Chapter 10

Episode 10

They said a horse without feet could go to heaven.

Word about my actions spread through the palace quickly. As was widely rumored, Amy asked the guards for help, so there was nothing more to see.

'That hurt!'

My head then turned away from the sudden slap. When I calmly looked up, I saw a furious woman standing before me. Queen Liness, the woman who commanded the low-ranking priest I killed. She currently held most of the power in the royal palace.

"Are you insane?!"

"Do you think I am?"

"How dare you kill a priest who was sent from the Mainland!"

I smirked at her. "Bort threatened my life with his greed. I punished him according to the law in return. Is there a problem?"

"How dare you!"

She raised her hand again, throwing away her usually graceful mien. I quickly opened my mouth before she could continue.

"Isn't that funny?"

"What?"

"The royal law wasn't as chaotic until I fell into a coma."

She fell silent at my words.

"The Majesty is silent about this complete disorder. I just cut down a traitor who defamed the royal family, and now I'm getting blamed for it. It is funny, after all, the fact that the royal family's status is now lower than that of a priest."

I smiled, making eye contact with her. I wasn't the same person as before who used to avoid her gaze out of discomfort. I would've been silent in the past, but I didn't spend three months recovering and training my body while avoiding others' eyes for no reason. I simply needed the power to protect my body.

"How dare you bring up the authority of the Majesty and the Royal Family... You're insane."

"Well, I don't know if I'm the one going crazy or if the royal palace is."

I continued to look at her with a smile. "There's no evidence. No matter what reason you cut him down for, this situation isn't simple enough for your little, stupid mind to judge. There will be complaints from the Mainland!"

"..."

"Well... I've always known you're as stupid as your mother, but I didn't know you're also this impulsive."

Her words only served to deepen my laughter.

"It is quite true that I inherited my mother's traits."

"Very shallow. You're like a clone of your mother."

"It's not good to belittle parents in front of their children, your Majesty."

"Hmph!"

Her murderous spirit flared with those words. Such emotions were impossible to utilize if let out of control. However, when controlled, a spirit of jealousy and murder could be a powerful weapon. She looked at me with a face that turned pale in an instant and then slowly retreated. The maids flinched, sensing the abnormality in Queen Liness's behavior.

I couldn't see their hands, which meant they stopped pulling out their sword when they felt the bloodthirsty outrage. It wasn't proper behavior for a maid. One of them was even peculiarly creepy.

'Hmm...'

"Great loyalty. It would've been fun if they pulled it out a little more..."

I brushed off the murderous spirit and smiled as if nothing happened.

"It's dangerous when people rush their decisions. Not just for you, Queen Liness, but others as well. They won't tolerate any murder within the royal family."

"You..."

"Please be mindful of your choice. I am not the same boy I used to be."

I got up from my seat without hesitation and grabbed my cane. I then walked away, limping past her.

"Could you leave now? I'm tired. As you can see, the palace itself is out of control and shabby. You are too good to be here."

"You punk!"

"I ask you to be quiet in my palace. As you can see, the palace is a mess thanks to a certain someone."

As I turned around as if there was nothing more to say, I witnessed her confused expression. I had clearly conveyed my intention. It wasn't my personality to go into battle with a hidden knife since I had a reckless and hot temperament that could explode at any moment. She wasn't that stupid to not know what I meant. Hence, she stared at me with fury in her eyes but soon turned around.

The choices that I had definitely wouldn't be available forever. If I didn't take action when I could, I might never be able to use it. That was the reason why I didn't hesitate to give her a heads-up. I implied that I knew Carlos shot an arrow at me at the hunting contest six years ago.

She wasn't sure if I knew about it before, but she must've known now that I was aware of everything. Sooner or later, she would try to stop me.

"Oh, by the way, all the servants in the palace have been sent somewhere else. It's not good to be sneaking around."

"..."

"The Queen has been taking care of the royal family. I'd like you to see all of them again as soon as possible. If this continues, there may be some bizarre rumors."

Her eyes filled with even more rage as I made myself clear. I wasn't elegant enough to battle with a knife wrapped in fabric.

"It's a serious crime to steal money from the royal funds, as far as I know."

I grinned and murmured. "Anyone caught would be beheaded. Haha, you're not stupid enough to not know that."

She snorted at my words and walked away. That was enough. When I lay down on the bed with satisfaction, I lifted my mana and saw four circles rotating inside my body. It was magic that moved along the blood points.

Search Eye. Just like the command mana, which symbolized secrecy, a black air stream, invisible to others' eyes, stretched out and followed Queen Liness. It wouldn't last long, but I had an eye on her. It was quite a satisfying result in return for getting slapped in the face.

* * *

"..."

Queen Liness, who returned to her room without saying a word, remained silent with an expression of rage.

"Queen Majesty."

Slap!

When the maid quietly tried to speak, she was hit by the queen.

"Don't be hasty. Do you really want to die?"

At her shouting, the women bowed their heads with their mouths shut.

"I'm sorry."

Her face showed no emotion as if she weren't even human.

"Grrr!!"

Angered even more by her dull expression, Queen Liness began to throw everything in her reach hysterically. Most of the people in the Queen's Palace knew that she had a bad temper. Nobody stopped her, even if she shattered glasses and smashed wood tables.

At that point, they were just waiting for her to stop.

"Sigh... Sigh..."

After the long disturbance, she put her hand on the smashed table with a grim face, clenched her fist, and growled.

"He is stupidly clueless about where he belongs."

He didn't do that in the past. He was as dumb as his shallow mother back then. In fact, she could've killed him if she really wanted to. However, he became different after he woke up from a coma. It was as if he had become a completely different person.

"Come on. If you really want to die, there is no reason to hesitate."

Breathing heavily, she murmured lowly, "Keep it up. Your rude behavior will tighten the noose around your neck."

She didn't know that Davey was humming as he listened to her hysterical shouts.

* * *

The result went as expected. Rumors began to spread inside the palace.

Prince David Al Rown was crazy. He was mad and killed the innocent people around him without any care, losing his royal pride. Since most people inside the palace were her people, my reputation plummeted. In the past, they thought I was too weak to be king, a kind prince with a lot of affection. Now, however, I was treated like a maniac.

"Majesty! The medicine is here today!"

When I was quietly reading a book, Amy came in and began to make a fuss. She still seemed quite shocked by the time I wielded my sword. Still, she showed me a smile because she knew I was trying to save her, not anyone else, and that I was generally nice most of the time.

I thought she was cute. No one had been younger than me in the Hall. I was currently sixteen years old, and she was a little younger than me. In that regard, she was like my little sister, although the status between us had an enormous gap.

I had to protect my people.

"Who brought the medicine?"

At first, they only brought me food, but medicine then started showing up after I ended priest Bort's life. The gifts arrived secretly, so no one could really tell. In fact, it had been quite helpful to me. I didn't need any medical herbs as of the moment, though, so I just kept them in storage.

Clearly, my body had finished recovering. After five months of dedication to recovery and training, the effects began to appear. Once my body started to heal, it didn't take long to become healthy again. She smiled at me when I asked her a question, pretending that I didn't know that someone came in the middle of the night.

"I don't know. Maybe someone who knows your kind nature is helping."

"Do you think I'm kind?"

"Yes!"

She smiled brightly as she nodded, which made me laugh. Even though she had seen me kill a man, she still had quite the character.

"Take good care of the medicine and keep it safe."

"I was going to get them ready for you."

"I know my body well enough. The medicine I'm taking is enough."

She looked disappointed when I refused but didn't argue further. I was a man of my own.

"David, your Majesty, are you here?"

While I was talking to Amy, gently teasing her, I heard someone calling my name. Slowly, I got up from my seat and went outside, and an old butler dressed in neat clothes bowed to me.

"I see the little sun of the kingdom."

"You don't have to act fancy. What's going on?"

I knew the old man. Vespers. He served as the king's servant and the head of the royal court's inner servants. He was an old man who had worked here since I was born.

"They're the ones who stole money from the First Prince's Palace and escaped from their duties under the command of Queen Liness."

I squinted at his determined words and let out a small sigh. When I looked behind him, I saw a little more than ten people kneeling on the floor, all having frightened expressions.