Acting to Survive
Acting to Survive
The endlessly boring voice of the old Minister of Finance echoed reverberatingly throughout the massive audience chamber.
"......And thus, the eastern expedition was successfully concluded, and half of the ransom for the seventeen noble prisoners, including two of the enemy nation's border generals, has already been paid into the national treasury."
Upon the imperial throne crafted with gold and jewels, I squirmed around back and forth with my legs not even reaching the floor.
My gaze wandered through empty air, and my mouth hung half-open with a stupid expression. On the outside, I was unmistakably a brat who couldn't handle boredom.
However, unlike how I appeared on the outside, I was listening to the Minister of Finance's story with more focus than ever before.
Because situations like this were the only way I could obtain information outside the imperial palace.
When the Minister of Finance paused briefly to catch his breath, I opened my mouth during that gap.
"Boring! I wanna go out now!"
At my voice, the Minister of Finance's shoulders flinched upward. He then broke into a slight sweat, shifting his gaze that had been directed next to me to look at me instead.
"Boring! I'm sleepy! I'm going to my room!"
At my whining, the Minister of Finance had eyes that seemed to say 'Not again.'
The gazes of the other nobles lined up in ranks were no different from that of the Minister of Finance.
No, rather, their emotions were even more blatant.
Polite silence hung over their lips, but flashing beyond it were unhidable contempt and thick mockery.
Just then, a heavy yet gentle voice sounded from beside me.
"Your Majesty."
The Lord Protector.
An official title denoting one who protects the nation.
Maximilian von Wallenstein, the holder of that office, grotesquely distorted the large scar on his face as he put on a seemingly genial smile.
"Please endure just a little longer. The Minister of Finance's report is almost finished. As the father of the Empire, shouldn't you remain looking splendid just as you have done until now?"
It was an utmost polite tone of voice.
Anyone listening would have thought so.
But I could see it.
There was not a single speck of affection or respect in that tone.
Before those eyes of his, even the contempt and sneers of the other nobles looked pathetic.
Eyes like one looking at livestock.
An arrogant and numb gaze without even shallow emotions like contempt or laughter.
To him, I was nothing more than a beast barking meaninglessly.
Even so, I smiled.
"Is that so?! Was I looking cool?!"
Even so, I continued acting.
"Of course."
To the smiling Lord Protector, I also offered a bright beam.
"K-khem! Then We shall listen more! Speak quickly!"
A mistake meant death. A life-risking performance.
At my words, the Minister of Finance, who was wiping his sweat, snapped his mouth open again and poured out the remaining report like rapid fire.
I nodded my head over and over again without any meaning whatsoever.
"Your Majesty. All reports are concluded. Do you remember what I taught you to say at times like this?"
When all the nobles' reports finally finished, the Lord Protector leaned down toward me and spoke in a friendly tone.
At those words, I brightened my expression to make it seem like a feeling of 'finally!', put a full smile on my face, and sprang up from the imperial throne.
Even to my own thoughts, it was a stupid action, a stupid expression, and a stupid tone of voice.
"My Lord! Good work!"
A voice ringing loudly.
At that single phrase I spat out, the Lord Protector smiled with satisfaction, and the nobles were also each wearing smiles.
A stupid, arrogant, and foolish emperor.
The utterly stupid words of praise from such an emperor.
The nobles sneering after hearing it.
This situation was so absurdly funny.
I felt like laughter might slip out despite myself.
As soon as the imperial audience ended, I sprinted out of the audience chamber without looking back.
Ignoring the low coughs of the nobles and the relaxed breathing of the Lord Protector echoing behind my back, I moved my feet without rest.
As soon as I moved, the two knights and three maidservants who had been waiting followed behind me.
There was no one in front of me. Even so, I couldn't let the pulled-up muscles of my cheeks rest.
At least in this imperial palace, nowhere except my room permitted any drop of guard.
That was what I had realized during the nine years since reincarnating into this damn romance fantasy world.
The flashy title of Emperor was nothing more than a dog collar.
The maidservants and knights walking behind me, and most of the humans I met in the imperial palace, served as the Lord Protector's eyes and ears, reporting my every single move to him.
Even the other nobles who didn't actively side with the Lord Protector feared him so much that they refrained from taking conspicuous actions.
In this imperial palace, I had no allies except for my mother.
Even such a mother could do nothing under the surveillance and power of the Lord Protector.
Even during these nine years, the Lord Protector hadn't given me proper education.
Far from education fit for an emperor, I couldn't even learn the history or geography of the Empire.
The reason I could still remain alive till now was something I heard directly from the Lord Protector's mouth when I was an infant shortly after reincarnation.
The reason was extremely simple. Because keeping me alive right now was advantageous.
Fortunately for me—more accurately, for this body—there was a talent for acting.
Cheolkeok. Before I knew it, the heavy door of the bedchamber I reached creaked open.
"Your Majesty, shall I prepare refreshments for you?"
The soft voice of the head maidservant following behind me reached my ears.
Without looking back, I took steps into the bedchamber and opened my mouth.
"Don't need it! Get out! This is my room!"
For several years, I had continuously acted as though I pathologically hated anyone else entering my room.
Feeling there was no need to tussle with me at this point, the head maidservant bowed her head and stepped backward.
If only this were an achievement I won on my own, but it was disgusting that even this was only possible because I used the Lord Protector's name and because he allowed it.
Kung, as the door closed, silence visited the room.
I forcibly swallowed back a sigh that felt like it would leak out aloud, shuffled over to the bed, and buried my face into the bed as I was.
Only after my face was completely hidden by the pillow and blanket did I take a deep breath in and let out a sigh heavy enough to cave in the ground.
"Haa..."
The sole sanctuary.
Inside this Emperor's bedchamber alone, the Lord Protector's surveillance did not reach.
Befitting the Emperor's bedchamber, it was soundproofed, and the escort knight outside was not a knight to protect me, but a moderate-level knight meant to prevent a child's rampage, so he couldn't hear sound of this degree.
They say magic cannot be used throughout the entire imperial palace because a barrier blocking magic is erected.
Therefore, there was no possibility of magic like eavesdropping or surveillance being used inside the imperial palace.
Of course, it wasn't something I confirmed myself, but merely heard to be so.
Still, over several years, I checked and re-checked this room. Here at least, I had no need to play the fool.
How many years had I been doing this shit already?
How many more years would I have to keep doing it?
At that hopelessness, a dry laugh slipped out of me involuntarily.
In my past life, I hadn't done anything special.
I wasn't an outstanding doctor, nor a lawyer, nor had I ever so much as written music, painted, or authored a novel.
I was an employee at a black company.
Clocking in at 9 AM and clocking out at 9 PM was the default, once or twice a week I worked past midnight, and twice a month I even came in on weekends.
My entire life had just been getting chewed out by an old-fashioned boomer team leader while talking shit about him behind his back in my head.
If I had known I'd end up inside a novel I clicked back on after reading just two chapters because it wasn't my taste, I would've accumulated all sorts of knowledge.
Of course, even if I had known such things, it wouldn't have been able to overcome the current situation, but even so, I needed some kind of opening.
A single variable that would crack this suffocating fetter......
Just then, it grew noisy near the front of the door.
When voices could be heard from the door side where soundproofing was weakest, even if I couldn't understand accurately, I could at least tell that they were discussing something.
And in cases like this, with a high probability—
Tok-tok.
Two knocks.
Before my permission could even fall, the door opened first and the voice of the person who walked in was heard.
"Were you sleeping? Your Majesty."
No matter how much of a figurehead I was, there existed only one person in this country who dared to enter the Emperor's bedchamber as he pleased without permission.
"...Nnngh, I wasn't sleeping..."
Tossing and turning, I barely sat up, put on a dazed expression, and turned my head toward where the voice came from. Standing there, sure enough, was the Lord Protector.
In the Lord Protector's hands was a silver plate with a single slice of cake placed upon it.
I quickly looked at the Lord Protector and that cake, widening my eyes.
"Cake!"
As I said that, quickly jumping up and running toward the Lord Protector, the Lord Protector placed the cake on the table without erasing his smile.
I quickly sat on the chair and grabbed the fork in my hand.
It won't be right now. Not yet.
Repeating that to myself internally, I shoved the cake into my mouth. The sweet taste spreading inside my mouth—other than that, nothing else was felt.
Yeah... Not yet.
Just as I barely felt relieved inside and began eating the cake, the Lord Protector opened his mouth.
"This is a cake made under special instructions to the chief baker in time for Your Majesty's next Birthday Banquet."
What?
I heard a word that shouldn't have flowed into my ears just now.
Birthday Banquet?
Chewing the cake crunchily, I looked at the Lord Protector without speaking, as if asking what he meant by that.
The Lord Protector's expression still bore a benevolent smile just like before, but he never once took his gaze off me as I ate the cake.
"To mark Your Majesty's tenth birthday coming up in a month, we will hold a grand banquet. I plan to summon all nobles across the entire Empire to the Imperial Capital without exception. We have already been preparing for half a year."
The moment those words struck my eardrums, I began rolling my brain like crazy.
Up until now, my birthdays hadn't had particularly large banquets.
It was just gathering only the central nobles working inside the imperial palace in a hall, and even then, only those of the Lord Protector's faction, to celebrate modestly.
But this time, summoning all the nobles across the entire Empire?
Ah, right. Because I'm turning ten years old.
My turning ten years old means, in other words, it has been ten years since the Emperor ascended the throne.
My tenth birthday and the ten-year anniversary of the Emperor's accession. To do those two together, the scale inevitably had to grow larger.
This is an opportunity.
It's the variable I desperately wanted.
If all the nobles across the Empire gather, naturally, this time he can't make it up of only the Lord Protector's own faction.
I know. That not all nobles in the Empire are favorable toward the Lord Protector.
Even in the imperial palace, aren't there some? Today's Minister of Finance whom I saw being a prime example.
He isn't of the Lord Protector's faction, but a neutral faction noble, yet because he has the ability, he even serves as the Minister of Finance in the imperial palace.
If so, naturally, it wouldn't be strange even if there was an Anti-Lord Protector Faction.
What I must target is that. The Anti-Lord Protector Faction, or at least the neutral faction. Either side is fine.
I must make something that can protect me.
I need a shield. In this situation where I might die at any moment, a shield to block the blade known as the Lord Protector.
"Woah!! Really?!!"
However, I shouldn't just be blindly happy.
There's no way the Lord Protector is holding a banquet just to sincerely congratulate me.
Just as I am trying to do something to obtain a shield, the Lord Protector will also try to use me as a chess piece to further display his power, crushing the Anti-Lord Protector Faction and breaking the neutral faction.
"Yes, of course, Your Majesty. I will endeavor to make it the absolute best Birthday Banquet."
The Lord Protector stroked my head with his thick hand. It was a touch as if handling a well-trained dog.
I accept it while wearing a smile.
It won't flow strictly according to your thoughts.
What I must do is the same as always.
I have to do something. I must do whatever it takes.
To survive.