'What the hell did he just say?'
At the insolent words, King Richard Lionell III couldn't help but gaze at his youngest son with an incredulous expression.
Like all his sons, the boy was handsome, if frail-looking, with him having skin as white as paper and even whiter hair.
The only spot of color on the 13th prince's face was the purple eyes with dark shadows beneath them, as if he hadn't had a good night's sleep his entire life, and blood crusted in the middle of his forehead.
This child, born from a drunken incident with a maid, was someone the king never thought about, as his birth and presence caused immense strain in his relationship with the queen and other concubines.
He intentionally received little to no reports about him and saw him only once a year for a few minutes during the required birthday dinners, and never again.
The boy wasn't at banquets, didn't train, and had no connections.
For a utilitarian person such as King Richard, he was effectively useless and a waste of the food and clothing spent to keep him alive.
As a matter of fact, the only reason he stayed at the dinner for longer than usual was that 16 was the age of majority.
The mark of a child transitioning into adulthood, which meant he could be shipped off for a marriage of convenience or used as an alliance placeholder.
Apart from that, he might as well not exist, and the 13th prince usually acted like it.
But now, after the incident today where he should be cowering and pleading for his life, here he was, sitting across from the King as if he were an equal, and staring at him demandingly, as if he expected his words to be obeyed.
As if there was no other option.
The king couldn't believe it!
Had hitting his head on the pillar scrambled his brain, and any sense remaining been destroyed, or had he been replaced by an imposter when the King wasn't looking?
The crusted blood on his pale skin certainly indicated that it was the original prince, but it was such a stark difference from his earlier behavior at the dinner that the king was frozen for a second.
Then, his aura, cultivated by years of swordsmanship that culminated in him becoming a swordmaster, burst out to suppress his son for his insolence.
But unlike earlier, when Caellum had fallen to his knees shivering, this time around, apart from clenching his hands in his pocket, there was no other reaction.
Those purple eyes stared him down without the intention of backing down.
Interesting.
And completely unacceptable.
"Ḱ̷͍Ṇ̸͊E̶̒͜Ḛ̵̄L̵̨̆"
The king's aura erupted, and that single command cracked not only the ground around the chair, but the table beside it as well.
At the King's threat, Caellum blinked before clicking his tongue regretfully, but he knelt carefully on the ground while keeping his hand on the pocket watch.
'Was this the aura of a swordsman he was seeing in the memories? How interesting.'
For some reason, each time the king used his aura to pressure him, the pocket watch would heat up, and when he held it tightly, it would dissipate with the feeling of something bubbling up and pushing back.
He truly wanted to examine it and figure out what was happening, but for now, he had to deal with the King.
How best to handle this…
"You have one chance to answer me properly. Otherwise, not only will you be becoming well acquainted with the dungeon, you'll be heading to the execution grounds in chains at first light tomorrow. Do you know who poisoned me, or did you lie?" The king warned him.
"It wasn't a lie. I know who tried to poison you. However…" Caellum paused to shrug, "It didn't seem like you cared at all about the poisoning, so I thought we might as well skip over that part and make a different deal that was more beneficial to both of us." Caellum explained.
To be honest, he thought this conversation was a waste of time.
Only a fool would actually believe that the 13th prince tried to poison the King at his own birthday dinner, the one time a year to see and speak to the king.
Not to talk of the stupidity of the action, where would the 13th prince, who had nothing, even get poison?
This was all just some stupid political maneuvering with Caellum as the sacrificial pawn, no, even worse than that, since people cared if their pawns died.
Not a single person cared if Caellum disappeared off the face of the planet, and there was no way the original Caellum would jeopardize his already precarious position.
If a person couldn't evaluate even this much and believe that the 13th prince tried to poison the king, then Caellum had a bridge, an island, and a building to sell them.
Hearing the confidence behind Caellum's words, the king felt a tinge of curiosity overtake his anger.
"What makes you say that?"
"Firstly, you didn't move after your taste tester perished. Sure, you called guards to take me away, but you didn't clear the room, you didn't call a physician to help, and you didn't even dispose of the body or question the staff who prepared the food; everything continued as normal, with everyone immediately putting all the blame on me while you watched silently. It tells me one of these things: that you were aware of the poison in the meal and played along, or that you orchestrated the poisoning yourself, or the results of the poisoning are inconsequential, and you're willing to let the situation play out to the benefit of the poisoner. Either way, the posion wasn't a big deal to you." Caellum explained calmly.
He had some other thoughts, but there was no need to share them at this time.
The basics would do.
"Oh?"
Hearing the surprisingly sound reasoning, the king leaned back in his chair with slightly raised brows.
To say he was a bit impressed was putting it mildly because even though the conclusion was something even a child could reach, this child of his had never shown such insight before.
He usually just cried and pleaded when things went wrong or if he was noticed.
Although he wasn't happy with the lack of submissiveness being shown, he was willing to play along to see how far this young prince had thought things through.
If that head of his worked a bit, there might be some use to him after all.
"Then why did you say you knew exactly who did it?"
"Because I do. Whether I can do anything about them is a different matter, which is why you need to make a deal with me."
"I need?" the king repeated in a dark voice, causing the air around Caellum to begin pressing him down and suffocating him once more.
But like earlier, he simply clutched the pocket watch, and it no longer affected him, although his hand felt like it was burning.
"Yes, need. I will give you the evidence to help you strike a blow to the person who 'tried to poison you', and in return, I would like to request a birthday present from you." Caellum explained calmly.
'Strike a blow and not kill.'
Did this kid know what he was talking about?
At the sudden change of topic, the king released the pressure once more and tapped his fingers on the arm of his chair.
"A birthday present?"
"Yes."
"For helping me strike a blow to the person who tried to poison me."
"Yes."
"Such baseless confidence. You…do you even know who the poisoner is?"
Rather than give a direct answer, Caellum smiled and gave a cryptic answer.
"Lots above me, one below you?"
'A person with a rank that was higher than Caellum's and one below the kings?'
There was only one person in this whole palace who fit the criteria.
For the first time in his life, the king met Caellum's eyes and smiled.
A cold smile that chilled the bones.
"Decent. What do you want?"
"Two things. Firstly, the right to choose my own attendants and servants for my palace."
"That's not my jurisdiction."
It was the Queen's jurisdiction to manage everything within the palace, and the only person who could overrule that was the King.
Now that he was in this body, Caellum had no plans to allow any outside force to spy on him if he could help it.
And the first step was to clean out all the rats.
"I'm aware, but I am an adult now. I want to manage my own palace with my own people. There is already a precedent set by the 1st Princess and Second Prince, so I have full confidence in the King's authority to grant my request."
"Now you have faith in my authority? Weren't you doubting it previously?"
Caellum simply smiled at the King's sarcastic words.
The king tapped his fingers methodically on the armchair before slowly nodding.
"I'll think about it. Secondly?"
"Secondly. I want the right to attend Emberfield Academy." Caellum announced boldly.
The king immediately stopped tapping his fingers, and the pressure pressing down on his body suddenly came back, causing Caellum to groan before his fingers found the pocket watch once more.
"Do you know what you're asking?"
Meeting the king's glowing red eyes, Caellum gave him a small smile, his canines flashing before disappearing.
"Naturally."
After all, he had no plans on living as the pitiful 13th prince.
Caellum wanted to be the King.