Was he in his right mind?
The title alone was absurd, but the content was worse.
[Isn’t Sasha the true loyal subject?]
He nags at Eddie nonstop for not acting like royalty, but in front of Eddie he keeps showing perfect etiquette (Eddie gets stimulated and masters etiquette in a year, there’s basically no better private tutor)
He fed Eddie poison, but thanks to that he dodged a bigger assassination operation (if he’d stayed in the party hall he’d have ended in a total wipeout with his subordinates)
He insults Eddie’s parents to his face, but he doesn’t ‘really’ lay a hand on Eddie’s family (the other guys smile in front of you, then the second it turns against them they go straight for your family)
From their first meeting Eddie marvels that he’s never seen someone so beautiful (the only eye candy in Eddie’s harsh life)
When he loses, he doesn’t act pathetic and surrenders immediately (he sincerely advises Emperor Eddie that to have strong imperial authority, he should kill him)
If you list it out, there’s no one as kind as Sasha
The first line—if you forced it, maybe you could laugh and let it slide.
But everything after that was pure nonsense.
Reading a post built not on the original, but on the version Sasha had changed—his face burned hot.
If the post was like this, the comments should have at least said something sane. Instead, after the early ones, it gradually turned into people agreeing with the post more and more.
⌎Are you a face stan?
⌎Sure, sure, but there’s something weird in the middle.
⌎Sasha stans could open a laundromat with all that laundering.
⌎One more: Edward gets used to Sasha’s face so seduction doesn’t work at all. His beauty standard is Sasha, so every day he goes, “She’s not as pretty as Sasha,” and throws a fit.
⌎If we’re being serious, even the guys who claim they’re “on the protagonist’s side” did bad stuff too. They just got waved through with “it was a mistake.” It’s the villain framing. Compared to them, Sasha’s pretty mild.
⌎Exactly. They go “my subordinate and my friend couldn’t help it” and let it slide, but only Sasha is “evil.”
⌎If you judge by circumstances, isn’t Sasha the most understandable? Your sister dies, your brother-in-law who cut ties suddenly dumps his illegitimate son in your house—would you just sit there? Then that illegitimate kid keeps dragging his adoptive parents and family in one after another and turns your home into a marketplace.
⌎Whatever. If you look at how Eddie describes him, with a face like Sasha, he could ruin a country and still be innocent.
⌎For real—the one most serious about Sasha’s face is Edward.
.
.
.
⌎Sudden re-evaluation
⌎Sasha do whatever you want!
“Bullshit.”
Was this supposed to be writing?
And why was he dreaming something like this?
After reading every last comment in a daze, Sasha snorted.
Re-evaluation—something he never wanted.
Watching the comments keep piling up in real time, Sasha squeezed his eyes shut.
This was a nightmare.
“You’re up early today?”
At the greeting he’d now heard exactly five times, along with a look that said he was proud, Sasha cleared his throat.
These days, no matter how early he got up, it was ten. Considering he fell asleep at midnight, that meant he was sleeping ten hours a day.
Anyone who knew the Sasha of the capital—sleeping four hours a day while working day and night—would have been horrified.
‘I’m just catching up on all the sleep I couldn’t get.’
Forcing himself to rationalize his laziness, Sasha opened his mouth automatically as the butler—who looked like someone’s grandfather—fed him a piece of freshly baked bread, and he quickly swallowed the savory, soft bite.
“I’m going out into the territory today.”
“I will prepare the carriage.”
“…Should I buy something for you?”
“You’re a kind soul.”
Sasha awkwardly averted his eyes from the wrinkled gaze that looked at him like he was adorable to death. Plenty of people had stared at him, entranced, or sighed in admiration—but affection that was just warm and soft, with no romantic desire at all, was unfamiliar.
He didn’t have to act anymore. He could just look back and smile.
But after acting for so long, being friendly felt a little awkward.
Thankfully, the butler continued like it was nothing.
“Our Viscount only needs to think about himself.”
“I already am.”
Even though the sharp tone popped out like a sulk, the butler didn’t care.
“You didn’t sleep well, did you? The area under your eyes is sunken.”
He’d thought it hadn’t been noticed. Most people were dazzled by Sasha’s face and didn’t pick up on his condition.
“If you keep getting uglier like that, you won’t be able to marry.”
“…What?”
Butler. Should I get you fitted for glasses?
“Your skin needs to shine, smooth and bright. Your wrists need to get plumper, and your cheeks need to fill out. That’s what looks blessed and pretty.”
With eyes full of sincerity, the butler looked at Sasha’s body with tender concern.
“You’re nothing but skin over bone, I worry you’ll shatter if someone taps you.”
Shatter if someone tapped him? He’d exercised plenty—he had muscle, too!
Sasha was about to lift his arm to show him, when he suddenly realized that from the time he’d been detained in the Imperial Palace until now, nearly half a year, he hadn’t done a single thing that even counted as exercise.
The muscle he’d worked for had disappeared.
Meanwhile, the butler?
The butler, well past seventy, had arms more than twice Sasha’s size, and it looked like his shirt was about to burst.
‘At that point, isn’t it basically forced on?’
Come to think of it, the servants here—women and men alike—were all big-boned, sturdy, and healthy.
Was it that their frames were thick? Or that muscle grew easily on them?
After glancing down at his own body for a moment, Sasha hurriedly changed the subject.
“I’m leaving right now.”
“Yes. Please do.”
The butler, completely unaware of how much he’d wounded Sasha, continued to fuss over him lovingly.
“How about more comfortable shoes? Shall I give you some pocket money?”
Pocket money….
Sasha didn’t bother responding.
Leaving behind the butler’s and servants’ goodbyes, Sasha went down into the territory and wandered around, drawing stares everywhere he went.
“My lord, please try some of this.”
Something was shoved into his already-full arms again.
“Why are you so thin? Doesn’t the estate take care of you?”
Embarrassingly affectionate worry followed, and hearty laughter kept flying at him.
“I heard you like cheese? Tomorrow I’ll send a big bundle up to the estate.”
“Cheese? I heard he likes peaches.”
“Ice cream for me!”
Before he could even pass his load to the coachman, a rough hand slapped ice cream into Sasha’s grasp and withdrew. The territory folk chuckled, smiling like they’d known him forever.
“Isn’t it better if you like a lot of things?”
“Who knows? Next time you come down, maybe your belly will be round!”
The way the territory folk approached him without ceremony was strange, but it wasn’t unpleasant.
The first time he’d seen them, they definitely hadn’t been like this. At some point, they started treating Sasha like he was some neighbor from the next street.
It was better than being snubbed, but taking every greeting from everyone was exhausting.
In the end, after only two hours, Sasha’s stamina hit rock bottom, and he dragged his feet onto the carriage.
“Do I really need to work out.”
“That would be wonderful!”
Sasha narrowed his eyes primly at the coachman’s bulging muscles as he answered his mutter with shameless ease. But as the carriage started moving, Sasha examined his own body again.
Maybe he’d been living too wildly, drunk on freedom.
That was why his body and mind were sending signals like this. From now on, he’d control what he ate a bit, and he’d exercise consistently.
“But was I always that imaginative?”
Enough to generate hundreds of comments?
If it was his unconscious giving him advice to live meaningfully now that he’d survived doing bad things, it was far too realistic and specific.
‘But there’s no way it’s real.’
Sasha tried to wipe away the lingering discomfort as it rose again. He’d come down into the territory to forget the dream, but if it kept eating at him, today’s effort would be meaningless.
“When I get back to the estate, today I’m eating an entire tart.”
He’d just said he’d control his diet, but when you were stressed, sweets were the best. He hadn’t known it, but Sasha had been born with blessed genes that didn’t make him gain weight no matter how much he ate.
Remembering the chef who’d made a miserable face asking why Sasha didn’t gain weight, Sasha finally managed to smile again.
It had been three months since he came down to the Ambrose territory.
Reading again, napping when he wanted, lying in the garden in a light tunic instead of a formal uniform that always had to be perfect, eating a sandwich in the sun—he never got tired of it no matter how many times he did it.
And being with servants who didn’t fear him no matter how prickly he was, looking at him like he was cute the way you look at a child throwing a tantrum, made his heart soften.
So of course a single dream could shake him like this.
The Sasha Ambrose who’d been ground down in the capital didn’t crumble over something like that.
“It was just a nonsense dream.”
There was no need to think deeply about it.
“…….”
Still, it nagged at him to do absolutely nothing. It never hurt to prepare for anything, so he should take a look at the information network he’d newly built in the capital.
He’d spent money to build it, and he’d been paying it far too little attention.
But it was a decision made far too late.
Right in front of the estate, Sasha saw something that should not have been there, and he wanted to slap himself.
Was he still dreaming?
“…Why is that there?”
A golden carriage bearing the bear crest that symbolized the imperial family sat in front of the estate, like a lie.
“My lord.”
At the coachman’s voice calling him, Sasha realized it truly was reality.
Thud-thud—his heart pounded fast.
He forced himself to act like it was nothing as he stepped down from the carriage, and a knight waiting for him with an imperial edict in hand cried out.
“Sasha Ambrose, by the solemn command of His Majesty, return to the capital!”
What?
His peaceful daily life was being smashed to pieces.