Children of the Holy Emperor
chapter-19

Night at the main palace came a little earlier than usual.

After the aura storm riot in which all of the back garden was destroyed, the people of the main palace were distracted by the aftermath for a while.

Above all, the Holy Emperor that was at the center of the storm has not yet awakened. The chief chamberlain busy calling for a priest and the imperial palace doctor, and dismissed most of the servants who are bustling at the palace to ensure sufficient rest for the Holy Emperor.

The main palace, with only a minimum of attendants and escort personnel, greeted an exceptionally quiet night that day.

A man in a black coverall penetrated the darkness.

The man who walked quietly through the hallway of the main palace, who was sleeping deeply, and avoided the guards who were on guard everywhere, and with familiar movements landed in the hall of the palace without a sound.

In the middle of the bed, where the moonlight streamed in through the window, drawing a long plaid pattern, the young Holy Emperor lay quietly with his eyes closed.

Considering that he usually noticed his approach like a ghost, it was very unusual. Maybe it won’t happen again.

The man’s footsteps headed towards the bed without a sound.

But he couldn’t get any closer and had to stop. It was because a blue blade had touched his neck.

“Who do you dare to look at with such disloyal eyes?”

Francis Argen, lieutenant of the Knights of Saint Aurelion.

A paladin who was one head taller than an average person and had a sharp look was glaring fiercely at the intruder.

“……”

For a moment there was a chilling silence in the room.

“Francis.”

Their confrontation was soon over.

The Holy Emperor sat up from his bed and was looking at them. It is a very normal face for the one that had been lying unconscious until now.

“Withdraw your sword. He is from the guild.”

The young paladin stared at the man for a moment after hearing the order, but then sighed and drew back his sword. Freed from the threat, the guild’s informant immediately knelt down and bowed his head toward the bed.

“Your Majesty.”

“Report.”

“I have identified their whereabouts. They are currently in a slash-and-burn village located at the end of the western mountain range, near the border of the Kingdom of Flandor. The guild identifies this village as bandits disguised as slash-and-burn villagers. It is said that after a subjugation order was issued in Rohan, a large number of bandits settled here along the western mountains.”

The Holy Emperor slightly frowned.

“… Is it the border area with Asein?”

“That’s right.”

“What a coincidence.”

The Kingdom of Flandor had been in minor local friction with the neighboring Dukedom of Carthage for as long as forty years. The fight that started over dowry has turned into a dispute over the rock salt mine near the border, and now only the insidious Archduke Asein has been reaping tangible benefits between them for decades.

Of course, even if they settle down, is it between Asein and Flandor? The anticipation was not very good.

The Holy Emperor was silent in thought. The guild’s informant raised his head and stared at him for a moment, but then he lowered his head again at the command of the Holy Emperor.

“Further investigate the movements of the upper ranks between Flandor and Asein. Regarding the slashed-and-burn village, don’t neglect monitoring for now and report any unusual issues immediately.”

The informant bowed his head in the utmost respect, then disappeared as silently as when he appeared.

Francis, who briefly glared in the direction the man had disappeared, turned his head toward the Holy Emperor. A look of displeasure is evident on his face.

“That stealth isn’t normal. Since when did assassins come and go in and out of the imperial palace like this?”

The Holy Emperor sat comfortably on the bed and waved his hands.

“He is a guild informant with whom I have known for quite some time. You don’t have to be so nervous.”

“You mean the one who sheds such a disrespectful look?”

“At least he’s not an idiot who throws himself at the impossible.”

The young paladin twisted one corner of his mouth.

“How can you be sure that is impossible? Is Your Majesty confident that you will not be hit by a knife under any circumstances, or that you will not die with a knife stabbing into your heart?”

It was both. However, the Holy Emperor also had a sense of limit that prevented him from uttering those words. Instead, he asked another question.

“What about Katrina?”

The leader of the Knights of Saint Aurelion was famous for going out of her way in whatever business regarding the Holy Emperor. If it were her, she would most likely have insisted on not leaving the side of the unconscious Holy Emperor.

As expected, Francis replied in a slightly annoyed tone.

“Then why did you do something that makes people worry? It hasn’t been long since the captain changed shift with me. Stop making older people suffer.”

Then he sat down on the sofa on the far side of the room and leaned his sword against the armrest. He opens the book he had closed in succession and raises his glasses.

It was a bizarre sight in the dark of the night, reading with an Aura.

After spending the night in this place, the uncomfortable Holy Emperor rubbed his chin and ordered.

“It’s been hard you. Now go back and rest.”

However, the arrogant lieutenant, who had gone against him to his face for nearly 10 years since his days as a squire, was too well aware of the timing when he could chew on the order of the Holy Emperor.¹

He turned over the page of the book and snorted.

“Am I doing this because I like to work all night? I’m tired of arguing with the academy president all day.”

“That’s right, it’s okay now so……”

“It is the order of the captain. I have to switch with the captain tomorrow morning.”

Through the glasses, Francis’ sharp eyes emit a cool light.

“Instead, if I don’t get a day off tomorrow, I swear to God I will resign.”

* * *

Seongjin woke up to the sound of birds chirping in the garden of the Pearl Palace at the same time.

It was early in the morning, before the workers started working in earnest.

Usually, he jumped up as soon as he opened his eyes and started the day with stretching. Today, he just lay there looking at the sunlight coming in through the curtains with a blank face. Something felt strange.

It was an exhilaration that was difficult to describe.

The texture of the soft bedding that hugs the body feels coarse. Even the movement of each small piece of dust floating under the sunlight came with a strange sense of reality. Every time he inhale and exhale, the change in concentration of gases that permeate and exit each alveolus is vividly conveyed.

There’s no way.

‘Is this… Aura? Am I feeling Aura?’

Seongjin jumped up with excitement.

Finally!

He almost jumped off the bed and walked around the room barefoot, feeling strangely lighter than usual.

Seongjin, who was pulling up his pajama pants that were about to slip down at his movements, realized that his stomach circumference had suddenly shrunk noticeably.

‘… Huh?’

He casually turned his head to look in the mirror.

There stood a rather well-groomed boy.

The contours of the face, which had been deeply buried in the flesh, are revealed, and the volume of the body is noticeably reduced. Although he was still chubby, he could be praised for looking healthy and not bloated like before.

He lost a little more weight, but most of all, he felt that his body was compressed and hardened. The skin, which showed signs of sagging due to rapid weight loss, was firmly attached.

His eye level also rose a bit, but rather than growing taller, it seemed as if his skeleton, which had been bent and twisted in a bad posture, had returned to normal. His shoulders were straight and his spine was upright even without straining to stand.

It is an overly dramatic change for something that happened in one day.

Seongjin, who possesses the knowledge of modern civilization, felt as if his knowledge of physics and physiology was denied at once.

All of this is just a change caused by the return of a depleted Aura? It was the moment when the theory of omnipotence was clearly embedded in his mind.

‘Looking at it like this, there are parts that resemble the Holy Emperor……’

Although his impression was a little fierce, resembling the beauty of Queen Lizabeth with her sharp eyes, his lower lip revealed as he lost weight and his mouth with delicate lines definitely resembled the Holy Emperor’s.

He turned around and looked in the mirror in a strange mood when he heard a polite knock on the door.

“Did you cough, Your Highness?”

He saw Edith, bringing a new water bottle and a clean cloth as usual, enter the room with an unexpected person behind her.

“Sir Marthain?”

“How are you feeling, Your Highness? Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?”

No, why are you here since morning when you are not a resident knight of the Pearl Palace?

The knight commander approached Seongjin with a polite smile.

“Well, yesterday was a mess, wasn’t it? Inevitably, it seems necessary to reinforce the boundaries of the Pearl Palace for a day or so.”

So, he said that he volunteered to stay overnight at the Pearl Palace, which was not his place of work.

“But wasn’t Sir a knight of the Imperial Guard? Why didn’t you stay by Father’s side……”

“Is there even a place for me? Sir Katrina personally rolled up her sleeves. The main palace is probably guarded by the Holy Knights of Saint Aurelion.”

Marthain also told me about the situation at the main palace.

The Holy Emperor, who woke up safely last night, is said to be completely back to normal this morning. Of course, he said he skipped the morning assembly on the pretext of poor physical condition.

Even this is nothing different from the usual, so there is nothing to worry about in the main palace.

“Don’t worry, the guards aren’t neglecting their duty. According to the manual in case of emergency, the alert is working without omission.”

Are you really okay with that?

Well, in an emergency, shouldn’t the head of the knights still show his face in the main palace? There are other people too.

“What is the problem? I am the leader.”

Even the well-rounded knight commander, who held the discipline of the guards like a knife, had a looser corner than expected.

“Besides, there’s no way something could happen to His Majesty the Holy Emperor.”

“……”

Ah, that must have been why he stopped being a stickler for rules.²

Seongjin, who was about to head straight to the gymnasium after seeing Sir Marthain’s face in the morning, ran into an unexpected difficulty.

Suddenly, the volume of the body was excessively reduced, and none of the clothes fit. No matter how tight the waist strap was, the moment he swung his wooden sword once, his pants almost slide down.

In an instant, all the servants of the Pearl Palace were mobilized for sewing.

Seongjin, who expected that this time he would come and learn the practice properly, was greatly disappointed. He was eating breakfast in a baggy nightgown, and Marthain said in a bright voice as if comforting him.

“But from now on, classes will be accelerated. You, too, have certainly felt Aura.”

It seemed that he had some idea of what had changed in Seongjin’s body.

“Does Sir Marthain sense the change too?”

“Of course. The flow of Aura around the prince has become quite active compared to yesterday. There must be something similar going on inside the body.”

Ugh, I want to run to the gymnasium right now.

“Anyway, it’s hard to understand from common sense.”

Seongjin said with a sullen face as he rolled up his sleeves that kept slipping down the back of his hand.

“How can a person’s body shrink like this in one day? Can this really be explained by Aura alone? Are all Aura users going through this?”

Among the resident knights of the Pearl Palace he encountered on his way back and forth, there were some quite fleshy ones. Of course, they must also be proficient Aura users.

Marthain smiled.

“Because Aura is effective in making the body healthy and restoring the damaged body. Aura users usually experience physical changes in a positive way.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. An Aura user who has attained this level does not get a cold, and does not even get cavities.”

Wow. As expected, Auror is omnipotent.

“Of course, changes usually take place over a long period of time, and it is the first time I have seen a noticeable change in one day like the prince, but… … .”

After saying that, Marthain smiled shyly and scratched his head.

“Well, wouldn’t His Majesty the Holy Emperor know something and act well?”

“…….”

It must have been that way that was out of common sense.

His Majesty the Holy Emperor taught Prince Morres something by using an aura.

It is said that His Majesty the Holy Emperor did something with aura, so that the prince lost weight and became healthy.

Rumors seemed to have spread in the imperial palace that way.

The servants who had gathered to mend the clothes were also startled when they saw Seongjin for the first time. In Seongjin’s opinion, it was a strange thing, but everyone seemed to think that he had done something else, and it was a natural atmosphere.

Amelia, who had visited the Pearl Palace since morning, was surprised for a while, but then she just made a vague expression as if she was seeing something missing.

Even Queen Lizabeth was like that. Her son is completely different.

-Ah, how long has it been since you woke up from the sick bed… Such drastic teaching to such a weak child, I must say something to him today!

She just trembled with the corners of her eyes pointed upwards.

‘His Majesty the Holy Emperor is a cheat key……’

You guys, no matter how different the world is, don’t you accepting it too hastily?

It was such a crazy morning.

It was when Seongjin received a set of clothes that had been hurriedly mended that he noticed the change.

While changing his clothes, he casually spoke to the demon lord.

‘It’s a job to live wearing only tailored clothes. If I lose more weight, I’ll have to mend it again. right?’

But there was no answer coming back.

‘… Hey? Demon King?’

Only then did Seongjin realize that he didn’t feel the slightest sign of the demon king around him.

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T/N:

¹Basically Francis here likes to talk back to Nate but he’s still a loyal subordinate so he knows where the line is between what’s okay and not. This time Nate told him to leave but he refused knowing Nate won’t forcefully kick him out anyway.

²아, FM을 벗어난 건 그쪽이었구나. I’m not too sure what it means, just that FM seems to be someone who follows rules well (but not particularly in a good way). I tried to reword it to my understanding but as usual I could be wrong.