The Emperor Who Was Chapter 56 : Chapter 56

Chapter . 56

‘To think his back gave out when he is so young. That is a disease at that level.’

I brought a friend, yet my older brother was acting delightfully shaful.

I would have been angry even if he did it on purpose, but Maximilian originally had a hobby of bathing. He built a large bath to bathe with his friends, and they ate, drank, and played inside it.

Such a culture erged as commoners, who utilized public bathhouses unlike nobles who had bathrooms in their hos, used bathhouses as places for romance and social interaction. Since everything from prostitution to wedding feasts happened inside bathhouses, the Traneha Order detested them as dirty hotbeds of evil and disease.

-Bastards really cannot be helped.

-A lowly guy doing lowly things.

Maximilian, who openly ridiculed the bloodlines of Alexander and Desmond like that, unhesitatingly brought whatever pleased him into the Imperial Palace, even if it was commoner culture.

Then those two were dying of vexation.

However, I detested dropping food into bathwater, and I also had absolutely no desire to show the scar on my chest to others.

“If you ca, you should have sought out your older brother imdiately; why must I call for you to co, Leontes?”

An animal with neither clothes nor a spine spoke while lying in a bath where rose petals and dicinal herbs floated, his sturdy two shoulders draped over the edge. A maid was applying perfud oil to his hair, which was as black as crow feathers. I wanted to chop off that long hair with the rose petals sticking to it using cutting magic. Along with the part that would be under the rose petals.

“Prince Leontes, greetings.”

“Welco, Prince.”

Two other knights, who greeted

politely albeit naked, were also in the bath together.

In front of them was a long and narrow makeshift table placed across the edges of the bath, with food and alcohol set upon it. The table was made of silver to detect poison in the bathwater.

Without asking for my opinion, my older brother said to them.

“I will bathe alone with my brother.”

At that, the two nodded, then stood up and left, dangling in the front and showing their bare buttocks in the back. I was about to snap at my brother to stop talking nonsense, but the unsightly appearance left

speechless. I, too, had dread of the essential hospitality procedure that always appears in knightly romances, where a knight errant arrives at a castle, bathes while being attended by noble ladies, and then listens to the lord’s request… but not like this.

‘Not dressing properly even in front of a forr emperor!’

But I could not show my displeasure. If I did, I would receive glares from the knights for being a knight in na only who had not gone through group training life since squiredom. Especially when my brother, who had never been a squire either, mingled with knights without reserve and was highly popular. If Grimiati was the flower of chivalry praised by noble ladies, my brother was the noblest knight praised by knights.

-First Prince Maximilian is the incarnation of Emperor Carolus the Great, who bathed with his guard knights in the old days!

-The one born of the noblest bloodline treats knights like brothers!

‘If he actually treated his full brother or half-brothers like brothers, those words would vanish.’

However, the attendants were already bringing fresh hot water, and the maids were approaching to undress . If I refused here, unlike my brother, it would be seen as refusing to bathe with knights. In a way, this was my brother showing

hospitality that did not exist before my regression.

In fact, I did not dislike mingling with knights without reserve. As soone who had lost the position of prince and was banished, I could do it better than my brother.

But I did not want to show the scar on my body.

‘People demand that a monarch be a perfect existence.’

Because of that, when showing rcy to a deposed monarch or a loser of a succession war by sparing their life, they would gouge out the eyes to ruin the face first. They removed the testicles too, though.

Even without such scars, if one did not et people’s standards, they remained in history with nicknas like the Fat King, the Bald King, the Short King, or the Bastard King. I would likely beco the Scarred Emperor.

Of course, I could hide it temporarily with eye-deception magic.

‘But…….’

Before the regression, Rhiannon and her son had also branded

and then covered it with magic, but my brother had seen through it. It was my brother who discovered the traces of that magic on .

It was not that I could not guess how my brother did it, but I did not want to take the risk anyway.

“No, why did you bring that guy?”

Fortunately, before I could answer, my brother spotted Desmond and frowned.

“You saw him just now? Since he is prone to lying down, how can he secure a view of the front like that?”

“Did everyone hear that? My brother beca a knight and now talks like a knight, hahaha!”

“Hahahaha!”

A dog barked. Other dogs barked along. Even if I wanted to leave him be whether he lived like that or died, he was so pathetic that, as a forr emperor, I could not stop scolding him.

“If you lie down everywhere like that, you will end up lying down on the battlefield as well.”

“This guy is saying all sorts of cheeky things?”

The dog suddenly stood up on two legs and growled. Rose petals were sticking to his lower body; I wanted to permanently attach them with adhesion magic.

Reinhard quickly draped a gown over that steaming body. He is a loyal subject who saved my eyesight.

“Since you are lying down every ti I see you, how am I to know if you are a brother or a cow?”

“What did you say? In honor of you becoming a knight, I tried to grant you the honor of bathing with , but if you behave so rudely, I will never invite you to my bath again! Know that you will not be able to join the world of real knights now!”

‘Keep that word, please!’

“Brothers, stop it!”

While the older brothers were debating the grave issues of bathing and lying down, the youngest intervened.

“This is not the ti. As Brother Maximilian said, it is ti for the three of us to bathe side by side and talk openly.”

He was throwing ashes into the ready bathwater. You do it alone with him.

“Don’t the three of us have a lot to talk about?”

Desmond said, looking at

significantly. I denied it imdiately.

“No.”

“What? Then are you saying you will only talk to Marquis Steiner, whom you have allied with?”

Since it was a cheeky remark, I simply denied it, but if I refused the reason he deliberately offered first, I would not be a politician.

“Of course. What were you doing when he allied with ? I do not even rember. Shall I ask Her Majesty the Empress?”

Without even looking at how Desmond’s face changed, I turned to my brother.

“You as well, Brother. You call

brother only with words, but in the end, the only person who allied with

and helped

was Brother Alexander.”

“Calling a bastard ‘Brother’!”

The First Prince, who had revealed his knights’ testicles and bare buttocks to , condemned my etiquette.

“Am I not the only one you should call Brother? How can my only younger brother be this foolish! As your older brother, it is lantable!”

His shock was genuine. To the point where even Desmond, who suddenly beca not his brother in front of the knights, was too dumbfounded to protest.

“Then what have you, who only claims to be a brother in words, done for ?”

“Bastards are originally supposed to flatter like that. He must have done so even more because he wanted sothing from you. To think you have already fallen for him, it is pathetic.”

My brother reprimanded .

“Is it not better than falling for a biological brother who insists on talking openly without reservation when we have not even ford an alliance?”

“How foolish. If we were to form an alliance, naturally you should have proposed to

first! Then I might have accepted. But far from doing that, you grabbed Steiner’s hand as soon as he reached out, aiming for that gap! Do you not see his plot to drive a wedge between us brothers!”

My brother scolded

sternly.

“It was a pleasant conversation, like a play. Then, goodbye.”

When I turned away, my brother got angrier.

“How can you follow a bastard like that while disregarding , your biological brother!”

“You also despised , your biological brother, just fine. You do not seem to rember; perhaps because your body is always lying down, your brain is lying down as well.”

“This fellow dares!”

“Then, shall we form an alliance?”

Desmond kept interrupting the conversation of biological brothers. Is it because he lacks a biological brother of his own to fight with? Soone bring him one.

“If we need an alliance to discuss important matters with each other, can’t we just form an alliance?”

“My clever younger brother, did you get permission from Her Majesty the Empress?”

Desmond flared up, but it seed he had built up so tolerance in the anti.

“Did you get permission from Imperial Father, Brother? Even if we form an alliance, isn’t it that we cannot do anything without Imperial Father’s permission?”

“Then do you intend to do things Imperial Father would not permit as a prince of this country? How sad, a traitor will erge from the Lauderdale family!”

I cast a pitiful glance at the Lauderdale people. Whether my brother’s knights giggled or not, the Lauderdale knights were terrified and turned their heads away, and Desmond beca even more indignant.

“Stop pretending only you are the filial son in that manner, it is disgusting!”

“I am a filial son, so I do not need to pretend to be one. Shouldn’t you do so at least occasionally? Do not terrify your cousins.”

At that, my brother’s knights, who were also cousins to us all, laughed louder. I had not treated them as cousins either, but they were guys who were worse to Desmond. As if implying that Desmond’s only cousins were the Lauderdales. As if saying that to take the Lauderdales as cousins, he had to give up taking them as cousins. In the civil war before the regression, the Lauderdale knights and my brother’s knights were rciless to each other.

“Oh, my dear younger brother princes are having a pleasant conversation.”

And Alexander appeared. Desmond, who had been fighting with his half-brothers, quickly welcod his biological brother.

“Did you eavesdrop on our conversation?”

“A Sword Master has excellent senses.”

And while Desmond and I were arguing, Maximilian, who had finally thrown off his gown and received assistance to dress and beco a human, welcod Alexander.

“I am the First Prince, and the First Prince of Armatia has no older brother.”

“When my wisest younger brother heard sothing similar, he said to tell that to Imperial Father. It truly evokes admiration.”

They say there are no secrets in the Imperial Palace, but hearing him nonchalantly mimic my words was amusing.

“Prince Leontes is being insulted like this for the reason that he allied with ; how can I stay still?”

As the Sword Master’s eyes flashed, the flow of air in the space fluctuated. Whether it was my brother’s knights, the Lauderdale knights, or my Sir Rolf, everyone flinched. Even the ferocious Sir Edward lowered his eyes. Even if ordinary people could not sense it, knights had developed senses.

Maximilian and Desmond still did not show it. Rather, they only looked at the power he exerted with greedy eyes.

“No matter how angry the two are at , how would they dare touch , the Sword Master’s ally and the one receiving Imperial Father’s favor in one body?”

I was the strongest individual here, but pretending to be weak while talking about alliances and favor was a bit difficult. It was fortunate that my original personality was humble.

“However, if Brother Alexander insists on stepping up for , I would like you to grant one favor.”

“Anything, if it is the Prince’s request.”

Of course, Alexander did not refuse. The matter of teaching Michelon imdiately.

“Such a simple request can be sufficiently granted out of brotherly affection; it would be even better if it were a proposal to show off our alliance.”

“I will think about it gradually.”

Because for a proposal of that magnitude, he would demand a corresponding price.

“I am boundlessly happy that the Prince receives the favor of His Majesty the Emperor. Even if that favor disappears, I alone will always be by the Prince’s side.”

“You say you are happy with words, but it seems you are waiting with clasped hands for the day my younger brother loses Imperial Father’s favor.”

It was comfortable having a biological brother say what I would have said to a half-brother.

“Favor is solely His Majesty’s will, whether the sun rises or rain falls, so it is no different from the laws of nature. I am rely expressing my intention to be together whether on a foul day or a fair day.”

It seems a Sword Master wields his tongue with mana as well as his sword.

“Let us all be honest. Even without borrowing the power of a bath. Brother Leontes, Imperial Father’s favor continues only while you follow Imperial Father’s will. It might be poignant for you, Brother, who did not receive Imperial Father’s attention, but you have practically handed over your biggest card for the cheapest price.”

While we were engaging in a so-called elegant courtly argunt, the youngest, who was alone serious to the point of dying from frustration, spoke grimly.

“Am I the only one seeing the problem right now?”