Chapter 60
Chapter: 60
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>Translator: penny
>Chapter: 60
>Chapter Title: Sowing (4)
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‘…Did I come out for nothing?’
Trapped in the carriage amid the throng of people, unable to move forward or back for dozens of minutes now, Seongjin was starting to regret it a little.
The two escort knights were fidgeting anxiously, as if the traffic jam was somehow their fault. Lady Claudia in particular had been squirming in her seat and stealing glances at Seongjin ever since, looking terribly uncomfortable.
What’s her deal? Is she hungry?
Seongjin pondered for a moment before speaking up.
“Since we’re already late, why don’t we just grab some food and head back?”
That way, he could skip dinner and squeeze in some training time, even if just a little.
“Exp… expensive stuff is fine too, Your Highness?”
“If there’s anything you want to eat, just point to it. I’ll buy whatever.”
Suddenly, Lady Claudia’s eyes began to sparkle.
She must be starving.
“This place is one of the most famous spots on Deste Street. It’s one of the few restaurants where you can get authentic Flandor meat pie!”
Led by Lady Claudia, they arrived at a fairly impressive-looking large restaurant.
It wasn’t even dinnertime yet, but it was already packed with people, just as she’d said—clearly a popular place.
“…Is it really okay to bring His Highness to such a casual spot?”
Lady Maria looked around in bewilderment. No matter how you sliced it, this wasn’t some fancy restaurant with private VIP rooms for honored guests.
But Lady Claudia was resolute.
“What does formality matter in the face of absolute cuisine? Who needs drawn-out courses? Freshly cooked, piping-hot food served right away is the best!”
It was a remarkably convincing argument.
So they picked out an empty table.
“You absolutely have to try the authentic Flandor pork pie here! The flaky crust stuffed with thick layers of juicy pork is out of this world!”
“I-is that so?”
“Yes. And you must add cheese on top. Flandor cheese has a special charm all its own, different from Cartago’s!”
“……”
Lady Claudia, you’re serious about eating and drinking, huh.
I’m seeing some unexpected sides of her today.
And the dish so passionately recommended by the foodie more than lived up to its hype.
“Wow……”
Lady Maria, who had been visibly uneasy right up until the food arrived, lost her composure the moment she put a piece of pie in her mouth. That was how delicious the authentic Flandor meat pie was.
“Hehe. What do you think? Pretty amazing, right?”
Lady Claudia, beaming with pride, was much the same. She chomped down a big bite of pie, her freckle-dusted nose wrinkling happily—she looked utterly blissful.
So Seongjin decided to view this outing in a slightly more positive light. Maybe this was the kind of leisure the Holy Emperor had been talking about.
They’d polished off about half the food when it happened.
Suddenly, customers began flooding into the restaurant. Dinnertime was approaching.
With the birthday celebration drawing near, they’d heard plenty of foreigners had come to the capital, and sure enough, people in exotic attire dotted the crowd.
And right next to Seongjin’s group, a bunch of foreigners plopped down at a table. They were men dressed in tight, ostentatious outfits adorned with gaudy decorative buttons.
Huh? Those clothes… they look kinda familiar.
“Looks like Brittany folk.”
Lady Claudia whispered around a mouthful of food.
Ah, the style from that Salon de Mercier exhibit. The latest continental fashion, they’d said.
Seongjin eyed them curiously.
They all had decent aura activation levels. Strapped to their sides were flashy, shallow swords—probably high-ranking escort knights for some VIP.
Yet despite their rough expressions, every one of them had smooth-shaven jaws dabbed with rosy blush, making for a bizarre sight.
That’s the trend? So in a few years, Delcross folks will all be prancing around like that?
Seongjin shuddered at the image of pearl palace resident knights with blush smeared on their cheeks.
Meanwhile, the Brittany men gruffly ordered their food and soon launched into loud chatter among themselves.
“The crude slop here is impossible to get used to, no matter how hard I try. These imperial hicks don’t know the first thing about cooking.”
“Yeah. A soft roast quail would pair perfectly with Rohan red.”
“Ahh, I’ve had homesickness since the first day in the capital!”
These guys were openly badmouthing Delcross right in the heart of the capital.
Guts spilling out of their bellies, huh.
“Hard to believe anyone could get fat eating this garbage.”
“Ah! You mean that famous piglet from the Holy Imperial family? The one notorious as a wastrel……”
“Yeah. Just look at how they fawn over him like he’s some prince. Delcross snobs are laughable when you get right down to it.”
At that, Lady Claudia flinched and shot Seongjin a nervous glance. She was scared the prince might lose his temper and pull some wastrel stunt again.
Seongjin gave a wry smile and quietly popped another piece of pork into his mouth.
People badmouth the king where he can’t see them.
They don’t even know who I am—what’s the point in getting mad one by one? This is all Moreth’s karma catching up.
Speaking of, how much of a wastrel was that Moreth punk that even foreigners are trash-talking him?
But then, the Demon King—who’d been quiet until now—suddenly addressed Seongjin.
[You can hear those guys?]
Of course. They’re blabbing so loudly and openly—how could I not?
[…You’re saying you can hear that?]
‘……?’
What’s this guy on about?
While Seongjin puzzled over it, the gossip at the next table shifted to a new phase.
“By the way, there’s a ton of young royals who just came of age attending this birthday bash, right?”
“Here’s hoping our young master Charles finally finds a good match this time.”
“Yeah. If he could snag one of Delcross’s princesses. He’d be the Holy Emperor’s son-in-law!”
“I hear the 1st Princess Amelia is as beautiful as ever?”
Seongjin’s eyebrow twitched involuntarily, but the man who seemed the eldest among them—a bowl-cut guy—waved his hand dismissively and spewed nonsense.
“Come off it. What good is beauty? Her origins are lowborn.”
“Lowborn?”
“But she’s the Holy Emperor’s princess……”
Hush. The bowl-cut lowered his voice as if revealing some huge secret.
“Truth is, Delcross’s 1st Prince and 1st Princess aren’t proper Holy Imperial blood. They only entered the palace once their heads grew big enough to pass as the Holy Emperor’s kids. Everyone’s just scared of him, that’s why they keep quiet.”
“Really?”
“Of course. They spent most of their childhoods rolling around with the lowly rabble. Treating them as royalty is a real stretch in terms of class, don’t you think?”
“Haha, yeah, makes sense. A girl can be pretty all she wants, but lowborn changes everything.”
The more these punks talked, the more their open mouths spewed garbage.
A surge of anger welled up inside him. Seongjin slowly set down his utensils on the plate.
“And get this. Is that princess even really the Holy Emperor’s daughter?”
“What? What do you mean?”
Savoring the shocked reactions around him, Bowl-cut flashed a sleazy grin.
“You know the rumors? That her mother was actually a whore. If that’s true, who in the world could swear the Holy Emperor’s really her father?”
Scrape.
Before he knew it, Seongjin was on his feet. They said when you’re too pissed, you get eerily calm instead—and that was exactly him right now.
Blood boiling through his veins, his limbs burned hot, yet his heartbeat slowed, his mind sinking into icy clarity.
“Hey now! That’s the kind of talk that’ll get you in deep shit if someone hears!”
“No, no, it makes sense. She never got properly enfeoffed as consort, so it’s pretty obvious, right?”
“Well, they do say the current Holy Emperor was quite the playboy in his youth. Could be……”
Step. Step.
Seongjin strode toward Bowl-cut.
Ladies Maria and Claudia jumped up in alarm and hurried after him.
[Hey, hey. Calm down. Whoa, hey, Yi Seongjin!]
The Demon King started yammering urgently beside him.
[Just hold it in a bit. I get you’re mad, but if you cause a scene now, you’ll be an irredeemable wastrel for good!]
What kinda bullshit is that? Who’s causing a scene?
I’m just gonna politely protest their rudeness.
[Aaah! This guy’s eyes are rolling back. You’re really gonna kill them all?]
…What the hell does this guy think I am?
Seongjin snorted and halted in front of Bowl-cut.
The man, still prattling on with his drivel, blinked up at the teenage boy who’d approached.
“…What might this be about?”
The boy’s fierce glare and sullen expression didn’t bode well, but he asked politely anyway. The kid’s attire and bearing suggested nobility.
Above all, there was an understated pressure—or dignity—emanating from the boy that couldn’t be ignored.
And Seongjin answered his question with a friendly welcome to Delcross.
“Go on. Say that bullshit one more time, you fuckers.”
In that instant.
The Brittany men at the table—even the escort knights standing behind Seongjin—all stared at him with eyes wide as saucers.
“……!”
“Brittany tongue……!”
“D-did he hear everything we said……”
Even Lady Claudia stammered.
“Y-Your Highness! How on earth do you speak Brittany so……”
What the hell are they all saying?
Seongjin raised an eyebrow at the weird reactions, and the Demon King explained with a sigh.
[You just spoke that weird foreign language.]
…Huh?
[Brittany, I think? Fine, you understood it, but how are you speaking it so fluently?]
Not the imperial common tongue?
That’s how it sounded to me.
As Seongjin narrowed his eyes and scanned the room, the frozen Brittany men began to speak up one by one.
“You an imperial? But no Delcross accent at all.”
“Never met a foreigner who pronounced ‘Arrhc’ that naturally.”
“Young master, are you from Brittany by any chance?”
‘Uh……?’
Seongjin blinked in confusion.
These weird, mumbled pronunciations. A real foreign language I’ve never heard before?
[Tsk. You didn’t even realize. Figures.]
The Demon King clucked his tongue.
Just to check, Seongjin turned back to Bowl-cut and spoke again.
“I’m no Breton. I’m a full-fledged imperial subject. How dare you spout such nonsense in the capital? Are you out of your minds?”
Oh, it works.
Guess Moreth had some unexpected talent for languages?
It was like a random dialect had popped out of nowhere, which piqued his curiosity about the mechanism.
But before, he’d fluently spoken imperial common—a language he’d never learned—like it was Korean. One or two more tongues wouldn’t make much difference.
More importantly, he had bigger fish to fry right now.
Seongjin locked eyes with each tense-faced Breton one by one and continued slowly.
“You just called His Holiness the Holy Emperor—God’s proxy on earth—a playboy. That’s blasphemy against God Himself and a direct challenge to imperial authority.”
Sure, the Holy Emperor sowed his wild oats in his youth, but he’s no playboy to be mocked by street rats like you! Right?
He still makes time to look after his kids amid all that busyness—not just anyone can pull that off!
If anyone’s gonna roast him, it’ll be me, his son!
[…You’re low-key a daddy’s boy, huh.]
Why you gotta pick a fight?
At Seongjin’s words, the Bretons’ demeanor turned openly hostile. They rose as one, hands drifting to their sword hilts.
From their rising killing intent as they prepared to draw, Seongjin could clearly sense their aura levels. Compared to pearl palace resident knights, maybe mid-tier?
Ladies Maria and Claudia stepped forward to grip their swords, but Seongjin quickly raised a hand to stop them.
Even if it came to blows, they couldn’t draw first.
“What? A fight?”
“…They look ready to draw steel.”
“City Guard! Someone call the City Guard!”
By now, everyone in the restaurant had noticed the brewing clash between the Bretons and Seongjin’s group. Customers scrambled away, staff dashed about trying to manage the chaos—the place descended into pandemonium in seconds.
“I was gonna let you off if you groveled, but you’re making this big?”
“What, scared now? You started it.”
“You really gonna start swinging swords in public? City Guard shows up, you’re in trouble.”
“Trouble’s all yours. We’re escort knights for the noble House of Rabijuri’s young master. What diplomatic discourtesy from foreign guests is this!”
“You dare talk diplomacy after publicly insulting the Holy Imperial family……”
It was so absurd Seongjin let out a hollow laugh, and Bowl-cut smirked smugly.
“That’s just your word against ours. Got proof for the Guard? You think there’s any cultured witness here who speaks high Breton, you Delcross bumpkin?”
These fuckers?
They blabbed like that figuring no one would understand?
“Now that you get your spot, get out before the Guard arrives. Shut up and leave quietly, and I’ll forgive the rudeness so far.”
That’s how you wanna play it.
Seongjin flashed Bowl-cut a pleased smile.
“Oh? My bad, then. Guess I misunderstood. You were just gossiping lightly about your marquis, and I must’ve heard wrong, huh?”
“Goss… what?”
“Yeah, makes sense. So the House of Rabijuri’s got all sorts of abuses going on in the open! Treating knights like dirt, slashing their pay? Figures nobles are the stingiest.”
Bowl-cut’s smug grin vanished.
“W-what nonsense is this!”
“We’ll give the City Guard a real ‘nice’ statement when they get here. These poor guys were just venting frustration over the marquis’s mistreatment a bit aggressively. I bungled the translation, caused this mess. Right?”
The Bretons gaped like idiots.
What the hell is this guy babbling?