Dungeon of the inner court…

Nier walked at a relatively fast pace. She sneezed as she pa.s.sed through the complicated pa.s.sages with a fire torch in hand. She finally saw the empress dressed in black deep inside the prison. The empress was kneeling down and gently caressing a black hound’s head by her side. When the hound stood up, it was taller than a human. Its eyes didn’t look friendly like a pet-dog. To the contrary, its eyes were filled with aggression. It resembled a wolf more than a hound.

However, the wolf obediently knelt by the empress’s side, not even daring to wag its tail. It was afraid of the empress. Even a wild animal is afraid of the empress.

“Your majesty!”

“Oh, Nier, you’re here. Come over here and tell me if it was these people.”

The empress looked at Nier who knelt down on one knee before her. She stood up and rubbed her head. She then waved her hand, and the Valkyries on both sides responded by extended their hands which shone a light on the dying women who was kneeling before the empress. Their bodies were covered in blood and wounds. Their hands and legs were bent and contorted in odd ways. They must’ve been subjected to torture just before.

Nier nodded and said: “That’s right. Those are the women that touched his majesty in the brothel. That should be the boss-lady of the brothel, and this lady is…”

She reached her hand out, grabbed the lady by her black hair and lifted it up as if she were harvesting a carrot. The lady had already lost her tongue and teeth, so she could barely make a sound. She scanned everything around her lifelessly. If her mouth and nose weren’t still trembling, then n.o.body could’ve told that she was still alive.

“This one is the one his majesty chose.”

The empress waved her hand and Nier knew to let go. The empress pressed down on the black lady’s face with her knee. She raised her head up so that she was looking at the empress with her lifeless eyes. One of the Valkyries who stood to a side took out a small bottle, and then poured it down her mouth full of blood. A moment later, her lifeless eyes and body were replenished with life, albeit her eyes still looking terrified. She mumbled something as she looked at the empress.

“Black hair… Black eyes… Hmmm… So my son likes this type, huh…?”

Nier quietly said from behind: “Your majesty, you have black hair and black eyes.”

The empress froze for a moment, and then spun around to look at Nier. Her expressionless look suddenly turned into a shy smile. She reached her hand out and roughly rubbed Nier’s face, and giddily said: “That’s right! That’s right! I… I have black hair and black eyes!! I… Yeah, I do!! This woman… My son uses me as his standard for desirable women! My son… I’m the woman in his heart! It’s me!!”

Nier, whose face was getting rubbed and squished into all sorts of different forms by the giddy empress, spent a lot of effort to say: “Y-your majesty… I… I think… Being seen as a woman… By your s-… Isn’t… Good…”

“No, no no! That goes to show that I have a place in his heart. It shows that I’m a woman that he wants to keep in his heart forever. I get it. I get it. I was once told that men look for women that resemble their mother. It looks like my son has accepted me as his mother! He sees me as his mom, and not some blonde woman!”

The empress, still giddy, let go, crouched down and happily rubbed the hound’s head. The happiness of the empress seemed to rub off onto the hound, as it stuck its tongue out and panted excitedly.

“All is good, all is good. I’m very happy!!”

The empress stroked the face of the lady with black hair. The lady with black hair cried tears of joy. After the empress reached her hand out, the Valkyries by her side dragged the black-haired lady out, leaving just a few women behind.

“You people dared to touch my son with your dirty hands…”

The empress wore a cold smile as she raised a bowl of blood up and poured it down onto the women, completely drenching them in the scent of blood. The hound got stimulated and stood up. However, without the empress’s orders, it could only pant excitedly and didn’t rush over.

“I’ll forgive that woman. But as for you, I will never forgive you. I will only allow my son to marry a woman I approve of. As for offing you s.l.u.ts, let’s just interpret it as me doing some purification work… No, wait… That’d be somewhat boring…”

The empress was supposed to order the hound to jump them then, but just as she was about to wave her hand, she hesitated. She then whispered into Nier’s ear and Nier nodded. The empress elegantly turned around. Her cape which her son held in his hand was now soaked with blood. After she left the dungeon, Nier and the Valkyries left as well.

No one would find out that there was a hound that hunted humans down there once…

And the hound was the victor.

Day two…

I left the palace again and went with Nier to that street filled with the stench of sulphur.

I’m in a really good mood today. It was the first time I’d been called awake by a beauty dressed in a maid uniform. This is the isekai life that everybody else and I desire. You need a maid that wakes you up. It’s a must. The elf was kidnapped during the war ten years ago. At the start, she just carried out simple maid work, nothing of “that” sort. She was given to the creditors to mess with after the n.o.ble family went bankrupt a few months ago. After the creditors got bored of her, they sold her off.

Women are nice to have, but money is still more comforting.

Her name is Luna. However, she just won’t believe that I’m the elf prince. I initially thought she’d recognise me.

“The prince must be a pure-blooded elf. He can’t be a half-blood! So you can’t possibly be the prince of elves!”

Well, nothing I can do about it… And there’s no need for me to prove I’m the prince either…

Nier left in a rush last night and came back without being covered in blood in any form, so it indicated that she didn’t kill anyone last night.

I almost got lost this morning. I went according to the path I took the first time so I used the brothel as one of the checkpoints, but when I got there this morning, it was no longer there. It had been replaced by a bank… They couldn’t have changed owners overnight, right? I queried the manager, but the manager of the bank swore that he’d been operating his bank here for over ten years and that I’d made a mistake.

I noticed the yellow flag overhead and felt a little stupid…

Did I really get lost…?

“Big sis! Big sis! You’re back!”

After I jumped over a puddle of water, a group of kids gathered around. They ignored me and flocked to Nier who was behind me. They surrounded Nier and chattered endlessly. You just met her yesterday, why are you acting like you’re having a family reunion…?

Nier smiled and crouched down. She reached her hand out to scrub their heads. When will this gentle version of Nier treat me… I smiled helplessly and leaned on the wall to watch them. I’m in no rush. I just came to check on the progress. The kids surrounded Nier and I could tell that she really liked kids.

“Oh yeah, I brought some candy for you today.”

After they greeted each other, Nier took out the small bag of candy from her belt. She opened it and placed a ball of candy into their dirty hands. The kids cheerfully put the candy in their mouth and loudly exclaimed: “Thank you, big sis!”

“You don’t have to thank me. It was his maj-… Ahem… It was this mister here that bought it for you.”

The kids turned their attention to me. I lazily raised one hand and said with a smile: “Just thank Nier. I bought it for you because of Nier. There’s no need to thank me.”

The kids cheerfully laughed out loud. One of the slightly older boys excitedly looked at us and shouted: “In that case! Big brother! Are you two lovers or husband and wife?!”

“Uhh…”

Look at your big sis, Nier’s gaze. What sort of wife or girlfriend do you think would look at her husband or boyfriend like she’s looking at trash like that…

Translator Comment: Someone once said (directed towards me) “Or he could be a decent human being and not be an a.s.shole about it? Be the better man instead of a child?”

I took the advice to heart. I ascended from human into king status. And I also decided to become a better man, instead of a child.

But a “better man” was too vague of a definition, so I followed the synonymous version of it and followed the advice to become a bigger man.