His audience with the emperor over, Cleo staggered back to his home in the inner palace. The worried Lysithea had accompanied him, but now Cleo lay alone in his bed. He’d removed the suit he wore to disguise himself as a man, so his chest bulged slightly. At the same time, he looked smaller than usual, since the suit concealed the slenderness of his frame.
Cleo reached up toward the ceiling and closed his hand as if grasping at something. The audience with Bagrada had thoroughly exhausted him, but hope still showed in his expression.
“Liam, you chose the wrong person to become crown prince.”
Cleo would soon be named crown prince officially, and he would also be Liam’s political enemy. Liam was an extremely troublesome person to have as a foe, but Cleo was excited about fighting with him.
“You shouldn’t have helped me. Your sin was making an ugly person like me crown prince.”
Bagrada had acknowledged Cleo’s true self. He had affirmed the ugliness inside his child, which Cleo had tried to avoid facing. Now, the prince was able to recognize his own ugliness—and accept it.
He acknowledged the part of himself that had betrayed a devoted friend and wished to drive him to ruin. He no longer felt the need to hesitate over defeating Liam.
“I’ll be the one who brings you down…whether I’m truly a man or not.”
✦ ✦ ✦
The Albareto dynasty ruled the Algrand Empire.
The original emperor’s name had been Algrand, but the ruler’s name had changed to Albareto long ago. You could think of it like this—at some point, there’d been a bloody feud, and a branch family called the Albaretos had taken over.
History had gone on like that for millennia, and now I stood before the current emperor: Bagrada. We’d laid eyes on each other before, but we’d never had the opportunity to speak in private. I’d just thought of the emperor as a guy I had to kneel before in the audience chamber. Yet now, for some reason, His Imperial Majesty had summoned me directly. That had to indicate how important I’d gotten within the Empire. Most people who ended up in this audience hall still couldn’t get anywhere near the guy, after all. Now, I was considered important enough to speak with him one-on-one.
Bagrada gave me some slow, listless applause. “Good job beating Calvin. You defeated the powerful nobles who backed him as well, so you’re pretty well the most important noble in the Empire now.”
“Your words honor me.” I played the good boy, but inside, Bagrada irritated me.
“That said, you don’t appear to be getting along well with Cleo now either.”
If you could call annihilating Cleo’s Imperial Guard “not getting along well,” then sure. Were such conflicts so trivial to the emperor? “I determined that there was a traitor in the crown prince’s Imperial Guard, so I made the call at the time to eliminate them.”
As I fed Bagrada this shameless line, he nodded thoughtfully. “Is that so? Then, after our audience, you should clear up that misunderstanding with Cleo. I’d love it if you’d continue to support him.”
On the outside Bagrada looked like a pleasant young man, but I’d picked up on something.
“I swear my unchanging loyalty to the Empire from here on out,” I said.
“We’ll have nothing to fear with you on our side, Count Banfield. No—if you assimilate House Claudia, I suppose you’ll be Duke Banfield soon, won’t you?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. I plan to hold my wedding, and the ceremony to assume House Claudia’s peerage, as soon as I return to my domain.”
“Well, congratulations. This will be the birth of a duke the Empire can truly count on. I hope you’ll allow me to celebrate with you.”
“…That would be an honor far beyond my station.”
I could see something pitch-black lurking behind Bagrada’s smile; a sticky, sickening presence. As I got closer to him, the repulsive sensation only grew stronger. Suddenly, my suspicion turned to conviction.
For a long time now, I’d wondered about the Guide’s warning about my “real enemy.” A short while ago, I’d only had the faintest suspicions about the emperor, but at this point, the black aura surrounding Bagrada made things crystal clear to me. I must’ve been able to tell for sure now because I was getting close to Master’s skill level.
My true enemy…was the Algrand Empire’s emperor himself.