Chapter 26: 016. Imperial Prince is Really Toiling Away -1 (Part Two)
“This fool! What the hell do you think you’re doing right now?!”
His gang started rushing towards me. In response, I raised my shovel and pointed at them. These ‘brave’ Priests all fell back, clearly startled by my actions.
“Want me to bust your heads too?”
“B-bust our heads???”
I shifted my gaze downward.
I saw Heis trying to crawl out from the pit, so I kicked him back inside.
He screamed noisily while stumbling back into the pit, then shouted at me in pure rage. “You son of a b*tch! Do you know who I am…?!”
“And? Do you know who I am?”
“…What?”
I squatted down and glared at the fool through the beak mask’s eye holes. “I said, did you know who I was before you raised your voice at me?”
Heis forgot about his pain just then and shut his mouth up.
“What’s going on here?”
A few soldiers and the Paladin quickly rushed over to where we were.
I watched them approaching and shrugged my shoulders. “Hiya~, what a coincidence that was. The foot of this dumb son of a b*tch was in the exact spot where I was shoveling, you see? I couldn’t avoid it and accidentally ended up hitting him. Tsk. Tsk. Why did you have to place your foot in such a location, my man?”
“O-oiii! Sir Paladin, this insane fool hit me on my foot! You need to punish him, immediately! I’m none other than Heis Hedron, the eldest son of the Count Hedron household!”
Heis roared out, causing the Paladin to glare at me through the gaps of his helm. His eyes were filled with dissatisfaction at the fact that I caused yet another incident. He probably thought I was the one at fault here.
But then again, he didn’t have any good impressions of me in the first place, so his reaction wasn’t all that surprising.
The Paladin sighed and spoke up, “Please, you must apologise to…”
“Oii, Paladin. What’s your name?”
I abruptly cut him off.
I was the grandson of the Holy Emperor.
My status and power might have been stripped away from me after my banishment, but that didn’t mean I had fallen so low to the point where I had to apologise to some no-name trash like this kid.
That’s right, I would never apologise to trash in my life.
The one being apologised to should be me, instead. The apology for making me feel like crap, that was.
**
(TL: Told from 3rd person POV)
Paladin Harman stiffened up in an instant.
He was the vice-captain of the greatest knight order personally led by the Holy Emperor, The Holy Cross Knight Order.
As he was someone acknowledged even by the Holy Emperor, Harman wielded a rather sizable influence himself. Measly nobles from the remote territories wouldn’t even dare to meet his glare.
It was the same story for the exiled Imperial Prince as well.
Harman was responsible for grounding the Imperial Prince who was rampaging around unchecked. After locking the boy up in the monastery, the Paladin forced him to pray and drink only holy water to repent for his actions.
The prince must’ve realized that Harman’s status couldn’t be scoffed at, because he began showing a much milder attitude after this incident. His docile behavior after his suicide attempt could have been due to the memories of that house arrest still faintly lingering in his mind.
That’s what he thought until now, but…
“I asked you what your name is.”
The boy’s voice was low. Heavy, even. Despite this, it reverberated so powerfully that his words were being engraved deep within Harman’s head.
The Paladin swallowed back his dry saliva. His eyes wavered and his whole body felt heavy and lethargic. No, it wasn’t just him, but the surrounding air was getting a step heavier too.
Harman immediately realised the cause of this phenomenon. The Imperial Prince’s voice was thickly permeating with divinity.
‘Oh my goddess, a voice filled with divinity? How can the Imperial Prince use Spirit Speech…?’
Harman didn’t know how to answer his own question. Meanwhile, the ‘order’ the Imperial Prince had issued remained firmly rooted in his ears.
“…Harman. I’m Harman Daian, your highness.”
As he spoke his name, cold sweat drops began trickling down his face. Due to the nervousness, he even slightly stuttered his words.
What exactly was happening here?
There was a son of some noble house inside a burial pit, then there was a girl standing around looking deeply flustered. And finally, the likely instigator of this incident, the Imperial Prince, was standing right before Harman’s eyes.
What happened here?
No, before that…
‘…This person, is he really His Majesty’s grandson?’
The boy was wearing a mask, but his voice matched that of the Imperial Prince. This person was, without a doubt, Allen Olfolse. However, the atmosphere oozing out from him was entirely different than his usual self.
He was completely different from the ‘mangnani’, well-known for his cowardice and penchant for looking down on others.
“In that case, Harman Daian, speak of what my status is.”
“…”
The Imperial Prince’s pair of piercing eyes stared deeply at Harman from beyond the beak mask. They were unwavering.
Those eyes contained…
“…This is an order.”
…The ‘Imperial Decree’ that none could disobey.
He might have been exiled from the Imperial Family, and yet somehow, he still exuded the dignified and irrepressible aura that could only belong to them.
As if he was entranced by it, Harman opened his mouth and began speaking, “Y-you’re… Allen… Olfolse…” His voice sounded like a helpless moan now. “The seventh grandson… of His Majesty, the Holy Emperor.”
In the end, the Paladin couldn’t keep maintaining eye contact with the Imperial Prince anymore and lowered his gaze. However, his answer was still more than enough to shut the mouth of the Hedron family’s eldest son.
The prince’s shoulders lightly jiggled as if he was satisfied by Harman’s reply, “See? See? The one you labeled as a country bumpkin was actually the Holy Emperor’s grandson! So how was it? It’s freaking awesome, right?”
With that, the heavy atmosphere was gone in an instant.
The prince squatted down and glared at Heis still inside the pit looking stunned. He then began forcefully poking at the bigger boy’s head with his finger.
“Someone like you was busy calling me a bumpkin? And what else? A son of a b*tch? Imma crack that numbskull of yours, you hear me? You heard that dude, right? Sh*t, man! I’m the Emperor’s grandson! How dare you raise your voice at me? Should I bury your whole family while I’m at it, ahhhh?!”
His current appearance was so vulgar that he might as well be a local thug rather than a nobleman. Harman was now swimming in this powerful sense of incongruity. Right now, the boy-prince looked like a typical irredeemable trash. However, he was completely different only a few seconds ago.
Didn’t he feel that heavy pressure that the boy exuded just now?
For a moment there, he even hallucinated that he was staring at the shadow of the Holy Emperor, the great hero who led a massive army to defeat the Necromancer King.
And that was why he involuntarily heeded the former prince’s orders.
‘….Does this mean that His Majesty’s blood flows through his veins, even if it’s only a little bit?’
“T-that, that is…”
Count Hedron’s eldest son couldn’t even string along a proper sentence after finally learning the truth.
“Oh, so you want your family to be exterminated, then?”
“…”
Hedron boy’s eyes opened up wide. He bit his lower lip.
He heard that the seventh grandson had no influence. Also, there were rumors of him being banished doing the rounds too. Meaning, even if the boy decided to raise a fuss here, he shouldn’t be able to harm the Count’s family.
However, there was always the case of ‘what if’. Since he couldn’t see into the future, Heis quickly made up his mind and became cautious in his approach.
He urgently lowered his head and opened his mouth, “I-I’m truly sorry. Your highness, the Imperial Prince Allen Olfolse, please accept the humble apology of this lowly one, the eldest son of Count Hedron’s household, Heis Hedron.”
“…Very good.”
Allen nodded his head.
Harman also let out a sigh of relief while watching this sight. If the heavy atmosphere of before continued persisting, then he knew he wouldn’t have been able to do anything. Which was why he’d be much obliged if this incident came to a close in this fashion.
The eldest Hedron boy might have his toes damaged, but he’d be fine after receiving medical treatment. So, with this, everything should be over nice and ea…
“Hm? You only want to apologise to me, eh? Fine. I’ll accept it. And now, just die.”
…Aaaand it wasn’t over yet.
The soldiers and Paladin Harmon quickly acted to stop the Imperial Prince and his shovel from rampaging around.
That’s how yet another noisy day came to its conclusion.
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