I Became the Master of the Empress

298

Could it be because Valoran received a large sum of money?

Nothing significant happened until Debian’s birthday passed three times.

No, it would be more accurate to say indifference.

He was so indifferent that he didn’t even show up for Debian’s first birthday.

However, Fulvia found comfort in Valoran’s lack of interest.

If Valoran’s interest were greater, it might mean more danger for Debian.

Moreover, Octavia cherished Debian dearly.

She had vaguely come to understand the reason she could not meet Roden again.

Fulvia and young Octavia did their utmost to protect Debian, circling around him.

When Fulvia had to leave for some business, Octavia thought she would guard Debian’s side and prevent Valoran’s bullying in her own way.

Anyway, Debian grew up without incident until he turned three.

Around the time he turned three.

Pulvia sought to protect her son by frequently meeting with the nobles within the Grand Duchy and Alfred, forming alliances to ensure Debian’s safety.

Her struggle to prevent Valoran from killing Debian.

But for her, this struggle was crucial.

It was a hope that might save her son.

One day.

In the moment when Pulvia was meeting with the Grand Duchy nobles to empower Debian.

“Your Grace, the Grand Duchess, um… Princess Octavia has come to visit.”

Pulvia, who was in the midst of a tea party with the nobles, found it hard to comprehend.

“My daughter?”

Confused, Pulvia soon fell into a spiral of anxious thoughts.

“Surely…?”

She rose from her seat and began to run towards the door.

There were many nobles present, and she should have maintained her composure, but Pulvia had no capacity to care about their gazes.

‘Debi… Debi….’

When she met Octavia.

“Mom! This is bad!”

Tears welled up in Octavia’s eyes.

She cried out in despair.

“Debi! What happened to Debi?”

Octavia nodded her head.

“Dad took Debi away! I tried to stop him with my body, but he pushed me aside and took Debi! What do we do?”

Pulvia’s expression hardened.

“I’ll go and try to stop him. Where did he take him?”

“To the military training grounds!”

At those words, Pulvia nodded.

“I’ll head there, so please call Ambassador Alfred to come there.”

“Okay… I will!”

Octavia nodded, wiping her tears.

Pulvia hurried towards the military training ground.

The Grand Duke and the surrounding soldiers coldly gazed at the blazing ruins of the building.

“Could it be…?”

A moment of fear surged through Pulvia as she instinctively sensed that Deviant was inside the inferno.

The building was so dilapidated it could collapse at any moment.

If she entered, she could die.

But….

‘If I don’t go in, Devi will surely die.’

With that thought, Pulvia steeled her resolve and grasped the door of the burning building with her bare hands, pushing through the intense heat.

“Ahhh!”

The doorknob was too hot, and Pulvia lost her grip.

Yet, undeterred, she glared at the doorknob with fierce determination, gripping it tightly and turning.

***

Pulvia, here my mother is truly kind.

Even I, who had never known the warmth of parental love, could realize that this is what parental affection feels like.

But in stark contrast, Valoran…

Was worse than the human monsters depicted in the novel.

The moment I was rescued, the sight of my mother inflicting violence was so unbelievable that her hands showed no mercy.

“Devi? Are you hurt anywhere?”

My mother, holding me close, gently stroked my head with her blistered hand.

“Mom, doesn’t your hand hurt?”

As I softly touched the blisters on her hand, my mother frowned.

“Ouch… When did this happen?”

“Does it hurt?”

When I cautiously asked, she merely smiled.

“Yeah, it hurts a little. But for an adult, this is nothing.”

Having lived as an adult, I knew well.

Even adults feel pain.

“Phew….”

Tears welled up in my mother’s eyes as she spoke.

Is it tears shed from pain?

– Hugs!

My mother holds me tightly.

She murmurs in a soft voice.

“I saved you, this time I really saved you….”

What did she save?

Is she saying she saved me?

To be honest, I’m so confused right now.

I fell asleep after reading a novel, and didn’t I wake up in a burning building? In the story… as the son of the villain, no less?

On top of that, I have memories of this being called Deviant that I don’t understand.

Experiencing such a bizarre situation for the first time, I don’t know what’s what.

Could it be a dream?

I think that, but this phenomenon is not a dream.

The place where Valoran hit me still throbs.

And this strange phenomenon hasn’t stopped.

I fell asleep hoping that maybe I would return to my original world when I wake up, but….

“Devi? Did you sleep well?”

My sister Octavia, with her black hair, simply smiles to wake me.

– Pat pat.

“Hehe, so cute.”

– Kiss!

As she strokes my head with her delicate hands, her expression of happiness feels so endearing.

“Ugh, thank you.”

Even my voice, which sounds off, feels unfamiliar….

And so I adapted to this place.

For two years, I lived peacefully under the care of my mother and sister Octavia.

In the meantime, Mary was also born.

My mother let out a sigh of relief that I wasn’t a son.

I adapted to this place, and when I was about to turn five,

changes began in my life.

Balorang appeared in my mother’s room.

A sight rarely seen on ordinary days.

He looked down at me with a cold gaze.

“What… what is it?”

As my mother hid me behind her and spoke to Balorang, he continued to stare at me intently.

“I hear you can already write?”

Gripping the hem of my mother’s dress, I looked at Balorang, and his eyes were filled with deep greed.

“Yes, Devi is a smart child.”

There was a subtle tremor in my mother’s voice as she said this.

Did I study too hard for no reason?

As soon as I fell into this place, I worked diligently to learn to write.

Writing is the foundation for acquiring knowledge.

But mastering an entirely new script proved more difficult than I had anticipated, and after two years, I could read and write with ease.

That day, I felt Octavia’s jealous gaze, but it led to rumors spreading within the Empire that I was a prodigy.

Could that be why?

Is that why Balorang came to find me?

“That’s good to hear. Then starting tomorrow, I will assign you a tutor.”

He said only that and left.

Was that all he came for?

And the tutors Balorang assigned were three in total.

A swordsmanship instructor, a military science teacher, and a ruler’s studies teacher.

And…

“Haah… Haah…”

Training a five-year-old with a sword that weighed as much as 2 kg was nothing short of madness.

“Confucius, the enemy won’t spare you just because you’re tired!”

– Thwack!

“Ahh!”

I shuddered at the brutal methods of education that bordered on child abuse.

But that wasn’t all.

Under the guise of physical training, they made the five-year-old run five laps around the training grounds or perform a hundred horizontal and vertical cuts each day.

—

All these actions were wrapped up in the morning, and from the afternoon, I learned about military science.

“Confucius! If you don’t impose strict discipline on the soldiers, in the moment of death, they will all turn to the enemy!”

“We should position the riflemen in the rear. We can attack from a distance using mana.”

“While a tight formation is good for blocking the enemy’s maneuvers, it inevitably increases the damage from rifles and magic.”

The wars here were vastly… no, very different from the wars I had learned about in movies or books.

And from evening until dawn, I studied the art of kingship.

The kingship here was exceedingly harsh from a modern perspective.

Nobles maintained their decorum among themselves, while those who were not nobles were thoroughly oppressed and persecuted.

“If you let one or two go, you’ll have to let a hundred go later!”

“Nobility is a noble lineage bestowed by the gods; showing mercy to commoners only encourages them to crawl up.”

I was forced to learn a plethora of things that were hard to understand with such common sense.

Well, if it was just about learning, it wouldn’t be such a big problem…

Then, after the first week, I took an exam, and that night, Valoran came to see me.

“I received the results of this week’s exam. Deviant.”

“There were five mistakes in three subjects… Get down.”

As I obeyed Valoran’s words and lay down, he spoke nonchalantly.

“That’s 50 lashes, ten for each mistake.”

“What? Honey? Fifty lashes will kill Devi!”

“Exactly. Fifty lashes? That’s a punishment for criminals!”

Fifty lashes?

It wasn’t like I had made a lot of mistakes. Five mistakes out of a total of eighty questions could be considered a mere oversight, but Valoran shook his head as if to say otherwise.

“Shut up! Deviant is the future Grand Duke. It is absolutely unacceptable to make mistakes on such easy questions!”

He began to swing the switch at my backside.

-Slap.

“Ah!”

“Count the numbers every time I hit you.”

Was it because my body was still young? It hurt more than I expected.

“If you don’t count, it will be void!”

At his shout, I trembled and began to count.

“Ugh! One, two….”

—

Even if my butt burst and blood flowed, Valoran did not stop, and my mother stepped in to block him.

“Dear? Please stop! This can hardly be seen as discipline any longer!”

As my mother reached out to grab Valoran’s arm, he slapped Fulvia across the face.

“Eek!”

“W-what, Mom?!”

“Shut up! If you interfere with what I’m doing, neither you nor your daughter will be safe!”

Knowing how insane Valoran was, I tried to stop my mother.

“Mother! I… I’m fine, so please don’t worry?”

Was it because I stepped in to speak?

My mother bit her lip and turned her head away.

-Slap!

-Slap!

“Oh… fifty!”

After taking those hits, I lost consciousness.