–Knock –Knock –Knock
A young man with long dark blue hair and eyes estimated to be in his late twenties knocked on the door.
"Your Majesty, this is Erudian."
"Enter."
A room with a cozy vibe was revealed as he opened the door, and a white-haired man was seen writing something.
He approached him and placed a bundle of papers on his desk.
"These are the materials for today's meeting."
Erudian was the Emperor's aide.
Arthur put down his pen and picked up the papers. He leaned against his chair and began to read.
"Any interesting news?"
Preoccupied with work, Arthur did not fully follow hot topics in the Empire.
"Last night a fire broke out and burned down Ssera mercenary agency buildings."
"Which region?"
"All over the continent."
His ruby eyes moved to the man in front of him.
"All over the continent?"
"Yes."
Erudian nodded.
"Looks like the culprit has an infinite grudge to the point he burned all Ssera's agencies across the continent to ashes."
Arthur returned his gaze to the paper in his hands.
"Isn't it a platinum rank? Have they issued it yet?"
"Apparently, they chose not to report it."
Arthur chuckled and responded as he skimmed the document.
"It seems the perpetrator holds the agency's trump card and the owner doesn't want it to be known to the public."
"I concurred."
Of course, the Imperial knew several agencies were running illicit businesses behind their backs.
However, as long as they didn't cause trouble in this land and paid their taxes, the Empire would turn a blind eye.
Upon reading something, Arthur's eyebrows furrowed.
"Kidnapping?"
Erudian nodded and explained.
"Yes, recently, several children of merchants and nobles were reported missing."
"When was the first case?"
"Three years ago."
Arthur lowered the report and fixed his eyes on his aide.
Seeing the Emperor's expressionless face, Erudian knew–he was not in a good mood and his back started sweating.
"Originally, the culprit was just kidnapping children from the slums or commoners–"
Before Erudian could finish his sentence, Arthur cut in.
"Even if they are from the slums, the Constables do not have the right to ignore them. And what is this? They decided to bring the case to the fore because the kidnappers are after the nobles' child? Ha!"
The Emperor scoffed in disbelief.
"..."
Erudian shut his mouth because it wouldn't end up well if he responded; he knew Arthur's temperament very well.
"Be it people in the slums or commoners, they are still our people."
In his eyes, Arthur had never been a bad Monarch, he cared about his people but sometimes the Feudal Lord only cared about their money.
"Say Erudian, the Chief Constable will attend this meeting, right?"
"That is correct."
"Good, because he's going to have a FUN dialogue with me."
Erudian could imagine how that scenario would unfold and he bet that it wasn't fun at all.
–Flip –Flip –Flip
Arthur turned the paper over and stopped on a certain page.
"So, the Kearny Kingdom has taken the bold move by sending out several ships to patrol near its borders, huh? Interesting."
The relationship between the Kearny Kingdom and the Empire was never good as the two nations were in a cold war for hundreds of years.
However, the situation began to heat up when the Kingdom of Kearny sent out a complaint letter to stop illegal fishing in their sea area last month.
The Empire sent a reply, explaining that the Northwest sea belonged to Aeons, so there was no such thing as illegal fishing because it was exactly within the Empire's territory.
Since this matter was escalating quite quickly, it seemed like Arthur would have to prepare for the worst.
"Any movement from the Western Border?"
"Your Highness, it is impossible to traverse the Forest of Death."
Erudian reminded Arthur, but the Emperor just shrugged.
"But it doesn't hurt to be extra vigilant, right?"
"Yes."
His aide eventually nodded; he agreed.
–Tap –Tap –Tap
Arthur tapped his fingers on his desk and asked.
"What about the weapon made by the Tower? Is it ready?"
"Unfortunately, it's still under development."
"Send a letter to the Elder to get it over with as soon as possible."
"As you wish."
Arthur flipped the paper to see anything interesting.
"By the way, have you sent my present to my son yet?"
"Yes, I have."
"Alright, thank you."
"My pleasure."
As there were no more pages left, he threw them on the desk.
.
.
.
"His Majesty sent two horses as present, Duchess Roséria sent Your Highness a–"
Adrian watched a maid dictate every gift he received boredly in front of him.
It had been ten minutes or so, but the end was out of sight.
Not to mention that next to her was a butler waiting his turn to read a pile of letters sent by the nobles.
Adrian saw his reflection in the tea, he lifted the teacup and took a sip.
After the audience with Graham ended, Marie showed him a room full of presents.
Marie said those were birthday presents sent by nobles and she asked if he would like to open them.
Of course, the answer was obvious; Adrian declined it because he didn't want to do something unworthy like that.
But instead, he ordered them to do it and listed who the sender was and what gift they gave.
Adrian asked if Marie could give him a tour of the Palace, but she refused.
She stated that Adrian only had a 30-minute walk maximum per day–as suggested by the Imperial Physician.
Also, she added that walking from his chamber to the drawing room, this room, and back to his chamber counted as 30 minutes of walking a day.
And that was how he was stuck in his Chamber.
Adrian turned to the old lady beside him.
"Nanny, can you bring me the book Nathaniel gave me? I want to read it."
"As you wish."
Soon she came back and handed him the book.
"There you go, Your Highness."
"Thank you."
"My pleasure."
He opened it and the title of the book greeted him.
'The Void History'
The book began with the creation of the world–which was not explained in the novel and to be honest, all of it sounded like a fantasy to him.
But the fact that he lived in a fantasy world, what could he expect?
The book was considerably thin and in less than an hour Adrian finished the book.
On the whole, he agreed with Nathaniel in his dream–the book was utter nonsense; it was full of manipulative words.
Instead of explaining the void's history like its title, Adrian felt that the book was somehow trying to spread a new belief.
It gave you insurmountable hope and promise that could make desperate people sway–it was scary.
The question was, why Nathaniel said the book was good?
What made him change his mind?
He didn't know whether the book contained the truth or not, but there was only one way to find out.
"Your Highness, it's done."
A man's voice interrupted his thoughts and Adrian glanced at the voice.
"Thank you. Please send a reply to them by expressing my gratitude."
"As you wish."
With that, the butler and maid left the room and Marie stepped forward.
"Your Highness, you are scheduled to have lunch with Her Majesty."
"I understand."
They headed into the Dining Room and the table was covered with all kinds of food.
After a few minutes of waiting, Aerilyn arrived and she immediately rushed over to Adrian.
"Oh, Ian!"
She embraced and attacked him with kisses for a minute straight before caressing his face.
"How are you feeling today, my son?"
"I'm fine. How about you, mom?"
Aerilyn was surprised when he called her 'mom', but ultimately smiled.
"I'm also fine and let's start our lunch, shall we?"
"Yes, please."
The lunch began and Aerilyn put a piece of prawn on his plate with an arc drawn on her lips.
"Here, eat this, my dear."
"Thank you."
However, it didn't stop.
"Eat this too."
And it continued.
"This one too."
It looked like his mother was putting every dish she could find onto his plate.
Adrian was speechless, the amount of food on his plate was ridiculous.
It almost imitated a small hill and only after he begged, did she finally stop.
Just when Adrian thought it was all over, reality hit him.
Even after lunch was over, his mother didn't stop, she kept on stuffing him with dessert.
"Adrian, this one is delicious! Try this!"
Aerilyn scooped a pudding and fed it to him.
At this point, Adrian believed he would get lots of fat instead of muscle.
"Mom, can I have a tutor to learn Imperial Customs?"
All Adrian wanted was to adjust to his new life as quickly as possible.
If it were just table manners or doing some courtesy, it was all easy.
But Imperial Customs was more than that, it meant he would learn about the culture of this land.
He was a Prince so at least he shouldn't embarrass himself if he met other nobles.
"No."
Well, Adrian had expected his mother's refusal.
"It would be better if you could just focus on your recovery."
"There's no strenuous physical activity and mostly theory, so I will be fine."
Aerilyn shook his head.
"No."
"..."
Adrian shut his mouth and looked straight into her eyes.
They continued to exchange stares for quite some time.
Honestly speaking, Adrian didn't want to do this but he had no choice and so, he put on a pitiful face.
"Mom…"
Little thing he knew, his mother would soften up if he called her 'mom'.
It wasn't like he was going to use it to blackmail her–it was just for research purposes.
Just look at her, it was a single word yet, Aerilyn's blue eyes began to flutter and uncertainty filled them.
"...please?"
She heaved a deep long sigh and she gave up.
"Alright, but it's only an hour a day, okay?"
Adrian nodded and let out a thin smile.
"Thank you, mom."
It might seem like he was rushing things, but time was ticking and he had no time to waste, especially when it came to his safety.
However, something unexpected happened, his mother suddenly burst into tears and hugged him.
He didn't have a mother back in his previous life, so Adrian had no idea what was going on.
"Mom?"
Aerilyn released him and cupped his face.
Her eyes reddened and tears streamed down her cheeks.
"Your smile… I'll protect it."
With that, Aerilyn landed a kiss on his forehead and those weird feelings came back; washed over him.
But this time, Adrian didn't try to deny them, instead, he let them flow within him.
"Thank you, mom."
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