Children of the Holy Emperor
Chapter 3

It was supposed to be the end.

* * *

‘What the hell is happening…’

Why would I, who was certain I had burnt even my soul, be lying on a bed, chewing on porridge someone else is feeding me?

[Ha ha ha! This is hilarious! Are you a baby? What are you going to do with this bib?]

‘…It’s a napkin, you idiot.’

Why is this damn demon king, who had solemnly sworn to burn his own soul, making a racket in my head?

The clock winded back a day. As a wet towel caressed his forehead, he opened his eyes to see a mature woman in extravagant clothes, tears welling up as she looked at him.

“Morres! My baby! Can you recognize your mother?”

“Oh, Prince! You have finally regained consciousness!”

Caught amidst the commotion, Seongjin blinked in confusion.

A grand, ornate room. The attentive care of people who seemed to be servants.

At first, he thought he might be in the afterlife. Realizing that the situation was abnormal happened when a familiar voice echoed in his mind.

[Hey, quit standing around dumbfounded and wake up! Are you still half asleep?]

This absurd voice, could it be?

‘…The demon king?’

[Ah, you recognize me! You weren’t opening your eyes so I thought your soul was completely damaged. You know how intense Gehenna’s flames are, right?]

Why is this bastard?

Are you telling me we didn’t finish it all off?

[Woah, woah. Calm down, get your bearings. Your soul is still settling in, you know. This body you just got into, if you mess up, you could get bounced right back out, got it?]

What the hell is he babbling about? If Gehenna’s flames weren’t enough, if my punch wasn’t enough, I’m more than ready to finish him off for good.

Seongjin, gritting his teeth as he tried to get up, found his body surprisingly sluggish and heavy. He collapsed back down. Not only because people around him were holding him back in surprise, but his body was also oddly languid and heavy.

It’s hard to breathe. My arms and legs are too heavy.

“Morres! What’s wrong? My child, are you in pain?”

“Prince! Please calm down…”

Let go! The Demon King is still alive! We need to kill that bastard…

[Hey, your blood pressure is skyrocketing, you know? If you keep this up, you’ll die just as soon as you’ve been revived. Now, take some deep breaths, okay? Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale.]

What the hell is this demon king talking about! And what are these people doing, holding me down!

Let me go! Let go!

“Cough!”

Suddenly, a sharp pain pierced his back, and his vision started to spin.

“Morres!”

“Your Highness!”

As the desperate cries of the people faded away, darkness claimed his sight. When Seongjin came to, he was still in the same place, surrounded by the same people. And the goddamn voice of the demon king was still echoing from somewhere.

[Wow, I thought you were just prone to bad tempers, but it seems your anger really is out of control.]

‘You, bastard…’

Grinding his teeth furiously, Seongjin heard the demon king quickly backtrack.

[Ah, sorry, sorry. I won’t make any more annoying comments, okay? Let’s just talk, let’s talk. That’s good, right?]

‘What? This bastard?’

Their conversation was still somewhat tentative. But surprisingly, Seongjin, who had been raging so furiously he seemed likely to die from anger, quickly calmed down within half a day.

Because he found out that the demon king’s physical body had been completely destroyed, and only a fragment of his soul remained like a leftover.

He was at a loss as to how to deal with a guy who was nothing but a voice, and getting angry seemed to be a waste of effort.

So he quenched his rage and listened quietly to the demon king’s explanation.

The final battle had completely incinerated not only the demon king but also Seongjin’s own body in the flames of Gehenna. For some reason, however, Seongjin’s soul remained largely unscathed, and the fire had quietly died down.

Perhaps, the demon king suggested in his neutral tone, his soul survived due to the unexpectedly rapid evolution of the flames.

[While my noble soul was mostly burnt away, I have no idea why you remained unscathed.]

“…….”

[Anyway, that’s how I ended up losing nearly all of my power and vigor. All that’s left now is perhaps a vestige of my original personality.]

The point is, he could never return to the mighty demon king he once was.

“Then you should have just disappeared somewhere long ago, why bother talking and rambling inside another’s head?”

At Seongjin’s dismissive response, the demon king sighed.

[That’s not such a simple matter. Do you think I haven’t tried? But I can’t escape. Every time I try to distance myself from you even a little bit, I suffer unbearable pain, thanks to the holy energy around me. It’s a terrifying pain that crushes the core itself. If time continues to pass, won’t even the remaining fragments of my soul disappear completely?]

“Looks like we have a conclusion. Just vanish cleanly. It’s simple.”

[You brat! Would you do the same if you were in my shoes, huh?]

Of course, Seongjin wanted to eradicate even the smallest trace of that remaining soul.

But how could he kill something that doesn’t have a physical form in the first place? There was no way he could summon Gehenna’s flames right now.

Seongjin had a tendency to charge without looking around when he had a goal, but he was not a man to stubbornly stick to the impossible.

Once he accepted the situation, he found the annoying entity surprisingly useful. After all, the former demon king did know a lot.

The demon king, who had regained consciousness a day earlier than Seongjin, had already collected a fair amount of information about this new world and Seongjin’s situation.

Using an efficient method of directly touching other people’s souls and glimpsing their memories, or so he claimed.

Thanks to this, while Seongjin was lying in bed receiving the devoted care of the people, he began to quickly grasp his current situation based on the babbling of the demon king.

According to the demon king, this place was a completely different dimensional world, far removed from Earth or the demon world.

[We’re extremely lucky. We had a high chance of being scattered beyond the void, but strangely enough, we’ve ended up in a main world]

Main world?

[It’s a higher dimension. It’s at least a couple of levels above the imaginary worlds¹, like Sigurd-34 Earth or Gehenna.]

‘Imaginary worlds? What is Sigurd-34 Earth?’

The demon king clicked his tongue.

[Wah, such a primitive Earthling class. You don’t even know the name of your own dimension. You don’t even have a concept of dimensions, do you? You should have figured this out before rushing in to die. Oh…these ignorant fools.]

He regretted not wiping out the demon king’s head completely. At least he would’ve been able to slap him around before the demon king could annoy him.

Feeling some eerie energy, the soul of the demon king began to shudder.

But to sense his spirit so directly, it’s a little disgusting.

[You’re harsh. You’re a really ruthless guy. Even though we’ve become soul companions now…….]

‘…Shut up!’

Anyway, this place belonging to a higher dimension is the Holy Empire of Delcross.

A powerful empire with many kingdoms and grand duchies under the rule of the Holy Emperor, who receives the protection of the gods from generation to generation.

The current Holy Emperor is the 17th, and the man would be this body’s biological father.

In other words, he Lee Seongjin was now a prince. No wonder people were extraordinarily polite.

[Your name now is Morres Klein. The third prince and the fourth child of the Holy Emperor, who turns 15 this year……]

‘A child?’

[He’s a very famous troublemaker.]

His mother, the first queen, Elizabeth Asein, is the daughter of the highly respected Archduke Asein, and among the women of the palace, she is the queen with the most distinguished lineage.

She had an unbeatable confidence even in front of the Holy Emperor and Empress, believing without a doubt that her son, who had inherited the noblest blood among the royal children, would be the crown prince to succeed the Holy Emperor.

And that expectation soon morphed into an excessive educational fervor and emotional attachment.

Fortunately, Prince Morres tried to live up to his mother’s expectations when he was young.

He may not have been exceptionally gifted compared to his other brothers, but he at least diligently learned the demeanor of a prince.

However, from around the age of seven, he began to frequently lose his temper for no reason and gradually became lawless.

He ranted and raved at the maids and servants, often resorting to unprovoked violence. When he was bored, he would break things by throwing dishes and items around, and he continually tortured and stressed his escort knights.

During lessons, he would insult and mock his teachers, and after being scolded by the queen a few times, he stopped attending lessons altogether.

The demon king recounted the scandalous history of the troublesome prince as if he was looking at Seongjin’s own shame.

‘But how can you have such detailed information in just one day? Can I trust this?’

[Oh! These are the pieces of information I’ve obtained by directly contacting the souls of the people around us. They are high-quality information that you alone couldn’t gather even if you were reborn. Be grateful.]

‘…….’

After that, the prince’s daily life plummeted downhill.

His once impeccable manners disappeared, and he began to find even the slightest physical activity bothersome.

Eventually, he gave up even his swordsmanship classes which he had somewhat enjoyed, lying in bed all day loafing around and incessantly snacking.

People couldn’t understand why he had suddenly changed. They could only speculate that the young prince, who had so far obediently followed his ambitious queen mother, might have been unknowingly suffering from severe stress.

Over the years, the once noble prince became an ignorant, ill-tempered swine, rolling around due to his severe obesity.

[Then, he suddenly collapsed.]

The incident happened three days ago.

Morres, who had eaten well and gone to bed the night before, suddenly suffered from a mysterious high fever from dawn, and by the afternoon, he had completely lost consciousness. There were no signs of poisoning, and the symptoms were unfamiliar for any disease.

The skilled royal physicians rushed to help the prince, but he remained unconscious.

The emperor postponed national affairs and visited the sickroom, while the queen mother kept vigil over the sickbed in tears all night.

And four days after the fever began, not Morres, but Seongjin, woke up in this body.

‘So where did the real soul of Morres go?’

That was what Seongjin was most curious about. Unintentionally, he had become a spirit possessing someone else’s body, and even for him, who had no spiritual knowledge, this was not normal.

If they unlawfully possessed a healthy person’s body, it would be a big problem if the original owner were harmed.

However, the reaction of the demon king was not so enlightened.

[Hmm? When I woke up, there were no other souls in this body besides us. Maybe he died from the fever?]

So he’s saying they conveniently entered the body of someone who had just died from illness.

‘So what happens if we leave here?’

[Why? Leave? Since it’s a soulless body, there’s a high chance it will just die, right?]

‘…Is there a way to get out?’

The demon king’s response was ruthless.

[Why not? Just die, that’s it.]

‘……’

Seongjin looked terrified.

Certainly, being unexpectedly resurrected wasn’t a bad feeling.

Even when he was about to face death with the demon king, he knew he couldn’t escape annihilation, and he was intoxicated with the sense of achievement of having destroyed the demon world—even though there were some residual garbage that hadn’t completely burnt—it felt enough.

But when he actually woke up, the past life filled with patience, suffering, and deprivation came to him in a different way.

The life of constantly wearing himself down in order to fight, to eliminate the underworld.

Seongjin’s past life was far from what one could call happy.

What about now? Could he really live a new life in another’s body?

Is it okay to consider this miraculous coincidence a compensation for his past unhappy life?

As Seongjin was lost in thought, the demon, who had no way of understanding his complex feelings, was teasing him from the side.

[“Anyway, what if you’re a pig? You’ve become the son of the highest person in the country? Wow, congratulations. You’ve hit the jackpot in life, you.”]

Yeah, this was also a problem too.

Seongjin swallowed his saliva, looking at his massive body sprawled on the bed.

The bulging belly that blocked his view despite being in a lying position, and the thick arms and legs bloated with fat that couldn’t even fully fold at the joints.

He was short of breath and felt tired just from squirming for a moment; this wasn’t just the aftereffect of a simple fever.

To think he had to occupy such a worthless body. Seongjin sighed, recalling his previous body covered with powerful muscles.

‘Is this really a good thing….’

This is what had happened in the past day.

And now, Seongjin, lying on a luxurious bed, reluctantly eats the porridge fed by Queen Elizabeth, as if he were a baby bird, with a napkin neatly placed on his neck.

“Now, Morres, say ah- one more time.”

He was embarrassingly close to death, but at the sight of the affectionate queen, Seongjin reluctantly opened his mouth again.

The demon’s almost breathless laughter echoed in his head.

[“Hahahaha! I’m going crazy! I’m going to die! Are you trying to make me die laughing! Hahahaha!”]

That son of a gun, I will definitely get rid of him someday.

Seongjin swallowed the porridge roughly and then stopped the queen who was about to scoop the next bite.

“Um… Mother (eomoni)? My stomach is full now. You must be tired, I think you can stop feeding me.”

“Morres…….”

The queen gazed at her son with a sorrowful expression for a moment, then lowered her head and wiped her tears with the end of her extravagant lace sleeve.

“That’s right, I suddenly realize that your memory is not intact. You’ve never called me mother (eomoni) before.”

“Uh, um…….”

Awkward as hell!

He had vaguely brushed it off, saying that his memory before the illness was hazy, to avoid any unwarranted suspicions. But every time he talked to the queen, Seongjin was nervous that he might be discovered as not being Morres.

Even now, Seongjin didn’t know how to respond and was hesitating, but the demon who had glimpsed memories from the queen’s soul gave him a hint.

[It seems like you usually called her ‘Royal Mother’?]

I know, but so what.

Since he couldn’t say ‘Royal Mother’, Seongjin ended up having no choice but to respond like this.

“…I’m sorry.”

“What do you have to be sorry about? Your fever was so terrible. Even with the emperor himself administering treatment, the fever did not subside, so as a mother, I was worried that something terrible had happened.”

The queen delicately adjusted her sleeve and carefully held Morres’ hand.

“Just you waking up healthy is more than enough to make me happy.”

When her gentle, warm hand touched him, Seongjin had to work hard not to harden his expression. He felt horribly guilty for having to pretend to be her son, when he was not.

Her real son was already dead, his soul gone, and she couldn’t even mourn him because she didn’t know the truth.

But then again, he couldn’t tell her that he was another soul inhabiting Morres’ body.

There was no chance she’d believe him, and even if she did, it would be problematic.

What if she immediately exorcises him? And if his soul really gets chased out of the body?

He didn’t particularly regret his spare life, but he also didn’t want to commit suicide in such a grand manner.

“But it seems there’s a silver lining to you being sick. My child is sitting quietly with me like this, when was the last time?”

“Hahaha….”

This crazy Morres. How did you live that your mother could be happy about such trivial things?

Seongjin could only awkwardly smile.