'But why do I feel so cold?'
"..."
Nathan kept wondering as he willed his soul to return.
He was having a hard time blinking and thinking straight; he tried to force his eyelids to open wider, but it felt much more difficult than before. Utilizing the small gap he could form, he decided to try moving his head left and right instead.
What met him were weird gazes from the crowd.
"..."
Having a bad feeling, he tilted his head towards the center of the room, and there he saw a tall woman, gowned in imperial garments, with a beautiful, imposing crown on her head and a mask on her face.
She was staring in his direction with a gloomy expression.
Before he could focus further, his hard-standing Iron rod, which tore through his pajamas, got his attention.
'Crap'
***
1 hour later
Nathan was seated in a luxurious dining room...
Before him was a long rectangular marble table; on one end sat the queen of the Kingdom, Amelia, while on the other end sat Princess Ariana, one of the kingdom's three princesses.
Ariana had blond hair and a black mask on her face, similar to the queens, with the masks covering only the portion around their eyes, like some masquerade party dress code.
This display was rather odd from Nathan's perspective; he initially thought they were heading to a royal party or something, but they never left or attended one within the premises.
This kept him wondering what meaning lay behind the masks.
'Are they ugly?... Why don't I wear one? Is it a female royalty thing?'
Nathan was guided to sit near Princess Ariana and kept observing the situation silently.
He was somehow embarrassed by the events that transpired earlier and wasn't so sure how to handle the situation.
The three nobles present kept eyeing each other as maids brought dishes from the kitchen and set them on the table.
It was grand and a meal worthy of royalty.
The meal was able to feed over twenty adult men, made up of a myriad dishes, some of which he could identify, and other dishes he couldn't.
All meant for three people.
He was not familiar with the workings of the palace, but if the leftovers were thrown out, that would be too wasteful from his perspective. After all, he came from a struggling family, and he knows what it took to put food on the table.
Being transmigrated to a royal household and receiving royal treatment made Nathan feel grateful and believe it was a reasonable compromise for his zero potential.
His dissatisfaction with the goddess decreased by a considerable margin.
The only downside was that he had no memories whatsoever of Tsunami's past life, which meant that he had to figure everything out himself.
...
The silence was beginning to make Nathan uncomfortable, so he decided to break the ice. He looked towards Queen Amelia's direction, hoping to clear the misunderstanding.
"Mother, I'm sorry for my indecent behaviour earlier."
PACHA!
A maid who was heading to fill Nathan's cup dropped a jug to the floor in shock. Panicked, she immediately dropped to her knees and began pleading mercy before the crown prince.
"Spare me your highness, it won't happen ag- Ah~" Two guards came rushing and yanked the maid away by her hair.
It was painful... too painful.
Tears streaked down her cheek, but she didn't stop pleading for her life, and in fact, increased her voice.
"I don't wish to be thrown to the dungeon, give me another chance, my prince... I'll do better."
"Behave yourself, pest!"
One of the imperial guards, irritated by her improper etiquette display, slapped the fragile, petite maid so hard that she coughed up blood before collapsing from the sheer force that shook her brain, and broke her lower jaw in the process.
"..."
The brutality displayed and the disfigured face were a chilling sight.
"Eva, clean this mess."
"Yes, queen supreme."
A sudden fragrant breeze trailed through the dining hall, and a second later...
The mess was gone.
"..."
Nathan kept staring at the events with a weird expression.
He was not surprised by the maid's actions; he instead found them acceptable.
But did it warrant such a response?
'She won't die, right?'
Even though Nathan lacked royal experience or extensive knowledge of this world, he learned early in life to adopt a laid-back approach.
Improvising only when necessary.
Focusing more on observing people before interacting with them, given a chance, that is.
'When I mentioned mother, the maid's eyes widened from shock.'
'She wasn't expecting it.'
'What is wrong with me calling her mother? Am I some illegitimate child?'
'But when I was dressing, the maids kept addressing me as the crown prince.'
'An illegitimate child can't be a crown prince, right?'
On the other end of the table, the queen gave Nathan a deep look before taking an elegant sip from her glass and savoring its taste.
Ariana, noticing Tsunami's dazed expression, which she believed was an act, followed his play.
"She is not your mother, and never call any woman mother, other than the goddesses that is."
"We were concerned when the physicians said you are alright, but it seems your memories are not." When she was saying this, she was observing Tsunami's every reaction, ready to pick up any hint of deceit.
'I just got exposed that fast?' Nathan was alarmed by how easily he gave away such vital information.
"What do you remember?" Ariana asked while fixing her gaze on his face.
"My name..."
A moment of silence...
"That's it?" Ariana's eyes widened at the absurdity of it all.
"..."
"Yeah, that's it."
"Impossible!"
"Then how comes you knew how to operate the system's interface after you awoke?"
"What do you have to say about your Iron Rod?" She was still skeptical that Tsunami was lying.
Although it was within reason that the crown prince might have lost his memories after the assassination attempt, she still found it hard to accept.
Tsunami was known as a rebellious prodigy prince for a reason. He was too crafty with many secrets.
Ariana found it more and more suspicious; a dangerous glint passed through her eyes.
She believed that all of this was Tsunami's new act to help him avoid her accession ceremony.
This time, she was unwilling to allow Tsunami to play her like a fool.
The accession ceremony was an important celebration for the kingdom and for her. She would have to showcase that she was fit to become the princess supreme.
Tsunami, on the other hand, was never cooperative and avoided any dual cultivation.
Not to mention her accession ceremony would be displayed in public, for the whole kingdom to witness.
To her, the accession was both critical on a political stage and on a personal level.
Within the political sphere, she would showcase her potential and hopefully attract influential supporters to balance the opposing faction.
On a personal note, she could take a step further on her favourite journey by giving her best performance yet.
Hoping to get the necessary evaluation grade, bringing her 90% closer to becoming a 1st step Favourite.
Previously, Tsunami had numerous cards to play and reasons that allowed him to postpone the accession, with little backlash on his side.
The biggest being his monstrous talent, one seen once in ten thousand years, that propelled him to become a 2nd step Favourite.
And no dual cultivation.
A mystery he heavily guarded.
Many people couldn't touch him then, or force him too much. After all, other than coming from a powerful household, having strong prowess, he also had talent protection.
No one in the kingdom dared to be on bad terms with him.
But now that the royal physicians have proved that the crown prince had lost all of his favourite cultivation, and his potential dropped from one to zero.
Ariana was determined to be the first to rip the most from this god given opportunity.