You, My Devil

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Chapter 3

“As you said, you seem to be ignoring the important facts because you’re covered in blood on the battlefield, younger brother.”

Pesis, with his jet-black hair hanging long over his shoulder, looked at Yuri and spoke in a soft voice. Sitting obliquely in a chair decorated in gold, Nike watched the fight pretending that it was a conversation between the two brothers without saying a word.

“Then the wise Brother Pesis should teach me a few tricks. What I don’t know about. I know you are busy honing your poison-making skills by staying in the basement every day.”

Without knowing that Pesis’ deep black eyes seemed to shine brightly towards Yuri for a moment. He smiled softly again and spoke quietly.

“Younger brother, as you said, it is customary for the Emperor and ministers to hold a meeting every year to decide the organizer of the rain festival.”
“That’s what I mean, Brother Pesis. So, aren’t you saying that you should put your hands off it now?”

Yuri did not hide his emotions and smiled softly. Yuri himself knew best how much the ministers feared him.

Hosting the rain festival meant demonstrating one-on-one communication with God in front of the people. For the past 5 years, the organizer of the event was the second prince Pesis, and Yuri was excluded from the choices due to the fact that he was young. This year was finally the year of Yuri’s coming-of-age ceremony, so he thought there was nothing in his way.

Pesis opened his mouth again with a deep voice.

“The ministers want the main descendants, my dear brother.”

As soon as the word ‘main descendant’ came out of Pesis’s mouth, Yuri’s eyebrows soared upward, and his face turned to ice.

Main descendant.

Everyone in the palace knew that Yuri was not a descendant of the royal family, but no one spoke out about it. Instead of answering, Yuri turned his gaze on the Emperor Nike, who was sitting at the top, with an angry look. There was no way that the Emperor could not have noticed in advance of such an absurd trick.

“It seems that the number of enemies you have defeated during the war is not enough to satisfy the ministers, son. If you look at the fact that there are still ministers who insist on lineage. Heh heh.”
Although the years have passed, Emperor Nike, who retains the cruel eyes of a war maniac, bursts into laughter at Yuri. His mouth was smiling, but his sharp eyes were not.

This was the competition between the princes of Nike, which had been held since birth, above their relationship with their Emperor and father, Nike.

His attitude of constantly testing the children was to the point where Yuri clenched his teeth. He made a cracked voice as if spitting out bitter medicine.

“That’s right, Your Majesty the Emperor. Before going to war, I think it would have been better to cut off the heads of those who carry the main bloodlines first.”
“Yuri!! what is that… !”

When Pesis stopped Yuri, Yuri twisted the corners of his mouth.

“I’m joking, Brother Pesis.”
“Haha….”

Emperor Nike laughed out loud with a disinterested expression. Pesis was still staring at Yuri with a cold gaze.

“You’re too rude, younger brother. This place is different from a battlefield. Never forget that eyes and ears are a palace all over the place.”

The murderous energy that had been hidden from Pesis’ eyes arose. Even now, he had hoped to cut Yuri’s head, but his father, the Emperor, Nike, was, as always, tolerant of his youngest child.

It was the same for Pesis towards the Emperor who put a dirty blood like Yuri on the same line as him and tested himself.

Yuri snorted and looked at Pesis.

“Yes, I will be especially careful in front of Brother Pesis from now on. You must be very busy preparing for the three days left for the rain festival, then I will leave.”

After bowing politely to Emperor Nike, Yuri turned around and left the audience room.

His breathing was harsh. Yuri was angry all the way to the end of his head. Who else but him made the greatest contribution to conquering Constance, the last gateway to Nike’s territorial expansion?

Yuri bit his teeth tightly. If he didn’t release his accumulated anger, he thought he would go crazy at any moment.
He grabbed his hunting gear and rode his horse to the desert. His black horse created a sandstorm and quickly moved away. At this moment, Yuri desperately wanted to see blood. And he looked forward to the day when he would one day have Pesis’ blood on his hands.

***

The desert at night was quiet.

Granada, the capital of Nike.

The Palace of Nike was located in the middle of the city formed around an oasis in the desert, and a large sand dune surrounded the city after passing through the surrounding towns and residential areas.

Sand dunes in the desert that disappear and reappear with the wind several times a day. Nomadic peoples have been wandering there for hundreds of years.

They fought the sandstorm and put their children to sleep in the severe cold, and hunted in the scorching desert during the day. According to a legend passed down from mouth to mouth, beyond the sand dunes lies a fertile land flowing with milk and honey.

The Emperor of Nike made the legend a reality and showed it before their eyes. He expanded the territory by war, and allowed people to plant crops on lands that were not barren. The nomadic peoples who were divided into hundreds of tribes and lived a nomadic life followed and revered him as a manifestation of a god. It was only natural that a powerful imperial court was established under his power.

Constance was formed along rivers and seas, and despite its small country, it was a country that developed culture and art from an early age. However, they were helpless in the face of Nike’s military power, which they ridiculed as barbaric.

The collapse of a nation that had never been invaded was swift. One year after Constance became a colony of Nike, a large number of Nike citizens migrated to Constance and absorbed their culture.

The macroscopic goal of the Nike immigrants politically was to accept Constance’s advanced technology and make it Nike’s. Instead of killing the imperial nobles of Constance, Nike took them to the capital and took them hostage.

When the Emperor, the Empress, and their only princess, Heina, were taken to Granada, the capital of Nike, many of Constance’s people were willing to move to the barren land of Nike. It was also the sincerity of the people of Constance who did not give up hope of reclaiming the country as long as the old royal family were alive, although they had to maintain a slave life.
Three days later, the news of the rain festival in the capital of Nike made Granada excited. Only the people of Constance, who were living there, exchanged worried glances with each other.

“Did you hear that Princess Heina will be sacrificed as a living sacrifice in this rain festival?”
“No, you mean that’s true? This… they’re horribly cruel people….”
“Shh. Watch what you say. Besides, it was said that the prince who will be in charge of this rain festival has almost been decided as Prince Yuri. In the name of making the greatest contribution in the war.”
“If it’s Yuri….”
“The fourth prince, the most cruel of the Nike family, to say the least.”
“Oh my God, that red-haired devil that killed Arzen before his father’s eyes?”
“Yes. But I heard from a merchant from Constance that there are secretly strange rumors circulating there.”
“Rumors, what are you talking about?”
“… Come closer.”
“Why are you looking around like that, please tell me.”
“There are rumors that Arzen is actually alive, not dead. Right before the match with Prince Yuri, the imperial family exchanged knights. That’s why they’re secretly recruiting Constance’s Independence Army. But how can you believe it before you see it with your own eyes?”
“Even if it’s a glimmer of hope, I want to hold onto it. Sir Arzen is capable enough to resurrect our Constance….”
“Ugh, the Nike soldiers of Nike are coming!! Quickly bow your head.”

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