Chapter 9
“Why have you returned already?”
Dante was cleaning the chamber, having assumed that Joseph wouldn’t return to his room today. He opened his eyes wide when his master returned so early.
Joseph threw himself on his bed without answering Dante’s question.
His trousers, visible through the gown, were still firmly snug without a single tell-tale mess.
‘No sign of undressing.’
The quick-witted Dante kept his mouth shut in consideration of Joseph.
However, the young servant who helped Dante arrange the bed, jutted his head out as if he couldn’t suppress his curiosity.
“Isn’t it your Highness’ first night today?’
“Manuel!”
Dante hastily tried to stop the young servant, but he had already walked and even poked Joseph in the back when he lay down.
“Your Highness?”
“…Get out.”
Joseph gave a short order while he buried his face on the pillow.
Manuel, eyes filled with curiosity, was grabbed in the back of his neck by Dante and dragged out.
Joseph let out a long sigh while he pressed his wrist against his forehead.
‘As anticipated, you don’t remember me.’
It was to be expected.
This summer was redemption to him, but it would just be an ordinary season without any significance to her.
“You must punish the Prince, Your Majesty.”
Joseph recalled the beautiful voice of the Pope, who condemned him without any sympathy.
“Please send the Prince to the war against the Western Union. We might be able to eradicate his evil aura completely if we let him serve the continent.”
He was only twelve years old.
“Would you let him become a stain on the reign of Angelus who has been around for generations?”
“He is the son of the deceased Empress who is also a saint, so how can I make him a demon hunter?”
The Emperor grimaced in disbelief while pointing a finger at Joseph’s dark aura.
“That was such a foolish question, Your Majesty.”
At the Emperor’s question, the Pope twisted her thin lips, visible under the hem of her veil.
“Her Majesty the Great Empress failed to educate him.”
The nobles of the Holy Council nodded their agreement with the Pope’s hasty conclusion.
As if they couldn’t believe that a cursed demon hunter was born into the royal family that had given birth to countless generations of powerful emperors.
“As a precaution, we should also keep an eye on Prince Carlo. Let’s send him to the west together with the Prince to purify the dark aura…”
But Carlo was only six now. Carlo wouldn’t be able to survive on the battlefield.
At the Pope’s words, the boy chewed his lips as he looked back at his younger brother. He couldn’t possibly put his younger brother in danger just because of his demon hunter aura.
“Don’t disregard my mother’s honor thoughtlessly. I’m the heir of His Majesty the Emperor.”
Demon hunters, who were oppressed by the empire, were usually born with a contaminated aura and were forced to fight the demon.
However, it was said that even ordinary people could be demon hunters as well.
“….I sold my soul to the devil because I was blinded by power.”
“Oh, are you telling the truth?”
The Pope pushed him in front of the Emperor as if she had been waiting for Joseph to confess.
“Gosh, I can’t believe he sold his soul to the devil. I don’t think going out to the battlefield and serving the Empire will be enough to cleanse the Crown Prince of his sins!”
“Then what do you want me to do?”
“You should depose the Crown Prince, Your Majesty.”
In the end, the Emperor was forced to depose his own son due to pressure from the Pope and the nobles.
“I will send the deposed Crown Prince to the battlefield to cleanse his sins.”
It was disgraceful to execute a prince, so the Emperor sent him to die on the battlefield.
Joseph listened to his father’s command and nodded calmly.
“I will heed your order, Your Majesty.”
“Ack! Go away! Stay away from me!”
His aura could suck up people’s youth and rot their souls away just from contact with him.
“I got goosebumps, yuck!”
He was regarded as a demon who massacred people indiscriminately even if he was sent to a battlefield where bloodbaths were rampant.
“Did that kid survive this time? Even when half of our men are gone?”
“That young man was so blinded by power that he sold his soul to the devil!”
Even the knights felt sorry for what the deposed crown prince had to go through, and they wished for the young Joseph, who barely reached their waist, to die instead.
But he didn’t die…
Twelve years old. A boy thrown into a bloodied battle without receiving a knight training yet still made it out alive regardless, it sounded more like a fantasy than a reality.
The Emperor wanted his young son’s neck to fall naturally into the enemy’s hand, however, he did not die, and it inspired fear among people.
“Is the deposed Crown Prince still alive?”
The Emperor began to panic when his son did not die on the battlefield. If Joseph survived, there would be a rumor that the blood of a demon hunter had been mixed into the dynasty.
“Since the Crown Prince’s achievement is outstanding, continue your duty of subjugating monsters.”
“I heard there was a herd of monsters in the southwest part of the Empire.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
As he was covered in thick blood, without time to heal his wounded body, he had no choice but to be expelled from the Imperial Palace again.
‘Let’s die.’
Joseph made up his mind, as he basked in the warm summer sun of the south.
Whether the Emperor wanted him to cut down the enemy forces or his survival, he could never know.
‘Will His Majesty forgive me if I did something?’
It was a foolish hope. Everyone wanted his death so badly that they drove him to throw away his life.
But at one fateful moment,
“Are you lost?”
When a girl he never saw before grabbed his sleeve, Joseph did not shake her off or immediately answer her question.
“Hmm? Why are you sitting here?”
“…Ah.”
Joseph looked at the girl who approached him fearlessly and blinked her big eyes.
“I want to die.”
“Now?”
The little girl opened her eyes wide as if she couldn’t understand Joseph’s misery.
“Are you going to die now?”
“Not sure.”
“Do you want to play with me if you’re not going to die right now?”
“I can’t play with you.”
“Why?”
“Cause I’m a demon hunter.”
“What is that?”
Joseph was baffled by the girl, who persistently clung to him despite his apathetic answers.
‘Don’t you feel my aura leaking out?’
The grass surrounding the place where he laid down blackened, even though he didn’t mean to demonstrate his power to the little girl.
The girl wasn’t afraid of the hideous aura that looked like a swirling shadow; she seemed like she was slow-witted rather than brave.
“Dangerous person.”
“You’re dangerous?”
When the little girl sneered in disbelief, Joseph twisted the rose right in front of her. Soon, the gorgeous rose withered as if struck by a winter blast.
“Look at this.”
The little girl tilted her head when she saw him nervously holding the withered rose.
“It looks amazing though?”
Despite their surroundings being dyed in black, she was poking at his aura as if she was playing with it.
“But what does this have to do with you not being able to play with me?”
“I’ve got an impure aura. Don’t you know what a demon hunter is?”
“Surely you can play hide-and-seek!”
The little girl pouted.
“….I made your rose wither.”
Joseph nervously glanced at Rita, who appeared unfrightened.
“So what?”
The child scoffed, as if she thought he was ridiculous.
“I can do that much. The rose will die with only a few drops of poison.”
The little girl, who suits summer roses more than anyone ever will, muttered and took a small glass bottle from her arms.
“Not everyone can make this, you know?”
The little girl bragged as she pointed at the withered rose after the black liquid was dropped on it.
“Are you an alchemist?”
Joseph alternately looked at the dead rose and the girl’s innocent demeanor, then he frowned.
“Don’t recklessly show your ability.”
Perhaps not so much as demon hunters, alchemists were hated in the Empire in its devotion to sacredness.
“….People.”
“What about people?”
“Because people might hate you for being an alchemist.”
But despite Joseph’s warning, she only wrinkled her nose beautifully and burst into laughter.
“So? I hate them, too.”
“…”
“Tell them to hate me all they want. I’m leaving Las Vecchia anyway.”
The little girl pouted, and began to trample on the dead rose.
“Anyways, don’t die today. No one in the mansion talks to me.”
The girl grumbled, and Joseph postponed his death.
She looked as lonely as he was, so he thought it would be okay to hang out with her for a day.
A day, two days, a week.
Until a fortnight passed and he forgot his plan.