Margrave’s Bastard Son was The Emperor [EN]: Chapter 1

‘The Bratz family is vulgar for nobles.’

That was the assessment of the Bratz family circulating in high society. Perhaps it was because they were among the many border counts, facing the barbarians directly.

In the distant past, the sounds of war trumpets never ceased, but recently, after establishing a superficial truce, various exchanges had become frequent.

“Lord Ian, your table manners are excellent.”

Ian, who had been hastily chewing his meat, came to his senses at the old man’s praise. Was it sarcasm? Had he been so ravenous without realizing it due to hunger? Ian felt a pang of guilt and cleared his throat, but the old man’s praise was sincere.

“Your son has excellent grace. It must be thanks to Count Derga’s excellent teachings.”

“You flatter me, Sir Molin.”

Count Derga, the head of the Bratz family, was bewildered by his son’s sudden change in demeanor, but he did not lose his ceremonial expression. Derga glanced at Ian and replied.

“In any case, the blood of Bratz flows in him, so it’s only natural. Please speak well of us to the Emperor.”

“Of course, Count.”

Ian stopped chewing, puzzled by their cryptic words.

Emperor? Me?

No, wait a minute. Did they just say Bratz?

‘Come to think of it….’

The hand holding the fork and knife was too small and thin. The view from the chair was also low.

Ian swallowed his food, bewildered by the situation, and reached for the wine glass.

“Ah.”

What was in the glass was not wine but a beverage. Moreover, the face reflected in the round glass was not his own but that of a stranger. Ian almost forgot his dignity and spat it out.

“Cough!”

As he coughed and grabbed a napkin, the boy across from him sneered.

“Tsk, tsk. Look at that. I thought he was doing so well.”

“Chel, you should take care of your younger brother if he makes a mistake.”

The boy called Chel pouted as if displeased. Countess Mary, the count’s wife, firmly grasped Chel’s hand under the tablecloth, restraining her son.

This was not just a simple meal.

Sir Molin was an official from the central Imperial Palace, and he was in the process of confirming whether Ian had the qualifications to be registered into the Bratz family.

Molin gave Chel a kind smile and then focused on Ian again.

“Lord Ian, I hear you are studying philosophy these days.”

Count Derga and his wife looked flustered at Molin’s sudden question.

Ian couldn’t even write his own name. He was the son of the count who had raped a commoner outside the mansion, so he had not received a proper education. Just at the beginning of the meal, he was the boy who had been gulping down the finger bowl water.

“He’s not at a level where he can speak about it yet.”

The count quickly interjected, pretending to defend Ian. However, the look in his eyes as he glanced at Ian was subtly sharp.

‘You stupid fool. I told you to memorize it.’

There had been a last-minute cram session to prepare for Molin’s questions, but it seemed the lowly one had forgotten everything. The old man did not back down and pressed on with a smile.

“That’s how scholarship is. It becomes stronger by clashing with different opinions. Lord Ian, what have you been studying recently? You are sixteen, and I hear you haven’t attended school….”

The old man, nearing eighty, was both kind and firm. He had survived his entire life in the central administration, where talent was constantly being replaced.

At this point, the count could not defend him any longer. All eyes turned to Ian.

“Um.”

Ian cleared his throat and wiped his mouth with a napkin. As the Bratz family had expected, Ian was flustered.

However, it was not because of Molin’s question, but because he had realized that this was the backyard of the border count’s mansion.

In the Bratz mansion?

In the body of a boy he had never seen before?

He guessed that Naum’s space-time magic was involved, but he couldn’t be sure. Space-time magic opened a passage connecting points in time and space, so it was necessarily restricted by location.

In other words, he had to go there.

But wasn’t Ian’s last memory the underground prison? Moreover, he had never heard of moving by borrowing someone else’s body.

“Lord Ian?”

“Ah. Excuse me.”

At Molin’s urging, Ian reflexively replied with grace. It was a habit he had learned in the Imperial Palace. A smile that conveyed that he was listening to the conversation. The border count and his family had never seen Ian smile like that before.

“Philosophy, philosophy….”

Ian mumbled a few times as if in thought.

“May I answer instead? Administrator Molin.”

His half-brother, Chel, couldn’t stand it any longer and stepped forward.

It was infuriating that Ian, who had come from outside, was the main character of this precious meal, and that he would even be registered into the count’s family with his lowly bloodline. It was natural for him to feel resentful.

It was a foolish and pathetic act of wanting to steal the adults’ attention from Ian to himself. But the end of his sentence trailed off at Mary’s sharp glare.

“Chel. Sir Molin asked Ian.”

She was silently pleading.

*Son. Please keep your mouth shut. This is all for you. You must live by registering that lowly bastard into the count’s family.*

“I like Mr. Pullen.”

“Pullen?”

Ian spoke softly amidst the commotion. He had lost his appetite, and his utensils were neatly placed to the side.

Count Derga’s face turned pale. It was a name he had never heard before. He should have just said he didn’t know! Where did he pick up such nonsense…!

“Yes. Of course, the Papal States do not welcome him, but the humanism that Mr. Pullen pursues is a very important question. If we contemplate what truths humans create, centered on humans, we can envision the true form of a monarch.”

It was purely a personal preference.

For Ian, the daily lives of the people who were not starving were more important than philosophy or humanities. His study of philosophy was only a formality, so he had just mentioned a well-known intellectual.

Count Derga rolled his eyes and looked at Molin. The old man paused, seemingly surprised, and then leaned closer to Ian.

“How do you know Mr. Pullen?”

“Yes?”

But it was Count Derga, not Ian, who answered. Molin chuckled and shook his head repeatedly.

“Oh dear. I must have been arrogant, thinking that news from the capital would be slow in reaching the border. I apologize to Count Derga and Lord Ian.”

“No, no.”

Molin realized that the count did not know Pullen. If he had known, he would have frowned in displeasure instead of that blank expression.

“Mr. Pullen is the youngest son of the Hockman barony, who just had his coming-of-age ceremony. Although he is young, he is a genius who entered Bariel University at the top of his class. He recently caused a stir in the world by discussing humanism at a scholarly debate held in the Imperial Palace.”

It was true that news was slow in the border region.

It took a full fifteen days by carriage to travel from the capital to Derga’s border territory. It was a fact that neither the count nor anyone else knew.

While everyone was looking at Ian in surprise, Ian was also inwardly shocked.

‘Mr. Pullen just had his coming-of-age ceremony? I thought he was over a hundred years old?’

Not only was he in a strange body, but it seemed he had traveled back in time by nearly a hundred years. It was a very, very surprising situation, but he showed no sign of it on the outside. It was thanks to the composure he had cultivated as an emperor.

“So, you like Mr. Pullen’s philosophy. But you just said that the Papal States do not welcome him. What does that mean?”

“…Humanism is the view that nothing is more important than humans, so the Papal States, which serve God, would not be pleased.”

“Haha.”

It was a perfect answer.

Molin felt the fatigue that had accumulated over the past fifteen days melt away.

“It was worth the trip. I didn’t know that the new son of the Bratz family was so intelligent. The Emperor will surely be pleased as well.”

In fact, it was not a big deal for a noble to register a bastard child. They were noble and well-off, so bringing in a bastard child because they couldn’t control their lower bodies was not something to gossip about. It was a happening that would float around in the boring high society every now and then, whether it was a boy or a girl.

However, Molin’s next words were somewhat strange.

“And the Cheonryeo tribe will also welcome him.”

‘Cheonryeo tribe?’

Ian searched his memory, recalling the familiar name. The Cheonryeo tribe was the name for the barbarians east of the border. His intelligence was welcomed by the Cheonryeo tribe?

…Then.

‘It seems like I’m a hostage.’

A bastard son to be sent to the Cheonryeo tribe, who bordered the country, as a price for maintaining the truce.

‘I understand the situation roughly.’

The count smiled wickedly and covered Ian’s hand with his own. Now that he knew the situation, he was like a devil in the guise of a kind father.

“Ian, I have no doubt that you will become a symbol of peace.”

A truce was a formal agreement.

Originally, it was customary to send the biological child of each leader, but the barbarians outside the border were fickle and could change at any time.

In fact, Count Derga’s second older brother had died while crossing the border for a truce when he was young. It was said to be an accident, but the truth could not be verified.

Therefore, how could he send his only biological son, Chel? He was hastily bringing in Ian, whom he had never paid attention to, to register him into the family.

‘Of course, the Imperial Palace must have noticed.’

However, they couldn’t just send anyone, so they were trying to test Ian’s intelligence through Molin.

The more intelligent the child sent, the greater the diplomatic deterrent would be, which would be good for both sides.

Of course, the Bratz family’s autonomy in the border region was a priority, so it was a half-formal procedure. But it could also be seen as the Imperial Palace’s way of checking the local nobles.

“Ah.”

Ian understood the situation at once.

Even before he died, the Bratz family had exchanged hostages several times to maintain the truce.

In the end, they were miserably destroyed by the Cheonryeo tribe in the future.

It was a disaster that it took fifteen days for a messenger to reach the capital. By the time the other lords and the emperor of the time arrived with their armies, it was already too late.

‘Was it my great-grandfather?’

That was the incident that happened during Ian’s great-grandfather’s time.

The emperor drove out the Cheonryeo tribe and divided the territory among the nobles and knights who had fought with him, thus ending the incident.

“Ian?”

Mary called out to Ian.

As if telling him to respond to the count’s words.

It was a reminder to remember his own duty.

Ian smiled brightly and moistened his lips with water again. He didn’t know what was going on, but let’s admit one thing for now. Ian was not dead. He had been resurrected in the form of some unknown child.

“Yes, Father.”

Count Derga smiled with satisfaction at Ian’s clear answer. Everyone except Chel laughed and celebrated the peace that Ian’s existence would bring.

“Now, let’s eat.”

Derga finally continued his meal with peace of mind.

Ian looked around to get a sense of reality. More than anything else, the pounding of his heart reminded him that he was alive.

‘I don’t know how this happened.’

If this was Naum’s magic, there was one way to confirm it. It was to go to the Imperial Palace’s annex. And to investigate the traces of Naum’s magic.

However, it was a long distance of more than fifteen days from the border Bratz to the center, and for a child who was about to be sold to the desert, it was a world that seemed forever out of reach.

Yes. That was the world ‘it was.’