The Slave Is Too Handsome - Chapter 47

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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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The slave is far too handsome!
047.
“Hugo, over here! Over here!”
The red-eyed child turned toward the sound, looking around in confusion.
Strange. Where did that voice come from? Just as Hugo tilted his head in bewilderment, a small hand suddenly poked out from behind the wall.
“!!!”
Startled, Hugo couldn’t even cry out.
“I’m here!”
Soon after, the child who had been calling Hugo emerged from behind the wall. The fair-haired child approached with a flourish and seized Hugo’s hand.
“Next time, just hide here. Then no one will ever find you.”
“This place is…….”
“I discovered it. It’s my secret spot.”
“Wow, how amazing.”
Hugo slipped his body into the secret passage visible beyond the wall. Beside him crouched a child with fair hair.
“Um…….”
Hugo hesitated over how to address the other child, speaking carefully, when the fair-haired boy pouted.
“Call me by my name. You know it anyway.”
As Hugo opened his mouth again after his hesitation,
“Lucian?”
Lucian’s eyes snapped open at the familiar voice. A high ceiling came into view.
The dream had been quite vivid, but now that his eyes were open, he remembered nothing of it.
“Lucian!”
He turned his head and saw Eloise’s face, flooded with relief. She was alone in the spacious bedroom.
“Eloise?”
Lucian blinked once and slowly pushed himself up to sit. It seemed he had been lying in bed just moments before.
Through the window stretched a dull gray sky. It was dawn.
“What happened? Why did I…….”
He trailed off, pressing his hand to his throbbing temple. Eloise, alarmed, hurried closer and sat beside him.
“Are you alright? Should I call a physician?”
“No, it’s just a headache…….”
“You collapsed.”
“What?”
Eloise’s eyes wavered with anxiety. She thrust a Water Glass into his hands, and Lucian accepted it, drinking the lukewarm water in one gulp.
Since this had never happened before, Lucian was quite bewildered.
“A servant suddenly came and said you’d fallen. I thought maybe the servant was lying, but Ned said the same thing.”
“…….”
“I was so worried that I called the physician, but he said there was nothing seriously wrong—just exhaustion that caused you to faint. Even so, I was so frightened…….”
Eloise spoke as calmly as she could manage, yet her hands trembled visibly.
“I’m fine now. Really.”
“Truly?”
When Lucian nodded firmly, her trembling hands finally steadied.
“The physician was right. I must have been tense without knowing it.”
“……Was it because of the servant? Should I ask them to replace him right away?”
Instead of answering, Lucian paused to retrace his memories.
A new servant named Hugo had appeared in his bedroom, and the moment Lucian saw him, the headache struck. Then he collapsed.
‘Is he someone I know? But I couldn’t fail to recognize him if that were the case…….’
A small hand suddenly grasped Lucian’s. Only then did Lucian look back at Eloise.
“Did something happen between you and that servant?”
When sharp-eyed Eloise asked, Lucian fell silent as though she’d struck a nerve.
“So something did happen.”
“……I was just thinking about it for a moment. And there’s no need to replace him, Eloise.”
Even in his calm tone, Eloise didn’t readily drop her suspicious gaze.
Yet this time Lucian proved equally stubborn, and eventually Eloise relented, letting the matter rest.
“If you feel unwell or anything happens, call for me right away. Understood?”
“I will.”
Eloise checked on Lucian’s condition several more times, fussed over him at length, and only then returned to her own quarters.
Once fully awake, Lucian’s eyes were sharp and alert. He lay on his side and tried to sleep, but it was no use.
‘What if I had been in the Imperial Palace when I was young.’
If Hugo had been a servant working alongside him, his body might have recognized him first.
‘That’s more likely than being an Imperial Prince. Yes, he was probably a page.’
That thought brought him some comfort.
There was an enormous gap between acting as an Imperial Prince and actually being one.
And Lucian had no desire to shoulder secrets about his own birth—that he might truly be an Imperial Prince.
Of course, if he could, he wanted to know who his real parents were and why he had been abandoned.
But if by some chance he turned out to be royalty……the very thought exhausted him. Perhaps it was better not to know.
The only thing that troubled him was everyone’s reaction to him.
‘He really does look terrifyingly like his father.’
Not one or two, but several people had said something similar.
‘Do I really look that much alike? I can’t tell myself.’
He lay there thinking of this and that until sleep eventually came.
***
The 2nd Procedure took place at the Empress’s Palace.
‘Everyone who has claimed to be the Imperial Prince until now failed at the 2nd stage. But since you already know the answer, you’ll be fine. Just act as naturally as possible.’
The second test was peculiar. Or rather, bizarre.
The Special Task Force led Lucian to the Dining Hall. A long table already held a full breakfast.
When Lucian looked at them with a blank expression, the nearest official explained:
“Please don’t mind us. Just eat comfortably.”
“Is this the 3rd Procedure?”
“Yes, it is.”
Lucian pulled out a chair and sat. Without thinking, he first reached for the soup, and the smell made him grimace. The soup bowl held a red Tomato Soup.
He suffered every time he ate tomatoes—his skin would swell, and in severe cases he’d have difficulty breathing—so afterward he never put tomato in his mouth again.
‘Could even this be a problem?’
Thinking it over, he quietly pushed the soup bowl away. Instead, he chose a berry jam from the various options and spread it on crispy bread.
‘I can’t tell if the food is going into my mouth or my nose.’
With no appetite, Lucian forced himself to move his hands busily. All the while, he carefully avoided any dish containing tomato.
‘Surely they won’t think I’m being picky like a child.’
The Special Task Force watched and began recording something on Parchment.
When he finished with sliced apple for dessert, breakfast came to an end.
Lucian was then led to a small Salon. Once he sat at the Piano in the center, the next instruction came.
“Please play any piece you’re comfortable with.”
An official handed him a bundle of Sheet Music. Lucian feigned confusion as he flipped through it.
“Do you perhaps not know how to read Sheet Music?”
“No, it’s just been a while since I’ve sat at a piano.”
Lucian found the piece Danae had told him to choose, took a deep breath, and placed his fingers on the keys.
As he recalled Eloise’s face sighing that his Piano never improved, he let out a small laugh.
“…….”
Damn.
This was no time to laugh. From the opening notes, Lucian struck the wrong key.
Since the Imperial Prince Verification began, the Special Task Force had maintained a blank expression through every situation. Now shock flashed across their faces. Some even had to clench their lips to suppress laughter.
Lucian feigned composure and continued playing. As the piece reached its midpoint, the Special Task Force was thinking the same thing.
He was playing the notes correctly, so why did the melody sound so strange…….
What should have been bright and cheerful according to the composer’s intent came out gloomy.
“Haha, the performance is finished.”
When Lucian struck the final note correctly and stood, the Special Task Force nodded off in unison as if by prior agreement.
“Ahem, well…… we listened.”
After that, the Special Task Force seated Lucian at a desk to compose a letter of no particular importance, then took him to the Training Grounds and handed him a sword.
After riding around the hunting grounds once and catching a few small game, the day’s procedures were finally complete.
“Thank you for your efforts. The results will be announced tomorrow morning. Please rest well until then.”
The Special Task Force, as exhausted as Lucian himself, finished their guidance and disappeared into the distance.
Lucian, left alone in the Palace Courtyard, caught his breath.
‘Everything is revealed unconsciously. The 2nd Procedure is to confirm your habits and mannerisms. It’s to see if there’s anything that matches Imperial Prince Valencio’s habits.’
He chewed over the words of Danae, the princess he’d met at Shelf 512.
“Lucian!”
At that moment, when he turned at the sound of his name, Eloise was waving from across the courtyard.
Behind her stood a middle-aged man with thinning hair. Lucian had never seen him before, but he could sense immediately who the man was.
While Lucian was taking the 2nd test, the Emperor and Empress had summoned someone from the Abandoned Village where Lucian had been left and questioned them about him.
‘That man must be the one they questioned today.’
Of course, he was actually an actor Eloise had prepared in advance.
“You must be tired. How do you think it went?”
Eloise had by now reached Lucian’s side, asking brightly.
“Mm, I’m not sure.”
“Well, we’ll know tomorrow when the results come out. Come on.”
Eloise led Lucian toward the Imperial Palace Library.
***
“I subtly probed their reactions, and they weren’t bad. To be honest…….”
Imperial Palace Library, Basement, Shelf 512. The secret hideout of Princess Danae.
The princess paced back and forth, rattling off words excitedly. Eloise and Lucian sat side by side on her sofa.
“Quite positive, I’d say. You performed better than expected.”
At the princess’s words, a smile bloomed on Eloise’s previously expressionless face.
“Really?”
“You should pass the 2nd Procedure without issue. The real problem is what comes next…….”
Danae stopped abruptly and coughed. Her cheeks had flushed crimson.
“I am prepared for any test. So please speak freely.”
Reading the resolve in Lucian’s eyes, Danae released a sigh so deep it seemed the ground might cave in.
“The truth is, I don’t really know what the 3rd Procedure is either.”
“What?”
Eloise and Lucian stared at Princess Danae in shock.

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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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