Children of the Holy Emperor - Chapter 374



Only Noblemtl

374. Mores Exploration Journal (2)

A knight who defeated the demon species with the grace of God.

Savior of Sigismund and Bathurst.

The master of the divine [wind].

The return of the great Saint Bastian.

Surprisingly, all of these were adjectives used to describe Mores.

Owen, who had been obsessed with feeding him the elixir after returning to the zodiac, was dumbfounded when he heard various rumors.

What the heck? That guy Mores, he’s grown into something amazing since I last saw him.

“The entire Imperial Palace is talking about it right now. If Lord Owen had even gone out of the palace for a bit, he would have known already.”

Carrie, the dedicated maid, lightly nudged Owen.

She is an old lady with a savory Rohan accent at the end of every word. She was a seasoned maid who had taken care of Owen while he was in the palace, and I heard that she had also served the previous empress.

“Can’t you see all those piles of invitations? With so many people looking for Owen, why don’t you even bother to look at them?”

The current Zodiac personnel were very interested in the hero of the Southern Front.

A young, handsome, unmarried prince.

There were plenty of reasons to become acquainted with him. Even though there were rumors that he was not the biological son of the King, his enormous achievements and political influence were not easily dismissed.

Of course, there may also be genuine curiosity about the prince who rarely shows his face in social circles.

But Owen’s reaction was lukewarm.

“Where do we have time to go to such useless places?”

“Mr. Owen is the eldest son of the Seonghwang family. Shouldn’t he have established connections and a position in the social world? Even Prince Mores himself shows up at social gatherings every now and then these days.”

“That guy, whatever. I don’t have enough time to spend with my family. If the situation in the South suddenly changes, I might have to rush to the front again.”

For Owen, his position as a prince was of no importance. The only thing that mattered to him was the safety of the royal family.

“Oh my. If you missed your family that much, you should have come back a long time ago.”

Carrie shook her head.

“And now that you’ve finally come back, you haven’t been to the Blue Rose Palace for even a moment. Neither Logan nor Owen. The old man has been lonely for a long time because the masters have left the palace empty for so long.”

“Hmm. That’s… embarrassing, Carrie.”

“Don’t drink an apology that you don’t mean. Well, it’s good that things have become easier in my later years, considering that I have enemies in the palace.”

Carrie, grumbling and organizing Owen’s clothes, was as affectionate as ever.

But the sight of her, who had aged so much over the years, somehow brought about a feeling of deep sorrow in Owen’s heart.

“By the way, Mr. Owen. I sent you crisp new clothes every quarter, but why have they all turned into rags?”

Owen, unable to stand watching her thread with bleary eyes, snatched the needle and thread from her.

“I couldn’t help it, Carrie. I was always on the battlefield. Every day was a series of tough battles.”

“Huh! How foolish of you.”

Carrie snorted as she took back the neatly spooled thread.

“I can assure you that not all the knights on the Southern Front are like you, Owen. You’ve been dressing so shabbily since you were a child.”

… was it like that?

This is something I never really cared about until now, because I had freshly ironed clothes ready every morning.

“Come to think of it, Owen was quite the odd one out among the children of the Seonghwang family. How could his clothes fit so well? No wonder he fought with Prince Mores over them every day.”

“…Huh? Me?”

Owen blinked at the unexpected words. He and Mores had been growling at each other whenever they saw each other’s faces, but he couldn’t remember every single reason why they had fought.

Then Carrie squinted her eyes behind her reading glasses and replied,

“Why not? They get scolded for their sloppy attire, then they fight, and then their attire gets even messier, and Prince Mores points it out again. This vicious cycle continues endlessly. When I watch the two of them from the side, I wonder what the hell they’re doing.”

“… … .”

“Well, we were both young back then.”

After saying that, Carrie started sewing, humming a tune.

Swish, swish. The soft fabric is pierced at regular intervals, creating a rhythm like music.

Owen closed his eyes for a moment and listened quietly to Carrie’s humming and sewing sounds, which he hadn’t heard in a long time.

“Still, sometimes this old man felt grateful to Prince Mores.”

At the sound of Carrie’s voice, Owen, who was leaning against the sofa, opened his eyes and looked up at her.

“Thanks? To that guy?”

What on earth?

“Well, when Lord Owen has nightmares, he doesn’t have any appetite and feels weak all day long, right? But after fighting Prince Mores, strangely enough, he completely forgets all his morning worries.”

That unlucky guy! I can never forgive him like this! I need to save up my stamina to fight him properly! Carrie imitated Owen’s grumbling with a playful expression.

“As you say that, you finish a whole bowl of food in no time. Owen, you need to be a little simpler.”

As she vaguely recalled the memories, a blasphemous word finally came out of her mouth.

Carrie had always been like that. Perhaps because she was getting older and her time of death was near, she showed the audacity to not care about minor impiety.

Of course, Owen was rather comfortable with that side of her.

“I did that? I don’t remember at all.”

As Owen opened his mouth in surprise, Carrie smiled playfully, her eyes furrowed.

“That’s right. That’s why, when I felt like you were being too lazy, I would ask the knights to take you for a walk along the Jinju Palace road. Have you never noticed it until now?”

“… … !?”

Owen was in a state of confusion from the repeated shocks.

The person who always warmly comforted him when he had a hard time confessing the harsh criticism he had heard from Mores.

A person like my grandmother who would welcome me with a warm bath when I came home covered in mud.

At least that’s what Carrie looked like in Owen’s memories.

‘however…….’

In fact, she treated their feud as nothing more than a bunch of kid squabbles, and sometimes even deliberately encouraged them to fight?

How can a person change so much, even if his childhood memories are romanticized?

“Wait a minute, Carrie! Are you saying that’s true? I was really serious back then!”

“Well, well, why wouldn’t it be? When we’re young, everyone is serious about trivial things.”

“No! Really? What did that brat Mores say to me when I was very sensitive…?!”

“A person with such a high level of sensitivity, would run around the palace while ripping and tearing his clothes? Not caring about being cursed at? Isn’t that ridiculous?”

Owen’s protests were of no avail to Carrie.

“So, let’s just let bygones be bygones. Stop hating Prince Mores.”

Suddenly.

Owen creaked and turned his head away at the sudden, direct remark.

“… Who the hell hates you?”

When I answered in a slightly weak voice, Carrie stopped sewing and looked at Owen intently.

“Do you really think so? Don’t even think of fooling this old man. While Lord Owen was on the Southern Front, did you ever send a single letter to Prince Mores?”

“… … .”

“I know this old man knows that Lord Owen cares for everyone in Seonghwangga. But isn’t it true that he is particularly harsh to Prince Mores?”

I couldn’t deny it.

Although Owen regularly sent news to the people of Seonghwangga and even to his dedicated maid, Carrie, he had never actually written a letter to Mores.

The reason was obvious.

Because I really hated Mores.

“That’s because that guy came to me first… … .”

“When you first came to the palace, there must have been a few people who acted like that in front of Lord Owen. But Lord Owen didn’t care at all. Think about that carefully.”

“… … .”

“I say this now that you have become a great general, but even this old man saw that Owen in the past had many unsettling aspects.”

A boy who suddenly became the first prince of the empire and was the center of everyone’s scorn. The emotions contained in those sharp gazes could not possibly have been friendly.

In addition, Owen was so obsessed with his parents’ death that he had nightmares every day. Looking back, I think his heart was filled with purposeless sadness and resentment at the time.

“Of course, His Majesty the Emperor and the princes and princesses used many children for Lord Owen. But that alone was probably not enough. How can a person live only by hearing and saying only good things?”

“… … .”

“But Lord Owen doesn’t know anyone else in the palace. So, at that time, who else could you comfortably curse and hate besides Prince Mores?”

“No, Carrie. That’s… …!”

Owen, who was about to respond angrily, quickly shut his mouth and took a deep breath because he was suddenly overcome with strong self-doubt.

Could it really be that?

The death of his parents, a drastic change in his environment, and the intense pressure to live up to his status.

Can you be absolutely certain that you didn’t use your feud with Mores as some sort of outlet to release those heavy emotions?

“Mr. Owen, you’re a grown man now, aren’t you? You should humbly admit what needs to be admitted and accept what needs to be accepted.”

Ah, warm.

Carrie cut the thread with scissors and handed the neatly mended shirt to Owen.

“In this old man’s view, the fight between the two of you back then was not something to take to heart. You just insulted him by comparing him to other brothers, but Prince Mores wasn’t that vicious back then.”

Owen could not accept what he had just heard. The whole palace knew of Mores’s wicked ways!

-Don’t you dare think of yourself as a member of the royal family, Owen Lockwood. You’re just a country bumpkin who got lucky!

-You can still strut around the palace with such a sloppy attitude? It would be better for you to leave the imperial capital as soon as possible and settle down in a corner of the continent. And live as a puppet who only listens to what you’re told! Then you’ll at least do half of what others do!

The verbal abuse that struck me even harder because Mores was a member of the Seonghwang family.

But now Carrie is saying that all of that was for nothing.

“In this old man’s eyes, Prince Mores was just a spoiled child who had no sense of dealing with people.”

Carrie smiled gently at Owen, looking confused. She had the kind of dizzy eyes that only an old man who has lived through many years can have.

“It is the duty of an elder to forgive and overlook all the follies of childhood. Wasn’t our strange Owen’s generosity broader than the Southern prairies from his childhood?”