Margrave’s Bastard Son was The Emperor - Chapter 301

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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 301
Fire. Time to Change the Meaning
“Ah….”
As if struck in the back of the head with a hammer, Romandro let out a gasp. He had just realized that something was fundamentally wrong.
He examined the unsorted gifts in detail, looking down at them carefully.
Ian was right. They had been introduced as expensive and precious items—diamonds and the like—but when he traced where they came from, they all belonged to the Burgos nobles. Hadn’t each one come with separate greetings?
“Good heavens, why didn’t anyone….”
How had no one noticed this? There were numerous officials in the reception room.
Following this realization, Jin’s expression hardened as well. It was problematic that the officials hadn’t caught it, but the real issue was that he himself hadn’t realized it until Ian pointed it out.
“While there were issues with their attitude and approach, Ruswena herself presented a bow made in the royal palace. Since Your Highness returned it, she will surely have one remade to fit your frame. Cliffford, needless to say, specially crafted royal traditional instruments and presented three generations of them. But Burgos?”
Nothing.
They had bowed deeply to the waist with apparent sincerity, but the reality was different. Ian crumbled the dried leaf in his hand to dust.
“…You needn’t be too disheartened about not noticing. It was thoroughly calculated on their part.”
King Damon hadn’t acted alone. While the king faced the prince, the nobles who stood back engaged with the officials.
“There were many items, and each carried considerable meaning and talking points. If they weren’t from nobles, they would truly be of remarkable quality. Moreover, each time one was introduced, a noble was drawn in, increasing the number of conversation participants. And above all, they displayed perfect courtesy without a single flaw. Lowering your guard, calculating every detail from start to finish—it was all a carefully orchestrated scheme.”
And whether you saw through it was yet another test. Arrogantly so.
Ian’s lips curved upward as he brushed the dust from his hands. He was smiling, but it was terrifyingly cold.
“Your Highness.”
It was provocation beyond rudeness, and a declaration of war beyond provocation. When Ian asked with his eyes if he understood the meaning behind presenting the nobles’ gifts to the prince, Jin lowered his head and sighed. It was a self-deprecating, self-reproaching sigh.
“…I didn’t know any of this, and I laughed.”
“…Your Highness.”
“I laughed because I thought they had prepared so well.”
“Your Highness. Look at me.”
Ian knelt before Jin and met his gaze.
“Shall I tell you something interesting?”
“…Something interesting?”
“A mistake is called a mistake precisely because it can be corrected. Failure is merciless, but a mistake allows for a next chance. Your Highness has merely made a mistake, and you can certainly recover from it. You said you didn’t know just now. You said you laughed because you didn’t understand. But King Damon won’t know either. What your laughter meant.”
Just as King Damon’s exterior and interior differ, couldn’t Jin’s also be different?
Romandro understood Ian’s intent and clapped excessively, moving closer. He too knelt to match Jin’s eye level.
“Exactly, Your Highness! What does it matter if you didn’t know? What’s important is that you know now. Your Highness laughed just moments ago, but that was actually an action to grasp all the details and seize the opportunity. Think of it that way. Then what will King Damon understand?”
“So you’re saying the banquet is our opportunity?”
“Of course.”
A gathering where the leaders of three nations are all present. If you cleverly check and attack Burgos there, King Damon will judge your laughter as calculated.
But if you show no special action at the banquet? He will regard you as a foolish young prince who failed to grasp the meaning of the gifts.
“How could we leave a mistake as merely a mistake when there is an opportunity?”
Jin’s eyes rolled as he looked back and forth between Ian and the gifts. And suddenly, without thinking, he asked.
“Has Count Ian ever experienced something like this?”
“Something like this, you say….”
“Making a mistake but covering it up as if you hadn’t.”
From what he had seen so far, Ian was someone who had navigated countless difficulties without making a single mistake.
It was quite an intriguing question, so Romandro also glanced sideways at me. Xiaoxi did the same. No one spoke, but they all waited for my answer.
“There is.”
I smiled and replied thus. Just as Romandro’s eyes sparkled and he tried to ask further, I shut him down immediately.
“But it’s a secret.”
“What? Why?”
“Well then, Your Majesty. Let us return to the beginning. The King of Burgos sent tribute through his nobles. Please explain what this signifies.”
“Ah, if only Berik were here.”
Had Berik been present, I had no doubt he would have pestered me relentlessly. Romandro set aside his regret and brought forth paper and pen, laying them before Jin.
“First, by bypassing me and degrading Bariel, he has shown his true colors.”
To entrust tribute meant for the Empire to the hands of nobles was tantamount to refusing to acknowledge the Empire as a great power.
But there was more to consider—
“Precisely. Furthermore, given the likelihood of a three-nation alliance, we anticipated there would be a force taking the lead in uniting them. Initially, since Ruswena was connected to Haiman, I suspected they knew Bariel’s internal affairs better than the other two nations. You remember, don’t you?”
Of course I remembered. It was a conversation we’d had before meeting the King of Eriponi. Jin pondered quietly and murmured.
“You’re saying Burgos is the driving force behind the alliance?”
“Yes. By refusing to acknowledge Bariel as a great power, they degrade us, but simultaneously elevate Burgos itself. And they send a message to Ruswena and Cliffford.”
Look. The three-nation alliance can stand against Bariel, and Burgos leads the charge. Having drawn the bowstring first, the two nations behind will surely follow.
Romandro, who had been listening quietly, carefully added his thoughts.
“Your Majesty, now that I think about it, the nobles of Burgos are no ordinary lot either. No matter how much the king commands, they wouldn’t easily send such treasures to a foreign prince—family heirlooms passed down through generations, or crops so rare that even they cannot use them. And certainly not in such quantities. Now I see it clearly.”
Nobles are those who calculate profit and loss like demons. That they offered up family treasures meant they anticipated equivalent gain, yet there was no way to discern what that could be.
Just as I was about to add an explanation—
Xiaoxi, who had been sitting quietly all along, raised his hand.
“…Xiao?”
“Your Majesty, forgive my presumption, but may I venture to speak? Though my experience is humble, I wish to share it with you.”
“What nonsense is this about experience being base or noble? Speak.”
I was somewhat surprised. I had never seen Xiaoxi offer his thoughts before. Given that Jin’s acceptance seemed natural, this didn’t appear to be his first time doing so.
‘He’s doing far better than I expected.’
In my absence, Xiaoxi seemed to be fulfilling his role quite well. I too gestured for him to come closer, signaling my agreement.
Xiaoxi sat with the three of us on the sofa and carefully began to speak.
“It was a long time ago, when I was very young.”
“When you say young, how long ago?”
“Since I don’t know my own age, I cannot say precisely. But it was when my height hadn’t yet reached that of a reed, so quite a long time ago.”
Romandro closed his mouth, worried he had touched upon a painful wound. Though Xiaoxi didn’t seem to mind.
“My master at the time was a moneylender. Even as a child, I could see he would lend large sums to those clearly unable to repay, and he would even scout out properties and broker deals.”
I couldn’t even remember which master this was. But through all those years, certain words had been etched into my mind.
“One day, his son harbored the same question I did and asked his father why he would lend money and goods to such people. Then his father answered thus.”
“…What did he say?”
“It all comes back to me eventually.”
Because he was confident he could recover it, he lent so freely. This psychology would apply equally to the nobles of Burgos.
“Perhaps they sent tribute because they are confident they can recover it? And before that, we can infer that the king’s power is strong enough to propose such a matter.”
“Exactly. No matter how much a king rules, he cannot easily raid the storehouses of nobles in distant provinces. I heard he hasn’t been on the throne long, yet his influence is considerable. By displaying such power…”
“Show off? What do you mean, Romandro?”
Jin urged him to continue, but Romandro merely opened and closed his mouth without making a sound.
Confidence in recovery and a powerful royal authority.
For a correlation to exist between the two, there was only one assumption needed.
“Your Majesty.”
Romandro seemed unable to speak, swallowing hard instead. It was Ian who answered in his place.
“The three nations have refrained from forming an alliance until now because they were wary of Bariel. That wariness meant national tensions existed, which in turn signifies sanctions across multiple dimensions.”
“Then….”
“Political, economic, and cultural sanctions. Or war.”
War.
Assuming that, one could far more easily deduce the nobles’ calculations.
If the imperial palace fell, they would not only recover their family treasures, but wouldn’t they also receive broader fiefdoms and wealth based on their contributions? There was no other equivalent exchange offering adequate gains.
“…War?”
“There is nothing surprising about it. If the three nations form an alliance, physical conflict is inevitable, whether large or small.”
If war was being considered, everything about Burgos became comprehensible—the provocative attitude, the refusal to spend a single coin of the kingdom’s treasury.
“Hmm. That makes sense. To claim the royal treasury has no money and thus they begged the nobles, the gifts are excessive. That’s not the kind of loyalty one shows to a penniless king.”
Romandro crossed his arms and merely clicked his tongue. It seemed countless thoughts and calculations swirled in his mind. But how could one sitting here possibly see through King Damon’s true intentions?
Ian closed the lid of the gift box and spoke to Jin.
“Your Majesty.”
I thought the coldness had faded as I spoke with Jin, but a chilling smile returned to my lips.
“We should not linger here. Let us return, and prepare what we must give back to Burgos along with the banquet.”
To dare such a petty trick against the great empire of Bariel, and at that during Jin’s inauguration ceremony marking the beginning of a new era—I could not let this pass. Without thinking, I grasped the boy’s hand. Jin did not refuse. Suddenly, I realized it had been a long time since we held hands like this.
“…Understood. Steel yourself.”
“Of course, Your Majesty. You can do this. It is time to change the meaning of that smile.”
I would help. The mind of one who sees the future was my own mind.
Ian nodded and rose from his seat.

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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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