed to earn such military merits as a mere cadet."
He walked toward me, sounding impressed.
A minor whose information can't be accessed even with my Watcher Authority.
And this was an imperial villa.
The boy in front of me is, with very high probability, a member of the Imperial Family. He might even be one of the current Emperor's children.
Aside from those holding public office, the members of the Imperial Family were shrouded in mystery.
Only the Emperor and his successor ever showed their faces in public. At present, that meant just Emperor Yuri Cracia and Fransek Cracia—the one famously known as the Crimson Crown Prince.
"You may rise, Lucaus."
I stood in silence. However arrogant I could be, I wasn't fool enough to challenge royalty.
I must not ask a single thing until the Imperial Boy spoke first.
"Follow me. I'll show you the garden."
I had no idea what this whim was about. Regardless, I fell in behind him.
There's no one around.
The banquet had clearly just ended, yet the corridor was eerily silent. Not a single presence other than myself and the boy.
They cleared the crowd from his path in advance.
The crowd control had been so seamless that even I hadn't noticed it.
Because the personal information of the Imperial Family is one of the Empire's highest secrets.
Without prior permission, catching even an accidental glimpse of an Imperial Family member's face was nearly impossible.
For whatever reason, this boy came here specifically to meet me.
I tried to read his intentions, then gave up. Deduction requires data. No matter how powerful a computer, it can't reach a conclusion without input.
There was only one piece of information about the boy: that he carried imperial blood.
Click.
The boy opened a set of double glass doors. Beyond them lay a garden.
At its center sat a pond, the crescent moon reflected in its surface as though submerged beneath the water. Around it, nameless flowers and plants bloomed in abundance, striking a balance between chaos and order.
"I wanted to talk to the subject of the rumors."
The boy stood by the pond and stretched a hand out over the water.
Splash!
The fish broke the surface, mouths puckering as they chased his hand. He wiggled his fingers, pretending to scatter feed.
Splash! Splash!
The fish scrambled, thrusting their snouts toward him.
"These creatures are fools. Just stretch out a hand and they rush over, convinced they're being fed. Even the ones trailing behind gather without knowing why. None of them care about facts or truth. They simply drift along, following the others."
I listened, my lips parting slightly before I closed them again. Not yet.
"You may speak if you wish."
The boy granted permission.
"...But they only gather like that because they've been given real food before. They learned it through experience."
"Exactly, Lucaus. If you never actually feed them, at some point they'll stop coming. That's why you must give them real food once in a while. Then these creatures will delude themselves into thinking their efforts meant something—that the food fell because they diligently chased my hand."
I kept my expression blank. I didn't fully grasp the metaphor at once, but a deep discomfort settled over me.
"But even if the reward is nothing more than the master's whim, those who give up and refuse to move won't get even that much."
"Haha, I'm glad I spoke with you. You're right about that, too. Since you're in the garden, look around. Not just these carp—the flowers and trees are original species from Earth. Not a single modification for environmental adaptation. This garden is essentially a miniature Earth."
I felt no particular awe. To my eyes, they looked no different from any other flora and fauna.
Splash!
I approached the pond. A school of carp swarmed toward me, puckering their foolish-looking faces.
"What do you think?"
The boy asked, gazing down at the carp beside me.
"The more I look at them, the cuter they seem."
"Is that so? Then this is an order, Lucaus Custoria. Kill them all."
The boy said it as casually as a simple request.
It would be a lie to say I wasn't taken aback. But an order was an order.
Splash.
I stepped into the pond, water rising to my waist. The gathered carp scattered in every direction, but in a pond this small, there was nowhere to run.
I calmly carried out the order.
The pond cradling its submerged moon stained red with the blood of the carp. Blood drifted like clouds across the reflected moonlight. The carcasses—heads crushed in my hands—floated to the surface.
"Good work."
Praising me, the boy snatched up one of the dead carp.
Crunch, crunch.
He buried his mouth in the carp's belly and ate ravenously. His lips came away crimson. It was a savage act, utterly at odds with his aristocratic appearance.
"Want some?"
The boy asked, holding the dead fish out toward me.
"If it is an order, I will eat."
I said, still standing in the pond.
"Hmm. Sounds to me like you'd rather not."
The boy wiped his blood-smeared lips with the back of his hand. A streak trailed down his cheek like smudged lipstick.
I didn't deny it. If it made me seem insolent, so be it. I had no intention of offering hollow flattery or humoring his bizarre appetite.
"You may leave. See you next time, Luka."
I climbed out of the pond, then bowed deeply and politely.
Drip, drip.
Fishy droplets fell at my feet.
Squish, squish.
I walked down the corridor. Before long, the silence lifted, and people began to appear one by one. The crowd control had ended.
Some of the banquet guests were in the corridor now as well. I walked on, feeling their eyes crawl over me.
...How exhausting. It felt as though I'd been possessed by a ghost.