The Place Where I Was Sold as a Slave Was the Imperial Palace

(59)

＜ How to survive in a cruel world ＞

* * *

All the other attendants left to do their own business, and Rudy headed to the waiting room where Levin was waiting.

Unexpectedly, Boris was there.

Boris smirked and gestured for Rudy to sit down.

Only Boris, Rudy, and Levin are in the room.

An attendant remained, but when Rudy arrived, he greeted Boris politely and left.

“I told Levin about the interview just now.”

Levin’s face was sullen, and it must have been because he had been hearing such a story until now.

Boris smiled and opened his mouth.

“Now then, let’s ask the two of you a question. The heir to the Duke of Watoringu, who was interviewed today, was introduced to people under the pseudonym Norman. Why was that?”

Boris’ gaze first turned to Levin.

Levin hesitated with a perplexed face, then answered as if he was not confident.

“I think it’s because I don’t want to let people know…”

“If you didn’t want to tell, you could have just hidden it. Rudy, what do you think?”

Assuming that the emperor already knows that the child is fake, the answer is simple.

Rudy answered quietly.

“It’s to cover up later when it’s revealed that it’s fake.”

Boris grinned.

“That’s a good answer. but it’s a bit lacking Rudy, what you’re saying is assuming that the child is fake. But what if it was real?”

“…”

From nob le mt l dot com

Does such a question make sense?

The emperor, his servants, and Boris must have already known that the child was fake.

When Rudy didn’t answer, Boris said with a serious face.

“Nothing should be rushed to conclusions. You have to think in several ways. Let’s change the question. Let’s assume that the child is introduced as the heir to the Duke of Watoring, whether real or fake. What will happen then?”

Boris’ gaze returns to Levin. Levin hesitated for a moment before answering.

“I think people who want it will start a war. Because if it were me, I would definitely want that child.”

“There is a point in that statement. When people desperately want something, they don’t even think about the aftermath. If anyone thinks rationally and cares about the future, there may be no war in this world.”

Boris looked at Rudy this time.

Rudy thought for a moment before opening his mouth.

“I think the war will be hesitant. But if that’s not the case… First of all, wouldn’t the Correa Dynasty come up with something saying that they want to protect the child because they are blood relatives?”

Boris grinned.

“okay. well thought out Rudy What you said is quite possible. But on this side, if the child is just an unknown child named Norman, nothing can be done officially. And again?”

Boris continued to ask questions.

I fully understand that it is not simply a matter of being fake and real, but I still twist and twist the question again and again.

Are slaves and attendants a high-level job that requires considering the international situation?

As if that thought had come out, Boris flicked Rudy and Levin’s foreheads with his fingers.

“First of all, Rudy, you must learn these questions. Gold slaves are different from silver ones. Golden slaves are special beings that only a few can make during the lifetime of an emperor who can make dozens or hundreds of bibins.”

Rudy rubbed his sore forehead and looked up at Boris with teary eyes.

“Do you know why I, a golden slave, am so knowledgeable about these matters? It’s because I, too, had to keep studying since I first became golden.”

Boris bent over and looked into Rudy’s eyes.

“Golden slaves stay by the emperor and act as simple escorts, but sometimes they help the emperor out of political considerations.”

According to Boris, you have to learn not only politics and martial arts, but also arts such as literature and music, and how to ward off women’s tricks.

No, that’s not slavery.

When I opened my mouth in amazement, Levin laughed like he was having fun.

“This guy said it before. You are more urgent.”

Boris once again flicked Levin’s forehead with his finger.

“You look great. Because of that, there won’t be one or two things that will happen in the future. If you don’t know anything at that time, your life might literally fall into a pit. If you don’t learn when you can learn this and that, you’ll get hurt.”

Boris’ nagging made Levin’s shoulders droop.

Contrary to his handsome appearance, Levin surprisingly suits him better when he moves his body.

As Rudy looked at Boris and Levin, something he had heard before suddenly came to mind.

When Boris took over the studies of the first two, he said that he also taught the prince and the chief chamberlain.

‘They said they were both very different back then.’

The emperor and chamberlain whom Boris taught in the past, and now Rudy and Levin.

I thought it was somehow similar.

‘···what···?’

Something was on my mind.

‘no way···.’

Rudy swallowed. It’s only for a moment, but it seems that something that I can only think of as crazy has come into my head.

‘I don’t think so. I must be crazy.’

Rudy quickly erased the possibility from his mind.

Even if the fact that he was the heir to the Duke of Watoringu was found out by any chance, there was no such possibility.

There would be no way that would be possible without the emperor going mad.

Boris’ nagging education continued even after that. Subtly, the story ranged from the heir to the Duke of Watlingu to the conflicts and relationships among nobles within the empire.

At the end of the conversation with Boris, Rudy asked what he had been curious about.

“But, Boris! Does His Majesty know that the heir is a fake?”

“Yeah, you noticed that.”

“But why are you doing that? Do you really need to show fake things to people?”

“There are several reasons. But the most important thing is that if you think the real one has already appeared, no one will look for the successor to Duke Watoringu anymore.”

“…”

Is that really all there is to it? Could it be that there are other ulterior motives?

No, was everything Boris said true in the first place? There is a possibility that he, too, deliberately deceives Rudy and Levin’s eyes with some intention.

Rudi had already learned from Levin that Boris hid his own intentions.

Boris stares at Rudy’s thoughtful face. And smiled.

“Rudy, I don’t think that’s what you’re really curious about. Do you really think that His Majesty deliberately created the child’s situation? You mean His Majesty is making fakes and using them?”

“…”

It’s not like I was thinking about that right now. But I can’t deny that I thought so.

In fact, Rudy thought so.

I wonder if the emperor created everything.

“Well, you might doubt it, but this incident fell from the sky by accident. Of course, Your Majesty thought of using it.”

Boris said that it was all right and left the building with Rudy and Levin.

Riding the carriage, he passed several splendid buildings of the imperial palace and headed for a place on the outskirts.

From the outside, the place they finally arrived at looked like an ordinary imperial palace building. It just looked a little older than the other buildings.

When I turned around along the wall made of large stones and headed to the back, there was an entrance that went down to the basement.

“Follow me.”

Boris took the two of them down the stairs.

A cool breeze rises from below.

Every time the wind swayed the torch on the wall, the dark shadows danced in great blackness.

The deeper I went, the more I could not tell whether it was a ghost cry or wind noise, came up the stairs.

It’s still daytime, but it’s dark under the stone stairs without windows. I couldn’t figure out how far I had to go to reach the bottom.

As I was thinking about it, I heard a man’s scream faintly from somewhere.

said Levin, shaking his legs.

“Bo, Boris! I’m not curious… Um, can I just go up?”

Boris looked back in amazement.

“What kind of ghost snot-eating sound are you talking about? If you work as an attendant, you will see something like this in the future. It’s something you have to go through at least once anyway, so don’t nag and follow me.”

Levin goes down crying.

Rudy went down and suddenly looked behind him. A white flame crackled in the distance. It is the light that the phoenix emits to announce its existence.

‘thank god. They’re following me.’

I felt relieved to think that the phoenix was somewhere behind my back.

Just because someone has already died once doesn’t mean they aren’t afraid of ghosts. It is human nature to be afraid of ghosts. It’s not because you’re a coward.

The feeling of something gently touching the body from earlier would be just a feeling.

never a ghost

“…”

The distance with Levin, who was ahead, widened slightly.

Rudy hurriedly ran down the stairs.

The seemingly endless staircase finally led to the floor.

Rudy and Levin stared at the long road in the dark and the gaping dungeon on either side.

“This is a dungeon where prisoners were once imprisoned and tortured. It is also the place where traitors and political opponents are imprisoned whenever there is a civil war. I rarely use it now.”

As Boris finished his words, a piercing scream pierced his ears.

Somewhere behind the bars of the long dungeon, a man was howling.

Levin’s legs trembled.

“Follow me.”

“…”

“…”

I can’t help it if Boris does it. I have no choice but to follow what you are told to do.

After passing through several empty barracks, a man with a leather mask was standing at the place where he finally arrived.

The man was holding in his hand a large metal peg that looked like a clothespin attached to it.

Upon seeing Boris, he politely bowed his head. And take a few steps back.

Boris nodded and called out to the two of them.

Rudy stood in front of the grate with Levin. He swallowed his saliva and looked into the grate.

A man was sitting on a wooden chair in the dark prison beyond the bars. The waist and limbs are secured with leather.

The moment he saw the face of the man sitting facing this way, Levin covered his mouth with his hand.

Beneath the dim torchlight, a man opened his mouth wide. Maybe it wasn’t wide open, maybe it was wide open. His chin is too low to see that he opened it on his own volition.

Tattered pieces of flesh fall off. It looks like it was ripped off with something the size of a fingernail.

There were no teeth in the man’s gaping mouth. It seems that everyone has been picked. There was only one finger left. So were the toes.

The man kept repeating what he had done without anyone asking, with an unclear pronunciation.

I’m sorry.

The man cries over and over again.

When he came back upstairs, hearing the voice of a man crying like a child, Levin vomited up everything he ate on the floor.

Rudy didn’t vomit, but the man’s thin voice continued to ring in his ears. It seems that the man’s wide mouth is still in front of his eyes.

Boris looked at the two of them and said abruptly.

“This world is a cruel place. Even between brothers, swords are stabbed, and yesterday’s alliance becomes today’s enemy. If you do not kill him, tomorrow he will violate and kill your daughter, your wife and your mother.”

Levin, who has nothing more to vomit, vomits.

People are the most cruel in this world.

Rudy closed his eyes.

“If you look down on others, you get hurt. If you forgive generously, a knife will be stabbed in your back instead of thanking you. If one person attacks, the ten people behind him will attack at the same time. That’s what people are.”

Boris spoke quietly.

“You must keep in mind that if you fail to defeat the one person who attacked you first, there will be hundreds or thousands of people after that.”

Rudy opened his eyes and looked up at Boris.

Boris’s emotionless eyes looked at Rudy and Levin once.

Suddenly, he saw a crow sitting on a tree behind him.

It seems that the crow and the eye met.

However, nausea came later.

Rudy bent down and vomited up everything he ate today.

＜ How to survive in a cruel world ＞ End