In the shadows

And although it wasn't the answer that I was searching for, I did get something from the family records. And it was the death of Nosir's mother and about twenty odd concubines of the emperor when the enemy nation invaded Albius. And that was the event that led to the succession of the current crown prince's mother as the Queen and the official recognition of the crown prince as such.

It is said that the emperor fought valiantly in that war. He even went to the front lines to give all the soldiers motivation. And in commencing the attack, he forgot about the backline which led to the enemies invading the palace leading them to kill the then Queen. Or, so it says.

However, I feel like there are several plot holes in this bullshit tale. What, you ask? Well, first of all, the Queen or the Empress—wait a minute! Why is this place a kingdom and the person in the highest position called the Emperor? I mean, everything else makes sense; like, Queen of the Albius Kingdom. That is a title that makes actual sense. Same with the Grand Duke. But what's up with the Emperor? Although I should be hell bent on finding an answer, I was just too curious to find the answer for that.

And for some reason, none of the books seemed to give a satisfactory answer on this topic. Like, they talked about the most random they could find about, but they never talked about this. I mean, they talked about the thirteenth prince having a sixth finger, but they didn't deem this important. I wonder why? Was this a plot hole made by the author? Most probably. But I guess there's no fault in fact checking, I guess.

And that's why I made my way towards Jerome. And he seemed quite elated to see me, by the looks of it.

"You're back! I heard that you were cooped up in the library for quite some time now, so it's a nice change to see you out like this." He smiled as he said that.

"I mean, I should try learning something while I'm at it, right? Anyhow, you seem happy. ANd when I say happy, you look really happy." I spoke.

"Well, there are a lot of your servants eager to meet you and all. I feel like they are all looking to confess or something." He replied.

Ha! It seemed like the plan worked. They are gonna confess now and convert themselves into my puppets. But I just wonder… Won't their current master catch wind of it? I mean, think about it. Around twenty odd spies were killed and the rest weren't. Wouldn't they naturally be suspicious towards the other spies because they weren't dead as well? If that's the case, then what's the point in trying to convert them into my puppets? Should I just kill them right now or something? Nah, that's just a waste of energy, I guess. You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna convert them into my puppets, then make their previous owners suspect them and make them do the killing. Less blood in my hand that way, I guess.

"Hmm, I guess we should go have a meeting with them then. Oh, and by the way, you're just a doctor, right? How come you got this much of a hold in the place, dude?" I asked. I mean, I was honestly surprised by the fact that literally every single one of my servants went to him to talk about this shit. I mean, is there no butler or head maid in the household? Right… I killed those guys.

"I'm the Grand Duke's close confidant. Of course they will come to me, especially seeing how I was the only person close to you throughout what happened earlier." Jerome replied in a way that made total sense.

"I see. You do know that there's a butler position left wide open for you to take, right?" I asked.

"Nah, that's too small of a title for me to accept, if you ask me." He replied.

"Well then, what about the Grand Duke's personal advisor or something. Like, you do the same thing that you're doing right now, but you get paid handsomely for doing that." I replied.

"Hmm, but that would mean that I would officially get associated with you. And that would in turn mean that I would lose intel from all the other places. And in the grand scheme of things, that wouldn't be advantageous to you in any sorts. I mean, the only way that I'll officially associate with you is if you end up being the Emperor or something, but that isn't possible because of obvious reasons." He sighed.

"And what if I tell you that I have intentions to become the Emperor?" I asked, which made Jerome turn his head in surprise.

"Wait, are you saying what I think that you are saying?" He asked, trying to hold in his excitement.

"Maybe?" I shrugged as I said that. I mean, if I got to survive in this world, I guess the best and the worst way to do it would be to risk it all and try to become the damn Emperor of this place. And I plan to do just that.

"Oh, man! I don't know who the hell poisoned you, but the fact that you somehow changed your decision after that makes me wanna thank that person." He spoke.

"Well, I guess that attempt is like one of the reasons, if you ask me. I mean, they're aiming for my life anyway, so might as well become the Emperor and piss them off, right?" I chuckled as I said that.

"And that's exactly how it should be." Jerome gave a thumbs up at that point. "And now that you have entered the fray of people vying for the throne, I'll make sure to support you from the shadows." He smiled as he said that.

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