158 – Past
“It’s okay! “I had no interest in things like the throne from the beginning!”
“…… Huh?”
At first, I thought that I was doing something wrong when I heard those words whose intention I could not understand.
It is not that her mother died, but that she was pushed out of the line of succession to the throne due to some kind of incident, which was misrepresented by rumors that her mother was dead.
Perhaps because I was reincarnated once, I don’t have that much affection for my parents.
Well, things had happened in my past life, so my relationship with my parents wasn’t that good, but in any case, this reaction was strange to anyone.
As I waited, thinking that another explanation would come out right away, what I heard next was words that completely contradicted my common sense.
“I feel sorry for Nana and the other retainers, but I think it’s probably a good thing that my mother passed away. “There is nothing more tragic for the people than a man who has no intention of becoming king becoming king.”
“…… “What are you happy about?”
Euclid tilted his head as if he didn’t understand my question at all, and I also tilted my head in bewilderment.
I felt like the conversation would never end if things continued like this, so I decided to ask Euclid about the rumor outright….
Dang!!, The bell announcing class echoed in the hallway, as if reading the awkward atmosphere between us.
“Huh? It’s already time like this. “Okay then, Ian, I have to go to class, so I’ll just leave!”
“Uh….”
As I was blankly watching Euclid enter the class, waving his hand vigorously like a child, Nana, who had been watching quietly from before, touched my shoulder.
“It only takes a moment. “Please take some time.”
“… Okay.”
I just had to skip class, so I followed Nana with the intention of having an in-depth conversation.
We stopped in a quiet corner of the campus where no one was in class and sat on a nearby bench.
Unlike usual, in the quiet garden where only the sound of sparrows chirping could be heard instead of the students chatting happily, Nana could not easily open her mouth and fidgeted with her hands.
She hesitated to open her mouth, thinking that she might reveal her master’s secrets.
But even for a moment, Nana clenched her fists as if she was deciding something and looked back at me sitting next to her and said.
“First of all… “Is the rumor you heard true that His Majesty’s mother has passed away?”
“That’s right. Why? “What am I doing wrong?”
“No, it is true that he passed away just like the rumors said.”
The fact had already been confirmed from Euclid’s mouth, but it was a bit shocking to see it again from Nana’s mouth.
I couldn’t understand why Euclid, who had always been bright and kind to everyone, was secretly happy about her mother’s death.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but if you don’t want to talk, you don’t have to.”
I don’t know what happened between the two, but it was definitely something uncomfortable, so when I said that, Nana looked at me with surprising eyes.
“…… “You’ve changed a little.”
“What?”
“In the past, I wondered how such a crazy person could have survived until now without his head breaking. “I would say it’s a little rounder now, but it feels gentler than before.”
“Have you been looking at me like that all this time?”
“Think carefully about the actions you have taken so far. If you don’t look at it with those eyes, what kind of eyes are you supposed to look at? “If there was anyone who didn’t see it that way, it would be Your Highness.”
Jessica and Nana couldn’t understand why they were talking about what I did in the past.
“Anyway, if you’re asking what happened between Your Highness and your mother, there’s nothing I can’t tell you. I don’t think you would go anywhere and spread it….”
“Thank you for trusting me in this regard. So what happened?”
“I also heard the story from my predecessor, so I don’t know the details, but it appears that he has been severely abused by his mother since he was young.”
“Abuse?”
I tilted my head at this, perhaps one of the words most unsuitable for royalty in the world.
Anyway, Nana raised her head as if she was looking somewhere far away and continued speaking in a voice that conveyed some sorrow.
“He was thinking of making Euclid, the fifth prince, truly king.”
Euclid, who was far behind his other brothers in terms of the principle of primogeniture or whatever, had to do his best to make up the gap.
A child who was not even ten years old had to endure an endless amount of study, starting with the study of kings, economics, management of territories, history, and etiquette.
Of course, Euclid, who was neither a genius nor anything else, could not handle all the grueling amount of study and had to be punished each time.
Of course, it was not Euclid who received corporal punishment, but the servants who served Euclid by his side.
It would have been better for him to have been beaten himself. In a way, beating an innocent servant in front of his eyes because of his own fault was a form of harassment worse than corporal punishment.
I couldn’t even imagine how young Euclid must have felt as he watched his servant suffer as his calf was whipped with a whip until it bled.
“It is said that he kept watching me being greeted like that and whispered this into my ear. ‘If you do something wrong, this is what happens to your vassals.’ To be honest, it’s almost a miracle that you didn’t become crooked and grew up like you are now.”
“Huh…. Just getting a good education won’t make you a king. Was there a realistic possibility?”
“…… “Surprisingly, it wasn’t there.”
Her family’s power was high, and more than anything, she had a knack for gathering people.
She united those who were not part of each faction or saw the situation and made them into one force.
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In addition, as the marriage was concluded with a powerful swordsman, the number of people who wanted to join Euclid’s faction increased day by day.
And as the number of people he had to carry increased, Euclid’s burden increased, and before he knew it, he began to tremble with anxiety just by hearing his mother’s voice.
“So, now that he has passed away and the number of people leaving the faction has increased, he must have felt relieved.”
In the first place, it was a faction created by Euclid’s mother rather than a faction formed due to Euclid’s ability or charisma, so when the central point disappeared, the faction had no choice but to naturally disperse.
“The sense of liberation from being freed from the shackles of his mother must have been greater than the sense of loss of losing her. “There are such circumstances, so please don’t look at me too strangely.”
“When her friend’s mom died, she had nothing to say, but she was better off dead. But are you okay? “It looks like your path to success is blocked.”
“My appointment to the Order has been cancelled, but that doesn’t mean the dead can’t be brought back to life. And… “He was the one who gave me a chance, but to be honest, he wasn’t a very likable person.”
“It must be a bit complicated for you too. One last question: What was his cause of death?”
“Sign?”
Although Nana wondered why she was asking such a question, she obediently told me.
“… Should we call it death from overwork?”
“…… Death from overwork?”
“Because he was as hard on himself as he was on others. “To be exact, he died from overwork, not from overwork, but it wouldn’t have happened even if he hadn’t moved around to the point where he was so tired, so it’s safe to say he died from overwork.”
“…… “Isn’t it possible that someone staged the assassination like that?”
“No. “A member of the royal family and the head of a faction died. Could it be that they just investigated it and passed it on?”
There was no slippery liquid like oil on the stairs, and no mana reaction was detected anywhere around, let alone the body.
In addition, the royal family’s exclusive healing wizard and priest even testified that they had complained of dizziness or dizziness due to fatigue a few days before the accident, so there was no doubt that the death was caused by drowning.
If this were an assassination, it would be the most perfect assassination in the world.
“The possibility of it being an assassination is infinitely close to zero.”
“Yes, it’s funny that someone who had such burning ambition passed away in such vain, but isn’t that how life is?”
It’s a bit unclear, but since there are times when a brave general dies after being hit by a meteorite in the front yard of his house, wouldn’t it be quite possible for him to fall due to overwork?
“But why are you suddenly asking that?”
“Huh? No, I thought that if someone assassinated him, Euclid would also be in danger….”
“Thank you for your concern, but there is no need to worry because I am by your side.”
Nana got up from her seat and spoke quietly to me before leaving.
“I know very well that Your Majesty’s words and actions right now are strange. But please refrain from distancing yourself from His Majesty. Request.”
“Family life is different for each person…. “Don’t worry, I’ll treat you like I always did.”
“…… Thanks.”
Nana bowed her head and left, leaving me alone on this wide and quiet garden bench.
Did I think too deeply?
There is no guarantee that they knew that the devil was sleeping inside Euclid, and I may have been worried for no reason.
‘But we must not let our guard down.’
Since their leader is a possessor, they and I are destined to face each other again someday.
I also stood up, promising myself that I would never let down my guard until then.