Silence enveloped the place, the atmosphere uncomfortable especially for Aaron as everyone stared at him with strange looks.
He swallowed hard, and his gaze met those eyes that captivated him and judged him inch by inch.
At last, the Emperor spoke in a flat voice that reeked of boredom.
"So, you're still alive."
Everyone's eyes turned toward Aaron, waiting for his reaction. He raised an eyebrow, thoughts rapidly processing in his mind before replying a few seconds later in the same dull tone he had been addressed with.
"I didn't want to die and satisfy your expectations."
Alexios raised an eyebrow in surprise, while Alerion's jaw dropped in shock. Aaron had always been known for his cowardice and weak personality, never daring to answer anyone back before, but now he seemed like a completely different person.
The Emperor's expression did not change, and he maintained the same tone.
"Whatever. Have you regained your memories?"
Aaron stared at him for a moment. He had only recovered fragments, and he was not sure what he should say.
"I remembered my mother."
A faint flicker crossed the Emperor's eyes before disappearing quickly, returning once again to his indifferent expression.
The atmosphere remained tense. Aaron's gaze wandered among those present until it landed on the white-haired man. He resembled Reina, except for the color of his eyes. Aaron concluded he was one of the princes, though he still did not know which one.
The Emperor broke the silence.
"Due to the recent incident, you will be transferred to the main palace. You will have servants and your own private wing."
Aaron was startled for a moment, drifting into fantasies. Servants and a private wing—absolute luxury. He had truly grown tired of Skull's food, which lacked any variety.
Several questions crossed his mind about why he had been exiled to the western palace and abandoned by his family. In his previous life, he had been an orphan who never knew the warmth of family, so it neither mattered to him nor occupied his thoughts.
But in an imperial family, why would someone be cast aside unless they had committed a mistake, or unless it was a scheme to remove him from the line of succession? These were only baseless assumptions, but every hypothesis always carried a possible conclusion.
He might seem like the foolish type, but in truth he was merely a cunning fox too lazy to use his intelligence. His indifferent nature allowed him to stop thinking deeply and settle for simple explanations.
The Emperor interrupted his train of thought with a dismissive wave of his hand.
"Get out of my sight."
Aaron's eyes narrowed at Edward's tone, which clearly conveyed his annoyance. He smirked slightly, shoved his hands into his pockets, and an arrogant look spread across his face.
"I'm not eager to see you either, old man."
Aaron turned around and walked out of the room with complete calmness and arrogance, as though he had not just called the Emperor an old man.
For a moment, no one reacted. A heavy silence filled the room. The white-haired prince, who had not looked at Aaron since his entrance, slowly placed his book on the table and straightened his posture.
Alexios awkwardly cleared his throat, a trace of amusement crossing his lips as he struggled to suppress his laughter.
As for Alerion, he exploded in anger.
"That brat needs to be disciplined. You should imprison him for treason against the royal family!"
All eyes shifted toward the Emperor, awaiting his order and judgment. Edward sighed in annoyance before replying indifferently,
"He's not as interesting as I thought."
He paused briefly, his golden eyes screaming boredom.
"Leave him. I don't care about stupid things."
…
In the spacious hall, another confrontation awaited Aaron.
Standing before him was a servant with pale skin and blue eyes. His thick blue hair was slicked back neatly, and a black tie with an elegant servant uniform adorned his body.
The obvious look of disdain did not escape Aaron. The servant bowed slightly before introducing himself, his tone spreading disgust through the air.
"I am the head butler, Sebastian."
Aaron's eyes sharpened before he replied provocatively,
"Oh, I remember you now, beetle-face."
Sebastian was shocked and ground his teeth in irritation, but he quickly restored his formal, neutral expression.
"I will guide you to your wing. Please follow me."
Aaron nodded and followed behind him. His eyes wandered back and forth around the place, trying to memorize the route so he would not get lost later.
He arrived at a luxurious wing. A large red four-poster bed stood in the center of the room alongside a side chamber. The furniture was elegant and spotless, unlike his previous wing in the western palace, which had been filled with dust and filth.
The design of the wing resembled Reina's, but with one slight addition—a bathroom. In the western palace, there had been a separate bathroom for each wing along the corridor, but here the bathroom was actually inside the wing itself.
'Damn the luxury of the rich. Should I escape like some story protagonists do?'
Aaron muttered as he remembered all the valuable treasures he had seen on the way to his wing. But he immediately dismissed the idea.
'No, no protagonist has ever succeeded in escaping before. They only attract attention.'
He lay down on the bed while the Emperor's words rapidly echoed inside his head.
"How did you survive until now?"
In the western palace, there had been no food, drinks, or servants. Even clothes had been almost nonexistent. He was only lucky that the water had been clean and not rotten.
'Is this beginner's luck? Or the author's will?'
Thinking of it as the author's will seemed like the most logical possibility. Perhaps the author was preparing the perfect environment for the birth of the future Demon King: a rejected and despised prince known as the Emperor's Curse.
In such an environment, human emotions and resentment would only grow stronger—hatred, anger, despair, sadness—all things that nurtured the desire for revenge, the very path villains walked.
Aaron shook the thoughts from his head before summoning Skull.
"Answer me. How did I survive under those conditions in the western palace?"
Skull was startled by the sudden question, but he decided to answer. He sighed before speaking.
"Because you had a maid who took care of everything you needed."
Silence filled the room, allowing Aaron to process his shock at this unexpected information. It had indeed been unnatural for a child to survive alone without care, so Aaron had assumed he was abandoned after the age of five. But having a maid made things much clearer.
The most important question now was: where was this maid? And why had she disappeared after his transmigration into this novel?
Skull understood the questions swirling in Aaron's mind and decided to answer before he could ask.
"After it was discovered that you had been kidnapped and sold at the auction house, the blame fell on your maid. She was imprisoned under charges of negligence and poor service."
Aaron smiled mockingly at the situation. They were the ones who abandoned him and neglected him, yet when the consequences came, they threw the blame onto someone else and made her the scapegoat to preserve their reputation before the other nobles.
"They didn't kill her, they imprisoned her. That means she's in a prison within the palace, right?"
Skull laughed with amusement, astonished by Aaron's intelligence. He had always thought of him as nothing more than a ridiculous and clumsy master, yet once again Aaron surprised him with his cleverness. First when he broke through the wall without magic, and now when he deduced something only the palace officials knew, without any evidence.
'Of course. This is a fantasy world revolving around the heroes' journey to defeat the villain, and naturally the villain's backstory would only appear in the form of a short flashback, at most a single page long.'
Jake might not have been deeply knowledgeable about novels, but fantasy had always been tied to anime and various games, so he possessed enough experience to survive peacefully in this world.
"Skull, what do you think about doing a good deed?"
.....
Amid the dense forest, gentle breezes brushed against the green leaves, while the blue sky was decorated with scattered clouds of various shapes.
Darius sat beside a tree, listening quietly to the sounds of nature, his features relaxed beneath the golden sunlight.
Rosalia rested her head on his lap, enjoying the sensation of his hand gently stroking her head. Every now and then, she let out a catlike purr as proof of her satisfaction.
He looked toward her with his black eyes before speaking in a rough, husky voice carrying a trace of warmth.
"It seems our little one has no intention of returning."
The serpent slowly raised her head, her eyes glaring at him with obvious displeasure.
"Why are you thinking about him now? Just forget about him."
A light chuckle escaped him at her opposing attitude. Ever since she had seen Aaron, she had complained endlessly and refused to see him again.
"I think we should bring back a little puppy."
Rosalia sighed irritably before saying,
"Then it's hunting time."