I’m the Only One Who Can Guide the Tyrant to Sleep - Chapter 17
Caesar and I often met in the garden. Caesar avoided the eyes of the maids, and I avoided Floria’s gaze.
After seeing him in the Emperor’s bedroom, I realized the extent of Caesar’s position. By paying a little more attention, I could also sense the rumors circulating among the maids.
Caesar was merely called the Crown Prince in name.
His mother, the former Empress, wasn’t a high-ranking noble, and she had no connections. So after her death, there was no one to support Caesar.
In contrast, the current Empress had a strong backing. Although she wasn’t born into high nobility, she had built her own connections as well.
As the Emperor’s illness deepened and his authority waned, she boldly formed alliances with the nobility.
‘She’s determined to fight against her husband.’
There were rumors about her ambition, power-hungry nature, and even talk of her being blinded by authority.
However, the problem was that in the original story, the Empress also died.
‘She was eventually used by the nobility too.’
Initially, the nobility had no intention of partnering with the Empress. They simply used her and then discarded her. Their goal was to eliminate all royals and establish a new dynasty.
So the princess fled, and I helped her escape but ended up dying…
“Haaah….”
I kept sighing.
‘Will awakening Caesar alone solve the problem?’
I needed to expose the nobility’s influence to persuade the Empress and then safely make Caesar the Emperor.
‘In the end, I have to deal with the nobility to ensure Floria’s and my safety.’
Well, if I make a mistake, I might end up involved in a bloody palace struggle.
Of course, there was also the option of escaping alone without helping Floria, but that seemed unlikely…
‘I feel sorry for Floria, but living like this isn’t much different from my previous life.’
In the end, she will have to live in constant fear, without family or money, just to survive.
The life I desire isn’t like that. Protecting my current peaceful daily life is what I want.
“Haaaaah….”
I sighed deeply once more.
“Why are you sighing?”
Caesar opened his eyes halfway and looked at me. I stared back at his innocent eyes.
“Because there’s been no progress.”
There’s only three more months until Caesar’s fifteenth birthday, and he had a little over that much time left to live. Time was running out, and I couldn’t even think of a solution.
“Maybe I should visit a fortune teller or something.”
“Have you found anyone who claims to be a Guide?”
“…No.”
In this world, there was no way to find a Guide. After all, the existence of awakenings and Guides had not been revealed at this point in time.
Caesar was the first awakened in this world, and the male protagonist from the original story, whose name I couldn’t remember, was the second awakened.
So there was no hope of the government managing Guides or having devices to identify them. At this point, we were among the very few who knew about awakenings.
“You said you’d help me, didn’t you?”
“…Yes.”
“That’s the only way you’ll survive.”
“…Yes, that’s right.”
Somehow, I felt drained. We had a long way to go, and I still hadn’t figured out how to find a Guide.
“Well, take your time to think about it.”
“Huh?”
“It might hurt a bit, but it’s bearable. While you’re searching for that Guide… We can just keep meeting in the garden like this.”
Caesar absentmindedly picked at the dirt around him.
He didn’t know that he would die before his fifteenth birthday.
‘You can’t take it easy like that.’
I swallowed the words I couldn’t bring myself to say.
“I don’t mind playing in the garden like this. I can wait until we find a solution.”
“Okay.”
It wasn’t like worrying would change anything. I had to think carefully. We still had three months, so there was time.
“By the way, what have you been doing since earlier?”
“Last time, the flowers withered because of me. I’m trying to revive them.”
He was already plucking the withered flowers.
“Hmm…”
Reviving the fallen petals was an impossible task.
“You said this wasn’t a curse but more like a blessing.”
“Yeah.”
“But why do the flowers around me keep withering? It happens every time.”
“Every time?”
“Yeah. Every time something like that happens, everything around me dies. Flowers, butterflies… Everything that’s alive.”
Come to think of it, I remembered when he pushed me away and told me to go away during one of his rampages. Maybe that’s why.
“Do you know why?”
“Umm…”
I thought about the original work. Did the male protagonist do the same? In the original work, when he awakened, the earth shook, and a storm raged, just like here.
‘But in the original work, I think there was a description that things around the male protagonist revived. Could it be because each one has different abilities?’
In the original work, apart from the male protagonist, no one else awakened, so I couldn’t know for sure.
Well, maybe they were all different depending on their abilities. Abilities could have different effects.
“I guess you don’t know why I’m like this either.”
Caesar raised an eyebrow.
Since that day, he had become quite expressive toward me. He had even learned how to make a pouty face like a kid.
“It seems like my ability isn’t all that great.”
“What? No, it’s not like that!”
I hurriedly denied it, but my gloomy expression didn’t seem to be going away.
“It’s always been like this. It’s always my fault. Mother died, and Father…”
The words from a fourteen-year-old sounded too pessimistic.
“Why do you have such negative thoughts?”
“Everything bad that happens is because of me. I can’t become an emperor. I shouldn’t become an emperor.”
“Who told you that…”
I furrowed my brows. It wasn’t something to say to a fourteen-year-old.
“It’s the right thing to say.”
Caesar dug into the ground with determination. I hurriedly shuffled the soil in the garden.
“What are you doing?”
