"Darn it" If the word 'Awardless' means what it says then, instead of queuing for buying a ticket to deaths domain, I have just received special privilege of visiting death in express train with a V.I.P front row seat. Can my luck get any worse than this?
Wait, but why is everyone looking at me sympathetically, although the Emperor is trying to hide his emerging relief, he too is partially showing a sympathy including the apathetic butler. This is not how the script should be moving. Shouldn't I be killed off instantly or find at least the emperor or the butler on guard, after being suspected of being an undead? Why are they all relaxed, and showing a completely opposite emotion instead?
Could it be that they don't consider me as an undead? But that is not possible, why would they think I am not undead but instead managed to survive the assassination despite being extremely weak? Why would they think like that, unless... Oh so that's how it is, that explains the emperor's interest in me, and the relief plastered on his face after he found out I am awardless, amidst the sympathy.
They think I have a backer.
The Emperor has set something like a competition to choose his next heir, to his throne. This is because although he looks young and healthy he is counting what is remaining of his life span. Not much is known about what is happening, but there are often nights where everyone is awoken by the guards and palace maid's running around like a headless chicken, saying something like 'quickly find the royal healers as his illness is acting up again.', since roughly about 6 years ago.
Ever since 6 years ago he has officially started what is known as the next emperor challenge. Any of the royal children can participate in this competition and emerge as the next emperor. But to join in the competition one needs a suitable title bestowed by the emperor or achieve or do something great that receives the recognition of many people. So far only two people have managed to participate in the challenge while numerous others desperately try to enter the game but failed and kept on trying.
Usually fulfilling either of the 2 conditions is a task that should take years, but 2 people managed to achieve it within 1 year of the competition. The first is the crown prince also called the favoured son of the emperor. The emperor loves the crown prince due to the reason he is the only son of the late Empress, who passed away 20 years ago after giving birth to him. Thus, he interfered in the competition and directly gave the crown prince a title and achievement, to let him enter the competition early and get a head start, only 1 month after the competition started.
However, this move of his greatly annoyed and troubled the nobles, especially the commandment nobles, so they thought since the emperor can interfere so, can we. So, they waited patiently for a participant that can challenge the emperor's decision, and so they waited for 9 months before finding a person. He was called the 2nd prince, also known as the rising star of the empire. As soon as the nobles saw his talent many went and supported him, and thus forced the emperor to give him a title and achievement, which he was reluctant to give.
Since then many nobles saw the advantage they hold if they supported the right candidate and chose a side between the 2 participants. However, many other nobles decided not to participate in this and stayed neutral. But some among them occasionally tries to support new participants that might have a chance to enter the game, especially the maternal family of many royal children.
Therefore, the emperor must think I have a backer, who protected me from an assassin, he must have thought my backer and his opposers think highly of me and my chances to enter the competition, therefore my backer's opposer sent an assassin after me. But since I was found to be an awardless he expects my backer to drop out from supporting me or wasting his resources on an awardless, therefore indirectly avoiding an upcoming competition for his favoured son, thus the relief on his face.
But that too still doesn't explain the factor of how they excluded me as being an undead? Hang on, what is the most obvious difference between undead and living? Heat. Of course, the undead doesn't have body temperature while the living does.
The butler must have somehow noticed my body temperature, but he never touched me or walked close enough to feel my body temperature. So that leaves me with the conclusion him either having an application of his award that can detect body temperature or ... Of course, my seat in the dining room. He must have felt the warmth of my chair when I went to wash my face.
The butler has a unique award called the mirror. He can see through the disguise and illusion of everyone and everything. Nothing can be hiding in front of him as he is able to know a person's true personality, behaviour and how they naturally look. So, he must have used it on me after he found it suspicious of John answering back, as John can argue back but never answer back or refuses. He must have seen the change in behaviour and personality, so he must have thought of me as an undead being remotely controlled by a necromancer. Therefore, to get the conclusive proof he must have felt the heat in my seat at the dining table and concluded that something must have happened overnight to change my personality drastically. Thus, he must have visited my room and saw the disorganised room and concluded a failed assassination attempt.
Wow, I became careless for one moment and I was nearly drawn into a crazy political battle between the emperor and his nobles. I seriously must get rid of this lazy habit of mine, and start being serious about the situation I am in.
Now the problem is this weird situation I am in. I should have my award unlocked but despite that my memorial stone is blank. Could it be one of those legendary cliché scenes where the protagonist power is too op that the appraisal stone can't even show it? Hmm, must be I must try activating my power later when I am alone. But the question I must ask here is, is it good for me that they think I am an awardless or not?
"Please quiet down!" The emperor ordered, he then faced Magi Jacob and asked, "Can you check if he is an awardless Magi?"
The magi nodded his head and turned towards me and spoke: "Raise towards me any one-off your hand's boy."
Oh, this could be troublesome if I raise my hand, but I shouldn't hesitate otherwise they will suspect I will know something about my award not coming up on the memorial stone. So, therefore, I did as he instructed. He felt my left hand for a while, then rubbed it, after a while, he sighed. He turned towards the emperor and replied "No reaction from the Magi particles my lord, which means he is an awardless"
The emperor thought for a while before facing Smith "Smith you know what to do."
The butler stood up he looked towards me and said, "Follow me John", then he walked out of the ceremonial hall, without looking back.