Hypocrite

"Ha, I'm getting goosebumps for some reason." I couldn't help but mumble that as I got off the carriage.

"Well, it's your first time here after a very long time. So, of course you would be nervous about all of this." Jerome spoke.

"Nervous? Well, rather than that being the case, I'm hella excited to see how the people inside the palace are." I replied.

"Hmm, it would be great if you kept your expectations as low as you can because there's literally no one on your side over there." Jerome replied.

"Ah, you're taking it wrong. I'm aware that everyone over there is against me. I'm just excited to see who is the one that hates me the most and all that." I smiled as I said that.

"Oh, is that so? Well, then there's a long list of people. So, don't worry about that." Jerome replied.

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"Well, you definitely weren't wrong about what you said." I spoke as I looked around and saw all those people staring at me.

It was as if I came to the enemy camp or something even though this is basically homecoming if you ask me. And that just means that every single person surrounding me right now are the current queen's men. Like, now that I think about it, I should've brought an army of soldiers or something. After all, if these people happened to kill me, the news of me dying would be buried just like that.

Although for some reason, I seem to trust the guy beside me. Like, I know it's unreasonable from my part to expect him to fight a thousand men to protect me and stuff, but I believe that Jerome definitely has the skills to safely get me out of here. And couple that with my elite squad who's probably lurking somewhere over here, it seems like I worried for nothing.

"So, am I supposed to just stand here and receive all of their looks or meet the Emperor directly?" I turned towards Jerome as I asked that question.

"Well, when you usually receive summons like this, you wait for the butler to call for you, but it's not like you have been doing things normally these days, right?" Jerome smiled as he said that.

"Ah, true that. I mean, it's not like the other princes wait around like I do, right?" I asked.

"Yea, no. They just barge in as soon as they get here." Jerome replied.

"Well, if that is the case, then I'm gonna do the same as well." I said as I proceeded to barge into the Emperor's office, even though the butler over there tried his best to stop me for some reason. I mean, if it was like that he should've stopped the other princes like this as well, right? But he didn't and this is just bullshit!

"What are you doing here?" The Emperor seemed surprised that I barged in like that.

"Well, I got the letter saying that you called for me, so here I am." I replied.

"I get that, but why did you barge in like that while I'm having an important meeting like this?" He asked. I could see it in his face. He doesn't see me as his son. I assume he never did see me as such. And if he wanna play it like that, I guess I should do the same as well.

"Important meeting, huh? Who is the guest over here. Oh, it's Baron Micheal! The rising star in the northern nobles. The guy who managed to take his barony to the heights previously unseen. An important person is here it seems." I gave a bright smile towards the Baron who got up at that point.

"Grand Duke Albius! Your words flatter-" He was being all coy at that point, but I made sure to stop him on his tracks.

"But being the rising star doesn't mean that you are greater than the Grand Duke of this kingdom, right?" And with that question, I successfully managed to shut his mouth.

"Umm, apologies for the impudence, my lord. I will wait outside so that you could have your conversation with his majesty." The Baron bowed his head as deep as he could as he said that.

"As you should." I mumbled as he left as quickly as possible. "So now that you're not having the important meeting that you were talking about, how about we have a little conversation among ourselves?" I asked.

"What happened to you?" The Emperor seemed quite surprised about the way I behaved just then. And with that it was pretty sure that the previous owner of this body was a pushover. I mean, there were many other signs pointing to that, but this was the biggest one, I guess.

"Doesn't matter. Just tell me why you called me here." I spoke.

"Why are you acting like you have no idea about that? I mean, isn't it pretty obvious as to why I summoned you here?" He asked.

"No, it's not. So, why don't you spell it out for me?" I asked back.

The Emperor seemed to get tired of actions. But surprisingly enough, he did comply to my request.

"You killed almost all of the servants in your place. That is not how a Grand Duke should act and I believe that you should apologize to the families of the people you killed for that." He spoke.

I couldn't help but laugh at that point. "I should apologize to their families? Are you for real? Like how you did nothing to the people that killed my mother? Nah, these people conspired against me in my own house and I did what any sane person would do. I killed them. I mean, if you say right now that you value those servants lives than a noble's one, I would simply call you a hypocrite, cuz that wasn't the stance you took during the farmer's revolt. Or is it that you are worried about me now that I killed off your spies as well?" I backed the Emperor into the corner with that.

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