Chapter 6: Audience with the Holy Emperor (1)

Suddenly, a person called the Chief Chamberlain came and said that sooner or later, a meeting with the final boss awaits. Not only that, it turns out that this world’s asshole used to habitually beat the final boss fearlessly. Seongjin was stunned for a moment. “… Your Highness?” “Uh… Um, yes. No! I……” He was so flustered that my pupils trembled violently and his words kept twisting. The desperation that he should not lose more points from the human who might be the final boss made Seongjin spit out a plausible sentence. “This time, I will visit in person… Thank you for your consideration… That’s my reply, so please pass it on.” You can’t tell someone like the Holy Emperor to come and go. He wished he could know a bit more about how Morres originally spoke and whether this was appropriate for etiquette. Strangely, the Demon King, who was usually busy chattering in his head without rest, is now still silent. Fortunately, Seongjin’s answer seemed to please the chamberlain. “Since the prince is so dignified, how satisfied must His Majesty be? I will do my best so that God1 will not neglect the audience! Then, I will soon send someone to the Pearl Palace to give you a message, so please take care.” Louis showed his courtesy again with a dignified gesture and left the gymnasium with a calm face. However, Seongjin’s keen eye, trained in a long battle, did not miss the cheekbones of the head chamberlain flinching and trying to rise. ‘What the hell did I do that he liked so much……’ The more he thought it through, the more he realized how stupid Morres was before. Seongjin, who briefly caught sight of the chief chamberlain’s party walking away with light steps, sighed lightly and turned around. Because of the unexpected meeting, the break was longer than expected. Seongjin made up his mind and started walking around the gymnasium again. He had to at least go around a few more laps than yesterday before he could be confident that he was making progress. Of course, he was out of breath before he had even walked half a lap, putting his firm resolve to shame. The knights, who had gathered in groups of twos and threes in the corner of the gymnasium, watching the chief chamberlain, did not hide their uncomfortable expression when the prince, who they had expected to return soon, started his run again. Some showed their annoyance and went out of the gymnasium, while others sat down and pretended to mend their equipment, occasionally sending disrespectful glances at Seongjin. Up until now, Seongjin hadn’t cared a bit about being cocky or not, but he was starting to get annoyed with the constant hostility. Even if it’s annoying, I think it’s necessary to take care of the knights once in a while. “Huk, huk.” How long did he go around the gymnasium like that? Seongjin, who had been gasping out of breath and staggering, took a few more steps staggeringly before collapsing on the floor. “Cough! Cough! Keuk, heuk, heuk! Heuk!” His vision went yellow. Wow, he felt like dying. He didn’t think it was this hard when he fought monsters while sleeping on the front line in Paju for a week. As he was gasping for breath, a small voice quietly spoke to him as if it was crawling in. [… Hey. So, are you meeting in the end? the Holy Emperor.] ‘… Huh?’ At first, he couldn’t understand it well because his head was in a daze due to lack of oxygen. Come to think of it, wasn’t this guy strangely quiet from before? ‘I think I’ll have to? What were you doing anyway? Did you get some information from the chamberlain? It was so quiet that I thought you had finally disappeared.’ It was definitely the timing to get angry, but the demon king strangely didn’t react. [I did find out. I did……] The demon king replied with a strangely downcast voice. [The chief chamberlain was a guy with resistance to detecting souls. It’s not easy, so I had to focus.] Sungjin tilted his head. ‘Detection resistance? You never said anything like that until now. Could the chief chamberlain be a priest?’ [Are you crazy? Making contact with a divine spirit? I’d rather try suicide again.] According to the demon king’s explanation, detecting a soul is similar to talking to a sleeping person. When not in a crisis or stressful situation, the soul is usually defenseless, as if it were half asleep. If you send out what you want to ask there in the form of a thought wave, related memories sporadically emerge from the unconscious. There was a limit to this seemingly convenient ability, but the demon king could not read the memories directly from Seongjin’s soul. He didn’t even know the exact reason. [Such a lax and simple guy is secretly difficult.] ‘What, punk?’ So, souls with strong mental power or divine power could not be touched. In the case of a human with strong mental power, similar to a soul in a state of extreme tension, resistance to thought waves is high. And souls with divine power will completely disappear the demon king’s soul the moment he tried to contact it. [In that sense, the chief chamberlain has a very strong ego defense. A person who is strict and has strong self-control. Such a person does not easily recall the memories he wants, and his mental barrier is so hard that it is not easy to break through it without damaging his soul.] Even so, the demon king tried to get as much information as possible. Sooner or later, he would have to be dragged in front of the most powerful priest on the continent and wait for his disposition. Will the Holy Emperor be able to recognize the remnants of another world and the demon world possessing his son’s body? ‘So, did you find out anything?’ [Unfortunately, there was no information that would be helpful right away. That old man is, first of all, a very fine-grained person in the imperial palace. He was bigger than I thought. The information he had was so vast that I couldn’t focus on what I wanted to find out.] Well, at first glance, it seemed to be relevant. [So, I tried to get a rough idea of the Holy Emperor, right? But, how should I say this, his perception is very biased… That’s why I don’t trust it very much.] ‘Can’t trust it? The information of the chief chamberlain who serves the Holy Emperor right by his side?’ At Seongjin’s question, the demon king’s soul is slightly agitated. Perhaps, if there is a substance, it will feel like sighing. [First of all, the loyalty the chief chamberlain has to the imperial family is real. To put it bluntly, he’s so friendly even to Morres, who is being criticized for being a scumbag. On top of that, his faith in the Holy Emperor is so firm, well… To put it nicely, it’s loyalty, but in a bad way it could be called fanaticism.] ‘Is it enough to be called fanaticism?’ [Yes, he thinks the Holy Emperor is almost omnipotent, okay? Is this reliable information?] Sungjin blinked his eyes. Omnipotent? [I don’t think he’s clearly aware of it either. He’s just content with himself that he’s giving his loyalty to such a good holy emperor. But at least in his subconscious mind, the Holy Emperor is by no means a mere human being. He firmly believes that he is the greatest successor of all times and the undoubted representative of the Main God.] ‘……’ [But you know what’s really funny? He really doesn’t have much faith in God. He’s not very interested in religion itself.] What’s with that. He doesn’t believe in God, but believes in God’s representative? [That’s why it’s funny. Isn’t that a complete contradiction? But that picky guy doesn’t know that! How far can the respect, admiration, and trust in a human go to the extreme?] Sungjin stood up without a word. Suddenly, his breathing calmly subsides. In the gentle breeze that blows, his heated body quickly cooled, and goosebumps appeared. ‘… I don’t think this is simply a matter of strong or weak divine power.’ God’s representative. Since Seongjin was close to an atheist in the first place, he didn’t think that there would be an omnipotent person who actually represented God. Just that the chief chamberlain subconsciously believed that the Holy Emperor might have something special. For example, what if the Holy Emperor had the same ability as the demon king’s ‘soul detection’? Wouldn’t the people around him think of him as omnipotent? Whatever it is, one thing is certain. ‘We, it seems likely that we will be caught. Is there any solution?’ [Maybe? Can’t we just break the promise like Morres did?] ‘That’s a stopgap. Previously, Morres didn’t even show his face, so he went all the way to the Pearl Palace himself. What will you do if they come here again?’ [What if we escape the imperial palace?] ‘I don’t know if I have time to prepare, how can I do that with this low-quality stamina? Besides, with this body, I’d be noticed wherever I go.’ [… We’re doomed.] Is that all you have to say? Sensing the demon king’s soul trembling in his head, Seongjin struggled to suppress the rising anxiety. * * * The main palace sent an attendant to announce the time for refreshments even before evening. Needless to say, the Pearl Palace turned upside down. How long has it been since that fat prince went on an official outing! Upon hearing this news, Queen Lizabeth led a large number of ladies-in-waiting from the Ruby Palace and attacked from the early morning of the day. Soon, the entire Pearl Palace went bustling under the direction of the queen. Seongjin, who had planned to spend the entire morning at the gymnasium because it was an afternoon appointment, was caught by the ladies-in-waiting with solemn expressions before he even left the room. “… Huh?” With a bewildered face, he was taken to the bathhouse and was purified. That too, embarrassingly, in front of the lady-in-waiting! As he struggled and protested, Edith poured perfume on his head with a determined face. “Calm down, Your Highness. Shall we finish quickly and have a snack?” Are you bathing a cat right now? He stared at her in disbelief, and she tilted her head. “Hmm, it worked fine before.” “……” Previously, he was wondering how she dealt with the temper of Morres, who is was a scumbag, by herself, but turns out he was treated like an animal that couldn’t communicate at all. “Get out. I can take a bath myself!” “While you were sick, I always took care of this and that, so why are you ashamed?” This woman said it now. As Seongjin showed no sign of backing down, Edith’s expression suddenly darkened. “Come on, Your Highness. Please kindly cooperate. Do you know how much the Queen will pester me if there is even the slightest setback in preparation?” As the queen’s visits increased recently, it seemed that this steel-mental maid was under stress without realizing it. “Why do the maids of Ruby Palace bother to come to Pearl Palace? It’s not even the their’s palace.” Like saying ‘Things that’s less than a handfull. Fufu,’ Edith laughs with an eerie expression. It was twice as scary because the user was doing that. He quickly took a bath and came out, pressed by her sultry spirit, and this time, the queen’s ladies-in-waiting were lined up in a row, holding very professional-looking beauty tools. Soon he got his hair trimmed, his nails trimmed, his eyebrows trimmed, and a fuss breaks out. “Ah, look at this beautiful hair that looks just like the queen!” “Oh, you have lost a lot of weight. The contours of his face have become so defined!” Don’t lie, these guys. ‘It’s just a simple audience? What is this all about!’ Pulled this way and pinched that way, there is no mess like this. Seongjin, tattered as if he had come through a storm, managed to breathe a sigh, but that was not the end. A procession of maids with both hands full of clothes and accessories stretched from the end of the room to the outside of the hallway. Seongjin’s face went pale. ‘Hey, how can I do this? How long do I have to do this!’ However, the demon king, who would normally have laughed at Sungjin like crazy, was in a strange state. [Fufu. That one near the end, the color should be fine. Of course. Fufufufu.] ‘……’ Fortunately, Queen Lizabeth’s taste was quite noble. For a while, he was worried about the clothes with lots of frills coming and going, but the finally finished look was quite good from the perspective of a modern person, Seongjin. The dark blue uniform embroidered with silver thread was neat at first glance, but if you look closely, you can see how much money, craftsmanship, and time have been spent on it. As if it were not completely empty words to say that he had lost weight or something, the clothes were still quite plentiful, and the ladies-in-waiting were busy mending them for a while. Of course, no matter how dressed up, it was a beautifully packaged pig. Seongjin secretly sighed, but even so, his appearance was not so satisfactory in the eyes of the queen. “Oh, Morres. How can you look so great!” Not to be outdone by this, the soulless praises of the ladies-in-waiting continued. “You are extremely devoted!” “Isn’t it because of the dark clothes that the prince’s gorgeous hair stands out even more?” “How about cuffs and brooches? How could it match the prince’s jewel-like gray eyes!” “Ah, it’s a beauty that makes you fall in love at first sight!” Hey, you’ve gone too far. * * * The main palace sent a carriage on time. He said he would prepare without a hitch, but the chief chamberlain was more meticulous than he thought. As he climbed into the carriage, attended by Edith, two escort knights rode behind them. ‘The imperial carriage is so splendid. It’s definitely a different ride than a car, isn’t it?’ [Oh, goodness. Are you a child? Aren’t you a guy old enough to know that this is a carriage to the nether world?]2 ‘Shut up.’ However, shortly after leaving the Pearl Palace, the demon king trembled and called Seongjin. [Hey, I don’t have a good feeling.] Seongjin, who had been spread out comfortably, straightened his posture with tight tension. ‘What? Why?’ [Look outside, fool.] ‘……?’ [Isn’t the main palace still far away? But the surroundings are already full of ominous light.] When I lifted the curtains and looked out the window, I saw a vast panoramic view of the imperial garden. On the vast green lawn, where the boundaries are not even visible, the imperial palace road stretches wide enough for three wagons to run side by side. At the end of the road, you can see the magnificent and beautiful main palace shining white. And countless people were filling the large garden in front of the main palace. Knights wary of their surroundings, aristocrats in groups of twos or threes, clerks hurriedly walking back and forth carrying piles of papers. And a huge number of priests dressed in shining white uniforms. ‘Wow, this is a little……’ People in white clothes were visible beyond half of the crowd. From plain robes to extremely splendid robes embroidered with gold thread, the crests of the main gods in the form of the sun and sword are always engraved on the white clothes. It dawned on me that this place was the den of priests. [Ah, I misunderstood! I thought it would be okay if I hid well in my body, but I was wrong. It stings my soul like being pricked with a needle just by being close to those with divine power!] ‘……’ Seongjin, who was nervous about the demon king’s fuss, swallowed without even realizing it. It seemed that many clergymen would recognize Seongjin any moment and rush at them, shouting that it was an evil spirit that had taken over the prince’s body. [We should have just run away when we had the chance……] At the same time as the wretched Demon King lamented, the carriage stopped. He arrived at the main palace entrance, the residence of the Holy Emperor.