“I’ll keep an eye out for any other assassins the emperor might send,” Iris said. “Please, my mentor, tell Crow about him.”
With that, Iris left the room, sword in hand. Her blonde hair trailing behind her gave her such a dignified look. She’d been so dependable since the moment we met! I loved her.
“Now, young Crow,” the empress began, once we were alone. “Let us speak of the emperor, the man after your life.” Her long eyelashes drooped sadly. “Why did Zilsonia, my son, try to kill you, you may ask? Well, he resents commoners who show excellence.”
Um, I’m not excellent, but go off, I guess?
“My son, Zilsonia, you see, was quite the talented child. Everyone around him expected him to achieve great things. Fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately—my husband and I had no other children. Until age ten, everyone believed Zilsonia was to be the next emperor.”
“Until age ten?” I echoed, tilting my head at her words.
He’d had no siblings. He’d been talented. Seemed obvious to me he’d become the next emperor.
“Well...” she began, in response to my question. “Around that time, I learned of my husband’s infidelity. He had sired a child with one of our maids.”
“Oh, I see.” Sounds like a bit of a pickle, I thought. Even someone like me, a commoner far removed from that world, could imagine the problems that had to have caused for those involved.
“As you can imagine, the palace was in an uproar. Some of our vassals even went so far as to suggest that the child should be killed to prevent the seeds of chaos from taking root. It was a difficult time.” Empress Eldia sighed.
She might’ve looked like a seven-year-old, but this story was pretty serious. And she’d mentioned being half forced into a political marriage to boot. She looked so young, but she’d led quite the difficult life.
“In the end, the maid’s child was raised at the palace, as the second in line to the throne. There was opposition, to be sure, but Zilsonia, in the eye of the storm, said he would accept the boy as a younger brother. The two became playmates and were often together after the boy was taken in.”
“I see.” Wow! How nice of Emperor Zilsonia to have just accepted a potential rival like that!
Once it became known the boy was the child of the emperor, there would have been problems even if he’d lived as a commoner. Taking him into the palace was the best course of action. And he’d have a good older brother too.
“Empress Eldia...” I began.
“Just Eldia, please. And remember to not mind your manners.”
I know! You don’t have to remind me!
“So then, Eldia. Why did Emperor Zilsonia grow to resent commoners?”
“It’s quite simple, really,” she explained, straining to get the words out. “The second prince was simply far too excellent.”
Apparently, this second prince—just one year younger than Zilsonia—had caught up to his older brother’s academic knowledge about a year after being taken in. Not only that, he’d had talent in the military arts and had surpassed his older brother in only three months. To add insult to injury, he’d been a beautiful child, adored as an angel in his youth. And once he’d grown up, he’d become a handsome, golden-haired man, fascinating the upper-class ladies.
Wow, having a total superhuman for a younger brother must’ve been hard to deal with.
“And the rest isn’t difficult to imagine. The expectations of those around them began to shift onto his younger brother, and Zilsonia was completely overshadowed,” she went on. “Which isn’t to say he was mediocre by any means, but with such formidable competition, he didn’t stand a chance. Over time, his personality began to warp.”
“So,” I pondered, “he began to resent others like his younger brother? Commoners who excel?”
The empress nodded at my words. “He’s now become a bitter old man,” she lamented, clearly distraught by her son’s fate.
Oh, so that’s what it is. It made sense. The emperor hated his younger brother, and his attempts to have me killed had happened because of some sort of displaced hatred for his sibling.
Maybe it wasn’t appropriate for me to feel this way, having been on the verge of death because of him and all, but I could sympathize with his feelings. Even if he was a bastard and undeserving of forgiveness.
“I understand,” I remarked. “I don’t plan on forgiving him, but I’ll consider him a pitiful scoundrel instead.”
“Oh, thank you! You’re far too kind!” Eldia exclaimed, seeming a little relieved by my response.
Wow, what a jerk! Making his pretty, petite mother sad!
“I assume it would be difficult to make the emperor change his ways?” I asked.
“My apologies,” the empress said. “I tried to put an end to his schemes once I found out, and repeatedly admonished him not to do it, but...he didn’t listen to me, in the end.”
“An unfortunate situation for you to be in,” I concluded. “Incidentally, Eldia, is the former emperor still alive? Perhaps if the reprimand came from him, there would be more of a political pressure for the emperor to not do anything.”
Meaning, I wanted his daddy to scold him.
Eldia shook her head, however. “Unfortunately, my late husband has already passed. I think the same thing often. Zilsonia was fond of his father, so if the former emperor was still alive, he could certainly scold the emperor.”
I see. So he’s dead. That doesn’t work, then.
The empress’s face fell again. It was hard to sit by and watch a girl who looked no older than seven seem like she was about to cry.
All righty then. As the master of empathy, my personal motto is to always be nice to little girls.
Time to lighten the mood with a joke!
“How about this, then, Eldia?” I said, taking a ring out of my pocket—the same ring with the royal crest that she’d given me earlier as a joke.
I then slipped it onto my left ring finger.
“Y-Young man?!” she exclaimed.
A perfect fit! I’d thought since a little girl had been wearing it, it’d be too tight, but oh well.
And then, gesturing at my now ringed finger, I offered Eldia a small smile.
“I’ll reprimand the emperor as his substitute father. That would help him be a good boy again, don’t you think?”
Eldia was stunned.
Ha! How’s that?! Imagine someone as young as me playing the role of angry father, yelling at the emperor about how foolish he is! He’d probably start foaming at the mouth!
Funny, right?
I expected her to laugh, but—
“C-C-Crow! You know what this means, yes?!”
“Huh?”
“You’ll be as a father to him. You’ll scold him. You know what that means, don’t you?!” she asked, creeping closer to me for some reason. A tear trickled down her worried face.
What was that about?
“P-Please, Crow! I’m at my limit!” she exclaimed, as though she were hanging by a thread to avoid falling straight into hell.
She took my ringed hand in her small ones and clasped it tightly.
“Please, do help me scold that foolish son of mine!”
“Oh, of course...” Wait, what? You can’t be serious!
And thus it was decided that, in a few days, I was to scold a son (Eldia’s, specifically) who I’d never met.
Whaaaaaat?!
✦ ✦ ✦
A few days later...
Eldia said, “Mommy will be marrying this man. ♡”
Zilsonia, who had been trying to kill said man—a man who, incidentally, now wore a ring with the royal crest and stood before him—said, “Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!”