Eek—!
Sasha didn’t spare even a sliver of interest for the person in front of him who looked like they were about to stop breathing. If more than ten people acted like that all day, anyone would stop caring.
Besides, something was even more serious than their reactions.
These were a disaster.
Sasha reached out toward the administrator handing him a report with a hand that was trembling violently.
“Don’t leave. Wait.”
The moment he flipped through it, the administrator tried to flee as if running for their life. Sasha held them there, and within minutes he drew line after line in red ink and shoved the report back.
“Rewrite all of this.”
“Y-Yes, pardon?”
“Don’t make me say it twice.”
At the cold reply, the administrator snatched up the report and hurried out of the study.
How did it end up like this?
At first, I was just going to pretend to work, moderately.
But the reports piled on the desk were such a mess. I couldn’t understand how anyone could bring this trash in to report to the Emperor, so I opened my mouth a few times—and now these people were handing their reports to Sasha like it was only natural.
And Edward just watched it happen.
Is it fine because the truly important stuff gets handed to Edward separately?
Even earlier, hadn’t Edward received some critical report and rushed out of the study?
Fine, my ass!
What am I, some red-pen teacher? Why am I the one checking all of this?
Edward becoming Emperor and cutting off all the Imperial Palace staff who’d done no real work under the deposed former Emperor—just took bribes and lived fat—was a good thing.
But the new clerks were awful at their jobs.
Was there no one to correct them? Still, if they’d made it into the Imperial Palace, it wasn’t like they were stupid—but the mistakes were constant.
At least go dig up an old report and copy the format!
Why did Edward accept all of this without saying anything? If you don’t tell them what’s wrong, they won’t know what they did wrong.
Sasha pressed hard at the bridge of his nose. Behind him, Rio—who hadn’t followed Edward and was standing there like he was watching Sasha—spoke.
“Don’t get ideas.”
Where, on this exhausted face, did you see “ideas”?
Sasha dropped his hand and turned. Rio kept going like he’d been waiting.
“Don’t think His Majesty sees you as special.”
“Maybe I am special, in my own way. He’s paying close attention—and staying on guard.”
Rio frowned.
“Are you mocking me?”
“No. I’m serious.”
Ah. So I can’t act like this anymore? Still, if I don’t say it clearly now, he’ll keep being a nuisance.
“You don’t have to be so jealous.”
“…What?”
“I know where I stand.”
Sasha let out a short laugh and shrugged.
“I have one goal. Stay quiet here, then go back down to my territory.”
“You? You’re saying that?”
Even at the sneering reply, Sasha nodded calmly.
“I know I lost. Whether I was unlucky or I lacked ability, I lost.”
This was a good chance to drive the stake in deep.
“Just like I didn’t beg for my life like some pathetic thing, I have zero interest in crawling back up from the bottom in some miserable restart.”
Not a “I’ve turned over a new leaf” line that wouldn’t convince anyone—but something that sounded like Sasha, and still made sense.
“I failed even when I had everything. In this situation? Don’t make me laugh.”
Sasha shook his head like it was ridiculous no matter how he looked at it, lips laced with disdain. Rio countered as if rebutting him.
“You might change your mind later.”
Sasha didn’t bother denying it.
“Sure. That uncertainty is why I’m here.”
Instead, he made it clear he understood the situation.
“I’m being suspected like this. There isn’t a single opening.”
Even if I relaxed, it’d be a maybe at best.
“There’s nowhere I could overstep.”
When Sasha made it plain—I’m not stupid—Rio narrowed his eyes.
“Then what is this attitude?”
Sasha burst into loud laughter on purpose. Then he lifted his gaze to Rio with a strange smile.
“Young Duke. If I suddenly start acting like the tongue inside your mouth, you’d get suspicious in the opposite direction.”
“That’s….”
For example.
Sasha rose slowly from the chair. He placed one hand over his chest, bent his knee, and greeted him with flawless etiquette.
“Young Duke Grenville. It has been an honor beyond measure to be able to speak with you like this.”
Sasha looked up at Rio with eyes brimming with admiration.
“And if, by chance, I am granted the opportunity next time… might I have the privilege of meeting you again?”
He waited for an answer—trying to act confident while failing to hide his shyness—and Rio’s face crumpled into something miserable.
“…What are you doing?”
Watching Rio go pale like he’d seen a ghost, Sasha sat back down with arrogant ease.
“See? This is worse, isn’t it?”
“Did you have to teach that lesson like this?”
Is this really something to react to with that serious of a face?
“I can do more.”
Sasha reached out and grabbed Rio’s right hand. Then—slowly—he traced over Rio’s callused palm. The hard, rough skin on the inside of the palm made Sasha’s delicate fingertips itch.
“Your hands are so coarse—have you truly trained so mu—”
Before he could finish, his hand was slapped away.
“Don’t.”
Smack!
A loud sound rang out. It hurt as much as it sounded.
“That hurts.”
Sasha shook his hand in the air, the back of it already flushing red. It felt like his skin was buzzing.
“My skin is delicate. It’s going to swell up now.”
“Damn it.”
So I get hit once and it’s like this. Even if Edward hadn’t warned him, Sasha would need to stop messing around with Rio Grenville too much.
“Anyway, I should stop acting like this now.”
Rio lifted his brows, like What scheme is it this time?
“His Majesty warned me not to mess with his knight.”
“…His Majesty did?”
The suspicious stare was sharp. It had always been like this—Rio’s expressions were unusually colorful.
“Do you think I’d bother inventing a lie just to put you at ease?”
When Sasha answered like it was a hassle, Rio nodded, as if, right, fair enough.
“Yeah. You’re not that kind of person.”
The suspicion vanishing that cleanly was unbelievable.
Still—was this enough? The mood wasn’t bad, and since the subject had come up, it wouldn’t be a bad time to clear up one question.
“Can I ask you something now?”
At his wordless look of What?, Sasha asked with a serious face.
“Why did your attitude toward me change?”
Rio looked like he truly didn’t understand, so Sasha explained further.
“It changed after the day I surrendered. Before that, you were practically desperate to kill me.”
Sasha remembered Rio Grenville far too well—those fingers twitching, ready to draw his sword at any moment. When Sasha glanced toward the sword, Rio looked awkward.
“It wasn’t that bad.”
What a joke.
The sky knew, the earth knew, and the original knew.
“Sure. If luck had gone wrong, my head would’ve come off that day.”
If Sasha hadn’t made a tremendous effort, it absolutely would have. Sasha waved a hand casually at Rio, who flinched.
“His Majesty was just merciful. And honestly, that’s the correct choice, so I’m not blaming you for it. What I’m asking is why you treated me differently after that.”
Sasha pressed him.
“So?”
“Don’t talk nonsense. I haven’t changed.”
I never expected him to admit it in one go. When Sasha looked at him with a strange smile, Rio snapped and shouted.
“I said I haven’t changed!”
“Insisting doesn’t change the truth.”
“…I really hate this attitude of yours.”
This time, he meant it. Sasha nodded like he knew, and Rio raked a hand roughly through his hair.
“His Majesty wasn’t watching you, but I was keeping an eye on what was happening in the Ambrose territory. So I know that unlike other people, you didn’t do anything.”
“You were spying on me?”
When Sasha asked like it was an accusation, Rio lifted his brows.
“What am I supposed to trust that I’d just leave you alone?”
He wasn’t wrong. Better being watched than being dead.
Still, even knowing that, there was no helping how bad it felt.
“So this is what the results of your surveillance look like?”
If I feel bad, you should feel bad too. With that childish logic, Sasha intended to force Rio to admit the change out loud. But was that the wrong choice?
“…Yeah. I changed.”
Sasha smiled in satisfaction—only for a moment. Then the added words drained all the color from his face.
“Because you’re not the absolute worst.”
“Are you insane?”
The words flew out without passing through his brain.
“What?”
Rio flared, but that wasn’t the point. This wasn’t what I wanted to hear.
Just yesterday, I heard that people supporting Sasha had appeared. And now I was hearing the same kind of story from the Emperor’s knight?
It was the worst.
Was Rio Grenville testing him now, too?
Yeah. That’s more realistic.
But… looking at that blunt, empty face, it couldn’t be.
So this was sincere?
Sasha saw Rio’s ears, reddened. This man truly believed Sasha wasn’t the absolute worst.
“I feel better now that I admitted it.”
Sasha couldn’t believe that face—like he’d just unblocked his breathing.
How did he ever arrive at that judgment? With instincts that bad, could he even protect Edward? Was he just an idiot who swung a sword without thinking?
Did this bastard’s head turn out to be a flower garden?
“Do you care about faces?”
“Faces? I can’t exactly say I don’t look at them.”
This isn’t “I can’t say I don’t”—this is “I only look at faces.”
“But why are you asking all of a sudden? Even if I see you a little more favorably, we’re not friends—”
Sasha cut him off immediately and declared,
“I was the absolute worst, and I’m still the absolute worst.”
There isn’t a single corner of me you can look at favorably.
“Confessing to crimes?”
Rio asked with a hollow laugh, and Sasha grew more serious. You’re joking with me now?
Rio Grenville couldn’t be like this.
“I am a bad bastard.”
The novel’s main villain—Sasha Ambrose.
But Rio laughed like it was entertaining.
“See? So you’re not the absolute worst after all.”
What is wrong with your head? Why does the world look like this all of a sudden?
“It’s just that the direction we pursued was different.”
Don’t nod like you understand. Get angry like earlier and snap at me. Why is your attitude getting softer? If I’d known this would happen, I wouldn’t have asked why you changed. I would’ve let you keep denying your own feelings.
“When I saw you speak confidently to His Majesty back then, I learned something.”
…That moved you that much? It was hard to understand.
Back then, no matter what I did, you always took it as bad.
If I watered a flower, you suspected the flower was a poisonous weed. If I gave a cute teddy bear as a birthday gift, you cut its belly open because you thought you didn’t know what might be inside. If I offered sincere congratulations, you took it as sarcasm.
That was this world.
But now I haven’t done anything, and suddenly—why is everyone like this?
In the absolute worst situation, where the protagonist already misunderstands me—why?
The posts and comments Sasha had seen in his dream that day came pouring back, rattling his head.
I’m the villain. Stop re-evaluating me!
Sasha wanted to scream.