Long Live the Emperor, Minus Me (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 42

He brushed aside all the plausible excuses. It was his honest feeling.

He felt his face flush at the utterly uncool words. He drank the fruit juice, deliberately ordered with ice to keep it cold, to cool down the heat.

“I see.”

Surprisingly, what came back was a gentle voice. Blanche answered calmly, her face neither mocking nor showing resentment.

“Then I won’t ask Her Majesty the Empress for instruction.”

Her compliance was so unexpected that Melchizedek himself, who had spoken up, was startled. He hastily set down his juice glass and tried to stop Blanche.

“What? No need for that. I just told you the reason because I wanted to know— I wasn’t pressuring you to quit.”

“But you dislike it.”

Faced with this straightforward truth, Melchizedek faltered. He couldn’t change his words so easily in an instant.

That was it. He disliked that whenever Blanche wanted something, she relied on someone else before turning to him.

If she had to seek someone else, he wished it would be for something he himself had refused to grant. Of course, there was no wish the Crown Prince couldn’t fulfill, so such a situation would never truly arise.

“But you wanted it yourself, didn’t you?”

It was a reward promised by the Empress of the Empire before everyone’s eyes. There must have been far more useful ways to use it—she could have asked for a research hall for her beloved scholars, permission to expand beyond the imperial palace, or even a favor for the Ramore Kingdom.

Yet what Blanche had requested was instruction from Liana. Was she really going to give it up so easily just because Melchizedek happened to dislike it?

Melchizedek had been confident that he ranked first in Blanche’s priorities. But that confidence merely meant he believed he was her number one—not that he assumed he held an overwhelmingly absolute position.

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