episode_0053

“Kk… .”

Alex screamed involuntarily as the searing pain of the cut surface on his right shoulder burned.

Fortunately, I had a healing potion, which stopped the bleeding and prevented the wound from getting worse.

No matter how much healing potion was used to treat wounds, it could not regenerate the missing right arm.

If it had been severed, he would have tried to reattach the arm with the help of a high priest. His right arm had already been torn to pieces by the snake’s teeth and had entered the stomach.

“Your Majesty… Ugh… Please kill me!!!”

Cross and the Knights of the Escort Order were crying as they saw Alex like that.

Alex tried to raise his hand to indicate that it was okay and tell them to stop, but his right hand did not respond.

It was the moment when I realized once again that my arm was gone.

“It’s okay. You didn’t lose your life.”

“The sin of not being able to protect His Highness the Crown Prince, the future of the empire, is something that cannot be repaid even after death!”

Cross hit the ground with his head as if it were a hammer.

The ground that made Cross’s blood drip like even a serpent couldn’t. Alex couldn’t help but laugh.

“If you do that, the soldiers you saved might faint from fear.”

-Are you just going to throw my right arm away?

As Alex said, the foreheads of the soldiers he saved were stuck to the ground and showed no signs of falling.

They were muttering as if reciting a spell, their whole bodies trembling like aspen trees swaying in the wind.

“Please kill me… Because of someone like me, His Highness the Crown Prince… .”

The imperial crown prince’s body disappeared without any injuries while protecting them.

The soldiers were so scared that they couldn’t stop their tears from flowing at the thought that the entire village might disappear.

Alex looked at the young soldier among them and wondered why he had acted this way.

Funny enough, there wasn’t any particular reason.

A girl who wanted to bring back to life her dead lover from the comic books she was reading.

Looking at that girl, the line the main character said came to mind.

“Get up and walk. You still have two strong legs left.”

Tragedy has no eyes.

I realized then that it comes to everyone, big or small, and it’s up to us how we deal with it.

So I couldn’t give up on the soldiers in front of me.

Originally, these were people who, if they had not been summoned by him, would have lived peaceful lives in their respective domains and had a warm dinner with their families after work.

Because I felt like I would never be able to forgive myself if I gave up on those people and left them to die.

Missing right arm?

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel sorry, but I don’t regret my choice.

He will make a different choice than his father, the emperor. He wants to be a person who embraces the people in front of him rather than giving up on them for profit or efficiency.

“Your Majesty!!!”

As the Tunnel Snake attack was coming to an end, Yustav and his party returned from investigating the enemy’s base.

The situation where they were surprised and terrified as soon as they arrived and checked Alex’s condition repeated itself again.

Alex quickly calmed them down, who were at a loss as to what to do, and then reported the results to them.

Alex, who had been briefed on the true nature of the enemies and the details of what they were preparing, ordered those who remained to secure evidence and search for any remaining members of the group without letting anyone escape.

“Your Majesty… Please leave the remaining work to us and return to the palace quickly.”

“Okay, I should go now. The one-armed crown prince won’t be of any help here anymore.”

“That’s not what I meant… !”

“Just kidding. But there’s one last place I have to stop by.”

Before Alex returned to the palace, a young boy suddenly came to mind.

A girl with a rather cute face, even though she was a bit shabby.

And someone just like him, who had been fighting alone until now to protect his younger sister.

I wanted to tell him not to worry now that he was out of danger.

There will be chaos if I return to the palace this time, so I won’t have time for a while. The only time I can meet you is now.

***

“I’m really worried that the writer has collapsed.”

The carriage pulled by two white horses that were so pure that they seemed to be pure, was occupied by people who could be ranked among the top five most important figures in the empire.

“Saint. Wouldn’t it be better to come back again next time?”

“No. I think this is also the goddess’ arrangement. There may be something I can help with.”

The bishop who had come with her to greet her could not help but be surprised at the saint’s answer.

A reply that contained the intention of the saint herself to heal the writer.

This would be a real stroke of luck for the writer.

Originally, the saint was someone who, regardless of social status, always went around praying for people wherever she went.

So, even a beggar in a slum could receive blessings, and even the royal family could not receive prayers if they did not have a connection to it.

Sometimes, nobles would come to the church with donations and ask for the saint’s blessing just once, but they would often return empty-handed.

Rupert Somerset, that guy must have been really lucky.

‘I am concerned that there are some heretical contents in his book, but for the most part, the contents are correct.’

The bishop actually felt a bit uncomfortable with this guy Rupert.

The fairy tale books he created and his first comic book, , are very good works, but , which has recently become a craze beyond the Empire’s fad, smells a bit like heresy.

‘The gates of heaven.’

The heavenly gate that grants all the knowledge and wisdom of the world to the protagonist in the book.

I was concerned about the part that seemed to describe an omnipotent God.

The only gods that exist in this world are the goddess and the evil spirits whose names are too evil to even mention.

But no matter how you look at it, doesn’t the person guarding the heavenly gate look more like a demon than a goddess?

Of course, watching made me think that it wasn’t heresy.

That beautiful painting was a grace that no heretic could ever paint.

While the bishop was alone and deep in thought, the saintess, perhaps knowing these thoughts or not, just looked out the window and muttered quietly.

-Edmund Eldrick, Lloyd Carnival. The combination of the two is the best…

***

“William, you too, get married now.”

An unfamiliar sight unfolded at the palace’s grand dining table, with only three people present today.

By the Emperor’s strict order, everyone had to gather for meals, so there had to always be seating for six people.

The crown prince left to carry out his mission, and both the princess and the third prince reported in advance that they had something to do today and left the palace.

There were only the Emperor, the Empress, and the Second Prince at the table.

And Prince Lee, who seemed to be enjoying a cozy meal with his father, suddenly forgot about his dignity and spit out the water he was drinking when he heard the unexpected story of marriage.

“Marriage?”

“Yeah, you’re already over twenty now. It’s not too late, is it?”

At first glance, the emperor’s words seem reasonable.

However, contrary to popular opinion, Prince Lee was a very intelligent person.

So I could understand the real meaning of my father bringing up the subject of marriage.

‘Are you ultimately trying to reestablish the succession structure?’

The fact that he was ordered to marry even though his older brother, the Crown Prince, had not yet been engaged after a broken engagement meant that he was trying to create competition.

Until now, my father had deliberately not allowed me to marry off my daughter because he was worried that the power of my relatives would increase and the succession plan would become tangled.

‘Damn bro. It’s just going to go wrong.’

I felt resentful of my brother who was acting on his own without even knowing why he was doing such lewd things that he didn’t want to do.

Recently, when I heard the news that he had put his crown prince’s seat on the line for some ridiculous thing, I almost fainted.

Although they are not very close brothers, he has never wanted to surpass his older brother and become the crown prince, so he has tried to avoid my sight until now.

“Is there a need to proceed so hastily? First, His Highness should find a new partner… .”

“I’ll take care of that, so you just have to know that.”

“… Yes, I understand.”

There was no way to persuade him any further. His father was a cold-blooded man who would not go back on a decision once he had made it.

‘Whew… I guess it wouldn’t be a bad idea to just pass it all on to the third child.’

In his opinion, neither his brother nor himself were the right people to become emperor.

However, if we exclude Iolin from the discussion since he is not as interested in the throne as they are,

I thought it would be best for the third son to inherit the throne.

The guy had a good reputation and wasn’t bad at all.

Well, it’s a talent that has nothing to do with the emperor’s seat, but it’s also a talent for swordsmanship that Geomseong highly praised.

‘But, both Iolin and Edric are absent. What on earth is going on…?’

They were both pretty well-behaved guys who stayed at the palace, so it seemed strange that they weren’t seen together.

Prince Lee continued his awkward meal, thinking that he would have to find out where he had gone later.

***

“Amelia… .”

“It’s no use telling me to stop, Father.”

The Bluewell Duke’s house was very noisy from the morning.

This was because Amelia, the eldest daughter of the family, declared that she would visit the Earl of Somerset.

The servants of the mansion were tense as they made a fuss since morning, gathering ingredients to prepare nutritious meals for the patients.

‘Would you like a taste of this?’

Amelia sometimes asks me to check if the seasoning is right while cooking.

Because of this, there was a trend for a while for the mansion’s servants to avoid the kitchen area.

“What I mean is… .”

“I know! I shouldn’t go there… but please let me do what I want this time.”

-My heart is like a flower that blooms for a moment and then dies.

Amelia, whose eyes were moist from saying something incomprehensible, covered her mouth with her hand and looked up at the sky.

At first glance, she looked like a beautiful, tragic heroine from a romance comic book.

But Duke Bluewell’s heart burned as he looked at that sight.

‘Please don’t cook and feed me your own food!’

The Duke of Bluewell was not concerned at the moment about the rumors of his daughter’s visit to the Somerset household.

Let’s talk about how we’re going to go to Somerset’s manor in the morning to get cooking ingredients for Rupert Somerset, who has collapsed.

The Duke of Bluewell, who had been a sacrificial lamb for Amelia’s food until now, felt sorry for Rupert, who had a bad feeling about eating the food himself.

The Duke also tried to stop him, thinking that this was not right, but Amelia would cut him off as if she was talking to herself, and would start talking to herself as if it was a play.

In the end, he was unable to stop his daughter and had to watch her leave.

‘It would not be unreasonable for the Count to come and fight for the territory.’

If someone fed Amelia food when she was sick, the Duke would have been more than happy to do so.

I couldn’t help but be worried, no joke.

The Duke just hoped that Rupert would somehow endure Amelia’s nutritious diet.

‘Just stay alive. I’ll repay you somehow.’