Chapter 33 - When My Thinking Changed, What I Saw Changed Too (3)

Blurred features buried beneath layers of fat, a corpulent body that made one feel short of breath just looking at it, and gaudy clothing meant to hide an inferiority complex.

The First Prince's appearance was as famous in the kingdom as his violent temperament, and among the kingdom's nobles, there was no one who did not know just how ugly he was.

That was why the nobles fell into confusion when the door first opened.

The manservant had announced the First Prince's entrance, but the one who appeared was not a morbidly obese eyesore, but some tall, handsome man.

His well-trained body was so balanced that it brought to mind a knight in his prime, and he even carried off an all-black outfit that might easily have looked gloomy with astonishing ease.

His face, too, lacked nothing to be called handsome.

If there was any flaw, it was only his indifferent expression and his arrogant gaze that looked down on people to an excessive degree.

The young ladies of noble families' eyes began to shine.

That rebellious air seemed to have left quite an impression on them.

"His Highness First Prince Adrian Leonberk, eldest son of the Royal House of Leonberk, is entering!"

The manservant shouted again.

Only then did the nobles realize that this arrogant handsome man was the same person as the morbidly obese scoundrel, and they were shocked.

They had already heard that the First Prince, after surviving a brush with death, had suddenly begun training and had changed to some extent.

But even change had its limits.

In the span of half a year, the First Prince had become a completely different person.

"Pay due respect to the noble descendant of Leonberk!"

The manservant, having gauged the atmosphere in the hall, shouted.

Only then did the nobles hurriedly show their respects.

The lower nobles knelt, and the great lords bowed their heads.

THUD, THUD.

Listening to the strangely piercing sound of his footsteps, the nobles turned their thoughts over.

What in the world had happened over the past half year?

No matter how much they pondered, they could not find an answer.

The prince's change was far too sudden, and the extent of it too extreme.

If there was one thing they could know, it was only the fact that the pig prince they had known, who had been like the very symbol of sloth, no longer existed.

A body like that was not made overnight.

"They called this a banquet, but why is the mood so dreary?"

The First Prince said.

No sooner had he finished speaking than the musicians, who had briefly stopped playing, began their performance again.

As a sweet melody flowed through the hall, the atmosphere lightened considerably.

The nobles raised their heads and looked for the First Prince.

They saw the First Prince, chin lifted, looking around the banquet hall.

And they saw countless nobles staring intently at that First Prince.

Even while receiving attention that would have intimidated most nobles, his complete indifference to it made him seem not merely bold, but arrogant.

This, too, was different from the First Prince the nobles had known.

The First Prince they knew had been an arrogant brute and, at the same time, an ugly wretch steeped in inferiority.

He had been the sort to think that if people looked at him, they were laughing at him.

At times like that, he would pick absurd faults and insult the other party.

But what about now?

The First Prince was calmly brushing aside the gazes pouring down on him.

Rather, the ones who could not endure it were not the prince, but the nobles.

"Hm."

One viscount whose eyes met the prince's hurriedly turned his gaze away.

One after another, the nobles lowered their heads whenever they met those transparent eyes, that clear gaze of the prince that seemed to peer straight into their insides.

The only ones who could properly meet that gaze were the great lords of count rank or higher.

Instead of avoiding the prince's gaze, they strode toward him and offered their greetings.

The prince accepted the greetings of old nobles twice his age with an arrogant face.

The sight looked as natural as if he were receiving greetings from his own servants.

As if it had always been that way.

In truth, he had fallen out of the King's favor and had never received anything like proper attention.

Taylor Tailheim grew proud as he watched that sight.

Such an impressive prince had personally sent an invitation to his family.

The bad blood of the past no longer remained in his mind at all.

Taylor slowly shifted his steps.

He did so while hoping that, by any chance, the prince might recognize him first.

"...is simply astonishing."

"Your dignified appearance is just like beholding His Majesty's bearing from long ago."

Were they the great lords of the south and east?

Their silver tongues were smooth, and the corners of their wrinkled eyes flashed.

They did not hide their intent to probe, yet left no opening for anyone to take issue with them.

"All this fuss just because I lost some weight?"

At the prince's words, one of the great lords of the south twitched his eyebrow.

It seemed his pride had been wounded by the openly condescending speech.

But he did not leave the spot right away.

It seemed he would not easily withdraw until he had filled in that half-year gap, that empty stretch of time.

It was only natural.

Nobles were sensitive to the flow of power, and among them, those who could be called great lords were not merely sensitive to the flow of power, but the very people who created that flow.

To such people, the First Prince's transformation was a variable that could never be passed over lightly, and at the same time, a matter whose before and after had to be understood.

Taylor smacked his lips.

He lamented his own position, neither of standing nor ability enough to insert himself among such high-ranking nobles.

On top of that, he felt disappointed in the prince, who had gone to the trouble of sending him an invitation and yet had not acknowledged him.

Taylor's shoulders drooped.

It seemed he would have to be satisfied with merely experiencing the splendor of The Capital at this banquet.

It was somewhat regrettable, but even that would be enough to give him something to talk about when he returned home.

He turned around.

He moved his feet toward the corner of the banquet hall, toward his own place.

No, he tried to.

MURMUR, MURMUR.

The nobles suddenly began to stir.

Before he could grasp the reason for the commotion, a rough hand wrapped around his shoulder.

"If you came, you should say hello."

It was a vulgar tone that only thugs in a marketplace would use, and when he turned his head, there was the face of a handsome man.

Behind him, Taylor saw the great lords coughing awkwardly with bewildered faces.

"Y-Your Highness!"

Taylor startled a beat late, and the prince said bluntly.

"You're hurting my ears."

"I-I'm sorry."

Was "I beg your pardon" the phrase one used at court?

He had no idea.

His mind was in complete chaos.

Taylor was simply flustered by the prince's friendly act, which he had not even expected.

"What about the others?"

"Th-They are over there."

"Oh! They all came. Let's go."

The First Prince strode off far ahead.

Taylor, who had been staring blankly at his back, looked around him.

The nobles were looking at him.

The probing look in their eyes was not much different from the one the prince had received.

But Taylor was not the prince, and so he felt as if his heart were being squeezed.

With his head lowered deeply, he hurriedly moved his feet.

* * *

The intentions of the great lords who endured their stomachs twisting and refused to leave my side were obvious.

They were probably trying to find out by any means how I had changed over the past half year, and how I would act from now on.

But they likely did not know.

Just as they tried to peek inside me, I, too, had peeked inside them.

The power of [Judgment].

I checked every last ability of all the nobles gathered in the banquet hall.

The great lords, too, could not escape my power.

Among them were useless ones, and there were capable ones.

Their abilities varied wildly, but they were all the same in that there was nothing good about keeping them by my side.

Every single one of them had something filthy called [Snake's Heart] attached in their traits field.

The mark of those whose greed had reached its extreme, the brand of evil karma piled up by those who stole what belonged to others and trampled on their lives.

Those foul things filled the entire place.

Completely rotten.

You call this a country?

I felt as if a stench were stabbing my nose.

But even so, among them, there were a few worth looking at.

They were the high nobles who stood firm in their places even while the great lords approached me and made a fuss.

I could see nothing.

That meant their level was not lower than my current self, and their sunken eyes and unmoving feet meant they were not people who moved blindly with the crowd like these others.

But among the many people gathered in the banquet hall, such people were only an extremely small portion.

Four hundred years ago, my friend and I had to fight monsters day and night.

It was for the sake of those who had been driven onto barren land to escape the plundering of those who had.

We cultivated the barren land and built villages upon it.

We built fortresses and raised castles.

And after even bringing down the Mad Dragon, we finally founded a nation on this land.

And yet the nation founded that way had, at some point, become the possession of snake-like people.

The descendants of those who had suffered plunder had, at some point, become the ones doing the plundering.

It was sickening.

My mood sank.

I was in no mood to play along with the great lords' pathetic probing.

At that moment, I saw a familiar face far away.

A young man who had been standing there hesitantly before turning away, the eldest son of the rural noble family who had sparred with me first.

I was glad to see him.

Though he might not be capable, the aura of that uncorrupted young man pleased me greatly.

"And so, Your Highness, this time... Your Highness?"

Leaving behind some count from somewhere in the south who was rambling on with worthless talk, I approached the young man.

When I grabbed his shoulder, the way he startled was truly human.

Only now did it feel as if I could breathe.

There were several more like that young man.

I saw members of noble families who had taken places in a particularly shadowed corner even within the brightly lit banquet hall.

Among them were some I recognized and some I did not.

I walked toward them.

"Y-Your Highness!"

Seeing me, they bowed their heads with honored faces.

Looking at the way they made a fuss as though their connection to a precarious prince was the honor of three lifetimes, I made my choice.

The price for the luxury I had enjoyed after occupying the prince's body.

When, in the distant future, I left this country, these people would be enough as vessels to hold the seeds I would leave behind.

I thought that would be enough.

But I was wrong.

This country was far more rotten than I had thought.

"His Excellency Ambassador Cliang de Bourgogne Montpellier of Marquis Montpellier of Bourgogne, whose authority has been lawfully recognized by His Majesty the Emperor of the Bourgogne Empire, the eternal ally of the kingdom, is entering!"

So rotten that a mere ambassador could enter later than the eldest son of the sovereign and still be allowed to proudly have his entrance announced.

And on top of that, he was not even an ambassador from some other country, but an ambassador of the empire.

Bourgogne.

That hateful name.

The name of the long-standing enemy who had made the most blood flow before this country could fully stand four hundred years ago, the foe my friend and I had to fight the longest, and the name that had left countless wounds upon this country.

SNAP, SNAP.

The nobles of the nation my friend and I had founded bowed their heads before the name of the hated Montpellier Empire.

With more respect than when they dealt with the royal family of their own country.

"It has been a while, prince."

One of Bourgogne's people looked at me and smiled.

Arrogantly, as if dealing with someone beneath him.

My heart clenched tight.

Flames rose inside me as if I had swallowed a ball of fire.