The protagonist of FluffyChron was a white tiger beastman named ‘Kilius Zebron.’ Intelligence, appearance, martial prowess. Kiss, who was perfect in everything, had one flaw—that was being an illegitimate child of the imperial family. As the beginning of royal road stories typically goes, the first trial given to Kiss was to let go of the only person he loved.
[Kiss thought. Surely this was a warning they sent to him. A warning not to covet power that didn’t suit his station.]
The novel begins with the scene where Kiss discovers his mother’s brutally murdered corpse. Inside the estate that had become a sea of blood, I still remembered young Kiss’s monologue as he stood there in a daze.
[In this life, I won’t become something like a good shepherd. I will survive, even if I must become a villain.]
The reason Kiss was loved was because he was a character not caught up in the clumsy sense of being chosen like other protagonists in novels. Kiss’s purpose was only one thing.
To drive out the empress’s family currently holding the initiative in the imperial family, and to reclaim his own succession legitimacy. The image of Kiss from the original work walking through the imperial palace covered in blood flickered in my mind. My momentary fear subsided as I clenched my fist and thought.
‘I remember, there was an episode where Kiss personally visits the Serpent family estate.’
Kiss constantly checked the Serpent family, which was an obstacle to his succession. Kiss, who had to somehow weaken the Serpent family’s power, came up with one scheme—to take one of the Serpent family’s children as a hostage to the imperial family. By offering the interpreter position for his half-brother Deus, who was confined to the detached palace. Even if he was no different from a beast, Deus was still the empire’s crown prince in name.
If you heard it superficially, it might sound like a shortcut to success, but the problem was that the one who needed interpreting was Deus. The current Deus was truly in an uncorrected beast state. The fate of an interpreter who had to interpret such a beast’s words was generally one of two things: becoming a corpse or becoming disabled.
Clever Kiss made his political enemies into Deus’s attendants and disposed of them instead of getting blood on his own hands. It was like blowing your nose without using your hands. Then, a brief question: who was the most unfortunate child in the Serpent family whom Kiss personally offered Deus’s attendant position to in the original work?
“The Serpent family estate is cool even in summer.”
While everyone was drenched in sweat in the sweltering weather, only the handsome man who remained fresh looked around the drawing room with his hands behind his back. Unlike Kiss, who was smiling brightly as if something was so pleasing, I literally felt like a cow being dragged to the slaughterhouse. Kiss, who slightly tilted his head and looked at me, said as if puzzled.
“You don’t look well, Ash. Shall I tell you a funny joke?”
Even knowing he was a man, my heart pounded for a moment. Kiss’s beautiful appearance was famous even in high society, and there was a saying that spread like a trend because of it. That was that all people were equal under Kiss’s beauty.
Though his appearance was innate, through consistent training since childhood, Kiss knew what kind of bearing and expressions gained people’s favor.
‘How deeply moving. To meet the protagonist of my favorite novel that I’ve read hundreds of times like this.’
Even if it was a fate to be killed by Kiss’s hand someday, being glad was being glad. That said, I couldn’t show that I was glad. In the original work, Kiss and Ash were close to bitter enemies.
“Why did you want to see me?”
I erased the gladness from my voice and got straight to the point. At my cold atmosphere, his beautiful face stiffened slightly. Kiss, who had been tapping his cheek with the hand propping up his chin, said as if puzzled.
“Strange, the atmosphere is a bit different from usual.”
“……”
“When you sent a letter saying you wanted to spend this year’s first birthday festival together, that was when, but why are you so distant today?”
In fact, Ash and Kiss were close friends who attended the academy together since childhood. Ash had been ostracized by children since young for being human, and the only one who showed kindness each time was Kiss.
For that reason, Ash sincerely admired Kiss. He readily talked about sensitive family matters that only family members could know, or Baron’s weaknesses.
Later, when Baron found out about this and gave him a severe beating, he gained the disability of losing sight in one eye. But even after being beaten like that, he repeatedly continued to secretly help Kiss from behind. Dreaming the absurd dream that someday Kiss might consider him a true friend.
‘But in the end, Kiss, who became emperor, annihilated the Serpent family and exiled Ash to a bitterly cold snowy field as an example.’
With Ash staggering across the snowy field wearing only a single blanket as the end, the villain family Serpent family episode met its complete conclusion. Even in that moment of freezing to death in the snowy field, Ash dreamed of Kiss ascending to the emperor’s throne.
At Ash’s melancholic ending, some readers said ‘Even so, this is a bit too much,’ while other readers said ‘If he’s alive alone when all his family members were executed, didn’t Kiss show some consideration in his own way?’ Well, whatever Kiss’s intention was didn’t really matter.
‘Right, the important thing is not to be used by Kiss like in the original work.’
It was character-breaking, but it couldn’t be helped. For the family not to completely collapse, I had to somehow prevent Kiss’s usurpation of the throne. I spoke to the smiling Kiss in an appropriately indifferent voice.
“……If I may be so bold, if you have no particular business, could you please return today?”
“……”
“I’m not feeling well, worse than usual.”
It was a voice so emotionless that even I flinched after saying it. Kiss also seemed to notice Ash’s reaction different from usual, as the smile vanished from his lips. I broke into a cold sweat in the awkward silence.
‘D-did I speak too coldly? In my thought to keep distance, I went too far.’
I averted my gaze from Kiss, who was staring at me with an expressionless face. Even so, he’s royalty—was my tone too arrogant? It’s not like I told him to get lost from before my eyes, so isn’t this much okay?
“You weren’t feeling well, I’m sorry. This side is also in quite an urgent situation, you see.”
I hesitated at the voice warm as the sun. When I raised my head, Kiss had a subtle smile again as if asking when he’d been serious. Strength involuntarily entered my fist.
‘He’s definitely not an easy opponent.’
The reason Kiss was strong wasn’t simply because of his innate magical power. Kiss was skilled at winning people’s hearts. He didn’t easily show hostility, and he also hid his true feelings as much as possible to obtain what he wanted.
That was exactly why Kiss was frightening. I couldn’t tell what on earth he was thinking. Just as I was maintaining silence with a stiff face, Kiss, who suddenly took something out from his breast, spread it on the table.
“There’s one reason I came here. Ash, you can speak Ancient Language, right?”
“……”
“Could you try interpreting this sentence?”
It was the same development as the original work. One of Ash’s few merits was being able to hear and interpret Ancient Language without studying it separately. It was a characteristic that appeared in only a very rare few among the human race, and Ash could only vaguely guess that he was influenced by his ancestors.
My eyes went to the densely written characters on the parchment. The letters were interpreted and read even without trying to read them.
‘Ancient Language……’
I smiled quietly inside. I pointed to the ancient letters with my hand and read along.
“The king of the new era needs a vessel, a vessel that can fully contain the emptiness he possesses.”
After reading the Ancient Language in a confident voice, I looked at Kiss with a triumphant face. Contrary to my expectation that he would surely be amazed, Kiss, who had a subtle expression, said in an unimpressed voice.
“When you play chess with the same opponent for a long time, you see, you can clearly read the next move just by looking at the first few moves.”
“……”
“But it’s really strange. Today I can’t see any of your moves at all, Ash. It’s like playing chess with someone I’m seeing for the first time.”
Kiss, who had been looking at me with his fingers interlaced, smiled brightly. Without showing signs of being flustered, I picked up the teacup placed in front. Then I countered in a calm voice.
“Is this all you need my help with?”
“No, there’s one thing I’d like to ask.”
As expected.
There was one reason Kiss suddenly had me interpret Ancient Language. It was because the language that Deus, the unfortunate crown prince who couldn’t speak human language due to madness, uniquely used was this ancient language.
Since he couldn’t just pluck a child from the prestigious Serpent family like pulling a radish and suddenly make them an interpreter, it was quite a clever tactic to take Ash away under the pretext that he could speak Ancient Language.
That’s why the Ash in the original work barely avoided the position of being Deus’s prey on the condition of telling Kiss the family’s internal secrets. It was a servile choice no different from starting a big fire to put out a small one.
‘This life is different.’
Isn’t there a saying like that? Turn crisis into opportunity. I don’t know whether this is turning crisis into opportunity or turning opportunity into crisis, but in the current situation, there was only one way to make a character stronger than Kiss into an ally.
‘The Ash of this life will enter the tiger’s den directly.’
