Gilbert was standing in the middle of a dark forest. The forest was silent. The monsters didn’t show themselves. Despite it being daytime, the giant trees were blocking the sunlight thoroughly.
It might become more dangerous as it gets darker. Gilbert, pondering for a moment, took out a crystal vial he had brought and swallowed its contents.
“What are you doing?”
Cameron pointed out Gilbert’s odd behavior with a shrill voice. When Gilbert turned around, Cameron was on high alert, looking around.
He had no idea that Cameron, who loved hunting so much, would be trembling like this at the thought of hunting monsters.
Thinking of Cameron, who had enthusiastically suggested a monster hunting competition with Mary and Theodore before, Gilbert couldn’t help but laugh.
‘What on earth made him so confident?’
Gilbert, who had been shaking his head for a moment, gave up trying to understand Cameron.
When he felt that the medicine was taking effect to some extent, he took off the black leather gloves that were on his hand and bit his arm with his teeth.
A sweet scent emanated from the wound.
“A, are you crazy?”
“I’m going to call the monsters.”
Cameron’s red eyes widened to the point where Gilbert wondered if they could get any bigger.
From his twisted expression, it seemed like he could hear Cameron’s thoughts, thinking of him as a reckless idiot using his body as bait for the beasts.
When could he have ever used such a bold move? Gilbert felt like one of his ears was itching for no reason and squinted one eye.
The medicine Gilbert took was an antidote made from poisonous mushrooms by Dr. Brown and Logan.
Logan warned Gilbert not to do anything like drinking it himself, as it is a scent that monsters like that make them loosen their guard.
Gilbert promised to do so while facing him, not avoiding the eyes that saw through him.
Logan easily passed it off, saying, “The little Duke never lies.”
Gilbert was someone like that in the Grand Duchy. Perhaps it was because his other siblings were so skilled and unpredictable in comparison.
“Your Highness, please be careful.”
He smiled thinking about his younger siblings. Gilbert entered a state of alert when he heard a strange sound that sounded like scratching the ground.
Gilbert didn’t forget to keep an eye on the presence behind him, who was called the first prince.
The monsters, drawn to Gilbert’s scent, began to rush towards him. Gilbert calmly started to cut their sides one by one.
He didn’t forget to skillfully bite his wrist to prevent the wounds from healing easily.
Every movement was something he learned from Estin Conler. Gilbert, who had executed his father’s teachings as they were, felt a strange pleasure.
After standing among the monsters he had brought down and wiping the blood off his face, Gilbert turned around to see Cameron, whose face had turned pale, trembling with a sword in both hands.
Cameron either felt relieved or something when he saw Gilbert’s face and sat down without saying anything.
Gilbert approached Cameron and asked casually, “What are you doing?”
“How dare you do this to the First Prince?”
Ah, he should have used honorifics, but he looked so pathetic that the words came out.
Gilbert briefly reflected on his words and then extended his hand to the seated Cameron.
“If only I hadn’t been sick!”
“Yes, yes, I see.”
“And this is the first time I’ve faced so many monsters.”
It was also a first for Gilbert. His own father always stood alone whenever such incidents occurred. Gilbert shrugged his shoulders.
It’s not a gentlemanly behavior to undermine someone’s self-esteem by saying something that doesn’t need to be said.
The knights of the royal family and the Conler were running towards them from behind Cameron, who was sitting down.
Unlike the Conler knights, who readily agreed to the suggestion of only Gilbert and Cameron entering the narrow and treacherous path into the forest, the royal palace knights strongly opposed it.
In the end, thanks to Cameron’s insistence on going alone, they were able to come here like this.
The knights of the palace ran straight to Cameron, who had just sat down, and Conler knights went to deal with the corpses of the monsters that Gilbert had brought down.
“Hmm, this is…”
Even Cheloke, the leader of the Conler knights, made a disgusted expression as he looked at the corpses that Gilbert had dealt with.
“You didn’t have to go this far, Master Gilbert. You were a little excited yourself,” Cheroke said. As if understanding Gilbert, Cheroke lifted his thumb slightly. He was quite proud of his young master.
It was the first time he had felt sympathy for the corpses of monsters.
“The Grand Duke will be proud.”
Gilbert wanted to do a good job for the first time with something his father had entrusted to him, even if it was something as small as subduing these monsters.
“Why do I have to come with you?”
He still hasn’t come to his senses.
The knights of the palace were trying to calm Cameron down.
Gilbert, who was wiping the blood off his face with a handkerchief from Cheroke, walked towards Cameron.
“You didn’t want to come here that much?”
“What?”
“To be precise, I came here to help you with the task that His Majesty assigned to the prince. Are you going to keep acting like this? What if I refuse and His highness has to come here by himself?”
Gilbert thought that he had clearly been influenced by his younger siblings based on the unnecessary sarcasm that came out of him.
“How dare you!”
“It’s not good to keep seeing me as the marionette of the imperial family anymore.”
“What?”
“Think about whether you can become an emperor. My father seems to like our ‘brother-in-law’ quite a lot.”
Cameron’s scream-like voice could be heard from behind, but Gilbert didn’t pay attention.
The two fathers, who didn’t know where their son was spending their time, were having tea time in the greenhouse garden, which was the emperor’s most cherished place.
Estin didn’t seem to like this place as it seemed like a waste of tax money. The emperor looked at his old friend who was surveying the garden with an unsatisfactory look in front of him.
“Well, thank you for helping me today.”
“I hope my son was helpful.”
It was the place where the predecessor gave his son his position as if he were running away.
At a young age, Estin took over the position as Grand Duke without any complaints, inheriting all the duties given to him as if they were nothing.
So Estin never gave his duties to his son.
The emperor smiled aloof as he looked at Estin, whose son was with Cameron taking care of the beast, while sipping tea.
Oracles do not come down much in the peaceful Britina Empire. The Oracles that came down after hundreds of years were to break the covenant between the Imperial family and the Grand Duke.
After the emperor heard the Oracle, the first thought he thought was, ‘It has finally come.’
The emperor was always weak. He could only hide behind the grand duke’s family and keep what he wanted to protect inside the palace.
He thought he could do that until the day he died.
“Thank you for everything so far.”
“If you need me, don’t hesitate to call me.”
Looking at his relaxed smile, the emperor wondered what he had done so far.
Grand Duke Conler, who had perfectly fulfilled the tasks assigned to him, naturally gained the trust of the people.
Out of jealousy for him, he even tried to find fault with him, saying that he was of demon descent. It was all in vain.
He remembered Cameron.
“I’ve been thinking a lot too.”
Estin raised his left eyebrow without answering. It was a gesture that meant if he had something to say, he should say it.
“There should be no more inferior emperors like me.”
The emperor’s gaze, looking somewhere, was intriguing. Cameron might not know, but perhaps all of this was also for him.
***
“Maybe it was fate that you were born in this house.”
Arsene, who I met after a long time, told me an inexplicable story while patting my head. I just blinked.
“Fate?”
“A child with holy power was born in a house that was said to have received a curse from demons.”
“What does that have to do with anything? I can’t even have mana.”
“Maybe God felt sorry for the Grand Duke of Conler, who sacrificed himself for the royal family. That’s why they found an excuse to lift the ducal family’s curse.”
“And that excuse was me?”
But the curse still hasn’t been lifted, has it? Arsene’s words didn’t make sense, but I just nodded my head.
I’d be glad if I could be of any help to the Grand Duke. After all, I was nothing but a troublemaker.
“Mary.”
“Yes?”
“I have a favor to ask of you.”
