Children of the Holy Emperor

You’ll die a premature death at any time because of that temper of yours.

Since it’s perfect for you to kick the bucket somewhere, from now on, try to stick around the Pearl Palace as much as possible.

***

Although Calmen had only recently realized it, contrary to his fierce appearance, Prince Morres had an extremely generous personality.

Until now, Calmen had made large and small mistakes several times in front of him, but each time, the prince brushed them off without paying much attention. If it were someone else, they would have reprimanded him long ago.

-You should consider yourself lucky to be able to serve a good person like His Highness, Sir Calmen.

Dame Claudia, who had somehow become a loyal follower of the prince, warned him on multiple occasions.

-You don’t think of the prince as just a young boy and feel at ease, do you? What will you do if the mistakes you make don’t end as mere mistakes but become a problem that damages His Highness’ reputation? If you don’t fix that bad habit of yours soon, I won’t let you off the hook next time!

But Calmen thought that was impossible. Among the resident knights of the Pearl Palace, who would dare to take the prince lightly?

Anyone with even a little bit of sense, no, anyone who had seen the prince train even once, couldn’t possibly fail to notice how dangerous and unusual his aura was at times.

However, as time passed and the same mistakes kept repeating, Calmen himself began to have this thought.

‘…Am I really taking the prince lightly?’

Once such doubts began to arise, Calmen could no longer confidently utter any resolution in front of the prince.

“I’m sorry… Your Highness. I… will never again…”

Listening to that pathetic apology or not, the prince, who had been pondering something with a dull expression, spoke.

“Oh my, I’m worried. You should just be a permanent resident knight at the Pearl Palace.”

“…!”

At those words, Calmen, who felt a strange sense of déjà vu, widened his eyes and raised his head.

It couldn’t be, but he thought he had heard similar words from the prince before, hadn’t he?

However, that thought didn’t continue any further. The prince was smiling at him in a murderous manner.

The meaning behind that slanted, cold-gleaming eye was clear.

-You little shit. If you keep acting up, I’ll bury you, got it?

Calmen froze on the spot. It was a purely instinctive fear welling up from deep within his soul.

And the prince, who had leisurely walked up to him, tapped Calmen’s tense shoulder playfully.

-Hey, don’t be scared. What, you’re getting this frightened over something like this? Huh?

It was as if he could hear a hallucination of the prince saying those words.

Then, as if finding Calmen’s reaction amusing, the prince opened his mouth.

“By the way, Sir Calmen. Do you happen to know who Pavlov is?”

There was no way he could answer.

Pavlov?

Honestly, he didn’t know who that was, but perhaps it was someone who had been silently disposed of for thoughtlessly acting up in front of the prince.

The message the prince was trying to convey to him was clear.

-Be careful from now on if you don’t want to bid farewell to this world right away, got it?

Calmen lowered his head deeply and thought.

Yes. That couldn’t be. Who would dare to take this person lightly?

Meanwhile, looking at the young knight staggering back to the campsite, Seongjin’s face was filled with pride.

‘Sir Calmen, you seem to be quite moved by this brother’s encouragement, huh?’

Then, the Demon King bastard, who had been silent for a while, sighed and said,

[…Seongjin-ah, don’t smile like that so carelessly anywhere else. Got it?]

Why? What? Why?

***

Pavlov’s dog.

It is a model of classical conditioning that almost no one on Earth is unfamiliar with, explaining learning theory.

Taking it a step further is learning through operant conditioning. It’s a simple principle that behaviors followed by rewards increase, while behaviors followed by punishment decrease.

The next morning, when Seongjin explained the theory to Calmen and Commander Bruno, the two had dumbfounded expressions.

“So what does a dog salivating have to do with Calmen’s habit?”

In response to the commander’s question, Seongjin added a simple explanation.

“To put it simply, it’s like this. To fix the habit of reflexively getting worked up, we’ll associate an aversive condition with it and repeatedly train Sir Calmen. We’ll make it unpleasant and gradually decrease the behavior.”

“But you clearly said earlier that it was training done to dogs…?”

Calmen asked with a doubtful face.

Hmm, he’s unexpectedly sharp, isn’t he? He already noticed that the essence of this theory is mutt training.

“But Your Highness. I’ve been beating this guy up whenever he causes trouble, but it hasn’t been of any use so far.”

“Violence? I have no intention of doing such an inhumane thing, so don’t worry, Commander Bruno.”

Seongjin replied in a dignified manner.

Of course, at first, Seongjin had also considered hitting Calmen’s head hard whenever he flared up.

Along with the unfounded idea that artificially inducing a concussion and bleaching his brain once in a while might make the simple repetitive learning stick more clearly in his mind.

But he soon changed his mind. This wasn’t the Pearl Palace, and Sir Calmen had his own dignity.

Being beaten by a superior in front of other knight orders would certainly be quite humiliating for a knight. Of course, Seongjin’s own reputation would also hit rock bottom.

So Seongjin needed the help of a powerful ally. That was why Edith was also called to this gathering.

“From now on, the success or failure of this matter entirely depends on you. Please, Edith.”

“Is there anything I can do to help, Your Highness? What exactly should I do?”

To the puzzled exclusive maid, Seongjin instructed in a solemn voice.

“Edith, could you brew a cup of tea for me?”

“…Pardon?”

“I’d like you to fully demonstrate your skills.”

So that it can provide a more intense experience than any cruel violence.

Then, Commander Bruno turned to Seongjin with a look of horror. The meaning behind those narrowed eyes was crystal clear.

‘Is this person a demon?’

Oh my! This is all for the sake of your disciple, Commander Bruno.

And so, a little while later, a cup of dark brown Melbourne tea was placed in front of Calmen.

“What do I do with this…?”

To the dumbfounded Calmen, Seongjin gave a simple instruction.

“It’s not difficult, Sir Calmen. Just coolly curse once and then chug this down.”

“…Pardon?”

“Come on, go ahead.”

As Seongjin smiled gently, for some reason, the frozen Calmen hesitantly brought the teacup to his mouth.

“Ah, wait. Don’t forget to curse.”

“…Son of a b*tch?”

What’s with that lackluster curse?

It was absurd, but well, whatever. The important thing is to start.

As Seongjin nodded, Sir Calmen sighed in relief and gulped down the cup.

And then.

‘$%@*&#^!’

With an indescribable expression, he leaped up from his seat and began to turn pale.

“Ugh! Bleh!”

Sir Calmen, who eventually vomited the tea, looked at Seongjin with trembling eyes, sweating profusely.

Handing him the next teacup, Seongjin calmly ordered.

“Come on, next curse.”

“…!”

“Next curse.”

Unable to resist Seongjin’s pressure, Calmen timidly opened his mouth.

“…Damn.”

“Huh? I can’t hear you. Louder!”

“Damn it! What the hell are you doing, you bastard!”

“Good!”

And after chugging down the teacup, Calmen, crouching with his whole body trembling, dropped the cup.

‘#$%^&*!’

“Oh no! Are you okay, Calmen? Spit it all out!”

The startled Commander Bruno rushed over and vigorously patted his back.

Thud, thud, thud!

“Blegh! Uwaaargh!”

With the commander’s help, Calmen, who barely managed to vomit out the tea, seemed to have reddened eyes.

And then, a third cup of Melbourne tea was held out in front of him.

“Come on, next.”

“…”

“Next.”

“…Sniff!”

Huh? Why is this guy about to cry over this?

Seongjin personally placed the teacup in Calmen’s hand and gently comforted him.

“There, there, calm down. You’re making it seem like I’m tormenting you.”

“But, Your Highness…”

“Listen carefully. This is all for your sake. If you had fixed that hot-tempered personality of yours earlier, would I have had to go through all this trouble to listen to your curses?”

So it’s all your fault. Right?

Seongjin emphasized that fact to Calmen several times.

“I’m helping you become a decent person.”

“…”

“Come on, if you understand, you should do the next curse.”

Then, the Demon King bastard was felt trembling in his mind.

[Wow, scary guy. Now he’s even gaslighting his subordinate?]

‘Shut up!’

Seongjin patiently waited until Calmen calmed down.

Then, Calmen, who had been silent with his head lowered for a while, eventually spat out a curse in a trembling voice.

“…You vicious bastard.”

“Hmm, too weak? Stronger!”

“You damn vicious son of a bitch!”

“Still not enough, Sir Calmen! Come on, fill it with the anger welling up from your heart!”

Then, Calmen, who abruptly stood up, gathered all his pent-up resentment and shouted toward the sky.

“Argh! You fucking crazy son of a bitch in this world!!”

At the same time, glug glug glug.

Calmen, who downed the tea in one gulp.

‘Gah$%^&*!’

Twitching as if he had been electrocuted by a high-voltage wire, he soon collapsed to the ground with a pale face.

“Calmen!”

The surprised Commander Bruno rushed toward him.

Looking at that sight, Edith said with tears in her eyes.

“That’s… cruel!”

Hey, hey, you’re the one who brewed that tea in the first place, you know?

“Your Highness! Rather, rather than that, can’t you just beat this guy up?”

Looking at Calmen, who had collapsed with foam in his mouth, Commander Bruno earnestly pleaded.

“Or I will punish him more severely from now on, so please, anything but that demonic drink!”

Hmm. Seongjin frowned and scratched his cheek.

‘Why is everyone making such a fuss? It’s not like I haven’t tried it myself. If you keep drinking it, you get used to it in a way.’

I came up with this as a humane method in my own way, so why do I keep getting the illusion that I’m abusing Calmen?

[Perhaps because it’s not an illusion?]

‘Ah, just shut up!’

***

“I’m telling you, the caravan leader is a miser.”

The middle-aged woman picking up tree branches grumbled to Dasha.

She was a sociable woman who occasionally struck up conversations with Dasha. She was also one of the newly hired personnel for the Milo Caravan along with Dasha.

The woman always wore a white headscarf wrapped around her head, keeping it neat, but curiously, she had shaved off all her eyebrows, giving her a somewhat strange appearance.

“He really is.”

As Dasha responded, the woman wrinkled her nose bridge and vented her frustration.

“I mean, think about it. If we had gathered enough firewood yesterday, we could have rested for a day, right? Why is he nagging us to collect more branches that we can’t even use up? We’ll end up discarding the leftovers as they become a burden when we leave anyway!”

“Haha.”

Dasha was currently gathering dry firewood along with the kitchen assistants of the Milo Caravan.

Somehow, since safely leaving Regina, Giacomo Milo no longer attempted to verify the new personnel. So for the past ten days, her schedule had been very peaceful.

However, that didn’t mean he had completely dispelled his suspicions.

Seeing him constantly creating unnecessary tasks to the point of being excessive, it felt like an unspoken pressure to focus on the assigned work without getting distracted.

So Dasha was careful not to draw any unwarranted suspicion.

The important documents had already been roughly secured. Since she would be sticking with the prince’s entourage all the way to the Siegmund Territory anyway, she had already discussed with Prince Morres to omit reporting unless it was urgent.

It seemed unlikely that decisive evidence of the caravan leader being a demon contractor would easily surface. So Dasha decided to take her time and observe the caravan slowly from now on.

“I think this is more than enough. Shall we head back?”

“Shall we?”

At the woman’s words, Dasha readily agreed and stood up.

The two of them then picked up the bundled firewood and started walking toward the campsite.

“Are you from Barsha? Did you come from the south down there?”

The south the woman referred to probably meant the land of heathens.

“I’m from the south, but not Barsha. I came from Anatolia.”

“I see.”

The woman responded with a slight frown. Thanks to her bare eyebrows, only the vertical creases stood out, making her look even more peculiar.

“Come to think of it, we’ve been so busy that we haven’t properly introduced ourselves yet.”

“Ah, you’re right. I’m Sabrina.”

As Dasha smiled and gave her alias, the woman reached out her hand and beamed at her.

“I’m Olivier. Let’s get along well for the remainder of the journey.”