Julian didn’t know which was worse. Doing that with the Duke the previous night and being a subject of his affection, or becoming the object of hate to the Emperor.

It was probably the latter.

Nothing good could ever come from being the object of hate to the ruler of their Empire.

Julian didn’t even have time to think of those embarrassing thoughts that kept him beating his face during his bath. That was how critical the situation was.

Lucius, being in the midst of this tension, tried not to mind it and ate his carrots diligently. But the moment he noticed his tutor could not eat, simply clenching his fists on his thigh and looking down worriedly, he felt he had to do something.

So, he decided to give up his carrots, putting them in Julian’s plate.

This caught Julian’s attention, and he looked at the little cute thing trying to cheer him up with a carrot.

He laughed lightly and brushed his hair, feeling his intentions.

"Thank you, Young Lord." He said, and Lucius smiled happily, until Julian added. "But are you sure you aren’t using this opportunity to get rid of the carrots on your plate?"

Lucius flinched and then rolled his eyes away. That was the expression of a guilty one. Julian laughed and decided maybe he was taking things too far with his thoughts.

The Emperor may or may not hate his guts, but he doubts the Emperor would attack him all of a sudden... right?

While Julian talked with Lucius, he had no idea the Emperor was looking at him with a scrutinizing pair of dark golden eyes, wondering what he was going to do about this situation.

The Duke felt the threat, so he changed the topic as swiftly as he could,

"About the thief," he spoke up, and this caught Julian’s attention as well. "There was one witness."

"Yes, I heard it too." The Emperor said and sighed. "But that single description of the thief won’t do us any good. After all," his eyes darted towards Julian, causing goosebumps to race down his entire body. "This empire has tons of black haired male."

Julian’s breath nearly hitched. Did that mean the thief also had black hair?

Of all the coincidences, why did the thief have to have a similar feature to him?

"If we want to make good use of that information, we’d have to detain all the black-haired males in the capital and question them." The Emperor said, his lips curling with a little hint of madness, his eyes directed at Julian for some odd reason.

"Brother," the Duke called, and then the Emperor shrugged.

"But even I know that it’s such an unreasonable and inefficient thing to do, so that can’t happen."

Julian felt like he had just lost ten years of his life to the Emperor’s gaze. He breathed, his heart hammering, and he turned his head away.

He didn’t know if it was just his paranoia kicking but why did it feel like the Emperor wanted to use the thief as an excuse to lock him up?

"So instead of that," the Emperor suddenly dropped his hands on the table, startling Julian. "We’ll just lock up all the black-haired males in the palace and question them."

Julian’s heart stopped.

"Brother," Duke Alaric called, his eyes narrowing. "That’s not a very funny joke."

But the Emperor did not dismiss it as a joke. He just looked at his brother, his gaze firm and his lips curled. This made even the Duke frown, thinking his brother was at it again.

His mad antics. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Only when it felt like Julian was about to really give out because his heart had stopped did the Emperor laugh and say,

"I’m not a tyrant," But he’d very much like to be one for his Brother. He leaned his elbows on the table and then smiled. "But if I were, I’d probably do just that."

Julian was terrified. Maybe this situation was more serious than he gave credit for. The Emperor was after his neck.

"If you make jokes like that, you’ll make your subjects think you’re a tyrant at heart," Alaric said. "So don’t frighten your guests anymore."

"Well, I thought it was funny." The Emperor said. "But if our guest doesn’t feel that way, I guess it was quite a harmful joke. I’ll take note for the future."

But of course, the Emperor was just saying that for saying sake. He didn’t want to upset his brother.

Julian clenched his fist even more, one thought dominating his mind,

’I have to get away from the palace.’

If he stayed any longer, who knew what sort of joke the Emperor would make next? He couldn’t even bring himself to eat, finding it hard to swallow, as if there was bile in his throat. His anxiety level was shooting up far too quickly.

He just wanted to survive, and he even ran to the North to do so. This incident with the thief was probably part of the plot he didn’t know. It was dangerous. Too dangerous.

The more he thought of this, the harder his heart beat got, and soon, all sound seemed to die down around him. He couldn’t hear anything. Not the Emperor’s laughter, nor the sound of cutlery on the ceramic plates, nothing.

But he did hear one thing, and that was the beating of his heart.

Cold sweat rolled down his forehead, down to his chin, and dropped slowly like a drop of water. He barely lifted his gaze when he heard the system chime, displaying in his vision, the translucent purple box flickering into an urgent red.

> [WARNING: EXTREME ANXIETY DETECTED]

> Current Status: [Frightened]

> Mental Stability: 28% and dropping.

> Effect: Perception of Reality is warping. ’The Emperor’s Gaze’ is currently dealing [Psychological Pressure] damage. ’Calm Mind’ has lost its effect.

With ’Calm Mind’ losing its effects completely, Julian was no more than a rat sitting at the same table as a lion.

Julian’s vision began to blur at the edges, the golden light of the pavilion turning into a jagged, painful glare. The Emperor’s laughter, which had gone mute for a second there, now returned, sounding like the sharpening of a blade. He looked at him, looked at the way life meant nothing to this ruler.

’He’s a very dangerous man,’ Julian’s mind screamed. ’He doesn’t care about a thief. He doesn’t care about the truth. He just wants a reason to put a collar on me because of the Duke. It makes me wonder, was there really a thief?’

It was already suspicious that someone was able to break into the Royal treasury, which was heavily guarded. And then, that person happened to have black hair, the same color as the man whom the Emperor was starting to see as an eyesore. It made Julian believe that this was a setup.

Stealing from the National Treasury was a death sentence, so if they somehow found the stolen treasure in his room...