Chapter 12
“He’s already dead.”
“Ah.”
Rexid burst into laughter after seeing a surprised expression on my face.
We both, quite bewildered, started staring in opposite directions, avoiding eye contact.
“The crown prince and I were the same age. Ten years ago, when I still resided in the Imperial Palace, we were very supportive of each other.
“…”
“The prince’s personality was no different from the rumours. He was a weak and foolish guy who considered me as his best friend in the whole world, unaware of my hidden claws.”
I could read him like an open book. Rexid couldn’t hide the pain etched on his face and, at the same time, pretended to be blunt.
‘Why are you lying?’
I was puzzled, but I pretended to keep listening.
“He would often come to Drax just to see my face. It was no different last time, so I thought of it as an opportunity.”
“Ah, I see.”
Once again, I looked at the crown prince who was lying in the coffin.
The corpse has little to no decomposition due to the suitable environment created for its preservation.
At first glance, it felt like a misunderstanding and the crown prince was only asleep.
‘These two look alike.’
The crown prince looked exactly like Rexid with a more finite expression.
My body trembled as I opened my eyes to the engraved image on the back of my neck.
Seeing me like that, Rexid burst into laughter again.
“What do you think? You’ve been living as a criminal your whole life. Can you help a murderer become the emperor without feeling guilty?”
“Ah…”
I frowned because he kept saying strange things, but Rexid seemed to have misunderstood me.
While coming my way, he asked.
“Are you afraid of me?”
“No. I…”
“Have you just realized that you have been kidnapped by a crazy man who stabbed his innocent friend’s neck?”
“No, Your Grace. Please give me a chance to spe-.”
“Sorry, but you can’t run away.”
“Do you want me to be afraid of you, Your Grace?”
“…What?”
“Or are you perhaps scared that I won’t trust you?”
Rexid’s eyes became sharp instantly.
“Now that I think about it, I lied a few times to you, Your Highness. I didn’t become a con artist because my life was difficult. I became one because it was an easy way of making money for me, and it came to me as if it was my second nature.”
“…”
“I can figure out a person in three minutes. You can make me believe in you for five minutes, then show your true self in the next ten minutes. It means that I’ve already figured out what kind of person you are, Your Highness.”
The crown prince and grand duke.
Perhaps the bond between them was deep.
The uncle and nephew of the same age grew up together in the hands of the nanny Masha.
According to the rumours, the crown prince was a weak and fairly good person, and Rexid was more affectionate than everyone expected.
It was easy to guess how close they were to each other.
“There is only one thing I was wrong about. I thought you truly wanted to become the emperor, but it doesn’t seem like that’s the case.”
“What?”
Rexid smiled in vain and titled his head at what I said.
“You should’ve made it clear to me. What you want is not the throne…”
“….”
“But revenge, Your Grace. “
On the unknown ‘enemy’ who killed the crown prince.
“HAHAHAHAHA…! Who? Me?”
Rexid stopped on his way to leave the room and started laughing.
“Who the hell would I take revenge for?”
“The crown prince. “
“Why would I? He was the obstacle I needed to get rid of to take the throne. It’s only right. What revenge are you talking about?”
“Why are you so insistent on continuing pointless conversations with me? Are you trying to test my reasoning skills?”
When I asked him while pretending to be displeased, embarrassment immediately crossed Rexid’s face.
“That could be the case. The customer has the right to check the quality of their goods.”
“Hey, that was not what-“
“I categorize everyone upon my first meeting with them. Learning about your opponent is the key to deceiving them.”
I stretched out three fingers from my thumb to my middle finger and showed them to Rexid.
“Superior class — a person who always prioritizes reason instead of desire.”
“…”
“Middle class — the boundary between reason and desire is ambiguous, and when coerced, desire can overpower reason.”
“…”
“Low class — a human being who is very easily seduced by desire and with the tendency to ignore reason.”
Classes were divided in this way for convenience, but it wasn’t much needed. After all, there is no type that I have failed at scamming.
“I’ve been scamming everyone I can, but there’s one type that I won’t take on.”
“…Which?”
“The type of person who doesn’t have any distrust of humans in this world. They can be easily fooled and not even a professional con artist can deceive them. Simply put, a pushover.”
“…”
“I threw away my conscience a long time ago, but this type still stimulates guilt in me, which usually doesn’t exist. That’s…”
I said while coming closer to Rexid and pushing his chest with my index finger.
“It’s you. A type like Your Highness is full of kindness.”
Rexid’s eyes narrowed.
“Only…”
He was furious, but he had a smile on his face.
“…You judge me without looking at me for even a day?”
“It’s enough. Just looking at how you treat a death row inmate, who won’t have any problems even if they are tied up and beaten, gives the answer.”
Even a tyrant on the battlefield has his own standards. Even I, who lives on the back of others, feel a sense of guilt.
Rexid is an innocent person, or, to be precise, a kind of person who believes in others and is infinitely generous with his people.
He never cuts the head of the person he wants to believe in. Also, he is a man who will gladly give his head to anyone who wants to believe in him.
Maybe Rexid himself knows. That he is the type of person who easily trusts and wants to trust people.
Even though it would have been a wise decision to follow the advice of the smart butler to never trust me and to use me forcibly, he did not.
“If Your Majesty is the one who pierced the neck of the innocent crown prince, go up now and bring the heads of Masha and Marco as well. We can’t leave any evidence.”
Rexid was silent at my words. It was the expected reaction.
“Can you?”
“…”
“Look at you. You should stop pretending to be tough, okay?”
“You… Do you trust me? That I didn’t kill the crown prince…”
“I don’t believe in Your Majesty; I believe in my eyes. I’ve never been wrong.”
After answering that, I started looking at the crown prince again.
This time, it wasn’t just for the sake of appreciation.
How long have you been dead, what you look like, and how tall you are…
“You said you wanted to become an emperor, but I thought it was strange, and I couldn’t see any of your intentions regarding the throne, but now I understand.”
“…”
“You don’t have any desire for power, worldly desires, or any specific goal to accomplish…”
I glanced at the crown prince in the coffin and nodded.
“But you gained one with the death of the crown prince, who you considered as one of ‘your’ people. Revenge.”
Rexid looked my way again and stared at me without saying a word.
“Being an emperor is only a necessary step in the process of revenge.”
There was a bitter expression that flashed across Rexid’s face whenever he vowed, ‘I want to become the emperor.’
Perhaps it was because they knew about the close bond between the crown prince and Rexid, especially their nanny Masha, who was crying with a painful expression on her face.
And…
His dislike of his older brother, Grand Duke Ryde van Hessen.
‘Did Grand Duke Ryde kill the crown prince?’
First of all, he was the most likely person.
“Because I trust my eyes, I know that His Majesty did not kill the crown prince.”
“…..”
“I’m not sure about the others.”
The crown prince, the first in the line of succession to the imperial family, has died.
And.
Except for the one who killed the crown prince and the people of the Drax mansion, no one knows yet.
The death of the Crown Prince Raven van Hessen.
But somehow, the body is in Rexid’s hands.
If so, the first thing I should do is…
“I guess the start is to not be framed as the crown prince’s assassin.”
Rexid’s eyes widened in surprise at my words.
“The first thing you wanted me to do, right?”
For some reason, Rexid’s face staring at me looked a little sad.
He was a man who knew himself well and lived a quiet life.
At the command of the emperor, who was concerned about harming the image of the imperial family, he was sent away at a young age as if he was driven away to the frontier.
If you ask me if he hasn’t fulfilled his duties as an imperial family member, well..
The only thing he’s good at is using his body and wielding a sword, giving his best in it.
If ordered from above, he needs to come to the war every once in a while and get the head of the enemy or block small aggressions in noisy frontiers…
Rumors were splendid because he lived on the battlefield, yet his life was full of hard work without any accidents or damage to the name of the imperial family.
However.
He lost it with the death of the Crown Prince, whom he was close to, being a perfect prey for being falsely accused of being his assassin.
Despite his notoriety as a battlefield tyrant and his position as third in the line for the throne, Rexid was a prime suspect.
If we don’t take measures, we will not be able to eat and will be eaten instead, and we’ll get caught in someone’s trap.
“It will be hard to become the emperor if we both end up on the gallows and lose our lives. You know that, right?”
I’m not the type to be diligent about other people’s affairs, but this time is an exception.
‘Cause if this guy dies, I’m going to die too.’
To reassure Rexid, I smiled as kindly as possible.
“Don’t worry. I’ve never failed.”