The Emperor's Hidden Bastard
After resisting for what felt like forever, I finally ran out of strength. I let out a long sigh and muttered, "Haa, fine. I'll talk, so just let me go already."
But even after my surrender, Lumiela kept hugging me with bone-crushing force. It was like she couldn't bear to lose my body heat. Ugh. Her death grip made it hard to breathe.
"...I really won't run away, okay?"
"...Got it." She sounded almost disappointed as she slowly released me. She set me down and carefully planted herself in front of the door, blocking any escape route. Even though she'd agreed, it was obvious she still suspected I'd bolt the second she looked away.
I asked in a slightly hollow voice, "So you'll help me?"
"Yes. But in return, you have to tell me every last one of your 'secrets.'"
Secrets...? If I told her absolutely everything, would Lumiela even be able to accept it? If this world really was straight out of a novel, I was morbidly curious what kind of reaction she'd have. But considering the fallout, I kept my mouth shut.
If we're talking secrets... I'd been through so much that I didn't even know where to begin. Telling her every single thing that had happened to me would be too dangerous, so I decided to spin some convenient half-truths instead.
"First, I'll tell you my name. I am..."
Right before I could finish introducing myself—
Knock, knock— Someone rapped on Lumiela's door.
"Sister. Do you have a moment?"
"......!"
The instant she heard the voice outside, Lumiela snatched me up and hurled me onto the bed with terrifying speed. The sheer physical power was exactly what you'd expect from a Magic Eye user.
"Ugh—what the hell..."
The moment I landed, she clamped me between her thighs and yanked the blanket over us. The second my body was hidden—
Creak— "Sister, why didn't you answer?"
It was the Second Princess, Olivia von Lebeus. The heroine from Haelan Chronicles had come to visit Lumiela's room.
What the hell is this situation now...?
A sudden uninvited guest. The fact that Lumiela had gone out of her way to hide me meant this visitor wasn't some ordinary servant. Which meant...
If they find out we're in the same room, it'll be an immediate execution.
No matter how hard Lumiela tried to defend me, her father the Emperor would never let it slide. In the original story, the Emperor was the perfect character for a dark fantasy world—currently praised as a wise ruler, but destined to become one of the mad tyrants right before the apocalypse.
His daughter alone in a room with a strange man? For a split second I saw myself standing on the gallows with a noose around my neck.
Fuck.
I held my breath, praying the intruder would leave soon.
But... this position is seriously messed up.
My face was currently buried between Lumiela's thighs. Every time I tried to pull away, her legs only clamped down harder. In every possible way it was suggestive and humiliating. Still, I knew she was only doing this to protect me, so I stopped struggling.
She smells... really good.
Maybe it was the enclosed space, but her sweet scent slammed into me. Without thinking I inhaled deeply, and that breath brushed directly against her lower body.
"Olivia, what... ugh..."
Seeing Lumiela's face suddenly flush bright red, Olivia looked puzzled.
"......? Sister, are you all right?"
"Uh, yeah. I think my body feels a little off right now."
"Really...?"
Olivia seemed genuinely flustered. The First Princess Lumiela usually wore an expressionless mask for most of her daily life. For someone with almost zero emotional fluctuation to suddenly show such a melted, dazed face—this might actually be serious.
"Can I come closer and take a look?"
As her younger sister, Olivia was purely worried. The moment she started to approach—
Squeeze— Lumiela unconsciously clenched her thighs with full strength. My airway instantly closed. Desperate for air, I sucked in a massive breath.
Huuuup— The inhalation was far stronger than before. For her already hypersensitive lower body, it was overwhelming.
Twitch— "I-I'm really fine. You don't have to come any closer..."
"Are you sure you're really okay?"
Olivia stared at her, visibly confused.
"Uh, yeah..."
Flushed cheeks, slightly dazed expression. Right now Lumiela's face looked exactly like...
A bitch in heat? It was far too vulgar a thought to have about her own sister, so Olivia swallowed it.
I stared at Lumiela's trembling white thighs, utterly confused.
Why are her legs shaking like that?
Completely unaware of the catastrophe I'd caused, I just looked bewildered. Lumiela's extreme sensitivity came from both a lifetime lacking any real 'stimulation' and the fact that she possessed a Magic Eye. Her senses were as sharp as her superhuman body. That sense, which normally only activated in battle or life-threatening tension, was now amplifying her sensitivity to an insane degree in this exact situation. She could feel every detail of my breathing—so much that she unconsciously wanted to writhe. Only her superhuman willpower kept my neck intact.
Setting aside Lumiela's strange reaction, I focused on the uninvited guest. My head had been squeezed too tightly to hear anything after the initial greeting, but I'd definitely caught the word "sister."
From the way she addressed her, it has to be Olivia...
It could have been the Fourth Princess Evangeline, but Evangeline would never speak in such a polite, almost hesitant tone.
Evangeline in the original work... She had a horrifying secret I didn't even want to imagine. Inside the imperial palace, she was the most dangerous person after the Emperor himself.
So the visitor really was Olivia...
Is there a specific reason she'd come looking for Lumiela?
Their relationship was far too awkward to simply call them sisters. Olivia had grown up in similar circumstances, but unlike Lumiela she didn't hide her emotions. If I had to describe it, they were distant at best. For someone like Olivia to deliberately visit Lumiela's room, there had to be an important reason.
I strained my ears and focused on their conversation.
Lumiela, who had finally regained her composure, spoke to Olivia with a cool expression.
"So, what brings you here so suddenly?"
"There's something I absolutely must tell you... sister."
"Yes?"
"It's that..." Olivia hesitated, trailing off. If she was agonizing this much...
All kinds of political and institutional problems flashed through Lumiela's mind. Maybe Olivia wanted help checking a noble she disliked? To get past the current situation, Lumiela was ready to grant almost any reasonable request.
"......We have a younger sibling."
"What?"
But that statement completely exceeded her expectations. Even I, trapped between Lumiela's thighs, was shocked.
A hidden bloodline in the imperial family? If that's the case, then perhaps—
I had seen Bianca's Magic Eye clearly with my own eyes back in the Forest of Nightmares. The hidden sibling Olivia was talking about had to be Bianca...
"The sibling is a boy."
It wasn't.
"Olivia. You realize that statement could be quite dangerous, don't you?"
Lumiela spoke in an icy tone. She too had realized that Olivia wasn't talking about the Third Prince Alex, but with high probability an imperial 'bastard.' And if it was a boy, Alex—who had already been designated as successor—would never let it slide.
Olivia was emotional, but not foolish enough to deny reality. However...
"I know, but... I can't just ignore it. We need to bring that child to the imperial palace immediately and protect him."
At her worried tone, Lumiela seemed to realize something and cried out in shock.
"You—don't tell me...! You actually met that bastard in person?"
"No matter that it's you, sister, please refrain from calling my sibling a 'bastard.'"
In that instant, a spiral pattern flashed in Olivia's pupils. Lumiela tried to summon her own Magic Eye, but—shake, shake—Ugh. The violent sensation in her lower body—or rather, my presence there—prevented her from calling it forth.
Please, stop fighting right in front of me.
I was getting sick of the battles that kept breaking out everywhere I went. In the end, Lumiela sighed and surrendered.
"Haa, fine, I understand. Olivia, what exactly do you want from me?"
"It's simple. Just use the forces under your command to find my sibling's whereabouts. I'll handle everything after that."
"You know how vast the Empire is, right? Finding him will take quite a long time."
No matter how powerful Lumiela's faction was, the Empire covered the entire Western Continent. Finding someone with only a few clues would be extremely difficult.
"What are that bast— I mean, your sibling's characteristics and appearance?"
"The most noticeable feature is black hair, as if he came from the Eastern Continent."
"Black hair? Even for a bastard, given Father's personality, that doesn't make any—"
Startled— The moment she heard those words, Lumiela unconsciously glanced at the blanket covering us.
"Keep talking."
For some reason, a sudden wave of dread washed over me.
Serena stared at the man in shock.
"Brother Ian was of the imperial bloodline...?"
"It's probably just nonsense."
The man had left Olivia at her quarters and departed once more to subjugate the demonic realm. After he left, the silhouette of a giant fox appeared.
—It's not entirely impossible.
"Huh? Chunja, you think so too?"
—How many times must this seat tell you that I am Talian!
"Yeah, yeah. Anyway... So Ian really was of the imperial bloodline?"
—Hmph. Is it not strange for someone who has reached the pinnacle of humanity to lack a special bloodline?
"...Maybe. But why would an imperial bastard end up as nothing more than a servant in a baron's house?"
No matter that he was a bastard, no one would dare send imperial blood 'outside.' If for no other reason, they couldn't risk leaking the heaven-defying power known as the Magic Eye.
—Who knows. Perhaps 'someone' had a hand in it.
With those cryptic words, Talian vanished without a trace.