'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. So, utilizing the tiny 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, 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.
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, who was guided to sit near Princess Ariana, kept observing the situation silently.
He was somehow embarrassed by the events that transpired a while back and wasn't so sure how to handle them now.
All 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.
Still, it was also too wasteful... the meals were able to feed over 20 adult men, made up of chickens, ducks, beef, pork, fish, sushi, fruits, vegetables, rice, potatoes, wine, juice, water, pizzas, and a myriad of other dishes Nathan was unable to identify.
All meant for three people.
Being transmigrated to a royal household and receiving royal treatment made Nathan feel grateful and a reasonable compromise for his zero potential.
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.
"Mother, I'm sorry for my indecent actions earlier."
PACHA!
A maid who was heading to fill Nathan's cup with juice dropped the 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 forcefully by her hair.
It was painful... too painful.
Soon, tears streaked down her cheek, but she didn't stop pleading for her life.
"I don't wish to die, give me another chance, your highness... I'll do better."
"Behave yourself, pest!"
One of the imperial guards slapped the fragile maid so hard that she coughed up blood before collapsing from the sheer force that shook her brain, breaking her lower jaw in the process.
"..."
"Eva, clean this mess."
"Yes, queen supreme."
A sudden fragrant breeze trailed through the dining hall, and a second later, abruptly disappeared.
The mess was gone.
"..."
Nathan kept staring at the events with a weird expression.
He was not surprised by the maid's actions and instead found them acceptable.
But did it warrant such a response?
'She is not going to get killed, right?'
Even though Nathan lacked royal experience or extensive knowledge of this world, he learned early in life to adopt a laid-back approach and improvise 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. It's as if it were unexpected.'
'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 of champagne and savoring its taste.
Ariana, noticing Tsunami's dazed expression, clarified the situation for him.
"She is not your mother, and never call any woman mother, other than the goddesses."
"We were concerned when the physicians said you are alright, but it seems your memories are not."
'I just got exposed that fast?'
"What do you remember?"
"My name..."
...
"That's it?"
"..."
"Yeah, that's it."
"Then how comes you knew how to operate the system's interface after you awoke?"
Ariana was skeptical that Tsunami was lying.
Although it is within reason that the crown prince might have lost his memories after the assassination attempt failed, she still found it hard to accept that Tsunami had amnesia.
Tsunami was known as a rebellious prince for a reason.
Adding the circulating rumors of his Iron rod, something that was witnessed by a lot of people, something that he previously lacked, or kept well hidden from all of them: his frequent disappearances, plus a ton of other things.
Tsunami was simply a crafty prince with many secrets.
As 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, but this time she was unwilling to allow Tsunami to play her a fool.
The accession ceremony was an important celebration for the kingdom, as she would have to showcase that she was fit to become the princess supreme, but Tsunami always 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 personal.
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 and hopes to get the necessary evaluation grade, bringing her 90% closer to becoming a step 1 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, which enabled him to become a step 2 Favourite, without practicing dual cultivation.
A mystery he heavily guarded.
Many people couldn't touch him before, or force him too much, due to this talent protection.
But now that the royal physicians have proved that the crown prince has lost all of his cultivation base and his potential has dropped to zero.
Ariana was determined to be the first to rip the most from this opportunity.
'Weird! Why is this woman looking at me so strangely?'