Originally, one hit should have been enough, but since this body didn’t have a single bit of muscle, the power seemed to have been cut in half.
“What was that sound?”
“Did someone drop something in the kitchen?”
“No, it was the basement. I just heard it.”
‘I’m doomed.’
I could hear the servants whispering outside.
It seemed the sound of his heavy body hitting the floor had reached the outside after all.
From now on, it was a race against time.
There was no way I wanted to live a miserable life being sexually harassed and beaten in this crazy household, right?
I was a fool for briefly expecting the cozy and comfortable life of a Duke’s son.
‘Let’s run, I have to run.’
The only good thing the fat guy did was open the locked door.
I wasn’t some Agent 007, so how could a South Korean civil servant know how to pick a locked door?
I stepped over the fallen fat guy’s body, threw the door open, and began to walk at a brisk pace.
It was a relief that the room where I was locked up was in a secluded area.
Seeing that there wasn’t even a servant guarding the room, it seemed the original Ian Luces had been very submissive.
Good, everything is very fine so far.
To get out of the mansion, I had to go up the stairs to the first floor.
A secret door in the basement?
A secret passage for servants?
There was no way a possessed person like me could know that.
The only way out was through the main entrance.
I walked up the stairs quickly.
If I hadn’t run into a servant at the end of the stairs, I would have walked out of the main gate very smoothly, I swear.
“Uh, what. How did the Second Young Master…”
“…Could you look the other way just this once?”
“Uh, uh, Butler! Butler!!”
You crazy bastard, I will definitely remember your face. From then on, it was a sprint.
I started running toward the main entrance on the first floor with all my might.
From the second-floor stairs, I could hear the butler’s voice spotting me and shouting to the other servants, “Catch him!!”
Damn it, Ian Luces!
You don’t have any muscle at all!
To not train your body this much.
This is no way to treat a transmigrated person who used to have a six-pack!
Even though I sprinted for only about ten seconds from the stairs to the door, my breath caught at the top of my throat.
Leaving behind the servants who had quickly caught up to me, I opened the main door and began to sprint outside.
‘Because this house is unnecessarily wide!!!’
I made a vow.
I will absolutely never live in a grand mansion.
It was clear that Ian Luces’s miserable body would even struggle to go outside from the mansion through the garden.
In the end, panting heavily, I succeeded in making it out of the main gate.
“Pant… pant… pant…”
“Oh! Aren’t you the Second Young Master who went in earlier?”
“…I have to go out because of the Duke’s errand.”
“Ah, the Duke told me to have the carriage on standby. Then this…”
“Thank you.”
The carriage I had arrived in earlier was still standing in front of the main gate.
That crazy old Duke grandfather actually came in handy for once.
I gave a quick nod to the coachman and recklessly climbed into the carriage.
“Please leave immediately.”
“Uh… excuse me?”
“Quickly, I will give you a lot of money later. Leave, leave!!”
“Ye… yes, leaving right now!”
Looking out of the small window of the carriage at the servants running across the garden, I raised my middle finger.
Taste the South Korean flip, you crazy Westerners.
As the Duke’s mansion grew distant, the coachman began to drive the horses at the same speed as before.
Was he a rookie coachman?
He looked young.
Anyway, it was a relief he was an obedient new coachman.
“Um, Young Master. I couldn’t ask you earlier, but where should I take you?”
“……”
I had abandoned the only home and family that existed and come out.
Only then did the reality of having to live in an alternate world sink in.
I had truly become a complete stranger in this alternate world, with no home, no belonging, and no fake family.
If I went back to the Imperial Palace tomorrow and told the Emperor I wanted to be an official, would he accept me?
Wouldn’t he chop off my head, calling me arrogant?
Various thoughts crossed my mind, but first, I had to preserve my life even in this terrible world.
Right, my life before the possession wasn’t smooth either anyway.
“To the city… Please take me to the downtown area closest to the Imperial Palace.”
Knock, knock-
“Your Majesty, it is Sion.”
“Come in.”
The Emperor of the Valquia Empire, Leonel de Valquia, was in the middle of reading the documents that the second son of the Duke’s family had organized over several hours.
Ian Luces.
It was public knowledge that he was an illegitimate child born from the Duke’s infidelity, and an incompetent person who kept his head low and couldn’t even speak a word properly in public settings.
Judging by his attitude, one could tell how he was treated in the Duke’s family without even needing to report or hear about it.
However, that very Ian Luces had spoken clearly to him, the Emperor, without batting an eye in a meeting room gathered with high-ranking nobles.
Not only that, but he completed the assigned task in a way never heard or seen before.
A task that was thought to take at least a day was completed in just eight hours, perfectly flawless.
Even if there was a subtle tremor from tension in his tone, he was filled with certainty.
Because he had ended up staring blankly as the man spoke, his jewel-like green eyes sparkling through his long bangs.
Sion bowed politely toward the Emperor sitting at the office desk.
“Did you look into it?”
“Yes, this is information obtained from an internal servant of the Luces family, including Ian Luces’s recent movements. We could not confirm any circumstances where Ian Luces was recently called separately by Duke Luces to receive instructions. They say his heart is incredibly weak and timid, so he rarely comes out of his room in the first place.”
“Hmm…”
“But he didn’t look like such a person.”
The Emperor tapped the desk with his finger.
The people who were determined to ruin the country along with the late Emperor—among them, Duke Luces, who commanded a massive private army due to the privileges of the previous generation, was a person of primary concern.
He had faced the Young Duke, who would inherit the Duke’s family line, several times, but since he was a fool who showed no trace of the Duke’s cunning and dark feelings, he had felt relieved thinking he only needed to quietly deal with the Duke.
“I cannot be entirely certain. Whether that man is a spy or not.”
Every aspect of Ian Luces, who had suddenly turned into an active attitude, was highly suspicious.
If he had intended to infiltrate as an imperial official to smuggle out the imperial family’s data, he would have readily answered yes to the question of whether he wanted to become an imperial official.
“But he refused?”
And separate from that, he had shown truly magnificent work competence.
Leonel was not the type to reverse a question he had already asked once, but because he truly, sincerely wanted to bring him in as an imperial official, he asked again.
If a spy was suspected, wouldn’t it be a matter of keeping him close and watching him?
“Sion, was there anything particularly suspicious while you were guiding him?”
“Hmm, unexpectedly, he seemed to be quite an sociable person. Other than that… ah, right.”
“Did something cross your mind?”
“When he came out of the waiting room, his eyes were a bit bloodshot and blood-flushed. Like someone who had been shedding tears.”
Those tears had come from the relief and joy of realizing he was the son of a Duke and wouldn’t have to work anymore, but there was no way they could know this fact.
“That too is strange. I wonder if he carried out the order while crying because he was pressured by the Duke.”
Still, the Emperor was certain of one thing.
That Ian Luces was timid and weak, but he was someone who did his work absolutely perfectly.
“Is there no particular news from the Guild?”
“Ah, as it happens, I received a message from the Bielba Guild stating that they discovered an attempt to leak magic crystals and magic crystal utilization technology—which are export-ban items—to another country, so they requested a visit.”
“Is that so? That works out well, let’s leave right now.”
Sion glanced at the clock. 9:00 PM.
There was probably no one more sincere about the country’s safety and management than the Emperor of this nation.
Of course, because of that, a free evening time did not exist for Sion.
Nevertheless, he handed the cloak and ring to Leonel with a smiling face.
As Leonel slipped the ring onto his index finger, his eyes stained black, looking like a completely different person.
“Let’s go.”
