NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 173.1
“Sir… So our prince is the child of the second queen?”
The youngest inquisitor blurted out. At that remark, the faces of the inquisitors who were having lunch paled.
“Why bring that up now?”
“I know that the current queen is the third wife. Prince Ileph is the child of the first queen…”
“…”
“Both the first and the second queens have passed away, and now we have the third queen, but there’s absolutely no information about the second queen, right? Only that prince Cedric is her child…”
“Shush! Be careful with your words, you might get into trouble.”
“Why? Why is that?”
“Be especially careful in front of the leader. The second queen was quite unwell.”
“…What?”
“You know that prince Cedric grew up like a commoner, right? As soon as the second queen got married, she felt ill and left the palace for treatment. But I’ve heard that she was mentally ill. So, she kept Cedric’s existence a secret… and raised him in secret.”
“Why, why would she do that? To hide the precious seed of the royal family…”
“Do you get it now? Our lord is prince Cedric, so never pretend to know. I’m telling you to be careful with your words.”
“Yes, I understand.”
The youngest nodded with a stern face.
“I was simply curious about what kind of person the mother who gave birth to such a brilliant genius prince was.”
“That’s the second of the palace’s three mysteries. The first is that the king is surprisingly popular with women.”
“Ah.”
“That’s something I’ve always been curious about too. But, what about the task?”
The inquisitors stopped in their tracks. Suddenly, Cedric appeared behind them.
All of them immediately knelt.
“We apologize, Your Highness.”
“How long have you been listening?”
“We have committed a grave sin.”
To their hurried apologies, Cedric chuckled bitterly.
“Stand up.”
The youngest stood up nervously.
“The rumors you heard are true, and there’s also a rumor that my mother was a mad wizard.”
“That, that’s…”
“I’m not angry. If you have questions about your superiors in the future, ask directly. Even if the superior is younger than you, gossiping behind their back isn’t good, right?”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Keep up the good work. And don’t make a face like you’re about to be beheaded just for sharing some rumors.”
Cedric smiled teasingly.
The youngest was momentarily stunned by the angelic smile. As Cedric left, they exchanged glances.
“Is he truly not vindictive?”
“He isn’t.”
“He’s intimidating… and handsome.”
The youngest mumbled, and the seniors shook their heads in amusement.
Another one’s smitten. The seniors, familiar with this process, had a knowing look.
Surprisingly, the rumors were quite credible. Because the rumors surrounding Cedric’s mother were true.
Cedric’s mother was indeed a wizard. Roaming the world, she was drawn to the then-bachelor king and got married.
‘It would’ve been a fairytale story up to that point.’
But the problem is, reality is different.
‘The marriage of a wandering wizard and a real king, it couldn’t have ended well.’
Thankfully, it was a secret marriage. Officially, she wasn’t a legitimate queen.
The king wanted to make her the real queen, but she hid a huge secret.
‘My mother was a descendant of white wizards.’
In the end, she couldn’t continue deceiving the king and ran away.
By then, she was already pregnant with Cedric.
On top of that, she was inherently mentally unstable. Looking at young Cedric, she would always murmur.
‘Messy hair, bloodshot eyes, gaunt limbs. The magic knowledge that whispered in my ears like a spell. That was my mother.’
That was all Cedric remembered of his mother.
‘My mother was a nightmare.’
Long ago, this country was inhabited by barbarians.
The barbarians lived intermingled with humans of wolf lineage. Wolves who cast spells to partially transform like beasts.
Some of these wolves, living with humans, began to speak and think completely like humans.
As time went by, wolves started to become extinct, and the last of the wolves interbred with human children.
‘That was the beginning of the royal wizard lineage.’
As time passed, the wolf lineage diluted, and children born began to look more like ordinary people.
Only three differences set them apart.
Children with wolf lineage were exceptionally good-looking, had talent in magic, and grew faster than average, being exceptional.
They were called Lycanthropes.
This country was founded by powerful wizards with wolf blood.
‘But the master wizard’s line was cut off a long time ago.’
A lineage that has already been severed for over 200 years. The powerful and superior bloodline of that race miraculously revived through Cedric.
‘That doesn’t mean I turn into a wolf.’
Cedric thought many times about why he was born this way. No matter how much he thought, there was only one answer.
‘It’s probably because my mother was a white wizard.’
The descendant of the royal family who destroyed the white wizards long ago and a white wizard came together, and Cedric was born.
Even thinking about it now, the irony was palpable.
‘Even if I’m a werewolf, it just means I have a slightly deformed appearance.’
Cedric looked at his own hand.
He occasionally checks to make sure this hand hasn’t become grotesque.