Chapter 892

He’d already been wondering if this really was the same idiot Kiole from before, but now that he saw that expression, it was hard to just brush it off.

‘It’s not just that the Crown Prince’s condition has remained strange... it feels like something more happened.’

Before they continued talking, Yuder figured he needed to confirm something. Crossing his arms, he opened his mouth.

“You. Did something else happen with the Crown Prince?”

“W-What? Why are you asking that all of a sudden?! I told you already, His Highness’s condition is—!”

“If this were the old you, you would’ve already thrown a fit because I referred to him simply as ‘the Crown Prince.’ You would've gone on and on about how disrespectful I was. And sure, you do seem to genuinely want to know what’s going on with him, but you don’t exactly look like someone worried about him. More importantly, you’re the kind of guy who wouldn’t come all the way here unless someone summoned you—so the fact that you came on your own is already suspicious.”

“......”

“Thinking it through, my conclusion is that something else definitely happened on the day of the hailstorm. If I’m wrong, then say so.”

“...Hic.”

Kiole accidentally let out a stifled hiccup as he opened his mouth. Clearly, Yuder’s words had hit the mark dead on.

“Y-You weren’t even there... How the hell did you—?!”

‘How could I not know, when you’re showing it all on your face and in your attitude?’

Kiole probably saw Yuder Aile as more of a monster than ever before, but from Yuder’s perspective, Kiole was just too easy to read. Sure, his vibe had shifted a little from before, but in the end, Kiole was still Kiole.

“Sigh. Yeah. Something did happen that day. It’s too humiliating to say out loud, but...”

“No. I’m more surprised that you even still have the capacity to feel humiliation, so cut the nonsense and just tell me.”

“Y-You...! One day, I swear I’ll see that arrogant mouth of yours get what it deserves!”

Kiole shouted with a face full of rage, then let out a soul-crushing sigh and covered his face with one hand. Through the fingers covering his eyes, a tiny voice slipped out.

“...He hit me.”

“What?”

“I said, I got hit...”

“...By the Crown Prince? You?”

“Who the hell else would’ve hit me?!”

Honestly, someone like Kiole could easily overpower not just the new Cavalry recruits but even most of the knights in the Peleta Order. But being able to overpower someone and actually being hit were two very different things—especially for the son of House Diarca.

Yuder, who feared nothing, had no problem laying hands on Kiole, but others weren’t the same. And as long as the Crown Prince was backed by House Diarca, even if Kiole looked like the lesser of the two, no one would actually dare treat him poorly.

Unless they were blackmailing him with something ridiculous, like calling him a sodomite as they had before. But to have laid hands on him directly...

“How exactly did it happen?”

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

“That day, before we met the Cavalry and escaped the temple, His Highness had already regained consciousness. And of course—naturally—he tried to go find that scammer bastard. I told him it was hailing, that the area was dangerous, and pleaded with him to return quickly, but he wouldn’t listen. Then he started doubting me... and slapped me...”

Kiole trailed off and bit his lip before speaking again.

“...And then he said he would never forgive me unless I knelt and begged for forgiveness, and kept kicking me in the legs... Sigh.”

“And you just stood there and took it?”

“What was I supposed to do?! He’s still the person I serve!......”

Kiole exploded in frustration—but his voice lacked its usual strength.

“Besides, he... he was brainwashed... And I was the only one there. I was his escort knight...”

Even with his face half-covered and head bowed, the humiliation and confusion Kiole had felt at the time radiated from him.

‘Even considering that Kachian was under brainwashing... A slap and repeated kicks to the leg. No wonder Kiole was so shaken.’

A slap and a kick to the leg might not cause serious physical injury, but in terms of intent to humiliate and trample someone—it was quite effective. Yuder had seen the Emperor Kachian in his previous life lash out at attendants this way when his nerves were at their peak, so it wasn’t hard to imagine.

Attendants could be hit like that without protest because they were low-ranking, but Kiole wasn’t.

‘Aside from me, there’s probably no one else who’s ever laid a finger on him.’

Kiole wasn’t exactly a kind soul, but he had sincerely tried to fulfill his duties as an escort knight. That idiotic guy had even worked with Yuder to try to protect the Crown Prince and his father from the threat of brainwashing. Whether or not that cooperation had been all that effective was debatable, but his intent was genuine.

Up to now, Kachian had been threatening Kiole with the supposed knowledge that he was a sodomite, treating that as leverage. Insisting that Kiole follow his orders or cover for his escape from the palace could be brushed off as the behavior of a brainwashed, misguided Crown Prince.

But if, in return for risking his life to rescue the Crown Prince from a dangerous temple, Kiole received nothing but humiliation and distrust—

‘Anyone would have their eyes opened after that.’

Now Yuder finally understood why Kiole had dragged himself all the way here.

He wanted confirmation.

He needed to know whether the Crown Prince’s condition could be justified as brainwashing or not.

To figure out, through that day’s events, what he should do going forward.

And maybe even something beyond that.

Yuder took a deep breath and spoke.

“Even if you’re an escort knight, getting hit like that by your lord isn’t normal.”

“......”

“So how did it feel to you? If I told you that the Crown Prince still seems brainwashed, would you just accept that and go back satisfied?”

“I...”

Kiole hesitated for a long while. Then finally, in a tiny voice, he muttered,

“...I started thinking that maybe, just maybe... His Highness isn’t the kind of person our family always thought he was. That’s why I wanted to hear a definite answer from you...”

“......”

“...I don’t know anymore. What he did this time was just too...”

Kiole bit his lip hard as he struggled to continue.

“Anyway, I owe you all a debt of life after what happened, so I told my father everything honestly after leaving the original lodgings post-hailstorm. Of course, he was furious. I’ll probably be dragged back to the capital soon... but before that, I had to see you. That’s why I came.”

“......”

“I told you everything! So now you tell me something helpful for once!”

Yuder looked at the red-faced Kiole yelling at him and thought:

‘...Could this idiot actually be the key to breaking the bond between Crown Prince Kachian and House Diarca?’

The Kachian la Orr Yuder remembered was sly and tenacious. He was someone who’d endured for years, playing the puppet of House Diarca while secretly gathering enough strength to overturn everything once he sat on the Emperor’s throne. The Cavalry—and Yuder himself—had been one of the pieces in the power he gathered in secret.

In this life, his early attempt to escape ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) House Diarca had gone horribly wrong, throwing everything into chaos. But eventually, he accepted Kiole as his escort knight, and they appeared to reconcile. House Diarca and Kachian needed each other to maintain their current grip on power.

Even if Emperor Keillusa regained his health and Kishiar opposed them, as long as House Diarca held the “legitimate” Crown Prince title, they would always be at an advantage.

But if their unity crumbled from within before any external blow—

Just like the Sage and Naham, who had built the Star of Nagran but ultimately became enemies and destroyed each other—

‘Then they’d collapse just as easily from the slightest external tremor.’

Despite having everything to gain from staying united, if the key figures in that alliance began to deeply distrust and resent each other...

Then perhaps Kiole da Diarca, of all people, could end up being that key.

‘...Well, betting on this guy is probably just wishful thinking, though.’

Yuder gathered his thoughts and opened his mouth.