Surviving As The 5Th Prince Of Hellman Kingdom [EN]: Chapter 10

Chirp, chirp.

I snapped out of my thoughts at the sound of birds chirping in the morning. Looking out the window, I saw the sun peeking out.

‘Time already.’

I moved the stat and skill windows, which were filling my view, to the corner of my vision so they wouldn’t be in the way, and got out of bed.

I went to the window, opened it, and took a deep breath. The refreshing scent of dew made my tired body feel recharged.

《Lost Saga》, the Emperor Raising Simulation.

At first, I wondered if my current life was actually inside the game world.

‘It’s unlikely.’

First of all, there are those vast skills in the skill window. Moreover, after searching for Taekwondo, Chunma Shin’gong [a powerful martial art technique], etc., it says I don’t have access?

There’s no way such a game exists.

– Connecting to the Arcana System.

Especially that message that flashed by the moment I pressed [Login].

– Prince, today I will tell you about Arcana, the goddess of knowledge. It is said that her library contains knowledge from all worlds, as well as the past, present, and even the future.

I remembered the stories my nanny used to tell me at bedtime.

Gods exist in this world.

Is it just a coincidence that the goddess of knowledge and the system have the same name?

Even if I replaced ‘system’ with ‘library’ in the phrase ‘Connecting to the Arcana System,’ my abilities wouldn’t change much.

Maybe the child I saved in my past life was Arcana playing a game?

Anyway.

The conclusion I came to after staying up all night was simple.

Whatever happens, happens.

The fact that I have to live in this world doesn’t change. The important thing is how I use this ability to live from now on.

Even if the surrounding situation is terrible, I have no intention of trying to reset my life just because I experienced reincarnation.

There’s no guarantee that there will be another chance, and I’ve already made a resolution to live a life without regrets. Above all, I absolutely hate the act of taking one’s own life.

‘If I get the chance, I should visit the Arcana Order’s temple.’

As I was clearing my head while breathing in the dawn air, I saw Alfonso walking along, dragging his feet with a broom in his hand.

The guy was yawning widely as he cleaned the garden path.

I watched him for a moment before looking at the status windows I had shoved into a corner. I found Alfonso’s and brought it to the front.

My gaze focused on one place.

[Relationship: Guarded]

I felt like I should improve that first.

RP, the currency needed to learn skills. The R probably stands for Relation.

… Wait, do I really need to improve my relationship with that suspicious guy? Wouldn’t it be better to find someone a little more transparent?

***

The next day.

A visitor came to see me, who had barely moved from my bedroom, using my head injury as an excuse.

The third princess, Annette Lionel.

My half-sister, whose waist-length wavy black hair and emerald green eyes captivated attention. Once called the flower of the North, she looked just like our mother in the portrait in the pendant.

If it weren’t for the black hair, which was the symbol of the Lionel royal family, a ghost story about our mother’s spirit wandering the palace might have been created.

“Evan, are you really okay?”

“Yes. Thanks to my sister’s concern, I even met the bishop of the Ründine Order [a religious order dedicated to the goddess of water], didn’t I? As you can see, I don’t have a single scratch.”

Normally, it would have ended with a healer assisting the priest. I was really surprised when the bishop of Ründine, the goddess of water, suddenly visited yesterday.

My sister, who took a sip of the tea that Alfonso had hurriedly prepared, frowned slightly. The tea he makes really tastes awful.

“But, your manner of speaking and everything… you seem to have changed a lot since I last saw you. I’m happy to be able to make eye contact and talk to my brother.”

My sister’s gaze, staring intently into my eyes, was a little 부담스러웠다 [burdensome].

“I’ve just realized that I need to break out of my shell.”

I decided to be brazen.

It’s not like I stole someone else’s body, so there was no need to try to make up excuses.

I wasn’t exactly saying anything wrong either. I became aware of my past life, and my narrow view widened. If I lived like that, it was obvious that I would be sent to a place where I would die at the right time.

Change was needed.

Even if nothing happened when I entered my ID and password and pressed [Login], I would have definitely changed.

“Is that so? You’ve suddenly become an adult.”

I smiled at my sister, who was making a reluctant expression.

I brought my hand to the teacup and glanced at the guard standing behind my sister without anyone noticing. At the same time, I touched his forehead with my ghost hand.

I quickly checked my relationship with him.

[Relationship: Distrust]

A slightly redder font than ‘Guarded.’

‘That guy also distrusts me.’

After deciding to raise my relationship with others to get RP, I opened the status window of everyone I saw.

As a result.

I was able to figure out that the relationship with the other person was closely related to the content that could be checked in the status window. If it’s distrust, then aside from things like [Breathing] and [Walking], everything else is probably [?].

I also learned one uncomfortable truth.

Alfonso, who acted friendly in front of me but ‘guarded’ me, turned out to be the closest to me, except for my sister.

It seemed like everyone around me ‘distrusted’ me.

Well, I understand.

Just for being close to me, the necks of my servants were all cut off. I wouldn’t want to be friends with such a prince either.

It was at least an achievement that I was able to verify that the average person’s stats were around D with the one or two stats that I could check from them.

I took a sip of the bitter, spicy tea and glanced at my sister’s status window, which I had secretly opened earlier.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━×

Annette Lionel

Gender: Female

Age: 16

Race: Human

[Stats]

[Skills]

[Relationship – Trust]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

My eyes felt comfortable and my heart warmed at the green word ‘Trust.’

‘If it’s a relationship of trust, there will be almost no question marks, right?’

I couldn’t open the stat and skill windows because we were talking. As if reading my mind, the ghost hand twitched its index finger.

‘I can’t, we’re talking.’

I felt like I had to leave soon anyway, so I could check it then. Even now, my sister’s maid was constantly opening and closing her pocket watch, giving me a heated look.

I put the teacup on the table and opened my mouth.

“I know you’re very busy. I’m really okay, so you can leave now.”

The maid’s face lit up at my words. She bowed her head and whispered something in my sister’s ear.

“I’m sorry. I want to stay a little longer, but I can’t keep the teachers waiting.”

“It’s okay.”

“It’s our mother’s death anniversary soon, so let’s definitely go together this year.”

“I understand.”

My sister couldn’t hide her apologetic expression and hurried away. As I watched her leave, I turned my gaze to Alfonso, who was standing next to me.

“Alfonso, please clean up.”

“Yes!”

The guy started clearing the teacups from the table with skillful hands. It’s not usually a servant’s job, but unfortunately, Emerald Palace was in a situation where manpower was extremely lacking because only the minimum number of people were assigned for basic maintenance.

“Take your time. If you have anything else to do, you can go and see to it.”

“Haha, I’ll be back like the wind.”

I spoke to Alfonso, who was taking the teacups on a tray, with sincerity, but he didn’t even listen.

After he closed the door and left, I was left alone and looked around, checking once again that no one was there.

‘Then shall we take a look?’

I immediately turned off the guard’s and looked closely at my sister’s status window.

First, the stats.

As expected, everything was visible without being covered by question marks. I was a little concerned that her health was somewhat low, but I couldn’t find any other special features.

I closed the stat window and moved on to the skill window.

━━━━━━━━×

[Breathing]

[Walking]

.

.

.

[Riding]

[Flower Arranging]

[Royal Etiquette]

.

.

.

[Beauty]

[?]

━━━━━━━━

Everything except for one thing that I couldn’t check was something that a royal princess would have.

Interestingly, the [Beauty] that my sister possessed was a higher rare grade than the [Handsome] that I possessed.

I wondered if [Beauty] was originally more highly valued than [Handsome], or if skills with the same name could have different grades.

Well, I would naturally find out when there were more samples later.

What’s bothering me is that [?].

‘If I can’t check it even with a ‘Trust’ relationship, then what is it? What kind of relationship do I have to form to see it….’

‘Could it be a military relationship?’

The thought flashed through my mind for a moment.

Considering that the genre of Lost Saga, or Rosa for short, is an Emperor Raising Simulation, it was quite plausible.

‘Emperor….’

I imagined myself sitting on the throne, looking down at the civil and military officials. I chuckled and got up from my seat and went to my desk.

I sat in the chair, opened the drawer, and took out a small notebook and opened it.

Reincarnation, Lost Saga, Emperor Raising Simulation… pages filled with words that would make people wonder what they were if they saw them.

I had written down various things haphazardly according to the flow of my consciousness. Since it was written in Korean, there were no concerns about security.

I picked up a pen and wrote ‘Alfonso’ largely in the notebook. I circled his name and pondered how to improve our ‘relationship.’

Knock, knock.

“Prince. I’m back.”

“Come in.”

Servants and maids are like the shadows of royalty. 365 days a year, they wait around the person they serve, even when they sleep or go to the bathroom.

It’s impossible to do alone. Usually, a head servant leads a team of about five people to divide the roles.

But Alfonso is the only servant assigned to me. Thanks to that, or perhaps because of it, I have a lot of time to enjoy my freedom alone.

However, the guy, who usually leaves his seat for various reasons, has been following me like a shadow since yesterday, except in unavoidable cases.

The reason is obvious.

He’s probably suspicious that I’ve suddenly changed as if I’ve become a different person, and that a demon or black magician is playing tricks on me, right?

I glanced at the guy standing next to the desk.

‘Are his eyes open or not?’

His eyes are so small that I don’t know where he’s looking. After doodling meaninglessly in the notebook for a while, I put down the pen and turned my body towards Alfonso.

“Alfonso.”

“Yes, Prince.”

“Why did you come to the palace?”

“Haha, you know very well that there aren’t many things that the third son of a rural baronial family can do.”

I roughly know.

For them, who have almost no chance of inheriting the title, becoming servants of the royal family is like… passing the 행정고시 [higher civil service examination] in my previous life, or at least passing the level of a 7th grade civil servant, right?

‘Or is it higher than that?’

The ruby earrings worn by the maid I encountered in the hallway this morning came to mind. It seemed like the crumbs coming in from here and there were quite substantial.

‘They looked expensive.’

Thinking about it again, it was really a mess.

How can a maid proudly wear jewelry and walk around? It wouldn’t be possible in other palaces. At the very least, you would have to be a personal maid, and even then, it would only be possible with the permission of the person you serve.

If you did that in the palace of the ill-tempered 4th Prince or his sister, the 4th Princess, your back would be torn apart by harsh whippings.

“Our Heimdall family, you see….”

I was startled by Alfonso’s continued words. I had been distracted for a moment during an important story.

It seemed like he was trying to repeat the story he had told me when he became my personal servant.

I didn’t want to hear the boring novel again, which might not even be true.

I quickly cut him off.

“The person I asked was you, Alfonso Einberg. Not the third son of the Heimdall baronial family.”

“Yes?”

Why is he asking back when he heard me?

I couldn’t find a way to improve my relationship with him. So, this is the method I chose.

It was a frontal breakthrough.

Wouldn’t I find some clues if I had a sincere conversation?

“Alfonso ‘Einberg,’ why did you come to the palace?”

I asked again, giving a strong emphasis to Alfonso’s original surname.

“……”

The mask of the guy who was always smiling broke down. A blank face that couldn’t read any emotions. The guy’s blue eyes, visible beyond his narrow eyes, were extremely cold.

Chills.

My spine felt cold as if I had a chill. Is this what killing intent is? I was curious what it would feel like to experience it directly.

‘Is it because I died once?’

It wasn’t a big deal.