Tamed Monster - Chapter 31

The Crown Prince had his quirks.

Though strikingly handsome, his dazzling exterior masked a series of bizarre and perverse hobbies.

His first hobby was simple to describe: torturing live monsters locked up alive.

This was well known among all the monsters inhabiting the Empire’s outskirts, including those of the swamp. Some comrades had even returned partially alive to relay the truth, only to die alongside their true forms.

His second hobby was using those tortured monsters for various cruel experiments. He crushed corpses, burned them, boiled them into liquefied form to create poisons, and personally conducted all manner of vicious trials.

Even if these two hobbies became public knowledge, his image would suffer only a minor blow, and he would keep his status as Crown Prince without trouble.

However, his third, fourth, and fifth hobbies, if exposed, would end his noble life instantly. His power would melt away like liquefied monster flesh, and commoners and nobles alike would stone him in horror at his brutal atrocities.

Even a psycho like him knew this well, so he was careful to eliminate witnesses and lure collaborators with sweet promises to keep the truth hidden.

His half-brother, Duke Alexander, was one of the Crown Prince’s key pawns. Perhaps that arrangement remained unchanged.

Maybe having grasped the warning to reclaim his lost manners, Alexander’s unusually polite demeanor today was no accident—he had likely rehearsed his greetings hundreds of times.

“Well then—”

Before praise could escape his lips, the Crown Prince clicked his tongue lowly at his younger brother’s cocky stance as he snapped his head up and stared straight at him.

It was a familiar scene. Duke Alexander’s small Duchess, dangling at his side, looked utterly lost—she didn’t know where to look or where to put her hands, desperate to restrain the Duke.

Her subtle allure caused the Crown Prince’s pale eyes to narrow sharply.

“Duke. Did you swallow what I told you through your a*s?”

No one in the Crown Prince’s court had spread the words he uttered within the palace walls. So, despite six attendants and knights standing rigidly nearby, the Crown Prince casually blurted out his thoughts like a commoner.

The Duchess’s pale face drained to a deathly blue, while the Duke simply stared at the Crown Prince with his usual innocent expression. Leaning crookedly against the sofa back, the Crown Prince motioned forward and said,

“Duke, stand when you speak. Duchess, sit here, in front of me.”

Being someone who didn’t respect hierarchy, he had to scratch his pride like this to satisfy himself. The Duchess, surprisingly unshaken, took a slow, composed step to sit across from the Crown Prince. Before that, she gave a graceful bow and exchanged a polite glance.

At the instant their eyes met, the Crown Prince was certain—this woman had lost her virginity.

He had no interest in the small box in the Duke’s hand, only displeasure. He’d just lost a fresh, desirable woman right before his eyes.

At that moment, the stiff-standing Duke Alexander suddenly spoke, boldly announcing he had brought a gift.

“What is it?”

“You’ll like it.”

Smirking, speaking in the same tone as before, he handed over the item without preamble, still seeming as foolish as ever. The Crown Prince glanced reflexively at the small, plainly wrapped box easily held in one hand—it looked like nothing special.

“I’ll open it later.”

“No, open it now.”

The Duke pressed the box closer, causing the Crown Prince to flinch and involuntarily pull his head back. The knights hesitated, unsure whether to step forward. They were usually unguarded around the real Duke, but they could not trust the fool.

Waving the knights away with a gesture, the Crown Prince snatched the box sharply from the Duke’s hand.