PRU | Chapter 1.3

“No. As I said, it is difficult. Still, the occurrence rate is much higher. Since they are people arranged by god Kala and sent for the king, they contribute to some extent. There are many Apenes who have succeeded as scholars, and ah, the Apene who came to this Silver Elephant Ashwittung is famous for civil engineering. They successfully completed the canal construction.”

“Then if there is not even that?”

Alestia said in a tone as if she had received an unexpected question.

“Assuming His Majesty wants it, you become a partner. Of course, a partner becomes that if His Majesty wants it, regardless of whether Apene has the ability to be a mage, a priest, or anything else.”

“And if not even that?”

“Well.”

I have never heard of such a precedent either. I should look it up once. Alestia frowned at the bridge of her nose.

“Then have you said everything you wanted to say?”

“Not yes, but, Apene, from now on we need to change that honorific. It seems you are following my and the maids’ way of speaking, but that is enough only when speaking to His Majesty.”

“Why?”

“Not why, but what, Apene. Say it again.”

“……What?”

“Of course, because you are a noble Apene.”

“Do you treat noble people like this here?”

“Lower your speech, Apene. And let me say it again, you were arranged and sent for our eternal king, His Majesty Mehion. Your existence and your status depend only on His Majesty Mehion.”

“Hah…”

Jaehwan rubbed his face with his hand. Alestia glanced at him like that, then put away the book she had been reading.

“Then I will come back with dinner later, Apene.”

Jaehwan watched until Alestia left the room, then turned his gaze back to the book. The movements of a tiny creature were, of course, not even perceptible to a giant.

Correcting his honorific speech was harder than he had thought. As Alestia had said, Jaehwan had learned to speak entirely by combining and imitating the words of Alestia and the maids, because the only thing he was familiar with and knew at all was honorific speech.

Even that was closer to the maids’ way of speaking than Alestia’s. Although Alestia spent far more time with Jaehwan than the maids did, Alestia and Jaehwan’s daily work was each doing their own things while ignoring each other in the same space.

As a natural result, when Alestia was not there, Jaehwan had become more familiar with the maid’s way of speaking, as she came into his room, cleaned, and handled all kinds of miscellaneous chores while chattering nonstop, and he had borrowed that.

Alestia taught him plain speech for that sort of Jaehwan, but the maids who heard the plain speech Jaehwan used, and Alestia’s subtle expressions, made him realize that plain speech was not a style that suited him very well.

“Hey there? Can’t you give me this?”

“No, ‘You there’ is not a way of speaking used like calling out ‘excuse me?’ And you were taught too, um… properly, it seems.”

Alestia had a very painful expression, and the maids also had similarly painful expressions, but theirs was because they were holding back laughter, while Alestia, the one in charge of Jaehwan’s education, was agonizing over how to guide him.

Of course, Jaehwan was an excellent student. But he was so exact that everything he absorbed came out like a model. No living speech remained, only cold and hard like a dead ancient language. Besides, because Alestia cared about dignity, it was half in archaic style and did not match her expression at all, so speaking it was a struggle for both the speaker and the listener.

“This is quite troublesome. The honorific speech from last time was too much like the maids, so it was girlish. If you make it plain, it is too childish, and the hage style is too stiff.”

Jaehwan closed his mouth gloomily. The wedding day kept approaching, and he could not even speak plain speech. Alestia was looking at him with a rude gaze, as if negating her own words that he was noble, and the maids had initially seemed sympathetic, but once this lesson started, they were dying to laugh. Exhausting.

“Then can’t I just use honorific speech? Like Alestia.”

“I am originally someone from the border area with the northern gray wolf territory, so in truth I do not speak complete royal language. Imitating me would be a bit difficult in terms of appearance.”

“Then full royal speech?”

“Hmm. There would be a need to do so with His Majesty, but… ah, speaking like a noble household’s young master would not be bad.”

Alestia said as if he had realized something. Nobles were usually like that. At those words, Jaehwan gave up the stifling plain speech and asked again in honorific speech. This time Alestia only wore an expression that said he could not help it, and there was no particular rebuke.

“Then why not do it from the start?”

“Hmm, I still had a fantasy from the education I received when I was young.”

“What?”

“So, Apene. Not just me, but all the people except the king regard Apene as sacred. Of course, Count Olga and I are, quite properly, royalists and realists, so there is no lack of looking at you, Apene, with quite a bit of respect and awe, but even so, we see Apene as an individual. However, some devout old nobles still firmly believe Apene is a messenger of god. Apene has also been the kingdom’s highest priest a few times, so that kind of perception is still widespread.”

“What does that have to do with it?”

“So, even if I saw Apene as just an ordinary person, the degree may differ, but Count Olga and I, and even Your Majesty, have fantasies about Apene. I unconsciously acknowledged your divinity. Therefore, I thought the vocabulary of ordinary nobles was inappropriate. The reason I taught Apene archaic speech was in the same context. In the end, I am just a common subject too.”

Even if one had been educated, though. Alestia muttered self-deprecatingly, then looked at Jaehwan again.

“Then let us start again with that.”

Jaehwan eventually came to use proper language the next day. Alestia, unable as always to say “You are astute.” over that success, left it to a maid, because the wedding was the very next day and he was busy preparing the formal clothes.

After having a maid confirm that he was using proper language, Jaehwan read the book about mages he had recently received. No matter how much he read it, it only felt like cloud-cuckoo talk. Mana, mana stones, all of it seemed like things that would only appear in fantasy novels.

But Jaehwan was grasping at straws. Apene was Apene in his own way. If one became a mage or sorcerer, one would go into the mage tower or the sorcerer’s house on the outskirts of the royal castle, and aside from being registered with the royal family, one could receive no interference.

As a scholar, too, if one published a noteworthy paper, one could even work as a professor at the Royal Central Academy, but that method was too slow. Jaehwan had simply made getting out of this place quickly his top priority, and he intended to do whatever he could.

But the only thing Jaehwan, who was unfamiliar with all the magic, secrets, truths, and lies of this place, could do was read books. Alestia, who had said he would help, had gone off to hassle the clothing attendant to have the wedding clothes fitted, and only the maids were around, but even though they were daughters of lower nobles, all they did was shake their heads and say that mages or sorcerers were beings who stayed only in the mage tower or the sorcerer’s house, and that all they had ever seen was coming into the royal castle and passing by.

Alestia had assured him that nothing would happen, but Jaehwan was uneasy in his own way. He had fainted even after seeing Arispeae, and if he saw the king again, it was hard to predict how he would react.

Jaehwan, who had lived his entire life running on the track he had been given, was too afraid of these unfamiliar situations. The fear that he might be raped again, the helplessness of not being able to do anything, the fear that no one would help him… These were burdens Jaehwan had to keep carrying.

Why, in the world, was Apene of the gray wolf the Apene of the gray wolf? Immediately after hearing that there was an Apene the king loved, Jaehwan thought about it every night, every time he ate, every time he breathed. Why was he the king’s Apene of the gray wolf, the king whose name he could not even remember? Why had he made a vain promise and dragged him into this place?

Why, of all things, me.

No matter how much he muttered, he could not change what would not change. Anger piled up inside him again and again, and that became the reason Jaehwan lost sleep at night and beat at his chest.

Jaehwan, an outsider who had come here because of Shin Kala, prayed every day to the God he had never even believed in. Please save me. He was not really the type to believe in God, but because everyone around him was Catholic or Protestant, that was the only god that came to mind in a desperate situation.

Moreover, having seen the miracles of this world, Jaehwan had no choice but to be certain that God existed. The God of the Jewish people would never listen to the petition of an outsider like Jaehwan, though.

Apene, are you happy here?

“Apene, you need to wash.”

A maid urged Jaehwan to bathe. Jaehwan, stripped in front of the maids without even knowing shame, thought.

I hope you are unhappy too.

The wedding ended more simply than Jaehwan had thought. When Jaehwan was led by the maids to be dressed and sat in the bridal chamber, his arms and legs trembled from tension, making even breathing difficult. The splendid room and the lights, the room decorated in all manner of sacred red.

No tears came. Just fear. He could not know the future even a little, and all he knew was that he would meet the king. “His Majesty will not look for you.” Those words, which had planted hope in Jaehwan, had now lost the light they once had and rolled around like pebbles.

The sound of his heartbeat was too loud. No matter how hard Jaehwan tried to calm himself, the heartbeat governed by the autonomic nervous system never followed his will in the end. Ah, save me. Meaningless words were all Jaehwan could cling to.

Time passed quickly like Phaethon’s chariot racing toward fate with the sun aboard. During that time, Jaehwan recovered a little vitality. The night deepened, and the oil lamps and candles were also slowly melting away. He is not coming. There was no phrase happier than that.

Jaehwan could not even cover himself with a blanket, and without sleeping, he knelt on the bed and welcomed the king who would not come. Save me. Jaehwan prayed again. But the God of the Jewish people did not forgive the petition of Jaehwan, an outsider.