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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 19
Chapter Title: The First Demand
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Enraged, Kies shouted, his voice filling the room.
“You think that would stop me!”
“How noisy.”
“This bastard, this bastard! Mmph….”
Kies’s mouth, about to order Darcy’s death, clamped shut on its own.
What was this?
He couldn’t order Darcy’s death. It was as if he’d been brainwashed.
Kies soon realized what had happened.
The words he had muttered to him earlier.
‘You cannot kill me.’
Those words had taken effect.
But how?
“Searching the entire room was pointless. I knew you were watching the clock.”
The curse embedded in his heart had vanished.
He no longer needed to obey Kies. But Kies didn't know that.
Because he didn't know that the clock in this room was thirty minutes slower than any other.
The first thing Darcy did the moment he regained his power was to brainwash those who had come to kill him.
He cast a silent brainwashing and called their names.
The conditions for brainwashing: make eye contact and call their true names. The target must then answer Darcy’s words. He had perfectly executed every step, right down to releasing his magic.
All the conditions had been met.
Now, they could not move from their spots while Darcy’s brainwashing was in effect.
There was no one who could move for Kies. Not even Kies himself.
Once begun, the brainwashing would continue until the caster stopped it.
It was a complete defeat for the man who had underestimated Darcy.
“…Haha. Haha!”
Kies laughed like a man who had lost his mind. Darcy stood before him, spinning the gun in his hand.
His eyes, fixed on Darcy twirling the gun by its handle, burned with hatred.
“Do you plan to use me like a puppet now?”
Darcy stopped spinning the gun, aimed it squarely at the center of Kies's forehead, and shook his head.
“Of course not. You have to be in your right mind to feel the pain raw, don’t you? Though I will have to set some limits….”
“You’re no different from that lowly bloodline. Deceiving me and—”
Cutting off the usual rant about status, Darcy grumbled in annoyance.
“Do you know how pathetic you sound saying that now, after using me so well all this time? My first demand is this.”
Darcy grinned.
“You will acknowledge me as a prince. I’ve even thought of a newspaper headline… something like [The Man Who Always Stood Behind the Emperor, The Illegitimate Son Who Dared Not Covet the Prince’s Title] should do.”
As long as he was determined to stay here, his current position had to change. What he was doing now was the first step toward achieving that.
“I’m going to take back all the credit you’ve stolen from me.”
“…I will never allow—”
Darcy grabbed Kies’s chin and pointed to the people staring blankly at them.
Their eyes were unfocused.
“Do you want to be brainwashed? With so many people watching, wouldn’t it be better to be sane? Who knows when I’ll release you.”
The most perfect revenge was not death. A fleeting end would be a sanctuary for Kies. Darcy wanted his revenge on Kies to last a very, very long time.
“If you want to end up like them, that’s not a bad option either.”
The most fitting revenge for Kies was to trample on the life he had lived.
The position the emperor was so proud of. The position that allowed him to slaughter people and oppress mages yet still be respected. The position from which he used Darcy completely without a hint of guilt.
He had to oust him from the emperor's throne. And he had to make the current crown prince step down.
He could no longer stand by and watch Ryan, Kies’s son and his own half-brother, use his status to marry Marso or torment her.
“Postpone the crown prince investiture ceremony.”
Judging by the conversation between Marso and Marquis Etoile, Kies had already thrown the marquis some bait.
There were two reasons he didn't demand to be made crown prince immediately.
First, he wanted to see the look on Ryan’s face—the face of a man who had lived elegantly as a prince while he himself had suffered his entire life—twist in agony.
Second, simply seizing control of the imperial family wouldn’t be enough to become the kind of respected emperor that Kies would despise.
Darcy would first become the crown prince, and then the emperor.
He would create a situation where a sane Kies would have no choice but to appoint him to the throne with his own mouth, a reality he couldn't bear.
He intended to make Kies shudder in agony after crowning him emperor, forcing him to live with that fact for the rest of his life.
He had to cause a proper scene before he left.
He had no intention of remaining emperor forever, but he had no intention of letting Kies or Ryan inherit the throne either.
Just as Kies had enjoyed watching him struggle, he would enjoy watching Kies struggle.
‘I’ve picked up a bad habit.’
His entire life had been shackled by Kies, but brainwashing made everything too easy.
He would let them plot their schemes for a few months at least. All so they would fall deeper into despair upon realizing that none of it would work.
To fall into endless despair. That was what Darcy wanted.
The emperor’s throne was killing two birds with one stone.
‘With this, I should be able to see Marso become happy.’
An emperor should have that right, shouldn't he? He could make anything go the way Marso wanted.
Of course, even before that, he planned to keep meeting Marso and contributing to her happiness.
Actions that others might call excessive didn’t feel that way to Darcy at all. To him, everything he had done so far was perfectly rational.
In fact, he was even thinking of taking it a step further.
‘Maybe after my revenge is over and I’ve achieved my goal of seeing Marso happy, I could stay a little longer before leaving.’
One thought led to another.
‘I could become a real merchant, just like I lied about at first.’
Darcy, who had been seriously contemplating this, sighed as Marso’s face came to mind. The thought of his current situation was grim.
‘I won’t be able to see her for a while.’
He could teleport in and out of the mansion, but for now, he had no intention of entering illegally.
If he were to visit again, he planned to do so formally, with a proper status.
‘Before that… I should look into that theater troupe.’
Some whore who says she wants to be a mistress. He had no intention of kicking her out of the troupe Marso liked, but he had to at least warn her not to say such vulgar things to Marso anymore.
…Even if it involved a little bloodshed.
As a friend, this was the least he could do, wasn’t it?
After that, he planned to completely crush Ryan during their meal together.
“Wh-What are you thinking?”
Kies’s terrified voice snapped Darcy out of his reverie. A bitter taste filled his mouth, which had been sweet just moments before.
‘Before that, I should be a little malicious.’
His resentment was too deep to end with just the back of a hand. The grudge he thought had dulled over time burst its dam and flowed out endlessly.
Deep-seated hatred and anger he didn't even know he possessed filled his entire body and poured out.
Darcy dusted off his hands. He narrowed his brow and lowered his voice.
“On second thought, maybe it would be better to just kill you now.”
Darcy spoke casually as he embedded another magic stone into Kies’s thigh.
Bang! With a sharp crack, smoke drifted from the muzzle.
“Aaargh!”
This one was larger than the last, and Kies screamed in agony.
But no one moved.
Darcy swept his hair back, caught his breath, and then whispered languidly in Kies’s ear.
“Now, next up is your head….”
Bang. The moment he made the sound with his mouth,
“You can’t do this to me….”
Terrified, Kies finally collapsed and fainted.
It was an anticlimactic ending.
‘I guess that’s enough for now.’
Darcy tucked the gun back into his waistband and narrowed his eyes.
This was clearly his space. Kies had to be removed from the room.
‘It’s a pain to move him, though.’
After a moment of thought, Darcy began disarming the people standing there with vacant eyes.
Using a gun was nice, but he was sick of pointless battles.
It was about time for the brainwashing to wear off, so he had to leave them unarmed before it did.
In any case, once they knew his main magic was brainwashing, they wouldn’t dare rush him so easily.
But that wasn't the only reason for releasing the brainwashing.
‘It’s dangerous not to have a single person on my side in the palace.’
No matter how great a mage he was or how skilled at brainwashing, the palace was vast and there was much to do. If he didn't want to be tied up in palace affairs every moment, he needed a few people who shared his goals.
And among them were those who had doubted whether the man in armor during the battle was truly Emperor Kies.
Surveying the men one by one, Darcy stopped in front of the Captain of the Knights, with whom he had fought in good sync. He had been a slave, hadn't he?
“Kaysen Hopen.”
Darcy called his name.
As if waking from a dream, Kaysen blinked his dazed eyes.
“…You are.”
The moment Darcy released the brainwashing, Kaysen recognized his face and mumbled.
His gaze gradually sharpened.
And then, for the first time, Kaysen truly faced the man named Darcy.
