Chapter 53
Chapter: 53
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>Translator: penny
>Chapter: 53
>Chapter Title: Clanos (5)
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>Seongjin was crouched down, staring into the campfire.
Crackle, crackle.
Even the red flames seemed to have lost their heat amid the hazy, clouded vision and the faintly colored scenery. It was like scenes from an old, faded film.
*This is a dream.* Seongjin thought blankly.
-What are you grilling right now, hyung?
He was asking someone in the voice of a young child. Then came the voice of a kind man.
-Freshwater crayfish.
-Freshwater crayfish?
-Yeah. The other day, they dragged us up the mountain for some survival training and we starved for a few days. I was craving the taste of the crayfish we grilled back then.
-Hmm.
Seongjin—no, the child—finally grew curious and prodded the small crustaceans rolling over the campfire with the stick in his hand.
-Where'd you get these?
-I paid the gardener to get them for me. Feels like I got ripped off, though.
Hahaha. An awkward laugh followed. The man's face wasn't visible, but Seongjin felt the voice was strangely familiar.
And the two waited in silence for the crayfish to cook.
Crackle, crackle. A savory aroma spread everywhere. Probably.
Seongjin couldn't smell anything at all, but he knew the child in the dream could certainly smell it and was looking forward to tasting the crayfish.
*Is this really just a dream, or is it someone's memory?*
The child patiently waited for the man to shell a crayfish and finally took a bite.
*Hmm, what can I say. It's more fishy and chewy than I expected.*
Seongjin still couldn't taste it, but the child's disappointment came through to him vividly.
The child said a bit dejectedly.
-Hmm... Hyung, this doesn't taste that great.
The man chewing crayfish meat beside the child laughed haha and scratched his head with his hand. Seongjin thought he glimpsed bright golden hair for a moment.
-Yeah. Honestly, I was just thinking the same thing.
* * *
Tweet, tweet, tweet.
The bird of Pearl Palace arrived at the same time as always and chirped away. Seongjin opened his eyes and blankly stared up at the canopy for a moment.
*'Haven't had a dream in a while...'*
Seongjin didn't usually dream much. In his previous world, he was too busy dozing off while fighting monsters, and even after possessing Morres's body, he hadn't dreamed until now.
Moreover, it felt less like a simple dream and more like peeking into past memories, which made his mood even more peculiar. He vaguely realized the dream was from Morres's childhood.
[Why? What'd you dream about?]
He felt something stirring in his head, and the Demon King's soul asked in a dumb voice.
*For a soul, this feels just like waking up and stretching.*
[Why do you think souls don't sleep?]
*Really?*
Seongjin flinched, and the Demon King grumbled.
[What am I supposed to do? I can't stay far from you, and there's no one to talk to while you're sleeping. Of course I sleep.]
*'That's... but...'*
Wasn't sleep just time for the brain to recover?
[Even souls need time to recover fatigue!]
*Sounds plausible.*
Anyway, Seongjin explained the whole story to the Demon King. How the events in the dream seemed to have actually happened inside the imperial palace. And how the child's perspective he felt from seemed to be Morres's.
[Hmm.]
The Demon King affirmed the possibility.
[You're already fluent in this world's language despite it being new to you, right? We thought it was because you're using Morres's brain. So there's no reason his memories stored in that brain wouldn't surface too.]
*'Yeah, figured as much?'*
[If it keeps happening like this, you might eventually recover all of Morres's memories.]
*That didn't sound too desirable.* Wouldn't more memories be better?
But the Demon King was making a rather serious assumption.
[Don't think of memories so simply. Look, you've mistaken Delcross's language for the language of Sigurt 34 before, right?]
True. Honestly, if he didn't consciously focus, it still felt like Korean.
[Memories could be the same. At first, you might distinguish well between yours and Morres's. But if you keep mistaking his emotions for yours and his knowledge for yours, eventually you'll start thinking you're Morres.]
*Sounds plausible.*
Lately, the Demon King's eloquence seemed to be improving.
[Got it? You might need to come up with some special method to protect your identity as [Lee Seongjin] from now on.]
Seongjin nodded gravely.
*'Hmm, for now...'*
[For now?]
*'I'll train.*
*Training is best for headaches.*
[Wow, you simpleton.]
The Demon King clicked his tongue.
After inhaling breakfast and rushing to the training hall, Seongjin began meditating with remarkable focus. His aura activation was visibly increasing. He felt satisfied, thinking he could attempt the 5th layer of aura soon.
And from Captain Masin, he finally learned the linking method for the long-awaited Vanhas Style 2.
* * *
"So this is the nutcracker..."
During lunchtime, Amelia visited Pearl Palace and eyed the sword curiously. She had brought a new fairy tale book to lend Seongjin.
He had just gotten a good scolding from the Holy Emperor for not studying during his near-death experience, so Seongjin read the new book with renewed enthusiasm for the first time in a while.
"Listen. O agent... of the Lord God. The evil dra, gon spoke..."
"Listen. O agent of the Lord God. The evil dragon spoke."
"If you reju, se my re, quest... soon, the seeds of disas, ter, fire, will spread... on this land?"
"If you refuse my request, soon the seeds of disaster's fire will spread on this land."
She said she'd memorized it as a child, and sure enough, Amelia corrected Seongjin's reading without even looking at the book.
This time, she brought a famous fairy tale said to contain the legend of the first Holy Emperor. It was a near-founding myth about the agent of the Lord God resisting the temptation of an evil dragon, founding the Delcross Empire, and bringing peace and prosperity to the continent.
*Dragons really do appear in fairy tales.* When he asked if she'd ever seen a dragon, she gave him a look like a kid asking when Santa would come and smiled like a mom.
*Looks like dragons are just legendary creatures in this world too.*
By the way, if he had to pick the evil dragon villain's most wicked trait in this story, it'd hands-down be its speech. Who talks like that, all pompous and archaic? So hard to read.
He'd been reading books with cats meowing and dogs barking until recently, and suddenly the vocabulary difficulty spiked. At this rate, when could he tackle theology or philosophy books?
Sighing heavily while flipping through the book with its crude illustrations, he heard Amelia muttering something incomprehensible while examining the nutcracker.
"I distinctly remember Father His Majesty holding onto it until the very last moment before. So what changed for it to end up with you?"
*What the heck?*
"Well, new things happening that didn't before is probably a good sign. Definitely!"
Amelia nodded to herself, seemingly convinced.
*Man, my sister has this weird four-dimensional side sometimes.* He couldn't always follow her conversations.
Amelia pulled out the nutcracker, swung it around happily. She always talked about revenge being rewarding and such, but seeing her like this made him suspect she secretly enjoyed learning martial arts.
As Seongjin had sensed recently, she was making rapid progress in accumulating aura. Even to him, a beginner, he could clearly see aura activated around her body.
She was struggling a lot with aura initiation, though. She'd only started practicing a few days ago, and her initiation method happened to be the notoriously difficult Weiruz.
*Is there some way I can help?* As he pondered, a good idea struck him.
"Sis, the audience day is soon, right?"
With the Holy Emperor back from seclusion and crazily handling official duties, the audience shouldn't be delayed. Amelia nodded.
"Yeah. Why?"
"How about asking Father for help? That guy's aura handling is insane."
Seongjin explained to her the anecdote he'd heard from Masin.
The story of his amazing uncle who personally infused aura into his nephew's body, one bit at a time, because the kid couldn't grasp it at all.
The Holy Emperor could probably handle something like that easily. The guy who blocked an otherworldly passage with aura, after all.
Amelia nodded in admiration.
"Masin oppa had such a past. He became captain so young, I thought he was just a natural genius."
*Oppa?*
Seongjin tilted his head at the subtle term.
"Father His Majesty can do that too? Amazing. I'll ask him to do the same for me like oppa."
Amelia's eyes sparkled like stars with enthusiasm.
*Huh? Feels like the conversation's veering off.*
"I mean, first ask if it's possible. I was talking about Captain Masin's uncle..."
"Yeah, Father His Majesty... Huh?"
She finally seemed to notice the conversation was going in circles.
"Who else could Captain Masin oppa's uncle be but Father His Majesty?"
*What?*
Seongjin's jaw dropped.
"You... didn't know? That's why you kept saying 'Captain Masin's uncle'."
Amelia smiled.
"I know you lost your old memories, but you've been hanging around your oppa a lot lately, right? I thought he'd have told you by now, but keeping quiet is so like him."
*Captain Masin's uncle is the Holy Emperor?*
*I'd imagined some aged recluse master, but this is like lightning out of the blue. They don't even look that far apart in age?*
She slowly explained to Seongjin, still in shock. The Holy Emperor was originally the 3rd Prince of the previous Holy Emperor, with two older brothers and one older sister far ahead in age.
Captain Masin was the second son of the 1st Prince Cameron among them. In other words, Morres's cousin.
He now bore the surname Clanos instead of Klein and lost imperial succession rights, but everyone tacitly treated him as part of the imperial family.
"Whoa...?"
*Come to think of it, those twins we met before.* They definitely said to Masin:
-Hi, Masin oppa.
-Hi, Masin hyung.
*Gasp?*
*Why didn't you tell me such an important fact, Captain Masin?*
*I'd thought he was overly attentive for just an imperial knight captain, but he was looking out for his cousin?*
"Hmm, actually, I heard you and Morres were pretty distant before."
Amelia glanced at Seongjin's eyes, hesitated, then continued.
"...Truth is, you were the only one who didn't call Masin oppa 'hyung'."
Amelia said it gently, but Seongjin could guess the rest she left unsaid.
*Morres, you bastard! You talked down to and ignored Captain Masin too?*
Seongjin grabbed the back of his neck as a headache hit. The Demon King jumped in surprise and quickly spoke.
[Whoa whoa, your blood pressure's rising. Relax! Relax!]
*How could it not?*
*How am I supposed to face Captain Masin from now on?*
And afternoon class time arrived without fail.
Unlike morning, Seongjin couldn't focus at all and fumbled through class. Captain Masin looked puzzled but didn't scold him much. His usual attitude was so good that he probably thought everyone has off days.
Then, as sunset fell over the training hall.
After finishing class with meditation, Masin hesitated, looking at Seongjin like he had something to say.
Feeling guilty for no reason, Seongjin pretended not to notice, but Masin suddenly straightened up as if resolved and bowed his head to Seongjin.
"I have a request, Your Highness."
"Uh... yeah? A request?"
"Yes. Could you lend me the nutcracker for a bit?"
Captain Masin's face was more serious than ever, so Seongjin unwittingly nodded and handed him the nutcracker.