The Place Where I Was Sold as a Slave Was the Imperial Palace

＜The softest time is the scariest＞

* * *

To have a headache. My head rang at the sound of people laughing.

Crown Prince Roberto frowned slightly.

The demonstration of the young magician who was praised as a genius ended in failure. It’s a bit disappointing, but this happens surprisingly often.

Engraving a magic formula is quite tricky and time consuming.

Ordinary people couldn’t even help because they couldn’t even see the shape of what was written on it. The work was a high level of difficulty that had to be done only with one’s own eyes.

The men who came with them may be from the same family, but they probably won’t see the magic text.

I heard that even the black-haired, black-eyed Corea dynasty can’t see the magic letters.

Only those who have the crest can see it.

And such people are very rare.

It was only natural that his father was frantic about finding the successor to the Duke of Watoringu.

Roberto’s mood was wet, as if submerged in a fog.

“…”

My head feels like it will break.

Roberto put his hand on his head.

The attendant nearby immediately noticed and handed over a small pill and a drink.

It is a medicine made in a medical country. I’m not sure if it really works, but it’s better than nothing.

Roberto swallowed the pill and returned his gaze to the front.

The genius sorcerer withdrew, and another sorcerer stepped forward.

What he is showing off is a magic tool that was used for a short time a long time ago and was discontinued.

It blows out cold wind, but because it consumes too many magic stones, it has not been delivered for a while.

It was said that it had improved a little, so I decided to try it today, but I still used a lot of magic stones.

The magician claims that the consumption of magic power has decreased, but it will probably be difficult to purchase in large quantities.

The magic tools that were not demonstrated today will be seen again by the emperor or the crown prince when they are delivered a few days later.

‘Did you say it was a witch’s fantasy?’

At that time, there will be no failure like today because they bring the magic tools prepared in advance.

However, if you use a lot of magic stones, it is also difficult to deliver.

Possession of magical power was too lacking.

In the War of Dicoquaria, he tried to steal possession of magical powers as slaves, but he could hardly be obtained. It was because Kania’s hatred was too great.

In Chania, they captured and killed nobles, children and adults, to the extent that they couldn’t be considered sane. Hatred rolled his eyes and seemed to give no thought to the aftermath.

Most of the possessors of magical power are nobles. And the number was getting smaller and smaller.

Just as the empire suffers from a shortage of magical power holders, the Kingdom of Chania also lacks magical power.

It’s been a long time since I’ve come to my senses now, so I’m belatedly tracking down the owner of magic, but no one has already reached Kania’s hand.

The few survivors seem to have fled to foreign countries. I heard that the successor of the Duke of Watoringu is also such a case.

‘When the child arrives…’

When I suddenly looked away, I saw my father and mother smiling brightly.

My mother was especially in a good mood.

He doesn’t get angry when he sees the golden child he hasn’t seen in a long time. Rather, he was laughing.

But Roberto is more afraid of this moment than when his slave died.

I couldn’t guess at all the intentions of my father, who smiled at his mother affectionately.

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Doesn’t my mother think it’s strange?

No matter how young she is, her mother is no longer young. I’m already in my mid 50’s.

Even if my father liked to visit the rooms of old concubines, the limit was for him to be in his 40s.

So is my mother. Before turning 50, the night visits had already been cut off.

However, he suddenly finds the empress’s room, which he had not visited for years, and spends three or four nights a week.

It’s been like this since Roberto’s slave died, so it’s been over a year since they spent the night together.

To Roberto, it’s strange.

The mother, who seemed a bit skeptical at first, seems relieved after the emperor’s visits continued for over a year.

It must have been because they had known each other since childhood and had been physically overlapping each other for a long time.

It’s obviously strange when you look at it from a distance, but my mother believed that her husband’s love had returned.

There’s no way my father, who is a perfect emperor even to a single hair, would do that.

Crown Prince Roberto gently pressed the navel with the palm of his hand.

The seat is empty.

Originally, the crest of the successor, which should have been created a long time ago, was still not engraved.

When Roberto was a child, his mother protested against his father several times.

[That child is the crown prince. Why don’t you drop the heir’s coat of arms? Why are you still…]

At that time, my father said that he was in the position of the crown prince, so wasn’t that enough?

And one day added.

[If the possession of strong magical power comes after Roberto, can you offer your son’s life to me? If you can be prepared for that, you can engrave a sentence right now. tell me.]

Mother had no answer to her father’s words.

Roberto asked his mother what the words meant, but she did not answer.

Later, I asked the chief chamberlain the meaning of the words.

At that time, I knew that the crest of the successor would not disappear until death once it was engraved on the body.

And until the crest disappears, the successor’s crest cannot be engraved on another person.

[Roberto-sama may think savagely, but that is His Majesty’s own kind of love. In the imperial family, magical power holders are absolutely necessary. No matter what you sacrifice…]

The chamberlain looked at him as he said so.

[If a prince with strong magic is born in the future, your father will raise that child to the position of crown prince, even after killing you. But if Roberto didn’t have the crest, your life could be saved.]

He said it with a soft smile, but I remember that the chief chamberlain’s eyes were very cold.

From that day on, Roberto tried to please his father.

Before Roberto and after that, after being relieved to learn that he had no magical powers, he longed for such a father for a while.

I thought I should become a strong emperor like my father, so I should make the empire bigger and stronger and get his father’s approval. He wanted to show that he was a great prince even without a crest.

Until Enrico was born, he believed that there was no chance that he would be displaced as crown prince.

Roberto let go of his stomach and looked at the child who was buried in the people.

A child who resembles Enrico.

My father’s golden slave.

Maybe the father avoided people’s eyes and met Nadia Grabi. That child might be the emperor’s son…

Roberto’s lack of succession always strangles his mother. Her impatience pushed her mother’s back, saying that if she didn’t act quickly, her position as crown prince would be taken away.

Because of that impatience, the mother killed Enrico.

It was a mistake.

I shouldn’t have offended my father.

It must have touched his father’s invisible anger.

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Dad softens when he’s really angry.

The bursts of anger and shouting always came at precisely calculated timing.

My father never shows his true feelings outwardly.

‘Not this time. Twice is not forgiven.’

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Does your mother know

Since the death of Enrico, a significant amount of ore that depended on his mother’s home country has been imported through various other countries.

Slowly, very slowly, but surely, my mother’s home country was losing its influence.

The only reason she didn’t notice it was because the empire was spending money in vain while maintaining a relationship with the motherland of the empress.

Roberto didn’t know either until his slave died a year ago. Feeling a sense of crisis, I searched for this and that and found it by accident.

afraid.

Not too long ago, one of the domestic aristocrats who supported him backed out.

I don’t know why.

He only replied that he could not come to the imperial palace because he had to stay in the manor for the time being because of Dangju’s sickness.

After that, personal contact was completely cut off.

Even when Roberto sent someone, only formal thanks and greetings returned.

Nonetheless, he regularly sends gifts and letters to his mother. Like before, no more fancy and elaborate things.

So, even if the mother says that Roberto is strange, she just accuses him of being an idiot who doubts her side.

The mother trusted him more than her son. In reality, he would have been a much more reliable person to his mother than a useless and weak prince.

The head of the family was a person who had been helping her mother by maintaining a relationship with her motherland for a long time.

‘It must be because of my father that I pulled my foot out.’

I don’t know why, but my father started moving.

slowly tightens the neck

His hands and feet were bound with invisible strings.

Maybe my father still hasn’t given up on the successor who possesses magical powers.

‘I don’t even know if that kid is like that.’

Roberto looked at the young metal slave with grim eyes.

The child, who had been among the crowd for a while, headed to the corner shaking her flowing golden hair.

Watching the back of the child walking away, Roberto involuntarily let out a sigh.

Soon, the heir to the Duke of Watoring, who was captured from a foreign country, will arrive.

She is a child who possesses the magical powers her father wanted, and also has the coat of arms of the Corea Dynasty. If you bring that child into the royal family, you can secure a lineage that can be written down after seeing the magic ceremony.

My father obviously wants that too.

The mother expected that the child would marry the princess and leave a lineage in the imperial family, but Roberto had a different idea.

It’s speculation, but the father wants the child to be his successor.

Should I say that I am giving up the crown prince position myself? If so, the father will let him go. I want to stop being comfortable now.

I felt weak, I felt like I was drifting alone in a small boat with a hole in the open sea, unable to rely on my mother who urged me to become stronger.

* * *

It was shortly after the demonstration began that Levin found the man.

Ever since she stood near the emperor, she felt the gaze watching her.

When I turned my head, I met the man’s gaze.

Everything around you moves away from you in an instant. Things that I had hidden in my brain a few years ago jumped out of time.

Levin gritted his teeth without realizing it.

From beginning to end, the boys who come in to learn work all start with simple tasks.

While checking the items stored in the warehouse with a senior, I learned where and what kind of things were, and learned from the things closest to daily life, from how to hold a kettle to how to make tea with a teacup.

The same goes for maids, but most of the attendants are nobles.

But not all were of the same kind.

Some attendants came from wealthy families and had never heard anything heavier than a spoon, while others only had titles and lived a life similar to that of a commoner.

Levin was the latter case.

In a manor the size of a snot, income is all meager crops.

The poorer people of the poor manor gave birth to many children, but most of them died before the year was over.

Even if you survive and pass the age of three or four, the future is not bright.

Most of the children died of starvation in the winter, or barely survived the year into their teens, but were eventually sold to slave traders for cheap.

And their parents had children again.

It is a series of the same misfortunes.

Levin was one of the many sons of a provincial nobility of such ragged poverty.

It was thanks to his outstanding appearance that Levin entered the imperial palace.

Becoming an imperial palace attendant without someone’s connections, referrals, or bribes is literally harder than going through the eye of a needle.

Levin had enough looks to make that possible.

However, even after entering the imperial palace, life was not that easy.

Levin, who got a job in a place he couldn’t normally enter, was easily ignored or beaten, and sometimes even s*xually harassed.

However, it was just an extension of harassment rather than real s*xual harassment.

There were definitely some bad quality servants and boys, but they were always well-educated servants or future servants.

Nothing was too much to be a problem. I figured I’d have to put up with it.

I thought so until that day.

“…”

While I was standing still and gnashing my teeth, it seemed that the demonstration was over before I knew it. I didn’t remember anything in between.

Suddenly the man is nowhere to be seen.

Where did you go? Or, like that day, hiding behind a curtain or a door and staring at it.

The day’s work ended in an attempt.

Because there was a sign that someone was entering the room.

Physically, the damage wasn’t too great. Her clothes were torn and her skin was only slightly touched.

But it was an indelible humiliation.

If I had been able to, I would have resisted even by biting off the other person’s hand, and would have attacked even if it meant being beaten to death.

The reason I couldn’t do that was because the other person was a person of too high a status.

The man was the ambassador of the empress’ motherland, representing that country.

＜ It’s scariest when it’s soft ＞ End