Black-Haired Dad Isn’t Something You Reap - Chapter 4

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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Chapter 04. Regression (4)
I dusted off my rear and rose with dignity, walking ahead of the Imperial Guard. Then I heard an incredibly dejected voice from the adjacent cell.
“What…? You’re leaving already?”
Well, should the legitimate heir of the Imperial Family linger here for days? I thought he was a Prisoner, but is he actually worse than that?
“Wait. And bring Himang.”
I’ll look into a way to release you in consideration of the camaraderie we shared cursing the Emperor today.
Though my tongue stiffened and prevented me from revealing my true intentions, I managed to state my business concisely before leaving the Prison and walking away with measured steps. It felt unpleasant, like I was giving a dog a command to wait before abandoning it.
I really am too soft-hearted.
Giving my heart away just because the Prisoner seemed a bit pitiful.
Following the Imperial Guard’s guidance, I arrived not at the Emperor’s audience chamber. Nor was it his bedchamber, private quarters, or reception room. In any case, it was nowhere that blockhead should logically be.
This was the Empress Palace, a place that should have remained without a master.
Our nation has upheld monogamy for generations, and the Empress’s seat currently stood vacant. There had been movements to install a new Empress afterward, but I understood it had fallen through due to severe trauma the Emperor harbored.
Yet the Emperor being here suggested he had carelessly handed over the Empress Palace to some newly acquired woman.
It was utterly contrary to propriety, defied all common sense, and would make the ancestors of our five-hundred-year dynasty weep.
Though our mother was somewhat… well.
Honestly, from the perspective of the victim, it was traumatic enough.
Still, how could an Emperor himself fear his departed wife so much that he couldn’t take a new Empress? It was shameful.
This is precisely why he earned the epithet of history’s greatest tyrant.
“The Princess has arrived, Your Majesty.”
Yet this fool didn’t tell me to enter after summoning me.
Either he intended to punish me, or he was occupied with… something else. One of the two.
A blockhead wouldn’t rack his brains, so it was likely the latter. While thinking this, the command to enter came faster than expected.
Goodness. So it wasn’t the latter after all?
“Vishnabel.”
“Yes.”
“Your greeting?”
“Hello.”
“…”
“…”
Having blurted it out on impulse, the blockhead had a maidservant force me to my knees.
A woman presumed to be his lover lounged on the bed, swinging her legs while watching me, and this blockhead, devoid of all shame, approached me with his upper garments removed.
“Vishnabel, I hear you struck Trimuti?”
So that little pest had such a name.
But since the child would soon vanish from the Imperial Palace, I decided not to remember it.
“Apologize to your mother and your sibling.”
“Mother burned to death, did she not?”
It hadn’t even been a year.
My mother. The last Empress of the Kisomalos Empire and the proud eldest daughter of the Lorowi Family—she had lost her mind to this blockhead and chosen self-immolation.
She had actually intended a double suicide, embracing the blockhead, but the Imperial Guards worked so diligently that it came to naught.
The Emperor suffered burns across half his body because of my mother, and for half a year afterward, he couldn’t eat meat. The smell of her burning had seared itself into his nostrils, or so he claimed.
Slap!
A hollow laugh escaped me at the thought that the Emperor was truly an idiot of the highest order, and my head snapped to the side. It had only been a day since I decided to live recklessly, yet I’d already been struck so many times.
“Don’t you dare bring up that woman! Apologize to Mother and my sister, and I’ll forgive you.”
“Your mother burned to death and disappeared, Your Majesty.”
Slap!
The blockhead who’d struck me twice seemed intent on dragging me to his lover and forcing me to bow before her.
Was he serious? No matter how infatuated he’d become with that woman, how could he demand that the sole legitimate heir bow to such a creature?
Despising this more than I despised my brother, I seized the lamp that had been knocked over for dramatic effect and smashed it against the floor. Oil seeped into the carpet, and flames spread with ease.
“Hey! I’m just like my mother!”
Did he think I couldn’t do what Mother had done?
I stepped directly onto the fire, crunching glass beneath my feet as I embraced the Emperor tightly. The blockhead, apparently terrified, threw me down and screamed.
“This madwoman! She’s lost her mind! Lock her in the dungeon at once!”
You fool! If I’d had just a bit more strength, we’d both be heading to the underworld together today.
Consider yourself lucky!
At the Emperor’s command, attendants hastily extinguished the flames clinging to my skirts, then lifted me and rushed from the room.
Before I could leave, I raised my voice once more.
“Listen here, you fool—live right!”
Had I just spoken clearly? Whether from anger or improved blood circulation, my tongue felt nimble and sharp.
I wanted to cheer inwardly, but the sight of the Prison waiting for me dampened my spirits once again.
Contrary to my gloomy thoughts, a cheerful voice drifted from the adjacent cell.
“Your Highness, you’ve returned already?”
Yes, Prisoner. Rejoice. It seems we won’t be parted for some time.
Heat rose within me. As I fanned myself with my palm, scraps of paper came drifting from the neighboring cell.
The Prisoner’s perception was remarkably sharp. I gratefully accepted what he’d sent, spread it on the floor, and set about crafting a fan.
As I worked, the text seemed oddly familiar, and upon closer inspection, I found it contained an analysis of republicanism.
【Martin’s Republican Discourse】
Isn’t this a banned book in the Kisomalos Empire?
“Prisoner! This is exactly why you’re locked away!”
“Oh, you know this book?”
“Martin’s Republican Discourse! You madman! Insane Prisoner!”
“Hahahaha!”
Why are you laughing, you cursed fool?
This must be something from the heavens, not the mortal realm.
The Prisoner’s family deity must be quite remarkable to obtain such a treasure.
Our mortal realm consists of one continent and one sea as the entirety of the world, but the heavenly deities maintain relations with other universes, so they often bestow strange items during sacrificial rites.
This book, “Martin’s Republican Discourse,” was among the gifts that Kisomalos bestowed upon the Imperial Family long ago. Since it denied absolute monarchy, it was sealed as a forbidden book in the Imperial Library, but I had examined it before my death.
Back then, I was desperate to bring down that blockhead by any means. I was even mad enough to consider feigning insanity and replacing the Emperor through a popular vote.
Unfortunately, my position within the Imperial Family was too weak, so any public statement would have been futile, and I abandoned the notion.
Even if I’d tried to incite the people, my poor image among the Kisomalos Empire’s citizens meant I couldn’t leave the palace.
The Emperor’s lovers had purchased so much real and personal property that I’d frequently invited the relevant parties and luxury boutique owners to the Princess Palace for refunds, which is why the citizens had come to believe I was the primary cause of Imperial extravagance.
At that time, I had neither the means nor the strength to suppress such rumors, and I thought they would simply vanish once I ascended to the throne, so I let it be… and in the end, my body was torn into five pieces.
It was an utterly unjust incident.
“Have you learned paper folding?”
“Of course! Who do you take me for!”
Even if I can’t manage anything difficult, I can fold a fan—a fan, at least!
I folded the paper into a staircase pattern with quick, practiced motions, then folded the finished product in half and fanned myself with a flutter-flutter motion.
Ah, now I can finally breathe. I thought I’d die from the heat.
Being injured probably makes it worse.
“Blast it all!”
These wretched fools lock me in the Prison, but they should at least provide treatment!
Furious, I struck the bars with my fan—tap, tap—and issued a command. The Jailer came running. After hearing my angry order, he bowed his head and said he would ask his superior before returning, asking me to wait a moment.
“Are you injured?”
“Ugh, that blockhead!”
Wow! When I’m angry, I can speak perfectly well, it seems.
Seizing this moment when my tongue had loosened, I unleashed a barrage of insults at the Prisoner, calling him a blockhead repeatedly, and told him that I’d been struck twice and my skirt had caught fire.
Then, right beside me—
Crash!
A sound erupted, and two of the Prison’s bars flew away. And something that looked like a bear appeared before my eyes.
“…W-Prisoner?”
“Tsk.”
This bastard should have greeted me first upon seeing me, so why is he clicking his tongue?
The man with his hair and beard grown thick and unkempt looked as though his eyes were either open or closed—it was impossible to tell. His cloak was draped with some dark fur that made him look as though he were wearing a bear skin turned inside out. In conclusion, the man was a bear incarnate.
The Prisoner, with his imposing frame, walked toward the outside as if he had forgotten he was even a prisoner, and the passing Jailers saluted him with “Have a good outing, sir!”
I wondered if a criminal should be allowed to move about so freely, but it seemed no one except me found this strange.
What… exactly is that Prisoner?

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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