****(POV)

Still, they made the mistake of trying.

He told me to undress and to parade on the stage showing them all how powerless I was. He told me that'd he'd kill my servant if I didn't comply. I simply started undressing, right there.

Was this supposed to be something significant? I had undressed plenty of time in my life. Every time I took a bath, I undressed. Whenever I changed my clothes, I undressed. A few times at the brothel I had undressed too, I was no saint after all.

So in front of all the people that had assembled to see me, I undressed. The bandits expected me to cower in shame. They expected me to beg them for mercy. They expected a lot but were bound to be disappointed.

I undressed and simply smiled at the people there, making eye contact with many. People weren't disturbed by it either. Most simply kept the eye contact going for as long as they could. Most were smiling helplessly.

After all, the main reason I had worn lots of clothes all my life was mainly to protect the eyes of others from the ugly curse on my back. At this moment I simply did not care, whatever happened… happened.

That is when one madman started cheering while shouting loudly, "Please have my baby!" Instantly, the somewhat weird atmosphere became one filled with laughter. It was nowhere near the tense atmosphere that the bandits were expecting, far from it.

It had all backfired on them. Instead, all these people were simply accepting me. I never intended to, but in that instant, I was their emperor. I would also keep this title no matter what.

It wouldn't change even if I were to die right now. Everyone coming after me would only ever be a fake and nothing more.

In that very instant, I understood many things. It all came from the fervent way they were looking at me. I could feel it, I could feel them. All of them. Not just the ones that I could physically see, all of them. All the ones that believed in me.

All my life I had been rejected. I was the ugly duckling that was simply ignored completely in the palace. Outside of it, I was the poor prince that was abandoned by his own family. Thinking back to it…I was never bullied, I was never attacked, I was never kidnapped.

My memory somehow got jogged at this very moment. Many memories, memories I didn't even know I had. There are many things that our brain perceives. There is the conscious and the unconscious. How much of what we actually see and hear do we really notice or understand?

It all came back crashing. I was the unloved prince? No, they had always loved me. How many times did someone try to assassinate me only to get instantly killed? Many times my siblings had helped me without me realizing it, but it wasn't just that.

How many times had citizens actually stepped out to help me? Thousands of times! I had not even noticed a single one, why? Because they made sure I didn't.

They didn't want me to feel ashamed of my helplessness. What about all the guys wanting to turn me into a traitor? How had they reached me? People believed in my character so much that they never had a doubt that I'd waver.

I even had protectors assigned to me, never noticing their existence. They had all died in the catastrophe, all except that right-hand man of my father. A man that I had only met once formally in this life of mine: when I was just a newborn.

All these buried memories came back as a flood at a crazy pace.

This old bigshot of the palace actually had a face I recognized. I had seen him simply sweeping a lot in the last years, as a normal servant.

The family that had disdained me? It wasn't because they disliked me or even feared getting attached. It was because there had been a prophecy announcing the fall of the royal family. They had preferred to keep their distances to give me a chance at life.

I saw the tears of joy of my family at my birth. Then the tears of sorrow once they discovered my condition. How they all tried to fight against destiny itself to allow me to grow stronger too, ultimately failing…or had they?

I saw the day my mother stopped visiting me when I was 10. I saw the scene of her leaving calmly facing away from me. Except that this time I also noticed the subtle glistening pearls of waters left in her wake, salty ones for sure.

I had lived all my life as in a never-ending dream, trying to live the life of others without realizing how lucky I was.

The times I had been injured? Mostly some kids trying to get close to their idol. They wanted to see the powerless prince that still worked hard, that studied daily to better himself, that was kind to everyone.

I could see the many times I had shown kids how to write. They'd often ask me to write my name as an example. Every time they'd leave carrying the paper as if a treasure. Back then I simply deplored the low education level, but I now realized they simply wanted my autograph.

What about all the nicknames? I had heard many over the years, enough for a very long list. I could remember the scenes of my life where I'd hear people talk about my siblings. How amazing, valiant, kind, and all they were. I finally understood that many of these compliments were actually about me.

The people had always loved me, I simply had failed to realize it. I simply had some sort of tunnel vision that had hidden the very reality from me.

Then later on I became their ruler. It wasn't simply because there was no one to take the throne. There had been fools that didn't mind that the apocalypse was coming. These fools simply wanted to have some fun before the end.

There had been pure tyrants that had tried ascending to power. These guys had never actually reached me. I simply had never noticed. They had always been stopped by the populace directly, killed mercilessly.

The only ones that had ever reached me were the more peace-loving ones. The ones that were open to a dialogue. The ones the simply wanted me to abdicate the throne without hurting me.

But every time they'd come to beg me to take the throne again. Right…. after talking with the simple servant all night. The servant that was a powerhouse playing the fool. I also remembered how respectful they had been of that simple servant afterward.

This...