Translator: Kimmy

Editor: Sasha_00

⋅⋅⋅⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽‌༓‌☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅⋅⋅⋅

Diego Siraq Cartul brushed off the heavy pile of dust on his head.

He brushed off the remaining dust and mineral pieces on his servant uniform and glared at the lunatic that made him go through this.

But his eyes were teary from the dust so it didn’t look as deadly as he wanted.

“Can’t this be done by magic?! Why do I have to install these magical energy explosives by hand?! I could die from this!”

“Ah, then you’re just making an honorable sacrifice for your nation. Bravo! A crown prince that died to save his people. You’ll remain in history for that, wouldn’t you like that?”

“This is just murder! How is this an honorable sacrifice, huh?!”

“So, I guess I’m your friend now?”

“Your grace!”

People wearing ragged clothes stared at the two.

Their eyes were spiritless and their clothes were filthy and damaged. They stared vacantly into the mine.

The mine that was rumbling down was the 3rd mine the two men destroyed today and it was also a mine that those people had been enslaved in.

“Until when do I have to do this?!”

“Hey.”

“Your grace!”

“You got some balls to never address me with honorifics.”

Maximilien smirked cunningly. His smile shined like the starlight under the sun.

Diego thought that he could even sell his soul if he could punch that handsome face just once.

“Well, let’s see. From the places that were confirmed, 5 more remain. We still need to go there.”

Oh $%^&*/

A vile word escaped from Diego’s lips.

Maximilien obviously didn’t even acknowledge that so Diego decided to stop tiring himself out.

There were still many things to do.

He took a look around.

“Isn’t that a Leonharguese?”

“Oh, right. Aren’t you half Siraqi? Why can’t you speak Leonharguese? You are really a useless burden to bring around.”

Maximilien reproached Diego brutally while digging his ear like a scoundrel.

No one would be able to tell that he was a duke of a great empire let alone a sorcerer.

“That’s absurd! The Siraq principality is so far from Leonhargue! And I was born and raised in Cartul! I don’t even speak ancient Siraqi that well!”

“Wow, the world is advancing so fast. A servant speaking like that to his master.”

“Your grace!”

Diego obeyed him but he was still frustrated.

Despite being born half Siraqi, he was raised to be Cartul’s prince, not Siraq’s.

Even the Grand Duke Siraq who was his father and the previous ruler of Siraq, decided with Sabina to only speak Cartulian to not confuse Diego.

Well, Maximilien– The God of Destruction’s favorite servant and quite simply put, an asshole– couldn’t care any less about that.

It only mattered that this rotten bean sprout hair-colored burden didn’t learn Leonharguese.

When in fact even Maximilien didn’t know Leonhargeuse himself.

Maximilien ignored Diego’s grumbles and shook his aching shoulders.

The pain in his shoulder and stress were getting worse because he had overworked himself to make magic energy explosives in such a short time.

His body had lost a significant amount of magical energy so he was more tired than usual.

If he had more time and budget it wouldn’t be this tolling but as long as the Chancellor was the one in charge of assigning the deadline and budget, it was near to impossible to convince him.

The Chancellor was not even a psychic but he always accurately estimated how long the immoral duke would take and spend.

Maximilien always thought that ability must be some kind of unfound magic.

He wondered for a second why he was working so hard when he wasn’t getting any bonus for this but changed his mind when he thought of the old noblemen of the West.

I’ll gladly do this as long as I can give them a big ‘f*** you’ in their face next time I see them.

Maximilien leaned his head backwards and smiled.

His dark desires were making him emit such a black and evil aura that the rescued people who wanted to thank him hesitated in approaching him.

The immoral duke Maximilien Rumilesa Gardelli was a Rumilesa afterall.

A few confident ladies approached him, enticed by his beautiful face but ran away faster than Diego could ever after hearing his full name.

Diego stood beside Maximilien wishing he could run away like they did and checked the people’s names with tearful eyes.

Actually, he was really crying.

These is not tears from my suffering, these are tears from the dust.

I am not crying because I feel sorry for myself right now.

I’m not. Truly.

“Sniff, How did I, Diego, end up…”

“Hey, Didi. Are you slacking off?”

“My name is Diego!”

“Oh, please. It’s Didi.”

“Diego!”

Cartul’s crown prince yelled back while holding back his tears and continued comparing the people’s names with the list of missing persons.

Pitiably, Diego looked more like a sad official than a crown prince of a nation.

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

The steelhead fountain was not the most popular fountain in fountain square.

It looked grand because of the delicacy of the crafting but a bull’s butt on a fountain was so attention-drawing that no one really stayed around it.

That meant, it was the perfect place for Eva, Brigitta, and Karlos to meet.

Since it was a place with less people compared to the other places during the harvest festival.

Karlos even brought Eva’s first novel, <Undelievered Letter> in his leather bag.

The novel was wrapped with his hand-knit book cover that the Chancellor disapproved so much of.

The Emperor’s heart was drumming.

It was especially hard to get his book because it was one of the few books that had the banner written ‘Levonah Publishing Company’s 3rd Maidenhair Tree award winner!’ around it.

Today was the day he was going to accomplish his goal of getting the author’s signature on his most cherished book and to have ‘To Karl’ written on it by her.

When Karlos frowned from nervousness the people around the fountain started moving further, emptying the place more than it already was.

Karlos shrugged when he realized that and decided to think about the things that happened earlier.

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

Since it was an important case regarding the West, Karlos considered that he may not be able to go out tonight but the Chancellor– who knows about the importance of the case more than anyone– allowed him to leave, actually, it could be said that he chased him out.

There was still an hour left until the arranged time but Glenn, who would normally scold him for not focusing, took Karlos’s pen and documents.

The Emperor genuinely was concerned for Glenn but Glenn smirked teasingly.

“Don’t you have to go to the fountain square? You have important plans there, your majesty.”

“No, there’s still a lot of ti… Wait, were you spying on me?! I didn’t even tell you that, how do you know?!”

“You think there is a time I don’t spy on you? You should arrive earlier than the arranged time on a date. You can’t let a lady wait in this cold weather. Why are you still here? Wasn’t your ideal future to become a slug? Was I too incompetent to notice?”

“Did you really spy on me this whole time?!”

“There’s nothing surprising about that.”

“It is most definitely surprising! This is an invasion of privacy! I am filing a complaint about this!”

“Denied.”

Glenn ignored the Emperor’s rightful protest and even proceeded to take his chair.

He could read the dumbfoundedness the Emperor was feeling right now but he ignored that as well and ordered the servant to change the water in the bathtub.

“It could get troublesome if others know about this so today you are resting in the Chancellor residence tonight because you are exhausted. But you still have to return to the Sun Palace so you must be back by midnight.”

“I’m not a young maiden who lost her glass slippers…”

“What are you talking about?”

“Then that makes you the fairy godmother, oh that’s repulsive…”

“What gibberish is this?”

Karlos made a reference to the old classic novel but the Chancellor didn’t take any notice of it.

Instead he forced him out of the office and into the bathroom where Karlos got washed up.

Glenn handed him two paper flowers.

It was quite a delicately made white rose.

It shimmered elegantly whenever the light reflected off of it.

“A paper flower accessory?”

Karlos observed the beautiful accessory and turned it over.

It was shaped like a women’s brooch.

Glenn kindly explained after watching the Emperor look at it like it was some mythical object.

“It’s a commemoratory flower symbolizing the Harvest festival. Before, it was made with real flowers and decorated with gems and gold but now the trend is to use paper flowers. It’s cheaper, easier to decorate, and easier to burn. It’s meant to be gifted to people one is close to.”

⋅⋅⋅⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽‌༓‌☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅⋅⋅⋅

Report mistakes or chat with us in discord!

https://discord.gg/E2esz6h