RGS Volume 5 Part 8

Something important?

As he was about to ask, the servant who had gone to the stream returned with a rustling sound.

“Everything is ready.”

If it weren’t for his breathless voice running in a hurry, the Commander of the Royal Guards might have turned his head away, thinking he was a completely different person.

“Huh? What happened to your hair?”

The Commander of the Royal Guards pointed at Abel’s hair, which had turned black, with a puzzled expression on his face.

“To avoid being caught just in case.”

Abel’s face, smiling brightly, was smudged with soot. With his black hair and the stains hiding his appearance, Abel had quickly transformed into an errand boy whom no one would pay attention to. Kin, carefully scrutinizing him, nodded seemingly satisfied.

“You did very well……ind-“

“Hmph, well done indeed!”

The Commander of the Royal Guards once again interrupted.

“A servant disguising himself to avoid being caught? Does he think he’s His Majesty’s Regas or something?”

He was right.

The sudden revelation of the truth left Abel and Kin unable to open their mouths. Kin, in particular, seemed more shocked.

Had this guy always been this sharp?

Then, as if he were using his lifetime’s worth of intuition, the Commander of the Royal Guards immediately noticed Kin’s change.

“Sir Kin, what’s going on? Why are you suddenly silent? Are you hiding something from me?”

“Ahem, it’s nothing like that.”

“No, there is.”

The Commander of the Royal Guards took a step back, alternately looking at Kin and Abel with narrowed eyes.

“Sir Kin, you keep trying to protect this person and the fact that he has to disguise himself just in case for this task. It’s as if you’re trying to hide someone precious from the public eye. Sir Kin, be honest with me.”

Gulp.

Kin glanced at Abel and took a step forward.

“Look, you’re overthinking this…”

“Don’t think of deceiving me! Who is he? Do I need to say it for you to admit it?”

“Lower your voice. I’m not deceiving you.”

“You did deceive me! How dare a man with a wife walk around with a lover by his side so openly!”

…What, lover?

Abel witnessed Kin as if a mystery of letters appeared on his face. However, to the Commander of the Royal Guards, Kin’s twisted expression simply made him look like a cunning middle-aged man with a much younger lover.

“Still, you have a conscience, so you thought disguising his appearance would make it any better?”

“Hey.”

Kin finally opened his mouth and let out a single word.

“You, go.”

“What? If I’m going to the war profiteer, you need to give me the letter.”

“No. Just go home. Please.”

⊹˚. ♡.𖥔 ݁ ˖ ⊹˚. ♡.𖥔 ݁ ˖

[The situation is very bad. The emperor is not poisoned. It seems he has been hiding it under the pretext of war until his power is completed on the Dragon’s Day. Fortunately, there is still a month left, but the danger remains the same. Who do you think he will first eliminate when he arrives in the palace? Before Duke Truyde falls to the emperor and the secret of the black potion disappears, we must uncover that secret first. The person sent with this letter is the Regas whom His Majesty showed interest in. We will send him before Truyde discovers and eliminates him. Please make sure he can see the past. Keep in mind that I am the only one in the Marquis’ side.]

Keep in mind?

Marquis Yan twisted his lips as he felt the rattling of the departing carriage.

The one least trustworthy among the King’s Heart is you, Norhox.

However, he couldn’t tear up the letter sent by Norhox. He also couldn’t drive away the one sent by Norhox either.

A person with golden hair and green eyes, fitting Truyde’s taste perfectly, trembled with fear and kept his head down the entire time. Even if he was pretending to be the emperor’s Regas on Norhox’s orders, he couldn’t be immediately exposed, doubted, and driven out. As Norhox said, the situation had gotten worse.

The emperor is not poisoned. It was like realizing a monster had crept up behind them while they were too distracted fighting among themselves. He needed to see the emperor, who would arrive at the palace in the evening, with his own eyes to determine what should be prioritized. In the worst case, it would mean joining forces with the entire King’s Heart.

However, if it wasn’t the worst case, the situation wasn’t so bad. There might be an opportunity to watch the emperor deal with Truyde with pleasure. Norhox, frightened, thought that if Truyde fell, they all would fall too, but that was nonsense. The important thing was the black potion. Not Truyde.

And even in the worst case, it would still be just that—the worst scenario. It would be a case where the emperor’s power was so great that even the black potion couldn’t handle it, and they would all have to join forces. However, the Marquis dismissed this thought. If the black potion didn’t work, the emperor wouldn’t have spent 12 years fleeing from it in the first place.

That meant the black potion still worked. Therefore, the Emperor would surely try to eliminate Truyde first, and he could take pleasure in watching it. But before that, he needed to learn the black potion’s recipe.

Was it Erei? What if by any chance that guy was indeed the real Regas?

The Marquis decided he would test a few things about him after returning from the palace and closed his eyes for a moment. While his carriage left the mansion, three people entered from the back, claiming to have come to apply as knights. They were guided to the back door and seated to wait.

“There might be Truyde’s men hidden among them…”

[T/N: In the above sentence, Kin talk both formally and informally.]

“Yes, that could be possible. I can get close to the servants, so I’ll check them thoroughly.”

“All right… But it’s dangerous, so don’t get too close…”

Kin still found it awkward to use informal speech with Abel, so his tone was stiff. However, there was someone who looked at Kin’s effort with disdain.

“You worry about the servant as if he were a lover.”

Kin glared at the Commander of the Royal Guards, who quickly added with a smug look.

“Ah, yes. I know. He’s not your lover; you just disguised him because his appearance is too outstanding, and you were worried someone might fall for him.”

This was something Kin had repeatedly said before coming here. The Commander of the Royal Guards had followed to inform Ashler, whom he would meet at the royal palace, about the situation at the Marquis’ household. Meanwhile, he just ended up nitpicking on him.

To the Commander of the Royal Guards, Kin’s words only sounded like excuses. After all, with more than half of his face swollen and bruised, who would fall for his unrecognizable face?

“That’s why we need to be wary of someone like you.”

“Someone like me?!”

When the Commander of the Royal Guards shouted, Kin quickly shot him with a sharp glance. The Commander of the Royal Guards looked around and sat down, but he still felt wronged and glared slightly at Abel.

“Don’t worry. I will be leaving soon, but even before that, I would never fall for Sir Kin’s servant. Besides, I have a fiancée back home. Moreover, he is a man, isn’t he? Do you think I like men?”

“Yes.”

“…”

“You like His Majesty.”

Kin openly voiced the suspicion which is also shared by the other commanders. Then, Abel, who had been quietly listening from the side, gently interjected. He had thought Kin was unusually harsh on the Commander of the Royal Guards all along, and he felt like what he had just said seemed to be the reason.

But why?

“Um, is it wrong for him, as a subject, to like His Majesty?”

Kin frowned slightly at Abel’s innocent question. How should he explain this properly? While he was contemplating, the Commander of the Royal Guards expressed his frustration first.

“That’s right. It’s only natural for a subject to like His Majesty. Even Sir Kin’s servant knows that.”

“That may be true, but there’s something impure about you.”

“Me? In what way?”

“You blush whenever His Majesty merely speaks to you.”

“Th-that’s because my heart flutters.”

The Commander of the Royal Guards’ gaze turned to the floor. Abel’s face also turned pale.

M-my heart flutters too?

However, Kin was too busy berating the Commander of the Royal Guards to notice him.

“Moreover, if you even slightly touch His Majesty’s body, you don’t wash that part and just giggle by yourself for days. It’s unpleasant.”

“T-that’s because the part that was touched tingles…”

Tingles!

Abel’s mind went blank. When he kissed Karas, didn’t the tingling sensation overwhelm his entire body with excitement?! While Abel was in shock, Kin’s angry outburst continued in his ears.

“Tingles? How dare you reveal such shameless desires to him?”

Shameless desires!

Abel was overcome with guilt.

Yes, come to think of it, the prince was innocent, but I got excited alone and got lost myself in the kiss.

Flinch.

Thinking about it, it was indeed shameless. I’m such a dirty person!

Of course, Karas was a thousand times dirtier. But poor Abel, not knowing this, was tormented by the belated unnecessary self-reflection. Meanwhile, Kin, scolding the Commander of the Royal Guards more severely than expected, quickly turned his head to Abel.

“This is it. This guy’s impurity…”

As he was about to confirm the impurity of this guy’s mind, he was met face to face which turned deathly pale like a corpse.

“Forgive me for being impure!”

“Pardon?”

Kin was so surprised that he responded politely, but Abel, who had once been consumed by shameless desires, eventually knelt on the floor.

“I’m sorry. Please forgive me.”

“No, what are you talking about…?”

When Kin was startled and tried to sit him back down, the Commander of the Royal Guards, who was sobbing next to him after being scolded, whispered discreetly.

“It looks like that person has impure feelings towards Sir Kin?”

What?!

Kin looked down at Abel in shock.

Lord Regas has impure fe, feelings towards me?!

…Well, I guess I am still quite attractive. I’m good at fighting too, and I’m cool.

No, that can’t be.

Kin quickly regained his composure and shook his head.

However, on one side, suspicions started creeping in him.

Come to think of it, hasn’t Abel been glancing at him since yesterday?

He thought it was just to keep an eye on him. But once he started to suspect, it felt like he was indeed being watched with feelings.

Of course, Abel had feelings. The sudden kindness made him fearfully wonder if he had gone mad. However, all this would merely fuel Kin’s misunderstanding at the moment. Well, maybe his heart did flutter a bit…

No, no! That person is His Majesty’s Regas!

Kin quickly composed himself and sat Abel down.

“Ahem, I think there’s some misunderstanding. Ahem, let’s discuss this matter later.”

Abel nodded with his head bowed like a sinner, but for some reason, Kin couldn’t look at him properly and stood up from his seat. The person from the Marquis’ household who would hire Kin as a knight was approaching, but Kin’s attention kept oddly drifting toward Abel.

Could he really like me? Ahem, that would be troublesome.

As if to remind him that people need to sleep when they are tired, Kin’s delusions, which were fueled by several sleepless nights, broke through the barriers of his rationality and spread throughout his body. Despite his insistence that it would be troublesome, Abel’s beauty, which he had never properly noticed before, kept surfacing in his mind.

No, I shouldn’t be thinking like this. From now on, I need to hide as a knight in the Marquis’ household and accomplish important tasks. In order to do that, I have to rely on that person and spend time here alone together…

Huh?

Alone together?!

Kin’s face turned slightly red for a moment. And then he heard the voice of the person who was going to hire him.

“Do you want to be a knight here? Ha, get lost, old man.”

Kin was rejected.