“…Excuse me?”
“You’re working for His Highness the Crown Prince, right?”
“……”
“It all makes sense now. Why Her Majesty the Empress said there was something suspicious about you. Why you had such extraordinary physical abilities.”
Keyvon looked extremely flustered, his eyes flicking quietly from side to side. Of course, I hadn’t brought this up to interrogate him.
“Did His Highness explain things to you? From now on, we’re not just Scroll Department employees—we’ll be working together for His Highness.”
I continued speaking gently.
“But I’m still not clear on your actual rank. If you happen to be some kind of department head in a secret organization or something, then it’d be kind of awkward for me to boss you around like before…”
“You may boss me around as much as you like.”
That was basically my way of suggesting we clarify the hierarchy—but Keyvon, who had kept his mouth shut in visible discomfort until now, suddenly responded quickly.
“You are my superior, Minister. Please feel free to give me any orders.”
“Oh, really? You mean it?”
It was a reassuring answer.
Still, just in case he’d gotten promoted in the meantime, I casually probed a little.
“For how long?”
Keyvon looked directly at me and answered without hesitation.
“Forever.”
Was it because he was from a foreign background and couldn’t rise beyond a certain point?
Well, if that’s how it is, I had no reason to say otherwise.
So I immediately gave him some tasks.
“First, go to the Scroll Department office. I want to find something.”
“What should I retrieve?”
“It’s something I worked on privately when I was just a low-level clerk, just to kill time… but after the department got cleaned up, I can’t remember where I put it. I’m sure I didn’t throw it away, though.”
I continued, looking him in the eyes.
“You’re not going to find it yourself—just pass the message to Anastasia and Victor for me.”
It hurt to suspect either of them, but that was all the more reason to identify the traitor quickly so I could find some peace of mind.
“It’s a research report on special scrolls made with blood instead of regular scroll ink. Tell them to contact me immediately if they find it.”
“Yes.”
“And also, reserve the fabrication room under my name for the duration of my leave. You probably won’t be able to do it. Only team leaders or higher have access.”
“Yes.”
“Lastly, on your way back, give this letter to His Highness the Crown Prince.”
“Understood.”
Keyvon replied as usual and then looked at me as he added,
“Please don’t go out alone without me, and if there’s anything inconvenient or uncomfortable, tell me anytime—even in the middle of the night.”
Only after he left did I fully realize what that meant.
He was now permanently on standby for me—no more such thing as ‘off-duty hours.’
***
Kiaros was busy.
He had visited the Scroll Department as Keyvon and relayed her message, and as Kiaros, he’d interrogated the Minister of Education on behalf of the Emperor.
“He was spouting nonsense. Said through some experiment, he came to perceive the world as a single book, allowing him to foresee the future.”
“A book…?”
“Maybe that’s how they managed to predict your second dark period…”
The Emperor chuckled.
“They attacked right when your second dark period hit, so now that you’ve survived it, their ‘future’ must’ve changed. It won’t be useful anymore.”
“Then they probably tried another experiment to learn the new future.”
“That’s likely. But it doesn’t seem they’ve succeeded yet.”
Kiaros furrowed his brow, his face serious.
Even for a Dragonblooded, it wouldn’t be easy to deal with people who claimed to know the future.
“By the way, Kiaros…”
The Emperor, looking worried, grabbed his son’s hand.
“I heard rumors that you kidnapped and imprisoned Miss Namia. It was consensual… right?”
“If it were consensual, it wouldn’t be called kidnapping or imprisonment, would it…”
“It’s just—I’m so worried!”
The Emperor puffed air out through his nose and huffed.
Kiaros sighed and took a sip of water.
“It’s not hard for us to tempt regular people. We have looks, money, status, power. I thought she liked all those things, so your love would be easy. But after the banquet, I’m getting the strong sense that none of it will work.”
“That does seem to be the case.”
“The Treasury Minister says Namia is the type who’s drawn to subordinates, not superiors. She’s not the kind of person who falls in love by flattering someone or bowing her head…”
“That’s true as well.”
“What if she ends up falling for that Scroll Department intern, huh?”
“Pffft—!”
And that intern would be Keyvon. Kiaros spat out his water.
“I was talking with the Empress the other day, and she mentioned that intern or secretary or whatever is quite the looker. Shouldn’t you fire him immediately?”
“I—I’ll be going now.”
“Kiaros, avoidance isn’t the answer…! She seems like a really tough one to win over. What about confessing again?”
The Emperor hurriedly grabbed Kiaros’s sleeve as he stood up.
“Yes. But I’ll handle it myself.”
“How are you going to resolve such a serious issue!”
“There’s a bigger issue than this one. I don’t need to concern myself with how to handle that.”
Kiaros’s grave response made the Emperor clutch the back of his neck.
Kiaros let out a deep sigh and left the Emperor’s chamber, heading back to his own quarters.
His face showed nothing but exhaustion.
Sigh… What am I even supposed to do?
He gasped as he entered his room, immediately deep in thought.
His aide followed close behind, arms full of documents.
“Your Highness, here are the Ravens’ reports.”
“…Thanks…”
It was the investigation results on Anastasia and Victor.
But thanks to the Emperor’s rambling about “confessions” and “problems,” Kiaros couldn’t focus on the text at all.
He was already imagining the future—what came after all his questions about Namia were answered.
“…Hey.”
Kiaros said, in a tone rare for him—very cautious.
“If, let’s say, just hypothetically, just maybe—”
“…Are you talking to me, Your Highness?”
The aide nearly jumped out of his skin. Kiaros frowned.
“Who else would I be talking to?”
“It’s just… I’ve never seen Your Highness this nervous before… Not even when you proposed to Miss Namia. And she rejected you after you already had the wedding planned…”
“Not a memory I care to revisit.”
“Apologies. I swear, from now on I’ll never bring up the incident where Your Highness arranged an entire wedding in advance only to get turned down.”
“Anyway.”
Kiaros took a deep breath and continued.
“Say… there’s someone who’s been hiding their identity from you for a long time and has deceived you all along. You were completely fooled.”
“Ooh.”
The aide’s eyes sparkled with intrigue.
“What a trashy bastard. To lie for that long—absolutely vile and shady.”
“Right… but what if that vile, shady person then confesses their feelings to you? Says they like you?”
“Huh? Like, what kind of secret?”
“That they’ve been deceiving you this whole time and are actually someone you never could’ve imagined—but they’ve fallen for you. That kind of thing.”
The aide immediately flailed his arms and shouted.
“Ugh, creepy! What a shameless freak! Disgusting!”
“W-Wait—”
“All those good memories suddenly mean nothing! You start drowning in distrust, wondering what else they lied about! And you’re so furious you can’t even say, ‘Did you have fun playing me?’—you’d just end up throwing water in their face!”
Kiaros closed his eyes tightly.
His head was spinning.
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