Chapter 32Where the Monster Disappeared (10)

Translator: Kimmy

⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽‌༓‌☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅‌

“How did he escape?”

He wouldn’t have jumped down from the balcony, this is the 3rd floor.

Karlos looked down over the balcony. It was a safe height for him to jump with his abnormal physical abilities.

But, Diego couldn’t have jumped from here. This is not something that can be overcome with guts and plus, he was a normal person.

“Hmm.”

He rubbed his chin.

He didn’t have the time to shave for just one day and a thin layer of a beard had formed already.

I should shave first.

Karlos ran his hand through his hair and looked for his shaving knife on the shelf beside the fireplace.

The head butler Frantz always scolded him for putting a paper-knife and a shaving knife at the same place but the Emperor couldn’t help it because he liked to put things he uses often in a place that’s most visible. So, enharmonically, his toiletries were placed there.

“……”

He stood abruptly in front of the fireplace.

Karlos looked at the slightly rumpled rug under the fireplace and bent his body to look inside the fireplace.

His amethyst eyes trembled.

“No way.”

He saw footsteps inside the fireplace chimney.

“Did he crawl out through here….?”

*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*

The crown prince that creatively escaped the palace, unfortunately, didn’t successfully escape.

The fireplace in the Sun Palace was unnecessarily big and wide to match the Emperor’s bedroom’s majesticness so it was quite easy for Diego to climb.

However, it was dirty like it hasn’t been cleaned in a while and there were traps inside.

‘Why the hell are there traps in the fireplace! This is not even the Emperor’s bedroom!’

Cartul’s baby lion was too preoccupied with escaping Karlos’s intimidating aura that he only understood ‘Man in Charge’ literally as the manager of the room.

If Sabina knew about it, she would have deplored his lack of comprehension skills.

Diego managed to dodge all the traps and climbed to the top of the Sun Palace.

He carefully walked towards the center and while avoiding people’s eyes, climbed down along the walls and pipes.

He moved so slow like a slug that it was already dawn.

Diego was proud of his successful escape and celebrated.

But he shouldn’t be relieved yet.

He was still in the enemy’s ground–this was not true–and he was locked up here–also not true–and he still had to avoid Duke Gardelli–this was true–so he had to keep moving.

It’s dawn right now so that lunatic should be sleeping.

Diego rolled, pressed himself on the wall, or crawled to avoid the guards.

If assassins and survival experts saw him they would have given him a standing ovation for his splendid hiding skills.

*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*

The palace was bigger than it looked from the outside.

To Eva, who had difficulty adapting quickly to new places, the palace felt like a different world.

Young noble ladies holding lacy parasols and dresses chatted as they walked past to her left.

To her right, officers with extra dark under eyes were pouring energy drinks down their throats.

And to that direction, an armored knight or perhaps a guard was approaching at a fast pace.

Eva’s head was spinning.

Where is the 2nd Training Court where Brigitta works?

She wanted to ask the officers who looked like unproblematic commoners but no one gave attention to her timidly raised hand.

It was the middle of the day, and for the officers, it was the extra time they could freely spend after lunch.

They half-purposely ignored Eva and walked away.

Well, she did expect this.

Eva gave up asking people and looked for signs instead.

Brigitta had already told her to look for signs if she was lost anywhere.

Eva confidently walked towards where the sign pointed and after 10 minutes, she was lost.

She was blocked by guards, and when she asked them if this was the way to the Training Courts, they chased her away saying this was the way to the Inner Palace.

When she asked them for the directions to the Training Courts, one of them replied telling her to find the back entrance of the Rose Garden and head straight from there.

Then when she went to the back entrance of the Rose Garden, the guards asked her why she was looking for the Training Courts there and told her to go along the Oak Tree Road instead.

They were all giving different directions and names.

Eva wanted to bawl.

She didn’t even know where she was anymore.

She trudged around the place and found a garden with small fountains.

One way or another, she would find someone to ask again if she got to the main road.

Weirdly, there was no one in this place. Eva worried if she was in a place she was not allowed to be in so she walked faster until something got in her way.

“Aaah!”

She almost tripped but Eva managed to balance herself.

What is it?

“Uwwurgh.”

Eva was frightened.

There was a person lying down.

The footprint on his back looked like her shoe sole.

No, how. I didn’t see anything! There was nothing there!

A news headline written ‘Body found in palace, first witness was Miss Evangeline (27, Novelist)’ came up on her mind.

Eva breathed in and checked on the person again.

He was breathing.

She let out a sigh of relief and pushed the person gently.

His face was dirty with black smears and dust but he must be a pretty handsome man.

His eyebrows were thick and his skin was tanned like a well-baked bread.

Eva was contemplating whether she should bring someone here or to just run away. Just as she decided to run away, the young man opened his eyes.

His hazel eyes containing confusion looked up to Eva.

*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*

It was easy to recognize the Emperor in the Palace.

If there was a huge man wearing luxurious clothing emitting an intimidating aura, it was Emperor Karlos Josef Rumilesa.

When he walked by, it was like a giant walking so feeble-minded people always had their face down so they never saw the Emperor’s face.

The Emperor’s intimidating aura overwhelmed anyone within 20 feet.

Even those who have never seen the Emperor could tell ‘That huge thing is the Emperor.’

But recently, the Emperor’s intimidating aura surprisingly decreased.

The head butler was excited that he no longer had to be startled whenever he walked past the Emperor’s bedroom. It was that relaxed.

However, a new problem arose: Some people didn’t recognize him.

Karlos’s portrait was more like a paranormal painting of a devil because the painter’s hands trembled so much from fear added on with his personal impression of the Emperor.

Even in pictures taken with the magic printing machine, his form was so distorted from the taker’s trembling hands that he looked like a spiritual being.

The only thing people could know about the Emperor from the photos was that he had black hair.

It was to the point the head maid Esmeralda stared at the Emperor wondering if that’s how he always looked like.

The Emperor was saddened that even the head maid that worked for him for a long time didn’t know his face and decided he would just let his intimidating aura be when he worked.

Instead, in his break, he wore normal clothes and roamed outside.

Whenever people treated him like a big knight that had a scary face, Karlos cheered internally.

Maybe I could go buy novels on my own? Maybe it will be alright if I stand in line?

If the Chancellor heard this, he would have scoffed and if Maximilien heard this, he would have said he’s acting like a weirdo.

Why didn’t I get the book earlier! I

He sent his praise to the author of ‘How to Cultivate Inner Peace’ and strode after Diego’s tracks.

“Hah, oh my.”

The reckless crown prince was evidently skilled in moving discreetly, hiding his footsteps with leaves and dirt and purposely moving through water or by climbing trees.

Karlos studied these tracks and wondered what Sabina taught him.

Did she put him in boy scouts or something?

The crown prince was way too full-fledged in survival for a prince raised in luxury.

Karlos knelt and felt the soil.

Based on the direction of the run-down soil, he went towards.

“………the detached castle…….”

The only world he spent his whole childhood in and the place with many small fountains.

A place that was too big for young Karlos to use and a place now abandoned.

Karlos rubbed the back of his neck and looked towards the Sun Palace and back at the detached palace.

It was a 40~50 minutes distance for a normal person’s pace.

“…….It was closer than I thought.”

He made a faint sneer.

Oh, greedy previous Emperor. You couldn’t banish me far away so you decided to confine me under your surveillance.

I can only laugh at your stupidity.

⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽‌༓‌☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅‌