LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 46
The meal time, which had turned tumultuous due to Seria’s trolling, finally reached its end.
Actually, it almost didn’t end, but surprisingly, the Emperor stepped in to mediate.
I was a bit shocked that he would personally get involved, but after hearing what he said, I could guess why.
“Haah… Yes, it’s always quite bothersome, but let’s just move past it for now. I didn’t invite you here with good intentions either.”
In other words, he admitted that he had thrown me into the mix to make me uncomfortable.
That’s really infuriating. But in the end, I got to enjoy some delicious food, so it wasn’t all bad.
But seriously… why did he have to say that himself? It was something he could’ve just glossed over.
“I heard about your duel in the Royal Guard. You had a good match with Duke Lux.”
Ah, that’s why.
It seemed the Emperor was quite concerned about the duel from earlier with that knight.
He called it a good match, but it was probably embellished to paint me in a more favorable light.
Regardless, it seemed I had caught the Emperor’s attention.
The name he mentioned was someone I also recognized.
‘That person was Duke Lux.’
As soon as I heard the name, I knew that the knight I faced wasn’t an ordinary person.
I just couldn’t recognize him immediately since his face didn’t show up in the game, but I definitely knew the name Lux.
The guy had been a deputy commander of the royal guard and stood in as the commander during the final battle.
He may not be as strong as I had seen him in the game yet, but the fact that he was mentioned like this meant he was already being recognized at this point in time.
So I really fought someone like that.
I knew it would attract attention, but this was beyond my imagination.
‘I should have realized it when he started using the hard-to-learn golden sword techniques.’
I thought it was all just a matter of there being a lot of talents in the Royal Guard, and that was my mistake.
“Dueling with Duke Lux?”
“Brother. Did we touch a nerve or something?”
“We… we haven’t done anything yet! I’m sure we can explain ourselves!”
The three guys next to me had such reactions.
Oh right, the person training them right now was Duke Lux, wasn’t it? So of course, they would react like that.
“Honestly. My brothers have no guts, and that’s a big problem.”
Without understanding how her brothers felt, Seria just kept poking at them.
But… truthfully, it was unavoidable.
Her brothers resembled the Emperor so closely that it was astonishing.
From their looks to their skills, they were practically clones of the Emperor, and their strength paled in comparison to his.
That’s why they didn’t even show their faces in the final chapter.
All that was left was Seria’s illustration in the corner, looking worried.
Having inherited her mother’s talent, Seria didn’t realize their plight and continued to chide them, which seemed to hit a sore spot for the oldest.
He jumped to his feet boldly, knife in hand, aimed at me.
“I can’t just sit back while Seria says that!”
“Brother! What are you doing?!”
“Listen up, my younger siblings. Sometimes, even knowing you’ll lose, you have to fight!”
His words sounded cool, but given the situation, and that he was holding a dining knife, it didn’t look impressive at all.
What was astonishing was the Emperor and Empress didn’t seem to have any intention of stopping the eldest’s antics.
They just shook their heads as if to say, “Here we go again.”
“Hah… Seriously? What is the Crown Prince doing acting like that in front of guests?”
Even Seria didn’t seem keen on stopping him.
Is this really how things usually are? Is this guy who’s supposed to inherit the throne?
Is this country okay like this? Well, since he’s a spitting image of the Emperor, I guess he’ll manage…
“Rudion. He’s not usually the type to act like this in front of others, but it seems he has a good impression of you. Please indulge him a bit.”
Eventually, after having reached enlightenment, Seria said something like that.
I guess this was why she was so chill no matter what kind of trouble I caused; she must be used to weird situations.
Anyway, I had to deal with that knife first.
His skills may not be outstanding, as I said, but he must have some decent stats having graduated from the academy.
Of course, they wouldn’t be ridiculously high like the Emperor’s, but compared to mine, they’d surely be overwhelming.
So I couldn’t just let him hit me to save face.
‘Let’s see…’
My stance wasn’t great to dodge the Crown Prince’s advancing knife.
I could dodge if I wanted, but I’d probably end up kicking the table over.
They hadn’t cleared the plates and utensils yet, and if I kicked it over, it would turn into a mess.
So begrudgingly, I lifted the fork I had just been fiddling with.
And… I brought it to bear against the Crown Prince’s knife attack.
“Take this!”
Dagger skill: If you swing wildly without linking moves, all motions can be parried.
Fork skill: Parrying ability!
Whoosh—
In the end, I managed to swat the Crown Prince away with the fork.
Thank goodness I was holding a fork; if it had been a knife, I would have been in a world of hurt and toppled the whole table.
“WAAAAAH!”
But the Crown Prince’s momentum wasn’t normal.
Since I parried him with a fork, he was sent flying way too far.
I don’t know if it’s a bug, but in the game, forks were treated as blunt weapons.
Blunt weapon parries have strong knockback as a feature.
Maybe that’s why. The Crown Prince showed no signs of stopping as he flew from my fork.
‘This is getting a bit serious.’
I didn’t mean for it to go this far.
At this rate, it would look like I was flexing my muscles at royalty.
But… what happened next?
Just before the Crown Prince crashed into the wall, he suddenly came to a halt.
What the? Did he have hidden strength or something?
As that ridiculous thought crossed my mind, I heard Seria’s voice quietly.
“…Really foolish.”
It probably wasn’t directed at me. It seemed Seria had restrained him with magic.
“Seria. So you can do that now?”
“I learned it by watching Mom do it earlier.”
“You just watched and learned? That’s my girl!”
“It’s no big deal.”
Having stopped the impending disaster, Seria exchanged a few words with the Empress before slowly lowering the Crown Prince back to the ground.
He returned to his seat with an incredibly awkward posture, slinking back.
“…Brother. That was quite cold.”
“I know, so keep it quiet.”
“Still, that was a cool spirit.”
“I told you to be quiet.”
“Understood.”
The second brother failed to comfort him, and an awkward silence fell.
That silence lasted until the royal servants finished clearing the dining table.
Afterwards, the Emperor cautiously spoke up.
“It’s even more impressive in person. I have no idea what you just did.”
“I didn’t intend to show off.”
“Would you consider working for the royal family after graduating from the academy?”
Whoa, that came out of nowhere. I almost blinked… but since he’s the Emperor, I guess I didn’t need to turn them on.
‘The royal family, huh…’
I hadn’t really thought about that after graduating.
But… working in the royal family didn’t really excite me.
Of course, if I were affiliated with the royal family, I could call it a successful life.
I could gain both money and fame.
But my stats were like this. If I barged in with power, I’d likely end up being part of the guard, and with that, there would definitely be tons of problems.
Evasion and parrying were suitable for me to survive, but they were far too flawed for saving someone in front of me.
“Thank you for the offer, but I…”
“Don’t worry about it. Father. Even if you don’t work here, I’ll call you whenever I need help, and you’ll come running, right?”
I was going to politely decline, but Seria suddenly jumped in with that statement.
I was going to question her for deciding on her own… But thinking it over, that seemed like it could actually be the case, so I didn’t deny it.
But… it seemed like she was trying to score some points when she said something odd.
“No matter how you try to look good, I can’t let go of Seria.”
“A-Ah, Daddy! What are you suddenly saying?! It’s not like that, so don’t misunderstand!!”
Seria was flustered by the Emperor’s absurd remark, even forgetting to call him by title.
“Seria! Don’t be fooled! All men are wolves!”
“But you’re a man too, Dad!”
Seeing this, the Emperor and Crown Prince were quite similar. The way they suddenly went into overdrive about Seria was so unmistakably father and son.
“Geez, this is chaotic. It seems like we have nothing else to say, so let’s just wrap it up.”
Eventually, with the Empress’s words, the situation calmed down, and we were able to leave the room.
///
The Rubetia Royal Palace. This was one of the places that rarely came up in the game.
In fact, I only entered the royal palace three times during the standard route.
And that was only at the end of the game, once each time I accomplished something significant.
So I had no way of knowing the layout of the palace, any latent problems, or hidden secrets.
Well, that’s only true for the standard route.
If you go down the alternative route, aka the route that touches the royal palace, you can enter it anytime.
Once you step onto that alternative path, if you’re caught, the hardcore difficulty starts with everything going haywire, but even that was part of the enjoyment, so I tried several times to dig up the palace’s secrets.
So to be honest, I could be confident that I knew the royal palace better than anyone else.
Even better than the Emperor, the ruler of this place.
And… one of the biggest hidden things in the palace starts in the guest room.
Yeah, this room I’m currently in.
“So, once you finish reading, please let me know.”
“Sure.”
Eek-
Thud.
I placed the “Journey of the Stars” series that Seria had brought on the desk beside me.
I wanted to check something first, so reading would have to wait.
I discreetly pushed aside one of the bookshelves in the guest room and found the hidden button.
I didn’t know the mechanics, but it couldn’t be found just by looking for it.
It was an incorporeal button, invisible and untouchable. You just had to believe it existed and press it.
It wouldn’t activate immediately, either; you had to hold it for about two minutes… So it made sense why no one could find it.
Click-
Vwoom—
“Wow, it really works.”
Soon, the hidden button activated, and a large hole appeared where the button was.
It wasn’t a hidden space. If it were, it would have been found and emptied long ago.
This was some kind of magical portal—if I had to compare it, it felt similar to a Rift.
“I just wanted to check, but…”
Now that it had opened for real, the urge to enter surged.
What kind of man could resist? A secret space just opened up, and you’re expected to ignore it?
Grrr! I couldn’t stand it! Let’s jump in!