Chapter 13
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 13 - A Father Fears His Son
Inside the carriage returning after the banquet ended, I was agonizing over things more than ever.
As an achievement for resolving the Southern peasant rebellion, the prince gave me a special reward from his privy purse.
Roughly 100 gold. Since 1 gold is worth about 10 million won, it was like giving a reward worth about 1 billion won in my past life's value in one shot.
Of course, compared to the money I could have pocketed through bribes, it was a very small amount of money.
But it was legal, and above all, 'justifiable compensation'.
"Would it just be better to hold onto this connection..."
At first, my goal was to go into exile and enjoy a comfortable country life.
But thinking about it, I also thought that becoming the prince's right-hand man wouldn't be bad either.
If the prince, who came to his senses, becomes a proper Emperor unlike in the original work, I would be able to occupy at least a Count Palatine position like my father, or some other decent position.
And if I work moderately and escape before I get 'Hwanghui-ed' [worked to death/forced to serve until old age], a very peaceful otherworldly noble life would begin.
If it were the me of the original work, I would be living a life of luxury with the bribes received from Count Wilhelm by now, deceiving the prince's eyes. But to me, who knows the end of that, it only looked like a ticket to hell.
"Alright... let's work only as much as I've received... exactly as much as I've received!"
After thinking carefully, I decided to work hard for as much as I had received.
The world had too many unstable things to go all-in on the prince coin too brainlessly.
There is a saying that the Korean stock market is not a place, but wherever Koreans are.
Just like that saying, any stock market in the world could suddenly become like the Korean stock market and turn into a mess at any time.
I will work hard for the prince for as much as I've received, but let's prepare a resignation letter—no, an escape route in my heart so I can bounce at any time in an emergency.
As I organized my thoughts like that, I arrived home with good timing.
I should sleep comfortably today.
When I was having such thoughts, the butler's chilling voice greeted me.
"Young Master, the Count is waiting for you in his office. He told you to come immediately."
"Haa... Understood."
Damn, what was bound to come has come this quickly.
I swallowed dry saliva and headed to the office of my genetic father, Albert Noel.
As soon as the office door opened, a heavy silence fell upon Edric.
The gaze of Albert Noel, sitting in the darkness beyond the desk, was not that of his usual benevolent father.
"So, have you returned. Edric."
"Yes, I have returned. Father."
That was an appearance Albert absolutely never showed outside.
Not the benevolent Count Palatine Albert, but the appearance as the insidious head of the Noel family.
And it was the appearance of his father that Edric had always seen.
As soon as Edric took a seat, he threw the bundle of documents regarding the Southern peasant rebellion onto the desk and asked straightforwardly.
"Explain. Why did you handle the affairs of the South like that?"
Albert's voice was laid low.
A boiling anger was contained within it.
The actual blow from the Southern slush fund pipeline being severed had provoked him.
However, Edric did not panic; he pulled out a thin ledger he had prepared in advance from his embrace and placed it on the desk.
"I think it would be best if you looked at this first, Father."
"This is?"
Albert furrowed his brow and opened the ledger.
Albert's hands, flipping through the ledger, began to tremble faintly.
It was a secret ledger, managed by only a very few among the Southern nobles, containing the detailed breakdown of the bribes that flowed to Albert Noel.
Because there was no source regarding the recipient, it wouldn't cause immediate harm to Albert with just this, but it was a ledger that could play the role of tracking down his tail.
"Edric... where did you get this."
"I found it in Count Wilhelm's secret warehouse."
Albert's hands trembled.
Because he hadn't even imagined that raccoon Wilhelm would have created such a thing.
"He had crossed the line quite a lot in various ways. He was plotting treason beyond simple tax exploitation. So I merely punished him strictly according to the Imperial Law."
Albert closed the ledger and glared at Edric.
He understood disposing of Wilhelm.
But the method was too 'radical'.
If it were him, he would have threatened Wilhelm with that evidence, made a few nobles scapegoats as an example, and then made Wilhelm even more of his puppet.
Albert raised his voice.
"Even so, holding him accountable for the crime of treason was going too far. You should have at least sent word to me first and discussed it!"
Even at Albert's scolding, Edric remained calm.
Rather, he looked at his father with a worried expression and added a word.
"A long tail is bound to be stepped on, Father."
"What!? What on earth are you saying right now!"
At Edric's words, Albert was flustered.
He was a son who had only listened quietly at the moments when he scolded him.
However, Edric emitted an intimidating presence that pressured even him and spoke.
"Her Highness the Princess's surveillance has also intensified now, so I think it would be better for Father to be a bit more careful as well. As a son, I do not wish to see the sight of my father being dragged away like Wilhelm."
"Y... what are you saying right now! Gasp!?"
For a moment, looking at Edric, Albert was surprised.
Edric's eyes were curved narrowly like a snake.
Yet, he was looking at him with truly sincere eyes of worry.
Albert knew that gaze very well.
Because that was his own gaze.
'Could this gaze be...'
It was the very gaze Albert himself made when he drove his political opponents to the brink of ruin, pretending to show final mercy while toying with his opponent.
Receiving such a gaze from his own son, Albert felt goosebumps.
"If you have finished what you had to say, I shall get up."
As if his business was done, Edric gave a polite bow and tried to leave the office.
Behind the back of Edric, who had grabbed the doorknob, Albert asked with a suppressed voice.
"...Edric. Are you, truly intending to do that?"
Albert had seen Wilhelm's final will in the report.
That Edric would devour the empire.
Most people thought it was nonsense after seeing Edric's track record, but Albert thought differently.
If it was his own son, he thought it was a one-in-a-million chance, but he could do it.
At Albert's words, Edric stopped and turned his head slightly.
A light smile hung on his face.
Because it was a smile that was too honest, Albert could not read his true inner thoughts.
"I have always been sincere, Father."
With those final words, the door closed, and Edric left.
Left alone after the door closed, Albert Noel gripped the ledger tightly with trembling hands.
'This bastard... is he intending to compete with me now!'
Dividing the Imperial Family, seizing power himself, and becoming the ruler who maneuvers the empire secretly...
That was precisely Albert's goal.
Meaning to devour the empire ultimately meant meaning to fight against him.
There was no way his son, whom he raised as a pawn to control the prince for that purpose, wouldn't know that.
The reason he said this despite knowing that was...
"Is he saying he is confident he can win..."
Recalling the face of his son who was toying with him with an honest smile whose inside could not be known...
Albert realized the fact that a monster he could not handle was growing within his embrace.
"Even when I worry for him, he throws a fit."
As I came out of Albert's room, annoyance washed over me.
Since he was my father for now, I hid some evidence for him and worried for him, yet he got angry and threw a fit.
As expected, is it because he is one of the villains in the original work?
His bastard levels were no joke.
To call that a father, sigh.
"Even so... making such an expression at a son who says he will work hard?"
And that reaction was too much towards me, who sincerely intends to try doing the job of the prince's aide a bit.
Even if a son talked back a little, it was truly too much.
"Sigh, let's just go sleep."
However, perhaps because he was only the father of my genetic possessed body, I didn't feel much mentally.
Rather, my tired body was struggling more.
Dragging my tired body, I headed to the bedroom where my soft bed was waiting.
The long, long homecoming event was finally over.
Two weeks had passed since returning to the capital.
Unlike the fishy smell of dirt in Southern Livia, the air of the capital Athena was antique and peaceful, but my daily life was not peaceful at all.
"Sir Edric! Take a look at these documents! It is the breakdown of the confiscation of Wilhelm's assets, and more gold bars came out than expected!"
"Edric, please select who among the Southern nobles is the most loyal. I trust your eye!"
Prince Leopold was truly in 'Prince Awakening Mode'.
He showed astonishing driving force, wrapping up the Southern peasant rebellion incident with his own hands.
Count Wilhelm cleanly disappeared as dew on the guillotine for the crime of treason, and the William family was excommunicated, meeting a miserable end where the entire clan was demoted to slaves.
In that process, with my creed of 'let's work only as much as I've received', I merely chimed in a few words from the side, but the result was unconventional.
The nobles colluding with Wilhelm had their souls shaken down and barely preserved their lives only after offering up their territories and donations, and the upright nobles who had not participated in the exploitation rose as the new leading figures of the South.
The power structure of the South was perfectly reorganized around the prince.
And the work was not just that.
"Your Highness the Prince, it is time for swordsmanship training."
"Is it already time? Let us go immediately."
The prince participated in swordsmanship training, imperial education, and so on without missing any of the duties a prince should perform.
"Edric, why are you sitting?"
"I am tired... so I shall rest for today."
"The more tired you are, the more you must move your body! Follow me immediately!"
"Pardon!? L... Lord Leopold! Y! Your Highness the Prince!?"
The problem was that I was also swept up in that and forcibly made to participate in the training.
Before, I only had to watch, but lately, he was forcibly making me participate in the training as well.
I seriously want to sue him.
And at that time, Emperor Theodore was looking at the drill grounds from his office window.
There, Leopold was devoting himself to training, sweating with Edric and the knights.
"Albert, are you watching? To think Leopold would change like that. I feel like I am dreaming these days."
At Emperor Theodore's pleased voice, Count Palatine Albert Noel, standing beside him, bowed his head.
A faint spasm occurred under Albert's eyes, but his mask was perfect.
"As His Highness the Prince's spirit soars higher day by day, the future of the empire is full of dawn, Your Majesty."
"It is all thanks to Edric Noel, your son. Your son resembles his father and is very brilliant. I am now certain that I can entrust the next step to Leopold."
Albert's pupils sank coldly.
He already guessed what the 'next step' the Emperor was talking about was.
"Now is the time to solidify the legitimacy of the Imperial Family. Proceed with the marriage talks between the daughter of the Grand Duke of the North and Leopold."
In an instant, Edric felt the cold wind of the North brush past him.
Winter was coming.