CHAPTER 41
Why are you here?!

As this completely unexpected entity appeared, the scheming Hairel was horrified. Even Ares and Nemeth, who were in the middle of their ugly family feud, were stunned.

"Who is that?"

"My liege?"

The only ones with no reaction were the Death Knights, who didn't know who Viol was, and Ceres, who was still clutching his head.

"T-The Sun of the Empire."

A moment later, Hairel barely regained her senses and attempted to bow, but was completely ignored.

"Move."

Callously brushing past the bowing Hairel, Viol walked straight up to Ceres.

"Are you hurt somewhere?"

"...Your Majesty?"

"What's with the 'Your Majesty' all of a sudden?"

Viol chuckled and held her hand out to Ceres.

"Let's go."

"...Where?"

"Anywhere would be better than a disgusting place like this."

She was trying to whisk Ceres away to another location without any explanation, but there was no way they would just let her.

"Wait. What is the meaning of this!"

Ares hurriedly stepped forward to stop Viol.

"This is Ceres's home, where do you think you're taking..."

"Home? It doesn't look like it. Can you really call a place 'home' when it's this noisy with talk of adopted children and whatnot?"

"...How did you know about that?"

"What do you take me for? Do you really think I, the Emperor, wouldn't be able to gather intelligence on things moving this openly?"

Viol shot a fleeting glance at Hairel and Nemeth before turning her gaze back to Ceres.

"I came because I figured things would be a total shitshow, and it looks like I was right. That boy doesn't look well, so I'll be taking him."

"What!"

"Then are you going to just leave him in this wretched house? Can't you see he's in so much pain he's grabbing his head?"

Stung by Viol's reprimand, Ares rushed over to Ceres. She reached out to support her son, but—

"Ceres, don't worry. I'll handle everything, so you just..."

It was then.

'I'm fine! I can walk to my room on my own without your help. Just leave me alone!'

"Stop!!"

As another inexplicable memory surfaced, Ceres shoved Ares away.

"C-Ceres?"

"...I feel like if I stay here, this confusion is just going to continue."

Since reacting to Ares was triggering these strange memories, Ceres decided to leave the house for a bit.

"I'll stay somewhere else for a little while until things calm down."

"But!"

"It's fine. I'll come back once I've calmed down a bit."

Ceres replied, sounding gentle yet carrying a momentum that permitted no arguments. He then took Viol's outstretched hand.

"I'll be in your care for a little while."

"I wouldn't mind if it were forever."

Viol said with deep satisfaction as she led Ceres away.

"Who are these punks following us?"

"My escort knights."

"Tch!"

With no other choice, she let the Death Knights, who were hurriedly following Ceres, come along. However, right before leaving.

"I suppose beating you to death right here and now wouldn't be appropriate, right? It'd be letting you off too easy, anyway. I'll see you two later. If you don't want to die any sooner than necessary, don't try any useless tricks in the meantime."

She left one final warning for Hairel and Nemeth.

"You bastards..."

Once only the three of them were left, Ares glared at the other two with murderous eyes.

Hairel realized it instinctively.

'I'm dead.'

No matter how the situation played out from here, she was finished.

I returned to the Imperial Palace for the first time in a while.

It was a place where both the original Ceres and I shared a history of being imprisoned. It wasn't exactly a place of fond memories, but for some reason, it felt peaceful today.

"You can stay here as long as you want."

Was it because this time, Viol hadn't brought me here to lock me up, but to give me a sanctuary away from that absolute mess?

"Now, let's go. I've prepared a suitable room for you."

Viol took my hand and was about to guide me deep into the Imperial Palace when she suddenly stopped.

"Not you lot."

She halted the Death Knights who were still trying to follow me. Niobe, the leader of the women who had trailed us the whole way, spoke in bewilderment.

"Wait, you allowed us to follow, so why stop us now?"

"There's no way I'm letting an armed group like you into the inner sanctum of the Imperial Palace. Even if you are Ceres's escort knights, there's a limit to what I can overlook."

"Hmm, but then who will escort our liege?"

"Do you really think there's anyone inside the Imperial Palace who could lay a finger on Ceres? I'll prepare a separate place for you all to stay, so wait there."

When Viol presented sound logic instead of resolving things with her usual violence, the Death Knights were taken aback.

They looked at me as if asking what to do, so I told them. She was right.

"This is the Imperial Palace, so there's no danger to me here. Don't worry about me and get some good rest."

"...Understood."

Niobe took her subordinates and reluctantly backed away.

"You remember the royal chambers you used when you collapsed before, right?"

Viol walked right beside me, speaking as if she were worried I might collapse at any moment.

"You can stay there for the time being."

"But I'm not royalty?"

"Then you can just become royalty."

"...Don't hit on me in a situation like this."

I couldn't help but chuckle at Viol's roundabout way of telling me to marry her. Viol chuckled along with me; it seemed it was just a joke to begin with.

"Do you need anything? Tell me if there's anything you want to eat."

"Hmm."

When she asked what I wanted, I thought about it. What did I need right now?

While pondering, the word suddenly popped out of my mouth.

"Soju."

"What is that?"

"Alcohol, I mean alcohol!"

On a day like this, I really wanted to down some soju, but since there was no way soju existed in a fantasy world, I'd have to settle for some other liquor.

But when I demanded alcohol, Viol frowned.

"Absolutely not."

"You were just acting like you'd give me anything, so why not?"

"You'd be better off asking for a castle. Why would you drink alcohol with that body of yours?"

It seemed that in her mind, I was still the same sickly person.

To persuade Viol, I repeatedly insisted that my body was completely healed and a little alcohol wouldn't be a problem.

"Do you really have to drink?"

When I stubbornly insisted, Viol sighed in defeat and led me somewhere else.

It wasn't the room we were originally heading to, but a bar. A bar stocked with plenty of alcohol and manned by a bartender.

"Why is there a bar here?"

"Because I had it built."

When I expressed my surprise at finding a random bar inside the Imperial Palace, Viol replied nonchalantly.

"As the Emperor, even the simple act of going to a bar for a drink proved difficult. My vassals would freak out asking where I was going, and even if I did manage to go, both the patrons and the owner would panic."

"So you just built your own private bar inside the Imperial Palace?"

"It's convenient and nice."

"I feel like future emperors are going to be dumbfounded by this."

"It's fine. If they share the blood of someone as shamelessly reliant on his pretty face as you, they won't be shaken by something as trivial as this."

Are you joking, or are you being sarcastic?

I gave Viol a mild glare before walking over to a table.

I was surprised there was a bar in the Imperial Palace, but as Viol said, it was convenient. Thanks to this, it seemed I could get as drunk as I wanted.

"Anything is fine. Give me something strong."

I wanted to get drunk immediately, so I ordered something hard, but—

"Ignore him. Give him some fruit wine that's practically juice with just a hint of alcohol."

Viol immediately cut me off.

"What are you doing!"

"I'm the one who wants to ask that. I give you permission to drink, and you immediately ask for the hard stuff?"

Viol scolded me as she leaned against the table.

Seeing her like that, I finally noticed. Perhaps because it had been a while since we last met, she had dressed up quite a bit.

Looking more dolled up than usual, she gazed at me coyly and spoke.

"Why do you want to get drunk so badly? Was the fact that you're adopted really that shocking? Even though you claimed you couldn't remember the past well because of your head injury."

"...I don't know either."

Why was I so shocked by that fact? I couldn't even understand it myself.

I wasn't Ares's real son; I was just someone who possessed this body. There was no reason for me to be shocked, so my current state was incredibly strange.

Was it because of that bizarre memory that surfaced earlier?

It was fragmented, so I didn't know the exact context, but no matter how I looked at it, it felt like a memory from the day I rolled down those stairs.

But there was one problem here. Why was I recalling memories?

Aside from the language needed for communication, I hadn't recalled a single memory that the original Ceres possessed before I took over his body.

So why was the memory of that specific day coming back to me? Did the memory lingering in this body naturally surface upon facing a similar situation?

Or could it be...

"Have I been making a fatal miscalculation this whole time?"

"About what?"

"...Nothing."

I couldn't exactly tell Viol about the possibility that just popped into my head, so I brushed it off.

"It's just because my memories are still a mess. But even if I don't remember, isn't it completely normal to be shocked when you hear you're adopted?"

I retorted at Viol for asking such an absurd question, but—

"Is it? Sorry, I have a hard time understanding things like that. I killed my mother, the previous Emperor, with my own two hands, and I didn't feel much of anything even when my only younger sibling cut ties with me because of it."

She dropped such an insane statement in such a casual tone that I was the one who flinched.

"Ah, sorry..."

"No, it's fine. I really don't think anything of it. As descendants of dragons, known for their extreme individualism, the royal family's brains are wired weirdly, and even among them, I'm a particularly extreme case."

Speaking as if it truly wasn't an issue, Viol then stared at me with profound seriousness.

"But you are different. In all my years of living, there has never been anyone I recognized as being as precious as you."

"...Really?"

"Therefore, I don't care about your status or whether you're adopted. In fact, it's better this way. I can use it to stop that annoying Ares from interfering."

Of course you'd think that.

In the original novel, she had deliberately pretended to agree with Nemeth's absurd claims just to tear Ceres away from the Whiperions and force him to come to her. Or rather, to push him into a corner until he couldn't take it anymore and came crawling to her for help.

But when Ceres ended up going to the Temple to ask Hames for help instead of coming to her, she had finally regretted it.

Yet right now, she had done the exact opposite—she came to save me when Nemeth put me in a tough spot, and even brought me to the Imperial Palace?

It was fascinating seeing her act so completely contrary to her original self, so I just stared at her. Then, Viol stood up.

"Ceres, do you remember where the room is? Drink in moderation, and once you're satisfied, head over there and get some sleep."

"Where are you going?"

"You said your memories are still a mess. I need to go call someone who can help with that."

Viol said as she walked out of the bar.

"Wait here. I'll go drag Sibylius back."