Chapter 171
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 171
“Wh-what the...?”
I abruptly set down the bowl of cream stew I had been diligently devouring.
Bzzzt—
With a sound like a TV losing its signal, the image of Ferdinand that had been spread out before my eyes flickered and vanished.
And simultaneously...
“Ddong-byul, are you back again? Goodness, really...”
Kim Ddong-byul was hovering over me once more.
“Are male leads made of some kind of electromagnetic-shielding aluminum or something?” I muttered, setting down the spoon I’d been using to shovel in the stew.
Even though it wasn't even lunchtime, a lavish meal—enough to feed three people—was spread out before me.
“I can’t eat another bite. Well... I did manage to clear half of it, though.”
I wiped my mouth with a napkin.
The Kim Ddong-byul Spying Benefit.
There was one small restriction to using this benefit, which I had named myself. I had to eat constantly while the benefit was active. It made me so incredibly famished that I felt like I would literally die if I didn't put something in my mouth.
After discovering this through a single experiment, I made it a habit to set out a feast before using the Spying Benefit, munching away while watching the real-time video projected before my eyes.
I used the Spying Benefit to see if the Empress was up to something again before the Victory Banquet.
Of course, I didn't have a hobby of peeping into other people's private lives. My plan was to bring Kim Ddong-byul back immediately if Empress Carmi wasn't plotting anything special.
But to think Ferdinand would show up.
And the screen started flickering the moment he appeared!
Dammit, Ddong-byul, stop messing with me!
The Spying Benefit never worked on the male leads. That was why I couldn't use it during the month I was unable to meet Klaus.
But this time, it seemed Kim Ddong-byul had no choice but to output the video because the Crown Prince had walked in while I was already spying on Empress Carmi.
If only it hadn't flickered...! That damn Ddong-byul. I can't even hit it to fix it.
The image had been degraded and the audio kept cutting out, making it hard to understand everything, but his face was so stunning it made the struggle worth it.
Furthermore...
Kim Ddong-byul followed Ferdinand, if only for a moment.
The video had cut off abruptly the moment Ferdinand was slapped by someone unknown. However, even with that blurry footage and fragmented audio, I had a good idea of who had struck the Crown Prince’s face.
It must have been the Emperor.
“But was that just my imagination?”
When Ferdinand had spoken to Empress Carmi with those cold eyes, thanking her for sending the White Tulip Dye or whatever...
Just for a split second.
I could have sworn Ferdinand’s eyes had looked directly toward where Kim Ddong-byul was hovering.
* * *
“Cough, hack!”
Emperor Alexander.
His condition looked worse than that of Ferdinand, who had just been slapped. After striking Ferdinand’s cheek with all his might, the Emperor himself had been overcome by a fit of violent coughing.
The Chief Attendant hurried to cover the Emperor’s mouth with a handkerchief. A small amount of blood stained the fabric.
The Chief Attendant skillfully hid his grimace and tried to fold the handkerchief to conceal the blood, but...
“Why are you hiding it? Show him!”
At the Emperor’s furious command, the Chief Attendant had no choice but to show the blood-stained handkerchief to the Crown Prince, Ferdinand.
“What would that boy care? He is a filial ingrate who cares nothing for his mother or his father! He probably enjoys seeing his father cough up blood!”
Ferdinand had already seen the blood on the handkerchief before the attendant tried to hide it.
But just as the Emperor said, he felt nothing.
No, in truth...
A sharp emotion had surged within him, but it possessed neither the volume nor the texture to weigh upon his heart. It was merely a lingering shadow that left a jagged mark.
It was a pain he himself didn't fully recognize, so there was no need to even mention Emperor Alexander. For a long time now, the Emperor had only looked upon this eternally unchanging boy with rage and sarcasm.
“How lucky you must be. Your mother sacrificed her very life to give you her divine power, so you will never suffer a single chronic ailment in your life!”
When referring to Carmi, he said, “that mother of yours.”
When referring to Olivia, he said, “your mother.”
The Emperor didn't notice the subtle distinction, but Ferdinand did.
He couldn't help but let out a hollow laugh. Emperor Alexander ground his teeth at the Crown Prince’s reaction.
“Why are you laughing? Have you finally lost your mind?”
“Because of that mother, I’ve spent my life being called a cripple, a monster, and disabled.”
Ferdinand continued, the faint smile still lingering on his lips.
“But if it makes the Emperor Father envious, then I suppose it’s not all bad.”
Slap!
Ferdinand’s head snapped to the other side. Blood was now trickling from his split lip.
Emperor Alexander’s eyes were bloodshot as he screamed.
“You, who devoured your own mother! How dare you utter such blasphemy?!”
Ferdinand slowly turned his head back.
His movement was eerily slow, and because the Crown Prince’s eyes were naturally a blood-like crimson...
“...”
For a moment, those watching Ferdinand felt a chill run down their spines. Even the Emperor was no exception.
However, the Emperor was still the Emperor. He quickly hid his instinctive fear beneath the dignity of the throne.
“And who was it that took the woman who devoured my mother as his Empress?”
“...What?”
“No. I asked the wrong question, Imperial Father. Where is the ‘man’ who devoured my mother, and who is he?”
A beat late, Emperor Alexander exploded in fury.
“You wretched brat! How dare you speak such nonsense to my face?”
“Yes. I am a wretched brat. No, I am a godforsaken bastard, Imperial Father.”
For a fleeting moment, a multitude of emotions flickered through those usually indifferent red eyes. But all that remained was a faint, mocking sneer.
“Who are you to blame? I am, after all, my father’s son.”
“You... you dare...”
The veins in Emperor Alexander’s neck bulged.
“Insolent! You shameless wretch, how dare you, how dare you...!”
Finally grabbing Ferdinand by the collar, Emperor Alexander balled his hand into a fist.
In his youth, he had been a renowned knight. The Emperor’s punch was heavy. If Ferdinand were hit in the face with such a fist, not even all the greatest physicians in the palace combined could restore the Crown Prince’s face in time for the Victory Banquet.
Just as the Chief Attendant was about to rush in to intervene...
“Cough...!”
“Your—Your Majesty!”
Emperor Alexander finally coughed up a mouthful of blood. It was an amount incomparable to what had been on the handkerchief earlier.
The vivid red blood even splattered onto Ferdinand’s face.
Fresh blood dotted a face already bleeding from the Emperor’s strike. The blood of father and son mixed together—a pathetic sight.
Ferdinand sneered.
Meanwhile, Emperor Alexander, barely managing to sit up with the Chief Attendant’s support, spoke with a voice trembling with rage.
“Do you... do you think I cannot replace the Crown Prince even now?”
It was an explicit threat.
Yet, not even a hint of agitation crossed Ferdinand’s face. He simply looked like a beautiful statue carved from marble.
“Yes. I know you cannot.”
The Emperor’s breathing grew ragged. Unable to stand any longer, he slumped down onto the bed.
“You disgusting monster.”
“...”
“You ungrateful child who was born by devouring his own mother...”
“...”
“If not for you, if only you hadn't been in her womb. She would never have died hating me so much... Do you know? You are a piece of trash whose life separated your mother and father by life and death...”
Emperor Alexander muttered, coughing and spitting blood repeatedly.
He seemed half out of his mind, but Ferdinand simply listened in silence.
Olivia.
His dead mother.
The woman whom even his father, the great Emperor of the Empire, had worshipped and loved repeatedly.
Emperor Alexander believed he had spent his life in a one-sided love for Empress Olivia, but Ferdinand knew.
Olivia must have loved the Emperor in her own way as well.
That was why she had been so hurt by her husband’s betrayal.
And that was why she had felt such a mixture of love and hatred for her son, Ferdinand, who had inherited half of the Emperor’s face.
The Emperor’s words weren't entirely wrong.
Olivia had risked her life to save Ferdinand. She had gathered a massive amount of divine power and poured it into her son.
Thanks to that, hadn't he grown like a tumor inside her body? Giving everyone a reason to despise and mock him forever.
Ferdinand always had to be the best.
Even as a young child, he always had to display the greatest talent and results.
Only then would Olivia, his mother, offer even the slightest smile.
Only then would she manage a faint grin on her thin, sharp face.
But if he fell even slightly short...
If he acted even a little bit like a child...
Olivia would look down at the young Ferdinand with her characteristically cold, chilling eyes.
With a gaze that looked as if she wanted to strangle him then and there and conceive a new, perfect masterpiece.
Every time that happened, Ferdinand felt a chill settle into his small body. It felt as if a cold wind from the unknown north was flowing through his veins, freezing his very heart.
How old had he been then?
“The Crown Prince has Divine Power Hyperaffliction, Your Majesty.”
“He will never grow. He will remain in the form of a boy forever... Like this...”
That was the first time Olivia had ever said she was sorry to him.
Ferdinand still didn't know.
What she was sorry for, or rather...
If she was truly sorry at all.
There was a question he had wanted to ask but could never bring himself to utter. A question he had to leave buried and rotting in his heart forever.
Which is greater: your hatred for me, or your guilt?