The Crown Prince looked at the refreshing drink and chuckled before looking up at Ricardo.

“Do you remember? I was the best dancer in this empire.”

The Prince shifted his gaze from Ricardo to his motionless toes.

“Well, I suppose you got that reputation because I hardly ever danced,” Ricardo replied.

At this, the Prince laughed incongruously. “Is that how the story goes?” he added, still chuckling.

“Mariette is having a hard time. She used to love dancing.”

Ricardo briefly recalled a couple sweeping across the dance floor, a sight anyone would call beautiful.

“Paralysis starts from the farthest point from the heart. My toes stiffened, then my legs, and eventually, it became hard to stand. Soon, I won’t be able to move my arms and hands, and finally, my heart will stiffen too.”

“…”

“It would be better if the heart stiffened first.”

Ricardo handed his glass to a servant and took a new one to offer to the Prince. Stuart gave a lifeless smile.

“I won’t drink.”

“Weren’t you enjoying it?”

“If I drink this, I’ll have to visit the restroom again, and that would inconvenience others.”

Stuart had always been an unusual royal. Normally, a Crown Prince does not endure discomfort for others. He doesn’t even consider it.

But he was different. Perhaps that’s why Ricardo had sought out Stuart that day. His wife must love him for these reasons too.

“I heard Mariette visited the ducal residence.”

“…”

“You understand. When I suddenly couldn’t walk and sat down, she acted as if she was paralyzed herself. No matter what I said, she wouldn’t accept it. I kept telling her it’s not that my life has shortened, but it has extended.”

Ricardo remained impassive. Truthfully, he didn’t understand the feelings of someone who had to leave something behind. He knew Mariette’s feelings logically, but couldn’t empathize.

What was he thinking on that day he’s the only one who remembers? He never even tried to recall. Until now, nothing was inconvenient for him.

Just days without enthusiasm and nights without sleep.

A today where he must rush towards an unwanted goal, and a tomorrow filled with inevitable despair.

“You were my age when you sought me out.”

“…”

“A lot has changed. That’s why Mariette is anxious.”

“Nothing has changed.”

“Mariette doesn’t really know you.”

Ricardo found that amusing. He didn’t even know himself well.

“Do you know me, Your Highness?”

“No, but I know the promise of that day. I know it’s a promise that can’t be broken lightly, and I know your nature for having made it, despite knowing that.”

“…”

“And I still know that the gods love me unusually.”

Ricardo downed the lukewarm champagne in his hand in one go. Stuart, so dearly loved by the gods, was destined to die soon.

His father, the current Emperor, was born in the year of the empire’s thousandth anniversary, hence named after the first Emperor. Wesley II, as ambitious as the founder, was obsessed with expanding the empire’s boundaries.

Under the shadow of the Rochester pillar, he made the empire stronger than ever. But unfortunately, when he received the emperor’s divine mandate, the labyrinth map was lost.

The emperor’s misfortune did not end there. His eldest son, Stuart, now had at most five years to live, ten if the gods were more merciful, but he would likely die within that time.
To Wesley II, it was a devastating reality that his powers as a royal were bestowed upon his dying son, Stuart. This might be the evidence of the gods’ unusual love for Stuart, as the soon-to-die Crown Prince believed.

An emperor without the Labyrinth’s map, a Crown Prince endowed with royal powers but unable to become the emperor.

No one in the empire was unaware of the emperor’s extreme anxiety. Thus, his next move was clear.

Though the onset of the illness was hidden, the obvious symptoms couldn’t be concealed. Unable to walk, the emperor would soon act. Even if Stuart were alive, the emperor would depose him from his position as Crown Prince and appoint another son as his successor.

Stuart had a five-year-old son. If Stuart died, his son would either be killed by his grandfather’s hands, die by his own father’s, or, unable to endure the world’s harshness, take his own life.

And so would Stuart’s wife.

That’s why Stuart welcomed Ricardo when he came to him. Perhaps Stuart considered this another sign of the gods’ exceptional love for him.

Regardless of the situation, wasn’t this too quick a change in stance?

Ricardo clicked his tongue at the sight of a group making a noisy entrance. Since when had the second prince dared to attend a gathering of the Crown Prince and heirs of the three great ducal families?

And so ostentatiously, leading people obviously favored by the emperor.

“He’s in a hurry.”

The Crown Prince seemed to have anticipated this, laughing resignedly.

“Is it a smart move since rumors spread quickly here?”

“It’s a foolish choice since it will confront him with enemies sooner.”

“That enemy being you, it’s indeed foolish.”

When scheming men desperately battle for her favor in the male harem

This one’s also on my reread list! The rivalry, scheming between the men in the imperial harem are just as intense and thrilling as in classic palace drama novels, where concubines fight to the death. Give it a read, girls! I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Synopsis:

“I am not worthy of her… but I still want to be by her side, even if only as a loyal dog…”

Those were the painful whispers of Yue Guanyi – the proud Crown Prince of the Great Qi, who was torn between deep love and a guilty conscience. Despite holding the supreme power of the Imperial Guard, he still could not forget the dark past when he was sold into a brothel.

Fate played a cruel twist when Qiu Shuzhi – a young female official who had just passed the imperial examinations with top honors – stepped into his life. She did not know that she was the one who had saved him from a tragic fate many years ago. And now, her heart was the target of pursuit for both Yue Guanyi and the powerful Empress Dowager Qin Qing.

While Yue Guanyi only dared to silently care for and protect the one he loved from afar, the  Empress Dowager Qin Qing openly expressed his feelings and did not hesitate to take advantage of his power to approach Qiu Shuzhi. The covert struggle between the two most powerful forces in the imperial court began…

Trigger warning: All men in this novel are yandere style.

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