Chapter 23

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03. The Way to Control Him

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Viester scolded him on his way back to the Lion Palace.

“You had gone too far.”

“About what?”

“Do you think the baron is just a 20 years old man? He will turn sixty soon.”

“Can’t you go to another country when you turn sixty?”

Carmun spat out grumpily. This was because Viester also took part by scolding him like this.

“It will take longer to manage things, moreover he will need a long vacation before he can come back to work again.”

“It’s kind of an urgent matter, about Cordelia….”

Carmun muttered all of a sudden and seemed to be genuinely curious about the place. It was a very small country. The country which was created by a group of immigrants on the periphery.

As a result, it was still a developing country that was noisy and lacked faith in the emperor. The situation within the developing country was still clamorous and had a lack of faith in the Emperor.

Many private things happened due to the unity of many immigrants, and there was a reason why Cordelia was more popular than a bunch of those people.

“Does he really love his daughter that much?”

Carmun wasn’t paying attention to the rumors. Of all things that became topics for people, only a few of them reached his ears.

But rumor about the daughter who was doted so much by her father that came from Cordelia Empire, which was faraway from here, was just stupid.

Moreover, other words didn’t spread around well.

Even from the way Idelberg looked at them, Cordelia was a strange community. They were not a trading partner, nor a country who sent envoys frequently.

On the contrary, they both had a very bad relationship.

It was astonishing that they were able to end the war and have a proper contact with each other.

“Are you beating around the bush?”

Carmun’s eyebrows were raised slightly at Viester’ question.

Viester pursed his lips at the unconventional raise of his eyebrows with the intention of saying, ‘Did I? Me?’

His lips seemed like they had many things to say, but he didn’t open them again.

“I admit I have gone too far. Even so, it still wasn’t enough. At this point, I already let him off the hook.”

Carmun seemed much more relaxed than when he was handling his ministers.

Cool breeze blew past them on their way to Lion Palace. It has been a decade ever since the last time he witnessed the nighttime, but he thought the daytime was better than night.

He liked everything about it, from the cool breeze, the blooming sunflower which was looking at the sun, the typical warmth in the daytime.

The man would like it too. If he had the same body and mind as him,

He must’ve not really liked the coolness of the night. Because it made him feel like he was alone in this world.

[t/n: here, he was referring to his night self.]

Thinking about him quickly made him feel bad.

After kicking the pebbles on the road in an irritated manner, he quickened his steps.

He was curious about how to control the man, just like what Viester said.

One day, he suddenly appeared and changed his life. It was like taking away all the nighttime he was supposed to have.

His works were overflowing, but he always didn’t have enough time to finish it, and it was impossible for him to attend parties if they were held at night.

He solely blamed him because of that. Who should he blame if not him?

Carmun knew that his patience was noticeably shortened and that it was as short as candle wick which had been burnt.

It took him ten years to figure out whether it was a curse or a disease, and he even spent the last ten years searching for every way to get rid of the curse.

However, he hasn’t found any lead to take out the curse from himself.

They no longer could stop the man by locking him up as he was getting stronger day by day.

He was getting impatient and could not be stopped anymore.

The Emperor looked at the servants who lined up and shouted as soon as he entered the Lion Palace.

“I wanna be alone with Viester, so don’t disturb me.”

“Your Majesty…!”

At that moment, Viester shouted in embarrassment.

“Is there any problem with that?”

“It’s not a problem….”

Viester couldn’t bring himself to speak any longer.

There weren’t just one or two servants who looked at him curiously when he spoke.

Other than the rumor of the Emperor who was said to be impotent, there was also a secret rumor.

It was because there was no one who had the chance to always stay beside the Emperor other than him.

Perhaps the Emperor was gay? Those kinds of dirty rumors always circulated around the Emperor.

The Emperor was not the only one who was labelled as gay. The same thing happened to Viester.

The Emperor laughed scornfully seeing Viester who was embarrassed, as if it entertained him a lot.

“Oh my.”

A maid ended up gasping. She didn’t even cover her mouth, therefore she was caught by Viester.

Viester rubbed his forehead.

“Sigh……”

Viester’s face was very gloomy, but he managed his expression and followed Carmun who headed for the room and having fun with himself.

It would be nice if they were heading to the study or the drawing room, but Carmun definitely preferred his own room.

As a result, the intensity of their promiscuous rumors increased.

Carmun took off the surcoat over his uniform as soon as he stepped into the room and handed it over to the Emperor’s attendants.

The maid, who was cleaning the room, accepted the clothes and attempted to take care of His Majesty.

But Carmun stopped her from doing that.

“It’s okay. Get out.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“And make sure everyone is away and empty the entire floor, including the rooms in this floor, so there is no one here.”

“Sigh….”

Viester’s sigh became deeper after hearing the Emperor’s order.

He seemed so determined in blocking the future ahead of him.

He still liked girls! He just couldn’t date one because of His Majesty the Emperor who was setting him up so he wouldn’t have time to date!

When he looked at Carmun with his eyes full of grudge, Carmun pretended to not know anything and turned his head while covering his mouth with his hands to hold back his laughter.

Carmun immediately bursted into laughter right after the maid left.

The angry look of Viester was something worth-seeing.

He didn’t expect his purple eyes would shake like that.

“Why are you laughing comfortably right now? Is it because I lost the path to the future ahead of me?”

“Since you lost it, now you can work harder.”

“Don’t say such a horrible thing. As soon as your curse is lifted, I will leave the Imperial Palace.”

“You’re only thinking about leaving because you don’t like being in a high-rank position. If others hear you, they will say you’re arrogant.”

“It actually sounds good being called arrogant. They will also beg to Your Majesty with both their hands in the air to let them leave after a week serving you.”

Heum….

Carmun shrugged his shoulders and let out an incoherent noise.

Firstly, he never thought about leaving the person who said he was arrogant, secondly, he had no intention of letting him step down from his position as the aide, and lastly, he was surprised thinking about why he appointed Viester who he called arrogant as his aide.

He just made a short sound which conveyed a lot of meaning.

He had another thing that was more important than this.

“So. What’s the method to control him?”

The method was the most important thing for him at the moment.

He didn’t know anything about this kind of curse, and doctors said it was even their first time hearing this as a disease. All the priests also said they didn’t know about it….

There was only one thing he needed to learn about this curse.

It was the day when this curse occurred.

Carmun asked with eyes glinting in full interest.

He bent over on the sofa and put his arms on his knees while facing Viester.

As the Emperor put all of his attention toward him, Viester suddenly hesitated for no reason.

“It… It happened when I visited Your Majesty last night.”

Viester explained the whole event with as many details as possible.

As soon as he noticed his presence, he made a loud noise and ruckus on purpose.

After that, when he bragged about knowing the woman’s existence, the man desperately tried to kill him.

And when he threatened him by touching the woman if he kept doing that, the man became quite obedient.

“I think that ‘woman’ is someone important to him.”

“Woman?”

“Oh, I left out the explanation regarding that. The man accidentally said ‘woman’ when he was enraged.”

“Is there any possibility that he’s lying?”

“…As His Majesty knows, he’s just a man with a lump of instinct….”

He should have turned around when his other self was being insulted like that.

Did he still beat around the bush just because he was under the guise of the Emperor?

Carmun thought carefully with his half-closed eyelids. He questioned over and over again about the woman’s worth to him.

Wouldn’t it be better to kill her or to make her on my side?

“Are you planning to kill that woman?”

“If he knew I killed her, he wouldn’t stay still. It’s too risky.”

He might break the barrier and rush out.

“Will you keep her alive?”

“She knew my secret, so I can’t let her go.”

Carmun was in the midst of a dilemma. Although he wasn’t in a rush, he felt suffocated. Is this how it feels to be stuck in a certain situation?

He couldn’t think of any good answer.

“First of all, finding her is going to be our main priority.”

“She might be a concubine or a maid.”

Carmun opened his eyes slowly and reckoned the days.

Then, he was reminded about the upcoming hunting festival.

***

Carmun sent Viester back and drew the man’s letter that he kept under his arms.

For a moment, he was happy that the man left the letter for him, although what’s written in the letter was really absurd.

[I’m going to kill you.]

“Ha…!”

Ridiculous.

Who are you killing or whether you know the right person. He wasn’t sure if he knew who the man was going to kill.

He didn’t even know that the man could never kill him, because he was the Emperor the moment he opened his eyes again in the morning.

Such an idiot.

The man seemed to be rushing to kill him.

He was the one who tried to kill Viester. He promised not to ask this kind of favor to Viester ever again.

He couldn’t afford to lose a good aide like him.

“You act gentle toward the woman….”

Did I do that?

Carmun tilted his head. He had no memory of being captivated once by a woman ever since he was born.

I saw many women being called the beauty of the century, but he didn’t feel attracted to any of them. It just felt like he was seeing pretty potteries.

But he had never been attracted to a pretty man either, so he just thought he didn’t want to like people.

People assumed he was impotent, and Carmun had never really thought about that.

He didn’t have any curiosity toward anybody else.

“But how can he like a woman?”

And that he used his body.

He must have met a woman whose face he didn’t even know and he grew a pretty deep affection for her.

He didn’t feel good thinking about it with his face, so he opened his eyes slowly and gently tapped his cheeks with his long, elegant finger.

Moving his fingers leisurely yet repeatedly, Carmun began to fall into his own imagination.

The imagination of himself trapped inside the library.

The door opened and a woman came in. What did he say?

He was a man in the Emperor’s library, so did he ever think about him being the Emperor himself? That’s why he was so fierce and mean.

Then, what possibly made them get along so well?

‘She must be crazy as well.’

Viester, a realistic and quite promising aide, almost got strangled to death once by him.

He was not the type of person who would consider a life of a woman. It wasn’t like there weren’t any women in life. It wasn’t like he didn’t have any woman in his life.

Why did he only act gentle to her?

Carmun suddenly became curious about her.

“The hunting festival….”

Should he order her to attend the hunting festival?

If she was a concubine or a maid of the concubine… It was impossible for him to not see her there.

The Hunting Festival of Idelberg was held on the largest scale in the Empire. It was going to be held for three days and they even invited important guests from each country.

It seemed like they were going to drink all day and night, although the repose was a charity event.

There were many times when the New Year Festival ran into trouble since all of the sacred ceremonies were held at night.

The time of ceremony was moved to the early night, as it was common for the people to be absent so they could enjoy the night party.

It was because he couldn’t attend if it was held late at night.

He couldn’t let the b*st**d out and tried to hurt people at the party without knowing who he really was.

However, the hunting festival was different.

It began early in the morning and continued until the afternoon. Throughout the three days.

And although the drinking was held at night, he wasn’t forced to attend. The important guests were served by the Empress, and it was the day when the nobles made silent promises to meet their respective lovers.

They would give something that they caught in the hunting ground as gifts to their lovers while whispering sweet nothings. How romantic is it?

And because of that, it was the only festival where the Emperor could enjoy it to the fullest on his own.

He had never invited the concubines to the hunting festival, but….

‘There’s nothing I can’t do.’

Carmun’s mouth went up slightly. It was the time when his languid afternoon began.

A cool wind blew through the open window.

This body should move personally in order to take control of the man who broke the barrier.

Strangely, Carmun found this situation very amusing.